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English >> Questions
Second striker (14)
Is there anybody here who can tell me something about "second strikers"?
Does he play as an out-and-out striker, or maybe as a target man. Or do I have to think more of a "number 10" or maybe even an advanced AM?
And based upon that question: what skills (besides probably scoring) does he need?
Any info or experience would be helpful, thanks.
If I use the spot, I usually use strikers that don't have poacher (yet) but do have long shots. I tend to try to give strikers both but if you get an older striker without poacher it might not be worth it. In general, if a player needs scoring, I wouldn't give them any other training apart from 1.5 ball of tactics, you need to put everything in scoring to keep them competitive.
Long shots is the most important thing to give a player there imo.
To answer the question about where he plays. He just plays deeper than a main striker, so he's somewhere between a striker and an AM and will generally get fewer shots on goal.
As far as I know most of the top teams don't use them because they don't tend to score as many goals as other forwards.
I've not tried it but it would be interesting to see how effective an AM was playing in that position.
good SS might be a key player, i played this guy -
https://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-1135002
team player, dirty , creative + versatile , shielding , long shoots all that kinda mix
2nd croatian league in 33games 15 goals 15 pass . he was amazing
I played a SS when I wanted to keep things tight. I had a player who had all duelling and long shots. He did well for me, though he has just retired now, so I’m back to having all ‘normal’ strikers. Not sure how well these normal strikers do in the SS slot.
@ Stephen
I had noticed your "dueling" striker when I looked at your team a while back. A very interesting player and kudos to you for trying something different. Well done, as he did seem to be a useful player.
Can I ask that having had the player whether you thought it was worthwhile and if you would consider doing it again?
Also did you sometimes find selection a problem as I guess he would have been seen as a "weak" player? Am interested in your thoughts.
Is this the player?
https://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/info/player-1373735/employment
Yes, that's cheating's Andrew Hundley, alright. A Seaburn Beach legend! First up, I have to come clean and say that I was not the first to do this. The move was inspired by another manager, @Lied. I just saw an opportunity to do it with a player who had the 'dirty' trait.
As you probably would expect, there are pros and cons with doing this. When he was born, he was just an 'ordinary' YC10 created at 14y51w with one staff member. This is not particularly young for a YC10 and he would have had an uneventful career if I'd just trained him in scoring and maybe added a bit of duelling.
'Dirty' is not a trait that I'm particularly fond of. While it does cause opposition players to collect more yellow and red cards, it doesn't cause those same players to foul more. You have to manufacture that with a ton of duelling. I thought I would experiment by going 'all-in' with duelling.
I had hoped that he would win more fouls than he did, but I think with most defenders having 'correct' his opportunities were limited. He did win some crucial penalties and freekicks in his time, but less than I'd hoped for. He did however get far fewer yellow cards for diving than I'd expected.
His stats aren't that great, but he often played only 45 minutes for me as I had to rotate my squad. I think if he'd played the full 90, he would have scored about a goal every other game. What I can't say is how much his duelling helped the other striker score. I suspect it helped, but by how much? I will probably find out this season now that he is a staff member...
His best moments were in Europe. He often seemed to score there, and often crucial goals.
Never had any problems with squad selection but I think you're right. He probably would have been classed as a 'weak' player. I think if you had a squad where you were trying to get lots of youngsters first team experience, then this would have been a problem.
I wouldn't rule out doing something like this again in future, but there are some downsides:
- Firstly, the player will never play for the NT as he can never make it onto the automatically generated shortlist. That was fine for Hundley as he was never going to be good enough for England as a 'normal' player so I wasn't losing out. However, a more special player would have missed out on this.
- Secondly, sell-on values are affected. His market value was a lot weaker than it ought to have been. I never tried to sell him - I had a few enquiries for him over his last seven or eight seasons - but I expect I would have been disappointed.
I hope this is helpful, though I appreciate that this turned into a massively long post!
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to write that, Stephen. Looking from the perspective of a bystander I can never quite get the same insight as you would have had managing the player on a daily basis.
Regarding his not collecting as many cards as expected, I would guess this was down to a number of factors. High dueling means fewer of his tackles were missed and also his playing position as attackers seem to commit fewer fouls anyway.
If he had been playing at a lower level, where the opponents will have lower skills - in pretty much everything - then I guess he may have gained you more scoring opportunities from fouls. It seems that the nature of the game changes a little with higher rated players.
Thanks again. :)
In real life the nearest player I can think of would be someone like Mark Hughes. Although I guess he's too old for most to remember. 
@Numpty
Mark Hughes scored a lot of goals though.
What about Duncan Ferguson? He scored a lot too though...
This thread has just reminded me of the infamous incident where Vinny Jones "tackled" Gazza, by grabbing his erm ... "tackle". 
Still brings tears to my eyes ...
@Numpty
And holding the record for the quickest red card ever I believe.
Like a few seconds after kick-off.
Mark Hughes is a fair comparison, I think. Though I am far too young to remember him, of course ;)
How a simple question can lead to some quite interesting reading material. Thanks everyone for pitching in. Learned a lot.