I have a problem, a nice problem but still a problem...

So basically my team is quite good , however in the central defence spot I have 6 players who have 3+ stars potential with 4 being 4*..

the oldest (28) is 3* and a back up , however the rest are 16,19,20,24 and 26. How should I develop them as all of them can make my team (Man Utd) with Jones and Smalling (24&26 respectivelly) being the first teamers. I sent them all out on loan last year bar Evans (28) and did fine , but I want to use them , should I loan one , or sell one ? Any advice would be extremely useful.

I cant play Jones as DM either due to having 5 other players ( Such as Darren Fletcher and a couple new gens who can play as good as him there, with the other few having good-great potential)

Any advice would be greatly appreicated

Depending what competitions you are competing in, you will most likely need just the 4. I would loan the youngest 2 out for first team actions only. You may eventually need to sell one or two of them, in which case try and keep Home grown over the others.

Good luck.

Depending what competitions you are competing in, you will most likely need just the 4. I would loan the youngest 2 out for first team actions only. You may eventually need to sell one or two of them, in which case try and keep Home grown over the others.

Good luck.

Cheers , forgot to mention sold another back up in the summer( most of them were out on loan last season) for a profit which i was happy about

The worst thing you can do is give just a few games to each player, as then they may not be happy with their playing time, nor will they develop as much. So try to aim for which 4 you want to keep, and play them. Rotate them in to the squad instead of Smalling and Jones for now, and then see if they progress well about what timeline to use for making them first choice. I am trying to develop a load of youngsters at the same time as keeping my squad challenging on all fronts, and its a heck of a juggling act.

As you said, its the best kind of problem to have, but usually it can be made a lot easier by getting rid of 1 player in whatever position, even if its a quality backup or rotation player, sell him but keep a % of his next fee as well. And it also helps if one of the players in the rotation is nearing the end of his career (31+) and another is still fairly young (19-21), because both will be pretty patient regarding their chances in the first team (assuming they are professional, of course). So you can opt to develop 2 19-21 y.o. instead of keeping the 31+, its a small hit to your teams quality, and depth, but it is temporary, and really benefits your clubs future.

Sell the 28 and 26 year olds.

Sell the 28 and 26 year olds.

This is so unrealistic. Veteran defenders are vital to a club. FM needs to do a far better job of modelling the effects of experience on a club.

Well, I would advice the same thing, but with a delay of two years. Thats why its difficult to find a spot for the older of the 'next gen', because they need to develop most urgently, but are really last in the pecking order. So either you sacrifice the youngest, and often most promising, player's development, sell a veteran, or sell a player on the cusp of breaking through! Its not easy, I would lean towards a loan deal, or keeping a large sell-on fee, or perhaps even buy-back clause.

Cheers for all the advice, i got rid of Evans (the 28yo) as he was 5th behind smalling , jones and the two best new gens

What i have been trying is get lower or lesser teams play one young player with one experienced center back (often smalling) but with Fletcher as my DM who adds vital experience

I'd also see if you can have the older guys tutoring the youngsters as well to help their development.

It depends on the attributes of the young CD's you have found. In my experience the most rare players are those with good Aggression, Anticipation, Bravery, Composure, Concentration, Decisions, Determination, Positioning, Team Work and Work Rate. I suspect that the established 24+ real CD's at ManU have good (14+) numbers in all of those essential defensive attributes, while regens with no weaknesses in any of them are extremely rare gems.

In my experience, a development rate in those mental attributes of +1 per year until the player is 24 is quite good and I normally don't dream of more than that. (Aggression, Bravery, Determination and Team Work aren't part of training schedules to my knowledge - any development in those are event-based).

Finding CD's with good physique and Tackling, Marking, Heading is quite common. The game world will mostly exist of that kind (with poor/mediocre mental attributes) after 7-10 years.

So what I suggest is to take another look at the 2-4 future prospects in your first team and be really nitpicking about it. I will be surprised if you have found that many future prospects without back-breaking weaknesses like 3 in Aggression and stuff like that.

It depends on the attributes of the young CD's you have found. In my experience the most rare players are those with good Aggression, Anticipation, Bravery, Composure, Concentration, Decisions, Determination, Positioning, Team Work and Work Rate. I suspect that the established 24+ real CD's at ManU have good (14+) numbers in all of those essential defensive attributes, while regens with no weaknesses in any of them are extremely rare gems.

In my experience, a development rate in those mental attributes of +1 per year until the player is 24 is quite good and I normally don't dream of more than that. (Aggression, Bravery, Determination and Team Work aren't part of training schedules to my knowledge - any development in those are event-based).

Finding CD's with good physique and Tackling, Marking, Heading is quite common. The game world will mostly exist of that kind (with poor/mediocre mental attributes) after 7-10 years.

So what I suggest is to take another look at the 2-4 future prospects in your first team and be really nitpicking about it. I will be surprised if you have found that many future prospects without back-breaking weaknesses like 3 in Aggression and stuff like that.

Hmm thanks I guess...

They have good/great physical attritubes and their determination and team work is good however thier aggresion and bravery is ok (10ish) i think , im not playing it atm

Hmm thanks I guess...

They have good/great physical attritubes and their determination and team work is good however thier aggresion and bravery is ok (10ish) i think , im not playing it atm

Yeah I wish I could manually set the colour schemes of the attributes to 10-13 decent, 14-16 good, 17-19 excellent, 20 extreme. Would make it easier to determine real quality.

While it is important to a CD to not have either extremes in Aggression and Bravery (these are completely randomly assigned), the essential skills at the top level are his football intelligence attributes. If his Anticipation, Concentration and Decisions attributes are not Good+, he will be prone to reacting too slowly and making costly mistakes - so you can imagine those attributes are precisely what SAF looks for in his players. Besides, unless mentioned in the coach report you don't know how the regens behave in important matches or if they are consistently good. This means that when you start at the highest level, for instance with Manchester United, it is not a walk in the park to replace the likes of Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand and Evra at all. Not to mention Vidic and Chelsea's Terry! The latter's mental attributes are unlikely to be seen again in the game, based on what I was able to find in 2021 and in a 2045 holiday test game I ran.

Yeah I wish I could manually set the colour schemes of the attributes to 10-13 decent, 14-16 good, 17-19 excellent, 20 extreme. Would make it easier to determine real quality.

While it is important to a CD to not have either extremes in Aggression and Bravery (these are completely randomly assigned), the essential skills at the top level are his football intelligence attributes. If his Anticipation, Concentration and Decisions attributes are not Good+, he will be prone to reacting too slowly and making costly mistakes - so you can imagine those attributes are precisely what SAF looks for in his players. Besides, unless mentioned in the coach report you don't know how the regens behave in important matches or if they are consistently good. This means that when you start at the highest level, for instance with Manchester United, it is not a walk in the park to replace the likes of Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand and Evra at all. Not to mention Vidic and Chelsea's Terry! The latter's mental attributes are unlikely to be seen again in the game, based on what I was able to find in 2021 and in a 2045 holiday test game I ran.

hmmm one of them has Anticipation 14, concentration 15, decisions 14

the other has 14,14,12

Cheers btw this has been useful for me in understanding my regens and their stats

The first thing I look at in a young CB is his determination, concentration, and other mental stats. Then I look at their physical stats, jumping and pace (if a player has low physical stats then high anticipation and positioning is a must). Only then do I look at his tackling, marking, heading, and passing (because that is always a bonus).

In the modern game interceptions are much more important than tackles.