As we are slowly but surely inching towards the release date of FM18, I have been looking back at my FM17 saves and how much fun this version of FM has been. For probably the first time I think a lot of that fun has come from being part of an online community. For a game that is in the main a single player game I think is quite a feat.

Being part of the FM community for me is great fun and showed me there are so many ways to play the game. Most of which I had never ever thought of, so here is a list of ideas that have woken me up to the vast array of ways you can play this wonderful version of FM. I hope these also bring you more fun to your final days of FM17

Strikerless by Guido

Now if you don’t know about strikerless I have no idea why you are on this site. Since it’s strikerless.com it’s the home of Strilerless tactic. Guido for several years has been producing wonderful tactics for all of us to try and break the game by not using any strikers. Yes, that right Guido decided it would be a good idea to try and win games without the position that scores the most number of goals. I would never have thought of creating a tactic with no strikers in it. This version of FM there have been some classics.

1. The Decapitated Buffalo https://goo.gl/8Lhu5V
2. The Wolf Pack https://goo.gl/vVnqUA

There have also been an increased number of different articles here on Strikerless some not even being strikerless at all. (Shock Horror) I for one welcome this as getting information out to FM community can only be a good thing

The Santos 3-5-2(ish) by @JLAspey

I read how this tactic worked on the Bangkok BTS ride home from the office. Not playing anyone on the right wing that is never going to work. We all know more crosses equal more goals. This tactic had been tested with Santos (Hint is in the Name) and I thought surely Santos are some super power and basically, any tactic will see you win with them. So I was not going to choose Santos using the best scientific method possible I picked Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas. Now I know you are want to know what Incredible Scientific method I used to for selecting my team. I looked at all the club badges of course. I guess I should admit I thought this club had default badge and felt sorry for them being the only club in the Brazilian top division with a default badge.

I also think this is the first tactic where I used the IWB with a great success. You can read about the tactic and download it from here: https://goo.gl/f2JTSS . I would like to visit this tactic again with a better team or see how powerful it could be with a team that has been playing and training in this tactic for several seasons. Getting an excellent WBR really does benefit this tactic

Fame & Fibra by @FmGrasshopper

This is not a tactic but a philosophy for your club. It’s the identity of your club if I say Southampton you think oh the only club that Liverpool can buy players from. When I say Wimbledon from the early 90’s you think Vinny Jones and the crazy gang. When I say Barcelona you think tic a tac a football. Fame and Fibra brings grit and determination to your team in spades, your team will never give up it will play until the 98th minute if they have to. This is perfect for teams with a small budget and for teams that are climbing the leagues. You can read about FMGrasshopper’s adventure using his philosophy http://fmgrasshopper.com/fm17/ and if you want to go more in depth you can read that here https://goo.gl/xQfehh This is certainly on my list of things to try in FM18.Twitter Saves –

Twitter Saves by various authors

This is very very new to me, people tweeting updates of their save direct to twitter so you can keep up. The first I would like to bring to people’s attention is @FM_Champions He is doing possibly the hardest challenge out there on FM the Youth Academy Challenge.  You are only ever able to use the players who begin at your club, and your youth products.  You are never able to sign a player on a loan or permanent transfer for the entirety of the save.  The next kicker to the challenge is that you must start as a “Sunday League Player” with no coaching badges, at the age of 20 — AND you must also start with a club that was previously unplayable at the start. Why not join @FM_Champions and see if he can possibly achieve his goal? There is also round up page https://goo.gl/EbJvoc

My second is possibly the most insane FM related media there is out there. @MrBossFollower is a Dutch Twitter user who tweets updates to his save but he does not tweet Belgium 2 Holland 0 and we played bad. No, he makes gfx to go along with his tweets. It’s just madness and awesome all at the same time. Here is an example of one of his tweets.

I am very excited to see what @MrBossFollower will do with Football Manager 18 and can @FM_Champions make good progress on his insanely difficult challenge.

