Strikerless
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Are traditional strikers dying out?
There was once a time not too long ago that having a dynamic, lumbering striker was almost necessary for success. The likes of Fernando Torres, Carlos Tevez and Robin Van Persie were some of the most prolific goal scorers on the planet in most of the decade spanning from 2000 until 2010. Since then, however, […]
Senza Centravanti Catenaccio – Door-Bolt Strikerless
Warning: The following article will contain butchered Italian from an Aussie. Salute, amici mio. Mi dispiace per il terribile Italiano, I still haven’t found the finances for an intensive language course. Yet somehow, this in no way restricts me from plying my managerial trade in Vercelli più bella.* * Purely in a fantasy construct that […]
The Decapitated Buffalo – A Strikerless Production
Originally posted on DrPoods' Ramblings of a Madman: Been quite busy at Poods HQ for a while, what with trying to resurrect saves that had gone the way of the dodo and I haven’t got around to writing anything for a bit. But I am back and here we go with another tactic for you…
The Wolf Pack Tactic
In an effort to make the most aggressive counter-pressing tactic I possibly could within the FM17 match engine, I ended up taking my inspiration from a BBC documentary on wolves and more specifically the way they work together within a wolf pack. It is during a hunt where co-operation between wolves within a pack is most […]
Planning Your Money
Football is just like the rest of the world. It is all about money. Crazy amounts of money, mostly, when football is involved. In the real world, you should plan your money wisely. I advise doing the same in FM. In this article, I will talk about my planning. Feel free to use it as […]
The Withdrawn Targetman Saga; The FM17 Version
In previous instalments of the game, I have continually tried to implement a role I have dubbed the Withdrawn Targetman. In older versions of Football Manager, it turned out that the Enganche role was a perfect fit for what I had in mind. In the current edition of Football Manager, however, the Enganche role is […]
Transitioning To Strikerless; What To Do With Strikers?
It’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s true nonetheless. Strikers are overvalued. This over-valuation is an example of the ““availability heuristic”: the more available a piece of information is to the memory, the more likely it is to influence your decision, even when the information is biased. Goals tend to stick to mind, the goal-scorer […]
5 Clauses That Will Lead To Bankrupcy (Unless Properly Dealt With)
My video games tend to lean towards either the sports side of things or the tycoon genre. The FM series is a mix of both those loves. I approach FM first as a business simulator, with the added benefit of scratching my football itch. One of the most exciting things in-game for me is the […]
The Process Of Surgically Signing New Players
When you’re signing new players there are multiple approaches to the matter. I admit that I am generally a firm proponent of the hoarding approach. When you bring in 30 new players every season one of them is bound to succeed or develop into a player who can prove useful to the cause of subjugating […]
A Case Study Of Scouting A New Star
Last week, I wrote about the player radars, how they worked, how they can be used and how you can make your own. Since writing that article, I have gained some new insights and I wanted to share these insights with a case study as the example. Starting off with the most important one of […]
A Blast From The Past; Radar Love
Allow me to show you how my star player performed this season. This is just a matter of showing off of course, but humour me. I could screenshot his history from the game, but if I really wanted to detail his style, I’d have to describe more statistics or include match clips. Yet I can […]
Transfers: Using League Reputation To Your Advantage
When you’re dealing in the transfer market, you are always looking for the best possible offer. Regardless if you’re intention is to buy or to sell, you want to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible. At this point, you really ought to take the reputation of the various leagues into consideration. Why, you ask? […]
Towing Away A Parked Bus; Breaking Down A Defence
When you play FM long enough, you are bound to encounter opponents who park the bus against you. With the knowledge that they are hopelessly outclassed against your star-studded squad, they opt not to be lead to the slaughter like the proverbial lambs. Where football romantics would love to see the smaller sides go for […]
The Juventus Gambit; Why Hoarding Players Can Pay Off
The title “Juventus gambit” is bound to raise questions. Before I explain, let me illustrate a point upfront. How many transfers do you think Juventus has done this season? Transfermarkt has the answer; 74 in, 79 out, which includes youth players. This isn’t incidental, last season the grand Old Lady of Italian football had 75 […]
Tactical Reviews; A New Format
Our last tactical review dates back to 2015 which is a bloody outrage. The concept is still strong, but the delivery is perhaps ready for a new approach. This is where my good friend Matthias (@DerFManager) comes in. We’re going to try a video format now. Both of us have prepared our scalpels and wits, […]
Wingerless: Tactical Philosophy
Part 2 of the Wingerless Series This is the second part of my wingerless series where I write about how I’ve challenged myself to play football manager without wingers nor to score or conceding from the dreaded cross. As a Chelsea fan from about 2003 (queue the taunts), I got used to the gritty defensive […]
Exploring The Limits Of My Tactical Knowledge; The Stuka Tactic
Back in October, I posted on this site my ‘Revival Of the Four Horsemen’ tactic where I took Guido’s Original tactic as a base and turned it into a winning machine with Arsenal. I outlined at the end of the post that my main save in FM17 will be with Espanyol, and my first season I will […]
Wingerless- Anti Crossing Philosophy
I once asked long time Football Manager enthusiasts Guido Merry on Twitter ‘How would you explain the role of the Defensive Forward’ to which he unsatisfactorily replied ‘don’t know, don’t use strikers’. Now call it making the most of few twitter characters, or call it rude but I ended up hypocritically doing the same thing […]
Counterpressing In FM17 (Sort Of Anyway)
As an ever-increasing number of foreign managers have sought to make an impression on the English Premier League, more and more attention has been given to the concept of counter-pressing. Previously, such tactical musings were the domain of pretentious hipsters trying to be interesting by brandishing such terms or the odd tactical aficionado. With the […]
Debunking The Formation Myth; The Medusa
When you have followed this blog, you will have noticed that I have a quirky kind of love for strange formations, for peculiar settings and for tactics that are different than they might appear at first sight. The entire blog is named after a rather alien concept in football, so I guess it shouldn’t come […]
How To Produce 100 Elite players?
