FIFA 14 | So You Want A… Target man

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If you play style involves plenty of crosses or you use a strong forward to hold the ball up for team mates, today’s article on target men is for you. These players are usually tall, strong and great in the air, and use their physical presence to score, assist and generally make a nuisance of themselves.

When deciding who to recommend, I noticed that several of the players here are very similar – Aleksandar Mitrović and Jürgen Locadia; Vinícius Araújo and Robert Berič; and Papá Babacar Diawara and Johnny Russell. So if I mention one of these players, be sure to check out the other as well in case you think they’d be better for your team.

Anyway, here’s who I recommend:

• Anthony Martial
• Jürgen Locadia/Aleksandar Mitrović
• Vinícius Araújo/Robert Berič
• Kenneth Zohore

Anthony Martial is my first recommendation and, as with last year’s Lower League Gems article on target men, I’ve chosen him because he’s equally good across a range of attacking attributes. His standout features are his pace and strength, and unusual combination for a target man (although many of my selections today possess this too). But beyond this, he is equally good at finishing, heading, dribbling and ball control. With a potential of 87 he is going to become one of the most well-rounded strikers in the game, and although you can’t get him straight away, his price will be more than affordable.

Up next we have a double selection because there is just so little to choose between Jürgen Locadia and Aleksandar Mitrović. They’re both more or less higher OVR versions of Anthony Martial – pace, strength, aerial ability, finishing, dribbling, shot power – they’ve got it all. Pretty much the only difference is that Locadia is slightly faster and Mitrović is slightly stronger. Locadia may just edge it because you can buy him right away, but either one would be a fantastic addition to your squad.

Another tough choice now – Vinícius Araújo and Robert Berič. As with the previous couple, these two are extremely similar. Don’t be fooled by Araújo’s height, his strength and aerial ability are two of his best qualities. He’s got decent pace too, but like Martial he can dribble and has great finishing, so he is a threat with the ball at his feet or in the air. Berič is taller than Araújo and, with 80 strength, is one of the strongest players on this list, but his dribbling isn’t as good and you can’t get him straight away, which means Araújo slightly edges it for me. However, his price is likely to be lower when he does become available, so really the choice is yours!

My final recommendation is Kenneth Zohore. He’s not as widely skilled as my other recommendations, but as pure target men go he’s right up there. He has two outstanding attributes for his rating – 78 heading accuracy and 85 strength (making him the strongest player here). It’s not often that you find stats like that on a 65 OVR player, so if a cheap target man is what you’re after then he should be one of your first considerations. A bid of just over £1m should do it.

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The articles in this series should give you some ideas if you’re looking for a new signing in a key area. There is one article for each position on the pitch to make it easy for you to quickly find players to bolster your squad.

All of the players given here have a minimum potential of 80, so you know you’re getting quality. The maximum OVR for each player is 73, both to keep transfer prices down and to avoid presenting you with too many options and thus making it too difficult to choose the player you need.

The ‘Avai?’ column is short for ‘available?’ and refers both to whether or not you can buy the specified player at the start of the first season and how long their current contract is. Let’s take Y/2 as an example – Y means that yes, you can buy him at the start of a new career, and the number means he has two years left on his contract. Similarly, N/3 would mean that no, you can’t buy the player straight away, and he has three years left on his contract. These ‘no’ players are often available for transfer if you wait until the January transfer window, however. For some players this column is blank – this means that they are out on loan at the start and are therefore unavailable for purchase until the second season.

Initial player costs may seem very low this year. The figure in the player cost column refers to the price you are given if you scout the player. But I’ve also added a new column this time round – ‘They want’. This refers to the price the other team want for the player if you enquire about him. Often there is a large difference between the player cost obtained through scouting and that obtained through an enquiry. This leaves a lot of room for negotiation, so don’t be put off if a price in the ‘They want’ column is high, as you can usually get the player for much less. Try bidding lower than what you think will be accepted – you may be surprised at their response. If the ‘They want’ column is blank it’s because the team refused to give a price, either because the player has just joined them or because they are loaning him in.

And as a final note, in FIFA 14 EA update player OVRs and potentials every week. Mose of the time these are very minor changes, and most players won’t be affected at all unless they have had a very noteworthy week. Furthermore, some players occasionally disappear if they have been put in the reserve squad that week. So just bear in mind that these figures should be read as a guide only and not a definitive account of player costs, potentials, etc, for the entire season.[/expand]

The complete list is below: