Friendly discussion about Friendlies

Lame thread title I know. Anyway, how many friendlies do you have as standard every pre-season, and what sort of teams do you choose as opponents?

I normally go for 4:

1st is a rubbish team that I can hammer for morale, 2nd is around my level from overseas, 3rd is better than me from overseas, 4th is the same as 1st.

I have 4 or 5 but ultimately i leave at the discretion of my ass man.

Normally around 5, against teams I can hammer 10-0

About 10

5 with my best players in different formations and with different touchline shouts to see what they can do

5 with fringe players in my base formation. Those that do well fit into my top 25, those who don't usually get sold or go on loan.

Try and play teams that use different formations than 442. Had a problem against 343 as couldn't decide whether to play 3 cb or 2 cb and a dcm and how to get enough people in midfield whilst also exploiting their lack of width at the back. 3 friendlies later and it is no longer a problem.

I like more than that, especially in the first few seasons, or after a lot of new players joining the club. I usually have 2 in the beginning against my U18 and reserve team, than a 3 or 4 team tour to a country of lower quality nearby (Switzerland if in Italy, Belgium if in France, Scotland if in England, Slovenia if in Croatia, and so on) against weak teams. Than a few home games against weak teams than 1 or 2 against a strong or equal oposition, and the last one is usually against the crappiest team available, for moral purposes.

Depends on the league im in. If im in the lower leagues, I play as many as possible aganst higher rep teams in order to bring some cash in to the club before the season starts. But now I'm one of the 'top teams' in the country, normally about 5. against a wide range of clubs. Similar to my reputation level, get them geared up for the season.

As man united i always arrange a tour of asia, and then australia, plus palermo when im back in the uk at home, dont know why exactly palermo but the manager likes me.

I just pick the hardest teams I can, gives me a decent indication of how good the current team is compared to others.

Usually 5 "easy" friendlies, usually away, then the money spinning home friendly against a foreign team, pretty much like Southampton in real life.

Usually around 5/6 games

2 - Feeder clubs (reserve/fringe players)

4 - Tour of the USA (main squad + some who impressed against feeder clubs to see how they fit in the main squad)

If i sign a couple of players during after these friendlies, I usually play 1/2 more to ease them in

I usually play 5 games - with 1 or 2 of them being against easy teams (but not really easy non-league teams with grey players throughout) and the others being against good opposition usually at home.

I generally go for 5 friendlys, if i'm playing outside the Premier League, i try to get 2/3 Premier League teams at home, to boost finances and for the fans to see us play against top teams for £5.

Then the other 2 friendlys are, one against a lower league team that i can hammer 8-0, and another against a similar team, to test my team before the season starts!

Never manage in friendlies myself after first season. Just wanna awoid "tactic-crack" by making assistant use very different tactics from my own ones. All I need is players to be fit when the season starts.

I like to have about 5 or 6 in a non-World Cup/Euro's year I will normally do a 3 match tour of somewhere like Austria with their biggest 2 teams at Either end and an easy team in the middle. Then I have either 1 similar reputation match at home, an easy away game and then host a big(ish) European team.

In years with a major tournament I will do a 3 match tour of somewhere like France or Holland with Solid opposition then host a solid Euopean side.

I like to get my transfers done early so they can play the friendlies and I can see how they fit into the squad.

Normally one every 4 days against big oppo to bring the money in with 10 days before the start of the season to recover

I leave arranging friendlies to my assistant

Better things to do

i take over my friendlies, because the assistant leaves some players with too little and some with too much game time in pre-season, resulting in generally poor fitness.

7 friendlies, 1 against minnows for early shooting practice, 4 on tour in europe to smaller rep clubs, and a cup against 2 giants of europe

i am always a lower league team so i arrange 5 big friendlies to fill the stadium and get me some cash then play my U19's in the final game to boost the very poor morale from 5 straight thrashings

I find that 5 friendlies is just enough to get my players fit for the up and coming season,and a chance for new players to learn the style of play.

about 7

3 against lower league and 4 against higher league/foreign teams

However many my assman wants as he sorts them out.

i have 6 friendlies in pre season.if im a top division team i play...

5 away against weaker sides, making sure i play my feeder clubs. in these i use my strongest XI in the 1st half and then my back up XI in the 2nd half. seems 2 help me get everybody match fit this way.

1 at home to a strong side. use my strongest XI in this game, try and limit myself to 3 sub changes. basically i treat this like a proper match

I usually do a friendly every 3 or 4 days in pre-season and play a 3-man rotation for each position except goalkeeper.

This ensures that players are usually fit enough for the friendlies and certainly fit when the regular season starts.

It also allows me to have a closer look at some of the players who normally don't make my first team, check out some promising youth players and test one or the other player on a different position.

If I cannot maintain the 3-man rotation due to injuries I reduce the number of friendlies to one per week.

My assman both arranges and takes control of all my friendlies.

for me 6 friendlies so that two teams of 11 players both get 3 starts each.

Opposition should be fair for then even and uneven matches in order to let both teams have opponents of comparable level (even though the whole team is subbed at around 50 mins).

At the end I like to have lesser opponents to ensure a high morale for the start of the competitive matches. In FM10 my favourite opponents for these matches are away matches to those small teams which have a bad team but still let you make lots of money when playing away.

Depends on my squad. If I aren't looking to make many changes, and have my squad already set, then usually one a week until the community shield takes place.

If I'm looking to change tactics, or players, or have a lot of young players I want to test out..then 2 a week. Sometimes playing my best 11 for 45 mins then subbing nearly everyone out for the next 45, or just letting them play entire games but only once a week.

I usually schedule my first few for easy teams, then get progressively harder so I can monitor how things are going. I usually like to end the friendlies with 1 or 2 against rivals. Lately Liverpool has been the top team (along with me as Chelsea) so usually them and Man City (I have a good friendship with Huges), unless I am playing one of them in the Shield. Also I usually tend to avoid foreign teams, unless they're based on the isles as well.