retired_itzblue

i have pato as a fast striker and i have the setings as follows-

fwr - mix
rwb - yes
cross - rar ( he only has 8 for crossing)
ttb - yes ( passings 15)
hub - rar
tm - no run onto ball

attacking - 2 notches from the end
creative - normal ( only has 12 creative)


he can't seem to score to save his life , have tried this with vela and jason keeling as well and they have the same problems ,
any tips please.

my other striker is a target man and he scored 34 goals last season

firefighterhilf

I'm no tactical genious myself but for a start I'd set his FWR to often so he can run onto any flick on's the target man heads his way.

I also personally wouldn't bother having TTB on anything other than mixed for this guy as it looks like he's your furthest forward player and shouldn't really have anyone in front of him to pass to.

firefighterhilf

That makes more sense, I have mine on rarely for ttb.

cmcclung

its the same exact problem with me with pato he just doesnt seem to do much during the game i actually cheated and look at his consistency because i thought this might be the problem but he has 20 consistency and 20 imp matches

someone please help

Agruso

for my west brom team Pato hzas scored 18 in 22 but before he got injured he had 15 in 15 he just got man of the match aswell in my legue cup victory so i see what you mean about the important matches

leftfoot

Firstly from your post it isn't clear if your fast striker is getting alot of chances and just can't score. If this is the case then don't bother reading on. In fact there's a few people on the forum arguing back and forth about this and whether or not it represents AI cheating.

I'm no tactical expert, and don't guarantee this will work so don't flame me if it results in you getting hammered. I would suggest saving your game, giving it a go and if it is crap then just go back to your original save, no harm no foul. I have had a bit of success with the following:-

Fast Striker instructions:-
Forward Runs often
TTB rarely
Run with ball often
Mentality furthest notch to right

Set team to use target man and run onto ball, then select fast striker as target man. Then put him facing the opposition centre back who is slowest. Also the players in your team you intend supplying the through balls need to have a mentality of at least normal so they will look for the pass when they get the ball.

The thing is is that it depends also on the quality of supply i.e. if you have midfielders with high anticipation, creativity, decisions and passing. For example I play a 4222 and have wingers set to cross ball medium and TTB often as they have the attributes to be successful at this. My DM doesn't so I have him set to TTB rarely, set the team to pass down both flanks and width wide so that he distributes to the wingers for them to set up goals.

Another factor is the opposition CB anticipation in that a slower CB can make up for his lack of pace by cutting out a high number of attempted through balls if he has anticipation >15.

The fast striker's anticipation, off the ball and decisions will also affect how likely he is to make the run at the right time or get caught offside on a regular basis.

I only started using this method in 2019 with regens so can't give you a player comparison but my experience is that any time my fast striker has higher acceleration, pace and anticipation than the opposing CB there's a good chance he'll get on the scoresheet.

Just one thing to note is that I still haven't figured out the difference between a cross from deep and a through ball in the match engine, or for that matter a random punt upfield.

Also try ticking free role and increasing creative freedom as for my striker this increases the likelihood of him drifting away from the opposing CB to create space prior to the through ball coming. As I said though differing mental attributes between your fast striker and mine might impact on how effective this is for you.

Since you have a big man upfront as well set up a tactic where you use him as target man to head and then alternate between the two during the match to keep the AI guessing. If your big man has similar pace and acceleration to the guy marking him but is stronger then through balls should work with him also. I have recollections of seeing 'outmuscled' in the commentary when a big guy beats the centre half to the ball.