Wingerless

Wingerless: Tactical Philosophy

Part 2 of the Wingerless Series

 

This is the second part of my wingerless series where I write about how I’ve challenged myself to play football manager without wingers nor to score or conceding from the dreaded cross.

As a Chelsea fan from about 2003 (queue the taunts), I got used to the gritty defensive style of the game where even conceding one goal is considered an ink stain on a white shirt. Unfortunately, in football manager, the defensive style which I love is a disaster to replicate. Sitting deeper and absorbing pressure, which is a hallmark of a defensive masterclass in real life, is just begging for trouble in football manager because of the match engine’s obsession with goals from crosses. I roughly estimate that between 70-80 percent of the goals conceded in football manager are from crosses especially if you don’t set up correctly to defend them. (more…)

By mcstraun, ago

Wingerless- Anti Crossing Philosophy

I once asked long time Football Manager enthusiasts Guido Merry on Twitter ‘How would you explain the role of the Defensive Forward’ to which he unsatisfactorily replied ‘don’t know, don’t use strikers’. Now call it making the most of few twitter characters, or call it rude but I ended up hypocritically doing the same thing on Reddit when a user asked me in a sub-thread about the use of wingers. To each his own I guess. Guido abhors strikers, and I loathe wingers. But why? You’d have to ask Guido or probably read his first ever football manager blog post, but here I’ll let you know why I call myself the Wingerless Manager.

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By mcstraun, ago

Wingerless (not quite strikerless)

First, an introduction

So you came onto Strikerless to read some brilliant tactical advice on the latest version of Football Manager. I can imagine your disappointment when you saw this… so, who am I? I’m 33, live in Sydney, Australia and have been playing FM since I was 18. I’m time poor these days so play FM Touch – the streamlined version of the full sim. It gives me all the tactical functionality without the “bloat” of the rest of the game. I also generally only play two saves – a first save with a strong club (this time it is Manchester United) that helps me develop a solid tactical base; and then a second save with a lesser known club.

Not quite strikerless

Ok, so Guido has been kind enough to let me publish some thoughts on my latest tactic for FM16 on his fantastic blog, Strikerless. Only thing is, well, I use a striker. I convinced him on the basis that the tactic was “wingerless” which would be a slight variance on the underlying theme of his blog – creating tactics that work even if you are deprived by a fairly commonly assumed role on the pitch. In my case, I am not using anyone in the ML/MR or AML/AMR slots.

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By theothergiggs, ago