Dear reader,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Guido, the proprietor of and the main author for Strikerless. I am a teacher at a secondary school, where I teach 12-16 year olds the finer intricacies of the Dutch language or try to do so anyway. The website you are currently viewing is my pet project, where I rave and rant about, as the name would suggest, strikerless formations, as well as strategies towards gameplay.

I have been writing about Football Manager for nearly fifteen years now. Initially, it was just scribbling down names of amazing players I had scouted into a notebook. Next came sharing these lists with people online. I loved the idea of exchanging ideas and thoughts about a game I enjoyed playing. I was one of those kids who scribbled line-ups and scouting lists in the sideline of his school notebooks.

After a while, I just moved on to other topics besides just scouting players. Initially, I just mucked around tactically and relied on signing superior players to win matches, which was a strategy that paid off pretty well. I got into tactics more and more and figured I should try and my thoughts on paper. It turned out some of my ideas worked out particularly well in the games, which stimulated me to write more and try to refine my style.

After writing for several websites, both in English and in my native tongue, which is Dutch, I eventually got a bit fed up with deadlines and admins telling me my ideas were too far-fetched to ever lead to proper articles and hits for the website, I took a two year sabbatical, which coincided with the release of FM Live. That game was truly amazing, it had everything. Real name players, random squads, a vivid in-game economy and you used to play live against other human managers.

During my FM Live tenure, I barely touched FM. I did start with blogging. I just ranted regarding the various flaws I encountered in the game and shared some of the strategies I used to be successful. After FM Live was shut down, I tried going back to writing for websites, but I never really got into it. I enjoyed the freedom my own blog offered. When FM14 came out, I decided I had enough ideas left I wanted to share, so I started Strikerless, after the style of play I enjoyed the most.

Anyway, as you may or may not have noticed from this horribly winded story, I have no background in web design, advertising or the English language. That means that there is always room for improvement on Strikerless. I’d be more than happy to hear your thoughts on how to improve the site and please feel free to point out any grammatical errors I may or may not have made. If you wish to enquire about collaborations, advertising opportunities or even hiring yours truly to write something especially for your site, again, I am all ears. Feel free to contact me using the contact form.

—Guido