Subject: The Unawaited Return

Welcome Back mate!

We had so many epic battles in the past.. Hoping to possibly re-create them again in the future!

Oh man, where to begin.

Achmid/Graeme - Shame you're on the way out mate. I noticed the Soul's been on the wrong end of a few hidings lately. At least you've kind of planned for a hiatus. The prospect of a new team would probably sway you enough to come back, but after reading the posts in the A-League thread it's rather daunting. I look forward to the cursing.

Cometer - So I got 5 juniors in on Saturday and thought, since I know this game so well, I'll hire my VG youth coach after Saturday but before Thursday. I was the lucky recipient of 5 Tragic juniors. I'm assuming come Thursday my coach will have a good look at them all and realise they're all super talented as they manage to pop up to 5 levels in one week! With the randomness of the new system in terms of talent, how long do you usually keep your juniors and what sort of minimum levels do you maintain? I guess more succinctly, just how inaccurate will my coach's first few predictions about them be? Perhaps asking A-League teams with magical youth coaches may not be the most applicable, but it will at least give me some sort of idea.

fantum - thank you, and when I can afford it I may just decide to change it to something less appalling.

snowy - thanks heaps mate. Chrome's looking brilliant for browsing and scrolling around. Can now scroll down a good while and still click (tap/touch) links as per normal. Unfortunately Chrome has no flash capabilities so I'm still going to be chopping and changing browsers. None of them allow to edit tactics though :(

Vivski - Indeed I did. I'm leaning that way myself at this stage, although the prospect of training midfielders might prove too alluring. Realistically though I may just train pace for an indefinite time until a reasonable youth pull comes around.

I'm delighted to hear you're a Victory member mate! I still get down to plenty of Roar games each year. I've got every final they've played at Suncorp of course. I haven't managed to make an away trip though. It's been a relatively lean few years for the A-League but as attendances and finances can stay relatively consistent and secure it still looks pretty bright. The standard of players has drastically improved over its lifespan, and the type of football being played now is just miles ahead of Seasons 1-3. Hopefully we're in for a solid, consistent season without too much drama or financial problems. It really isn't far away from cementing its place permanently in the professional sporting landscape.

Minkee - Thank you, I'll be requesting you return the favour when called upon Mr Moderator :D. Still surfing?

Tigermaster/Adam - Thanks mate. I don't think I'll be able to recreate a contest for a long while, unless we're trying to recreate all of the FM15 > Roar landslides haha. Good to see you're still responsible for half the Australian backline!

Okay now that we've got the niceties out of the way, I'm going to post up the 'team' I've pieced together so people can berate my lack of nous and ability haha. Seriously though, I'm after honest feedback on what you think I should be trying to do with training and how I can shape my team for the future. I've posted up the transfer fee I paid for each player so I'd lvoe to hear a 'bargain' or 'robbed' or 'not worthwhile signing' type of comment where possible.

Firstly, a couple of questions/points.

Has the new match engine that people are vehemently complaining about in Sokker International (I swear this sounds exactly like every other match engine change haha) drastically changed the way you all create tactics? Are there any little hints and tips that are widely known already and may be relayed in this forum without jeopardising an A-League title? Any interesting/crucial tactical positioning information?

I was flabbergasted after seeing my players knock the ball ahead of them to run onto. Generally this proved to be less successful than I anticipate they'd envisioned. I'm not sure though, they may already hate me. The game has quite a few little differences but that was probably the biggest. What dictates their decision to do this? Is it playmaking? I know they were talking about increasing the impact playmaking of on the match in general, so is that quite pronounced? It seemed noticeable to me but I've only really watched a couple of matches so I'm looking for clarification here.

Are the previously commonly accepted rules of tech/def still commonly accepted rules? Will a Solid defender be able to tackle a player with Excellent technique front on almost every time (not including form here and assuming pace levels are fairly similar)? Should I be expecting an Excellent defender to tackle a striker with Good tech from behind 9.5/10 times?

