HT - if you were starting again today...

[sufcintheprem]

...(and pretty much you have been taken over by al Fayed)....

What would you do?

Basically, I have a pretty decent albeit slightly ageing squad for VI level (star player below) and about £3.5m in the bank. My coach I also think is decent for this level (solid trainer, solid experience, inadequate leadership) and my stadium can take 40,000 which is usually enough for my 1816 members. i've always trained playmaking so that's where most of my potential and ability lie.

Anyway, this isn't a look at me thread because most active members on here have much better clubs. However, if you were I, what would you do to re-invigorate interest in Hattirck? Any training strategy you'd like to be starting but are too committed for? Anything, experimentally, you reckon could be a worthwhile long term investment?

To be honest, it can't get much worse than me just not doing anything so i thought I would see if anyone might have any bright ideas.



Brendan Allen
TSI = 6 700 , 20 years and 22 days, passable form
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities [Unpredictable]

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: outstanding Passing: inadequate
Winger: wretched Defending: inadequate
Scoring: inadequate Set pieces: disastrous

 

[MrB]

You could try what I'm doing and go for creating multiskilled players. I bought some young defenders, playmakers and strikers who all had inadequate or better wing. I now train wing attacks so you can train 9 or 10 players per week and slowly create wing backs, WTM's and FTW's. Multi skilled players are becoming more important and it also keeps the wage bill in check. These players will be worth much more in the future then single skilled behemoths with huge wages.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

B,

Talking about single-skilled behemoths, who's the England Youth Scout? My youth team keeper is 17 yrs and 41 days and pulled 8 stars the other week. My other defender is 16 yrs and 23 days and pulled 6.5* the other day...

Yours, seeing £££££ signs....

Matt

 

[MrB]

I would mail the manager of this team and he'll give you all the info you need:

Boltz Utd (64195)

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Multi-skilling is definitely the way forward.

Buy up 21yo players already trained up to supernatural in one position and train them up in a second position.

GKs now need defending, defenders now need playmaking, midfielders need passing and/or defence, wingers need playmaking, wing-backs need wing, forwards need passing and/or wing.

Defending might now be an interesting one to do. In particular few keepers will have any defending. Defence looks like becoming far more important in the match engine, so it looks like being very difficult to score against a 5 man defence.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Actually I reckon I would train play-making.

I'd buy 4 world class/supernatural 21 or 22yo defenders (at least one powerful and one with head specialities), 2 19/20yo WC/supernatural wingers and 3 x 19/20yo outstanding/brilliant forwards with technical speciality, preferably with passing and one 20yo brilliant PM.

You'd probably need about twice your current budget, but I'm assuming you could sell some of your existing players.

The 2 wingers you play on the wing in your league game and get 50% PM training. You play 1 of your defenders in midfield defensively, the other three in defence, you play 1 of your forwards in midfield as the extra IM, the other two up front. The brilliant PM In your cup game you play as the other midfielder. The two who played up front and the three who played in defence in midfield (two will have to play on the wings and will only get 50% training).

You'd struggle a little first season or two, but long term you'd be in an awesome position. Defensive forwards with technical speciality will be worth a fortune if they've got scoring and playmaking (they'd need some passing as well, but this is easier to train).

 

[sufcintheprem]

All duly noted. Let's see if these are enough to get me interested again....

also, is it worth setting up a Youth academy? I've only just noticed it!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

All duly noted. Let's see if these are enough to get me interested again....

also, is it worth setting up a Youth academy? I've only just noticed it!

Very much a long term thing. You won't get much out of it for 2 seasons or so, but I believe it will be preferable in the long term.

 

[sufcintheprem]

You'd probably need about twice your current budget, but I'm assuming you could sell some of your existing players.

I just had a quick scan and not going to get close to doubling up the budget with the current squad. If I creamed off the top 4 I reckon I'd take about £1.5m tops

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I just had a quick scan and not going to get close to doubling up the budget with the current squad. If I creamed off the top 4 I reckon I'd take about £1.5m tops

In which case I'd suggest starting off with 2 technical forwards, one defender, one IM and 1 winger and adding the rest in time when you've got the funds. In some ways its better to do it this way, as you won't weaken your exisitng midfield as you can play the two forwards and one defender in midfield in the friendlies, a that by the time you have enough money together to get all 10 players they will already be partly trained in PM.

You should be able to get 5 suitable players for around £4m. I'd strongly recommend buying English, even if you have to wait a bit longer to get the right players.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Had a quick look at your squad and you might as well hold onto Brendan Allen, Eric Adamson and Javier Genet next season. Keep training them in PM for your league games, but get in the defender, 2 technical forwards and the winger as previously suggested. They'll improve your team in the league and you can train them up as highly sought after multiskillers in your friendly/cup games which is a nice win-win scenario.

If you start playing twice a week (ie organising friendlies once you've been knocked out of the cup) you'll start reaping the benefits.

 

[* ORM *]

I'm sitting on the fence on the multiskill issue for the time being - not going into the new youth system never did me any harm and I suspect I can succesfully get by continuing to train defenders up to WC/Super or Titanic so it looks like I'll only be buying those with passing/playmaking at inadequate or better which will make them attractive enough to sell to a multiskill trainer. I'll gradually strengthen my squad with multiskilled players trained by others.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I'm sitting on the fence on the multiskill issue for the time being - not going into the new youth system never did me any harm and I suspect I can succesfully get by continuing to train defenders up to WC/Super or Titanic so it looks like I'll only be buying those with passing/playmaking at inadequate or better which will make them attractive enough to sell to a multiskill trainer. I'll gradually strengthen my squad with multiskilled players trained by others.

