Tactics
The Dirty Half-Dozen; The 3-6-1(-0)
It’s 106 miles to the Bernabéu, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a dozen midfielders, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it.
Strikerless
The Kansas City Shuffle – Rise of the Shadowganche
In the past, we have mentioned the Withdrawn Targetman saga and detailed various tactics built around a deep-lying, playmaking targetman — Guido’s patented targetganche.
In their infinite wisdom, however, SI have not added any role like the targetganche to FM. So, we are still trying to think outside the box, to find ways to create fluid, incisive attacks which the opposition simply cannot stop.
In our quest to re-establish the glorious bastard that is the targetganche within the FM 20 Match Engine, we have uncovered a powerfully devastating setup, spearheaded by a new dark force; the Shadowganche!
(more…)
Strikerless
I Want To Take His Face…Off – Nicolas Cage Meets the FM 20 Beta
Nicolaj Bur wakes with a start. He was having that dream. Again…
A stranger’s barbed voice from the other side of the hotel bed, half asleep. “Bad dream, love?” A sigh, followed by a mumbled, half-hearted response. “Something like that.” A comforting pat on the arm.
What Nicolaj needs is a more sympathetic ear. Someone who understands him.
Strikerless
Taking Hipster Football From Six To Midnight
July 2030. Swedish-born, Manchester United supporter Hakan Telleus has just won the World Cup with his native Sweden, to follow on his 2026 triumph with the Dutch, and Champions League-winning campaigns at Malmö FF, Fiorentina and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
At the height of his career, no doubt, with club directors offering the dashing Swede a generous pay package and their most comely daughters in hopes of enticing him to sign on the dotted line.
Suffice to say; jaws hit the floor when Telleus announced that he would not be setting up shop in Manchester, Madrid, Paris or Munich, as many expected.
No, much to the delight of bookies everywhere, he was off to Yorkshire. To newly-promoted Leeds United. Worst of all, he had vowed to discard the Sacchi-inspired tactics that he had relied on thus far. Instead, he promised the angst-filled Yorkshire masses to play hipster football – hipster football of a calibre to cure erectile dysfunction throughout northern England and beyond.
From the depths of Telleus’ madness, glory would spring. Champions League titles at Leeds, Saint-Étienne, Stade de Reims and Eintracht Frankfurt. European Championship and World Cup glory with Greece in 2044 and 2046.
The method to his madness? Obscene quantities of grapefruit, an unhealthy dose of self-confidence, and a suite of tactics featuring a libero, two inverted wingbacks, and not a single striker.