Arranging Matches for Reserve Team

Hi All,

This is just something that I find a little irritating. When playing, for example, in the SPL, there is no reserve league in FM11. As a work-around I spend time arranging friendlies for the reserve team in order to keep match fitness up for the over 18s and the squad/back-up players.

In FM12, it would be a good option to have the Ass Man generate say 20-30 friendlies for the reserve team so I don't have to, it's a total pain in the ass, man (see what I did there).

Thoughts?

Thoughts?

Don't have a reserve team, there isn't a reserve league for a reason!

its a pain when you have a bunch of 19 year olds, who cant play for the u-18's and have too much competition for a place in the first team squad.

the reserve matches are a good way of keeping your squad fitness at a reasonable level.

definitely agree that your assman should be arranging reserve matches throughout the season

This suggestion sounds reasonable, but I also take Cougar's point. Many countries don't have the tradition of reserve teams, but rather loan out surplus senior players. All FM teams seem to have reserve teams by default, which can admittedly be confusing when there is no reserve league. But maybe the better option is to immerse yourself in the simulation by loaning rather than playing repeated reserve friendlies.

I do the same as the OP, arranging away matches against Highland League sides each Monday. Its a right pain to sort out though, far too many clicks required to fill up your season.

And Kanukki, its not just Reserve Players that I play in these games. The "select first team players needing match fitness" option is excellent and I use these "reserve team" friendlies to keep them sharp. You need a squad of at least 23 first team players to compete, obviously not all can stay match fit, but i do need them for my squad and can't afford to loan them out.

So, in short, a quicker method of arranging friendlies en masse would be a god send.

in scotland the reserve league was only scrapped a year ago iirc, a lot of clubs (in the first season especially) would have surplus players who don't quite make the grade for the first team and are too old for the u-18s (some other nations have u-19s instead)

while it is good practice in theory to put the players who fall into no mans land out on loan it isn't always possible with every player, and if you have an injury/suspension crisis, or as per usual in the scottish leagues, a fixture pile up due to bad weather, and cup replays, these players come in handy.

I do the same as the OP, arranging away matches against Highland League sides each Monday. Its a right pain to sort out though, far too many clicks required to fill up your season.

And Kanukki, its not just Reserve Players that I play in these games. The "select first team players needing match fitness" option is excellent and I use these "reserve team" friendlies to keep them sharp. You need a squad of at least 23 first team players to compete, obviously not all can stay match fit, but i do need them for my squad and can't afford to loan them out.

So, in short, a quicker method of arranging friendlies en masse would be a god send.

Its perfectly possible to keep 21ish players match fit in a squad, I know I did it for many seasons in FM10 and do so in FM11.

Those that aren't match fit still come in to cover injuries and are match fit within a couple of games for very little loss of performance.

What i do on those leagues is to bookmark one team to make the scheduling faster, it's still boring but it speeds up the process a little bit.

Yes, I would still support the idea of an AssMan "arrange reserve friendly every week/two weeks". Just pointing out that many countries don't use reserve squads in the same way as England.

As underwater sunlight points out, Scotland does seem to be a special case where the bigger clubs want to have reserve teams, but are forced to arrange individual friendlies against English reserve sides (so FM is faithfully recreating this frustration!). http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/sep/17/spl-restructure-old-firm-reserve-teams

I manage in England, yet I still find it irritating that there can be gaps of 4 or 5 weeks between reserve games, so I have to manually arrange some.

An option in your team settings to ask your Ass Man to ensure they have at least one game per week would be great. We can already ask him to arrange first team friendlies, so why not reserves?

An option in your team settings to ask your Ass Man to ensure they have at least one game per week would be great. We can already ask him to arrange first team friendlies, so why not reserves?

I agree with this.

Its perfectly possible to keep 21ish players match fit in a squad, I know I did it for many seasons in FM10 and do so in FM11.

Those that aren't match fit still come in to cover injuries and are match fit within a couple of games for very little loss of performance.

Yeah but i don't want it to take them a couple of games to get match fit. I want them match fit here and now. And i want to be able to pick largely the same 18 each week with a couple of changes for tired players.

So i'll go ahead and keep scheduling reserve fixtures but thanks for the input anyway fella

Totally agree with OP. I manage Rangers and have been having to manually arrange friendlies every week for my reserves. I do have most of my reserves out on loan but you do need to have some match time for those that aren't getting any first team action.

Something like you suggested would be a good idea.