Winger11

Why are some players' positions listed as Forwards (centre) and others as Strikers when essentially they're the same position i.e. natural position is FC for both types of players. Is there any difference?

ajw2255

I dont know how the game distinguishes between the two, although playing one up front i always play a striker. Forwards ive tried have done poor there

towerofpower

I'm not too sure myself, but I'm on belief forwards tend to make good target men. You'll notice they're often big and have PPM "Likes to come deep get the ball" etc. So I think they generally don't play nearly as high as strikers, but rather work as link player between midfield and striker via flick ons etc.

JPro

forwards tend to play just behind the strikers and try and create chances, an example of a forward could be Wayne Rooney or in past years Dennis Bergkamp and a striker is someone who will just hang around the area and pick up rebounds like Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

arrogantio

Forwards can play the free role and/or the AM position.

The Gaffovski

If their only position is set as striker, but they are described as a forward, then it means they have a "hidden" Free Role attribute of maybe 10+ (or 15+). That's it. You can see for yourself on the database.

Des Tiny

Well on a bit of an interesting point I have found in the lower leagues in england quite regularly a fast FC/AMC will do better than a fast striker as their hidden abilities seem to be a bit better for the style of play you need to use. In my current game as Gateshead I have Jonny Godsmark (Newcastle Loan) and Stephen Laidler (Captain extraordinaire) as my two forwards and they are keeping Zavon Hines and Stephen Donaldson (Newcastle Loan) out of the starting eleven and both of them are in double figures on goals at the mid point of the season with some stellar performances whereas early on when playing the strikers they were struggling to score in my 4-1-3-2 formation. It could be that if I had wingers strikers might work better, and the extra space means a more free role type player is needed hence why my Attacking mids/Forward Centres are outperforming my Strikers. Though it is interesting to see this and I have almost thought about dropping them back and playing with no true strikers and having them just run onto the ball.

Ok back onto topic I think the main difference seems to be that the Forward centres in the game want a bit more space to run in whereas the strikers ned the ball delivered to the box.