SFraser's Training Schedules for FM10

SFraser's Training Schedules for FM10

Despite writing at great lengths about the topic of how players work and how training works I have never released any Training Schedules to the wider public. This is partly because I do not believe that "one-shoe-fits-all" schedules exist, partly because I had never taken the time to develop a broad range of general schedules that could be used by other people, and partly because I did not know enough detail about certain key aspects of Training and player mechanics to produce what I would consider accurate schedules.

While the first remains true the latter two have changed and I am now confident of releasing a comprehensive set of powerful and accurate schedules for community use. More than that however I would like to encourage and engage the community to assist me in developing these schedules further, in greater depth and detail, and in fine tuning the basic underlying principles.

Should you download these schedules you will be a guinea pig, but do not be alarmed for I have already received very positive feedback and observed some very impressive results already from these schedules. However I do not simply wish to release a bunch of schedules for your use, I wish to get your help to further explain the details of training, further improve and develop superior schedules, but also help users to construct their own ideal individual player schedules based on what is understood about training and player mechanics, and based on the underlying premise of these schedules.

The following screenshots are the kind of results you can expect after a year, under ideal conditions, and with a well balanced schedule. However I will be the first to admit that not all the schedules are well balanced and this is where I need your help. I need your help to design and test better balanced versions of these schedules, indeed to design and test whatever schedules you can think of for players. To do this you will need to understand the rules I am following when designing these schedules, understand the key factors to pay attention to, understand the ratios I am working from, and hopefully you will also pop up with some new and more accurate information of your own.

The now 32 year old Jamie Carragher has improved in almost everything except his Physical Attributes and his Physical Attributes have not gone down. Atleast that is how it looks on the surface. Underneath all this his Physical Attributes have gone down but not by enough to register a change. The schedule predicts this and trains him intensively in Physical Attributes so as to slow down the rate of change while at the same time favouring Tactics and Defending slightly more than Ball Control, Attacking and Shooting to receive the lost CA. The schedule also anticipates that his Ball Control Attributes and Shooting Attributes will require less CA to go up than Tactics and Defending, and so we have a near perfect spread of small increases in his Technical and Mental attributes while his Physical attributes barely change.

Looking at this screenshot perhaps I should have reduced his Ball Control and favoured his Tactics or Attacking more but then this is where I need your help to test the balance of these schedules on different players and make suggestions for improvements to the balance, or even design your own superior schedules based on the information I will give you.

Now lets take a look at the 25 year old DM/CM Mascherano. This 25 year old powerhouse midfield destroyer has improved his Stamina, Strength, Teamwork, Decisions and Concentration. How is that for some Central Midfielder training? A 25 year old clearly improving his physical attributes is not something you see very often, and to improve the key physical attributes at the same rate as his other vital positional attributes are improving is something I am sure everyone wants to see in their own players. Why is his Composure bouncing around? Because there has to be concessions made and for this schedule the concessions are unfortunately in his Defending, Attacking, Shooting and Set Pieces. No free lunch I am afraid. Do you want to change this balance? I will tell you how to do so.

The Schedules

Before I give you the link to download these schedules it is important to explain how they work, how to tell if they are working for you, and to tell you how to change them as you see fit.

As we can see from the screenshot above, these do not in any way follow the "Number Line Theory" of Training you can read about in certain training threads or in other forums. This "Number Line Theory" suggests that if you place one slider at precisely a certain notch, 7 I think, then those attributes will not change. Likewise if you place the slider at notch 18 or 19 or something then those attributes will increase. Well that's rubbish.

Take a look at Vidic, Ferdinand and Brown. They are all fit, at 100% match experience and they are all on the same schedule with huge variations between sliders. Yet for some reason they are not all behaving exactly the same, and for some other reason that shoots the "Number Line Theory" out of the sky, all of them are powering through Shooting Training which is at notch 9 while barely making a dent in Tactics that is at notch 20. The only guy improving his Tactics is Vidic.

So what is going on in this screen? Well a number of things are going, you just can't see all the individual details so it makes it hard to figure out what the arrows mean.

Wes Brown and Ferdinand are both at 100% Match Experience and have been at that level for a while and they are both at or close to their PA. Ferdinand cannot gain any more CA so his attributes cannot go up unless CA is removed from other attributes. Ferdinand is also a Centreback and this means that certain attributes go up faster or slower for the same amount of CA. For Ferdinand his Age, CA/PA, Match Experience and his particular Attribute CA needs means that this schedule is almost perfectly balanced to do nothing. The amount of CA being shared by this schedule between his Strength, Aerobic, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending and Attacking is exactly enough to prevent any change while he is at 100% Match Experience. However we are not training his set peices and his Shooting Attributes dont need much CA to improve because he is a Centreback. This means that while his other attributes stay the same, his Shooting Attributes are improving.

Yes you read that correct. His Strength, Aerobic, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending and Attacking Categories are all perfectly balanced for his Age and his Position.

Vidic is not only younger which changes the balance for him, but he has also just reached 100% Match Experience after being injured. He will have lost a small amount of CA when he was injured and will now be gaining all that CA now he is at 100% Match Experience. So ontop of his zero Set Piece Training freeing up CA for his Shooting Attributes to improve, he is also gaining CA which means all of his other attributes instead of being perfectly balanced to do nothing, are perfectly balanced to increase at the same rate.

This 1st Choice CB Schedule is designed to "Maintain" Centrebacks that are near to their peak Ability level while favouring only minor increases in key attributes. Composure in this case because in my first attempt at a CB schedule I forgot to consider Composure and Concentration in my schedule (thank you for the omission SI) and lo and behold down went Ferdinands Composure after a months training. The above schedule for a Centreback that is close to their PA and not yet suffering from heavy Age penalties is very close to a perfect "Maintain" schedule. It wont prevent CA from going up or down or shifting around during a season, but it wont speed up or slow down these naturally occuring changes.

The Developing CB and Veteran CB schedules above and below this one are completely different. For each position their is an U-17 Schedule, a Developing Schedule, a 1st Choice Schedule and a Veteran Schedule. The U-17 Schedule emphasises key attributes for the position at the expense of any nonesense young players do not need to learn. The Developing Schedules are for players between 17 and 24 or those than need a crash course in the Senior Basics. They are Physically Intensive and they focus again on vital areas of the game for that position. The 1st Choice is generally a more rounded, more "Maintain" Schedule aimed also at reducing intensity and maintaining condition and Morale. The Veteran Schedule is aimed purely at players who are starting to decline Physically. It attempts to halt the destructive drop of Stamina while channeling Aerobic CA into Mental and Technical attributes in order to build a Maldini or Giggs.

The exact shape of the schedules for each position is my own view on what the position should look like and how best to deal with different ages. They may be far from your own liking and may also be poorly balanced in certain respects.

The exact design of each schedule is based on two fundamental ideas. Designing Category intensities based on numbers of attributes contained within each Category and designing Relative Category Intensities based on ratios.

Let me try and explain for you clearly.

Strength has 4 attributes in the Category, Aerobic has 6 attributes in the Category. Therefore to train Strength and Aerobic equally I place Strength at notch 4 and Aerobic at notch 6. Attacking has only two attributes so to train attacking equally with Strength and Aerobic I place Attacking at notch 2. If I want Attacking to receive twice as much Training as Strength I place Attacking at notch 4, the same as Strength. Strength has 4 attributes while Attacking has 2 attributes, so now each Attacking attribute should receive twice the CA as each Strength attribute.

The complicated part comes from the fact that certain attributes require more CA to improve than others, based on Age, Position etc. There are some rough and ready rules but no exact figures so there can be no exact science to training.

The Strength and Tactics Categories for a Centreback will require more CA to increase than the Ball Control Category. If he is young then his Strength Category naturally receives more CA anyway, if he is old his Strength Category naturally tries to shed CA. This means that you will always have to consider Strength Training much higher than others to achieve the same rate of increase, but this is not true when a player is very young nor very old.

I have developed a Test Schedule containing the basic ratios of a balanced schedule independant of Position and Age.

This Test Schedule (ignore Vidic here as he has been on it 5 minutes) is the basis on which all my schedules are designed and you will find the Test, GK Test and U-17 Test schedules in my schedule pack.

To avoid overcomplication all schedules have been kept precisely to these ratios. There are no half Strength increases, only an increase or decrease by 4 every time I wish to increase Strength training by "a balanced notch".

A Centreback Schedule may for example increase Strength by 4 "notches" to position 16, Aerobic to 24, Tactics to 20, Ball Control to 10, Defending by 4 to 12, Attacking to 4, Shooting to 6. Once this achieved, a rough pattern for the shape of a Centreback's Training of important attributes 2x less important attributes, you will then have to take Attribute Weights and Age into account, so perhaps Increase Strength by another 4, Tactics by another 5 and Defending by another 3.

These schedules seem to work and seem to work well, although there are plenty of rough edges and areas that could be much better balanced. I would appreciate as much feedback on these issues as you can give me, and as much feedback on any others issues as well.

Download Link

http://www.mediafire.com/?z2ftnmzazmm

I'll be a guinea pig Got an ideal squad to test this on in Season Six.

Will give you a heads up on how it goes - certain it will work though; your detail is staggering.

Another quality detailed post

I will try it with the aging team of Milan.

Don't expect drastic changes early on unless something happens to your players CA, like breaking into the first team or breaking a leg. Give it a season or so and you should see the players attributes altering pretty decently.

If you are going to play as Milan make sure you make liberal use of the Veteran schedules

I've often been confused by your long detailed posts on the intricacies of training in Football Manager, but this gives me a much better understanding. I'll test them out and give some feedback when I get the chance to.

But kudos to the effort you put in, it's appreciated.

Another quality post

first can i just say great post mate:thup: i am going to try this with man city for a season and report backs the results.

One thing I've noticed is that the players I put on a developing or youth schedule in accordance with their position become unhappy with their heavy training workload. Does this pass as the game goes on?

One thing I've noticed is that the players I put on a developing or youth schedule in accordance with their position become unhappy with their heavy training workload. Does this pass as the game goes on?

It doesn't pass but it doesn't have to have an affect on players.

Unhappines with heavy Training is a constant small negative Morale modifier. If you left them on it and nothing ever happened at your club ever then they would eventually get really low Morale because of it. If something bad happens to your club like some poor results or dressing room issues then this will compound the problem and make your players unhappy quicker. If everything else at your club is going great then just ignore it as every win you get will put them all back up to Superb or high Morale.

Heavy Training at a club winning everything is fine. Heavy Training at a club where everyone is depressed will only make things worse.

Here are a few screen's I said I'd get for you Sfraser.

Massive improvements from the start of the season to 1st of January 2010. I've not gone any further yet but will post his stats at end of season again for you. He's using the developing WF schedule.

I'm just on the way out now, but will post the other 4 or 5 players when I get back home.

They are some impressive results with Vela right there.

Forgive my ignorance but what is CF and CM ???

Or even better can you explain to me what position i suppost to put a midfielder or a defencife midfielder ??

Thanks

Center Forward and Central Midfielder I'd imagine.

i have a question. if you have a, say, 18 year old that's good enough to start in the first team and play every game, do you put him on a developing schedule or do you put him on a first team schedule?

Wow! It feels like Christmas has come early!

Iv been attempting to base my schedules around much of your work and most of it has worked pretty well, although from the SS that Cleon posted it looks like your will work better!

I do have a quick question though. I have just bought a 17 yo Regen CB who is massive and has generally very good stats. Having said that he has two main problems which are Strength (9) and Concentration (7). I currently have him on a schedule which is ratio'd in favour of improving these stats and I was wondering whether you would think he would be able to improve these enough through training (and occasional playing) to get these up to a desirable Premiership standard?

Iv found quite a few regens with a random poor stat that is vital to their position and if it cant be improved enough then there is no point buying him the first place, except to try and flog him for a slightly inflated fee!

Here are a few screen's I said I'd get for you Sfraser.

Massive improvements from the start of the season to 1st of January 2010. I've not gone any further yet but will post his stats at end of season again for you. He's using the developing WF schedule.

I'm just on the way out now, but will post the other 4 or 5 players when I get back home.

Thanks, and that is some impressive improvements.

However I don't know about you but I would be hoping to see some of those stat increases going into Physical Attributes as he is a bit lightweight in that area for a 20 year old. They might be improving but not going up visibly and they may improve much more over the rest of the season, but I think that schedule may be unbalanced though I could be jumping the gun. If you like it though no need to change it.

i have a question. if you have a, say, 18 year old that's good enough to start in the first team and play every game, do you put him on a developing schedule or do you put him on a first team schedule?

Depends on his stats. If he is lacking in some key areas for his position then stick him the developing schedule for a while as they should try and intensively build up key areas of his game. If he is quite well balanced already and looks like a couple of points all over would do the trick then stick him on the 1st Choice.

