retired_tweetybird667

Has anybody tried playing a target man in attacking mid, and if so how did you get on?

I am currently pondering the relative merits of this while at work, and am going to give it a go this weekend.

The theory being that he has more options to release the ball to if in the att mid position.

So if anybody has already tried this i would like to know how they got on.

PS. sorry if this post breaks any rules, im still new to this

retired_peanut22

Only help I can see is less likely to be marked.
Better is striker on air or winger on floor. But if it works, it works.

James1226

Hi sandbech - I do not think you are breaking any rules

I had the exact same idea as you. The TM works best with loads of people close by, so they can pick up his knock ons, hence why not play him as an AM?

It did not work at all pre-patch and I do not think it will work now either.

The problem I had (and I only made the experiment pre patch, but...) was that any AM, even with 20 in mentality and FR's often, is playing to deep to be a target man.

When your team is not in possesion he will not stay forward, and that mean your team is completely unorganized as soon as you win the ball.

Even worse, sometimes my defenders choose to clear the ball to the TM, which was a good idea in principle, only my TM was standing on the edge of my our own penalty area, things often went... well, you can probably imagine.

I would love to hear if you can make it work with the patch, cause in principle it is a great idea (Sheringham was perhaps the sort of player to do that IRL). But I doubt you will have much luck.

retired_vanessahawkins

I have also thought about this but see a couple potential problems. If you play a longball to the AMC, defenders will likely step up to challenge him. If he can pull it down, or knock it back to a MC, at the moment your strikers are probably going to be offside because the back line stepped up to challenge the header. It might work for the AMC to knock it down to a winger or an MC, but from there you can just get another build-up, not the blitzkrieg attack you'd usually like with a knock down.

That being said, I don't think there's anything wrong w/ playing a longball game and emphasizing jumping/heading ability in the midfield. That can at least help you win possession if you aren't willing to let your defenders get too cute. Seems especially prudent in LLM play.

retired_tweetybird667

Well thank you all for your replies, i think i''ll give it a go anyway but im not holding out much hope of it working but its worth a shot

retired_t968rs

MON used to use this kind of tactic in the game IRL with Celtic, when both Larsson, Hartson and Sutton was on the field at the same time, with Sutton being the targetman sitting behind the front two of Larsson and Hartson. Mayby a big tall strong player can do the trick?

retired_porcelina

ok i know its arsenal who i play as
but i have henry and adebayor up front with side arrows go out wide
then in the am roles i have hleb baptista and rosicky these 3 players all have arrows going into the center of the sc postion

when i attack henry pulls out wide and when he crosses baptista just charges forward and bang its a goal

so my point is a tall strong player in this postion with forward runs on

fyn652

similar idea i used before worked very well with liverpool and the brush shaft that is crouch. used him as target man but in in amc but as part of a front two with metallity as medium meaning he dragged his marker back when he moved into amc and mad space for the flick on for the speedy striker!

retired_annnzzz

Feyenord, brought Ngewnya from Sundowns, 190cm, with good ability on the ball, won his fair share of flick ons, and with Deneboom infront of him, up top on his own, another, equally 'Big Lad', the 2 combined pretty well.

...However, there were problems defensively, with Ngwenya knocking the ball down in his o wn half, only to the benefit of the opposition. To combat this, i put closing down all the way up, in the hope that he'd move towards the man with the ball a.s and thus, in theory, be further away from my own goal. I took him off hold up ball, so he looked for the 'direct pass' a.s.a.p, and touched up his attacking mentality slighty, with forward runs often, so essential he would be further up the field, when the team looked for him.

...The above has seen an improvement in his all round contribution, and average rating (now 7.79) with a fair few assists.

...However, that said, when he was injured, i reverted to the normal big man up top holding up the ball i.e Charisteas, and he bundled in 3 away to PSV!!!