retired_mugdozer

amack1n,

thank you again, and again you're correct, it's hard to say what someone would hve done differently without knowing at least some important details. I should have said "all things being equal" since there are so many variables involved.

As you assumed, I was more interested if my reasoning was right (ie. playing on a smaller pitch, with the scouting report what it was and with the strength of my team (I think!) being my defenders down the middle.

You guys have no idea just how informative and helpful all these tips and critiques are. I cannot say that enough. If it weren't for you and amaroq's emails while trying the demo, I would probably not have stuck with it, simply due to the overwhelming about of information I had both process and understand.

I'm definitely concentrating much more on MY team and what they can and cannot do, but in the next few matches, I plan on doing some more scouting of my opponents, to see what their stregnths and weaknesses are too, and also looking a bit into the training module.

In regards to the training though, I think I'll start with the youth team training, since with only 1 player worth keeping there, if I mess it up, it won't be that big of a deal for my club on the whole.

I'm also in the search for a better assman and coaches, especially since I'm going to be relying on them for my tactics and most of my gameday lineups for the foreseeable future, and learn the tactics by watching my games and tweak them during a match to see some cause and effects.

I did a staff search, but I think I'll be placing an advert as well, at least for the assman. As for the coaches, I'll do what I did for scouts, that is instead of looking for someone with strong numbers across the board who will likely be too expensive to sign, I'll try to find 2 coaches that complement the assman and each other, so that it will almost have the effect of giving me one good coach. My GK coach is strong enough to survive the purge.

In regards to subs, I'll definitely go through my squad and make sure I have enough utility players to cover most if not all positions, while also allowing me to change to a more offensive or defensive setup, depending on game conditions. Being a lower league team, I have a hunch that some if not most of my subs will have to be younger players (since they're less expensive), which will also allow me to groom them slowly giving them actual match time in senior games.

More to come, I'm sure!

retired_mugdozer

As a follow up to Rathen's question, would going with a 15 man squad, and keeping most of the younger players on the reserve squad, making them available for senior games a week at a time (on a rotating basis) keep them happier rather than promoting and demoting them on a rotating basis from senior to reserve squad? My thinking would be that this way, since they are not being demoted or worse, yoyoed up and down, they might see it as a reward only.

Also by not having a larger squad, the younger players who would then be placed on the reserve squad, would benefit by playing in the reserve games as opposed to possibly stagnating their development on the senior bench.

Or, as usual, am I just blowing smoke here?

retired_kbeth

You can keep players in the reserves (or youth) team and still play them in first team football. I don't know if doing that instead of calling a player up to the first team before demoting him will be better on his morale. I assume there would be little to no difference.

And you're spot on about giving the youngsters game. As you said, having them play regular reserve matches gives them much more match practice and helps their development than having them watch the first team from the bench.

"In regards to the training though, I think I'll start with the youth team training, since with only 1 player worth keeping there, if I mess it up, it won't be that big of a deal for my club on the whole."

Evn though it's your first proper game, I'd suggest doing all the training schedules at once for two reasons. Firstly, it's very difficult to actually get it wrong and secondly, any time spent on the default sessions is time wasted.

Training schedules are the main part of the game which can (and should) be saved and used on every game you start. Below is how I arrange my training.

Goalkeeper Training - Concentrate on Goalkeeping, aerobic and strength. Also have some tactics and ball control. Leave the rest empty.

Defence - Aerobic, strength and defending. Also have some on tactics, ball control, set pieces and attacking. I leave shooting and goalkeeping empty

Midfield - Lots of strength and aerobic, with a medium amount of shooting, passing and defending. Also, a small amount on tactics, set pieces and ball control with no goalkeeping

Striker - Lots of strength, aerobic, attackin and shooting, with some on tactics, ball control and set pieces.

That isn't a definitive guide, but it's how I do things

Also, there are different types of training schedule; full time, part time and youth. This affects how much training the players can actually do. For example, part time has less time for training than full time, so you obviously can't have as much training. You'll have to decide which attributes are still being trained and aren't. For each schedule, I always aim to have the workload bar 1 notch below "high"

Enjoy :cool:

retired_mugdozer

Thanks for the training tips, I will certainly take your advice and redo the training for all squads. Do you think I can still use my youth training for more of a proving ground to see how certain tweaks would work, or it that just a waste of time and make them all similar?

I know there are a bunch of tip in the tactics and training forum, but I'd like to give it a shot doing it myself and just getting basic ideas from there or I'll nver learn it properly.

Was just going through my squad, checking to see how my subs lined up in terms of positions and multiple positions and it looks like I'll be looking around for some back line subs ASAP, and trying to move some of my more offensive minded reserves, since I have a plethora of those and I don't think I need to waste too many roster spots or money for that matter on THAT much depth. Right now I have a total roster of 31 players(snr and res) and I think I won't go much past that number to keep everything managable.

