Hattrick Beginner Asking for Advice

[nwvz77]

First off, I've enjoyed this site for over a year now, tonight I finally registered and this is my very first post.

I've just begun my first attempt at Hattrick and am looking for any advice on where to position my players. I know very little about the sport and would appreciate any help. I've read several beginner's and newbie's quick guides, and have played and won my first cup game, but I think it was way too close when comparing players. So, I figure I probably have my players at least somewhat out of position.

I plan on running primarily a 3-5-2 as that what seems to be the agreed upon most effective formation. Heres what I've got.

Jonathan Hernandez:
$236,000 28 years old, passable form
stamina: passable
playmaking: poor
winger: inadequate
scoring: passable
passing: passable
defending: solid

Lucio Perez:
$137,000 27 years old, inadequate form
stamina: weak
playmaking: weak
winger: poor
scoring: solid
passing: passable
defending: inadequate

Hal Lott
$131,000 19 years old, inadequate form
stamina: weak
playmaking: weak
winger: passable
scoring: passable
passing: inadequate
defending: passable

Collin Ventura
$131,000 23 years old, inadequate form
stamina: inadequate
playmaking: solid
winger: weak
scoring: weak
passing: inadequate
defending: passable

Ivan Guinn
$128,000 21 years old, solid form
stamina: weak
playmaking: inadequate
winger: passable
scoring: weak
passing: wretched
defending: passable

David Soto
$91,000 24 years old, weak form
stamina: poor
playmaking: disastrous
winger: inadequate
scoring: inadequate
passing: inadequate
defending: solid

Kevin Chester
$64,000 26 years old, wretched form
stamina: wretched
playmaking: solid
winger: passable
scoring: inadequate
passing: wretched
defending: passable

Tai Po-Hsin
$64,000 26 years old, inadequate form
stamina: poor
playmaking: passable
winger: poor
scoring: passable
passing: poor
defending: wretched

Gene Mattingly
$61,000 24 years old, poor form
stamina: solid
playmaking: wretched
winger: weak
scoring: weak
passing: weak
defending: solid

Joe Valle
$61,000 23 years old, poor form
stamina: passable
playmaking: wretched
winger: inadequate
scoring: passable
passing: weak
defending: inadequate

Chip Mitchell
$25,000 23 years old, inadequate form
stamina: poor
playmaking: weak
winger: weak
scoring: weak
passing: passable
defending: poor

Noel Raines
$25,000 21 years old, weak form
stamina: solid
playmaking: poor
winger: inadequate
scoring: inadequate
passing: weak
defending: wretched

Jorge Chatman
$20,000 21 years old, inadequate form
stamina: poor
playmaking: weak
winger: inadequate
scoring: poor
passing: weak
defending: weak

Kristopher Cox
$10,000 25 years old, poor form
stamina: weak
playmaking: wretched
winger: passable
scoring: poor
passing: disastrous
defending: weak

Bob Coy
$8,000 21 years old, weak form
stamina: inadequate
playmaking: inadequate
winger: disastrous
scoring: weak
passing: poor
defending: disastrous

There you have it, I'm an open book!

[GoldenEagle]

Not a bad team at all. You could probably move Hal Lott for alot of money, although I wouldnt recommend it unless your in debt.

What division are you in?

[Qwikshot]

You have a fantastic team...unfortunately I'm too exhausted to write anymore about it, hopefully someone else will help you, if not I'll report on it later...

[Doug5984]

you were given a team in very good shape...
You have some players that could be used at a few positions...you might consider selling them for a lot of $$$ and buying players that are better at just 1 position but with the current players you have I would recomend using 4 defenders, possibly the 4-5-1.
For the 4-5-1....
Lott & Guinn as your 2 wingbacks.
Sotto & Mattingly as your 2 central Defenders.
Ventura - Chester - Po Hsin as your 3 Inner midfielders.
Cox & Raines as your 2 wingers.
Perez as your forward.

You got a good group of players- I didn't pick a position for Hernandez because he could go to a few spots, and you have 2 other solid defenders...You might consider selling him and using that money to get a good keeper...Also, you didn't list any keepers....you do have atleast 1 correct?

