How to get Assistant to Keep Arranging Reserve Games?

Alright people, as the title says is there a way of getting your Assistant to continually provide your reserve team with friendlies throughout the season if you're not in a reserve league?

In my Huddersfield game at the start of the season, even after pre-season my assistant was giving me reserve fixtures pretty much every week. I thought this was a really cool new feature because not only does it give my younger players (both over and under 18's) more match practice but i also like to give my fringe players games once i find out who is starting most weeks. I find this keeps them happy and match fit at the same time even if they're not playing week in week out.

However all of a sudden he's stopped doing it. I don't know if it's because of one of the patches that i've downloaded or maybe its a bug, maybe i've just got a lazy assistant. But i've noticed the morale of my fringe players going down now which seems to affect the rest of the squad. I know i can arrange friendlies manually but its a pain in the arse if i'm honest and would rather my assistant keep doing it.

Any help would be appreciated cheers

My ass men don't seem to do this at all, unfortunately, when I'm at a club that isn't in a reserves competition. OTOH, I don't tend to have a reserve squad either. I just make my backup and rotation players 'available' for those games when not playing in the first team, and supplement it with U-18. Maybe the ass man doesn't think I take it seriously enough to warrant regular friendlies, although that annoys me, because I still value those fixtures to keep my backup players match fit. And - obviously - I cannot be stuffed, pardon my language, at arranging these fixtures myself, so there you go

I assume your ass man was accepting friendly challenges on your behalf. Now the season is well underway, no one's interested and he never initiates the process.

I also assume you just have to do it manually. It's a lot easier this year.

Cheers for the replies guys. Yeh i think what got me confused was that i thought he was arranging them of his own accord but as you said he was probably just accepting other clubs requests. I know you can do it yourself, just thought that it would be easy enough for Sports Interactive to add the option to get your ass man to arrange them for you. With so much other stuff to occupy you, it's a pain to have to do it yourself lol. Ah well think i'll just keep it up till end of season and hopefully i get the option to enter them into the reserve league next year.

It is immensely irritating and time-consuming. I have a large reserve squad that increases every time an U18 reaches his 17th birthday. They need gametime and keeping fit but the only way to do it is organise every friendly which includes finding a club willing to come and so on.

By the way, this is in England. I've just secured promotion from League 2 so will be in League 1 next season; anyone know when I get asked if I want to enter a reserve league?

I spend a lot of time arranging reserve games because Italy doesn't have a reserve league. It is very tedious.

I'm also in Italy, and having to arrange friendlies (and only being able to do a few months at a time) is beyond dull. Why do I have to arrange a single friendly at a time (unless I choose to do a mini-league or cup, which is only useful pre-season?) Why can't I pick all my dates an opponents in one go, then click confirm to see who accepts? Why do the dates have to display in such a way that I have to scroll down the screen each time I re-enter it?

The UI for friendlies is pretty awful and needlessly adds time to an already-dull task.

Yeah i have to do this in the SPL as well because we have no reserve league, its much easier this year the way it works, but id much rather have the assistant arranging games for me.

Far too many of you are too focused on having a reserve team and arranging matches/keeping players match fit.

You simply don't need one, especially if you manage in a country with no reserve league (eg Italy or Scotland).

Rotate your first team using around 20/21 players regularly (if in Europe) maybe a few less if not then the players who aren't match fit cover when you have injuries. The difference in playing a player who isn't match fit is minimal (especially when the rest of the team is) and he'll regain match fitness after one, maybe two matches.

Anyone who isn't in your first team you sell or loan out.

Far too many of you are too focused on having a reserve team and arranging matches/keeping players match fit.

You simply don't need one, especially if you manage in a country with no reserve league (eg Italy or Scotland).

Rotate your first team using around 20/21 players regularly (if in Europe) maybe a few less if not then the players who aren't match fit cover when you have injuries. The difference in playing a player who isn't match fit is minimal (especially when the rest of the team is) and he'll regain match fitness after one, maybe two matches.

