Mine was prettier when I did it!

Tell

Killing off the team?

I'm still fighting around in II.1, trying to avoid relegation. I'm curious what the changes are for next season, but I suspect what will happen is that they're going to make 3-5-2 neutered but all it will do is make the nerfers go to another formation like, say, 4-4-2 or whatever is strongest.

SI

not exactly. just going to train up 10 defenders (mixed winger/playmaking/passing secondaries) for a year or more and then figure out what to do. I got tired of bouncing between III and IV and figured the only way to make a break was to sell everyone and just train.

I'm fighting for french IV.50 title (leading before week14) and a draw would get me the title and the Qualification game.

I'm going to have a qually in a week to stay in II but I've survived 2 seasons now. Hopefully I can win a chance for a 3rd :D

SI

My first season finished up rather well. We hammered the team that won the league 6-2 in the last game of the season. We finished in 2nd place, one point out of first place.

The real question is what to do next. We should win the league easily next season and I have all of my trainees, so I don't really need to invest much in the squad. My stadium is still the basic stadium, so I am thinking about expanded to around 25,000. I have roughly $850,000.

The other thing I am considering is switching to a youth squad instead of the weekly pulls. My youth squad is excellent though and I am not sure I want to lose the potential income of a good pull. That might be something I do in the future.

Thoughts?

I find the youth squad far more enjoyable than the traditional system. It takes more time as you need to set lineups and adjust your training regularly to identify the potential skills of your players. It's also nice having two 15 year old with solid scoring potential that I can pull the day they turn 17 in a season or two.


I just finished my second season in division 5 (my 4th season back). I also need to expand my stadium from my current 25K. At some point, I need to think about converting one of my player to a solid coach with good leadership so I can actually use PIC more strategically (currently, I have a solid coach with wretched leadership). Unfortunately, I don't have enough money for both right now.

I started up again last month. Only got 3 league games in, but won them all to finish second. I'm in VI, of course.

I'm trying to make this more interesting, so I'm going for a US-only squad for now. I'm training keepers again, so as to keep the costs down. Got lucky with a 19-year old Inadequate keeper purchase for 2k. He popped after the first week's training. My other guy is 17 and he just popped to Passable, also, so I'm feeling fine. They've both been injured a week each, but it hasn't messed up training for either.

Right now I'm not doing anything with Youth. No weekly investments at all. I'm putting the money into the senior squad, although that's on hiatus until the new season starts. I do plan to go the new Youth Academy after I get solid financials, perhaps when I go up to V.

Only one other returning human, so I have no ideas what to expect for next season.

Plus all the tactical options have me scratching my head. I need to take some time to look over the new engine and orders.

I survived my qually and get another season in II :)

As for youth squad vs pull- I think squad is more interesting and probably more "guaranteed" profits whereas pull can net you that really lucky pick. That said, I've had my youth squad since season 33 when they started. I've invested $2.86M and have made back just a hair over $3M.

There are a lot of factors unaccounted for there. That doesn't include costs of putting the players up for sale or the revenue from future mother club money. There was also a point about 3 or 4 seasons into the youth squad where they adjusted levels upward because the youth squad was glitchy and they hadn't been leveling players properly and I made a bunch of cash from those adjusted players. But I also was a dufus and was training individual for a while because I was trying to get the most for all of my players, not understanding how individual worked and now I've been training the actual skills and rotating what I do on various weeks and what positions guys play to max out training. As a result, over the past 3 seasons, I'm looking at a $1.7M profit and $900K investment.

But to get back on topic, I think a big deal is that the youth squad is quite a bit more fun and adds something else to play around with each week. Also, I have added a tab to my hattrick spreadsheet just for the youth squad to keep track of training. That said, I've never had 2 15yos at once with the possibility of being solid anything when they mature- I think that's pretty lucky. But, for instance, I just promoted a 17yo 0day solid defender (technical, tho) and have an older 16yo who I'm racing the clock, trying to get him to solid pm before he turns 17 but I may not make it.

SI

Also, considering the current "fans" and engine, I would not race to get out of VI. Spend some time, build up that cash, get fat and play for 2nd. Same problems as before with fans, only magnified now because the "smart fans" remember from season to season. You want to save up cash and make a gradual ascent or else you'll be far behind the cash curve as you move up and fans will leave you in droves, even when you're merely mediocre.

SI

It looks like V is a lot tougher than use to be as well. The team that won my division played a qualifier against a 5th place team from V and got beat 9-0. The team from V put up a low inadequate midfield. I am sure he was MOTSing, but still.

About how many players is everyone carrying these days? I have 23 on my roster. I am thinking about cutting back on that.

I have 28 right now but I have 3 youth pulls I'm trying to sell. I also have a couple of scrubs that are place holders because I don't want anyone injured in friendlies since my starters aren't really replaceable.