If you do decide to go to the 3-5-2 then You should sell 2 of your solid defenders and pick up another solid scorer with good passing.

I am also pretty new to hattrick so I am not sure this is the best advice, you might want to wait and get some more advice from a long time hattricker just to make sure, also have you decided what you are going to train? You will want to get some good young backups at those positions to play in friendlies....How is your coach? Another thing the form of your team appears to be not that great, so you might want to train general next week to try and bring that up a little.

[nwvz77]

GoldenEagle: V.140

Doug: Yes, I have two keepers but that decision is a no brainer so I didn't even list them.

Thanks for the replies so far.

[nwvz77]

Doug: I too noticed the low form ratings and will probably train general for a couple weeks. Coach is inadequate who goes all out with formidable experience and inadequate leadership.

[sterlingice]

Depending on how good your league is, you might compete for a title this year. You have a very good team, but it's somewhat old and it's even more odd.

Check out mybestteam.tk and see where they want you to place some of your players and how it affects your team ratings. I'm really not sure where to put some of your guys (those are marked by ?? below)

I know it sounds odd but you might want to sell Hernandez for a high price (start at $300K-ish and see if anyone bites). His skills are not complimentary which doesn't help your team but someone may be blinded by the sheer number of passables and solid and you can strengthen your team where you need it more. Lott is the same- he's young but you might be able to get some great money for him due to his complimentary skills. Hell, I'd love to get my hands on Lott, train him for a couple of years at middie and then he's the ulimate winger at 21 with excellent pm and passable wing, defense, and scoring with inad passing.

??: Hernandez, Lott (i have them tenatively slotted below)
GK:
DW: Guinn
DM: Soto, Mattingly
WI: Chester (defensive), Lott
MI: Po-Hsin
FO: Perez, Hernandez

It only will take a good pair of middies (pretty expensive but worth it) and a passable goalie ($60-$80K) so that you have passable in all primary and secondary skills along with some solids. That's just, well, solid ;)

You have a pretty good team but it's a schizophrenic team so check out my best team and post your results here.

SI

[Havok]

dam.... did you just get that team?? or did you buy some of those players already???

Because if thats the team you were given consider yourself VERY lucky. Thats an excellent team to start with. Also... take a look at this thread i had going yesterday.
http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7291

and check out this website http://hem.passagen.se/hammervald/abc_of_tactics/abc_of_tactics_index.htm


and 1 last peice of advice.... ASK questions. Dont do something your gonna regret. Post any question you have here. There are alot of HT veterns here that will answer any question you have pretty fast.

good luck and welcome to the FOFC HT community :)
our Hattrick motto is...........

"Resistance is Futile"

[RonnieDobbs]

on that note, I'd really appreciate some advice over at my dynasty thread... sorry to threadjack a little, link is in the signature... TIA :)

[albionmoonlight]

Does playing friendlies give you more money? Is there a downside to playing them--other than injury?

[Doug5984]

Originally posted by albionmoonlight
Does playing friendlies give you more money? Is there a downside to playing them--other than injury?

yeah you get a little bit of money, but most importantly is you can play more players so that you can have more players get training....if you are training defending then you will want to run a 5-4-1 or something and you will get 5 exta players to train. Injury is really the only downside, but in friendlies you would want to play your backups so if a player were injured it shouldn't be a starter

[Qwikshot]

Originally posted by albionmoonlight
Does playing friendlies give you more money? Is there a downside to playing them--other than injury?

You get some money, not a lot...international friendlies generate more money but if you are the traveling one I believe it costs six grand just for the travel (I believe you do generate more experience playing an international friendlies though). You schedule friendlies to train your b level talent because win/losing isn't the point...it's to allow/give your rookies and youth pulls the chance to advance in what you are training.

[daedalus]

What Doug5984 and Q said. Additionally, it's a decent way to train an extra formation to be proficient at. I played 3-5-2 in my friendlies last year to get my team to learn it so I could move from my standard 4-4-2 this season. DK plays 3-5-2 in-game and 5-3-2 in friendlies so his team is proficient in two different formations.