This is one of my historical feats in FM, something I am really proud of. My academy has seen 100 players bleed into the first team squad before, but in FM16 that took me until 2033 to reach this milestone. I have never ever reached the 100 player milestone so early in a game. So what […]
Tactical Kryptonite To The FM17.2 ME; The Inverted Wingback
In a way, football is a sport of the mind as much as it is of the body. Football thrives on creating and exploiting space for yourself and for others. A successful tactic finds ways to generate space where there was thought to be none. This objective can be achieved by patiently passing the ball […]
The Life of Youth Developer
Youth development is such a favourite hobby for me in FM17. Just imagine the excitement you get when you get a youth from the academy youth intake, and then you congratulate your Head of Youth Development for a good job. All the prayers you done has been answered , and with a huge luck , […]
A strikerless 4-1-3-2
I’m back, and I have a new strikerless abomination™* for you to check out. When I started messing with tactics for FM17, I decided I wanted to try something different. For the last few versions of FM, my tactical setups have been very similar. My teams always had a base of: Control mentality Very fluid team […]
Facing Off Against Superior Opposition; Parking The Bus 101
It’s a phrase that has been around for a bit more than a decade, “parking the bus.” It’s not a phrase with a positive connotation as it is used to describe teams employing a highly defensive minded tactic. These tactics usually involve at least two defensive banks sitting deep in their own half, inviting pressure and […]
Project Libero; The Tactic
Back in the days, liberos were a truly majestic sight to behold. Step into your time machine and go back in time a good 20 or so years. Turn on the tv and watch teams defend. The majority of them will feature a type of player that seems to have been lost from the modern […]
Brexit Happened; What Now?
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” -Socrates Socrates believed that in order to change, one has to accept it. He emphasised that instead of harping on lost time, a change should inspire us to build something new, which leads us nicely […]
Merry Christmas
Good cheer, great hope and the best that the Christmas season has to offer for you and your family as you celebrate this time of togetherness. Merry Christmas!
Keep It Simple; The Beauty Of Stock Tactics – The Game
In my previous piece I tried to cover all of the phases I go through while turning every stone available to win a football match in Football Manager 2017. Today, I will try to cover all the steps I take in preparation for a game and during the game to achieve a desirable result, which […]
Strikerless Needs You; Become A Patron
Hi everyone, my name is Guido, but you may have heard of me through my blog Strikerless. I am a Football Manager blogger and I produce weekly FM content. I would love for you to support my site on Patreon. I started my little pet project sometime early 2014 and I’ve been blown away by […]
A New Corner Setup; FM17.2
As any team coached by Tony Pulis and the current champions of England have shown, set pieces can be critical and trainable means to pry open a match that is deadlocked. When you can’t break through a defensive line from open play, a corner offers you an extra chance to score that important goal. FM […]
Keep It Simple; The Beauty Of Stock Tactics
had a discussion the other day with my buddy Chris @comeontheoviedo and we were talking about maybe having a save where you could only use the stock tactics, tactics as they come out of the box. You know just throwing words out and maybe outlining a bit how strict it would be, ended up being strict. […]
Surviving The Drop; Rebuild Or Spend?
Last season was a spell in Dante’s inferno for quite a few renowned clubs throughout Europe. Aston Villa and Newcastle United were relegated to the Championship in England, Traditionsverein VfB Stuttgart dropped a division in Germany, whilst renowned clubs such as Werder Bremen, HSV, Deportivo La Coruña and Valencia barely stayed above the relegation line. […]
The Deep Lying Box to Box Midfielder; The 3-5-2/3-4-3
One of the most fashionable formations of the last decade, the 3-5-2 is a formation that presents incredibly universal applications and an almost infinite number of interpretations. From Conte’s high pressing system at Juventus
Strikerless 2.0 For FM17; Balancing The Midfield
In the past few weeks since the release of my first FM17 tactic, I have received a fair bit of feedback regarding the initial tactic. Most of it was regarding the defensive frailties of the tactic, the susceptibility of the tactic to quick counter-attacks down the flanks. Whilst I did not experience these problems in a […]
Hashtag Flackback; The FBA’s 2016
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that anything is possible, last Thursday provides you with an answer. Julius Caesar came, saw and conquered. I came, I saw and I defied the odds by claiming a Judges’ Choice Football Blogging Award in the Best Gaming category. Since you’re reading this, I must assume […]
Scoring Corner Goals Has Never Been Easier
As FM17 has been released for a week, it’s time to test my earlier efforts from the Beta and see if they are still effective in the full release of the game. After all, with quite a few updates coming out during the beta phase of the game, the match engine has changed a wee […]
Strikerless Retro Tactic For FM17
Okay, first of all, this is basically an updated version of the Beta tactic I released earlier. As the game underwent several updates, the altered Match Engine forced me to tweak the tactic in a number of places. Most of the article is a re-post, with some tweaks and edits made and a few new […]
Everything You Wish You Didn’t Have To Experience But Really Ought To Know Regarding Injuries
It’s a returning gripe for many FM players, inexperienced newcomers and seasoned veterans alike. The injuries. Quite often they are absolutely ludicrous. The sheer number of injuries sometimes forces you to take desperate measures. The dreaded red and orange crosses in-game are often foreboding of bad news. They are more reviled by FM players than […]
Achieving Long Term Success; The FC United Story
In “Goal: The Ball Doesn’t Go in By Chance”, Ferran Soriano, former Vice-President of Barcelona Football Club, shares an insight into how the club was run between 2003 and 2006. It is more a management book than a football one. My reading about the game has become increasingly more niche the more Football Manager has […]
How To Create A Strong Defense; The Phalanx Analogy
Most managers, myself included, prefer aesthetically pleasing brands of football. We are not content with merely winning a game, we want to win in style, preferably a grand style. Okay, I am not really sure if this applies to most managers, but it bloody well applies to me. I blame my Dutch genes for that […]
The revival of the Four Horsemen (FM17 BETA)
EDITORIAL NOTE: We have another guest piece on the site, by the most excellent and ever-charming Marc Bowen. Make sure you visit Marc’s site Limited Fullback. Sitting down for the first time with the BETA and what a better way to start my FM17 endeavor with my beloved Arsenal. Throughout the summer all pundits, fans, […]
Strikerless’ FM17 Beta Tactic
I’ll start us off by referencing the old adage that classics never really die. After all, they became classics for a reason, they have traits and characteristics beloved by all. In reference to Strikerless, it’s a particular brand of football you can create with a strikerless tactic. That daft prick Ruud Gullit coined the phrase […]
FM17’s First Effective Corner Routine
With the release of the FM17 Beta comes the mad dash for the first corner exploit, the scramble to create a good set piece setup and by God, I think I have found one. Before I shall elaborate on how they work (and offering those much-sought-after download links), I shall show you the routine in […]
Dear FM16; Kindly Fuck Off
Dear FM16, It’s been grand. We’ve had a great time together, but I feel the time has come for me to move on. I’m not going to give you the tired old cliché of “it’s not you, it’s me”, because let’s face it, this is totally on you. I have forgiven you almost […]
Danny’s Attacking 4-4-2 Experiment (A Follow-Up to my Definitive 4-4-2)
Scoring late in a game, whilst a tense circumstance for the fans, is usually a blessing, as it puts all the onus on the opposition to try to equal the feat, or else risk leaving empty-handed. With that in mind, I’m sorry I’m a bit late with this post, but I’m sure many of you […]
Danny’s Definitive 4-4-2 (A.K.A. My Magnum Opus Ain’t Perfect)
Ah, the 4-4-2. Title winner. The bane of the naive manager. The bread and butter of every Dad who has ever put his hand up to manage his son’s under-12s side, and suddenly found himself out of his depth. One might describe it as the herald of the modern age of football. The old-school love […]
Inside My Mind 03; The First Round Of Tweaking
As we continue looking at the process of creating a tactic, I have stumbled across the greatest hurdle of all; the fine-tuning of the tactic. Your tactic looks great on the drawing board, you’ve thought it all through and you think it will work. That is when reality sets in and you actually have to […]
The Football Blogging Awards
I generally don’t ask for much from my loyal followers, because I don’t want to turn Strikerless into a clickbait or advertising site. However, I figured I might have a crack at a Football Blogging Award in the category “best football gaming blog.” It never hurts to try, no? Anyway, if you want to vote […]
Liberotastic
I’ve been meaning to write this up for ages but never really found the time until now. This is my take on a strikerless formation featuring a libero, something I wanted to try for a while but had to wait until I found a suitable player to retrain as a sweeper. This came towards the […]