I do have a quick question though. I have just bought a 17 yo Regen CB who is massive and has generally very good stats. Having said that he has two main problems which are Strength (9) and Concentration (7). I currently have him on a schedule which is ratio'd in favour of improving these stats and I was wondering whether you would think he would be able to improve these enough through training (and occasional playing) to get these up to a desirable Premiership standard?

Iv found quite a few regens with a random poor stat that is vital to their position and if it cant be improved enough then there is no point buying him the first place, except to try and flog him for a slightly inflated fee!

That has been a common problem in FM for a while now. High potential Regens always seem to have atleast one profound flaw, like Decisions 1 or something daft. I have never seen a single regen with the basic stats to turn into a Fabregas or Messi or Ronaldo or Rooney etc. let alone four of them in the same year.

Getting this guys Strength up to Premiership standards should be possible but not easy. 9 is a good start for a 17 year old but you are looking at another 6-7 points minimum for a top PL Centreback. You will have to do the majority of this work before he is 25 so that is around a point per season. His Concentration starts lower but will be easier to raise for a lot longer. I would say another 7 to 8 points minimum for a top PL Centreback but you can aim this for his mid to late 20s. Still I would be intensively training this guy in key defensive attributes as early as possible for as long as possible, and get him mentored well to make the process and final product smoother.

If any of you guys have suggestions for improving these schedules that would great. I might give you a bit of time to test them first though.

Can you explain better the position that you use in your training e.g. CF CM WF etc pls.

to be more specific, the 18 year old is jack rodwell who i signed over from everton to play as my ball winner. he's got 12s and 13s in the stats needed for the position, so that's decently rounded i'd think.

I agree with the few that have posted this before.

Can you please let us know what each position is.

Here is what I think each is but I don't know one or two:

WF - Wide Forward

ST - Striker

GK - Obviously Goalkeeper

FB - Full back

CM - Center Mid

CF - Center Forward

CB - Center Back

The one I am not sure on is CF, it seems to have nowhere near enough attacking training to be for a center forward.

Thanks.

Also, why is there only an attacking midfielder schedule for developing players and under 17s?

Creative Forward perhaps.

Also, why is there only an attacking midfielder schedule for developing players and under 17s?

There is one for first team its the very first schedule in the list.

However I don't know about you but I would be hoping to see some of those stat increases going into Physical Attributes as he is a bit lightweight in that area for a 20 year old. They might be improving but not going up visibly and they may improve much more over the rest of the season, but I think that schedule may be unbalanced though I could be jumping the gun. If you like it though no need to change it.

I've just realised I had him in the 1st team WF schedule and not the developing one. I normally give schedules at least 1 full season before changing them unless I think the schedule is causing the player harm and he's getting no benefits from them. How long do you leave something before deciding whether to change? I think anything less than a season and you don't get a clear picture. Even after a season you don't imo but you get an idea of how someone is developing. Is your approach different?

I've finished the season now and I put Vela on the correct schedule when I realised which was on the 3rd of January. His physical stats started to rise and would have been higher if I'd put him in the correct one to begin with. Here is what he turned out like at the end of season;

So the schedule seems fine for Vela and is a good balance. However the same can't be said for Walcott who is on the same schedule;

He doesn't seem to have changed that much but he has had lots of injury issues. He seems to pick up knocks in games a lot. The stats he's had improve are dribbling, first touch, freekicks, longshots, off the ball, penalty taking, positioning, reflexes, teamwork, technique and workrate all by 1 attribute. Jumping declined by 1.

I'd have liked to see his finishing and composure get higher though. Would the injuries he had prevented that from changing? The reason I ask is I have a crap 19 year old in the reserves and he was the only other player using the same schedule and he saw simliar improvements as Vela did just not as much. But he did have crap stats to begin with all like 9's. Or would it be more down to Walcott's personality that maybe didn't see him improve as much? Would you stick with him on the same schedule a bit longer, or change him now?

Senderos has also improved a lot in a lot of important areas for defenders. This was using the developing CB schedules.

The stats he saw rise were; Agility, Anticipation, composure, concentration, decisions, determination, marking, off the ball, pace, positioning, strength all by 1 attribute and none declined.

There is a 18 year old on the same schedule and he saw the same stats increase as well as tackling, Accelaration, balance, first touch, jumping, heading, stamina all by atleat 1 attribute, but some of them are by 2 and 3.

Is it a general theme that unless a player has 15+ for most of his physical attributes and they are over 24 then they should go on the development training to try and improve their physical attributes?

Great work again SFraser. The quality of posts from guys like you and Cleon in the last few weeks have been first rate, keep up the good work

I'm trying to give you feedback on different positions and not all from the same. So next up was the keeper who was in the first team schedule.

He's improved quite a bit since I got him but I'm unsure if I should have kept him on the developing schedule with him still been young. Would this have tired him out more and been too much with playing every week?

The stats he saw improve were; Anticipation, command of area, composure, concentration, decisions, influence, jumping, one on ones, positioning, strength all by 1 and communication by 2.

I have a 20 year old keeper in the development one and he has every stat rise except from agression, bravery, essentricty, first touch, influence, rushing out and tendency to punch. The rest of his stats all rose by atleast 1, in some cases was 2.

Here is a fullback;

The stats that rose here were; Agility,bravery, composure, concentration, crossing, dribbling, finishing, heading, influence, longshots, long throws, off the ball, passing, stamina, strength, tackling, team work, technique all by 1.

Anticipation, corners, creativity, decisions, determination, first touch, freekicks, marking, penalty taking, positioning, reflexes all by 2.

He's in the developing fullback schedule. The other players all improved simliar to Gibbs just not as much. I put this down to his young age and because he was exposed to the first team and played quite a few games.

Another player who improved by a large amount is

He was using the develop AMC one. He improved in almost everything

these training schedules seem to rack up a lot of injuries :/

Lots of useful info there, thanks SFraser.

I've been using individual training plans for each player so that I could avoid the 'unhappy with the high training workload' complaint (especially with the youth team) and also customize the intensity depending on what the player needs most urgently. This may sound like a lot of work but it's not really any worse than creating 3 or 4 versions of each playing position (as i used to do in FM2008 days). But I may give your approach a go as it makes a lot of sense and agrees with some changes I have observed with players that the 'maintain line' method didn't account for.

