Targetmen

Introduction
When you think of the archetypal target man, players like James Beattie, Duncan Ferguson, or for those of us with longer memories, Paul Mariner, spring to mind. Tall and strong with a good touch for a big man (Mariner possibly excepted) whose job it is to win flick-ons, hold up the ball and generally bring others in to play. In a good year they can be top scorers, but their all round contribution is more important than their goal ratio.

Yet, as in the real world there are different types of target men that can be utilised in Football Manager. Alan Shearer was not the tallest of players and despite being good in the air preferred to have the ball played to his feet so he could use his excellent first touch and physical strength to hold up the ball and lay it off to breaking wingers. Mark Hughes was of similar ilk. Finally, you have the lightening fast finishers who, although able to hold up the ball, are more concerned with running on to through balls and using their pace to best effect. Michael Owen best personifies this type of player.

In Football Manager you can utilise each of these different types of target men. If set-up correctly, a target man can offer your team a massive advantage and deliver excellent results. The following article is a guide for setting up various types of target men.

The Lone Striker
We are seeing more and more teams choosing to utilise the just a single forward rather than a strike partnership. A factor in this could be the increased emphasis on the physical aspects of players. They are expected to be stronger, work harder and faster. As this trend continues managers are moving to utilise more dynamic formations, a departure from some of the more conventional systems that have been popular in the late 20th century.

As a consequence the lone target man has become a popular choice. Usually physically strong these types of player like to receive the ball to feet and hold up the ball, allowing runners from midfield to advance before laying the ball of to a team mate. A good target man will be able to occupy a number of defenders, whilst creating space for a team-mate to get into a good attacking position.

Strike Partnerships
Although a lot of the top teams seem to be adopting the policy of a single forward, the strike partnership is still the mainstay of the modern football tactic. Nearly all the great tactical minds in real life follow the belief that the best combination for a strike force is to use a pairing that are able to work together and that the individual strengths of each striker complement those of the other.

A striker who is skilled at protecting the ball, good at heading the ball and physically strong and good in the area and able to create space should have as his companion one who is mobile and quick, skilled in dribbling and a good imagination and capable from shooting from distance.

When playing with two strikers you will have a number of options of your choice of target man. One option is to deliver the ball to the head of the aerial striker and use him as a traditional target man flicking the ball into the path of his team-mate. Another option would be to play through balls to the mobile striker to run onto.

Strong Target Man

The most important attributes for the strong target man are Strength, Jumping, Heading, Bravery and Balance.

When using a strong target man the two supply options are ‘Mixed’ or ‘To Head’. The ‘Mixed’ option is largely ‘To Head’ dominant, with circa 80% of balls played high. However, enough balls are played in to feet or in front of the target man to make pace and skill important. Ideal players at higher levels are poachers or strong strikers with a decent amount of pace, flair, creativity, and composure such as Drogba, Klose, Toni, Fred, or Gillardino.

At lower levels aerial ability remains important, but some pace, decision making ability and a decent first touch should still be required. If your target man option is aerially strong but less than skillful then ‘to head’ becomes the best option.

Suggested Settings

1. Aerial target man supporting a quick striker
Preferred supply: To head/mixed
Mentality: Lower than team average (e.g. 14 instead of 20 in RoO)
Forward run settings: rarely
HUB: Yes
Creative freedom: Low
Crosses from by-line, cross aim mixed
All other settings: Mixed
Team crosses set to: Wingers and full backs closest to the TM cross to mixed as the TM isn’t always up with play due to winning the flick on to the wide player. The winger/full back on the other side of the pitch should cross to far post as the target man is either up with play because it wasn’t his flick on or will arrive late in the box, yet still in time to meet the header, as the ball has further to travel

2. Mobile Target Man
(A good goal-poacher is required for this role)
Target Man Supply: Mixed
Mentality: Lower than team average (e.g. -5 to 6)
HUB: No
CF: 4 - 10 (depending on away-home matches and the quality of the TM)
Long Shots: Rarely/mixed
All other settings: Mixed