SI

This wasn't my experience. I promoted after my first full season back. Had a couple 5th place finishes in V before I got rolling, but even still I wasn't losing fans and was actually making plenty more sponsor/gate money than when I was in VI. Granted I wasn't in an incredibly difficult V, but it was far from a cakewalk too.

I just signed up again. Polirules

One of the things that is very different is that the quality of the players has risen. By that I mean I got promoted out of V to IV several years ago with Solids except for my keeper trainees. Now, Solids are dirt cheap and I need to reach for Excellents to get any where near the team that just dropped down to my VI.

I spent 23k to bring my starters up to all passable, and now I see that Solids are 5-10k at most positions. Since I spent an average of 2k per Passable starter, I'm not out anything but time. Now I need to trawl for those 50k Excellents.

I picked up a 31-yr old middie with Exc PM and Solid Passing for 62k yesterday, my first non-USA player. Then I added a 30-yr old Solid PM/Passable passing PM for 9k.

I'm no hurry to win anything, just build awhile, so I'll be rummaging the bargain bin this season.

I think you are going to see some wild variations in VI. My series will be a cakewalk for me next year, but it sounds like some of them might be pretty tough. It is kinda like the new V. When most of us signed up the first time, we were put into V. Some series were good, some were bad.

I think I will want to win my division this year and then look to stay up in V next year depending on where I get placed.

I survived and will be back in II.1 for yet another season :D

SI

OG,

When are you finding the best time to bargain hunt? Based on my limited research, it looks like midfielders are the softest market. Defenders and Strikers are more expensive. Goalkeepers seem to be overpriced. You are not going to find any bargains there.

Also, any interest in a FOFC youth league?

The best time so far is around 9PM EST when there aren't many players active. I'm usually up against South Americans. I'm very finicky and start out with a top price in mind and never go past that. I lose a guy more often than not, but other targets come into view. I find that bidding on the third or fourth chronological target works out best. I pick a players I like then figure out if there will be battles up ahead of me for similar positions. I drop down 20-30 minutes to pick a target or two. Seems that people give up in disgust when they are outbid and don't stay online to bid on other, similar players. If I'm in a hot bidding situation, I'll drop out but follow the action, hoping the others will be so focused on this player that they overlook the one I really want. This has worked for me. I don't go after more than one position at a time, so I maintain focus. I often get a better side like passing when I do this.

I agree mids are cheapest. Wingers and forwards look expensive to me. I'm looking at Solid to Excellent now.

Damn it. We are out of the Cup in Round 1 after losing 3-2. We gave up three straight unanswered goals in the last 23 minutes. Oh well, at least I won't sink anymore money into trying to improve the squad for a cup run.

Well the good news is a 8-0 Cup win.

The bad news is BOTH keeper trainees are hurt, one game and THREE games. That makes four injuries in four competitive matches for my two trainees. I'm not very psyched for finding two replacement keepers, so this will be it for me unless the one gamer turns bruised by the next game.

I'm not interested in my top salary guy being dead wood for three-four weeks.

Not this season. I plan on having a youth team, but not until I settle in this year. Which might not happen if the trainee injury situation does not improve fast.

I still have a youth squad but I'd have to line up the start time of FOFC with the end time of my league.

SI

Stupid question that deals with stars.


Does that mean the player got two stars out of a possible 3? Was three his best?

I'd like to know about the stars and the other game stats at the bottom of the match report. I have yet to find a link that explains all that.

I'd be up for an FOFC Youth league that begins with next season--if that is a good starting point for everyone.

BTW, I checked my cash (~300k) and there is an 18-old Solid keeper from the US (to keep the salary down) for sale tomorrow. Looks like around 150-175 should snag him. He is about half way to Excellent, so the 3-4 weeks of down time for the long injury trainee should be enough time to get this kid to Excellent. Then I can make a decision what to do. Since someone else is likely to be out at that time, just hanging on to all three and training them up is the likely solution.

The partial stars have to do with stamina, iirc. Basically, he had 3 stars when he started the game but he got tired and was only giving 2 stars worth at the end of the game.

SI

That would make sense. It looks like my team ran out gas at the end. We are not exactly fit and I train 95/5.

That being said, why would my keeper run out of gas? Just stand in front of the goal.

Cupset!

Yea, I noticed you were still in the cup AE. I was also surprised that you got a poor midfield.

You and me both. Wasn't sure what happened there...when I saw the first half possession I was fairly certain I'd lose this one. Of course, my team spirit was in the tank after adding the new guys...that likely had something to do with it.

Where is the Team Spirit indicator these days?

The training page.

I now have formidable experience with the 3-4-3, which is surprising considering the highest you can go is excellent.

Same with me and 3-5-2. Probably will adjust downwards before Sunday, tho.


