World Class Midfield!

[BishopMVP]

Woot! Also, a new NSI high.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=229 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=229><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left>Concord Assassins (http://195.149.159.155/Common/teamDetails.asp?teamID=72162)
Player rating and Team formation (http://195.149.159.155/Common/matchLineup.asp?matchID=11065639&teamID=72162)
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>Team Attitude:</TD><TD vAlign=top>Match of the Season</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Tactic:</TD><TD vAlign=top>Attack in the middle</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Tactic skill:</TD><TD vAlign=top>excellent</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2> </TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Midfield:</TD><TD vAlign=top>world class</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Right Side Defence:</TD><TD vAlign=top>formidable</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Central Defence:</TD><TD vAlign=top>formidable</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Left Side Defence:</TD><TD vAlign=top>formidable</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Right Side Attack:</TD><TD vAlign=top>weak</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Central Attack:</TD><TD vAlign=top>excellent</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Left Side Attack:</TD><TD vAlign=top>inadequate</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

[illinifan999]

Congrats man!

[OldGiants]

Congrats and great work!

[daedalus]

Good show, Bishop!

[RPI-Fan]

Agreed, NAIWF.

All-Defensive teams don't stand a chance, why should midfield or attack teams?

[daedalus]

All-Anything doesn't and shouldn't stand a chance.

[Havok]

All-Anything doesn't and shouldn't stand a chance.

go look at the sidekicks and Galesburg... they're all midfield and doing just fine.

A all midfield team has a MUCH better chance of winning then a all attack or defense team.

i have a better offense and defense then both of them but they have a 2-3 level midfield advantage so i'd lose easy.

[finkenst]

8. The Sidekicks 10 12 - 32 6

[Havok]

NE Oklahoma Sidekicks

[-Panther]

go look at the sidekicks and Galesburg... they're all midfield and doing just fine.

A all midfield team has a MUCH better chance of winning then a all attack or defense team.

i have a better offense and defense then both of them but they have a 2-3 level midfield advantage so i'd lose easy.
while the only part of the Sidekicks that's worth a damn might be his midfield, you can't consider him an all midfield team since his attack/defense matches up well with those of his series mates.

All midfield teams are those with Uber mids and attack/defenses 3+ levels below their opponents attack/defenses.

I didn't check CW's division but I think aside from 1-2 teams, his attack/defenses match up also.

My stance on it is simple. I may be cool with the owner, but I'll never support or respect a team that is brilliant midfield with solid attack/defenses. Hence why I support so few FOFC teams. The common advice around here for most new teams (atleast at one point) was:

1. Run 3-5-2

2. Train playmaking cause it's 'Uber' and you suck and you'll never win if you don't.

3. Play 1 or both wingers TM always. It's not strategic, it's required to succeed.

Midfield will always be the most predominant factor simply because the users refuse to allow anything else to succeed. If people really wanted to rid 'All midfield winning' they'd use TM wingers as a strategic option, not as a standard. As with all things, people are afraid of change.

Another thing, not to take anything away from your achievement, but I don't recognize high midfield achievements when their received by either MOTS and/or 1 or both wingers TM.

if you want to see the true quality of your team, play then using standard orders. If someone gets a brilliant midfield with any formation and neither winger TM, no offensive defenders, and no defensive strikers, then I'll give congrats.

Not to sound like I'm kicking ya, but the fact that most of the strategic aspects of HT are no longer strategic since people make them a standard to keep midfield all-important is one of the things about HT that I don't like.

I got no problem persay with users who do that, because I play my way. Just wonder what HT would be like if the strategy of formations and individual orders actually meant something.

-end pet peeve- ;)

[-Panther]

oh and, GOOOOOOO PANTHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We WILL kick the shit out of the NE pansies and win the SB!!!!!!!!!!!!

[illinifan999]

I'm an all midfield team. I put up formidable and like solids/excellents/passables for everything else. I could be more, but for some reason my cash just doesn't want to leave my possesion.

And really how easy is it to not be an all-somthing team. To compete you need players with high skill levels. Switching training every year may balance out the team's ratings, but your players will not have high enough ratings to compete at the higher levels.

[RPI-Fan]

illini:

A team with a Magnificent+ midfield and inadequate or less ratings everywhere else woudl be more than competitive in an average D.V series.

A team in my series is the opposite - Maginificent+ Defense ratings, Inad- everywhere else. They have 5 points on the year, and got lucky for those 5.

That is what we're talking about.

[vex]

while the only part of the Sidekicks that's worth a damn might be his midfield



Hey now:) I realize that midfield isn't everything, that is why I'm buying a brilliant - magnificent keeper at the end of the season. And then I'm buying outstanding strikers with passable passing after that.

It's just to get a balanced team, I need the cash, and until I have it, my midfield is going to be WAY higher than the rest of my team.




Another thing, not to take anything away from your achievement, but I don't recognize high midfield achievements when their received by either MOTS and/or 1 or both wingers TM.

if you want to see the true quality of your team, play then using standard orders. If someone gets a brilliant midfield with any formation and neither winger TM, no offensive defenders, and no defensive strikers, then I'll give congrats.




I never see my congrats for this;)

[vex]

Dola

Ok, Bishop, sorry but I'm just wondering, why did you go for broke on the midfield when your opponent had a poor midfield?

[DukeRulesMAB]

Midfield will always be the most predominant factor simply because the users refuse to allow anything else to succeed. If people really wanted to rid 'All midfield winning' they'd use TM wingers as a strategic option, not as a standard. As with all things, people are afraid of change.



So lemme get this straight. :)

It's the users' fault that other things don't succeed because they use what appears to be the best tactic? I mean, when you say "refuse to allow anything else to succeed", you implicitly say that that's the best tactic. Are people for some reason morally bound not to use that?

This is *my* pet peave about Hattrick. :) Every long-term player knows the importance of midfield in the engine. Every long-term player knows the dangers especially of building an all-defense team. So why are people then complaining about getting screwed when it doesn't work out?

That's not to say not to lobby for changes in the engine to balance things out. Just that it shouldn't be shocking at this point. If you know what the engine is, and build your team a different way anyway, you've made your choices and you're taking your chances.

(P.S.: I've never trained midfield and probably won't ever)

[-Panther]

Vex:

I didn't mean the rest of your team is crap, just using your midfield as an example. ;) evening it out IS expensive. I know why your team is how it is. I'm talking about the ones who don't bother to upgrade the rest of their team to compliment each other. They train their middies to supernatural and don't bother upgrading their formidables everywhere else.

Duke:

First of all, the best tactic is one that uses strategy, not majority. Remember, majority doesn't mean best, only that there's a lot of followers (teams afraid to use anything else regardless if it's better). 3-5-2 with 1 or both wingers towards middle is far from the best tactic, the only reason it succeeds with such a high rate is due to over %75 of the teams using it, hence midfield will always be the predominant.

3-5-2 could become the 4-3-3 of today and %75 of the %75 currently using it would still use it because they think midfield is the best and only way to win.

A shitload of users don't train what they want to or run the formations they want to because 3-5-2 is the majority and the 'end-all-be-all' from advice givers. if more teams played how they wanted to instead of following suit of the ones saying 'bah, who needs attack or defense, my divine midfield and disastrous attack/defense is Uber cool and unstoppable' midfield would actually level itself off.

The problem is users try something new for 1-3 games and when it doesn't give them a %100 win percentage, they abandon it and say 'only midfield matters'. Midfield is important yes, but it's far from the only thing needed.

The introduction to tactics is a good example.

Pressing - people still play their wingers TM despite that actually hurting your tactic, as TM wingers lose defending skill now.

CA - contrary to belief, successful use of this tactic should require absolutely ZERO intentional performance decrease. The reason this tactic has such a bad success rate is because people intentionally weaken their team to CA. if you have to make your team worse to do this, you have no business using it and you'll most likely suffer a humiliating loss with 0 CA chances. this is meant to compliment your normal tactic when you face a team superior in midfield. too many levels difference and this will fail every time. weak MID CA vs outstanding+ MID and this is a BAD choice of tactic. Yet, they complain 'How come I didn't spank his midfield loven ass?'

AIM - Wasn't designed for you to abandon your wing attack with TM wingers. Was designed for teams with 3 good attacks, going through the middle is an advantage against weak central D teams. 3 good attacks with the central being stronger isn't always a reason to use this.

AOW - same as AIM only reversed.

you see the pattern? regardless of what's available, people want everything to work with wingers TM.

Not picking on ya Havok, but you're my next example (you too NAIWF).

both of them trained something other than midfield when they started, but when they didn't have a %90+ win percentage, they followed suit to playmaking training.

ANY training and formation can be successful it people would use it and actually stick with it.

is midfield favored by the match engine? yes
does that make it the best tactic? no
the cheesiest? yes

Take a look at higher divisions is most countries. Most top teams are fading away from PM training as midfield is NOT the most important aspect at that level. teams that think midfield is the best will have a very short lived career in III and up and their formid attacks/defenses and E-T midfield will get eaten alive by magnificent across the board teams.

but the majority of users won't try new tactics and formations, hence they refuse to allow them the succeed.

How many people not training PM still use 3-5-2 in league? over half of them. afraid of change as I said. ;)

[DukeRulesMAB]

I actually agree with you on the higher level teams' training, though I think there's a different reason involved. Teams that train PM are at a huge disadvantage in the Cup, because their midfield trainees are not only less skilled, but also often are at a stamina disadvantage. These are teams that otherwise could compete for a title. Thus, many of them switch to other training programs that won't hurt their team nearly as much to play the trainees.

I still think you're full of it re: 3-5-2, though. :) If people only use the 3-5-2 because they are afraid of change, then why isn't there some other formation consistantly kicking its ass? If there was, don't you think people would be flocking to it? Or is it possible that it's just the formation most likely to succeed in the HT engine?

but the majority of users won't try new tactics and formations, hence they refuse to allow them the succeed.

If they were good enough to succeed, those few teams that are using them and using them well would have a large advantage over the unwashed masses still using the cookie-cutter 3-5-2. I've missed the evidence if this were actually the case.

[The Afoci]

I got a world class in my cup match vs. D&D. I had to look up where it was on the level scale. Pretty sweet. Good job Bishop. Don't worry about the complainers who are stuck with their normal level midfield. World Class is where all the cool people hang out. ;)

[Vikas]

This match of mine pretty much shows that all midfield teams have a fat chance of still winning. My opponent in this match had only a poor midfield, and excellent/outstanding/brilliant offensive ratings. I had 88% and 89% possession, giving the opponent pretty much no opportunities to score. With my totally worthless attack i scored 2 goals. So i guess boosting your midfield with everything possible does pay off :)



Midfield: divine
Right Side Defence: inadequate
Central Defence: solid
Left Side Defence: passable
Right Side Attack: weak
Central Attack: solid
Left Side Attack: weak

[Havok]

Don't worry panther..... i don't care if you use me as an example. Switching to PM training was the best thing i've ever done for my team. If you would have started off training defense like i did you'd still be in div. V just like i would be(after this season). Could i have stuck with defensive training and eventually started winning??? sure..... but i guarentee it would have taken much longer. If i would have started out training forwards i would have stuck with it. But im a anti-defensive training advocate when your new to HT. Its just a quick way to lose.... nothing else :)

You can't knock people for wanting to win and the quickest way to win when you start HT is train midfield IMO (Maybe Wingers now). Down the road in div. III and above, training midfield isn't quite as effective because you gotta sell your top middies to upgrade your team elsewhere.

[Raven Hawk]

I agree with -panther, but not so fiercely. The fact that so many people get drugged into the "3-5-2 is the greatest" belief, makes me happy. Once you learn how to beat 1 of the 3-5-2 clones, you know how to beat all of the 3-5-2 clones. Granted, I'm not 100% successful at beating them, however, if I was 100% the game wouldn't be fun.

If you field the same lineup every week in the same formation with the same tactics, you are doomed to fail at HT. There are people out there that know how to use their teams. People that will sub in a Powerful player on rainy days. People that may intentionally play all of their Nasty players in week 1 of a back to back matchup. Their teams are specifically built for tactical purposes. It may not be enough to have an outstanding player with poor secondaries. You may need a wing back that can play equally either defensive, offensive or normal.