Anyone who isn't in your first team you sell or loan out.

Well that doesn't work at all for LLM. For starters, it's very, very difficult to loan out or sell players, and given that most teams probably average around 3 injuries at any one time that doesn't leave you with much squad depth - thus restricting opportunities to be able to change tactics significantly. Additionally, reserve games allow me to radically change tactics and experiement without it mattering. Plus (again for LLM) it's a good, easy source of some income.

I'm not focused on having a reserve squad, infact i very rarely have anyone except those never likely to play in it, but at the start of the season and midway through the season its useful to have some bounce games to keep those not in the first team fully fit, especially the back up keeper who i only tend to play in cup games, lose the first cup game and he gets very few games for the season.

Well that doesn't work at all for LLM. For starters, it's very, very difficult to loan out or sell players, and given that most teams probably average around 3 injuries at any one time that doesn't leave you with much squad depth - thus restricting opportunities to be able to change tactics significantly. Additionally, reserve games allow me to radically change tactics and experiement without it mattering. Plus (again for LLM) it's a good, easy source of some income.

As Cougar has said there really is no need to go overboard with reserve friendlies, a few here & there is all that is needed & if anything the lack of a reserve league adds to the challenge of squad management.

Far too many of you are too focused on having a reserve team and arranging matches/keeping players match fit.

You simply don't need one, especially if you manage in a country with no reserve league (eg Italy or Scotland).

Rotate your first team using around 20/21 players regularly (if in Europe) maybe a few less if not then the players who aren't match fit cover when you have injuries. The difference in playing a player who isn't match fit is minimal (especially when the rest of the team is) and he'll regain match fitness after one, maybe two matches.

Anyone who isn't in your first team you sell or loan out.

i completely disagree, I love having reserve fixtures. Partly becuase its more games for my superb regens who are sat in U18's and also it makes players recoveries from injuries much better. If I have a player who isnormally a sub just back from injury, say on 71% match fitness, giving him 20 minutes does almost nothing to his match fitness, it would need 6 or 7 of these last 20 mins to get back to match fitness, which is a lot of wasted substitutions. I would have to start him or give him at least 45mins, and i don't want to be making unneccessary subs at half time. Also, If you start them then i find the chance of them getting another injury is highly likely.

Reserve fixtures mean that they can get back to full fitness pretty quickly. You can never have enough reserve fixtures!

As a LLaMa I can with 100% confidence say that what you're doing is so far from LLM it has ended up on another game.

As Cougar has said there really is no need to go overboard with reserve friendlies, a few here & there is all that is needed & if anything the lack of a reserve league adds to the challenge of squad management.

Ah, I referenced LLM as in managing in the lower leagues, rather than 'true' LLM - so consider me corrected.

Well that doesn't work at all for LLM. For starters, it's very, very difficult to loan out or sell players, and given that most teams probably average around 3 injuries at any one time that doesn't leave you with much squad depth - thus restricting opportunities to be able to change tactics significantly. Additionally, reserve games allow me to radically change tactics and experiement without it mattering. Plus (again for LLM) it's a good, easy source of some income.

It works just as easily for LLM and is the way I've worked now for several versions of FM. In fact I wouldn't bother having a reserve team at all now at any level.

Loaning/selling - Depends what level you are at and the lower down the pyramid you get the less likely you are to have players to loan out but most league clubs have non-league feeders. Outside of the league you really shouldn't have too many players as most struggle to have enough. Selling isn't easy at those levels so you need to work with contracts and release players who you don't use.

There is very little useful experimenting you can do with a reserve team and even then you can use friendlies to achieve the same results.

Reserve football an easy sort of income?? Only if you cheat otherwise you'll spend far more on wages for additional players than what you earn in match fees. Reserve teams cost money which is why many clubs have scrapped their reserve team and focused on the first & youth teams.

