Sussex Hammer

I play as Wet Ham in a diamond formation and have Dean Aston as a Target Man on the left with balls to feet. He plays some lovely through balls and has 9 goals and 8 assists.

Thing is I'm not getting a great deal from Mattias Fernandez in the AM role and am struggling on how to play him.

Originally I had him on RWB OFTEN FORWARD RUNS OFTEN AND THROUGH BALLS MIXED.

I then read that having him on OFTEN FR would pull him out of position and having OFTEN TB and OFTEN RWB is contradictory???!!!

I have tried him in a free role withouht playmaker ticked. Free role with playmaker ticked. As Playmaker in menu but haven't ticked the box... the works and he is still not performing.

I was wondering if having a playmaker and a Target Man kind of "get in each others way"?

Advice please.

Thanks.

Klimowicz

i have a feeling they do. i always set team instructions to use TM and PM, but i notice that when i use TM, defenders would play direct balls into the TM, who is tightly marked and loses possesion. this bypasses the PM, who often gets a 6-7 max. when i don't use a TM, strikers are less involved, especially when playing through the middle, yet the CMs and AMCs are allowed to be more pivotal.

however, playing the team on a low creativity setting, while setting midfielders to much creativity seemed to counter the clash issue recently. i play 1 up front most of the time, and having AMCs on forward runs works when playing a target man & down both flanks. acts as a second striker when counter attacking.

i never set my CMs on forward runs in a 4-4-2 for the reason you mentioned above.

N Fawcett

this is good stuff i've been wondering about this. Thanks!

DJW1979

I wasn't getting any joy from playing a PM with a TM. Target man was running the show by the PM couldn't get in the game.

Changed the game plan a little now. TM up front with a second striker who is all flair and is set to high creativity, dribbling, through balls etc... and he is given a free role. My AM is now all about getting into the box to feed off the TM.

Klimowicz

i don't use free roles in this version. doesn't seem to impact, just isolates a key player. even though i play through th middle, most of my goals come from counter attacks down the left flank in particular. spose its a little like a misdirection play in NFL, so i won't send down the left flank in instructions for fear of the AI adapting.

Amaroq

I haven't had much luck with a TM and a PM simultaneously - in fact, my current tactical suite includes one copy of each base, one aimed around the TM and one around the PM. I choose which to use depending on my fit personnel at the time.

The AM role I think of as
- RWB Mixed
- FR Often
- TB Often
- Creativity very high
- Free role if the player is good at it, not if he's not.
- Playmaker if not using TM

x42bn6

I've had very little joy with playmakers unless they are DMCs, partially because they always get marked and/or closed down out of the game.

The problem with both roles is that targetmen need to be far up to hold the ball up, which often means challenging centre-backs. Playmakers are the opposite - they need space.

I'd imagine a perfect player could pull off both roles very well, namely Decisions 20, Creativity 20, Heading 20, Passing 20, Strength 20, Jumping 20, Technique 20, etc. but one has to worry about shooting too!

I also find playing playmakers and targetmen a little weird. Do you want people to head the ball or thread through-balls to feet? Your tactic has to accommodate for both and that's not easy.

george777

In theory it wouldnt really work because the players wouldnt know who to pass to but i guess arsenal play with fabregas and adebyor (sp) so in reality it might work and TM are less efective in FM08 unlike in FM07 when if you ticked target man you would win the quad. I find playmakers much more effective now which reflects life in the premiership and europe with fabregas, scholes, elano and kakadominating by finding space inbetween the defence an attack