Flexibility and variety are the keys to success in HT. So sayeth the Gargs. :)

{exit soap box left}

[BishopMVP]

Dola

Ok, Bishop, sorry but I'm just wondering, why did you go for broke on the midfield when your opponent had a poor midfield?
Because my league is very easy. That team was tied for 2nd, 9 points behind me entering the game. Just playing out the string normally and beating these teams normally has gotten boring, so I just figured I'd go for a high midfield this weekend and see what I could get. I've gotten some brilliants in friendlies w/o wingers TM, so I wanted to know what I could do MOTS. Although playing Dordea TM was the only difference from my normal formation, my team is not built for midfield. I'm a GK trainer, but my starter is only high formidable right now, which is why the defense ratings aren't higher. When I sold off previous GK's, the acquisitions were an Outstanding PM, a Brilliant PM and 2 Excellent Scorers. Next I'll probably sell off one of the excellent Scorers and go for a stud forward. Higher attack ratings are a necessity, which is why I ran the 2-5-3 for a while, until I found out it dragged down all your ratings a level or two. I want to balance my team between midfield and attack, but let's be honest, defense is a joke in the HT engine, so I'll accept that and ignore it instead of getting great defensive ratings and complaining about the engine.

[robbgmaier]

No offense, but I hate teams built like this.

I just lost to a brilliant midfield (I was excellent), 80-76 NSI in his favor. His 2-0 victory came courtesy of 2 goals with his passable attack vs my outstanding defense.

Even though I pressed, he still had 5 scoring opportunities (naturally, I had none). Fuck Hat Trick again.

no offense, but blah blah blah

[RPI-Fan]

With the marked drop in midfield prices as of late, I think we'll see more forward and winger trainers. If I can get $1m+ for my formidable forward with no secondaries or $700k for my formidable PM, which one is more desirable? The trend is the same at higher levels, I think, too.

I still think that there needs to be a change to defense training, or the match engine, for that to be viable.

[The Afoci]

I still think that there needs to be a change to defense training, or the match engine, for that to be viable.

Everyone says this, but look at the prices for defenders. They are insane. If they sped up the training, it would kill that.

[The Afoci]

Any particular reason for the assholish remark or was it just one of those days? :rolleyes:

I think what he was saying was that it has been said a million times. I know everyone thinks it sucks. But you go with what works. The NBA doesn't have a team full of midgets that says things are unfair because height means to much. I mean, everyone knows midfield is very important at lower levels. Stop bitching when it beats you.

[Havok]

I think what he was saying was that it has been said a million times. I know everyone thinks it sucks. But you go with what works. The NBA doesn't have a team full of midgets that says things are unfair because height means to much. I mean, everyone knows midfield is very important at lower levels. Stop bitching when it beats you.


in Afoci's own special way.... he just sumed up this whole argument. People do what works, you can not like it or not "Respect" them for it. But if they win why knock them???

[RPI-Fan]

Any particular reason for the assholish remark or was it just one of those days? :rolleyes:

I think he was saying (and I kind of agree with it), that people often say "no offense" when they <i>are</i> indeed purposefully offending someone.

If that's not what he's saying, I'll still stand by that remark.

[The Afoci]

But it doesn't have only one way to be successful. It does at lower levels, but get to DIII and see what happens if you are all midfield. You will get stomped. The game only allows you to go so far without balance. At upper levels, the management of your TS and your confidence are very important, as well as making sure you have good form.

[robbgmaier]

Any particular reason for the assholish remark or was it just one of those days? :rolleyes:

The particular reason is that you are whining about midfield almost constantly now. Around here, it seems to me, that when people whine constantly, they get poked with a stick. Just seemed like time to poke you. Sorry if calling you on it struck a nerve. Some people choose to train midfielders, and are perhaps having a disproportionate amount of success. Shall we hide in shame while those who righteously train something else lament week after week about a lesser team that overcomes the forces of truth and beauty?

[BishopMVP]

This was supposed to be reason to rally around and celebrate me and my superior achievement and greatness at the game, and how I am STILL UNDEFEATED in league play, but has instead turned into petty arguments between FOFC'ers. I don't want to delete this, but is there a way to lock ones own thread?

[vex]

This was supposed to be reason to rally around and celebrate me and my superior achievement and greatness at the game, and how I am STILL UNDEFEATED in league play, but has instead turned into petty arguments between FOFC'ers. I don't want to delete this, but is there a way to lock ones own thread?


There is a way to delete ones thread.

[BishopMVP]

There is a way to delete ones thread.
That post was probably an overreaction, and I don't want to do that. After all, I'd lose posts :eek: .

Seriously though, based on his comments around here tonight, it appears NAIWF is leaving either HT or FOFC, and I just hate seeing someone leave the community.

