Fifa 14 Youth Academy and Player Growth

[eyeamg0dly]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gnemi

Actually, if you go back and look, you'll note that nobody said goalie progression was too fast last year. Rather, that was a straw man argument made by Tony. I described my experiences with goalkeepers and they progressed better than any other player on my squad last year. I do, however, agree that progression was just fine last year. It's important to remember that everybody has a different approach and circumstance to playing FIFA and utilizing the Youth Academy. Not everybody hires three 5 star scouts and spams Spain, Brazil, and Argentina. Not everybody wants their Youth Academy filled with players from South America. Not everybody wants to populate their entire squad with youth players that have 88+ potential. Believe it or not, not everybody wants to populate their entire team, or any part of it for that matter, with the magical reincarnated souls of Messi, Totti, or Van Persie. So rather than berate or flame people who don't share the exact perspective you have with regards to FIFA and its Youth Academy, try to enjoy the plurality of opinions and thoughts on the topic because obviously the FIFA community at OS are an eclectic, ragtag bunch.

good post.

I usually put one scout in the country my club is from. one scout in the country national team I am managing. Last year I didn't use the 3rd scout because of how easy I felt it was to get studs. I always go 9 months in each country and then rotate out the kiddies who aren't going to hit those 90+ potentials.

I played with celtic and moved them to championship and built them into a powerhouse. My US national team was pretty good too.

[Gnemi]

Quote: Originally Posted by eyeamg0dly

good post. I usually put one scout in the country my club is from. one scout in the country national team I am managing. Last year I didn't use the 3rd scout because of how easy I felt it was to get studs. I always go 9 months in each country and then rotate out the kiddies who aren't going to hit those 90+ potentials. I played with celtic and moved them to championship and built them into a powerhouse. My US national team was pretty good too.

That's about exactly how I do it, except I send a scout to the country my manager is from - in my situation, that's Ireland. In fact, I sim until I find a 5-star scout from Ireland!

I send my other scout wherever I want, but often I send him to the country of the league I'm in: England.

Then, once I have enough homegrown talent, I start getting exotic and hitting Ivory Coast, Japan, etc.

If my club was populated with nothing but Spaniards and Brazilians, I'd stop playing FIFA.

[jatiger13]

@Gnemi

Totally scout the same way you do. I like to have some diversity on my team. In fact, last year I had a lot of luck finding great players in smaller football countries. Like Northern Ireland, Egypt, New Zealand, Finland, Cameroon. I found more talented players in one of those countries than I ever did in Brazil or Spain.

Another thing I don't like about the spanish youth players is that a lot of them have the same name. You'll end up have 3 players named Juan Garcia or something like that

[Gnemi]

Quote: Originally Posted by jatiger13

@Gnemi Totally scout the same way you do. I like to have some diversity on my team. In fact, last year I had a lot of luck finding great players in smaller football countries. Like Northern Ireland, Egypt, New Zealand, Finland, Cameroon. I found more talented players in one of those countries than I ever did in Brazil or Spain. Another thing I don't like about the spanish youth players is that a lot of them have the same name. You'll end up have 3 players named Juan Garcia or something like that

Hah! I was hoping somebody would mention the name things. It's really embarrassing. Why can't EA spend 20 minutes of research time with some lowly intern or something to put a meaningful database of names into FIFA. Instead, they go the ultra lazy route and recycle names that are already in the game.

E.g. One of the best prospects I ever had was named Marcus Loftus-Cheek. Are you $%&#ing kidding me, EA??? I just happened to find another young player with a hyphenated last name similar to Ruben Loftus-Cheek???

I also recruited, several times, guys with names identical to real players. Jose Enrique, Maxi Rodriguez...ugh.

[Rospokadu]

Anyone having trouble on finding decent strikers?? most of them come with vely low finishing/shooting attributes.

I do a lot of testing with the scout.ini, but i rarely get any good strikers (it pisses me off that searching for "attackers" brings up a ton os Wingers and CAM's, but almost none CF or ST)

Also, my LB\RB's seem to be growing quite slowly.

[jatiger13]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gnemi

Hah! I was hoping somebody would mention the name things. It's really embarrassing. Why can't EA spend 20 minutes of research time with some lowly intern or something to put a meaningful database of names into FIFA. Instead, they go the ultra lazy route and recycle names that are already in the game. E.g. One of the best prospects I ever had was named Marcus Loftus-Cheek. Are you $%&#ing kidding me, EA??? I just happened to find another young player with a hyphenated last name similar to Ruben Loftus-Cheek??? I also recruited, several times, guys with names identical to real players. Jose Enrique, Maxi Rodriguez...ugh.

Yeah its really annoying.

I encountered a weird glitch in 13 when I was managing Viking FK from Norway. Every youth player would have a norweigan first name. It was really odd. For example an irish player was named Vegard Dixon. It wasn't just my team that was hit by this glitch. Every team in the world was hit by it.
I ended up quitting that career because of that. Its the only time that has ever happened to me.

[minervau]

I'm liking the changes to youth academy so far. In my third season in, my best prospect so far is a CM/CDM who joined the first team as 75 overall (89-94 potential). Hopefully he develops over the next few years into a superstar!

[minervau]

I'll add some general impressions from having played/simmed through three seasons:

1 -- I'm finding lots of elite prospects all over the world, and have branched my scouting out even more than I have in previous FIFA iterations. For instance, I just sent a scout on a three-month stint in Scotland, and every single update included one, sometimes two, players with an upper end potential in the 92-94 range. I've also found success in scouting: Norway (a few goalkeepers with upper end potential at 92-94), Cameroon (my best prospect in my youth academy is a 15 year-old from Cameroon who's already in the upper 60s and has 88-94 potential), Ivory Coast, Colombia, and Uruguay. I even scouted China and Romania and found some players who were pretty good (potential up around 90-92).

On the other hand, I found that subsequent trips to traditional powerhouses like Spain and Brazil have actually produced fewer prospects with each passing year, perhaps because I scout those areas once a year. I think I'm actually going to diversify my scouting even more from now on and not focus on the Spain/Brazil/Argentina triad, although I have pulled many top-notch "Has Potential to be Special" players from there.

2 -- I've noticed that progress is a lot slower than last year, with my best players progressing +3 points from year to year. One problem I'm noticing, however, is that mental and technical attributes are the only ones improving for a lot of my players. In other words, no increases at all to strength, stamina, speed, acceleration, etc. I'm not sure what's going on yet, and will go a few more seasons to see if those abilities also improve.

3 -- Now that the players' year-to-year progress in youth academy is greater than their progress if they're with the first team (even if you give them generous playing time), the best tactic for developing players quickly is to try to keep them in the academy as long as possible. Even when they turn 17, some of them are willing to stick it out another year in the academy, and those are the ones who come up in the best shape to contribute to the first-team/bench right away, which in turn gives them the most experience and the fastest progress.

I've had a few players who have turned 17 but were willing to stay in the academy for 4-6 months leading up to their May stats leap. By waiting these guys out, I've called up a 75 CM, a 74 LM/winger, and a 73 CAM in the last two years, all with the Potential to be Special designation. Those guys should be the backbone of my squad for years to come (provided, hopefully, that the winger can see some improvement to his sprint speed and acceleration!).