FM24; Short Corner Love

Short corners remain a neglected aspect of the game despite a slew of improvements and innovations appearing to enhance the beautiful game. While they frequently frustrate stadium supporters when they fail to produce results, the perfect short corner kick routine can benefit any team by creating an overload before blasting the Read more…

A De Zerbi Fever-Dream

Brighton & Hove Albion have been the favourite team of offensive trainers since Roberto De Zerbi arrived and took control. De Zerbi’s Brighton team has become a joy to watch for football purists, with a heavy focus on positional play and rapid, complex passing. The team’s ability to transition from defence to Read more…

Changing Your Style During A Game

A well-defined tactical style is essential for a football manager since it provides a framework for the team’s performance and enables for effective communication and understanding among the players. A well-defined style allows the manager to create a unique identity and philosophy for the team, which benefits in recruiting and attracting players that fit the system. Having alternative styles and switching things up also makes sense.

TLDR; Download-links

I have debated whether or not to post this article. Should I offer a downloadable version of my tactics, just for people to generally ignore why they work in a specific way and complain to yours truly about their perceived lack of progress or success? Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to approach things with FM. If you’re getting more success from downloadable tactics and that feels fulfilling enough, then crack on. This article contains links to the latest formation of my “Riders (on the storm)” series of tactics, using both a deep and middle block in defence.

My Throw-In Setups For FM23

Set pieces in football, and thus in Football Manager, have received much attention and study. But what about the innocuous throw-in? Apart from when a team develops a long throw-in programme (see Delap, Rory, or last year’s trebuchet-styled throw-ins), it is largely ignored. This doesn’t do the humble throw-in justice, as they are essential to your Football Manager game.

Just throwing the ball somewhere willy-nilly not only robs you of a potential goalscoring opportunity (depending on your location, of course), but it also increases your risk of losing the ball and ending up on the wrong side of a devastating counter-attack. So again, throw-ins are far more important than you might think.

FM23 Beta Shortlist

Ever since Beta came out, I have been no-lifing FM23. I started with a game just to scout around. There is no attribute masking, every league is selected, so I can just look around. This isn’t even a fully fleshed-out blog post; it’s just a place where I can dump the shortlist and maybe some screenshots soon. Who knows. For now, enjoy the download.