I'll probably have more questions/comments to annoy you all with as I get back into it all properly, but for now you can assume that I've assumed most of the old (current at my time of last playing) assumptions to still hold true when slapping together this team and tactic. So here's the club:

Head Coach:
Josip Hayden, age: 39
wage: 9 560 AU$
club: Total Football FC, country: Australia,
weak coach
Training effectiveness as head coach:
unearthly of stamina poor of keeper
poor of pace unsatisfactory of defender
weak of technique poor of playmaker
hopeless of passing unsatisfactory of striker

Youth Coach:
Tristan Stergiopoulos, age: 58
wage: 10 960 AU$
club: Total Football FC, country: Australia,
very good coach
Training effectiveness as head coach:
very good of stamina hopeless of keeper
very good of pace average of defender
incredible of technique outstanding of playmaker
outstanding of passing formidable of striker

Assistants:
Dheran Bright, age: 48
wage: 2 520 AU$
club: Total Football FC, country: Australia,
average coach
Training effectiveness as head coach:
average of stamina good of keeper
adequate of pace average of defender

Nick Grubb, age: 38
wage: 10 000 AU$
club: Total Football FC, country: Australia,
solid coach
Training effectiveness as head coach:
very good of stamina tragic of keeper
solid of pace solid of defender
incredible of technique brilliant of playmaker
excellent of passing adequate of striker
weak of technique average of playmaker
weak of passing good of striker

Stephen Steele, age: 66
wage: 7 360 AU$
club: Total Football FC, country: Australia,
solid coach
Training effectiveness as head coach:
good of stamina poor of keeper
solid of pace excellent of defender
excellent of technique excellent of playmaker
poor of passing incredible of striker

Players:
Dheran Allen, age 23
value: 154 400 AU$
wage: 2 040 AU$
very good form
poor stamina tragic keeper
average pace average defender
good technique weak playmaker
solid passing very good striker

Default player. Pretty handy to have really. I'm playing him as an MC/AMC at the moment and I'll give him pace training when the time comes.

Janusz Bobola , age 21
value: 143 600 AU$
wage: 2 000 AU$
poor form
very good stamina tragic keeper
adequate pace solid defender
good technique adequate playmaker
adequate passing good striker
Transfer Fee: $7 000

Pretty happy to have picked him up. He's 21, but well rounded and 7k. Will obviously give him pace training when the time comes. He's (sadly) slotting in at defensive mid at the moment. That's the one spot I'm probably looking to splurge on. Depends on feedback though. Anyway, he'll do a job anywhere.

Ismail Bolero , age 20
value: 125 200 AU$
wage: 2 080 AU$
poor form
tragic stamina hopeless keeper
adequate pace excellent defender
adequate technique weak playmaker
weak passing poor striker
Transfer Fee: $14 000

He seemed young and trainable and had a reasonable enough pm/tech combo for me to take a punt. Won't be seeing much game time because of his stamina, but he'll be getting trained in it for a few weeks and then get the pace.

Gelar Bunce, age 19
value: 126 800 AU$
wage: 1 920 AU$
adequate form

weak stamina tragic keeper
unsatisfactory pace solid defender
good technique weak playmaker
good passing good striker

Default player, 19 years old. He cost me nothing and I plan to train pace. I'll call this one a win. He's backup until [if] he learns to run

Moisés Carrario , age 20
value: 169 600 AU$
wage: 2 480 AU$
weak form

adequate stamina hopeless keeper
solid pace very good defender
average technique good playmaker
adequate passing good striker
Transfer Fee: $55 000

He was quite pricey and has some fairly low tech. But I really needed a bloke who had enough stamina, pace and defending who could do a job for me straight away AND be trainable. He's it, and I'm happy enough. I think?

Damian Chang, age 28
value: 133 600 AU$
wage: 1 880 AU$
solid form

weak stamina tragic keeper
solid pace solid defender
good technique adequate playmaker
average passing tragic striker

A default. Until such time he occupies a potential training spot (probably soon), I'm chalking this guy down as a win too. I'll probably just have him around for agessss as a backup.

Mateusz Cichacki , age 19
value: 114 000 AU$
wage: 1 520 AU$
outstanding form

unsatisfactory stamina tragic keeper
poor pace weak defender
adequate technique adequate playmaker
solid passing good striker
Transfer Fee: $2

Yeah I dunno, he might make a mid or he might even be an okayish striker. All I want him to do is make me some money, at least a 100000% return on the transfer outlay. He plays a reasonable backup AMC/Winger while my team is still woefully abysmal.

