Coaches

Where would a team be without a coach? No where, as no progression would be made.
Your coaches enhance players’ skills during training sessions and take care of the junior team.
Stated in the rules of Sokker.

Purpose Of The Coach
What does each of them do?

Head coach
The easiest one to understand: your main training is based on the skills of the head coach.
For example: if you wish to train pace, passing, striker for the season; then your head coach to be optimal, you need them to be at least unearthly [16] in the skill (not overall).
What does overall skill mean? The overall skill for the coach is based on all of their skills added together and given an average - generally for an all round head coach 14-16 overall rating can cover most skill training, 15 being the most common.

Coach of the junior team
Not much coaching happening, but the purpose of this coach is to give you as accurate of talent for your youth as possible - higher a trainer's overall skill the more accurate the appraisal will be.
Now even with a 16 overall trainer, talent is never 100%, but it's the most accurate you can get and is very small margins of error. 15 overall has a slightly larger margin of error but is still accurate enough.
Does this mean you need to rush out and spend all money on a 15 or 16 trainer? Not right away, but it never hurts if you can afford it.
Also the more your youth player plays in a junior league (if you're in one) the better the coach can grade them.

Assistants
Assistants have a bit more mystery about them, for years no one fully understands them and today? If people tell you they understand them then they are liars!
Well, it is as simple as you want it to be. Some say they help the head coach give maximum points for his training, some say they help boost extra training for side skills (skills not in advanced training).
I think both is partly true, they allow the head coach to give more and slightly boost side skills, whether it's significantor not? I believe I have noticed the difference since having 3 assistants.

What levels do my assistants need to be?
Well, it would make sense for them to be as high as possible (overall wise), however 15, 16 overall coaches can be anywhere from 20k-50k so having 4 of them will bankrupt you pretty quickly.
a lot of people go for 10-10-10, 11-10-10, 12-11-10, these types of combos and levels seems the right amount of help + cost efficient.

Do I reccommend assistants? Eventually, yes. In early time of managing, no. I'd leave it a few seasons and try to get half decent cash flow going.


(edited)

Training + Talent

Well I wrote a lot and it got deleted so I am going to breeze through this part but happy to expand another time if people have questions.

Training terms you will see:
Advanced training (adv training): Best training you can give a player. 100% adv = ~4x more effective than 100% form training.
Formation training (form training): Training your players get when not in adv training, minor boost to the main skill.

Most efficient training %?
96-98% is the minimum to aim for on both sides of adv and form training, every so often try to get 100% a few times a season - is it needed? probably not but can't hurt.
96% adv training is around 90 mins of an official match (league, cup). Form training requires 135 mins of an official match.
Click this sentence for a training calculator tool.

Training Points
The most simple way I can talk about training is by saying every week your players get X amount of training points in their skills.
Once a player hits a calculated amount that player will pop to the next skill level.
E.g. Player A has weak [4] pace and requires "200 points" to get to average [5] pace, with adv training Player A gets 89 points a week. Player A would need 3 weeks to gain that skill.

What effects training points?

Age
Just like real life, our bodies fall off as we get older (especially with the amount of irn bru I consume). However in Sokker it seems to take less time.
I can't tell you exact ages since things like talent and skill level will effect it too, but I can say that 20 and 25 years old seem to be the biggest jump for training points needed and you will notice an extra week needed once a player hits 20, 21 and the same again at 25.

Should I stop training a player once they reach 25?
I would say most of the time yes - rotating your younger players into adv training is better most of the time. I would say if you have a 25, 26 year old who is on the verage of popping to [16], [17], [18] then it is worth to leave them in adv training for another half season at least and hopefully they get to that skill.

Talent
Talent is a big thing you'll hear about and learn in Sokker. Talent is based on a range of 3+, 3 being the best talent and anything higher than 4 people will say it's not efficient to keep them.
Talent effects training by lowering said training points meaning that a player with good talent will not only pop more for his trained skill but his side skills will also pop more often.

Skill Level
Pretty easy to explain - the higher a skill trains, the more points are required to get to next level. I find that once you get around skill level outstanding [12], the points jump up quite a bit and may require an extra week than usual. Age also effects this: E.g. Player A who wants his pace to train from weak [4] to average [5] pace, new season starts and he went from 18 to 19 years old - the point threshold increases slightly.

The Trained Skill
Different skills take longer to train than others, you won't find stamina mentioned a lot as it is the fastest training skill and only reaches a max of formidable [11].
This is an old list but I believe it to still be accurate:
(faster)
GK
pass and pm
def
tech
str
pace
(slower)

Old Players
Once a player hits 28, their skills start to decline slowly and each week they have a chance for skills to go down. You can place this player into adv training for that skill and the week after they have a good chance of going back to the previous skill level.

In conclusion
If a player has good talent, they will have decent popping until they reach around 22, then they will slow down a lot.
If player has ok talent (3.6+) they will hit the wall sooner, maybe 20, 21.
If a player has 4+ talent then they will for sure hit it by 20.

