retired_lydia shalaby

Oh another thing.....

I have two scouts...both pretty high in the potential ability and current skills dept (19 in each for one, and 20 and 19 in the other) or something like that, in fact i think they might be equal. One of em gives details like will fail for work permit, and the other doesnt. I havent figured out why that is.

retired_w0lfpack1

NICE, bet that felt good!

Remember, what you're doing tactically is putting your guys in a position to "get lucky" against the better side - like I said, keep it 0-0 for 70 minutes, and then either side can get a 'lucky goal' to take home three points.

Re: your striker's demands .. keep talking to him. His demands will fluctuate over the season, and your board's offer will fluctuate .. so you might find them closer to meeting at some point.

Also, remember you can set up "odd" contracts, say 25k plus a huge bonus, plus a per-appearance fee and a big goal bonus, or something .. it may not be what he's asking for, but it may be enough for him to accept it. Be creative, his "demand" isn't the only contract that he'll decide to accept.

Yeah, keep an eye on the 2-passing guy, it might be worth trying to sell him on at a profit, if possible. I don't know of a way to control who from your back four takes the free kicks - maybe send him to "Go Forward"?

Gera/Koumas plan sounds pretty good, though remember that you can play them both together when you need a good veteran "spine", like to get out of a losing streak.

Repairing the damage done to the youngster, I can't say. It is certainly possible to get him back on the track to improve. Its also possible to do irreparable damage. So, I'd say treat him like any other young player - playing time, loans-out, tutoring - and watch for further signs of trouble/improvement.

Regarding the DC you don't want to sell... yeah, the AI seems to "inquire" too often, bit of a bug in my opinion, as you'll get the same team asking over and over for the same player. Best you can do is mark him "Unavailable" and set his "Asking price" really high, but even that doesn't slow it down much.

Other attributes - Determination, Adaptability, etc - have impact for the scouts, not just the two "Judging" attributes.

About the Cups: in a typical England setup, 7 teams qualify for Europe. Order is important:

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Premiership finishers 1-4 qualify for the Champions League.
<LI>F.A. Cup winner qualifies for the UEFA Cup.
- If the F.A. Cup winner already qualified for the C.L., then the runner-up qualifies for the UEFA Cup
- If runner-up also qualified for C.L., then the next-best Premiership finisher qualifies for the UEFA Cup.
<LI>Next-best Premiership finisher qualifies for the UEFA Cup.
<LI>League Cup winner qualifies for the UEFA Cup.
- If winner has already qualified for the UEFA Cup, then the next-best Premiership finisher qualifies for the UEFA Cup.</UL>

So the statement "If I get into the finals, I will move on to the Euro Cup" is not quite correct .. it can be true, but is not guaranteed.

retired_lydia shalaby

Good thoughts there Amaroq.

And thanks for claryfying about the UEFA cup. That is something that is intriguing; not just in game, but now i can see football being a year round sport pretty much.

Will have to take a look at my scouts and see what they have to say stat wise in terms of the stats you mentioned. Might explain a lot. I am having the scouts now travel the world. One is in E. Europe, another S. America, N. America...you get the picture.

i jsut finished August in first of the premiere division. Won all three games, by 1 point each. And am the only undefeated team so far. So things are looking up.

in terms of the youngster, he is now my 1st team goalie...will see what he does. but all my reports say he has the potential to become a first class act. So we shall see. His points are decent to begin with so am not too worried. Especiallys ince i have a capable backup.

Also the weak passing DR, i am going to hang on to him. His base attributes, physical is just great, also anticipation, tackle, work rate are all 16+ (higher just lowballing off the top of my head). So things are looking up...and man. I am TOOO Addicted to this game. Shame on you SI! SHAME!

retired_Merle L. Thomas

This may not be the safest way to play it: Other clubs may still make offers for your "Unavailable" player; it'll just be rejected automatically, and that rejection can upset the player! I'm not sure if this has changed since 7.0, because I've been avoiding the situation for a while. You can always just ignore the enquiries, and negotiate ridiculous numbers when offers come in-- the AI rarely gives you a non-negotiable offer out of the blue.

I think there's some hidden stuff going on too. The sign that I look for in a good scout is how many reports he can file in a day: three is bad, four is average and five is good. This may not correlate to any actual ability but it seems to work for me. Another unproven conjecture: Sending your scouts to countries where they speak the native language will yield better results in terms of finding players. (Here's where high Adaptability would make sense as an alternative.)