So that's the short term plan, maybe get another game in or 2 tonight, but it will mainly be trying to improve my coaches and assman, finding the right subs I need to round out my senior roster and trying to figure out a training regimen!

Thanks again, and as always, any and all help is welcome!

retired_taustin

Sorry to further confuse this matter, but this isn't technically true. Most referees will have the common sense to wait until an attack is over before ending the match, but it not a requirement in the laws of the game. The referee is free to stop the match at any time, even before the time he initially indicated he would be adding on.

A good example of this is the 1978 World Cup Finals, where the referee ended the match a fraction of a second before Brazil scored an goal that would have given them a 2-1 win over Sweden.

Brazil went on to finish second in their group on goals scored, which meant they had Argentina in their semifinal group. Argentina went on to have that controversial 6-0 win over Peru which put them in the final over Brazil on goal difference.

That ref, Clive Thomas, never officiated in another match for FIFA!

retired_mugdozer

Chas,

thanks for the clarification, it's tidbits like this help me get a better grasp of how and what I'm messing up!

retired_taustin

No problem mate.

I'm a state referee in the USSF, and it's one of the first things we're taught when we discuss "Law 18", Common Sense (there is no Law 18 in the actual rule book. We just call "Common Sense" Law 18 because it's the "unwritten rule" of football).

retired_w0lfpack1

From what I read of your tactical situation - on a narrow pitch, against a team that's better attacking through the middle than through the wings, I'd have done it the other way around: clog the middle, and push them out to the wings *based on the opposition*. This would work best if I felt my fullbacks outclassed their wingers, and my central defenders had better Jumping/Heading/Positioning stats than their strikers.

On the other hand, what you were doing sounds like it worked - playing to your strengths and taking advantage of the fact that the narrow pitch naturally clogged things somewhat anyways. And it worked, period, which is better than anything I can tell you "in theory".

Regarding your substitutions, it sounds like by the end of the match you were in a 5-5-0 formation - sweeper plus four defenders, five midfielders including WBL, DMC, and WBR. That would be called a "Park The Bus" tactic. ("Park the team bus in front of the goal"). Its certainly effective for defending a late lead, but I wouldn't want to count on it for more than 5 minutes against a relatively even opponent, or more than 10-12 minutes against an opponent which outclasses me.

If you give anybody too much time, they will eventually find a way through - even if it stems from a corner kick, free kick, or throw-in.

I'd rather "Keep them honest" with a counter-attacking threat, maybe a 4-5-1 with a pacey striker and players using Direct passing to get it up into space for him to run onto. A lot of times you can catch people out overcommitting to the attack .. and I'd rather defend a 2-0 lead than a 1-0 lead any day.

Regarding tactics, I suggest you save tactics frequently - for example, if you felt your "Force them to the middle" 4-4-2 worked for that purpose, save it off so that you can use it again the next time you come upon a similar situation. Same with your "Park the Bus" 5-5-0; I've definitely got one of those saved myself.

At any point in the game - either the pre-match buildup or the 63rd minute, or whatever - you can then load the saved tactic.

There can be UI problems with that, for example if the "DR" slot on one formation maps to a "SC" slot on another formation and you fail to notice, leaving your fullback up front for a few minutes.. or if the "individual instructions" you give to players are different enough that you'd rather keep the individual instructions for everybody else and just deal with adjusting the one player you're moving... do whatever is comfortable for you.

On the "tactics" front, I don't think of "any time spent on the default sessions is time wasted" the way amack1n does.. that used to be the case with, for example, FM'05, but the FM'07 defaults were decent enough. You'll obviously get more out of training players to do exactly what you're asking them to do tactically, but the '07 defaults weren't an utter waste of time.

retired_mugdozer

Amaroq,

thanks for the critique, and you're right, I did do things bass-ackwards overall, but the way my reasoning went was that, my middle defenders were much stronger than my wings, and with the pitch clogged up, that would play into my strength. To put in in a baseball analogy, I was a fastball pitcher against a fastball hitter, and if he was going to beat me, it would be on my best pitch.

Thanks also for the advice about keeping them honest with a least one offensive player until much later in the match and especially about saving tactics, although for now I'm just using the different preset ones and not touching individual or team instructions yet. It'll take time before I get the total hang of it, but thanks to everyone's help, I'm muddling along!

I do have another question, but I'll post it in a new post so it won't get lost here!

retired_w0lfpack1

Fair enough - and to your credit it worked, and well. Your reasoning is sound; that's why I put the caveats I did on my counter-argument: if I felt my outside play was strong, and my aerial play would dominate their crosses.