How do 'Reserve' teams work?

Hey everyone,

I just started playing FM 09 and I am curious about the Reserve teams. I've read that reserve teams can be useful to send players who are in poor form/morale. I've also read that it is not good practice to carry too large a payroll.

It seems to me that it would be prudent to have a decent Reserve team to fill your First Team when International teams call-up or injuries pile up. My questions are:

1. Is it generally worthwhile to have a Reserve team?
   
2. If so, how many players should be on this team? (what is the minimum number of players needed to 'have a game')
   
3. What happens if the Reserve Squad doesn't have enough players for a match?
   
4. Are there any tips, tricks or not-so-obvious uses I should know about managing a Reserve team?
   

Thanks for any help!

werkz

1. yes i think its essential to have a reserve team, having a backup team is great, especially for developing new youngesters and helping players recover from injury

2. i tend to have around 15-20, as with football u need 11 players to play for the reserves, and then subs.

3. If u dont have enough then any places who arent filled are taken from your Under-18/19/21 team

4. personally i dont manage them, i designate that task to my assistant. I jsut choose the players that are available to him

having reserves isnt just for first team players, its used for developing youngsters allowing them to take the step up from youth games. As well as giving new signings time to get used to playing for your club, and letting them blend in with your squad instead of just chucking them in at the deep end

hope i helped

Thank you. You did help... and it makes sense.

My initial instinct was to develop my Reserve team using Free Transfer players that are 'slightly aged but still good' and mixing them with ' young up-and-comers'.

Your squad consists of a Full First team (11 plus subs) and 15 or so Reserves on top of that? Do you rotate the Reserves with the Subs to try them out and give them First team experience or do you wait until your First Teamers give you a reason (injury/poor form/yellow cards) to move them down?

1. Is it generally worthwhile to have a Reserve team?
   It is, depending what league you are playing in, in Spain you will have B teams, where you are pretty much forced to have one since those matches also count as competitive matches for your affiliate, while in Italy there is no Reserves league in which case it is useless. In England its is useful although not as important as in Spain.
   
2. If so, how many players should be on this team? (what is the minimum number of players needed to 'have a game')
   Again this depends on the league you are playing in Spain you need a full force squad, 20-25 is alright. In England 11-15 should suffice, while setting some of your fringe first teamers to available for Reserves as well as getting some youngsters from the U18's.
   
3. What happens if the Reserve Squad doesn't have enough players for a match?
   If you don't set players as available for reserves, don't have any reserves players and don't have sufficient U18 players, greyed out players will appear on your U18's and will play the match, consider this as players on trials who you just picked up off the streets, you can offer them contracts if you please.
   
   
4. Are there any tips, tricks or not-so-obvious uses I should know about managing a Reserve team?
   Set all players outside your senior starting 11+7 subs to available for reserves.
   

Thanks for any help!

You are welcome

werkz

Message too short.

I always reject a reserve team league request after the first season. Pointless.

Rather loan them out.

@ Joey

Thanks for all of the advice and insights into the different leagues. I watch a lot of football, but was not aware of all of the intricacies of the 'B' teams & Reserve squads - or the relationships between them. The league I am most familiar with is the F.M.F. (Federacion Mexicana de Futbol Asociacion). In my game, I am the Chivas from Guadalajara.

Based on what you have told me, it would seem the 'English' style for Reserve teams applies the most (11 - 15 guys). The games don't count towards anything except experience. There is a Reserve League Table, and I'm sure losing on the reserves must impact morale a little, but overall the games don't seem too important to the First Team.

So:

- Youth-turned-Senior players develop better on Reserves... (assuming no First Team opportunities)

- Ideal place to put new transfers to acclimatize to the league & team...

- Good to keep the reserve team well-stocked, keep an eye on top performers to move up to First team, monitor their fitness level (in case they are needed) but otherwise let the Ass. Man. take care of it.

Anything I overlooked?

