retired_gwenlyn

How many of you get to the summer break, buy your new players and then hurriedly move to the start of the next season? If this sounds like you, you've been missing out on something to help you get the right start to your new league campaign.

The players I speak to tend to let their assistant manager arrange friendlies and manage the team for these friendlies. What I realised was that they did not get a good start to their league campaigns and it caused alot of frustration.

So, what you should think about doing is using the summer break to get the most feedback regarding your:

- team
- tactics
- scouts
- training

So, here is a simple way for average to high reputation teams to get the most out of the summer break.

1. Let the assistant take care of arranging friendlies, but you make sure that you manage the team for these games.
2. Arrange your own friendlies to supplement these. The best way is to arrange Tours. The best places to go on tour (to get good opposition, build morale and for chances of success in getting games arranged) are China, Brazil and U.S.A. In fact, I have all three tours each year and I do them in this order. China helps get them match fit, Brazil is a great test of the tactics, and U.S.A. is a way to build their morale just in case the Brazil trip costs a few morale points.
3. At the end of each half, swap the team fully so that the full squad gets some match practice.
4. Have the scouts assess each new opposition. You'll learn alot from the way the scouts describe the teams, their formations and tactics. Note that this is especially really useful before the start of each new season because with luck, your reputation should be growing and it is a very good indication of how teams will play against you in the forthcoming season. The same teams from these nations will play very differently against you each year due to this reputation increase.

By the start of the new campaign you should be able to have played the 3 tours (with 4 teams in each one) and a few additional games that your assistant will have arranged. This is the best way to hit the ground running fo the start of the season. And in fact, you'll notice that you will have some extraordinary results at the start of the season due to your team being in prime condition.

It's worth the effort.

:cool: