Questions

[Marmel]

1) What is the purpose of playing a road friendly? Is there any other purpose to a home friendly other than making some cash? How often should a team play friendlies?


2) When I do a youth pull, what happens to the player? It says I can try him out on the squad....does he stay there forever? How do i know if he is any good?


BTW, I started the season with 2 wins and I am tied for first place, scoring 6 goals and only allowing 1. :D

[Nyarlahotep]

1. A road friendly can sometimes make you more money than a home friendly. I have even played international friendlies on the road and made more than I would have at home even after factoring in travel costs.

2. The player will stay on your squad unless you fire or sell him. You can tell if they are good or not by looking at their skills.

*edited for spelling

[Nyarlahotep]

dola

1b. You want to play a friendly every week. They are more for training extra players than for money.

[JHandley]

To add to question #1:

The gate is split evenly between the two teams in a friendly, so there is no monetary advantage to playing home vs. away in a friendly. If you are a new team, I would suggest playing road friendlies as there is a greater chance the other team will have more supporters than you. The more supporters, the better the turn-out, if everything else is equal.

[Nyarlahotep]

To further add:

With experience bing so important now, international friendlies are also more desirable (they also bring in more money).

[Marmel]

OK....

I messed around with mybestteam.org and set up my lineup for the next game, and used make this my default.

I was starting a young 19 year old who I didn't think was too good, so I put out a bid for a nice looking defender for 70,000. I felt that was my biggest weakness, so I addressed it. I have about 300,000 in the bank, so I figured I could afford this.

Further, I cut a few useless guys (almost cut my coach because he is listed with my players, and I wondered what a 57 year old was doing playing soccer. :) ) and listed a couple other useless guys for 100-1000 on the transfer list.

I also had an invitation for an international friendly, so I accepted it.

Do FOFCers normally play friendlies against each other? How are they arranged?

Finally, what should I do about my arena? I have no idea there.


thanks for the help.

[terpkristin]

Normally, once we're out of the Cup, somebody starts a thread along the lines of "I need a friendly for week XX.XX." You can just post a message there saying that you need a friendly, where you are, and how many supporters you have, and usually you can find a match there. If there is no thread, start one!! :)

As has already been said, international friendlies are quite nice, for the experience and money. What usually happens between FOFC'ers is that they'll do a "two-game" set if it's international (for example, my Real Terps FC vs. FM's Pientendre Pittbulls--probalby spelled wrong), one at each person's place, so the travel costs balance out. When I couldn't find a friendly within FOFC (ok I admit I was lazy and forgot to look), I ended up proposing the "two-game set" to some teams in other countries (I just looked in other countries and found teams that looked about comparable), and have had good success in lining these up.

As for your arena, the general rule of thumb seems to be to have it seat about 20-25 times as many supporters as you have. In some other thread here (can't remember off the top of my head) there is a suggested percentage breakdown of how many VIPs, how many terraces, etc. That information is also on Hattrix. Most people tend to improve their stadiums right after a home match and before an away match, or at the end of the season, because it takes about 10 days for construction to complete. There is also the 30k (I think) cost associated with any construction, so when you build, build big. I like to err on the side of the "25x" the number of supporters so I can (ha!) in theory have longer times between stadium upgrades....

Best of luck!!!
~terpk

[Marmel]

When are friendlies and regular matches actually played?

and where can I find what week it is? :D

[GoldenEagle]

Its Week 2 right now. Friendlies are played on Wed. in the US. If you travel, you will play at the country you travel (the time of the day that they play). Regular Matches are always on Sunday 7 PM EST.

[terpkristin]

Friendlies and regular matches are played either at your arena or your opponents. In setting up a friendly, you have the option to select the venue (you home or away), and which rules to follow (normal or Cup rules)

In the HT menu under your team's name, there is a link for matches and you can get an idea of what week it is by which matches have already happened this season. Even easier, wait for FM to post his rankings here because he usually says what week just happened... ;)

Now go back and read what I posted before you asked that, because silly me had to edit it before you read it all. ;)

~terpk

[Marmel]

Thanks for the replies. I took a friendly across the ocean, which costed my 6,000. I made 2,350 in receipts. :(

Everything else is going pretty good, although I am only taking a look a the team once, maybe twice a week. My bid for the defender was beat, so I am stuck with my lineup now.

I did win the friendly 2-0.

If anybody has the time, and could look at my team, and let me know what players are good and which suck, I would appreicate it. I could then match that up with my opinions of them and see if I am guessing these things correctly. :D

[GoldenEagle]

Just post them here and you will at least get a few responses.

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by Marmel
Thanks for the replies. I took a friendly across the ocean, which costed my 6,000. I made 2,350 in receipts. :(

Everything else is going pretty good, although I am only taking a look a the team once, maybe twice a week. My bid for the defender was beat, so I am stuck with my lineup now.

I did win the friendly 2-0.

If anybody has the time, and could look at my team, and let me know what players are good and which suck, I would appreicate it. I could then match that up with my opinions of them and see if I am guessing these things correctly. :D

(1) before accepting an international friendly away (anything outside the USA for you) it's sometimes better to take a quick look at the challenging team's last friendly. Breakeven point to pay travelling fee is about 2300 spectators. If you see 900 for their last friendly, run away :)

(2) pretty much all of your bids will get beaten if you're not at least once in a while in front of the screen when the deadline happens. It's like that, many owners have probably all seen the same player you've seen, it's just a matter of only one of them outbidding you...

(3) as GE said, post your lineup in here and you'll find somebody who will look it over and give you some sort of advice.

Good luck!

FM

[Marmel]

Here is my roster:

Your 21 players

Alexander Costello
20 000 US$, 28 years, solid form
Has poor experience and solid leadership abilities

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

Anthony Knight
39 000 US$, 28 years, passable form
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities

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

Bernard Grossman
20 000 US$, 22 years, passable form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities

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

Bob Oglesby
28 000 US$, 21 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities [Head]

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

Brent Doss
13 000 US$, 27 years, weak form
Has wretched experience and solid leadership abilities

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

Chris Johnson
51 000 US$, 24 years, solid form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities [Quick]

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

Ed Mcnally
13 000 US$, 24 years, passable form
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities [Quick]

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

Grant Toth
2 000 US$, 18 years, solid form
Has disastrous experience and passable leadership abilities

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

Heath Fagan
4 000 US$, 30 years, weak form
Has inadequate experience and wretched leadership abilities

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

José Alberto López
25 000 US$, 23 years, excellent form
Has wretched experience and wretched leadership abilities [Technical]

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

Karl Hale
34 000 US$, 25 years, solid form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities

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

Ken Haskins
3 000 US$, 19 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities

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

Leon Adcock
8 000 US$, 21 years, wretched form
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities

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

Leon Christian
20 000 US$, 30 years, passable form
Has inadequate experience and inadequate leadership abilities [Head]

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

Lester Smith
18 000 US$, 20 years, weak form
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities

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

Morris Burns
1 000 US$, 19 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities

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

Patryk Kusnica
204 000 US$, 25 years, solid form
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities

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

Peter Mcarthur
9 000 US$, 28 years, weak form
Has inadequate experience and inadequate leadership abilities

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

Rickey Schulz
0 US$, 53 years, wretched form
Has solid experience and solid leadership abilities

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

Roger Morris
24 000 US$, 24 years, inadequate form
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities [Head]

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

Son Michael
6 000 US$, 21 years, poor form
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities

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

[Alf]

Marmel, your team really sucks. Bunch of guys to fire. Your best player is your passable goalie...

[DukeRulesMAB]

Alexander Costello
20 000 US$, 28 years, solid form
Has poor experience and solid leadership abilities

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

Backup forward/playmaker at best, but good current form makes him startable

Anthony Knight
39 000 US$, 28 years, passable form
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities

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

Adequate backup keeper for now; you'll want to replace him in the long run, but he's fine.

Bernard Grossman
20 000 US$, 22 years, passable form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities

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

Terrible, release

Bob Oglesby
28 000 US$, 21 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities [Head]

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

Backup forward/defender, but his set pieces might make him startable for you.

Brent Doss
13 000 US$, 27 years, weak form
Has wretched experience and solid leadership abilities

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

Another backup, like Coltello above could be useful with minimum 2, more like 3, weeks of stamina training

Chris Johnson
51 000 US$, 24 years, solid form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities [Quick]

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

Very solid wingback, definate keeper

Ed Mcnally
13 000 US$, 24 years, passable form
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities [Quick]

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

Could be a second or third wingback. Also desperately in need of stamina training.

Grant Toth
2 000 US$, 18 years, solid form
Has disastrous experience and passable leadership abilities

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

Release him.

Heath Fagan
4 000 US$, 30 years, weak form
Has inadequate experience and wretched leadership abilities

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

Despite his experience, release him. BTW, which one of these guys is your coach? If it's this guy, then don't release him. :)

José Alberto López
25 000 US$, 23 years, excellent form
Has wretched experience and wretched leadership abilities [Technical]

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

Nice winger, very keepable

Karl Hale
34 000 US$, 25 years, solid form
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities

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

Starting central mid, also needs stamina training in the worst way.

