Help with depth of squad

[Montpellier_26]

Im in my 4th season now in Ligue 1, i won the league and both cups last season and have quite a big budget. I also got taken over at the end of 2013/2014

Now my team is on paper very very strong, however i dont have depth. I have little cover in defense, midfield and attack is much better.

My problem is, Ligue 1 has a 3 booking suspension rule therefore i get alot of suspensions !

Now if i buy cover i tend to find they get unhappy with not playing and want first team football, my main CB's are key. So how do i combat this issue ? Sign cover but

have their morale low if i dont rotate and change ?

[ljwjones]

Get less booking I would say is the way to do this. Speaking from experience(7titles in 10 seasons at PSG) If you can have 1 cover for each position then I find this to be too many. If you can get one guy who can play LB and RB, he is very useful for cover. A third CB as well. The one extra CM, a winger who can do a good job on both wings, then a spare striker. That is only 5 subs? plus a keeper is 6.

I found that you hardly ever get runs like : Lyon, Om, Marseille...and so on. There is normally like Evian, Montpellier, Om. So in those games against evian give your other palyers a go, not in both just one. And also if your 2 or more up, what is stopping you bringing the defender on instead of a fresh striker?

[kingjericho]

Get players that can play in more than one position. That way you don't need a very large squad and you can rotate the players, with all of them getting opportunity to play.

[tottenhamfmo7]

When offering contracts to your backup players, make sure you set them as rotation or backup players.. So they know what to expect.

[nickdc]

The formation also dictates how many back ups you need. 442 you will find not as many positions are covered by the players to say a 3322.

[interesti88]

Get less booking I would say is the way to do this. Speaking from experience(7titles in 10 seasons at PSG) If you can have 1 cover for each position then I find this to be too many. If you can get one guy who can play LB and RB, he is very useful for cover. A third CB as well. The one extra CM, a winger who can do a good job on both wings, then a spare striker. That is only 5 subs? plus a keeper is 6.

I found that you hardly ever get runs like : Lyon, Om, Marseille...and so on. There is normally like Evian, Montpellier, Om. So in those games against evian give your other palyers a go, not in both just one. And also if your 2 or more up, what is stopping you bringing the defender on instead of a fresh striker?

I have to disagree with you, I think having a max squad size of 22-24 players is very adequate, just have the back-up players or fringe players as youth products or older veteran players. I've noticed these type of players don't necessarily moan about playing time

[PPPPPPPPPPPP10]

I play rotation all the time, and in my experience your player won't be unhappy if you're on winning runs and they get roughly 20-30% of all games available (consistently though, don't play them a handful of games and then left them out in all competition in the next month )

First rule obviously that your backup should be good enough to be able to take on league home game against bottom place team... if your backup can't even handle that then you shouldn't want to keep him anyway

I have 2 teams basically, I play 4-4-2, Team A take on the top of the table team's Away and sometime home games, Team B take on bottom half teams home and at occassion away games. Look at your schedule and prioritize, see where your next break (where you have 5 days+ without a game) comes and then decide which team you should take on each game.

The players that I designate to be backups HAVE to be versatile, they need to be able to play in at least 2 positions so I can have options on where to play them.

Coming on as substitutes helps to an extent, so give them at least 15 minutes of sub time when you can

but in the end it's about priority, give your backup player games on matches that you should be winning and let your first team take on the tough ones

[BiggusD]

I play rotation all the time, and in my experience your player won't be unhappy if you're on winning runs and they get roughly 20-30% of all games available (consistently though, don't play them a handful of games and then left them out in all competition in the next month )

First rule obviously that your backup should be good enough to be able to take on league home game against bottom place team... if your backup can't even handle that then you shouldn't want to keep him anyway

I have 2 teams basically, I play 4-4-2, Team A take on the top of the table team's Away and sometime home games, Team B take on bottom half teams home and at occassion away games. Look at your schedule and prioritize, see where your next break (where you have 5 days+ without a game) comes and then decide which team you should take on each game.

The players that I designate to be backups HAVE to be versatile, they need to be able to play in at least 2 positions so I can have options on where to play them.

Coming on as substitutes helps to an extent, so give them at least 15 minutes of sub time when you can

but in the end it's about priority, give your backup player games on matches that you should be winning and let your first team take on the tough ones

I have two players for each position. One fully developed, quality player and one young prospect. In addition I often attempt to have that 3rd goalkeeper, 5th full back, 5th central midfielder, 5th striker and 5th winger as well, but this takes years to build up since you need to have had youngsters in at least two years for them to be counted as youth in Europe.

As you say the key is that the young players must be so good that you can win with an entire "kid" team against mid-table or lower teams, in Europe and in domestic cups.

So now in the 11th season with Bradford and most of my players play between 20 and 40 matches a year in total, including substitutions. This way I keep 25+ players match fit, in high morale and developing nicely season after season, and if I sell anyone they have played plenty of matches and are usually sold within the hour at a reasonable price.

However, this does not mean that I can win important tournaments/matches without playing my strongest team, so if several of my main men are injured or suspended of course the team is weakened. I'd say that in the long term this strategy pays off hugely nevertheless, because I know that somewhere in the future all my players will be 3-3,5 stars and moulded perfectly to my tactic. This is what is happening about now in my save and at this point world domination is guaranteed.

Tactically, there is no reason to field the strongest team in all matches. You would think that doing so would allow you to win more empathically, but this is not the case... rather the opposite. Your best players will have a higher chance of complacency against weaker opponents, and this may show up as your team pressuring them into their own goal, but being unable to actually score. It is often easier to crush them if you give them a fighting chance, so that they borrow the ball now and then and try to attack.

So, to me having so-called "back-up players" is completely incomprehensible. Why use millions a year on keeping players around who won't ever actually contribute in any way to your team? Replace them with wonderkids instead. They are cheaper, often better and there is actually a point in keeping them 100% match fit and motivated, contrary to having a knight+squire squad - why let the squire fight the battles?

[hluraven]

Loan players do not complain about not playing. You can sign players on loan as cover, keeping your own players playing regularly and not complaining.