I play mainly as a LLM where training facilities are dire, coaches few and far between (my current club has 1 general coach, 1 fitness instructor and my Ass Man) and naturally no transfer budget either so it would be great if I could really make training work in the lower leagues, but it doesnt seem possible. With such facilities and training staff (2 stars max) and the vast majority of players on Part Time contracts, I mostly see attributes dropping across the board and rarely ever going up in the green. I cant afford to up all their contracts to full time (only the least rubbish players get this treatment!!! ).

Does your 1 notch per attribute/category weighting system still hold true for part time schedules? (these seem to be different from the youth schedules, never understood why).

Would you use different schedules for Center Midfielders with different duties? (ie CMa and CMd who play along the centreline but with different mentality, instructions etc).

Would you create more specilized versions for key types of players, e.g. Pacey Strikers, Long Shot strikers, Deep Laying Playmakers etc?

My apologies guys for not explaining the different schedules.

Please keep in mind that they cannot ensure you have made the right choice for your player, they can only attempt to mould players into a certain shape. If you want your young Centreback to improve his Technical ability and Passing skills then the Developing CB schedule is not for him as it trains players intensively in Strength, Aerobic, Tactics and Defending. Keep in mind the further points that A: these are based on the number of attributes per category and not on individual categories B: they are based on my choice of shape for a position C: some may not be very well balanced D: large increases come from playing regularly when you have more CA gain, schedules only shape players according to the quality of your Training facilities and Coaches.

GK Schedules:- Obviously for Goalkeepers. I think the Strength training for these schedules may be slightly off so for each GK Schedule knock Strength down by 4 notches and Ball Control down by 2 notches and increase either Aerobic or Tactics by 6 notches, if you are unhappy with the results.

CB Schedules:- For Central Defenders or anyone you wish to train intensively in Strength, Aerobic, Tactics and Defending. The Developing Schedule should see the greatest improvement in defending attributes. The 1st Choice Schedule should see small changes and may be unbalanced. If you are unhappy with the 1st Choice Schedule decrease Ball Control by 5 and Shooting by 3 then increase Tactics by 5 and Defending by 3.

FB Schedules:- For Defensive Wide Players. This Schedule is Aerobic Intensive and aims to produce well rounded speedy wide players. Again these Schedules may be unbalanced so if you are unhappy with the results reduce Ball Control by 5 and Shooting by 3 and increase Tactics by 5 and Defending by 3 for all Schedules.

CM Schedules:- Central Midfielder Schedules based on Physical Attributes and Tactics, i.e. quite defensively minded for the central position. The Developing Schedule is based on Physical Attributes first with all others getting a smaller equal share. The 1st Choice and Veteran Schedules are based on Strength and Tactics. 1st Choice is the Schedule Mascherano was on in the screenshot and seems quite balanced to me, although you can easilly do several things with it. Reducing Ball Control by 5 notches and increasing Defending by 3 and Attacking by 2 should produce a Schedule more like one for a DM.

AM Schedules:- Perhaps one of the more controversial sets of Schedules. These Schedules essentially attempt to mould general purpose Creative Attacking players and follow the tendency for Creative Attacking players to often start wide as Wingers and move infield as they Age. Think of the kind of players Arsenal use, or players like Modric or Kaka. True Attacking Central Midfielders, say players like Gerrard and Aquilani may be better off on the CF schedules or CM schedules.

WF Schedules:- Wing Forward or in todays money Inside Forward. This is a Physically Intensive Wide Striker Schedule and moulds players for whom a physical, direct wide game is their forte. Ronaldo, Nani, Valencia, and even some actual Strikers that combine wideplay roles into their forward game such as Agbonlahor etc. These Schedules will not develop clever players, they will develop direct, Technically skilled, Powerful wide forward players.

CF Schedules:- Centre Forward Schedules but not the old English Centre Forward, rather instead the modern day version of a powerful, clever, dangerous deep lying player. This Schedule is also designed for the modern Targetman, Peter Crouch for example that combines Strength with Technical Ability, Intelligence and a dangerous Finish. These guys are not so much playmakers as they are the Intelligent Central version of the Inside Forward. Tevez, Rooney, Crouch, Ibrahimovic, Dzeko.

ST Schedules:- A pure Striker schedule based on Acceleration, Pace, Agility, Ball Control, Intelligence and Finishing ability. This is for the Torres, Eto'o, Defoe of this world. Players that terrify defences by the sheer thought of them getting the ball under control, let alone their goal tally. These Schedules could be a good idea to place your Developed WF on once they have achieved excellent direct qualities. Think the development of Cristiano Ronaldo versus Ryan Giggs. Both started as rather decision making lacking fullback destroying Wingers whereas one developed into a Creative AM while the other developed into perhaps the most fearsome Striker on the planet.

The number of positions and varieties of players covered by these Schedules is by no means comprehensive although the depth for each individual position is very comprehensive. This is why I require your help to construct more and better Schedules. If you wish to tweak these Schedules then by all means do so but please follow these rules when doing so as the quality of the schedules depends on it.

Only increase or decrease a Category by the numbers of Attributes in that Category. Use the Test Schedule to find out the exact number of notches to increase or decrease each Category by as SI have missed some attributes in the display. This means 4 for Strength, 6 for Aerobic, 5 for Tactics and Ball Control and Set Pieces, 3 for Defending and Shooting and only 2 for Attacking. The reason for this is to make sure each attribute is recieving the required increase or decrease and not the entire set of attributes in a Category. If you want to double the amount of training going into Aerobic compared to Defending there is no point increasing Aerobic from 0 to 6 and Defending from 0 to 3 because the six Aerobic attributes are gaining the benefit of six notches of increased Training while the three Defending attributes gain the benefit of three notches of increased Training, meaning that although Aerobic is twice as intensive as Defending, each attribute in both categories receives the same level of training.

If you put Defending at notch 3 and want to double the amount of Training each Aerobic attribute receives compared to defending, you need to put the six Aerobic attributes at notch 12.

Also pay attention to the levels of increases between categories. Do not increase Tactics by 10 notches without considering how many times more training that means compared to the other Categories. Use the Test Schedule as the basis for your new Training Schedules and increase each Category according to it's size and according to how many times more Training you want in relation to others. If you want Aerobic to go up 4x faster than Defending you need to put Defending at 3 and Aerobic at 24. If you put Defending at 6 you cannot get Aerobic 4x higher than Defending because Aerobic would have to go up to 30 and there are only 25 notches in the any Category.

