Have I broken my players?

Ok, here is the problem.

I'm trying out lower league management for the first time and have reached the pre-season for the second season.

I played my first Friendly using my planned first eleven. I substituted them as they became tired; around about 65% condition. No problems so far. The players used were tired for the next friendlies so I used reserves, etc.

I've now reached the final friendly of the pre-season (two and a half weeks later) and the first team players used in the original game are still at between 58 - 65% condition and are showing as 'Exhausted'.

Now at this point I've realised that I don't have a pre-season training schedule set up, but surely that wouldn't have such a detrimental effect on my players?

Have I overlooked something to do with the fact they are part-time players and don't have a 'holiday'?

Any advice would be appreciated. Oh and this is FM2010 by the way.

Ok, here is the problem.

I'm trying out lower league management for the first time and have reached the pre-season for the second season.

I played my first Friendly using my planned first eleven. I substituted them as they became tired; around about 65% condition. No problems so far. The players used were tired for the next friendlies so I used reserves, etc.

I've now reached the final friendly of the pre-season (two and a half weeks later) and the first team players used in the original game are still at between 58 - 65% condition and are showing as 'Exhausted'.

Now at this point I've realised that I don't have a pre-season training schedule set up, but surely that wouldn't have such a detrimental effect on my players?

Have I overlooked something to do with the fact they are part-time players and don't have a 'holiday'?

Any advice would be appreciated. Oh and this is FM2010 by the way.

Actually you should play them more. I play as Manchester United and have top staff and top facilities, but at the beginning of every pre-season my players struggle with condition and fitness. All I do is keep playing them in all friendlies (7-8 friendlies per pre-season) for the first 45 minutes then I use my substitutions. In the last 2-3 pre-season matches they all get to be in superb condition. So, they can only beat poor fitness levels by tiring even more and breaking the barrier. Pretty much like IRL.

Hmmmm, interesting.

I only ask because in previous saves with top division clubs it usually takes 2 or 3 games for the players to achieve match fitness and their condition percentages in the 90s.

I've never seen essentially a whole squad stuck at such a low condition percentage for so long.

Do you have a fitness coach? I play lower league too and was having similar problems, even during season. After employing a fitness coach things got a lot better.

Funnily enough this problem has arisen at the same time I was able to employ a fitness coach!

The first season I was only allowed 2 coaches, but promotion to the BSP has allowed me the luxury of 6.

I would play them every game, no matter what condition, it improves their fitness.

What I do is to have 2 teams, and at half time sub the lot. Do that for every friendly.

I only make about 4 or 5 friendlys and have about 4 or 5 days between each one though. It works well enough for me.

I would play them every game, no matter what condition, it improves their fitness.

What I do is to have 2 teams, and at half time sub the lot. Do that for every friendly.

Exactly what I was trying to say.

Let my assistant manager sort out friendlies. Players nice and fresh for season.

Also set the players to turn out to reserves until match fit.

I like to delegate these tasks to the staff I've hired and expect them to do the job I hired them to do.

Exactly what I was trying to say.

Yeah, pretty much what you said. It works lower league too. Maybe not so many friendlys.

Another thing, try to sign your best players (everyone thats half decent) on Full time contracts so they can train more. Pretty much everyone will accept a FT contract, even if its for a lot less than minimum wage

This is the thing thats bugging me as I tend to stick to all the advice you're giving.

I try to have about 5 or 6 friendlies per pre-season, starting and finishing with an easy game and always leaving one week before the last friendly and the first 'proper' game of the season.

I sub players regularly so no player (except perhaps the keeper) plays a full game until the first league game of the season.

I make sure there is a sufficient gap between games.

What's puzzling me is that my entire (literally every player) first team squad has been stuck at ~60% condition for nearly three weeks after playing technically one game, but actually probably only a maximum of 60 minutes. I would have expected the condition to have risen towards 90% due to the lack of playing, but the players having the usual 'In need of match fitness', 'In severe need of match fitness' messages rather than 'Exhausted'.

I'm tempted to go on Holiday for a couple of weeks and see if my AssMan can sort things out while I drink beer and ogle bikini-clad ladies by the pool.

I have encountered this very same scenario. At the time, I put it down to the fact that we also had to cope with the transition of turning professional, and that everyone I'd signed from part-time to full-time contracts was struggling with the new full-time schedules.

However, reading the above makes sense. My squad had a terrible pre-season and i started the season resting players for 1-2 days following a game due to tiredness. The more game time they got though, the less this became a problem, and by October everyone was fit and ready for each game.

Sounds like too many friendlies too close together to me. I play 4 friendlies, all 7 days apart and sub everybody after no more than an hour. By the time the season comes around, everybody should be match fit.

I move all my players including keepers into a "preseason training" schedule, which has Strength and Aerobics set at the maximum and everything else set at the miniumum. As soon as a player reaches 95% fitness I put him back to the regular training schedule for his position. I have done this for a long time now and have found that my players reach the 100% much much quicker in fact always before I have played my final friendly. This is like real life where the most important aspect of training in preseason is burning off weight gain and regaining stamina.

You could use a band-aid to fix them...

As a follow up to this; I think it was the game that broke my players.

I reached the first game of the season, picked a team, went to play the game and was confronted by the message telling me the "...match squad needs to have a minimum of 4 players trained at a club in England. (Currently 8)"

Needless to say I told the game, "**** this ****" and resigned.