[sterlingice]

Everyone says this, but look at the prices for defenders. They are insane. If they sped up the training, it would kill that. I gotta agree with this. I think right now, starting out with playmaking training is still the way to win, but if you want cash, go with a more patient plan of training striker or defender these days. My poor midfield market has been massively deflated. Quality formidable midfielders go for <800K while defenders cost $1.2M+ and strikers with any semblance of passing are that or higher. I'm not going to touch on keeper training because I've never quite had a grasp on that economic model.

The 3-5-2 (or 4-5-1 god forbid) with a good midfield *is* the key to winning early on because winning possession *is* the easiest way to win early. Get some youngsters, pump up their stamina, and you're off and beating most Div V and Div VI foes. You don't have to spend a lot of cash improving your entire team, just get a good keeper, one good striker, and train middies.

Later on, it's more complicated, of course, as has been stated. A formidable versus a solid midfield doesn't nearly give you the advantage that a passable versus a weak does. And, my, how I love those owners who play the same formation game after game. Speaking from experience, somewhat better teams can be beat by good tactics ;)

Even though I can still autopromote this season, I'm losing interest in the game because strategy doesn't mean much of anything. When I played AOW, I got just as many goals in the middle. In two games of pressing, I've stopped 1 attack total. When there's only one way to be successful in a game long term it just gets boring. And that's pretty much all I have to say. Hm... that's an odd experience with pressing. I've done it two or three times and only have ~passable skill, yet I've pressed away 2 attacks each time. Not great, but that's a pretty

Lastly, all this talk of tactics for new players- it takes time to learn the game. You can't just pick up tactics overnight without knowing how the game flows to start. On a much more serious note, I must proclaim that those of us with the run-and-shoot, particularly my hybrid H-Gun, can't possibly run our wingers towards middle. Gotta use those guys for offense :D

Congrats, Bishop. I think the highest midfield I've ever had is formidable. I've never been anywhere near that high

SI

[DukeRulesMAB]

Re: defenders

The reason it has to stay slow (IMO), is that defense ratings accumulate faster than other ratings on a team basis. Compare your ratings if you have an all Outstanding/Brilliant defense to having an all Outstanding/Brilliant midfield. The defensive team ratings will be much higher, particularly if you pack in 4 or 5 defenders.

The team in my series that plays a 5-3-2, I don't think he has anyone above Brilliant, and he gets two divines. If they were to speed up defense, they'd either have to change the way defense is calculated or expand the ratings scale, because everyone would have divine defenses soon enough.

[FrogMan]

That post was probably an overreaction, and I don't want to do that. After all, I'd lose posts :eek: .

Seriously though, based on his comments around here tonight, it appears NAIWF is leaving either HT or FOFC, and I just hate seeing someone leave the community.
I'm also getting the feeling NAIWF is leaving, from HT only or FOFC completely is unclear, and I'm also a bit sad about losing friends in here.

This is just a game, as addicted to it as we can be, this is just a game... If he has lost interest in the game because he feels cheated out of a chance of going up, then so be it.

I know I'm kind of lucky enough to play in Canada, and that my IV league is about the average strength of a strong V league in USA, but I'm having fun with seeing how MY team is performing and I think I'd have as much fun if I wasn't winning as much...

I'm getting ready to experiment some sort of crosstraining with wingers and playmakers. May not get the best of results, may start losing games I should have won, but who cares, I have a 4 days old kiddo at home :D

FM

[Raven Hawk]

:rolleyes:

If your team performed better than mine week to week, I'd probably heed your advice, but it doesn't, so I won't. It's frustrating being stuck in a D5 for almost a real life year with three teams that can reach 80 NSI's and seeing teams in the lowest level losing games with formidable midfields while some D4's don't even do that. You got lucky with an absurdly easy series, I didn't, that doesn't mean that my complaints aren't warranted. Lastly, if my "whining" offended you, then please accept my sincerest sympathies, or better yet don't reply and feel superior from afar.

The NSI is evil. I don't know what it's actual success rates are at predicting games, but I have found it to be relatively silly this year. What it boils down to is that the NSI can be used as a ROUGH guideline for a teams performance. The method that it employs triples the value of midfield, when in fact, we do not know that midfield is triple the value of any of the other ratings. Does make sense? Yes. Is it the truth? No. It is just a consensus opinion. Last season it made sense. This season it does not. Through 10 games, it appears to me that NSI is working at about 60%-70% correct in my matches. Is it an indicator? Yes. Is it a reliable indicator? No.

