The economies of keeping a B team

[QuikSand]

At the moment, afterhustling players for most of last season, my Cheapshots have calmed down and now only are carrying 18 players. My intent was to fish around and pick up some appropriate B-teamers, but I now openly wonder whether that makes the most sense.

I understand the inherent benefit of using B-teamers in the area you are training, to build up their value for either sale or use. My club has been training playmaking, and so having a rotation of middle infielders (or guys playing elsewhere who can rotate to MI for cup matches) is important. Got it.

But does it truly make sense to field a whole second team for off-matches? I'd be out some significant capital if I now go and pick up another eight players - maybe $150,000-200,000 if I'm frugal. And I'd be paying those salaries every week - another $5,000 a week at the least, I expect - probably more.

And so the point of this is - to avoid injuries to my starters, of course. But if I get an injury, can't I just go and plug that hole as needed - go buy a guy for $50,000 or so, use him for a few weeks, and then sell him away after my starter is healed? I more or less break even on that transfer (assuming I make a wise purchase), get what Ineed for my club, and come out fine. My current squad is not so star-dependant that losing any one player would be cataclysmic (were that not the case, perhaps I'd reconsider this thinking) and so I'm not that worried abotu the performance drop from my current guy to a replacement off the transfer wire.


Any thoughts on this? I'v heard that nearly everyone carries 22 players, sometimes many more. Right now, I'm thinking that my curretn squad size-- 11 starters, plus only a handful of young replacements and one or two jacks-of-all-trades -- might be the way to go.

I haven't given this much deep thought... I may well be missing something fundamental. Would welcome corrections, if appropriate.

[Airhog]

hmm im carrying 21 players, but OTOH I never use a B squad, time too trim some fat ;)

[HornedFrog Purple]

Interesting question. I should preface by saying that I don't do standard 1 skill training for the season.

2 weeks stamina
7 weeks defending
5 weeks playmaking
2 weeks passing

Now of course my players take longer to develop, usually a skill increase in defending or playmaking takes 2 seasons, but I do pretty well selling wingbacks and defenders who end up with good stamina and passing after a 2 season program.

This approach in a way forces me to have more players since the only thing I don't train is scoring in some way. Therefore I have more players. I offset the increased cost by selling the older graduates of the program and in the end make a profit.

Form also has a factor in this so if a starter is in bad form I can replace him with a b-team member in good form and also grab him some experience to boot. This makes my squad pretty interchangeable except for a couple of positions.

That is really why I do have a larger squad. Since I use 4-5-1 and 3-5-2 sometimes for friendlies, I need 5 extra midfielders and 4 or 5 extra defenders to maximize training, plus my backup keeper. I am very nitpicky when I do go looking on the transfer list so I don't use the "spend money to plug holes" approach.

That's the thing with hattrick, you can run the team any way you see fit.

[Airhog]

I cut it down too 18 players I have the standard 11 starters, 5 backups, and 2 all around players to fill any gaps. I figure that the other 3 players were dead weight, and none of them had started more than 1 game. This should save me a few thousand a week, which will help..

[Nyarlahotep]

I do keep an entire b-squad. Mosstly it is made up of leftovers or mediocre youth pulls. They don't have big salaries, some switch to the a-squad depending on form. I would hate to (even if I had the money) try to replace one of my 2.5-3.5* starters on the spur of the moment because he got injured in a meaningless game. I am spending more tha I would like in wages, but the expensive ones that I don't need are slowly being replaced with youth pulls. If I do get desperately close to bankruptcy they will just about all be put up for sale, but until then they are worth the extra money.

[dacman]

I keep 22 players for a couple of reasons:

1) Form -- you just never know when a guy's form will sometimes tank. If you have backups at every spot, you're never stuck playing a bad form player in an important game.

2) Trainees -- not keeping a 2nd team of trainees at least at the position getting training in your training program is a waste, IMHO. I train playmaking and run a 3-5-2, so I have 10 middies.

3) Injuries -- I keep training intensity at 100% so I routinely have guys injured. If I had to purchase players every time I had a hole to fill, I'd probably waste just as much in transfer fees as it costs just to keep the player around. Also, I really do not like risking a star player's health in a meaningless game, so I keep B teamers for friendlies to minimize injury risk to A teamers.

Most of my B teamers are inadequate in their key skill, and those players are usually not that expensive to keep around.

[TargetPractice6]

I just keep friendly fodder around. Several have been okay pulls from my youth squad, and sometimes I even throw my coach in. I don't want any starters to get hurt in a meaningless match, and don't want to give up a walkover. But since it is meaningless, I don't concern myself with having a good backup team (save for trainees).

[BishopMVP]

I'm training Playmaking, and I think the optimum number is 19-21. Starting 11, plus a backup GK, Defender, Forward, 2 Wingers and 3 Inner Mids. If you want to toss in 1 or 2 other backups somewhere (WB, another Mid) that should work too. This is just what I use, but it ensures that you have backups available in case of injury and full trainees.

Quiksand - It was unclear in your original post, but don't forget that Wingers also get 1/2 training for playmaking, so having 4 of them can be worthwhile.

[Alf]

Right now, i am at 19 players plus the coach (who can play if I need to fill a 11 man team for a friednly) :

11 starters
1 backup keeper
5 middies trainies (who can also play, wingers and def if needed)
1 backup forward
1 all-around backup