Now I say they slow down a lot, but nothing is for sure as I have had a player that on paper are 4.1 talent and pop as good or better as players with 3.5 talent - this means that both of their talents are probably closer together than what my coach estimated.
Sites like Sokker Assistente can give you a rough idea how many training points your player gets, can be worth checking the site out.
(edited)

Skills

The rules are not that bad for explaining each skill and what they can do, but I will explain my experience with each one and what each position benefits more from.

Main Skills:

Stamina
Think of your players having 100% energy each game, the better their stamina the longer they are able to use their attributes to the level they're at (when not including form).
A player's energy goes down quicker when they're more involved in a game, so if a game is being played mainly down the right of your team, your LB will lose less energy than your RB for example.
Tip: Less movement in your tactic means less energy being used, but don't be afraid to experiment.

Keeper (gk)
Easiest one to understand since only one position uses it: the goalkeeper. The higher this skill the better the saves your keeper can make, it also reduces the amount of times they may drop a ball during a save or catch.

Pace
You love it, I love it, speed. For outfield players it effects their running speed on and off the ball, for keepers it helps them position better and rush out quicker.

Defender (def)
The higher this attribute the more likely your player will successfully perform a tackle. It also increases the distance in which your player can perform a tackle.

Technique (tech)
Controls various things that happen when your player interacts with the ball: higher this attribute the better your player can control a pass they receive (less chance of a lakaka touch), less chance to slow down while dribbling, better chance of beating defenders when trying to dribble past them.
Overall: it gives a player better control on the ball reducing the chance for heavy touches and mis-kicks.

Playmaking (pm)
You think you know what it does, but you don't (maybe). The name suggests that it gives a player more creativity and vision - to a point yes. Playmaking can be described as a player's intelligence more than anything else. The higher playmaking a player has, the quicker they make decisions. Higher playmaking will also allow players to see more options around them and make the choice to pass quicker - they also will make more through balls!
Overall: Playmaking is the brain of the player, which in the end does help them see more options to pass to as well as allow them to make the decision to pass in less time.

Passing (pass)
Rematch players hate this one trick. Passing simply is the quality of passing, whether it is a short pass, a long pass, a hoof or a header - higher passing means your player can get the direction and power as accurate as possible.

Striker (strik)
Similar to passing, but for shooting! Striker is the accuracy and power of shots. The higher this skill, the less mistakes your striker will make in front of goal - less hoofing it wide or over the bar, as well as make their shots harder to save.

Skills you may not think about:

Form
I don't understand form, I've had 18 form strikers miss every shot, 18 form keepers drop every shot, but it does something (apparently).
Higher the form of a player, the better they have full use of their skills. 16+ form has been said to also allow the player to perform slightly better than their current skill.
10+ form = ok to good
16+ form = dream
<10 form = bad, lower down this goes consider playing another player with higher form with similar skills.
Although you can pick up really good keepers with low form very cheap, so use that as you will.
Also there is no factors for form, some say the less a player plays the more chance for form going down, but I've had players play, score goals, assist, and their form still goes down - so it's all RNG until developers say otherwise.

Tactical Discipline
How well your player will follow your tactic in the game - if you ever saw your defender that wasn't out of place in your defensive line, chances are their tactical discipline wasn't good.

Split into 2 skills: Experience and team-work, both are increased with playing more games, doing more in a match and better coaches + assistants.
(edited)

So, what skills work best for their position?

People will debate it forever, so let me split it into 2: general + "optimal"
*See above skills to see the short form associated with the skill, but should be fairly obvious.
there is a TLDR at the bottom of his sections

General
GK - gk + pace
DEF - def + pace
MID - pace + pm + pass + tech/def
ATT - pace + tech + strik

Now are these what I consider the minimum but will it make superstars? No, so let's dig deeper:

"Optimal"

GK - gk + pace + pass
No real other options here, keeper and pace obvious and passing means they can make more accurate goal-kicks - can argue for tech but it isn't needed.

Central DEF - def + pace + tech + [i](pm} + (passing)[/i]
Tech so your defender is less likely to mess up controlling a pass back to him or even when they try to dribble. Tech is also useful to help your defenders keep the ball away from opponent strikers who may have higher def than usual. Passing > pm as a side skill too, but both are good for a def. PM and passing are

Side DEF - def + pace + tech + pm
Generally your side defenders will be doing a lot of 1v1 if the opponents have a winger, so you want them to be able to make decisions quicker after they win the ball, so higher Playmaking will help with that, you can also argue passing better or the same as pm, as long as they're both decent no one will argue.

Mids can be split into 4 categories, or 3, but I will use 4 to be precise. You will see they will all have pretty much the same needed skills so I will sort of put them in priority order.

