What to do about the best kind of problem?

[Some Guy!]

Has anyone ever gotten themselves in a position of having too many good strikers? Well, not really good, but potentially good strikers?

I'm currently in the position of having 5 soon to be 6 very talented young strikers at my club, two of which have proven that they are great players and have a lifelong home at the club, whilst a further 3 are extremely talented but are currently very choppy. I honestly have no idea what I should do with them. What makes things worse is that I have a further 2 who are completely demolishing the second tier. I've got [they're all regens]:

Firstly the two who are safe:

1. Yannick Claverie - A bit of an all rounder, he's been the Champions League top goal scorer two years in a row at 20.
2. Mario Moreira - I signed him as back up the season before last, but 7 goals in his first two games for my B team made me give him a shot and he's never looked out of place. He's a pacey striker (20-19 for acceleration and pace) with good intelligence and the best dribbler at the club but lacking a bit of finishing and composure for this level (well 13-13), he's only 19 still though.

Then there's my target man:

3. Diego Saloman - Shows flashes of brilliance. He's a big striker, a tad slow, but is well disciplined and I told him to shoot with power which has improved him. He's 20 this season. The coaches think he's going to be awesome!
4. Daniel Kurth - Another 20 year old, good dribbler, lacks the finishing that would really make him the sort of player who would force his way into the team. However he's very good at a deeper role and on his day is my best striker. The coaches think he's going to be awesome! He's a tad too similar to Claverie though, and I don't need two Claveries!
5. Kouassi - A true all rounder, he's my best finisher, he's good in the air, good intelligence, he's got decent speed (16-15)... He's just, a tad inconsistent, but still only 19 and developing rapidly. The coaches don't think he'll be quite as good as Kurth or Saloman, but he's got that skill set and I think I can work with that.

On top of that I've signed:

6. Pedro Ribeiro - Young striker from Porto, very quick, intelligent, good dribbler and a finisher! He's 18, but cost me a penny, not here yet though. My scouts believe him to be potentially as good as Claverie is going to be (so about the same level as Kurth and Saloman)

Then there's my two reserves:

7. Kagabo - He's arguably the best striker at the club, but he's extremely injury prone and I can't stand losing him and losing our momentum, as such he's now my backup in case of an emergency. Ironic though that my backup in case of an injury crisis is an injury prone striker. He's 24 now. Not getting a whole lot better.

8. Ricardo Ouseb - Last but certainly not least, the 6'8" beast that is Ouseb! When he signed 2-3 years ago he was one of my great hopes for the future of the club, not scoring a goal in this first 12 appearances and then getting sent off twice in 2 games didn't really help his cause though and Diego Saloman was brought in to replace him. Though I felt that I could develop him further and give him another chance. Again, to not score, and again to get sent off. However, he's good in the air, not as good as Saloman though, quicker than him though. He's consistent (in the second tier) and can finish! So now I'm rethinking my position on him. My coaches don't think he'll be as good as Kurth and co could be. So, anyhow:

The stats on the players, just in terms of goals per game and assists per game last season [goals per game - assists per game]:

Claverie - 1.00 - 0.18
Moreira - 0.90 - 0.26
Saloman - 0.35 - 0.19
Kurth - 0.60 - 0.20
Kouassi - 0.29 - 0.09
Ribeiro - N/A
Kagabo - 1.43 - 0.72 (at Honvéd II)
Ouseb - 1.05- 0.44 (at Honvéd II)

Making the problem more complex Kurth played the vast majority of his games in the League (picture somewhere between the Championship and League One quality at this point in time) whilst Saloman and Kouassi [especially so] played a lot of time in the Champions League for experience. Honvéd II are in the second tier and that's between League two and the Blue Square Premier. So yeah.

I have no idea what to do. My current plan is to sell Ouseb for massive profit (hopefully), keep Kagabo on as my reserve captain, and give Kurth a run in the second tier to gauge whether he really can be the player I want. I'll give Ouseb one more chance at the first team first though.

Hmmm... I'm just rambling aren't I? Anyhow, what would everybody else do?

[tom_numbers]

I would sell everyone who isn't the same nationality as the club (unless they came through my academy) and stop depending on foreign mercenaries.

[Kenco]

I have a bit of a problem like that. I play a lone striker so I don't need many in my squad. First choice is Luis Suarez, he scores nearly a goal a game. 2nd choice is Lukaku, good youngster but not as good as Suarez yet. Then I have Andy Carroll purely as a back-up and a youngster called Guillermo, who has 4 star potential. I want to play Lukaku and Guillermo as much as possible so they fulfill their potential, but with Suarez scoring goals I just can't drop him, so they are restricted to sub appearances at best.

Now I'm on the verge of buying a 17 year old, again with bags of potential but again he isn't likely to get a game.