Alecu Dascălu , age 21
value: 216 000 AU$
wage: 2 320 AU$
very good form

very good stamina tragic keeper
good pace solid defender
very good technique adequate playmaker
very good passing poor striker
Transfer Fee: $70 000

My pride and joy really. Just a great DM to have in Div III as far as I'm concerned. He'll benefit from the pace training and do a good job for me.

Oktan Dumanalmaz , age 20
value: 127 600 AU$
wage: 1 680 AU$
excellent form

hopeless stamina hopeless keeper
good pace average defender
solid technique hopeless playmaker
average passing good striker
Transfer Fee: $2

Pretty reasonable squad striker for a while. He'll get some stamina and pace training. I don't think the 'good' striking is too much of a concern. While the average defending comes in very handy in lower league football

Osman Gadža , age 19
value: 142 800 AU$
wage: 1 640 AU$
magical form

average stamina hopeless keeper
adequate pace tragic defender
solid technique adequate playmaker
poor passing good striker
Transfer Fee: $6

By virtue of his high stamina, umm, yeah, this guy starts for me... I don't hate him though. I like him already for no reason really. I'll give him pace and some stamina.

Zbyněk Gašparik , age 20
value: 329 600 AU$
wage: 4 040 AU$
very good form

poor stamina excellent keeper
unsatisfactory pace tragic defender
hopeless technique tragic playmaker
average passing hopeless striker
Transfer Fee: $25 000

I'm hoping he'll pop to at least poor pace as I squeeze some training in before the end of the season. He'll stay as my primary keeper until an opposition striker makes an absolute idiot out of his pace. I figured for the price I paid I could make a reasonable return on a 20yr old after the pace. Maybe I'm completely wrong?

Broder Horsager , age 20
value: 70 000 AU$
wage: 1 360 AU$
tragic form

average stamina hopeless keeper
adequate pace solid defender
good technique average playmaker
average passing hopeless striker
Transfer Fee: $2 002

He's good enough to start for me due to his stamina and reasonable distribution. I can't see why he won't be a decent enough player or money maker after some pace.

Edmund Kozianowski , age 19
value: 113 600 AU$
wage: 1 840 AU$
average form

unsatisfactory stamina hopeless keeper
hopeless pace good defender
very good technique solid playmaker
hopeless passing unsatisfactory striker
Transfer Fee: $8

I may have got a little desperate here. I just really liked the looks of his secondaries and figured I'd make coin from giving him pace. Well, I'll make coin on him no matter what really

Bohdan Podpora , age 24
value: 258 400 AU$
wage: 4 080 AU$
hopeless form

formidable stamina unsatisfactory keeper
adequate pace excellent defender
excellent technique adequate playmaker
hopeless passing adequate striker
Transfer Fee: $22 000

Here again I wanted a player capable of playing in the heart of my defence straight away and doing a good enough job. As with Carrario, he's got enough stamina, pace and defending already and I'm very happy with his secondaries. At 24 I figured he was still young enough to benefit from some pace training. I'd be more than happy seeing him stay in my team with ~VG pace for a few seasons.

Michele Puglise , age 19
value: 98 400 AU$
wage: 1 680 AU$
weak form

average stamina tragic keeper
weak pace weak defender
very good technique poor playmaker
hopeless passing good striker
Transfer Fee: $2

Give him pace and hope he goes alright. Not much else to say really

Andrei Mihai Sima , age 17
value: 76 800 AU$
wage: 1 200 AU$
outstanding form

poor stamina tragic keeper
unsatisfactory pace average defender
average technique average playmaker
good passing hopeless striker
Transfer Fee: $2

I'm still not sure here. I think I figured for $2, and at 17 years of age, I'd just give him pace and stamina and see what happened. Maybe he'd look buyable with average pace at 18.

Jarolím Tešinský , age 22
value: 262 800 AU$
wage: 3 000 AU$
formidable form
bookings:
adequate stamina tragic keeper
good pace adequate defender
formidable technique unsatisfactory playmaker
adequate passing solid striker
Transfer Fee: $20 000

Another pride and joy here. He's the sort of player that just monsters Div III with his tech and sneaky defending. He slotted 4 from 10 shots in his first game for me, so I can't complain. I think I can make him look pretty good with some pace. He should be a goal machine for a couple of seasons at least.

