Subject: Most Valued Skill...?

what would everyone say is the most valuable skill? i know talent means more than anything. but what is the most valuable skill for players to have... the more i buy and sell players and now have better plan in place for youth development, i'm kinda seeing that pace, more than any other skill alone, is really really valuable.... speed seems to be a premium... is that a good assumption? and if so are there less pace trainers because it trains slower??

Pace is very important for all players, there are probably more pace trainers then anything other skill. And all skills train at the same speed.

But that doesn't make it the most valuable. You have to have other skills besides pace to do anything with the ball.
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I'd say that pace is the most valued skill simply because it is important for every position, with playmaking being a close second because it's important for both mids and defenders.

I think the problem with training pace is that since you can train 22 players in pace every week, many managers feel like they're running an inefficient program when they only have 10-15 players who really benefit from it.

Pace training is also fairly expensive to get into because you need to buy more trainees to maximize production. New players can't afford this, so they are usually told to pick a primary position to train, buy a handful of trainees (max 10 for def or mid, or 6 for att), and use the strength of their training program to get them out of the C-leagues. It wasn't until my second season in B that I finally sold a few of my first-generation trainees and replaced the last of the scrubs that came with my team.

At the same time, fielding what would essentially be a U23 team at the A- or ML level is probably not a recipe for success, so there's really a small niche where a manager can afford to maximize the benefit of pace training.

stamina trains fastest, pace slightly slower than others, and everything else is the same speed.

thats what i thought... so...
1) its useful for all positions
2) it trains slower than other skills
3) it doesn't necessarily improve a players posiyional skills....

is this why there aren't many pace trainers? just scrolling through players on the transfer list and the on constant is that each higher level of pace brings much higher price tags.

It is hard to train pace - you need 22 young players that are all decent in other skills. You need good "seed" money to do this.

I don't think there's a single most valuable skill. It depends way too much on how your team and tactic are structured and what your priorities are.

its hard to argue with which players sell higher though... i mean, search through the guys that are selling and if you in look at incremintal increase in individual skills(given that players are a whole and their other skills do effect there value as well) and its hard to argue that any other individual skill has more dollar value that pace...

Yeah, but if you've read Moneyball, you need to buy low and sell high. If team performance is your ultimate goal, as opposed to just accumulating money, you look for skills that are undervalued by the market as compared to performance and sell skills that are overvalued by the market as compared to performance. I don't think it's any coincidence that two of the US's top teams (Hartford and KY) have players with what would be considered by a lot of people to be "weird" skillsets.

yeah, but the difference between this sim and billy beane's reality, its that here, you effect players improvement... besides, michael lewis point in money ball wasn't to buy low and sell high.. his point was that by finding a trait that was undervalued in the marketplace he could acheive effeciency in an area for a reasonable price... when the book was being written it was OBP... and after the book came out OBP value sky rocketed, he moved on to defensive measures... hence carrying three centerfielders recently... in sokker you can sculpte your youth for the market... i understand that you're talking about upper eschelon players and unique skill sets and thats pretty inline with moneyball, but my point was to find what skill, necessarily or ancillarily, carries the highest monetary value... and i'm almost dead sure its pace... i think PM(which is what i train) is undervalued... so for me to train it, instead of pace i'm not acheive optimum return for my training...
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Yeah, but you can maximize your return and performance by training players that fit your style of play as well as training players that sell well. Typically, I find that the players I train shorter term are more in line with skills I think the market overvalues... this guy, for instance:

formidable stamina, tragic keeper
brilliant pace, weak defender
very good technique, solid playmaker
adequate passing, solid striker

Players I plan to keep longer term (4+ seasons) typically don't fit a really marketable skillset:

solid stamina, tragic keeper
solid pace, adequate defender
brilliant technique, very good playmaker
formidable passing, weak striker

(I train strikers)

I think people get trapped into a mindset that says, this skillset = midfielder (or defender or whatever) and don't realize that crosstraining can provide substantial benefits to the team as well as providing training income.

i really like cross training players... i think we are pretty inline with how we see the game... i'm just saying, from an economic simulation, the most valued skill to sell on the market is pace... undervalued is really a wash because positioning and cross training come into effect... i'm just saying that whether striker or mids or defenders or even keepers are selling higher, the trait that has more effect on all thier prices is pace... however though someone interested in short-term gains could train pace for a pop or two and sell for easy profit... because pace trains slower it is not ideal for such gains... which is what people starting out in Sokker are looking for...

I think a lot of people end up buying "finished" players, and not working them into their training programs. That creates efficiency problems. For instance, I prefer to have two "defensive" strikers in my striker training program. Since the defensive strikers are basically midfielders, that saves me money (one trainee/midfielder, instead of one trainee and one midfielder).

But yes, I agree with you that pace is probably valued highest by the TL, right or wrong. I personally don't agree with that valuation, but it doesn't mean I don't use it to my advantage in buying short-term trainees.

I'm a striker trainer. My training plan is heavy on pace/technique. My training cycle is LONG. I train striking for a season or two. Then I bring on a few youngish midders and switch to training technique on 4 midders and 6 strikers all with the MID order. I'll do that for a good 3 seasons cause I love me some technique. Then I bring on a huge load of young players and switch to pace training. I keep doing that until I I have some finished products.

Does anybody else train the same skill for as long as I do?

I'm the opposite. I switch literally week to week, depending on who I need to round out in order to sell the player. I have a guy that I'm trying to get 3 pops in during the season in PM, pace and tech. PM until he pops, and then pace. Tech will be the week I'm playing you, Billy. Since I won't win that anyway, I always use odd orders against you.

The first half of each season, I train striking. The second half I train either tech or pace (I alternate each season).