Defensive MID - pace + def + pass + pm + (tech)
A mid you may put in the centre of the pitch that sits between the main mids + defensive line. you can get away with less tech and pm with a higher def skill. Can consider to play with DEF order. Tech isn't as much as a priority in a more defending role, but never hurts.

Central MID - pace + pm + pass + tech + def
Mids usually have the highest SUM, because they have to have the ability to do almost everything - pushing your mids up in a tactic? more strik can help. The main thing they need to be doing is pinging the ball where it needs to be and getting stuck in. Pace + PM are the must have for a mid, after that passing then tech and def are around equal priority.

[b]Attacking MID - pace + tech + pm + pass + strik + (def)
Def is less needed as an AM, but never useless - another main target for your team who will be playing your strikers in or making room for himself to shoot or get in a better position.

Wing (wide MID) - pace + tech + pass + pm + (strik)
Def isn't needed out wide, but can never hurt. Aside from strikers, these players are your pace merchants, they run, pass, sometimes shoot, so the better they can dribble with the ball at high speeds, the better.

Central ATT - pace + tech + striker + (def)
Def on a striker is really useful, can help them dispossess the defenders easier and have an opportunity from nothing.

Side ATT - pace + tech + pass + pm + strik + (def)
Similar to a winger but has an att order so striker has a higher need. You may move these wider att to more a central position as the ball goes higher up the pitch.

TLDR;

GK
Priority = gk > pace
Seconday = pass

DEF
Priority = def >= pace
Seconday = tech > pass = pm

MID
Priority = pace > pm > tech >= pass >= def
Seconday =

WING
Priority = pace > tech = pass > pm
Seconday = def > strik

ATT
Priority = pace >= strik = tech
Seconday = def
(edited)

Just noticed i never said thanks for putting this together.

I've read back through this a couple of times when deciding on plans.

No problem, just let me know if there is anything I haven't explained well enough or something else I can try and give my take on.

Likewise thanks very much! These have been really useful - particularly the training section.

Does anyone have any experience around the different assistant coaches levels?

I have 3, levels 10, 11 and 12. I've seen people talking about levels 14+.

Does it make much difference?

The ones you got don t make a difference. Your are wasting money with their wages. Better assistants make a big difference when it comes to yiung players. More pop ups

So should i be looking for 3 at levels 14+?

I'm looking at tge finances of it all and i think i may be able to do it if i don't buy any players next season.

ideally you want a 16 coach, with 16 in every attribute (stamina optional) as your main coach, then a 15/16 for youth, stat distribution not important for youth.

for assistants, higher the better overall but when coaches start going above 12, they hit 10, 15k+ wages, added on top of the 60, 70k, 80k of your 2 other coaches. so unless you have a team of all youth it can become financially unstable pretty quickly when you're paying over 100k in coach wages alone. i'd focus on 15, 16 coaches first for your main and youth then see how that works for you financially over a season.

and the ones you have do make a small difference, just not as good as if they were higher level.

Imo with your budget the main coach should be 16 on the skills you train. For example if you train def the coach should be 16 on def pace. Assistants should be at least 13 on the general skill and youth coach at least 15. Easies to train are defenders. You buy 16 years old with decent pace, train pace til 18,19 and then you train til 21. You sell 5 and keep 5. If you notice some of them don t have a good talent you get rid of them straight away

Ta both, interesting that there is no absolute concensus on this game - keeps things interesting!

I was under the impression that on your main coach it was only the skill you trained in advanced training that mattered.

However, after these responses i had a look at my head coach. He's 16 in most, but then a 14 and 15 in 2 others. On all trainees i've had very consistent side pops in these skills.

For striker, he only has 10. All of my trainees side pops in this skill have been a lot slower. It hasn't mattered till now as they were all defenders and keepers, but Batchelor will be an attacking player, so i need that striker skill.

Looks like i have to go through the horrendus coach recruitment process again sooner than expected!
(edited)

The coach recruitment system on here is an abomination. 300k spent and all terrible.

Sod it, will just have to have no side pops in striker.

Sergiu Prunea, age: 55
wage: 220 100 lei
club: CSA Steaua 1947, country: România,
unearthly [16] coach

Training effectiveness as head coach:
unearthly [16] of stamina magical [15] of keeper
unearthly [16] of pace unearthly [16] of defender
unearthly [16] of technique unearthly [16] of playmaker
magical [15] of passing unearthly [16] of striker

Obviously you d have more pop ups on the skills you dont train with a coach like mine. However, when the budget is tight you have to make some compromise.
I know you dont like the academy system but if I were you I d focus more on finding a good coach for the academy. For me its not a lottery if you know which ones to keep. Besides training for 5 seasons the academy is the only way you can close the gap with the big boys.
When it comes to coach recruitment I ve noticed that some days are better than others :) After 10 -15 spins :) if you dont get anything decent you stop and try another day. I know its expensive but to increase the chances to get a good coach you need to tick all skill boxes to maximum.

updated a bit, added a TLDR with priority list to skills per position section.
(edited)