Ionică Toderaşca , age 21
value: 120 400 AU$
wage: 2 200 AU$
tragic form

adequate stamina tragic keeper
average pace adequate defender
excellent technique average playmaker
solid passing weak striker
Transfer Fee: $2

Yeah I guess I got kind of desperate for midfielders I could train. He was $2 and might look alright as a winger after pace. Can backup in DM as well to be honest. Solid enough distribution, but maybe 21's too old for those skills. I don't know.

Chad Willey, age 29
value: 177 600 AU$
wage: 1 920 AU$
divine form

poor stamina adequate keeper
solid pace unsatisfactory defender
tragic technique hopeless playmaker
average passing poor striker

A default. Backup goalkeepers are good to have, you know? He has pace, so he may start if I become disillusioned with Gasparik's severe lack of it. Should probably just buy another young keeper to train pace too though.

Jan Sebastian Załuska , age 27
value: 274 400 AU$
wage: 3 800 AU$
adequate form

hopeless stamina tragic keeper
outstanding pace poor defender
excellent technique unsatisfactory playmaker
very good passing unsatisfactory striker
Transfer Fee: $9 000

I think I may have dropped the ball here, but we'll see. I figured tactically I'd run with 2 DM's, a more advanced MC to keep things pretty central and then have a winger to have hopefully provide a little bit of service to 2 strikers. He's the sort of bloke who used to be a monster of a winger back in the day. Enough pace and tech to get around/behind a DIII wing back more than enough times each game, and hopefully deliver a reasonable ball. He was pretty dodgy on the weekend and it lead me to make the playmaking assumption I mentioned above. Back in the day if you had a winger with enough pace, tech and passing you'd be laughing because all he'd need to do is get in behind and only pass the ball to one place. The way I saw it, his lack of playmaking seemed to affect even his dribbling decisions. So he managed to get tackled a couple of times from behind while 'making up his mind'. He got an assist but gave them a plethora of goal kicks from his 'crosses'. The other possibility here could be tactical positioning? Is there anything special people do with positioning their wingers to get the best out of them? I know people used to swear against placing them in the furthest possible position up the pitch for example, similarly the widest hugging the line. I've got him in what I thought was a happy medium, but maybe he's a tiny bit too advanced for his crossing. The other possibility aside from tactics and PM could simply be down to his stamina being horrendous and/or his passing simply not good enough.

That's it for really. I managed to sell off 3 players and fired the rest. I sold one for $2, one for $2 200 and an 18 year old VG Def, VG Pace, VG PM & Tragic Tech guy for $183 600. Very happy with the sale, he was a gun default but I won't be training tech for ages, and I really don't want anything to do with a tragic tech defender.

But yeah because of that sale the bank's looking pretty healthy at $320 907, considering I've just bought a new team. I'll probably be looking to splash a bit on a good defensive mid at some point. First home game this week so I'll be able to work stuff out financially after that and once I get the fans consistently in love. I should be able to run quite a few juniors and maybe even get in a better coach if things go okay financially. We'll see. Very early days.

That took ages.
(edited)

If you can afford to upgrade arena surface, then I'd suggest it as the thought is better surface = less injuries...if not this season, then next season (once your squad is settled). This doesn't rule out playing away on crap surfaces & as you're likely to get more BOTS, it can't be avoided. Just one of the recent new additions to the game.
I guess from a training point, if you're looking to get max benefit, DEF is the way to go as you can train 10 players...the downside is they sell for less than MIDS & Strikers....but most of us probably started out in lower divs training DEF as a reasonable dm in div 3/4 can be gold. I think I weighted my early training as pace 67%, def 33% when I started...with stamina over the off season.
You might be able to pick up some 16-17yo ave/adeq trainees for as good as zilch.....Sat/Sun TM for Thu youth pulls if you're willing to take a risk on talent...check stats to make sure they're fresh pulls & haven't played games....can get some decent talent if unknown.
(edited)

I have not read the whole thread, but I have few ideas to share. Some may have noticed, that 5 months ago I started with a new team. If some of you are bored with your current team, then restart is the best idea. Here are my thoughts about the fresh start.

