Getting youth to their best...

...Just wanted to ask a few things to do with helping youth players with their potential...

What is the best way to do it? Obviously first team football is a no brainer, or sending them out on loan.

Is it better to, for example, a 16 year old, to leave him in the Under 18's team, with the occasional cup game, or is it better to put them in the first team, Set it so their available for the Reserve Team, put them on the bench every so often and give them 10 minutes or so at the end of games that your winning comfortably?

What do you guys do?

Just wondered as i always seem to struggle producing good players, i always need to buy them once they've gained potential from playing at other sides...

Cheers x

I usually pick one youth and promote them into first team football. Usually a MC since he is least prone to mistakes in my 4-3-3 tactic. I sub him in around the 70th minute if im winning by a margin of atleast 2 goals; sometimes one goal if we're clearly dominating the closing stages of the game. I also promote him to the First 11 if we're playing against a really weak team. Obviously he also needs a tutor with experience and doesn't mind helping younger players at the club. Obviously he should also be available for every reserve matches.

P.S.: Don't pick a crappy youth and expect experience to rub on him. Pick a Hot Prospect or Wonderkid. Obviously the latter would be best suited for the far future of the club.

A good attitude is essential for a player to reach his potential - for this, read the hidden attributes that make up a players Personality and Media Handling Style, as well as his Determination attribute. The most important thing, i believe, is that a player has high enough Ambition, Professionalism and Determination to develop as he should.

The other thing that's essential is playing time. Any playing time is better than no playing time, but i tend to like players to play at the highest possible level they can while still getting good ratings. For a player to improve he needs to play well, and the higher the level he's playing well at the more he'll improve.

The importance of Tutoring in order to shape a players attitude means that playing U18 or Reserve Team football can be preferential to playing out on loan because the player needs to be at your club to be tutored by a team-mate. If you aren't tutoring a player then football out on loan will often be more beneficial to the player than youth football but not as beneficial as senior football.

Training is, in the grand scheme of things, not that important. Training doesn't really make a player improve but affects which attributes of a player improves.

This is my grasp of player development anyway. If you have a promising youth player what i would do is focus on getting a senior player to tutor him and improve his attitude if it needs it, as he likely will - but do so with caution. Bear in mind that tutoring a player will cause both his attributes to improve and decline if the tutor has higher or lower stats than the tutee. What's more, if the tutor has a much different attitude to the tutee the tutoring will fail. Getting a player with 20 Determination to tutor a player with 1 Determination will not work; you have to do it in gradual steps. Eg. If you have a 16yo who's Reserved, has 12 Determination and is Fairly Professional, someone who is Reserved, 15 Determination and Professional would be a good fit, then a player who is Reserved, 18 Determination and Model Professional would bring him along even more. Though, unfortunately, it's not usually that simple. It's also worth learning how the tutor actually behaves in practice before getting him to tutor a youth player because many of the attributes you're focussing on here are hidden. A player could look a good fit but he might have something quite negative that isn't picked up on, like Pressure 5, for instance.

Note: For a player to tutor another player, he needs to be older than them and the tutor also has to be older than 21. He also needs to have a shared playing position and a higher reputation than the player they are tutoring (this is a hidden stat but an indication can be found from their Personal page). And lastly (i think) they also need to have a higher squad status. It can be a little tricky getting all these things AND a player who has the ideal attitude to be a tutor... unless you're at a big club that has top players.

Spend a couple of seasons tutoring him (or as long as you need) while he's 15/16/17 and letting him play youth football in that period is a good way to set him up. Once he has a good attitude and has developed a bit in those seasons, think about either drafting him into the senior squad if he's up to it or sending him out on loan where he can get invaluable playing experience at a senior level. If you're sending him out on loan you'll obviously want to focus on clubs that are prepared to involve him more than those who see him as cover.

I think the playing side is pretty logical, just ease them in when they're ready. The hardest part is getting the required levels of Ambition, Determination and Professionalism to allow them to fulfil their potential. People usually shy away from ambitious players because they fear them wanting to leave in the future, but it's an important attribute if a player is to reach the highest level they can. They need the hunger, dedication and drive to succeed if they are to improve and realise their potential ability.

Here's a good thread to help you with tutoring: FM Personality Guide (Media Handling Styles on page 2)

I'd go with giving a fair few sub appearances and starts in cup games ahead of u18 football. However, with 16 year olds (and even 18/19/20 year olds), they often stagnate if they play too much because they feel the pressure (you'll know this is happening because they get a "Slt" icon), so be careful. Obviously it depends on their personality though.

Cheers guys, much appreciated.

What Death. said is excellent advice, basically all I'd like to do is parrot it.

For a 16 year old the highest priority is developing his personality a.k.a. tutoring. The most important hidden attribute you want to be targeting are professionalism and ambition. Determination plays a lesser role in the development of a player to his full ability, however is a visible indication of how the tutoring is proceeding. For the best tutors you want Model Professionals, Professionals, Perfectionist's etc. The guide above truly is a godsend since the attribute you ultimately want to effect are hidden.

Whilst tutoring is occurring you must keep the player at the club and he must be playing games at an adequate level. For 16 year olds U/18s and Reserve games, with the odd cup game for the most promising, is best. Sometimes I'll even put a young player into my squad for a European away fixture for 5 minutes at the end of the match, purely as experience. Just like Raheem Steling and Conor Coady traveled with Liverpool to Prague two weeks ago.

After you are happy that the players personality is likely to aid in his development to full potential get him loaned out. Look for a club at a suitable level, where the player is guaranteed first team football and the training facilities are as good as possible. At the age of 19 I usually like to evaluate a player's long-term viability at the club based on his progress and accordingly either promote him into the first-team, loan or sell.

If you can get a pattern worked out where the youngest players are tutored preferentially, as this will see their personality develop earliest giving them the best chance of reaching full potential, and then sent on loan to a series of feeder clubs at varied levels you should soon start to see a steady production line of young talent breaking into your first team squad.

Personally for me this is one of the best highlights of the game.