Any of you play 2 teams: league team and cup team

I have a very good squad, 24 players first team and a host of good youngsters.

I play 1st team on Sunday/Saturday game.

I play 2nd team on Tuesday/Wednesday game.

If this team play today, then next match will be the other team and so on...

There is a problem though, somehow I dominate game (22 shots, 10 shots on target, 4 clear cut chances) ... and I win 3 games in a row 1 - 0. Wayne Rooney has a drought for 1200+ minutes. Is it because they don't get to play constantly enough?

I've only signed Rooney once (for Spurs) and he scored a goal every third game (with sometimes 5-10 match periods where he didn't score) and he played most games in a season.

If I have a great player I start that player unless he has less than 94% condition or I'm playing easy cup games (assuming hes in good form).

In my Ajax game i have two teams, my first team who play all away games in the league and most european games. My second team, full of promising youngsters and a few experienced squad players, play all home league games and in the domestic cup. Works quite well as the youngsters get frst team experience and the established players play enough games to not get unhappy.

when i was leeds we dominated for 6 years in the premiership i played my 1st team in league and champions league and i played my youth and reserves in fa cup and league cup

very surprised my youth team got to semi finals of league cup were we finally lost 5-2 on aggregate to chelsea

In FM06 (or possibly 07) this worked very well (to the tune of three straight titles with spurs, a treble with Man U and then four straight Serie A/Champions League doubles with Inter) but in recent games I think the fatigue has been less onerous and it hasn't been so necessary.

Mind you, there are definitely situations my second team do go in for; home cup games against lower league opposition, dead rubbers in european groups (got a right hammering from the fans for playing a second team in a meaningless Champions League tie this year; okay, so it was Barca away...)

in my 9.1 game i had a league and cup team at man utd. Had to many players so was only way could go, and i won everything with moral and general happiness being very high throughout the team.

In my 9.3 game it not so much being used. Im keeping a smaller squad and basically resting my top players in some cup games and giving the backups more chance. Morale and consistancy seems bit harder to keep in real good place if you constantly rotate i found so i like to keep as many the same players together as i can... even if in my current season (think it 4th season) it is Cristiano ronaldo basically winning me every match

I will try to assemble a team that can provide two XIs for weekend and weekday matches.

While most of my priority is on Saturday in the league, I expect my second XI to be capable of winning against anybody as well, be it the League Cup or Champions League. That means I aim to have two world class starting XIs. Harsh, but that's how I like it. Some players will end up playing more in the league, while some will play more in the cups/Europe.

If assembling two good XIs is not possible (maybe budget reasons) then I'll rotate according to opposition.

I have a very good squad, 24 players first team and a host of good youngsters.

I play 1st team on Sunday/Saturday game.

I play 2nd team on Tuesday/Wednesday game.

If this team play today, then next match will be the other team and so on...

There is a problem though, somehow I dominate game (22 shots, 10 shots on target, 4 clear cut chances) ... and I win 3 games in a row 1 - 0. Wayne Rooney has a drought for 1200+ minutes. Is it because they don't get to play constantly enough?

I do that as well, but I have a much bigger squad (21 old players aka above 23, and 9 youth prospects). I just rotate them whenever anyone has less than 97% fitness. Ya, I am a tinkerer. It hurt me at times, but five of the youth prospects have grown to world-class players now (2 central defenders, 1 full back, 1 defensive midfielder and 1 striker). I still curse the fact that I was stupid enough to rotate on my last match where it is a do or die. I lost 1-0 to Sheffield United. No offense to the fans of Sheffield United, I truly expected my star-studded Manchester United team with Rooney, Nani, Marquinhos and Ronaldo to at least get something in during a home match ...

On my long term save i managed to have 2 full teams (first 11 + subs) If you are consistently getting throught to the latter stages of every cup round it should not affect consistency. My 2nd 11 managed to win back-to-back champions leagues so i'd hope they couldn't manage that if they were all rusty!

As a further bit of help, try to make the bench of your second 11 entirely from the youth/reserves - this way they stay match fit.

If you're managing a team where finances are tight, this kind of thing is tricky.

I have had quite some success as well. I was just wondering why I don't score a lot? I clearly shoots a lot on targets and my striker are good. If they could play regularly a game/ a week, I hope that should keep their consistency?

Or should I keep them play until their fatigue below a certain level? I hate seeing Rooney, Tevez going more than >500 minutes draught. It sucks when you see Rooney play 30 matchs and score < 10 goals.

IRL Rooney seems to have 'spurts', in that he has a period where he hits form, then goes on a drought, before scoring again, and then drought again.

So basicly when Rooney on the mood, I should keep him on the team and let him keep on pounding until he blows? What about other players? Is this only apply to Strikers?

With Inter I had two teams for the league and one was picked depending on the quality of opposition. My best players got around 20 - 24 games a season, the rest being made up by back-up first team players. Unbeaten in all competitions for 3 years,around 180 games (when I resigned for a new challenge), using that method.

So basicly when Rooney on the mood, I should keep him on the team and let him keep on pounding until he blows? What about other players? Is this only apply to Strikers?

Fergie does keep faith with him, but with the riches of striking talent he has, he can afford to 'rest' Rooney and still have an efficient strikeforce (Berbatov, Tevez).

Rotation, I guess, is the answer. Maybe when Rooney isn't scoring you can rest him for the big games and field him against weaker opposition. Then when he starts scoring and regaining his confidence, you can continue to play him till his 'spurt' stops.

quite simply i got for consistency, keep the first team squad and a rotate a bit through league, cup and cl. although do plays kids in league cup

I generally tend to use any non-league/champions league competition as a breeding ground for the younger players. I tend to have large squads.

I have a massive squad on my Tottenham save. Playing a 4-2-3-1 and having 4 top quality strikers is a problem. So I play one in each competition. I play reserves in UEFA cup and League Cup also. Two completly different sides, everything changes I even have a goalkeeper for every competition.