Well, got my Hattrick team...

[BillyMadison]

We STINK!! 7th in V.44


Im not sure what to do first, My coach is a "poor"... should i fire him?


Brian Hardison
91 000 US$, 25 years, inadequate form
Has wretched experience and passable leadership abilities

Stamina: poor Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: passable Passing: weak
Winger: inadequate Defending: wretched
Scoring: solid Set Pieces: solid

Byron Greco
56 000 US$, 24 years, poor form
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities [Head]

Stamina: poor Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: inadequate Passing: weak
Winger: solid Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: inadequate

Carlos Guirau
38 000 US$, 24 years, weak form
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities

Stamina: weak Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: passable Passing: poor
Winger: weak Defending: weak
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: wretched

Denis Tapia
0 US$, 55 years, poor form
Has outstanding experience and weak leadership abilities

Stamina: disastrous Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: wretched Passing: wretched
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: wretched Set Pieces: disastrous

Donny Johnson
20 000 US$, 22 years, inadequate form
Has disastrous experience and passable leadership abilities

Stamina: inadequate Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: inadequate Passing: inadequate
Winger: poor Defending: poor
Scoring: wretched Set Pieces: solid

Edgar Gage
19 000 US$, 27 years, poor form
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities [Unpredictable]

Stamina: poor Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: weak Passing: poor
Winger: poor Defending: inadequate
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: disastrous

Edwin Snodgrass
8 000 US$, 23 years, weak form
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities

Stamina: weak Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: poor Passing: disastrous
Winger: poor Defending: wretched
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: passable

Erik Krueger
24 000 US$, 26 years, passable form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities

Stamina: poor Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: wretched
Winger: passable Defending: weak
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: wretched

Fredrick Anderson
23 000 US$, 27 years, weak form
Has weak experience and poor leadership abilities [Head]

Stamina: weak Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: passable
Winger: disastrous Defending: inadequate
Scoring: wretched Set Pieces: poor

Kasey Schaeffer
6 000 US$, 24 years, poor form
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities [Quick]

Stamina: wretched Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: poor
Winger: poor Defending: inadequate
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: disastrous

Lewis Templeton
22 000 US$, 23 years, weak form
Has wretched experience and wretched leadership abilities [Quick]

Stamina: poor Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: inadequate
Winger: weak Defending: wretched
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: inadequate

Marty Bartholomew
38 000 US$, 25 years, weak form
Has wretched experience and passable leadership abilities [Powerful]

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: inadequate
Winger: weak Defending: inadequate
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: poor

Max Hare
36 000 US$, 22 years, weak form
Has disastrous experience and solid leadership abilities

Stamina: weak Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: inadequate
Winger: inadequate Defending: weak
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: weak

Mike Jackson
23 000 US$, 22 years, wretched form
Has wretched experience and wretched leadership abilities

Stamina: passable Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: poor
Winger: wretched Defending: passable
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: wretched

Omar Moody
21 000 US$, 29 years, weak form
Has weak experience and inadequate leadership abilities [Unpredictable]

Stamina: wretched Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: inadequate
Winger: passable Defending: weak
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: poor

Paolo Colombo
55 000 US$, 29 years, inadequate form
Has weak experience and poor leadership abilities

Stamina: wretched Keeper: weak
Playmaking: wretched Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: inadequate

Roy Duke
43 000 US$, 26 years, inadequate form
Has poor experience and passable leadership abilities [Head]

Stamina: weak Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: weak
Winger: disastrous Defending: poor
Scoring: passable Set Pieces: wretched

Vicente Gallaga
47 000 US$, 25 years, weak form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities

Stamina: weak Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: poor Passing: passable
Winger: passable Defending: wretched
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: poor

[bbor]

Can the coach

[BillyMadison]

Did, got a weak... now what?

[cthomer5000]

I would say train stamina. Even your players with talent have horrible stamina.

[BishopMVP]

2 things: Fire the coach until you get at least an inadequate. Shouldn't take more than 2-3 tries. If you get a passable or solid definitely stay with him. Step 2 - Unless you're holding out players, you have no keeper better than weak. Buy either a passable keeper or an inadequate with value over 100,000. And I agree with the stamina training.

[FrogMan]

Billy, don't have much to say but two little things: (1) WE ALL SUCKED AT FIRST!!! (2) don't despair...

Good luck!

FM

[bbor]

Originally posted by FrogMan
Billy, don't have much to say but two little things: (1) WE ALL SUCKED AT FIRST!!! (2) don't despair...

Good luck!

FM

Speak for yourself Froggy...

I STILL suck

[FrogMan]

but you don't despair, which is unbelievable

FM

[Bee]

I'd fire the coach until you get a solid. It makes a big difference over time. Might as well spend the money now to get the solid coach.

[terpkristin]

Firing coaches gets expensive, but in this case, I agree with what others have said...fire the coach.
As far as training, do stamina at first, get everybody up. Then what I do (which is not what is often preached, because it makes it hard to make a player "pop") is train general one week and something else the next, always alternating between general and something else. I've found it helps keep my guys in pretty good form and also works on their skills...takes longer for them to pop, but you get some balance.
Oh yeah, schedule a friendly

[FrogMan]

terp, I would strongly disagree with your strategy of alternating general and another skill. This might be good for the short term, where you'd buy very young players and hope they are already midway to their next rating, but it makes no sense if you're going for the long term development. Take this example of a 17 y.o. who just popped to passable in playmaking (I train playmaking so I've studied it a little). If you do a general/playmaking switch avery week, that player will pop to solid in 14-15 weeks (assuming solid coach, 8 assistants, and 100% training), which would put him to solid around the middle of next season. If you go with playmaking full time, that same player would have gain TWO levels in the same period of time. That would mean he would then be excellent byt the middle of next season.

I am of the school of thought that training general is almost a lost week of training, as form is quite random and your players will go back to whatever their hidden form rating is, no matter if you trained general or not... That being said, I might be tempted to train general if I had one big game I really needed to win and I wanted a boost in form, but that would be a special circumstance...

FM

[FrogMan]

dola,

About the coach, I say yeah go for solid, but if you're to ten fired coaches and you finally get a passable, stick with him for a little while. Passable vs solid only means an extra week for the player to pop. Don't laugh, the ten tries for a passable is exactly what happened to me. Got myself in a deep debt trying to get that solid until I reasoned myself and settled for that passable...

FM

[Bee]

Originally posted by FrogMan
dola,

About the coach, I say yeah go for solid, but if you're to ten fired coaches and you finally get a passable, stick with him for a little while. Passable vs solid only means an extra week for the player to pop. Don't laugh, the ten tries for a passable is exactly what happened to me. Got myself in a deep debt trying to get that solid until I reasoned myself and settled for that passable...

FM

Yep, I settled for a passable coach after going through a dozen guys. I wouldn't settle for anything less though and would probably push the limit to get a solid coach.

[bbor]

Originally posted by FrogMan
but you don't despair, which is unbelievable

FM

LMAO!!!!

[BillyMadison]

Thanks guys... I got an INADEQUATE coach on my second try, I don't want to run into 300,000 in debt so I might stay there.

I need a goalie... should I look for a young goalie with passable skills? That would be like 150 K or so...

I was looking at this guy...

1. Gordon Cheyne 100 000 US$ (Fortza Brasov)
Belongs to: Old Town Tavern
Age: 17 years
Value: 224 000 US$
Deadline: 5/29/2003 at 22:02
Stamina: wretched Keeper: passable
Playmaking: wretched Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: wretched Set Pieces: weak



Should I go for a passable coach?

Also, Im going to start building ym stadium... good idea? Thanks

[BillyMadison]

One more thing, I have 5 good wingers, which should I sell, which should I keep??


Vicente Gallaga
47 000 US$, 25 years, weak form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities

Stamina: weak Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: poor Passing: passable
Winger: passable Defending: wretched
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: poor


Omar Moody
21 000 US$, 29 years, weak form
Has weak experience and inadequate leadership abilities [Unpredictable]

Stamina: wretched Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: inadequate
Winger: passable Defending: weak
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: poor


Max Hare
36 000 US$, 22 years, weak form
Has disastrous experience and solid leadership abilities

Stamina: weak Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: inadequate
Winger: inadequate Defending: weak
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: weak


Erik Krueger
24 000 US$, 26 years, passable form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities

Stamina: poor Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: wretched
Winger: passable Defending: weak
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: wretched


Byron Greco
56 000 US$, 24 years, poor form
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities [Head]

Stamina: poor Keeper: wretched
Playmaking: inadequate Passing: weak
Winger: solid Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: inadequate


Brian Hardison
91 000 US$, 25 years, inadequate form
Has wretched experience and passable leadership abilities

Stamina: poor Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: passable Passing: weak
Winger: inadequate Defending: wretched
Scoring: solid Set Pieces: solid

[BillyMadison]

is it worth calling up a player from the youth at this point??

[Masked]

Call up a youth, you might just get lucky. Try a keeper.

Do not buy that 17yo goalie. His price is going to go way up near the deadline. Unless you are going to train goalies, look for someone over 20. Until you learn the market, an inadequate goalie with an assessed value greater than $100K should suffice. You should be able to pick up someone for about 20K.

People generally recommend holding off arena expansion until you hit about 650 supporters.

Wingers do not fetch good prices so you are better off keeping your best ones. With some stamina training, Greco will be great.
What is Hare's personality? If is his sympathetic or popular (clown), keep him. If he is controversial or nasty (anti-clown), get rid of him. Hardison should start at forward. Kreuger you could probably sell. His secondaries (PM and Passing) don't add anything unlike most of the others.

Stick with the inad coach, especially until you have a training program going. Avoid significant debt early.

[BillyMadison]

Max Hare (12292447)
22 years, weak form, healthy

A controversial person who is balanced and upright.
Has disastrous experience and solid leadership abilities.



Thanks a ton... Just want to say thanks for all the help... I may be coming off as a "feed me" type guy, but this game is exteremely deep... and I wan't as many opinions as I can get. I tried the "myBestteam" site, giving me a lineup, and It appears I need AL LOT of halp at midfield, arguably the most important position in the game... should I buy up?

What is the best market to look for(country wise) players? Particularily keepers.

Thanks

[Bee]

I've had a lot of luck in Canada finding cheap keepers.

Almost everyone who starts needs help at midfield...

[BillyMadison]

OK, Well... Training is at 90% Stamina...

Any good websites on figuring out how many assistants I should get??

I looked at Canada and seen some player I like, what do you guys think of these??

1. Ivan Houck 125 000 US$ (opening price)
Belongs to: small river
Age: 18 years
Value: 195 000 US$
Deadline: 5/30/2003 at 00:05
Stamina: poor Keeper: passable
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: poor

4. Nang-Klao Maliwan 90 000 US$ (opening price)
Belongs to: Amherst Ramblers
Age: 19 years
Value: 170 000 US$
Deadline: 5/30/2003 at 03:46
Stamina: wretched Keeper: passable
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: poor

6. Randall Escobar 108 000 US$ (S7E4L7H )
Belongs to: Darlington Maple Leafs
Age: 22 years
Value: 275 000 US$
Deadline: 5/30/2003 at 13:34
Stamina: inadequate Keeper: solid
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: disastrous



Thanks... time to keep learning/resaerching

[daedalus]

Everything is cheap in Canada. Y'know, conversion rate.

This is one goofball's opinions but . . .

I'd train stamina until all your (current) starters are passable+. If it means all your form sits at pitiful (maybe they should make that 2 levels below wretched so some of my players have a proper place to sink down to . . . no, I'm not bitter or anything), so be it. The team is in 7th with a fair bit of work to go to get back into the thick of things. Now is as good a time to go for broke and get a foundation as ever. At our levels, a team with good stamina just may be able to sneak a win or two out. When you get into that "interplanetary uber terrific" type of ratings, that's a different issue.

Mind you, if your stamina training ends up taking 3-4 weeks, I'd say give your team a fighting chance by giving them 1-2 week(s) of general training. Although, with all due respect, I don't know that I necessarily agree with terp's recommendation of every other week. Seems a bit excessive and a bit of a detriment to your long term goal.

I'd would go with midfield for Hardison. Then consider selling him at the beginning of next season for seed money since his playmaking will drive up his salary if you look to him as a forward and his scoring will do the same if you look to him as a midfielder. But the money will be good.

I'd go with Gallaga and Greco as your wingers (until and unless you end up, like most of us, desperately broke . . . and some so broke, they have to pimp out their drug finding dog) since Gallaga will provide some good offense and Greco will add to the midfield possession ratings. Plus, think of the jokes the rest of us could make with his specialty. The possibilities are endless!

If you are either training playmaking now or at the beginning of midseason, you might consider keeping Hare long enough to pop his playmaking to inadequate. Otherwise, find him a nice new home. A Controversial does not a good team leader make. I'd also consider finding Moody a new home soon (even though you've got to love a "Moody" who's [Unpredictable]). When they hit the big three-oh, players seems to lose some values in auction. (Try putting DataKing in auction now . . . zip, zilch, nada.)

Luckily, you have a team with some possible options in midfield. Carlos Guirau and Donny Johnson (oh, the possible jokes!) can form a decent midfield with Hardison. Unless you're psychotic like me and decide to play a 4-4-2.

Consider long term goals before you get into a buying spree. What do you intend to emphasize as your team strength? Do you want to focus on scoring (teehee) like Ardent? Do you want to lean toward defense like DataKing? Will you be training midfield like the rest of us (and drink the kool-aid)? Are to become a keepers trainer like (I think) Frogger?

What you choose to buy should be based off of that. I wouldn't suggest buying young players in areas you are NOT training. They're more expensive and they're not going to get better without you training them. Going into the 25-27 year old market can save you a fair chunk of change. Obviously, spend a bit more to get young at training positions.

Unless you intend to be competing soon, you might be able to live with a high inadequate keeper. It may take a bit of foot (or mouse) but you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one in the 10 000 - 15 000 range. Look for one whose value in passable form is 100 000+.

Uhhh, yeah. A bit of a long winded answer (I don't do "ribbit, ribbit" so good) and I'm sure you'll get quite a few people that disagree. But, hey, more opinions just means more ideas for you to look at.

[BillyMadison]

Heres one... based on his Assessed Value, is it fair to assume he is HIGH Passable??


1. Yann Pouillon 100 000 US$ (opening price)
Belongs to: kop of boulogne
Age: 21 years
Value: 217 000 US$
Deadline: 5/30/2003 at 09:23
Stamina: wretched Keeper: passable
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: wretched
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: disastrous

[Masked]

Randall Escobar is a very low solid (and/or in bad form). If his price goes up beyond 150K (and it will) you are paying a premium for a player who is only marginally better than a high passable.

You should be able to find a passable keeper between 21-28 for about 80-100K (cheaper with a bit of searching). Avoid the younger guys, since you are not training goalkeeping. Also check the players form and injury status.

As for assistants, stick with a small staff while you learn more about the game.

1-2 assistant coaches
1-2 goal keeping coaches
2 spokesmen
0 psychologist
0 economist
2 physios
0 doctors

[daedalus]

Hattricks Files is a good place for some reading.

I've heard a fairly good recommendation for a beginning team to be 5 assistant and 2 goalkeeping coaches (unless you're training goalkeepers, in which case, reverse it). Mind you, on spending this much money, I'd suggest getting more opinions here before just taking my words.

And I would train at 97-100% (depending on how much a gambler you feel like) with 1-3 Physios. Higher training will get you better training (yes, I AM the master of the obvious) but also will improve your form. The Physios will try to keep your players pseudo-healthy.

[Masked]

Originally posted by BillyMadison
Heres one... based on his Assessed Value, is it fair to assume he is HIGH Passable??


1. Yann Pouillon 100 000 US$ (opening price)
Belongs to: kop of boulogne
Age: 21 years
Value: 217 000 US$
Deadline: 5/30/2003 at 09:23
Stamina: wretched Keeper: passable
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: wretched
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: disastrous

He is mid passable (assuming passable form)
Passable runs from about 160-295K

[BillyMadison]

Masked- Thanks... I will go for more of a mid-20 guy unless I can get Yann at the opening price(doubt)... Thanks


Daedalus... Thanks for the LONG post... Helped me a lot!

[DataKing]

Originally posted by daedalus
(Try putting DataKing in auction now . . . zip, zilch, nada.)

I heard that.

[dacman]

My standard recommendations for brand new teams -- YMMV:

Training : start at at least 95%
Coach : spend the money to get at least a passable coach
Specialists:
4 assistant coaches
1 keeper coach
2 spokesmen
1 psychologist
0 economist
2 physios
0 doctors

Arena: most teams can safely upgrade to 10,000 right away -- commit the "perfect" stadium formula to memory (62.5% terraces, 25% basic seating, 10% under roof, 2.5% VIP boxes) so 10,000 seat stadium would be 6250 terraces, 2500 basic seating, 1000 under roof, 250 VIP boxes. That intial upgrade costs around $170k, IIRC.