Even seemingly huge differences between Categories only amount to small differences in the overall amount of Training for each attribute in a category. Aerobic at notch 24 and Attacking at notch 4 means each Aerobic attribute is only getting 2x more training than each Attacking attribute.

Pay attention to these details when making your own Schedules. Use the Test Schedule as your basis.

I've just realised I had him in the 1st team WF schedule and not the developing one. I normally give schedules at least 1 full season before changing them unless I think the schedule is causing the player harm and he's getting no benefits from them. How long do you leave something before deciding whether to change? I think anything less than a season and you don't get a clear picture. Even after a season you don't imo but you get an idea of how someone is developing. Is your approach different?

That depends on what is happening. If something drops that is not supposed to then it is pretty clear there is a problem in the Schedule and the player should move onto a better one. If something doesn't increase very quickly then that doesn't say much outright. You would need to test for a while to see the impact on multiple attributes.

If I was making or testing a Schedule I would give it a long run. If I was playing the game and Training players I would have limited patience for lack of results, but unless you test a schedule over a long period of time you cannot be sure whether what you want is actually happening or whether another schedule is better.

I've finished the season now and I put Vela on the correct schedule when I realised which was on the 3rd of January. His physical stats started to rise and would have been higher if I'd put him in the correct one to begin with. Here is what he turned out like at the end of season;

That is good to see. Keep in mind that the previous schedule will have just "filled" all the attributes you saw rise before so this slightly reduced schedule will have to start from the bottom of the next Attribute increase and will also be filling it up slower.

The problem with Vela is that Aerobic and Strength are huge attributes for an AML/R and Forward. You will have to pump lots more additional CA into these attributes anyway to see a rise equal to his other attributes, while at the same time the 1st Choice Schedule was favouring his Tactics and Ball Control ahead of his Aerobic. That would be a big stunt in the growth of his Aerobic for him, compounding the low rate of increase with even lower share of CA, which is why so many of his other attributes went up.

It is essentially a juggle between heaps of Technical and Mental or a few Physical plus a few others. Look at the Carragher screenshot compared to Mascherano. That is the rough trend you will always get in Training.

So the schedule seems fine for Vela and is a good balance. However the same can't be said for Walcott who is on the same schedule;

He doesn't seem to have changed that much but he has had lots of injury issues. He seems to pick up knocks in games a lot. The stats he's had improve are dribbling, first touch, freekicks, longshots, off the ball, penalty taking, positioning, reflexes, teamwork, technique and workrate all by 1 attribute. Jumping declined by 1.

I'd have liked to see his finishing and composure get higher though. Would the injuries he had prevented that from changing? The reason I ask is I have a crap 19 year old in the reserves and he was the only other player using the same schedule and he saw simliar improvements as Vela did just not as much. But he did have crap stats to begin with all like 9's. Or would it be more down to Walcott's personality that maybe didn't see him improve as much? Would you stick with him on the same schedule a bit longer, or change him now?

Every time a player gets injured two things happen. First he loses Match Experience and his rate of CA gain goes down. Second he stops Training so the force of the schedule pushing on certain attributes stops. It also takes time to build up the "push" on attributes when Training. You don't get maximum effect from a schedule untill a month or two full Training.

Little knocks here and there are clear evidence of the Injury Prone attribute. I did some experiments and wrote a post a while back that said that Knocks and Bumps are a result of the Injury Prone attribute working like a dice roll every time a player comes into contact with another player. Injuries like muscle tears and ligament damage etc. are not caused by the Injury Prone attribute at all but come into consideration whenever players are exerting their physical attributes, such as sprints, high speed turns. These injuries are especially prevailent if a player is moving at high speed and fails to anticipate a tackle and has low agility or balance. These players may have Injury Prone 1 but if they are tackled when moving or turning at high speed with low Agility/Balance they are incredibly vulnerable to serious injuries, like broken legs or ruptured ligaments etc.

I had a look at Walcott and he is a Natural Striker compared to Accomplished AMR. This means his Shooting Attributes require more CA to increase than other players, so he may be better off on the ST Schedules to improve these attributes. However these Schedules lack Crossing Training so you may want to do some tweaking of your own to develop the perfect schedule for this guy.

I'm trying to give you feedback on different positions and not all from the same. So next up was the keeper who was in the first team schedule.

He's improved quite a bit since I got him but I'm unsure if I should have kept him on the developing schedule with him still been young. Would this have tired him out more and been too much with playing every week?

The stats he saw improve were; Anticipation, command of area, composure, concentration, decisions, influence, jumping, one on ones, positioning, strength all by 1 and communication by 2.

I have a 20 year old keeper in the development one and he has every stat rise except from agression, bravery, essentricty, first touch, influence, rushing out and tendency to punch. The rest of his stats all rose by atleast 1, in some cases was 2.

I hope I don't come across to badly when I say this, but that is some of the best Goalkeeping improvement I have seen, not just scale but distribution aswell. Like I said before I think Strength Training is too heavy for Goalkeepers and it would be worthwhile reducing Strength and Ball Control and increasing Aerobic or Tactics.

As for your player and question in particular, it depends on whether you think 16 Agility and 14 Jumping is good enough for you. Goalkeepers are notoriously difficult to tire out and I have never seen Condition problems in Goalkeepers playing regularly no matter the schedule.

The Developing Schedule would have aimed to improve his Aerobic further but likewise you would not have seen such rises in his other attributes. The Schedule he is on looks to be doing excellent stuff, and because his Jumping is increasing then his Aerobic should not be too low to provoke a slow decline. Having said that he may be gaining CA so if he stops gaining CA he may see a slow decline in Aerobic for increases in his Tactical and Goalkeeping attributes. I would suggest you keep an eye on this and if you see anything that looks like a slow decline in Aerobic, seriously consider dropping Strength and Ball control by 4 and 2 and cranking up Aerobic another 6 notches.

these training schedules seem to rack up a lot of injuries :/

Could you tell me if the injuries occur in Training or in Matches, what kind of injuries you are seeing (is it pulls/strains/tears or bumps, bruises, knocks), and could you also tell me whether you are during the Pre-Season, Start of the Season, Mid Season or End Season?

I would also appreciate it if you could tell me what level your Training Facilities are, and if you do not have a problem using FMScoutGenie could you fire it up and look at your coaches and tell me what their Hardness of Training attribute is at and what Categories they train?

If you can give me this information in detail I should be able to tell you exactly what the problem is and how to fix it.

