How do you pick and organise your coaches?

Just wondering how people approach this part of the game (i.e. organising the backroom staff in order to ensure that you have the best combination of coaches to work with your players).

I have to be honest and say that this is one area of the game that I don't put enough effort into. I tend to just pick any old coach without properly studying the attributes. I vaguely look for good attacking, defensive etc. ratings but I don't properly organise my coaches in order to make sure that I have the best combination for my team.

Just wondering, how important is it to have good coaches? And how do you tend to pick and organise your coaches?

What are the main attributes you look for? How many of each type of coach do you try to have? And how can I maximise the amount of stars I get for each area? To be honest, right now, I just click the automatic button to get the game to apply the coaches for me. Is there a better way?

Any tips appreciated as I want to get better at this part of the game. Thanks.

Not sure about tips but as a personal thing (not a guide) I tend to choose an Assman with good tactical knowledge, so he can give me advice about other teams play, training tactics and good motivational skills. I then look for judging players ability but that's just if it's possible to get an assman with all the right credentionals. As far a coaches then I usually try and go for names. Like I have Andy Cole and Peter Beardsley teaching my strikers. for some reason I always choose foreign coaches for to coach my players on technique. I know this doesn't help much but just wanted to throw my 2 pence in.

it depends on the side you are managing. I tend to have each coach working in only one area, and i tend to try and have 2 coaches per area, or at the very least that the workload for each area is light. The less areas a coach works in the more you maximise his stars. I never use auto i dont think it gets the best setup at all.

As usual DDM (Determination Discipline Motivation) is always vital in good staff.

Shooting:

Attacking and technical

Attacking:

Attacking and Mental

Defending:

Defending and Mental

Ball Control:

Mental and Technical

Tactics:

Tactics

But then i also look at how well round their other attributes are, because i tend to have general coaches, ie working with first team and youth, rather than solely one or the other

I dont claim this to be 100% accurate, but it works for me

I use a simpler version of the above:

Attacking - Attack Coaching

Defending - Defensive Coaching

Ball Control - Technical (usually an ex playmaker)

Shooting - Technial (usually an ex striker - tends to have higher attacking attributes)

Tactics - Tactical

Oh, and always 2 fitness coaches if possible. One for Strength and one for Aerobic.

I tend to appoint roughly half as many youth coaches as coaches, so say about if i have 10 coaches, i'll have 5 youth coaches. Then I always have 2 GK coaches and 2 Fitness coaches. The GK and Fitness speak for themselves in terms of attributes, depending what level i'm managing at i go for the highest possible attributes in thos particular fields as well as - and this is a must for ALL my coaches - high man mangement, motivation, adapability (so he settles in quickly), determination, discipline and above all speaks the language of the nation i'm in.

When a member of staff is mentioned in your news item and their pictures come up, it lists 3 attributes which I always take to be important for whatever role that guy has - so try and make a note of those 3 atttributes and make sure they're all pretty good as well.

My staff salary budget is actually higher than my playing squad budget - that's how important coaching is to me! I'm building a squad of kids with low CA but decent PA - it's a long term strategy that requires optimising my young player development.

So, for each training schedule (2 GK, 2 fitness), one coach with the highest star rating you can get. That does mean each one needs good DDT. The other attributes don't matter (thus, i take a different view to LallanaW for reasons i'll explain, plus how many coaches in the db have all those high attributes?). All coaches do the same job with the youth training schedule as with the seniors.

Then the key: assman - his coaching attributes don't matter - I want the best JPA, TK, motivation, man-management and Working with Youths. On the training pitch he covers all 9 categories which means I have 2 coaches per schedule, guaranteeing low workload in all. But it also means one person - the assman optimised the benefits of the personel part of the job. So long as he can manage the men and work with the youths, the other coaches don't need to. Off the training field he assists me in tactical advice.

For me, it depends entirely upon what sort of club and level I'm managing at.

Obviously with a bigger club, I find it much easier to get coaches with star ratings which are high in all areas. I can also get multiples of coaches, to reduce the training workload.

For example, with a big club, I would look to have at least one coach to cover each training area, of four stars or higher. I may then also have a slightly lesser quality coach for each area, simply to reduce the workload. After all, it will be the strongest coaches attributes that signal the overall quality of star rating. If possible, I will also look to have youth coaches who can provide at least three to four star quality in each area, but I will also assign my other coaches to work with youth players too.

With a small club (we're talking 3rd to 5th tier here), lower budget and less staff slots permitted, then I'm usually looking to get to around three star quality coaching for each area of training. It's usually necessary to have coaches capable of training multiple areas of training, though I prefer them to coach no more than two areas each. So for example, I may have a coach who is training both shooting and ball control, because both areas work from similar coaching attributes.

The key member of staff for me, is always my assistant manager. I look for the best I can get at any level, with pre-requisite attributes always being tactical knowledge, man-management, motivation and judging player ability. These aid in both being able to provide, plus the quality, of suggestions and advice they provide, regarding team-talks, squad selections, tactical decisions, in-match recommendations, etc. Any other attributes they may have, I regard as a bonus, depending upon what I may wish them to do additionally.

Not too dissimilar to what phnompenhandy suggested above. I think that although we have different trains of thought in some areas of the game, phnompenhandy and I do share a lot of common ground with our overall approach to the game.

Cheers for that heathxxx (wonder where our trains of thought do differ, hmmm?).

One point though, to reiterate what I said above. you don't need a good and mediocre coach for each schedule to keep the workload low. You just need one dogsbody who puts out the cones to cover ALL 9 schedules to keep the workload low on all of them. He can be 1 star in all categories, it doesn't matter. In my latest save it suddenly dawned on my that using my assman in this role has a double benefit - one is keeping the workload low; the other is bringing the benefits of his man-man and motivation to all the training schedules. I haven't worked out exactly what contribution an assman's man-man/motiv skills have on training (I don't think anyone has), but I do notice that whilst many players are complaining (through him) that their workloads are too heavy, none have suffered a morale drop or worsened their relationship with me, despite my ignoring their concerns. It could be because i'm in their favoured personal list, but it could also be affected by the assman's abilities.

I look for people with >15 determination, motivating and discipline.