I think the sweet spot is 11 or 12. I train 14% stamina as my middies are mostly older.

SI

We won our first league game, 6-1. I made better use of substitutions so that my players did not get as tired. The game was on the road and against the only other team that could give me competition this season, so I am glad we cruised to victory.

I switched to the Youth Academy and hired three scouts. I 'called' each of them last night. My understanding is that I can only sign one player per week, right? Can I call all three of my scouts and then decide which player to sign? Also, what is a good skill level per age. If a player 15 and is primary skill is weak, is that good?

You may NOT call each scout and then choose. You MUST choose the player the scout offers if you want him or he will be lost to you. A good idea is to only pull 15 year old players, because those players you have at least a full season to train them before they reach 17. Many times you won't get good info on a players skills, at times you'll get their minimum in one skilll, a max in another. Sometimes you'll see overall skills. Hopefully you'll see a good high potential for a player, or perhaps a high overall skill level. Most times you won't. Others might have more info on that than I.

Do I need to set match orders for my youth team? I really don't know much about the players on my team. All the values are listed as unknown except the one I pulled this weekend. I understand that I am borrowing players from a local club until I get enough for my own.

You will have to set lineups for the YA. When you first start, it's just a matter of moving the kids around to see where they play best. The kids you start out with won't amount to all that much, so you'll likely want to train for the kids you pull from your scouts, hopefully you'll find one that's worth it in not too long a time. Way I did it was just rotate kids through all the positions until I found the best spot for each. Still have a lot of the starting kids on my team, though I don't intend to ever bother promoting them. Tell

If anyone is looking for a youth league, my league, USA Youth Soccer (6705), is looking for a 16th member.

Unbelievably, we are through to the third round of the cup, 2-0. I still don't have a clue what the ratings at the bottom of the match report mean, but the prediction was I'd win 1.4-0 so that knows what is going on.

I wasn't around to go after the goalie I mentioned and got outbid by a maniac for a solid near Excellent goalie today. Even with the quick pop, he won't make much given that I made go to 300k+ for the guy. My new 50k passable will go Solid in two weeks, at most, so I'm happy. The injured goalie is still showing one red cross, so I doubt he can play Saturday--I do have my first choice ready for that game. the oldest is the injured fellow, so he will go after he pops to Solid. Since I bought him for 1k, that will be a nifty profit.

I MOTS'd the first Cup, TIEed the league game (getting hammered 6-0 by the team dropping down) and now my TS is MURDEROUS. I will TIE this Saturday in the league, and I doubt I will have a favorable matchup in the third round, but I'll wait and see.

I think that's a huge key early on for your youth squad. Rotate your players around for the first couple of games until you find what they are good at. That way you know what to concentrate one.

SI

I made the draw in week14.
Won the IV.50 title
Got to the promotion game
Won it (and easily)

I'm now being hit hard in III.2, let's see if I can stay there.

My youth academy scouts apparently have an eye for forwards. Last night I pulled a 15.81 solid cap scorer. My youth squad currently has a 16.57 (pull at 17.08), 15.109 solid scoring, solid wing, head (pull at 17.00), and a 16.70 solid scoring, inad passing (pull at 17.00). I don't think any are the idea age for u20s, so I'm considering switching from defense training to scoring. It's not an ideal time to switch, but it's not bad. My current crop of trainees are all hitting brilliant and are around 21 years old. I'm just intrigued about running a training program with all my youth academy players.

I've never had that sort of cohesion with my youth squad. I'll have a couple at all positions (fo, im, de) at all times that I'm training as my scouts can never get together like that ;)

SI

Just sold my first youth acad trainees (17yo and 0 day). The first one, a triple passable for 714k, and the second, an excellent winger for 1.2M (my first excellent ever).

Getting the lads at 17yo 0 days of the academy is the way to go it seems to make money.

I am pretty excited about the player I brought into my academy last week:

Jerry Gooch (82393690)

15 years and 28 days, Next birthday: 9-1-2010

Team:	Arkansas Cobras Juniors
Nationality:	USA
First day with club:	6-6-2010 06.27 (3 days ago)
Warnings:	0
Injuries:	Healthy

Player skills

Keeper:	unknown
Defending:	unknown
Playmaking:	unknown
Winger:		unknown (max inadequate)
Passing:	unknown
Scoring:		inadequate (max unknown)
Set pieces:	unknown

I don't his max scoring yet, but it looks pretty promising. He put 6.5 stars in his first game as a striker.

My favorite at the moment:

Neal Watts 15 years and 33 days [Head]

Keeper:	unknown
Defending:		inadequate (max solid)
Playmaking:		unknown (max solid)
Winger:	unknown
Passing:		unknown (max passable)
Scoring:		unknown (max weak)
Set pieces:	unknown

SI

Nice.