Which would you reccomend putting Fabregas on?

That depends on what is happening. If something drops that is not supposed to then it is pretty clear there is a problem in the Schedule and the player should move onto a better one. If something doesn't increase very quickly then that doesn't say much outright. You would need to test for a while to see the impact on multiple attributes.

If I was making or testing a Schedule I would give it a long run. If I was playing the game and Training players I would have limited patience for lack of results, but unless you test a schedule over a long period of time you cannot be sure whether what you want is actually happening or whether another schedule is better.

Aye that's why I'm using them on beta games as it allows me to see the different effects over 1 or 2 seasons before I use them on a new career game I start. Also gives me time to fully understand how they work and see the impact of changes I make to them.

That is good to see. Keep in mind that the previous schedule will have just "filled" all the attributes you saw rise before so this slightly reduced schedule will have to start from the bottom of the next Attribute increase and will also be filling it up slower.

The problem with Vela is that Aerobic and Strength are huge attributes for an AML/R and Forward. You will have to pump lots more additional CA into these attributes anyway to see a rise equal to his other attributes, while at the same time the 1st Choice Schedule was favouring his Tactics and Ball Control ahead of his Aerobic. That would be a big stunt in the growth of his Aerobic for him, compounding the low rate of increase with even lower share of CA, which is why so many of his other attributes went up.

It is essentially a juggle between heaps of Technical and Mental or a few Physical plus a few others. Look at the Carragher screenshot compared to Mascherano. That is the rough trend you will always get in Training.

I'll be replaying the Arsenal season later (rather than Liverpool one) so will see how he goes in the correct schedule from the beginning. As the other player in the schedule did improve quite a bit with the physical side of the game.

Every time a player gets injured two things happen. First he loses Match Experience and his rate of CA gain goes down. Second he stops Training so the force of the schedule pushing on certain attributes stops. It also takes time to build up the "push" on attributes when Training. You don't get maximum effect from a schedule untill a month or two full Training.

Little knocks here and there are clear evidence of the Injury Prone attribute. I did some experiments and wrote a post a while back that said that Knocks and Bumps are a result of the Injury Prone attribute working like a dice roll every time a player comes into contact with another player. Injuries like muscle tears and ligament damage etc. are not caused by the Injury Prone attribute at all but come into consideration whenever players are exerting their physical attributes, such as sprints, high speed turns. These injuries are especially prevailent if a player is moving at high speed and fails to anticipate a tackle and has low agility or balance. These players may have Injury Prone 1 but if they are tackled when moving or turning at high speed with low Agility/Balance they are incredibly vulnerable to serious injuries, like broken legs or ruptured ligaments etc.

I had a look at Walcott and he is a Natural Striker compared to Accomplished AMR. This means his Shooting Attributes require more CA to increase than other players, so he may be better off on the ST Schedules to improve these attributes. However these Schedules lack Crossing Training so you may want to do some tweaking of your own to develop the perfect schedule for this guy.

Yeah I'll create a custom striker one with crossing and see how he develops over the season compared to the other one.

I hope I don't come across to badly when I say this, but that is some of the best Goalkeeping improvement I have seen, not just scale but distribution aswell. Like I said before I think Strength Training is too heavy for Goalkeepers and it would be worthwhile reducing Strength and Ball Control and increasing Aerobic or Tactics.

As for your player and question in particular, it depends on whether you think 16 Agility and 14 Jumping is good enough for you. Goalkeepers are notoriously difficult to tire out and I have never seen Condition problems in Goalkeepers playing regularly no matter the schedule.

The Developing Schedule would have aimed to improve his Aerobic further but likewise you would not have seen such rises in his other attributes. The Schedule he is on looks to be doing excellent stuff, and because his Jumping is increasing then his Aerobic should not be too low to provoke a slow decline. Having said that he may be gaining CA so if he stops gaining CA he may see a slow decline in Aerobic for increases in his Tactical and Goalkeeping attributes. I would suggest you keep an eye on this and if you see anything that looks like a slow decline in Aerobic, seriously consider dropping Strength and Ball control by 4 and 2 and cranking up Aerobic another 6 notches.

How often does a player gain CA, is it continual or at different spurts throughout the game? Sometimes it's hard to determine if training has had the impact or his exposure to the first team and him gaining CA. I know it's probably a mixture but are there any tips for spotting which one is having the most influence on his stats gain?

SFraser, do you have any thoughts on the impact of coaches on training results? I've previously assumed that good coaches merely increase the velocity of attribute gains, but this feels like it misses the point that some coaches are 'better' than others. The difference between two people doing the same job is often not the pace they accomplish a task, it's the quality of the end product.

Basically, this would account for a more efficient conversion of spare potential ability into current ability. This is intuitive because it allows better coaches to produce higher quality players, not just allow them to hit their potential quicker - although certainly that, too.

It also blurs the otherwise hard-limit on a player's peak form. If Darren Fletcher, for example, was trained at a Championship club, not only would he be unlikely to reach his peak so early, his peak would not nearly be so high: a few attribute point gains would have been more difficult, potentially impossible, to attain. After all, if you have coaches with 14's for their coaching attributes, how would they impart the knowledge required for a player to hit 17 in a relevant attribute?

This hypothesis is fairly easy to test: given a player with X spare ability points, give him the same training schedule in two different games but ensure his assigned coaches in key areas are poorly chosen. Not only should the former player peak sooner, his attributes would be higher as he hit his PA. The latter, may never meet his PA, and every attribute point gained would be more 'expensive' in terms of PA.

I've got another question.

What sort of effect does a player’s match performance have on the impact of a schedule? I ask because on numerous games I've played I've noticed if someone does something they don't normally do you can see an instant stat gain after the match. When before it, it would be 1 less. For example Vela is a good player but not known as an out and goal scorer when you first start. Yet when he gets a hat trick he instantly has 1 stat gain in composure. I've noticed this for many players over the years on FM but never seen anyone talk about why it happens.

I've seen the same happen with defenders when they make more interceptions than usual; they get an instant 1 extra attribute for tackling. The same can be said about players who get 4 assist in a match when they might not have got any for a long time or they might normally get 1 assist every other game. These seem to get 1 extra attribute in either anticipation or passing. It varies it seem for assists.

It doesn't carry on rising if they start to do this continually but I find if they do it and it’s out of the ordinary for the player then stats rise. I've checked hundreds of players and hundreds of games on all versions I can remember and it seems to be same on them all. It can't all be down to the training though because on some games I've not even got them on any training except the default general one. Are you able to shed any light on this?