FM Slack Chat

Slack is a chat client that lets people chat about FM and football. There are sub chats about most FM related things latest being FM18 Save Ideas which ranges from people saying they want to lead Arsenal to glory, 1860 Munich were relegated last year to the third division I want to try them. There are chats about the MLS, tactics and the list goes on. Please if you enjoy FM, come and join us on Slack and chat about our favourite game. Why not check out this article which explains how to join the FM Chat madness https://goo.gl/i6aSz3

The Deep Lying Podcast – @TheDeepLyingPod

The long-running FM Podcast with its hosts Ed and George keeps us up to date with the world of FM. It is probably the best way to find out about new ideas and new tactics. Normally Guests are invited onto the show to explain the new tactics or how squad moral works. It the perfect companion for the hours we spend in the game. There is normally a new show every Friday with the odd special episode thrown into the mix to spice things up. If you are not already listening to the show, you can catch up here https://soundcloud.com/deep-lying-podcast, Of course, the show is available on iTunes and Stitcher

YouTube

Google’s media behemoth is a great place to watch other people play Football Manager. I am sure most of you will know @DoctorBenji, daily uploads for FM ranging from short saves to massive club rebuilding jobs my favourite was his rebuilding Parma Drama 103 episodes of FM craziness. One of the reasons I like Ben as not all his saves work, he does not turn every club into champions. https://www.youtube.com/user/DoctorBenjyFM

With each version of the game it gets more and more complicated, more and more features are added to the game. How do all these new features work, how does that new position work or maybe the most important question why does my team keep losing Well Daljit can explain why, his channel @BustTheNet is the go-to place for in-depth tactical analyst and FM how to videos https://goo.gl/nMn3bZI I know there are lots of other YouTubers who are pumping out great FM content but those two are my favorite.

SortItOutSI.com – @sortitoutsi

This was the first site I went to many many years ago when I was looking for information about FM and how to play the game. It’s one of the largest sites on the net BUT for me, it is the go-to place for gfx. For years I have been using this site to get my Club Badges, 3D Kits and of course Mega Face Packs. All these graphical add-ons really bring the game to life. They also have transfer updates, which I think is a fairly new addition to this excellent site.

Twitch.tv – @kworey @lokidoki @lollujo

Impossible to have YouTube on this list without having Twitch, I will admit I am not the biggest fan of Twitch as I like to media when I want. Twitch is more like live TV, well live TV for gaming every game you can think of is on there including the marvellous Football Manager and I have even seen the odd stream of CM01/02 on there.I stumbled across a very nice Portuguese streamer back when FM16 was out he was streaming Ajax. I was sick with the flu and was just staring at the screen and thinking I have no idea what he is saying but he was talking away and setting up his team. About 45 mins later I noticed that he had not bought any players. Of course, as Ajax manager, he was fighting off lost of incoming bids. I saw that once he received a bid for a player he would go straight to his youth squad and see what replacements he had. Eventually, I picked up the courage to say Hi what are doing? To which he replied he was saying he was doing a Youth Academy Challenge. Then for the next 40 minutes, I was given a lesson in how he set up his first team and the youth teams. The training, which players he was loaning out, which players he thought were worth keeping and which he just wanted to get the maximum transfer value from. After that each night I would watch Kworey as he led Ajax tried to lean Ajax to glory. Season after season the youth players were being trained and some were being promoted That is when I knew some people played FM to a totally different level to me. You can check out Kworey who streams most days He streams in England and Portuguese so don’t be scared to say Hi or should that be Olá  https://www.twitch.tv/kworey/videos/all

It’s not fair to talk about Twitch and also not to mention https://go.twitch.tv/lollujofm#! and https://go.twitch.tv/loki_doki_gg#!

Lollijo is streaming his excellent Deeping Rangers Save where he and his SugarDaddy Chairman are bringing a team all the way from the depths of non-league to try and win Premier League.

Loki Doki, on the other hand, turned the footballing world upside down by putting the Premier League Clubs into the Vanarama Conference and the Conference teams into the Premier League. The Championship teams into the League Two and League Two teams in the Championship. Can he build up his team to fight off Man U, Chelsea etc when they return to the Premier League?

YOU!

Yes, that’s right I want to thank you. For talking to me on Slack, for replying to me on Twitter, for leaving a comment on a YouTube video that explained why a tactic was broken, for taking the time to update your blog with how your savegame is going and every time you interacted with anyone on social media. The more we interact we can learn about the game, the more they learn about the game means we should be winning more and winning more at FM is awesome.