3. Quick striker supporting a strong target man
Fast striker mentality highest possible (e.g. 20 in attacking mindset)
FWR: often/mixed if constantly offside
RWB: often
Long shots; rarely
Rest mixed
Closing down heavy
Creative freedom: higher then strong striker
Team crosses: mixed, TM, TM side

Reasoning

Setting Target Man Supply to head/mixed is much more possession friendly than run onto ball which often loses out against deep-lying defensive lines. The lower mentality setting will get the Target Man to play deep which offers two advantages. Firstly, his headers, rather than being constantly attacking flick ons, will often be cushioned backwards to the midfielders or sprayed out to the wings which allows for quality build up play. Secondly, his lower mentality and deep position drags his marking defender out of the defensive line, opening up space behind it for a quick strike partner to exploit should the header be a flick on.

Tests have suggested that ideal players in the strong Target Man role will make more key passes and assists then the MC/a, especially in home games.

In home games against ultra-defensive opposition, two strong strikers can be used occasionally. It is even better if one of those two has a fair amount of pace. Two tall strong strikers can be amazing in combo as they dominate everything in the air. If the ball to TM is played badly the other striker is equally likely to win his header so you can constantly win possession and counter.

A target man can be very effective against a weaker opponent who is man marking him. However it seems a zone defence with opposition instructions focused on the target man can limit his worth to the side. If you see a low won headers percentage for a target man who should be dominating in the air it may be worthwhile unchecking the target man option and allowing some balls to be played to his strike partner.

The Target Man Supply option ‘To Feet’ can work exceedingly well with a strong player with no forward runs. He will hold up the ball and spread the play to the wings with some effect. It can be a useful second option if your tall yet strong target man is being beaten to the ball in the air.

The Quick Target Man

The most important attributes for the quick target man are first touch, pace, dribbling, strength, off the ball, finishing, and composure.

The two best supply settings for a quick target man are ‘Run On To Ball’ or ‘To Feet’. ‘Run to ball’ produces a fair number of high balls over the defence with lots of quick direct through balls whereas ‘To Feet’ pretty much guarantees the ball being played on the floor and a lot less through balls. Ideal players at higher levels are Henry, Eto’o, Robinho, Van Persie and Tevez.

Suggested Settings

1. Lone quick Target Man
Preferred Supply: Run to ball
Mentality: Lower than team average (e.g. 14 instead of 20 in RoO)
FWR: Mixed
HUB: No
Creative freedom: High
Close down: Rarely
Crosses mixed, cross aim mixed, cross from mixed
Long shots: Mixed
TTB: Often
Team crosses set to: Mixed

2. Quick target man in a strike partnership
For a quick Target Man in a two-man strike force the best settings are as follows.

Target Man Supply: Run to ball (away or defensive play), to feet (home or attacking play)
As above, except for:
FWR: Rarely
HUB: Often
CF: High
CB: Often, cross aim far post
CD: Mixed/rarely
Cross from byline
Long shots: Rarely
TTB: Often
Team crosses set to: Side of the strong striker. (E.g. near post from right + far post from left)

Reasoning
The quick target man is best employed with supply set to ‘run to ball’ or ‘to feet’. The ‘run to ball’ instruction seems to be especially effective for quick lone strikers or for away tactics that work with two strikers.

When playing at home with two strikers, the supply option should be ‘to feet’ as ‘run to ball’ leads to many scrappy one-on-one situations that most keepers handle easily. The team gives away possession quite frequently by trying to play too many through balls past a well-prepared defence.

A lone quick target man can be used at home and will often get on the end of a few crucial key passes and grab a goal or two. However, an ultra-defensive opposition can reduce the effectiveness of the lone striker target man dramatically.

If you are playing an ultra-attacking formation that is trying to overload the opposition’s defence, ‘run to ball’ still can work well if your quick target man always has options to pass the ball on to several other players.