I always reject a reserve team league request after the first season. Pointless.

Rather loan them out.

Totally disagree, I find loaning out players is too hard, and you are at others mercy. Always have a Res team in their "Competitive " league, This way you can play any non 1st XVIII player and it will help his match fitness (this assumes you are in a league where 7 subs, ie 11 + 7 = 18, XVIII are permitted).

I have a few observations though.

1/ In some Leagues (eg France L1) the "available for Res" button does not work, the players never get picked so I have to manage the reserves match by match. As they are mainly 1st team players though that is OK as you can scout their form for real!

2/ An organised League is better than having to organise weekly friendlies for the Res. though in your 1st Season you may not have the choice

3/ Always play 1st Team players "Lacking in match fitness", if having 90% + fitness, in reserve matches, they will be no use for the 1st Team like that.

4/ If there are 6-7 clear days until your next 1st Team fixture then play your full first Team, according to fitness, in the Res. They wont mind and they will play well (against innevitably poorer opposition)

5/ My St Etienne Res team just won their League and I had 4 messages of support & thanks from the board - this must have boosted my ratings as manager.

I actually think that managing the reserves properly is a critical part of FM09 that has not been emphasisied in importance enough.

My initial instinct was to develop my Reserve team using Free Transfer players that are 'slightly aged but still good'

I wouldn't recommend that - I'd leave those players well alone. If aged free transfer players are not good enough for your 1st team there is no point signing them. You would just be wasting money on their wages. You should always be looking to take the team forward so unless a player has a future at your club get rid of/don't sign him.

Indeed; the average age of my reserve squad is 20-21. I promote youths to the reserve squad to give them full-time training and an opportunity to increase CA more than in the U18s; my scouts are filtered to bring me players ages 21 and under who go into my reserves. These are my future. In addition I used the 'in reserve squad until match-fit' for first teamers coming back from injury and fringe players who've lost match-fitness due to not playing first team games. This works really well providing you pick the reserve team before a game. I pay a lot of attention to my reserves and find it brings dividends in the short and long term.

Is it possible to get my reserves into a reserve league in the first season when they are currently not in one? So far, i have not see this option...

What country are you managing in? Some don't have a reserve league.

1. Yes. Especially when there is a Reserve teams league. I play with Ajax and best reserve teams (at least Ajax, PSV and AZ - I don't know the system tbh, perhaps they are selected according to last years reserve league table or smth) can get to play Dutch Cup. In this year my reserve team managed to get to quarter finals (beating De Graafschap which is Eredivisie side) as Ajax first team was knocked out in 3rd round by Utrecht.

2. I have usually around 10-11 "reserve players" in age of 18-20 (in first team I have 20-25 players). You can pick 5 subs to every reserve game in Holland, so I've got 4-5 first team players (of course 2nd GK is in that list) made available for res. team. In total it means 15-16 players. In case of injuries or international fixtures (many of my players belong to some nations U-19 or U-21 team) I use my youth team to cover up.

I wouldn't recommend that - I'd leave those players well alone. If aged free transfer players are not good enough for your 1st team there is no point signing them. You would just be wasting money on their wages. You should always be looking to take the team forward so unless a player has a future at your club get rid of/don't sign him.

Well - playing with the Chivas in the Mexican league I have two things working against me:

• I can only have Mexican players on my team
  

That simple. Puro mexicano! No one from Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, etc. unless they have Mexican citizenship. This obviously limits the number of players in the world from which I have to choose.

• a small-ish transfer budget of 2.5 million US$
  

From what I have seen so far, the average good player is typically valued between 1.5 to 3 million. I wouldn't be able to pick up too many truly worthy players before I ran out of money.

My thoughts were that 3 or 4 'proven vets' that I pick up on the cheap ($1,000 - $2,500 per week with no tranfer fee) would be good to have in the squad. Having true back up quality available in the event of mass call-ups or injuries. Not exactly Starters, but worthy subs if the need arose. Mix in a healthy number of Future Prospects and Young Transfers and hope that they develop into quality First Team players.

