Youth development - Is there any point to taking charge of Reserves?

In football, much has been said of moulding talents in the reserves. But is this reproduced in FM 2010? Simply put, is there any point to controlling the reserves? Does youth player CA increases more with additional, human player controlled, participation in reserve team?

That depends. If you and your Assistant agree on who and how the reserve team should play, then probably not.

My mate decided to test this, and according to him managing the youth and reserves improved them significantly. He thought that this could be down to the fact that if you don't play the games they are 'simmed' which doesn't give them an attribute boost. I am not sure this is right although he swares by this now can imagine how long it takes to get through a season :-P

I play my reserve team as it gives me a bit more practice so to say on the different use for the tactics, formations etc as with the 1st team you can only really do this in friendlies or less improtant matches. Also, I like to mix and match the more experienced players with youth and to see who is playing well for myself rather than just a report from my reserve team coach after the match. I like to see who played well for myself and how the match went rather than, again, just relying on the report.

I done this on my Celtic game where I bought a striker (who was only 21) and put him in my reserve team. I took control of the matches and when he played he played really well, scoring pretty much in every game he played in. Once his form continued, I decided to put him into my 1st team, but I didn't throw him in to matches straight away. I put him in as a sub in bigger league matches, but as soon as an early round cup tie came (think I was playing someone like Queen Of The South) I played him from the off and he done well. I think he scored 2 in that match and he has done well since and is almost a certain start in my 1st team.

In my opinion it definately helps to take control of the reserve team but only if you're patient enough in doing so as it's pretty much in effect managing 2 teams instead of just one, but this way you can see for yourself who is playing well and who is not, who to give more time to and who to "promote" to the 1st team, who you want to keep and who you want to get rid of.

Another reason why I do it is because I'm a bit of a control freak and I want to take control of them so I take control of my youth team as well

I also decided to take over both the Reserve team and U18s 5 seasons ago and my Kids develop much better then they had in the other 10+ seasons. This my be lucky and the new ones I signed in that time are much better suited to development or it may have something to do with playing the games.

Yeh i find that they seem to develop better if you take control of them. I may be wrong but it seems to be that way with me and I've been controlling all three squads for a while now (1st team, reserves & under 19s). I just get a better look at the players, how they are playing, who is playing well and not playing well etc just like I said earlier. Instead of having the team coach come out after the game and just say something like "John Smith stood out and played well, creating two chances in several attacking moves" (which to me doesn't say much at all about how well the actual team played or didn't play) I can actually see for myself over the course of several games.

The troubling part is I now find myself falling in love with a 15 year old who scores for fun in the U18s. I am sure that's not healthy.

The troubling part is I now find myself falling in love with a 15 year old who scores for fun in the U18s. I am sure that's not healthy.

If he's that good, you can maybe move him on up to the reserves full time so to say and play him in that team. See how he play's at a higher lever than the youth team. Or just keep developing him in the youth for a good year or so then move him on up. I wouldn't move them up too soon as it might hinder their performance if you expect too much from them too soon. 15 year's old will still be very influenced by it all.

I've always been tempted but have been put off by the time aspect. It's paticuarly useful for giving your subs game time, or looking at youngsters

Usualy my reserves and under 19's are all crap because i take any decent player from them and use them in my first team as a sub.

This could be why 7 of my under 21 players are playing for their national teams including Scotland, England, Turkey and France.