[dfa120374]

A bit of a similar problem in my save as well. I have seven or eight strikers (two of which are on loan at the moment) and while there is definately one that I want to - and will - get rid of as he is simply not good enough, I still have a potential of five or six strikers. And this is far too much as I have a load of decent midfield players that I would like to keep too, so as anyone knows you can't play an abundance of midfielders & strikers at the same time, so it's basically trying to look at it from a potential & priority outlook. Any players that I KNOW will not get a game & that are not good enough, I'll need to see about selling on. I may have one or two that I could possibly loan out as well and one has not really played as he has been on the long term injury list, so I don't really know how he plays so I would like to keep him to see if he can adapt into the team.

It's all about the management - any players that don't feature heavily in your plans (if at all really) then you'll just need to sell on. Or if you're unsure about a couple of them and/or they don't play too much in your team, you could always just try and loan them out as that is better than them just warming the bench. That way you can thin your strikers down a bit.

[BigHairyAndy]

Loans. Loans, loans, and more loans.

I have the exact same problem, in almost an identical situation to the OP (assuming you're still managing Budapest Honvéd). If they're not quite ready for you, they'll still dominate in any team below you. Let them do so! At one point in one of my older saves I owned the top scorers at five of the other clubs in my division.

[Some Guy!]

Yeah, still at Honvéd. I rarely loan out my youngsters these days. They always get brutally injured or don't get played when I do. Anyhow, this is what I'm thinking:

1. Claverie - He'll stay my first choice as he can play as both an advanced striker, or as a second striker
2. Kouassi - He's starting to bang them in, and his finishing makes him a vital asset to the club. He can be an advanced striker or second striker too.
3. Ribeiro - Definitely an advanced striker type, and I'll give him a go along side Claverie when he finally arrives. If he makes the grade it'll be his post to lose.
4. Saloman - His height and strength is an asset to the club and he'll play as part of my second string foward line.
5. Moreira - I'll use him when I need raw pace and lots of it. Meaning he'll likely only get 25 games a season and 10-15 off the bench, but that's really the type of role he's built for anyhow.
6. Kurth - I'll get him into the B side as their new main striker.
7. Kagabo - He'll stick around for a while longer, I may sell him, but hey...
8. Ouseb - Profit!!!

So that'll give me two good foward lines of Ribeiro - Claverie and Kouassi - Saloman which will be enough to handle the Hungarian Calender (especially in the second half of the season). Kurth will be my first drop and Moreira will always be kicking about as the man I'll bring in when pace is what's needed.

That could work. Ouseb has always developed very well in Honvéd II which suggests to me that players do get good experience there. I now just need to force a bit of money into the second tier, or just some quality.

[BigHairyAndy]

That could work. Ouseb has always developed very well in Honvéd II which suggests to me that players do get good experience there. I now just need to force a bit of money into the second tier, or just some quality.

I've always found players in Hungary develop very well in B teams. Since reading SFraser's thread on youth development, I'm now getting even better results - I now have kids who are emerging from the youth team and stepping straight into their full international sides, and it's four years since my under 19s lost a league match. It does give a good kind of headache when these players come through though!

As for loans, I've never had a problem with loanees getting playing time. I'm quite selective about that though - I tend to make sure he'll be clearly the best player at that club for his position. Usually simple enough in Hungary.

[Some Guy!]

I've always found players in Hungary develop very well in B teams. Since reading SFraser's thread on youth development, I'm now getting even better results - I now have kids who are emerging from the youth team and stepping straight into their full international sides, and it's four years since my under 19s lost a league match. It does give a good kind of headache when these players come through though!

As for loans, I've never had a problem with loanees getting playing time. I'm quite selective about that though - I tend to make sure he'll be clearly the best player at that club for his position. Usually simple enough in Hungary.

Strangely enough the Hungarian sides don't want my loanees very often. I've also had a policy of selling my Honvéd II players at market value to Hungarian teams when they turn 22. However, only Debrecen has ever taken me up on it. Now though a full 11 players who were in my Honvéd II side have returned to Hungary for Ujpest, Debrecen and Fehérvar (Videoton, who I haven't been bothered updating) for ~£5-8 mil a pop! They could have had them for £1-2 mil at the most! Stranger is that they could have had them on around ~£2-3k contracts like Debrecen did with their 2 signings form me. However by getting them later they're on ~£6-12k! I mean, sure... That's not a whole heap, but in a league that's only starting to see the money flow, that's just silly.

Another oddity is that the teams that spend big are failing big time. Ujpest got to the Champions League Group stage and have spent of the order of £16 mil this season and they're 11 points off the Champions League places (top 3) whilst the season before Debrecen made the group stage and were fighting relegation at winter break, only to fight back to 3rd.