After initial stamina training (probably 3 weeks at least) and once most guys have returned to form (another couple of weeks -- maybe mix in a week of training general), sell your best player (or the player who'll bring in the most cash) and use that dough to buy the best trainees you can afford and then begin your training program in earnest.

[terpkristin]

Originally posted by FrogMan
terp, I would strongly disagree with your strategy of alternating general and another skill. This might be good for the short term, where you'd buy very young players and hope they are already midway to their next rating, but it makes no sense if you're going for the long term development. Take this example of a 17 y.o. who just popped to passable in playmaking (I train playmaking so I've studied it a little). If you do a general/playmaking switch avery week, that player will pop to solid in 14-15 weeks (assuming solid coach, 8 assistants, and 100% training), which would put him to solid around the middle of next season. If you go with playmaking full time, that same player would have gain TWO levels in the same period of time. That would mean he would then be excellent byt the middle of next season.

I am of the school of thought that training general is almost a lost week of training, as form is quite random and your players will go back to whatever their hidden form rating is, no matter if you trained general or not... That being said, I might be tempted to train general if I had one big game I really needed to win and I wanted a boost in form, but that would be a special circumstance...

FM

I will admit, it's not overly helpful of yet, but I either have really good players or really bad players. I've been reading the advice here and on the other sites with tactics, so I'm playing with diffrent methods.

~still a newbie, don't get too mad with me!!!

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by terpkristin
I will admit, it's not overly helpful of yet, but I either have really good players or really bad players. I've been reading the advice here and on the other sites with tactics, so I'm playing with diffrent methods.

~still a newbie, don't get too mad with me!!!

Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at all. I was only stating an example of the effect of doing that back and forth thing would have. You sure would have a team always in good form, but you won't produce many sellable trainees. The more I see everything happen, the more I think that your training program is where you can make some money. Buy a trainee real cheap, train him for a few weeks, then sell him back at a higher price. Once in a while, you buy a more expensive, maybe younger player, and decided to train him to keep him for the long run...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by daedalus
Consider long term goals before you get into a buying spree. What do you intend to emphasize as your team strength? Do you want to focus on scoring (teehee) like Ardent? Do you want to lean toward defense like DataKing? Will you be training midfield like the rest of us (and drink the kool-aid)? Are to become a keepers trainer like (I think) Frogger?

I don't know who, but it's not me who's training keeper. I think I remember Airhog because he did a good analysis of when a keeper should pop...

Uhhh, yeah. A bit of a long winded answer (I don't do "ribbit, ribbit" so good) and I'm sure you'll get quite a few people that disagree. But, hey, more opinions just means more ideas for you to look at.

Really funny, I'm not sure everyone caught it though

FM

[BillyMadison]

Well after going through about 8 more coaches, I got a passable...

Gustavo Weir (12311579)
47 years, disastrous form, healthy
A passable coach who is fond of attacking
A sympathetic guy who is calm and upright.
Has excellent experience and weak leadership abilities

A few quick ?'s... is it worth traveling overseas for a Friendly, I've been offered

How in the world am I going to make money... I have Expected income/loss -141 790 this week.

[FrogMan]

if you've gone through a coach hunt, it's normal you'll have an expected loss for this week. Usually, you should be losing money in the weeks when you'll play away, and making some money in the weeks when you'll have a home game. Try looking at a two weeks span to see if you come out almost even.

FM

[daedalus]

Originally posted by terpkristin
I will admit, it's not overly helpful of yet, but I either have really good players or really bad players. I've been reading the advice here and on the other sites with tactics, so I'm playing with diffrent methods.

~still a newbie, don't get too mad with me!!!

Eh, I don't know that there were any hard feelings for or from anyone. I think we're all mainly just sharing information that we've seen, been told or, in my case, had made that mistake before. If, uhh, someone else sees it and don't repeat that mistake then, y'know, my wonderful stupidity didn't go to waste.

[daedalus]

Originally posted by FrogMan
I don't know who, but it's not me who's training keeper. I think I remember Airhog because he did a good analysis of when a keeper should pop...

Meh. I must've gotten confused. I thought you were one of the people who trained keepers and did the daytraining/trading with keepers. Upes. As an aside, I guess damnMikeBrown is training keepers.

Really funny, I'm not sure everyone caught it though

It was a special encoded message to all my amphibious friends.