And NAIWF, the fact that your AOW did not succeed does not mean that it is not a good tactic. It means that you need to improve your personnel to be able to play it better. Or set your orders to play it better. With an Outstanding AOW this past week, I had 5 out of my 7 opportunities come on the wings. Just because you can employ a tactic doesn't mean that your team will be good at using it.

If you aren't good at running a tactic, why are you running it?

[robbgmaier]

:rolleyes:

If your team performed better than mine week to week, I'd probably heed your advice, but it doesn't, so I won't. It's frustrating being stuck in a D5 for almost a real life year with three teams that can reach 80 NSI's and seeing teams in the lowest level losing games with formidable midfields while some D4's don't even do that. You got lucky with an absurdly easy series, I didn't, that doesn't mean that my complaints aren't warranted. Lastly, if my "whining" offended you, then please accept my sincerest sympathies, or better yet don't reply and feel superior from afar.

not only am i ashamed to be training midfield, but now I have to deal with the ignominity of having been placed in a series that is soft enough for me to survive in. thank god i haven't had a million dollar youth pull, or i might have to go on antidepressants.

[BishopMVP]

The NSI is evil. I don't know what it's actual success rates are at predicting games, but I have found it to be relatively silly this year. What it boils down to is that the NSI can be used as a ROUGH guideline for a teams performance. The method that it employs triples the value of midfield, when in fact, we do not know that midfield is triple the value of any of the other ratings. Does make sense? Yes. Is it the truth? No. It is just a consensus opinion. Last season it made sense. This season it does not. Through 10 games, it appears to me that NSI is working at about 60%-70% correct in my matches. Is it an indicator? Yes. Is it a reliable indicator? No.http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?t=18262&highlight=NSI

That was a discussion we had on problems with NSI. TP6 may disagree, but I still think that my formula of midfield=6x, attack ratings=1.5x and defense ratings=1x works better than NSI, but I've never conducted serious statistical analysis.

[TargetPractice6]

You're still way off base with that.

[vex]

You're still way off base with that.


Better suggestion?

[BishopMVP]

Maybe the way I went about explaining it was confusing, but I still think the main thrust of my argument is correct. If you have 2 teams that don't use tactics, Team A with passable ratings at attack, a passable midfield and outstanding defence across the board playing Team B, which has passable ratings on attack and defence and an outstanding midfield, Team B will win more, despite their NSI's being equal (66.) Under my system, Team B would have an NSI of 105 versus an NSI of while Team A's NSI would be 93, a better reflection, IMO, of the true strength of each team.

[TargetPractice6]

I ran your match through apoc's HMC. It gives both Team A and Team B a 37% chance of winning.

[BishopMVP]

I ran your match through apoc's HMC. It gives both Team A and Team B a 37% chance of winning.
Wasn't that made before event goals?

[TargetPractice6]

No, but it still doesn't take into account event goals. That could tilt it either way though since event goals are dependent on ratings. Either way, special events are way too random to factor in.

[Raven Hawk]

Better suggestion?

Imagine your ratings being three sides of a triangle. A=Attack, B=Defense, and C=3x Midfield. If the square root of your midfield is greater than the sum of your attack and defense, then you are playing an obtuse formation and should be spanked accordingly. If the square root of your midfield is less than the sum of your attack and defense, then you are playing an acute formation and will have a hard time scoring from such angles. If the square root of your midfield is EXACTLY EQUAL to the sum of your attack and defense, then you are playing the game just right, pray that the three bears don't come home and kick you out on your arse.

Though nothing is truly random, I think that the HT devs have landed a pretty good product. If you start assigning probabilities to game ratings, you will go mad. Just when you think you have it figured out, they will make a slight modification to the engine that will throw all of your calculations off and nulify all of your data.

Have fun with the game and play in styles that you think are fun. Eventually the devs will tilt the table in your odds. :) The sad part is two seasons later, they will once again tilt the table out of your favor. Right now, I'm enjoying the riches of being a scoring trainer. However in two seasons, when everybody has switched to scoring and winger training and driven the prices down on those attributes. Then people will switch to the 'flavor of the season' training and prices will go back up. Hattrick is as cyclical as the stock market, if you try to wager on every spike, you could win big, you could lose big. However, the ones that really win are the ones that realize that long term investment is the key to success. The same is true in hattrick. Create a plan for your team and stick to it. This doesn't mean that you can't change if you want to. Just plan for it if that's what your going to do. Don't get caught up in a whim.