Strikers Vent

[Gunnersaurus FC]

I don't understand what's wrong with my strikers! They get trained everyday, by the time my matches are on their morale and condition are maxed. They have skills of 130-150%(shooting and finishing) but they miss chances that goes over the bar and waaay wide. I don't know what to do anymore. Is there even anything I can do about it except sell them??

[LeManiaque]

Here's some statistical analysis of elite goal scorers: Lionel Messi Is Impossible | FiveThirtyEight


"Every strike brings me closer to the next home run"- Babe Ruth

If your strikers are taking shots, they're ahead of many others judging by complaints.

[Al Svanberg]

I don't understand what's wrong with my strikers! They get trained everyday, by the time my matches are on their morale and condition are maxed. They have skills of 130-150%(shooting and finishing) but they miss chances that goes over the bar and waaay wide. I don't know what to do anymore. Is there even anything I can do about it except sell them??

I am processing these issues my self.

Not to put words in other people's mouths, but many will say "Sell! Internal programming is holding them back". I am not saying that this is wrong, and just about every time I am doubting these guys that has played for years I end up changing my opinion and agreeing with them lol. And just to be clear -- I am not saying its wrong this time either.

But a few thoughts, some formations are more striker friendly than others. Like no doubt, I played a formation where my striker didn't score anything. Very midfield/center heavy with 2 AMCs, 1 MC and 2 DMCs. Short passing through the middle. It worked pretty good in all Competitions (FA, league, Cup and CL), but it wasn't uber effective in terms of translating possession to goals and especially not for my striker who at one point at 7 stars had 1 goal in 19 games. After that I have changed formation, tried to pull back my team more and spread out my players more. It definitely has given my striker more room, no doubt.

On my other account (I have two twin accounts, basically started at the same time etc), I am playing a bit modified 4-5-1 system. The striker for this account is always scoring a lot. I have used 4 different strikers for this account, and they all performs. I have also once in an association tournament switched strikers between my two accounts, and my "hot" striker was "cold" too for that account.

My point with this is just, to evaluate if a striker you have is good or not, in terms of internal programming, you must have a -- reference point --. Right? With some formations, 1.5 GPG is good for a striker, and with other formations 0.75 GPG is good. My impression is that Strikers tend to score the most on transition plays, you win the ball in the midfield and move it up to your striker that scores. Then he gets a few goals from crossing and corners etc, but that will not be enough to enable him to score more than a goal per game. So if you play more of a defensive style, your striker will score more, and if you have a ton of possession, you tend to end up in situations where the striker is surrounded by several defenders. You need to find your reference point for your strikers, what is good and what is not good?

There is a good thread on this subject, I am a bit of a hurry and can't dig it up now, but you can search for it.

[cran]

If your strikers are taking shots, they're ahead of many others judging by complaints.

Exactly, my strikers have 1 shot every 2 games, they constantly just pass the ball back into the MC/DMC. I wish my strikers would at least make an attempt.