Ken Haskins
3 000 US$, 19 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities

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

Release

Leon Adcock
8 000 US$, 21 years, wretched form
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities

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

Release

Leon Christian
20 000 US$, 30 years, passable form
Has inadequate experience and inadequate leadership abilities [Head]

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

Starting forward for your level, good experience, Inad/Weak is a reasonable combo. Eventually, you'll want him to be a backup.

Lester Smith
18 000 US$, 20 years, weak form
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities

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

Reasonably good offensive winger.

Morris Burns
1 000 US$, 19 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities

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

Release.

Patryk Kusnica
204 000 US$, 25 years, solid form
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities

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

Starting keeper of course, you won't have to worry about this spot for a while, passable is more than sufficient.

Peter Mcarthur
9 000 US$, 28 years, weak form
Has inadequate experience and inadequate leadership abilities

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

Release

Rickey Schulz
0 US$, 53 years, wretched form
Has solid experience and solid leadership abilities

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

Ah, here's your coach. :) Don't release him.

Roger Morris
24 000 US$, 24 years, inadequate form
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities [Head]

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

Pretty decent starting forward, though again, more of a long run backup. Head specialty is useful.

Son Michael
6 000 US$, 21 years, poor form
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities

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

Fire him.

-----------------

Though it will kill your teamwide form, I recommend training stamina for at least 2 or 3 weeks until all your inad/passable playmakers have at least passable stamina (except for McNally who is something of a lost cause as a midfielder; get him to poor or weak, so he can play defense). Once that is done, set up a training program, probably with strikers since you have the least invested there.

[DukeRulesMAB]

One a side note, here is the formation I would use. Realize that you're midfielders are gonna be awful until their stamina gets up.

Balanced 3-5-2 (reposition one central defender to an extra inner mid):

Keeper: Kusnica
Wingbacks: Johnson, McNally
Central Defender: Oglesby (Also your set pieces guy)
Wings: López, Smith (Both probably offensive)
Central Midfielders: Hale, Costello, Doss
Forwards: Morris, Christtian

[Marmel]

Formations and training? Now you are going WAY beyond anything I even could fake knowing how to do, or even knowing about. :) Explain, please.

I think your assessment was more or less in line with what I thought about these guys, so it is a good re-affirmation, although I like Grant Toth, and he had a nice game for me in the friendly I just played, so I might keep him. Why would I cut the guys instead of just have them on the bench? Payroll reasons?

[DukeRulesMAB]

Formations:

Go to Matches, then "Orders" for your next match. First switch a central defender to "extra inner midfielder" (the second box where it says "normal" now). Then input the formation I listed above (with whatever changes you want), including putting one of the 3 inner mids in the newly switched central defender's box.

Training:

Go to Training, and change training type to "stamina". Be aware that this will put your form in a hurt for a while, but in your case it is worth it for the long run.

Once your starting inner midfielders are all around passable, then you will want to switch stamina to something else. Ask us about training again when that happens for more details. :)

Toth/Firing:

Yes, the reason to fire all those guys is payroll. But it is important to keep a number of backups around, at least one each of: Keeper, Defender, Winger, Central Mid, and Forward. I neglected that when giving the big list of people to can, so you'll definately want to make sure you've got people with pulses there. It certainly won't hurt to keep the better of the guys I listed as "release" around for a while, just realize that in the long run you will likely want to replace them w/better players.

[DukeRulesMAB]

Dola...when you set your formation the first time, click on the "make this the default" box, so you don't have to reset it every game.

Also, as mentioned above, largely stay in the country for friendlies, unless it is a real good foreign team.

[Marmel]

Yikes. That formation stuff complicated. I wish the game would list what positions each player was best suited for because I have no idea.

I guess I will fool with it and see what happens.

Thanks MAB

[larrymcg421]

I agree with Duke's lineup recommendation, except I would play McNally as a defensive wingback.

[3ric]

Originally posted by Marmel
Yikes. That formation stuff complicated. I wish the game would list what positions each player was best suited for because I have no idea.

I guess I will fool with it and see what happens.

Thanks MAB

If you use a third-part utility like HAM or HattrickPoli then you can get a recommendation on which position the player is best suited to play. Another utility, Hattrick Organizer, has a similar line-up function as mybestteam.tk, but with the additional option to save a line-up.