International Squad Selection - How Do You Do It?

A question for the international managers out there. How do you go about picking your international squad?

Do you go by who's playing best at club level? Who's got the best stats? Do you trust your assistant?

I pick the best looking from their attributes. Then change them over the next few games to find the ones who perform.

I had the an english striker golden boot three years in a row in premier scored something like 1 in 10 at international .

I pick players that best suit my formation, also taking morale (rather than form) into account. This can sometimes result in oddities such as calling up an unheard of player who is good in only a couple of key attributes.

They also have to be match fit unless there is a friendly to play in. Even then, they would be doubtful as I like to win my friendlies

When I start, I pick according to their attributes. Then I go and change depending on international form and club form

best stats and form in the league

best stats, match fitness and condition.

I'll generally pick the best player attributes wise first, then the best player stats wise 2nd.

I had a problem with my England team in the mid 2020's, as I had a wealth of strikers who were good enough for the England Squad, but could only pick a few of them. I had a preffered front two, who weren't the top scorers for their clubs, but had consistently banged in or created goals for me on the international stage.

Looking at the national pool, I've got about 10 strikers who've been tried and apart from one who's now 34, they could all do a job. I've got a striker from my club team who has 57 goals in 56 caps, and there are 2 former players of mine who I sold on and have now started doing the business.

I play it properly when I am managing England I go by player's rep.

Right now im managing France, but I usually go by international form then club form, so if they performing good internationally but struggling to make the first team domesticly i have to drop them and give some one else a chance

I choose from my club . Pretty much just ability, form, reputation (), and younger players in the less important games.

In all nations I managed I had a pretty limited choice the first few seasons (Iceland, Finland, Montenegro), so I kept my top players playing regardless of how badly they were doing at club level.

Then again, I never really look at form even at club level. The best available player plays.

ill usually base my squads on the teams last real life competitive fixture (apart from england or ireland) and work from there. if im managing england ill pick the usual suspects (except gerrard...he will NEVER get near a squad i pick) and if i play as ireland ill pick the strongest squad i can and then for friendlies i will throw a few random young airtricity league players in to give them a run out for their country...make the little buggers mammys proud of em

I pick the squad based on player value then let the Ass Man pick the match day squad.

I pick my international sqauds based on form over a certain period of games, mainly. First and foremost though, I pick two players for each position depending on what formation I am playing. Then I filter the national pool by position, and order them by average rating. This way I can see who the best performers are. Reputation does not effect my selection; if Kieran Gibbs and Leighton Baines is out-performing Ashley Cole, then those two get called up but Cole doesn't.

In all nations I managed I had a pretty limited choice the first few seasons (Iceland, Finland, Montenegro), so I kept my top players playing regardless of how badly they were doing at club level.

Then again, I never really look at form even at club level. The best available player plays.

I am in this boat, so I pick what ever players play in that position, try to go for younger ones if possible so hopefully over the years they will become top players.

You have to try anything when you only have a pool of 100 players

Form, Match Fitness, and wether they've been playing in the same role/formation I plan on using.

I only ever manage at international level at the same time as my club, so I use my club scouts to get reports on the players from my nation and go from there.

I generally go by form and morale and then go by attributes.

I've had a brief spell at Trinidad&Tobago, so the talent pool was rather slim.

From time to time I had to leave some Star Player out because he was playing rubbish, and I wanted to give a chance to some youngsters.

But generally speaking it was a matter of calling up the few pros who play in Europe, with a mix of the best of the rest. Purely attribute-based.

Now I've started a new game and I manage the Faroe Islands, so it's even more a mere matter of finding someon who doesn't totally suck.

But the pool is surprisingly big enough to provide a challenge. Not that it makes a world of difference when your Best Player has 12-14 as highest attributes

However the absence of a good international scouting system [especially for nations whose league is not active] makes the international selection a real chore.

So going for reputation and stats is the easier and less time consuming way

I only ever manage at international level at the same time as my club, so I use my club scouts to get reports on the players from my nation and go from there.

This is what I do as well.

I was managing the England U21 squad for a long time, I ended up signing most of the players that I managed at U21 level for my Newcastle side. I had to use the Newcastle scouts as there are no U21 scouts.

When Pearce finally got sacked after failing to get out of the group stages, I applied for the job and got accepted (offered him my vacant U21 job, which he took).

I now have 17 of my Newcastle players in the England squad and I am getting criticized for it in the press. My scouting reports all point that I do have the best players called up.

On a related note, does any one else notice that there seems to be a glut of great English regen strikers as the game progresses? I have a shortage of quality defenders and wingers, but I have strikers coming out of my ears.

Players that suit my formation firstly (no wingers or wing backs).

Then I sort them out usually by form over last 5 games and value (shallow I know, but it works to filter out bets players)

what i do is i put in the player search that show me all the nations players and a put it by value and then ill check all the players or most of it and i choose for the stats and the form .......

I use a spreadsheet (Don't mock me, I look at them all day long at work so it's slowly becoming 2nd nature).

Applicable stats to the position I want them to play, league form, form of any other internationals they've played for me. I can be a little biased towards players from Forest if they have any international quality players when I'm picking too but hey, I can live with it.

I use excel to give them a basic point scoring system for each ability and just total it up. If winning the 2018 + 2022 World Cup with Ireland shows anything, it works.

I only use players who play reguarly in the first team, only pick players that play to my system, i also try to blood new players in every squad as it gives me a better pool of players and finally I'm all for calling up anyone who takes British as their second nationality if there good enough to play for the country. I remeber on the last one i called up Xisco to the England squad as he was tanking them in for Bolton and Spain had no interest in him. I got slated by the media saying he wasn't good enough but he scored 5 goals in the world cup two were past Spain in the final - so looked like me and Xisco had the last laugh!