And it's possible to get even more clubs in. Umm, somewhere around March 15th or so, you'll be asked if you want to apply for the Euro Vase-- go for it. It's a shot at the UEFA cup if you finish around 8-10th. I like to explain the European competitions as analogous to the college basketball tournaments that have just finished up. The winner of every league gets into the Champions League (NCAA finals) along with all the really good teams from the big countries, and the UEFA Cup is like the NIT.

Oh, and a few posts previous:
For what it's worth, if a guy skips training it is usually your fault! He's unhappy, probably because you aren't playing him. You still may want to get rid of him. Duh, right? You're not playing him for a reason. You may be able to make him happier by playing him more regularly if you really want to keep him. I've seen this happen when I've put an injured player in the reserves and forgotten him by the time he was healthy again. Oops.

retired_w0lfpack1

Congrats on the unbeaten month, and the addiction, newcastles.

I'll defer to bzl on the Unvailable question.

I think there's some hidden stuff going on too. The sign that I look for in a good scout is how many reports he can file in a day: three is bad, four is average and five is good. </BLOCKQUOTE>
I think that correlates to Determination.

Yep - native country is best, of course, countries with high knowledge and/or a shared language are a benefit; high Adaptability is a virtual requirement in the absence of the first three.

What a perfect analogy! I so wish I'd thought of it!!!

Yes and no - a "professional" mentality player won't act out by missing training, even if he's unhappy with you.

So, I figure if he starts acting up, etc, even if the cause is my fault, I'd rather see the backside of him than try to cater to his whims.

I guess I take a bit of a "my way or the highway" approach but part of that is my increasing sense that the mental aspects are the most influential part of the game in its last two or three incarnations.

retired_lydia shalaby

Thank you BZL, explanation makes sense in terms of the leagues above the Premiere league (the UEFA CUP). I always saw the result of those, but honestly i never paid attention to it simply because, i was never in it. Hopefully i can get there this season. Oh i managed to sim to about mid sept. Am still unbeaten. 12 points. So things are looking good. And when does this cup begin?

Those additions i made, are FUN to watch, especially the young winger. I have seen him try some pinpoint passes. he can only get better. 20 years old though, so he still has some growth. The sad thing is i saw his condition drop to about 82 in a game, and i wanted to relieve him. about 15 minutes was left and i was up 3-1. Anyway, one of my veterans got hurt, and is out for about 1 month.

Also, it seems as if my players are playing better. I am seeing them do spins around defenders now. And also, the additions are helping break down the defense a lot more. I am seeing them penetrate a lot more into the keeper area. So that has pleased me. Another thing that i think i noticed, that veterans respond better to your talks saying (I expect a win) vs. the rookies.

I can really see the quality difference in the stats in terms of dribbling, anticipation and teamwork.

Also in terms of the people who were unhappy, i am trying to get them playing time. I got rid of the main troublemaker, since he wasnt going to add anything to the team anyway. There are still 2-3 who might pipe up, but i am really trying to revolve the rotations this time around.


Questions:

1. Playing youth - the 20 year old who i mentioned, i fully intend on playing him a lot, will that hurt his development. Well the scheme i have developed is that i rotate players from positions every other game. If its a big game, i will play em twice in a row. I really am trying to rotate them as much as possible.

2 - Youth and Reserve team - do i have to worry about teams being fielded in the reserves and youth league. I mean if they dont have enough players to fill out all 11 spots...will that cause problems. or lets say i dont have a DC, or mid left, will that be a problem? Will they still field a full team?

3. The bottom bar, that ebbs and flows...is that possession or is that momentum?

4. Training players for another position - does that take away from their schedule you have set up for them?

5. I am probably going to have my transfer money left over by the end of the season. is that a good thing or bad? I dont envision on spending any money on any new transfers yet. I already am pretty stuffed in terms of salary space (have about 25K room. And really my main need will be in the GK i think, and if any good prospects (well also i think a MR, and DL, and GK, will be high on my list). I really need salary room more than anything else. I

6. What condition do you usually sub people. And i am assuming, that the mroe peoples condition goes down, the more it affects their playing skill?