SFraser, do you have any thoughts on the impact of coaches on training results? I've previously assumed that good coaches merely increase the velocity of attribute gains, but this feels like it misses the point that some coaches are 'better' than others. The difference between two people doing the same job is often not the pace they accomplish a task, it's the quality of the end product.

Basically, this would account for a more efficient conversion of spare potential ability into current ability. This is intuitive because it allows better coaches to produce higher quality players, not just allow them to hit their potential quicker - although certainly that, too.

It also blurs the otherwise hard-limit on a player's peak form. If Darren Fletcher, for example, was trained at a Championship club, not only would he be unlikely to reach his peak so early, his peak would not nearly be so high: a few attribute point gains would have been more difficult, potentially impossible, to attain. After all, if you have coaches with 14's for their coaching attributes, how would they impart the knowledge required for a player to hit 17 in a relevant attribute?

This hypothesis is fairly easy to test: given a player with X spare ability points, give him the same training schedule in two different games but ensure his assigned coaches in key areas are poorly chosen. Not only should the former player peak sooner, his attributes would be higher as he hit his PA. The latter, may never meet his PA, and every attribute point gained would be more 'expensive' in terms of PA.

I asked him this elsewhere the other day;

So from what you've said above if I managed to get my head around things and then made individual schedules for each player what impact would the coaches have? Would I need to get a large number in to keep them effective?

And his reply was;

Coaches impact the quality of Training, i.e. a high quality coach determines his ability to shift CA in or out of a particular Category. So if you have a Schedule where lots of Strength CA is being pumped out of those attributes, and a great Tactics coach and a poor Attacking coach, then above and beyond the schedule and the players natural development, your Tactics Coach will be taking more of that CA and sending it into the Tactics Category compared to the Attacking Coach.

Think about it, if your Tactics coach is brilliant and your Attacking coach sucks, your players will have to do more Attacking training and less Tactics training to achieve the effect of similar improvement. If you do the same amount of Training then players will get heaps more Tactical ability than Attacking ability, because the Tactics Coach is better.

That'll be a 'yes', then.

I've got another question.

What sort of effect does a player’s match performance have on the impact of a schedule? I ask because on numerous games I've played I've noticed if someone does something they don't normally do you can see an instant stat gain after the match. When before it, it would be 1 less. For example Vela is a good player but not known as an out and goal scorer when you first start. Yet when he gets a hat trick he instantly has 1 stat gain in composure. I've noticed this for many players over the years on FM but never seen anyone talk about why it happens.

I've seen the same happen with defenders when they make more interceptions than usual; they get an instant 1 extra attribute for tackling. The same can be said about players who get 4 assist in a match when they might not have got any for a long time or they might normally get 1 assist every other game. These seem to get 1 extra attribute in either anticipation or passing. It varies it seem for assists.

It doesn't carry on rising if they start to do this continually but I find if they do it and it’s out of the ordinary for the player then stats rise. I've checked hundreds of players and hundreds of games on all versions I can remember and it seems to be same on them all. It can't all be down to the training though because on some games I've not even got them on any training except the default general one. Are you able to shed any light on this?

I am so glad you spotted this because I have seen the very same thing happen and when I wrote about it in the Training thread I got into this intense arguement with some other guy over whether it occured or not. I told him that players would improve drastically in certain attributes after particularly good performance in really tough games, and he was adamant I was seeing things and that it didn't occur and was down solely to the luck of the right attributes going up coincidentally at the same time as a decent performance.

What you have said here is something I have long believed to be true in the game. Players that regularly score from Free Kicks will gain Free Kick attribute points whether they are training Set Pieces or not.

Now I couldn't tell you for certain how it works, but if I was to try and imagine how it does work I would say that certain combinations of Match Events and Player details triggers a one-off attribute change, in much the same way that disciplining players can provoke a change in Determination etc. So imagine perhaps a young striker with CA very low compared to the reputation of the opponent. If he bangs in a few goals or the match winner then that will trigger an event to boost his Composure by 1 point.

Keep your eyes peeled for more of these events. I have seen a few in youngsters taking Set Peices or playing well against tough opponents. If you have spotted some aswell then there are probably quite a few of these "events" kicking around in the code.

How often does a player gain CA, is it continual or at different spurts throughout the game? Sometimes it's hard to determine if training has had the impact or his exposure to the first team and him gaining CA. I know it's probably a mixture but are there any tips for spotting which one is having the most influence on his stats gain?

That is the million dollar question. Almost all testing has been done on a season holiday basis yet everything I have seen has come from normal gameplay where I pay a lot of attention to lots of information. What I have seen is a pattern of dramatic improvement coming when tough matches are combined to a good run of player form, and minor declines when a series of "easy" games is combined to a poor run of player form. The form factor may be irrelevant but to me it seems pretty clear that the better the opposition is, the better your players develop. Likewise youngsters that maybe don't play against tough opposition but do play well can also be considered prime candidates for a CA boost.

Get them playing regularly, get them playing well and get them playing tough opponents and that should be you squeezing the maximum rate of development out of them.

SFraser, do you have any thoughts on the impact of coaches on training results? I've previously assumed that good coaches merely increase the velocity of attribute gains, but this feels like it misses the point that some coaches are 'better' than others.

Like Cleon said, while Coaches only do impact "velocity" of CA change, the very fact that one Coach taking one Category is moving CA slowly while another Coach taking another Category is shifting CA quickly means there is a discrepancy in the rate of change which essentially looks ingame like better or worse coaching.

This leaves the manager with a few possibilities. You can get plenty of awesome coaches or one coach to do all Categories and then fiddle about with the differences in Schedules yourself, or you could hire one single excellent Coach for one Category and be confident that he will "unbalance" the speed of CA change and effectively make one Category dominate the others for CA gain. That would only be useful though if your entire squad was deficient in one key area.

I am so glad you spotted this because I have seen the very same thing happen and when I wrote about it in the Training thread I got into this intense arguement with some other guy over whether it occured or not. I told him that players would improve drastically in certain attributes after particularly good performance in really tough games, and he was adamant I was seeing things and that it didn't occur and was down solely to the luck of the right attributes going up coincidentally at the same time as a decent performance.

It defientley exists I had one of the SI lads confirm it, although he couldn't give me the details of why it happened as he wasn't fully aware of how the system worked due to it not been his area. However he did confirm it was true.

