Subject: lost newbie

Hey. I have got my team and got some good coaches (according to the newbie guide.), but I don't know how to judge my team, what to do about training and juniors.

This is my team

Damian Bacon, age 29
value: 70 200 £, wage: 795 £
brilliant form

tragic stamina,
solid pace,
good technique,
good passing,
hopeless keeper
good defender
good playmaker
tragic striker


Jackie Barnacle, age 28
value: 43 050 £, wage: 615 £
excellent form

hopeless stamina,
solid pace,
weak technique,
weak passing,
hopeless keeper
average defender
solid playmaker
unsatisfactory striker


Ethan Blatherwick, age 24
value: 39 600 £, wage: 540 £
outstanding form

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


Andrew Borman, age 21
value: 44 850 £, wage: 720 £
poor form

unsatisfactory stamina,
solid pace,
unsatisfactory technique,
good passing,
adequate keeper
unsatisfactory defender
poor playmaker
tragic striker


Pat Buckmaster, age 18
value: 65 400 £, wage: 900 £
adequate form

unsatisfactory stamina,
weak pace,
unsatisfactory technique,
adequate passing,
solid keeper
poor defender
poor playmaker
unsatisfactory striker


Martyn Bugg, age 18
value: 28 200 £, wage: 480 £
solid form

average stamina,
average pace,
good technique,
adequate passing,
tragic keeper
unsatisfactory defender
adequate playmaker
poor striker


Brad Bugg, age 29
value: 43 050 £, wage: 585 £
outstanding form

hopeless stamina,
hopeless pace,
solid technique,
good passing,
tragic keeper
weak defender
good playmaker
poor striker


Darren Cheveley, age 28
value: 38 250 £, wage: 600 £
good form

weak stamina,
average pace,
good technique,
unsatisfactory passing,
hopeless keeper
unsatisfactory defender
good playmaker
good striker


Lucas Davenport, age 24
value: 40 350 £, wage: 675 £
weak form

average stamina,
very good pace,
weak technique,
average passing,
hopeless keeper
unsatisfactory defender
good playmaker
good striker


Norman Gornall, age 28
value: 32 250 £, wage: 585 £
weak form

weak stamina,
hopeless pace,
average technique,
tragic passing,
hopeless keeper
solid defender
unsatisfactory playmaker
very good striker


Ryan Ivatt, age 24
value: 28 950 £, wage: 480 £
excellent form

weak stamina,
poor pace,
average technique,
tragic passing,
tragic keeper
average defender
poor playmaker
solid striker


Duff Loverock, age 30
value: 34 950 £, wage: 540 £
excellent form

unsatisfactory stamina,
adequate pace,
adequate technique,
tragic passing,
tragic keeper
hopeless defender
very good playmaker
hopeless striker


David Lythgoe, age 30
value: 36 300 £, wage: 615 £
average form

average stamina,
solid pace,
good technique,
poor passing,
hopeless keeper
hopeless defender
adequate playmaker
average striker


Max Oglander, age 30
value: 21 600 £, wage: 405 £
formidable form

unsatisfactory stamina,
average pace,
tragic technique,
average passing,
hopeless keeper
good defender
unsatisfactory playmaker
tragic striker


Rodney Prebble, age 22
value: 35 550 £, wage: 570 £
solid form

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


Kaz Root, age 20
value: 20 250 £, wage: 375 £
outstanding form

unsatisfactory stamina,
adequate pace,
weak technique,
unsatisfactory passing,
hopeless keeper
tragic defender
weak playmaker
average striker


Boris Shopland, age 22
value: 34 050 £, wage: 510 £
incredible form

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


Kai Todhunter, age 22
value: 12 600 £, wage: 345 £
average form

weak stamina,
tragic pace,
tragic technique,
weak passing,
tragic keeper
poor defender
adequate playmaker
average striker


Brad Vivian, age 24
value: 27 300 £, wage: 495 £
good form

tragic stamina,
adequate pace,
tragic technique,
good passing,
tragic keeper
weak defender
poor playmaker
good striker


Ken Welburn, age 20
value: 41 400 £, wage: 555 £
incredible form

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


Dean Wigley, age 28
value: 21 150 £, wage: 435 £
average form

weak stamina,
adequate pace,
unsatisfactory technique,
adequate passing,
tragic keeper
tragic defender
average playmaker
adequate striker


Des Woolcock, age 27
value: 31 350 £, wage: 465 £
incredible form

weak stamina,
average pace,
good technique,
unsatisfactory passing,
hopeless keeper
average defender
unsatisfactory playmaker
average striker


Can someone help me, or ideally, be my mentor?
(edited)

Either i was dead unlucky or you have some fairly reasonable starting players there!

Someone will come along and help in more detail...but if you list your coaches i could perhaps help?