Also, i noticed that the Manchester and Roma game is on ESPN 2 here...so i am going to watch it, to see what i can glean from it. I swear the more you understand the game (meant footbal in real life)...ie tactics and what not, the more appealing it is to me. I can get more joy, because i understand it more how it works really, i mean i did play it as a kid, but that was a long time ago. I mean understanding the formations, and the tactics from the game, helps me understand it better.

retired_w0lfpack1

Congrats on the still-unbeaten run, sounds like morale is great!

UEFA Cup - winning the League Cup in March of 2008 would qualify you for a UEFA Cup that starts in July of 2008 and has its Final in May of 2009. So its kind of "in paralell with" the League in that sense. Winning that UEFA Cup in 2009 would qualify you for inter-continental competitions in fall of 2009.

Quality difference - yeah, it really is entertaining to "watch" the top talent at work in the game.

When I first picked up FM'05, I started with a Conference North team, and I honestly thought "Oh, god, the game is badly broken" when I saw some of the poor play .. nope, not badly broken, just extremely poor quality players. When I got further up the league pyramid, it started looking better and better, more and more like "real football".

It can be really exciting to watch some of the players, especially imagining what they're doing if you watch a replay down near the slowest settings you'll see things like "He fakes towards the by-line, the defender lunges that way, then he cuts it back behind the defender, setting it up for his preferred right foot, and smashes it goal-ward...." Its brilliant!

Playing youth - So, I followed your '50-50' instruction to the T one season, in the Premiership at about the level you are, with two right backs. One was 19, the other 21. Late in the season, I started noting a dip in their attributes, and then my coaches reported that one was "Feeling the pressure of public expectations". I swapped him out, starting the other in the next match - and immediately got the report that he, too, was "Feeling the pressure .."

I began rotating in a third player - a 35-year-old vet if I recall rightly - and playing them every 3 matches instead of every 2, and saw them get right back on the 'improvement' track.

So, I'm guessing that 40% was about the right 'rotation' for a first-year starter in the 19-21-year-old range.

The following year, I chose one as the 'winner' of the battle for position, and started him about 60% of the games, with the other on 40%; that worked well, with both improving and neither 'feeling pressure'; the player seeing more playing time improved more.

The following season, I went to about 70%-30%; the starter continued to improve while the backup seemed to have plateaued.

So, yes you can overplay him. However, you can also underplay him. So, its a 'sweet spot' situation which may differ from player to player.

It also seemed like there was no "long term damage" from over-playing him, though SI have posted that you can crush a guy's self-confidence, or give him an over-inflated sense of himself, etc., through the events that happen to him in his youth.

Youth and Reserves - no, the game will use "grey" players to fill them out if you don't have enough players, and in fact it does it by position, so if you have 20 reserve players but none of them are competent to play ML, it will instantiate a grey ML for you. Of course, its not a *good* thing to have greys playing, as that's "minutes of playing time" which you could have invested in improving one of your young players that are instead going to waste, but its not super-crucial.

Bottom bar - posession.

Training players to a new position - yes, it detracts. Think of it in a very simplified version for a moment: if the player is learning '5 points per month', training them in a new position might spend 2 points on the new position, leaving them 3 to improve attributes with; if you weren't retraining them, they'd have had 5 to improve attributes with. (Its more complex than that, but I think that's a good mental model for it.)

Transfer money at end of season - it doesn't "Roll over"; the board will calculate a new transfer budget from your balance, profit, and expectations every June 22nd. So, its neither good nor bad to have transfer budget left over. Yeah, you haven't spent everything they let you .. but its likely that either they'll keep letting you spend it or, if they cut it back, that you made a good choice by not splashing it all out.

Condition - yep, the lower it goes the worse they'll play. You'll notice it both in shots losing accuracy, players visibly losing speed, and even seeming to 'walk' at places where you're urging them to run. I think of anything under 70% as "requiring" substitution, and am likely to sub off my three most tired players regardless of condition between 60 and 75 minutes.

Re: Manchester v Roma, I fullly agree. (p.s., some people will watch on tape delay, so no "spoiling" the result in forum without a SPOILER tag in your topic...)

I think a lot of the American antipathy towards 'soccer' - e.g., Jim Rome, et.al - comes from thinking of it without any sophistication or understanding about the game. The more I learn about it, the more I enjoy it, and its to my everlasting dismay that I turned that corner around 1996... missing the World Cup in my own country by just two years or so.

retired_lydia shalaby

IN terms of the UEFA Cup Oh my goodness. I didnt realize that such a super league (dont mind the wording) existed...international Competition...oy vey oy vey oy vey...i will get demolished if i even get in it! But am sure the revenue stream will be nice. Man oh man, also my reserves arent even decent enough to sustain that, if i get that far this year. Am sure the cash will be good though.