Understanding quality of chances
One theme that covers all aspects of using a target man is that they are usually employed by teams that like to play a more expansive style of play. By acting as an outlet for the team the target man can use his head to flick the ball into the path of an alert team-mate.

In order to create good chances the target man needs to be able to draw his marker close to him and win the ball. This will have created space for an alert striker to move into the space and shoot at goal. However there are a host of problems with getting good chances with this style of play.

First of all the defender may not be drawn out to challenge the target man for the header. Although this gives the target man a free header, it also means that the mobile striker will have a much tighter space to manoeuvre, even if he does get to the ball first he may not have time to take a touch and score. He will also be under more pressure from the defence. This situation is compounded even further if the team you are playing against is playing a deep defensive line as space will be even more compact.

A similar situation occurs when playing a through ball for a mobile target man to run onto. If the defenders are beaten the deep line means that the striker may not have the room to manoeuvre the ball into a good striking position. More chances will be from a wider angle and subsequently result in a worse conversion rate.

Certainly the one option that has the greatest chance of creating quality chances against a withdrawn opponent is to play the ball to the feet of the target man who has been instructed not to make forward runs. The deep line will allow a creative target man time and space to turn with the ball and then play a good ball either to the other striker or an overlapping winger. This will allow higher quality chances to be generated and more goals as a result.

In lower league scenarios, quick target men can be even more valuable, since many defenders who are less skilled are simply outplayed by the sheer pace.

Setting up a Target man in the final third behind two wider forwards
This is an experimental guide and results for employing a player in the hole as the main outlet.

Settings for attacking central midfielder set as target man
Mentality: 12-14
Freedom: 4-6
Passing Style: 4-6
Pressing: 4-6
Tackling: Easy
Forward Runs: Mixed
Run with ball: Rarely
Try through balls: Mixed
Long Shots: Rarely
Cross Ball: Rarely
Hold up ball: Yes.

Left Sided Central Forward
Positional Arrow: Horizontally to the Left Sided Wide Forward Position
Mentality: 14-16
CF: 4-6
Passing: 4-6
CD: 16-20
Tackling: Easy
FRuns: Often
RWB: Often
TTB: Rarely
Long Shots: Rarely
Cross Ball: Mixed
Cross From: Byline
Cross Aim: Centre (As the targetman should have moved into the area by now)

Right Sided Central Forward
Positional Arrow: Horizontally to the Right Sided Wide Forward Position
Mentality: 18-20
CF: 10-15
Passing: 4-6
CD: 10
Tackling: Easy
FRuns: Mixed
RWB: Mixed
TTB: Rarely
Long Shots: Rarely
Cross Ball: Rarely.

Target Man Supply To Head
The results were outstanding as the midfield Target Man supplied 18 from an attempted 21 passes with only 2 fouls (although one produced a yellow card), 5 runs and winning 28 of 29 headers!! He also scored 2 and had 2 assists. His rating at half time was 8 and morale was very good. He finished with a 10 rating superb morale and got Man of the match in a 4-2 victory.

Although the supply in the above match was set ‘To head’, a target man in the final third with good decision making skills should be able to dominate with a ‘Mixed’ setting. Even with poor decision making skills, giving the team specific instructions as to his supply makes a massive difference. Although only employed as an AMC/TM in away games he plays a massive role in the attack. His first goal came from him flicking the ball left to the SC who ran to the byline and crossed into the penalty area before my AMC/TM out-jumped the keeper and DC and buried the header in the right corner.

Decisions will play a role in specified settings. The higher the rating the more varied you can set team supply.

Advantages: high number of flick ons to the strikers, effective use of an AMC with less flair but good heading. Well suited for less technical teams.

Disadvantages: Less slow passing and less patient build up play through the midfield.

Contributors:
Crazy Gra, garyh, Leroy1883, The next Diaby, wwfan, zagallo, Law Man, pelle mandorff