Reserve or not??

Quick question for you all

Having just gained promotion to the premier league with Sheffield Wednesday in my 3rd season my reserve team and under 18 have been invited into there own leagues which I accepted.

Leaving the youth out is it better to leave all my players in my first team squad and just make, other then my starting 11, available for reserve team matches or set there status to reserve team and leave them in there?

Also for younger players is it better to loan out or leave in the reserves? Which has more benefit for morale/stats/value, playing premier league reserve team football or lower league with inferior coaches?

I normaly have the 11 first team players and 7 subs, and about 5 more players who i set as 'available for reserve squad' to make sure they are match fit if i ever need them.

Also a couple of my subs who don't get played as much as the others, i set them to 'available for reserve team' to keep them match fit.

The rest of my players (back ups) i put into the reserve team permantly,and call them up to the first team if we have a injury cirsis.

With youngsters, i tend to leave them in the U18 team, if i find a player under 18 who looks good i set him to 'available for reserve team' so he plays U18 games aswell as Reserve games. When they get to 18/19 i put them in the reserve squad and set them as available for loan.

I always make sure that the teams want to loan have 'be a good first team player' and not a 'good back up player'

May as well play reserve games for me, than be a backup player for a lower league team.

Pretty much agree with Barkermush. I very rarely loan out any of my youth team. When they hit 18/19 and move into the reserves I try and ship them all out on loan (but only if they are essentially guaranteed first team footy) unless I can foresee them playing 15 or more games for my first team. I usually try to bring in a few experienced pros on short term deals to bolster my reserve side and act as Mentors to the U18s and who are capable of playing for the first team should there be a serious injury crisis.

I use the reserves to give a player from the first-squad some matches with no pressure when he underperforms below expectation. When a player has 2 bad games in a row with the first-team squad, I warn him, and if he moans I send him to the reserve so that he has an easy game and comes back happy in the first-team squad.

Reserve team is useful for:

- Keep match fitness for backup senior players

- Help youngsters get some experience

- Help injured first-team squad players get match fitness

- Help unhappy players or strikers that didn't scored for a long time have easy games and get some self-confidence or calm down their ambitions

- Remove media pressure and other clubs interest for one of my players