Gotcha on the youth i will have to rotate him heavily, not only for the short term but also the long term.

In terms of subs, i usually dont play any subs, unless i notice an injury, bad quality of play. But i think i might have to do that more often.

Also about the training in a new position. Gonna have to lay low on that. Since i was training a good amount of people in different positions, to kind of cover myself. I might have to lay off it.

Also good to know about the transfer, i think i had that answered earlier...i tend to be tightfisted with the cash. but i also figure if i am saving the club money overall, it might help in the long run, since i dont want to be frivolous with my budgets.

I think a large part of the antipathy is on the fact that football is not widely played overall...i mean growing up, yes you have the youth leagues...but as adults you are more apt to play touch football, or basketball.

Also, there are no major leagues (well, the MLS is relatively young, what 10 years about?) and i think it needs to firmly estrablish itself. Just based on my own thinking. I think it can grow, since it does compete with baseball during the summer. And i honestly think that baseball is on a steep decline (very slow moving sport overall, very bad funding in terms of NY yankees being able to spend at will, i am a firm proponent of qa salary cap to maintain equilibrium)&gt; in addition to it being slow moving, i think the pace of society (communications, instant entertainment) are going to propel people into more of a fast paced sport. The main ones being basketball, american football (which is the behemoth) and i think to football as well. It needs time though a lot of time to grow in america though. Also Jim Rome is uhm, a tool, i really cant stand watching anything he is on, nor his radio programs...he's just lame, really. I have a strong distaste for him really. I honestly dont think he brings anything to the table.

Again thanks for the advice.

retired_w0lfpack1

Heh, well the "Super League" is certainly Champions League, and I'd expect you to get dumped out in fairly short order if you reached it this year.

However, the UEFA Cup is going to include teams from all over - and you should easily be able to handle the Estonian champions, for example, or the brave lads from Leictenstein. Yeah, if you found yourself up against the fifth-placed team from Germany you'd be in for a stern challenge, but with the luck of the draw you might be able to avoid them at least long enough to make it through the "Group stages". I do think its a fun and realistic goal for you over this season and the next to at least consider .. of course it depends on how the season's going, you don't want to 'throw away' your league placing to try and qualify via a Cup, but if you can afford it in terms of squad depth ..

Subs - wow. I'm almost religious about subbing in three every match. Some guys swear by only making two subs - that way if your goalie gets hurt or red-carded with ten minutes to play, you're not utterly hosed - but I don't keep a sub in reserve.. (except in Cup matches where extra-time is a possibility, I usually look to my subs between the 80th and 100th minute in that case.)

In particular, if you have a pacey-but-not-over-talented young player, bringing him off the subs bench is a way to match him up against tired players (emphasizing his speed) and get him valuable playing time without putting the pressure of a 'start' on him.

I also find that when I'm ahead by a goal, having a super-fast striker to bring off the bench can be very devastating: I go to a counter-attacking long-ball game, and he tears up the tired defense, taking advantage of the risks the trailing team has to take at that stage.

As always, you're welcome. I'm seriously thinking of doing up this thread as a hints-and-tips guide to cross-post over to TT&T, as I think we've covered all of the major non-tactical points I would want to teach! But each time I think that, you ask another great question. Or six.

retired_HustleHard

I must say that even though I don't usually venture to these parts of the forum anymore I have really enjoyed reading the tales of your trials and tribulations. Keep up the good work and every yank converted to the beautiful game is :thup:.

To answer a small question for you. The UEFA cup is, at least these days, alot less glamourous than the Champions League. (In the game the UEFA cup is called the EURO Cup, not sure what the Champs League is called licensing issues I think). Alot of the teams in the competiton are poor quality, teams that would struggle to earn 10 points in the English Premiership. There are alot of good teams in it still, mainly from the bigger footballing nations notably England, Spain, Italy and to a lesser extent Germany then holland, portugal and belgium and france.

The Champions League however, especially after the group stages will be increadibly tough seeing you face the best of Europe.

Should you win one of these competions you will play a small tournement against winners of similar competitions aroudn the world, although not much attention is paid to these competitions other than friendly pride and small financhial gain, at least not from european clubs.