Advice for struggling strikers?

Hi,

I am currently man city in my game, so i started off with some pretty decent attacking options, however the likes of aguero, dzeko negredo and jovetic or anyone i stuck in strike rarely scored it was mainly yaya toure or a defender. I wondered why this was and attempted to change my formations, to 4222 4231 4132 etc, i changed my strikers roles, and instructions and still no luck, so i put it down to 2 things.... for some reason "shoot less often" means literally nothing as jack rodwell, fernandinho and other just shoot constantly and waste great opportunities to give it to my strikers, also maybe aguero was just out of form and negredo and dzeko were just crap.... so i sold dzeko and bought lewandowski, however i am now 7 games in with him, he has neither a goal or assist, and he doesn't even look like scoring he misses constantly, and i either sub him off or he finishes the game on a 5.5-6.0 its just tragic. I cant seem to win convincingly without a striker that can score goals, i thought between them aguero and lewandowski would get goals, i was sadly mistaken. Also ive trained them to place shots, improve finishing and composure etc and still no luck. I wondered if anyone had any tips for me or perhaps anyone is currently/ was previously in a similar situation to me where there straikers finish games on a low rating and fail to score. I have also played previous fm games where ive had no problems with strikers scoring goals so, is it this game, is it me, is it my tactics (which are similar to previous games) or something else i dont know but please of you have any tips, help or advice for me it would be much appreciated...

cheers,

This, I understand, isn't a fix but it helped me. Throughout all FM's, I've had non-existent strikers and, in FM13, my top scorer for 2 seasons in a row was Kurt Zouma (a respectable average of 20 goals). I so know that feels.

First of all, TL;DR: use a false 9, buy Ljajic and Berardi.


My play is based on a possession heavy 4231 and most of my goals come from my 3 attacking midfielders. That was chosen because of my terrible luck with strikers. As Arsenal, I tried Podolski, Giroud and Walcott at every conceivable position to try and get me goals but when that failed I got rid of them and thought about using a false 9 to try and open up space for my attacking mids to score. However, in 6 games, my two strikers have scored more goals then those 3 scored my entire first season. Put together. Depressing. I'm not as tactically gifted as most people on this site so I can't guide you through the in's and out's of why or why not certain things work but using a false 9 is worth a try at least.

thanks for your help, i have a question though what does (TL;DR) mean? sorry bit nooby and i will definitely give a false 9 a go, and yes im the same many goals come from my AMR,AMC and occasionaly amr (jesus navas) cant blame him he doesnt have a weak foot and he cant really shoot anyway, but on fm 13 aguero made alot of forward runs past my striker and scored alot of goals, and ive tried to make him do that on this one but he doesnt seem to want to run he just shoots despite me telling him to shoot less often. any idea on how to make him do that?

TL;DR is Too Long; Didn't Read. Basically a summary of a block of text. I think the way to get Aguero to overlap is the Shadow Striker at the AMC role. If you want him to run with the ball more, you could always add the Dribble More instruction. If you go for a Shadow Striker, though, I'd put a creative Striker in front of him using the Deep Lying Forward or a False 9. I could try and pass that on as my own musings on the matter but the truth is I stole it from here.

right cheers, will try, what would lewandowski be classed as do you reckon?, he is pretty versatile, and I need aguero and him to be deadly. thanks for the link btw could really help

The guide also says that you can use a Complete Forward in front of Aguero. Was just looking at Lewandoski's stats and fuck is he versatile. I imagine he could be any of those 3 choices and still perform. My personal experience is that a False 9, for whatever reason, scores more than an out and out striker. It doesn't make sense, I know, but experimentation is part of the game.


Oh, and I'm gonna drop this here, there is a tonne of great guides here in case none of the helps.

thanks, will give those guides a look at, and yer il try F9 lewandowski and SS aguero and see what happens thanks again for all your help

No worries man, good luck.

Strange, maybe SI don't like Man City...lol

strange, maybe SI don't like Man City...lol

I've had this problem before, but only in patches of bad form. My tip is to keep encouraging your strikers in team talks, have private talks about their form and give them a boost through media questioning by saying they will get through it. It takes time, but eventually they get through it. I've had this with Giroud, Negredo, Benteke, and Lewandowski before and they all got through it. Other than that, if still nothing then I get plenty of goals through using an extremely attacking formation.

I play with a formation of the following.

Goalkeeper- SK- D

Right Back- Complete Wing Back- A
Left Back- Complete Wing Back- A
Centre Back- Central Defender- D
Centre Back- Central Defender- D

Defensive Midfield- Anchorman- D

Centre Midfield- Central Midfieler- S
Centre Midfield- Deep-Lying Playmaker- S

Right Winger- Winger- A
Left Winger- Inside Forward- S

Striker- Advanced Forward- A

The trick is getting the balance between Defending-Support-Attack. I play this on Overload & Very Flud with focus on posession, a high-line & tempo whilst hassling opponents and getting stuck it. Basically just throwing everything forward in a complete blitz. You'll lose the VERY occasional game 3-0, but mostly win. I've won the Champions League & Premier League with Arsenal doing this and my Inside Forward (Ozil) and Advanced Forward (Giroud) scored about 50 goals between them, not to mention all the goals coming from every other position. One season I did this with City and every outfield player scored at least once that season.

That's how I combat a lack of goals, but remember the key is with the two centre-backs and the anchor man. Get those right and you can feel free to bombard any team with your attack.

My Strikers are just so/so at scoring. Most of my scoring comes from Wingers and AMC. With a dabbling coming from midfield and my DCs. Mostly, I just see if the striker is struggling at half time. If his rating is 6.4 or below then I swap him out. But the crazy thing is that if the Striker is hot he'll usually score at least a couple of goals, then I don't need to swap anyone except for injury.

I have Suarez, Benteke, Berardi, etc. on my Liverpool side for strikers. For wingers I have Insigne, Lamela, and for AMC I have Quintero and Rafinha. Running a 2-3-1 at home and for easy away games.