MLS - Designated Players

I have MLS open and was thinking of moving there, a few teams have insecure managers. What I want to know is how come Chivas have zero designated players on the squad, Houston, Dallas and someone else has one and New York has two designated player slots. There are also a few differences in the amount of internationals that a team can have New York has 9 and the other teams have 8. Any ideas why?

Some of the clubs traded their designated player slots to other clubs. IRL the clubs do that because they aren't in a financial position to bring in a designated player. Same for international slots. Some teams know they're not going to use that slot so they can trade it to a team that's going to use it. I haven't played the MLS implementation in FM this year so I don't know if you can trade Designated Player or International Player slots.

yes you can trade for international spots and designated player spots but only if there is no designated player in the team and say a team has 9 international spots and there is 6 international players taking them then you can trade for them.

All sounds extremely complicated.

its easier done then said haha

i wanted to go in the MLS but it was too confusing, and with the draft when you have no idea if these players are good or not and you have bring them in, and i found out that all of the ones that i brought in was no were near good enough to play for the first team, probably wouldnt get in for a Blue Square Premier team!

you can scout the draft combine so it gives you an idea how good they are one of my draft players left me and when on to be world player of the year in an older game haha

If you enable the lower leagues in the editor in Canada and the US, you'll get some good quality regens... or for even more depth, there's the FMNorth America pack, somebody posted it for download on the editor's forum

iv only just won the mls and its the the first time since iv been trying which is since the mls came on fm haha

If you enable the lower leagues in the editor in Canada and the US, you'll get some good quality regens... or for even more depth, there's the FMNorth America pack, somebody posted it for download on the editor's forum

Agreed get the FM NorthAmerica patch

MLS recently changed the rules concerning DP's and Youth players so looks like that will have to wait until FM 2011. Each team can have up to 3 DP's and they can no longer trade DP slots which every team gets 2 of them. Clubs will have to pay the league 250K to acquire a 3rd DP (yes it's confusing/weird)

Thanks for the answers people.

i wanted to go in the MLS but it was too confusing, and with the draft when you have no idea if these players are good or not and you have bring them in, and i found out that all of the ones that i brought in was no were near good enough to play for the first team, probably wouldnt get in for a Blue Square Premier team!

I live in America and Im too confused about MLS and its rules.

I live in America and Im too confused about MLS and its rules.

lol, me too. All you really to know is it's 3 points for a win, the rest you can ignore.

I've never bothered with MLS on FM, I enjoy a traditional transfer market too much.

lol, me too. All you really to know is it's 3 points for a win, the rest you can ignore.

I've never bothered with MLS on FM, I enjoy a traditional transfer market too much.

Hahaha yea.....3 points to win, 1 to draw, and 0 for a loss.....I hope they dont change that part....

The only time I really deal with MLS is scouting the combines.....I found an absolute center midfield stud once...

Sometimes I even watch a few of the combine matches.

i wanted to go in the MLS but it was too confusing, and with the draft when you have no idea if these players are good or not and you have bring them in, and i found out that all of the ones that i brought in was no were near good enough to play for the first team, probably wouldnt get in for a Blue Square Premier team!

FMRTE is your friend. Granted, the draft quality has improved this year (to the point where I actually had to tone-down one player with 180 PA to 160) but using a little self-restraint (i.e. not stacking the draft with superstars) greatly increases gameplay. Usually takes about an hour to edit the 125 players, though you can get by with 60 as the that's the total number of draft picks for MLS.

i enjoy the MLS just because its a challenge to use most of the players you are given rather than being able to transfer in half a team, and most of the teams are fairly equal in terms of talent and finances

its also pretty much impossible to get great players, and the players that are good enough to warrant a roster spot in the top leagues you might be able to get on a DP slot for a year or two but they will want to move on. i end up having to work at making the average players play great, & its quite rewarding seeing a 1 or 2-star player make consistent contributions to the team, or a 3-star player being the teams most valuable player, for example

as far as the designated player slots go tho, i do find it difficult to be able to set a player i want as that DP. i had my top player as a DP, but when his contract was coming up the 6 month expiration date, i was not able to renew using the DP designation, only as a regular player. not exactly sure what the problem was

Sometimes the board will step in and block your attempt at signing a DP- I believe they're looking for players with big reputations to boost the bottom line.

he was already the DP, i wanted to renew his contract as DP, but i did not see the option, could only offer as key player

the board had never entered the equation that i could tell

I meant they won't even give you the option of offering a DP contract, and not any sort of direct interference, sorry. Did you try changing the contract type (usually it's reserved for developmental/senior squad status, but I believe that may also be the method of offering a DP contract)?