Am I on the right track?

Indeed; the average age of my reserve squad is 20-21. I promote youths to the reserve squad to give them full-time training and an opportunity to increase CA more than in the U18s; my scouts are filtered to bring me players ages 21 and under who go into my reserves. These are my future. In addition I used the 'in reserve squad until match-fit' for first teamers coming back from injury and fringe players who've lost match-fitness due to not playing first team games. This works really well providing you pick the reserve team before a game. I pay a lot of attention to my reserves and find it brings dividends in the short and long term.

Great tips. Many thanks. I had never considered the training of Youths vs. Reserves as a factor. The full-time scehedule alone seems like a major incentive to pull the Hot Prospects out of the U-18s quicker and get them into 'Big Boy' camp. I like this approach a lot.

You mention "picking the Reserve Team before the game". Am I to understand that you don't let your assistant work out the tactics, contracts et al. Do you watch the games, too? I'm not at a computer with the game, where do I go to pick the line-up for my reserve games?

It really depends on which country you are in and stuff.

I assume you're playing in England. I'd take it. Even if you don't have enough players, your Under-18s will simply play more games and this helps their development. There's not a lot of fixtures for the Reserves so it doesn't tire them out quickly - although ideally you don't want your Under-18s to play too many matches, so you supplant them with older youngsters who are unlikely to make it, but simply ensure that your more promising ones don't burn out.

In addition, Reserves fixtures allow your first-teamers to return from injury and not jump into the first-team to regain match fitness, which can really hurt results. Put them in your Reserves.

'course, the question is: Why don't I simply arrange fixtures when I need them instead of entering a league? Well, the answer to that is that it's simply a lot easier!

I'd recommend always having a Reserves team even if you don't have the players - and micromanage all three teams to balance out tired players and promising youngsters. The only disadvantage I see is if you accidentally leave a key player, returning from injury, in the Reserves who then goes on to play a match a day before a vital first-team game, meaning he can't play a part in the first-team game at all. To me, though, this is a problem on your part and the benefits outweigh this by far.

In Italy, you don't have Reserves fixtures so it's kind of useless, but I use the Reserves to arrange friendlies against amateur sides. Why? Well, I always thrash these sides so my young strikers' forms stay up. It's no surprise that their form translates over into the Under-20s, after all. In fact, my top scorers have averaged ratings of nearly 8.50 at the end of the season for their Under-20 league matches. It really helps - plus more games ensures faster development as long as they play well - and it's hard to play badly against an amateur side if you're fully professional. However, in Italy, the true way of developing youngsters is through loans and co-ownership. As a result, Under-20s sides allow a limited number of overage players and they have more teams in the league. This, essentially, is your Reserves side.

In Spain you have your B team which may play within the Spanish league system, so it's even better than England in some cases. However, it's only really useful if your B team stays within the top few tiers - which means you sort of have to ensure your B team is strong, which could be irksome. If you field kids in Liga Adelante, you'll be relegated, for example.

So in conclusion, take them and you'll see benefits even if only indirectly.

Is it possible to get my reserves into a reserve league in the first season when they are currently not in one? So far, i have not see this option...

No, but I set up weekly friendlies against local non pro teams - it does the job but the games are not "competitive" of course.

You mention "picking the Reserve Team before the game". Am I to understand that you don't let your assistant work out the tactics, contracts et al. Do you watch the games, too? I'm not at a computer with the game, where do I go to pick the line-up for my reserve games?

The assman manages the reserves, but I always tick 'use current tactics' and make sure the reserves play the same system as the first team - they need to be used to the first team tactics. I handle ALL contracts inc. youths. When the news item comes up about the squad for my reserve game, I go into the reserve squad and pick the team; I don't watch the game, but when the assman's report of the game comes up I look at the stats for the game and keep an eye on who's playing well.