Cougar 2010

What happens when you get 7 or 8 injuries at once, or your playing 55 games a season due to Europe/Cups? I once played 19 Europa league game messages in a season because I had to go through all the qualifying rounds. Thats another half season! It also serves as a good punishment to put some first team players in the reserves for a few games if thet've not been performing.

It works just as easily for LLM and is the way I've worked now for several versions of FM. In fact I wouldn't bother having a reserve team at all now at any level.

Loaning/selling - Depends what level you are at and the lower down the pyramid you get the less likely you are to have players to loan out but most league clubs have non-league feeders. Outside of the league you really shouldn't have too many players as most struggle to have enough. Selling isn't easy at those levels so you need to work with contracts and release players who you don't use.

There is very little useful experimenting you can do with a reserve team and even then you can use friendlies to achieve the same results.

Reserve football an easy sort of income?? Only if you cheat otherwise you'll spend far more on wages for additional players than what you earn in match fees. Reserve teams cost money which is why many clubs have scrapped their reserve team and focused on the first & youth teams.

I don't have a full reserve team, sometimes only 3 or 4 players are available to play for it at a given time, but friendlies bring in some income and allow me to keep fitness up (and helps bringing injured players back up to speed). I don't see how that is cheating at all (unless you are playing true LLM - as I said above, my reference was wrong).

Ah, I referenced LLM as in managing in the lower leagues, rather than 'true' LLM - so consider me corrected.

No problem, just be careful as LlaMa's are very anal

Fixed for you

Cougar 2010

What happens when you get 7 or 8 injuries at once, or your playing 55 games a season due to Europe/Cups? I once played 19 Europa league game messages in a season because I had to go through all the qualifying rounds. Thats another half season! It also serves as a good punishment to put some first team players in the reserves for a few games if thet've not been performing.

Obviously your squad size is relevant to the amount of matches you expect in a season. For instance last season playing in Germany I had 34 league games + 4/5 cup matches and a squad of 21/22 players was more than enough with youth players filling in when needed. This season I'll also have Euro Cup games so I've signed a few players and am looking for a squad of 24/25 with talented youth players filling in occasionally for injuries.

I don't suffer with injuries as a minority do on the forums so 8 players out would definitely be a crisis but I do get spells where 4/5 players are out and these are the times for your talented youth players to come in and get some playing time.

I usually aim to have two first team players for each position + either a talented youth or a player from another position who can be a 3rd choice. This has served me fine playing 30+ seasons of FM every year for longer than I care to remember. Even on top of that if you get a long term injury you have a mid season transfer window or the loan market to bulk up your squad.

Playing in the Serie A is a real drag when it comes to arranging friendlies for your reserves. You can only get to play against really low-league amateur teams. I tried setting up a game with my Napoli reserves v. Roma reserves and got a "it's too far to travel" statement. Really? Naples to Rome? Too far?

Yeah it seems that Serie A clubs typically have about 30 players in a squad, but with no reserve competition - either in real life or in FM - half of them wouldn't get a lot of games. I've just started managing Bologna, currently in Serie B, and I really feel I need to thin the squad down quite a bit to keep it managable - I don't like having a lot of unsettled players at the club.

It takes less time to arrange an entire season of reserve fixtures than it did to make that post, just saying

I manage in Italy a lot, I never have a reserve squad. You can play 2 or 3 over 20's in the u20's so players needing fitness are played in there. My reserve squad currently has 2 players. One is on loan the other is a player who refuses to be sold or go on loan. I've never had more than 5 players in my reserve team.

I never have more than a few players in my reserve team either, and they are almost always on loan, but I use reserve team games occasionally to keep the five players in my 23-man senior squad who aren't on my bench at the moment fit, or to ease them back from injury. Given that I am playing with a lower league club containing some unspectacular players, I can't afford to constantly rotate the whole squad, and I don't like risking a squad smaller than 23 in case injuries start to pile up for my single, bad physio.

... and he'll regain match fitness after one, maybe two matches.

If you Insert column > Match fitness and see how much a player at 60% Mft has improved after "one, maybe two" games of football, you might be surprised.