Its far too early to say that not going into the new youth system hasn't done you any harm. There is a two season transitional period in which you won't get any decent players come through. I haven't promoted any of my academy trainees yet, but I've players who are developing nicely, including a defender who is rated the third best defensive prospect in England.

As for multi-skill training, this is a must for mature teams if they are to progress. Once your whole team is around the world class/supernatural level you'll find it very difficult to progress unless you adopt a multi-skill training regime. Until that stage, mono-skilling will be viable.

 

[sufcintheprem]

Had a quick look at your squad and you might as well hold onto Brendan Allen, Eric Adamson and Javier Genet next season. Keep training them in PM for your league games, but get in the defender, 2 technical forwards and the winger as previously suggested. They'll improve your team in the league and you can train them up as highly sought after multiskillers in your friendly/cup games which is a nice win-win scenario.

If you start playing twice a week (ie organising friendlies once you've been knocked out of the cup) you'll start reaping the benefits.

Yeah, this has been the main downfall of not ever playing it properly. I only really had about 3/4 really promising players for my level but those not in the team every week have just gone nowhere.

 

[MrB]

Got some nice pops this week on my multi skillers:

Per Linin
TSI = 5 560 , 19 years and 97 days, solid form
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities [Quick]
Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: wretched
Winger: passable Defending: outstanding
Scoring: poor Set pieces: poor

Maurizio Maenza
TSI = 2 600 , 18 years and 62 days, passable form
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities
Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched Passing: poor
Winger: passable Defending: formidable
Scoring: wretched Set pieces: poor

Delfino Armanet
TSI = 53 300 , 24 years and 58 days, solid form
Has inadequate experience and weak leadership abilities [Unpredictable]
Stamina: excellent Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: passable Passing: passable
Winger: titanic Defending: wretched
Scoring: poor Set pieces: poor

YB - Armanet should pop in PM at next training, tempted to sell at that point and replace with someone more PM based to train up wing. Or do you think I should take him to E-T?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Got some nice pops this week on my multi skillers:

Per Linin
TSI = 5 560 , 19 years and 97 days, solid form
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities [Quick]
Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: wretched
Winger: passable Defending: outstanding
Scoring: poor Set pieces: poor

Maurizio Maenza
TSI = 2 600 , 18 years and 62 days, passable form
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities
Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched Passing: poor
Winger: passable Defending: formidable
Scoring: wretched Set pieces: poor

Delfino Armanet
TSI = 53 300 , 24 years and 58 days, solid form
Has inadequate experience and weak leadership abilities [Unpredictable]
Stamina: excellent Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: passable Passing: passable
Winger: titanic Defending: wretched
Scoring: poor Set pieces: poor

YB - Armanet should pop in PM at next training, tempted to sell at that point and replace with someone more PM based to train up wing. Or do you think I should take him to E-T?

I don't think training him to ET makes him any more attractive to potential buyers, so the only reason to take him up another level of wing would be if you needed him for this coming season.

Presumably you know what the standard is like in your new IV - do you reckon you need the extra wing or will the extra PM of a new player be more valuable?

He'd be an excellent player for a PM trainer.

 

[MrB]

Hard to say at the moment. I have £1.6m in the bank at the moment after selling a WC PM/solid wing for £1m. I'm looking to get another ET IM, which will give me three across the centre, hopefully that will be enough to give me a strong midfield. I think I'm going to need the attack ratings more so maybe I'll keep training for a while unless I can find an amazing English Wing/PM player in the meantime!

There's hardly any decent English players on the market at the moment.

 

[MrB]

Hmmm....

Carl Ferguson (128331954)
20 years and 62 days, passable form, healthy
A nasty fellow who is tranquil and honest.
Has wretched experience and passable leadership abilities.
Speciality: Quick

Next birthday: 22/12/2007
Nationality: England
Total Skill Index (TSI): 17 250
Wage: 2 520 £/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Lucky Loser Team

Stamina: excellent Goalkeeping: disastrous
Playmaking: outstanding Passing: wretched
Winger: outstanding Defending: weak
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: poor

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Hard to say at the moment. I have £1.6m in the bank at the moment after selling a WC PM/solid wing for £1m. I'm looking to get another ET IM, which will give me three across the centre, hopefully that will be enough to give me a strong midfield. I think I'm going to need the attack ratings more so maybe I'll keep training for a while unless I can find an amazing English Wing/PM player in the meantime!

There's hardly any decent English players on the market at the moment.

3 ETs in midfield?

Last season I had 2 titanics and a world class.
Mind you my wingers have world class and magnificent PM and I struggled in early weeks until I'd established a team spirit advantage.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Hmmm....

Carl Ferguson (128331954)
20 years and 62 days, passable form, healthy
A nasty fellow who is tranquil and honest.
Has wretched experience and passable leadership abilities.
Speciality: Quick

Next birthday: 22/12/2007
Nationality: England
Total Skill Index (TSI): 17 250
Wage: 2 520 £/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Lucky Loser Team

Stamina: excellent Goalkeeping: disastrous
Playmaking: outstanding Passing: wretched
Winger: outstanding Defending: weak
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: poor

Nice, very nice.

What is your training plan for the next few seasons?