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 action.

The observant managers among you (and loyal readers of this blog) will recognize this setup as being one I originally promoted for FM16. That would be factually correct. In fact, all I did in this Beta was import my old FM16 set piece routines to see which ones were still effective. It turns out, this particular one is still quite effective.

So does it still work?

This is the first and most important question. I can rave on and on about how construed the concept is, but all everyone wants to know is, does it actually work? You be the judge of that.

The effectiveness in numbers

I have tested the routine in a full season with Roma and we score a goal every two games or so on average. As you can see, not all goals are scored directly from the corner. Quite a few are in fact scored from recycled possession and exploiting the general disarray in the opposing defence. According to the game itself, these goals are not to be counted as corner goals. That’s all fine and dandy, but they all started with a corner. The causality between the corner and the goal is most definitely present in each and every goal scored in such a fashion.

How it actually works

The basic setup is quite unlike previous corner exploits we posted on Strikerless. It’s not using a glitch of sorts or hammering the ball towards the first post. The effectiveness is in its versatility. The ball is lumped into the penalty area and with so many players crowding the box, there is always someone open to hit the ball. The lurking player ensures possession recycling and one player stays back if needed to snuff out counter-attacks. Not pretty and you’d get murdered versus human opposition, but quite effective against the more rigid AI because of the unpredictable nature of the setup and the many options it offers.

I haven’t quite tested the difference between inswinging or outswinging corners, but I do have a designated corner-taker, who is always kept outside of the penalty area, to ensure a maximum spread of bodies across the box. It’s not fancy, it’s not sophisticated, but it’s damn effective.

The importance of effective distribution

The positioning of the players at corners is just one element of the total sum that makes up a successful corner-routine. Besides placing your players in key positions within the opposition’s penalty area, you are also going to need some sort of delivery system, basically, a player who can actually kick the ball quite accurately towards one your own men in the penalty area. For me, a good corner taker should possess the following attributes.

• Anticipation; (how accurately can said player predict the movement of other players);
• Corners; (how accurately can said player deliver the ball to its intended destination);
• Composure; (how well can said player perform under pressure);
• Decisions; (will said player make the right call under the circumstances he is in);
• Vision; (how many options can said player distinguish on the pitch).

When I am looking for someone to take the corners, these are the attributes I look for.

The download

UPDATE 20/10/2016

Apparently the downloads are not working as they should, as people are not able to see the files in-game. Working to fix them!

UPDATE 24/10/2016

Let’s give this another go.

DOWNLOAD

Using these downloads

When you download these files, place them in the following folder:

My documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 17/set pieces

You can import the files in-game when you are setting your offensive set pieces.

Guido

Guido is the founding father of Strikerless and main nutjob running the show.