I notice it for various players on nearly all games I start. So what I'll do from now on is keep a closer eye on them and when I notice it happen again I'll look at a few things. I'll look at the team it happened against, his match stats, rating and the type of thing that triggered the event. I'll then compare that game with others were this didn't happen. I think you are right though about it been in the tougher games, some players do seem to react with the touger opponents.

What you have said here is something I have long believed to be true in the game. Players that regularly score from Free Kicks will gain Free Kick attribute points whether they are training Set Pieces or not.

Yes, I've even tried games without using any training at all and the same thing still happens.

Now I couldn't tell you for certain how it works, but if I was to try and imagine how it does work I would say that certain combinations of Match Events and Player details triggers a one-off attribute change, in much the same way that disciplining players can provoke a change in Determination etc. So imagine perhaps a young striker with CA very low compared to the reputation of the opponent. If he bangs in a few goals or the match winner then that will trigger an event to boost his Composure by 1 point.

Keep your eyes peeled for more of these events. I have seen a few in youngsters taking Set Peices or playing well against tough opponents. If you have spotted some aswell then there are probably quite a few of these "events" kicking around in the code.

I'll try and get some screenshots the next time I see this happening and we might be able to determine what triggered the event.

That is the million dollar question. Almost all testing has been done on a season holiday basis yet everything I have seen has come from normal gameplay where I pay a lot of attention to lots of information. What I have seen is a pattern of dramatic improvement coming when tough matches are combined to a good run of player form, and minor declines when a series of "easy" games is combined to a poor run of player form.

I've also noticed the slight decline for the odd player in easy games. It's the total reverse of what I posted about about and makes sense that if someone can gain attributes by playing well that they can also lose them when not doing so hot against weaker teams.

Hi, I like this player to increase his jumping to at least 11 or 12. What schedule should I put him on?

@ SFraser

For the 8 schedule types (GK through ST) what are the category ratios you have used? By this I mean the number of times you multiply each category's 'Test' position.

For example, your DC Vidic example is something like (STR:AER:TAC:BAL:dEF:ATT:SHO:SET) 3:3:4:3:4:3:3:0.

If you have this information to hand and it's not too much trouble would you mind including it here to save me the time in reverse-engineering your schedules.

@ Cleon

Similarly, would you also mind posting the category ratios you would assign to each position? Having read your many threads I know you have a good grasp of the key attributes per position and I would like to know your interpretation by way of comparison.

I've just downloaded them and I'll give you some feedback in a bit, another great OP btw.

@ SFraser

For the 8 schedule types (GK through ST) what are the category ratios you have used? By this I mean the number of times you multiply each category's 'Test' position.

For example, I guess that a DC might be something like (STR:AER:TAC:BAL:DEF:ATT:SHO:SET) 1:2:2:1:3:1:1:1.

If you have this information to hand and it's not too much trouble would you mind including it here to save me the time in reverse-engineering your schedules.

You already have that information in the Notes section of the savegame I sent you.

I did send you a link to my savegame right? I thought I did but I can't remember for sure.

@ Cleon

Similarly, would you also mind posting the category ratios you would assign to each position? Having read your many threads I know you have a good grasp of the key attributes per position and I would like to know your interpretation by way of comparison.

I've not really put any effort into schedules but in the last week I've had a crash course from SFraser and have learned a lot. I'm using the same base ones as he has used. But I've made some changes to them now to get the best out of my players. I'll post the ratio's and results up after a season maybe 2. I'm taking my time with them and been really detailed in watching the changes and noting why its happening. Once I'm done I'll post though

Is it also possible that you could create part-time shedules?I know i'm asking too much,but it would be great! ;-)

You already have that information in the Notes section of the savegame I sent you.

I did send you a link to my savegame right? I thought I did but I can't remember for sure.

Really - that's great. Yeah I have it but I would have never found the info. mind without you telling me.

Cheers

By the way, having read the volumes of CA testing, attribute ratio testing etc. that have been done and slowly realising the complication that those approaches would have meant for designing schedules I was always quite suspicious of the fact that there may be a tiny piece of the puzzle which we were all missing that would make the understanding of training easier. Also, I never really understood what the training arrows were telling me exactly, other than the red ones were bad and the green ones were good.

I think the notches to attributes match is the missing piece. These may not be 100% accurate when position and age are considered as you rightly mention, but as a first approximation the results look very promising. Then perhaps, the training arrows exist to guide us through the fine-tuning of a schedule to the specific characteristics of an individual.

Finding the elusive 'balance' in a schedule can be achieved through monitoring and subsequent matching of the arrows when a player is both undergoing improvement or decline (due to age or injury).

Excellent work and please keep it going!

I've not really put any effort into schedules but in the last week I've had a crash course from SFraser and have learned a lot. I'm using the same base ones as he has used. But I've made some changes to them now to get the best out of my players. I'll post the ratio's and results up after a season maybe 2. I'm taking my time with them and been really detailed in watching the changes and noting why its happening. Once I'm done I'll post though

Good man

Just to add that I'm watching these intently now and will add what I can to this thread. I tend to play the game slowly though so it will most likely be continuous updates from me rather than end-of-season.

I've held off starting a proper career game for so long because I just couldn't get my head around training and was totally fed-up with watching attributes decrease and not understanding why or seeing DCs improve their Set Pieces and not their Defending skills. I too have had the benefit recently of SFraser's help recently and now I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into the game!

Good man

Just to add that I'm watching these intently now and will add what I can to this thread. I tend to play the game slowly though so it will most likely be continuous updates from me rather than end-of-season.

I've held off starting a proper career game for so long because I just couldn't get my head around training and was totally fed-up with watching attributes decrease and not understanding why or seeing DCs improve their Set Pieces and not their Defending skills. I too have had the benefit recently of SFraser's help recently and now I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into the game!

Sounds like we both had the same problems with training. I've finally got me head around the working now and feel I'm better placed to comment and create my own schedules. Before I got SFraser's saved game I was a bit baffled by all the different ratio's and trying to understand them. Plus the fact I've read all the training threads but still couldn't see how it all fitted in. The save game notes help me understand a lot and it all seemed to click for me once I'd seen that.

I can't start a proper career (that's why I'm Arsenal, Liverpool etc) just yet so I'm still messing around changing settings and replaying the same season over and over to see how the training differs. This is actually helpful and has learnt me a lot. In terms of ratio's though I think SFraser has that spot on and I follow the same logic. Seems to be doing alright for me.