First thing to do - train stamina until your 11 best players have at least solid stamina. Then look at how your team have performed in the intervening weeks, look for areas you feel you can improve. In Bugg & Buckmaster, you have decent trainees, maybe pace training once you've done at least 8 weeks of stamina ? Stamina training is dull, but you will see serious improvements on the pitch once it's done.

Here are the players' I'd pick for your first match, assuming a 4-4-2 formation.

GKs

Borman - adequate keeper, good enough at the moment, his pace (handy for coming out to stop one-on-ones) probably puts him ahead of Buckmaster. That said Buckmaster would be good too.

DEFs

Woolcock - could do a job as a striker for you, but you're short of defenders and heavy on strikers, so chuck him in defense for now.

Blatherwick - ok defender - no stamina though.

Prebble - solid def / pace, shame about tech. Keep, maybe you'll get round to training technique in a few months ?

Ivatt - not enough pace long term, stick in Defense for now, maybe up front if Davenport stays in low form ?

MIDs

M Bugg - an ok starting midfielder / trainee, with his stamina rating, probably a first team player for you initially.

Bacon - decent midfielder for a new team. keep until your trainees get better than him. Stamina lets him down, but you might need to start with him anyway.

Barnacle - weak passing lets him down. An ok starting player, will improve massively as you train stamina.

lythgoe - his pace / tech combo make him a candidate for up-front, oddly. Initialy, a reserve striker or winger I'd say.

ATTs

Cheveley - average pace, too old to improve with training. might do a job as an ATT for your first couple of months.

Davenport - decent enough starting striker - shame about technique and form, he'd have been special at your level with a bit more of both. If form improves, he will score goals in IV.

Reserves

Buckmaster - decent keeper trainee, with pace training should become your first team keeper.

Root - not great - cannon fodder to fill out the numbers in friendlies ?

Shopland - no pace, low tech, shame as he's a solid striker. might get you a few goals once you can train him up in pace, but he'll be 24 by then. Maybe one to sell, although you're low on quality as it is, so maybe one to keep ?

Vivian - reserve mid ?

Welburn - needs pace training to be a decent defender.

Others

Wigley - initially, a winger ? eventually you'll get much better trainees than this.

B Bugg - can't run - sack.

Gornall - can't run - sack.

Loverock, tragic passing / v good playmaker, unfortunate combination. sack.

Oglander - tragic tech = can't trap a bag of cement. sack.

Todhunter - woeful. sack.

Other people will have their own opinions, but I think you'll do ok if you stick with that first 11 and get your stamina levels up. Once you've done that, you can concentrate on getting some cheap trainees in, and doing some proper skill training.

I must be dreaming because i had only 3 decent players when i started

So I have 4 good players?

you have decent starting side. I'd do everything that NCn has mentoined.

I'd also start a youth team and put a coach in charge of that

might have a decent starting team but same as me mostly old no good for training. i sold all my old players and bought in 17 or 18yr olds took me a while to recover but worked in the end

What I suggest is to sell all those older players, even if they are good enough for your first line-up.
And then spend as much as possible for decent trainees.

I must be fairly unique, but I feel that stamina should NOT be trained on most starting sides.

The players almost always are going to be sold within a few weeks and training stamina adds nothing to their value.

In general I advise selling the entire starting squad bar one or two trainee types if there is any. From there you can spend all the money on trainees and young squad fillers.

The main thing is asking advice on who to buy, and then when you have set up your initial squad don't sell anyone or change your training regime for at least a season or two (Ken)!!

Ok. So if I sold my squad, roughly how many trainee and what skill would I be looking for. And what type of trainee is best.

Or shall I stick with this squad for a few weeks first?

Well, depends what you want to train really.

You have any idea on that?

I suggest strikers.

Ssh.

why?:)

They are the most expensive (great mids too, but only in really long term training), and easier to train.

An interesting approach, higher risk (if you get it wrong you can't sell and then buy your way out of it), but likely to produce a greater dividend in the long term.

If you choose to do that, I'd keep...

Ken Welburn
Martyn Bugg
Pat Buckmaster
Andrew Borman
maybe Boris Shopland at a push.

All these players are 20 or younger, (22 for Boris), and they all need (stamina and) pace training. So if you can buy 2 or 3 decent striker trainees with your money, lets say tech pace and striker between average and good, or good tech and striker with hopeless pace, and fill the rest of your squad with 16-18 year old "cannon fodder trainees" for pennies, you'll be able to train all 22 and be able to sell your reserves for more than you spent at a later date. if you get lucky, a couple of these cannon fodder player will have decent talent.

Once you've decided who you're keeping, try to get online on a Friday afternoon and put the players up for sale. Sunday is the busiest day on SK, so there will be plenty other new players looking for a bargain and getting sucked into bidding wars. The only problem with this is that you might not have enough players to field a team - but in the long term one 5-0 walkover won't make much difference.

This reminds me of the old days. I wish I could keep my team and start up a new one, that would be cool !

If you tell everybody that, you'll flood the market and the prices won't be so good.