1) I think youth school is unnecessary for a beginner. You can`t afford good coach. It takes a lot of money you should invest somewhere else. I actually have youth school from beginning, because it´s a part of a game and makes it more interesting.

2) I haven`t checked your transfer history, but 90% of money should be invested in young trainees. Quite obvius though:)

3) I think assistants are overrated. If you have fairly talented players, then 3x solid assistants are not much worse than 3xbrilliant coaches. I think investing in multiskilled head coach is more important - "random" pops increased a lot after I hired better coach.

4) Want to make money? Play friendlies with top teams. In the beginning of season it´s quite difficult, because everybody are in national cup.

5) I have no idea how much money you should spend on your pitch. I haven`t spent any. They say better surface, less injuries... There might little differences. I Haven`t really noticed. I have had only couple injuries during the 5 months.

I am taking some risks with my team. Spending more money than I have. I have outstanding youth coach and also outstanding head coach with multiple high skills. They are taking lot of money, but somehow I survive:) Training is what counts. Maybe you can make some money from day-trading, but this was not for me, takes too much precious time.

Good luck:)
(edited)

You've made some good buys there. The squad looks pretty good, considering you have a good chunk of cash in the bank. Some nice default players. And I agree with your comments.

You'll probably need a backup GK at some stage. But you can afford to wait for the right one to come along. And could use a midfield partner for Dascalu (good pick-up btw).

Maybe if you're going to play Zaluska as winger, start him wide and get him to run in towards the box. Heep him away from the line, then stop him a couple of notches from the top so he'll pass. Then he'll take a wingback out of the equation, draw a central defender, then make a short pass to the Tesinsky at the front-post.

And be sure to change your ticket prices. That's a relatively new feature. You'll get far more revenue if you find a good balance there.

I think you should spend some money on better trainees. Maybe I have missed it, but what you will be training after stamina and pace? You should think few steps forward. I basically bought 15 players for defense training. Trained pace for first 4 months, which helped me to figure out their talent. Sold my untalented players and switched to defense. I am quit sure you you won`t be making money with your current players. At least I didn`t, although I hoped I will make a bit. Pace don`t have a big effect on price. Imo cheap players are right now cheaper than ever, more cheaper than few years ago. I lost money with Rocco Mitri. He was solid striker with average tech and formidable pace. When I bought him, he had solid pace. And I got twice as less few months later...Have other examples too, just look at mu recent transfer history.

And don`t buy the first player you see on the market. You can actually get some really good deals if you spend some time on that. In beginning it takes more time for transfers, after that just keep training and play games.


(edited)

In general it's hard to make money with training nowadays, I barely make any even though my trainees are talented. The prices of 16yo/17yo are much too high compared to 19/20yo

Well, when spend 3,5-7million per trainee like you have, then of course it´s hard to expect any profit:) But training is basically the only way of making money. If you have cheap player and he gets only pace, then profit will be close to nothing. You just the right trainees and train them correctly, and money will come:)

Nah, these guys were supposed to be my first team players after my team rebuilds:) this is my little star:

Romuald Pałysz, age 20
value: 3 314 000 zł
wage: 23 800 zł
brilliant [14] form

poor [3] stamina tragic [0] keeper
formidable [11] pace solid [8] defender
excellent [10] technique excellent [10] playmaker
outstanding [12] passing unearthly [16] striker

but I also had other trainees and....well I gained almost nothing with striker training, or even lost with some of those that I trained - maybe I overpaid them

I wouldn't expect to make much from training. Most money is made from gate takings now. I'd focus more on getting trainees who can bring your team success. Sell them as you upgrade, if you make money off them, that's a bonus.

Well, when spend 3,5-7million per trainee like you have, then of course it´s hard to expect any profit:) But training is basically the only way of making money. If you have cheap player and he gets only pace, then profit will be close to nothing. You just the right trainees and train them correctly, and money will come:)

Agree on this point. However, this is where my view differs from a few in that a youth school greatly assists in this process. I understand people go on about it being negative but to me it only takes 1-2 to completely change that way of thinking. The majority of those I've been training have come from my youth school. Erdogan,O'Donoghue,Graham,Richter,Macallister are probably the main ones. Have had a bit of a dry spell for a while now but there will come a time when I produce more. Then you can generate income from others who don't fit and sell them.