retired_stephandjoe

Hi guys, can anyone give their thoughts on this:

I'm sure a lot of us use target men, but sometimes when our target man is injured, we would untick 'use target man' as normal.

The manual says that if 'use target man' is ticked and there is no-one from your list on the pitch, the game chooses an appropriate player for you, but we don't want that cos it may choose someone poor at heading for example.

Therefore, untick it, no problem.

My query lies in other player's instructions. I advise my wingers and full-backs to cross to 'target man'. If I untick 'use target man' because he's not playing, do I have to change back my full-backs' and wingers' instructions to 'mixed' or something else? I'm worried the game may let these instructions over-ride and 'choose a suitable target man' again which I don't want.

So basically wondering if the game will choose a target man for my players to aim at or will it accept that I unticked 'use target man' and let my players pass / cross to 'mixed'.

Sorry for the long-winded post but it was difficult to get this across, I just don't want to have to change four player's instructions every time my target man gets injured or comes off. Guess I could set up a tactic for that eventually but am intrigued with the situation anyway.

Any thoughts?

retired_debbie22

I use this thread
when dealing with target men. Hope this helps, it has worked for me.

retired_stephandjoe

Hi, thanks for the response, I've seen the thread before too.

I'm ok using target men, I use them pretty well, I was just wondering how and where the game over-rides tactics.

If wingers are aiming at a target man, but use target man is unticked, does the game still try to find a target man for the wingers to cross to or does it leave it because the main function is unticked.

It doesn't matter, I'll just set up a tactic where they don't aim for a target man if there isn't one on the field, just to be safe.

retired_kellyg198

i have found if you just put your target man in the target man box and leave the option unchecked the team will still knock balls to his head - this way if he gets injured then the team just carries on without him

for example - if everton put big dunc on the pitch the players will automatically use him as TM - if he then gets injured and vaughan comes on hes not in the target man box so the team dont use him anymore

retired_stephandjoe

Perhaps if you give your team creative freedom they will use your target man without you necessarily ticking it, but if you are managing a lower league team and you give them little creative freedom, you would want to tick the 'use target man' option.

Here's where you may be wrong, here's what the manual says (page 42):

Important: The game will always choose the first player on the priority lists (should he be on the pitch), then the second etc. If you don't select any players for these lists, the game will automatically select a player for the specified role.

This is why I untick 'use target man' when my target man comes off, but I wonder if the game applies this principle to individual player instructions too, as they can be set to cross to target man.

Maybe I am wrong and the game only selects someone if you have no-one in the list, but if you have a specified list, it uses it unless there is no-one there, then ignores it. I hope so, it seems silly for the game to look for a target man if you haven't declared one, would be the more common sense default to just ignore your instruction.