In any case the money is starting to flow in Hungary, we just need it to permeate down the league structure a tad. Maybe I should try a new strategy of giving my promising youngsters a run with other Hungarian sides again though. Fehérvar [Videoton] betrayed me last time and refused to play one of my youngsters all but a couple of times a few years back, despite him being by far and away their best striker. But hey, I might give it another go.

[Kain]

I always try to include a clause saying I can recall loanees for that very reason. If they aren't getting game time at a club they're on loan at, I'll recall them and send them somewhere where they will get games.

It's a bit annoying that even if you have scout reports, they'll only tell you when they actually play a match though, so you still need to keep an eye on them yourself, which can be very time consuming if you're sending out a lot of youngsters.

[Bracken]

I always get this problem, not necessarily with strikers, but I just can't help snapping up the best youngsters and then end up with far too many players, all ready for first team action but with a limited amount of space. Currently my problem positions are CB, AMC and MC, I've got at least 3 fantastic youngsters for each position, and 2 established first teamers in from of them as well!

I use a lot of loans, and then eventually I have to bite the bullet and either sell up or move them into the first team fold. It is always a nice problem to have though.

[BigHairyAndy]

Another oddity is that the teams that spend big are failing big time. Ujpest got to the Champions League Group stage and have spent of the order of £16 mil this season and they're 11 points off the Champions League places (top 3) whilst the season before Debrecen made the group stage and were fighting relegation at winter break, only to fight back to 3rd.

I'm finding the same thing. Vác, who were promoted from NBII in 2015, spent several million assembling a pretty good squad under a generous owner but still went straight back down. Debrecen have spent pretty much my entire save finishing 3rd to 5th. ZTE have just been taken over by a tycoon though, and are an established top flight club - they'll be the club to watch next season! Ferencváros are the main competition nowadays, with Gyor consistently third. All have taken kids on loan from me, and in every case I've been happy with the results - ZTE at one point had six of my players starting for them.

Fehérvar [Videoton] betrayed me last time and refused to play one of my youngsters all but a couple of times a few years back, despite him being by far and away their best striker. But hey, I might give it another go.

The only club this has been a problem for with me was my feeder club in a previous save. I sent them four kids, all better than anything they had at the time, and they used none of them. I'm not afraid to use the recall function nowadays.

[Robioto]

I used to be really bad at signing too many strikers. But I'm a bit better now. What I do when I have too many is narrow it down to what I regard my weakest, give them a decent run (10 games or so) in the team each and who ever does worse, out the door.

I've got this problem on my United save at the moment. I have 6 strikers and only play 2 up front. I've picked whos going, he's a very good stiker but of the 6 he is the weakest.

[underwater sunlight]

i play a lone striker system and i always sign too many strikers.
in my current team i have a brazilian ST who i trained to play AML, and a brazilian AMC/ST who i also trained to play AML. usually keep 3 strikers in my first team and rotate, but i still have loads in my reserves so they go out on loan.
one regen striker joined me at 18. never made his first start until he was 23 because i had some amazing players ahead of him. he would have started for any other premiership side

[Some Guy!]

Well, after a few seasons things have moved along for this problem.

Claverie is now the best striker in the world.
Kouassi was sold to Gyor this season
Ribeiro is a beast scoring about ~2 goals a game
Salomon has been dropped to the B side with a view to being sold
Moreira won the world cup for Portugal and is the fastest player in the game, not to mention one of the best dribblers.
Kurth is kicking about on the edge of the first team as backup for Claverie
Kagabo went to Lyon for massive profit and has done poorly
Ouseb went to Arsenal and was banging them in before falling out with the manager

Another two strikers have come forth since:
Djiby, essentially Moreira except worse dribbling and better strength and height. He's being sold though, probably to Debrecen, though I could get 2-3 times that much from Real.
Maxi, a big (6'8") monster of a striker. He's a right winger naturally but I'm making him a striker as he's not built to be a winger. He's 17 but is already 17-17 for jumping and heading and has 16 for off the ball.

That makes the squad:
1. Claverie
2. Ribeiro
3. Moreira
4. Maxi
5. Kurth

Seems to have sorted itself out.

[sando123]

a had this problem then i clicked on i should just stop signing players becuase there going to be good when they cant even get into my team its pointless

[BiggusD]

Maxi, a big (6'8") monster of a striker. He's a right winger naturally but I'm making him a striker as he's not built to be a winger. He's 17 but is already 17-17 for jumping and heading and has 16 for off the ball.

Sounds like an excellent winger, that! He'll score lots of goals on crosses, probably more of those than if he play as a striker.

[Some Guy!]

Sounds like an excellent winger, that! He'll score lots of goals on crosses, probably more of those than if he play as a striker.

Well, the role he'll play is more of a deep striker who I'll have drift about. We'll see how he does with that. Poor ol' Diego Salomon though. He just didn't cut it and on his return to Honvéd II got sent off and Nigel seems to have dropped him down the pecking order there too!

The other issue for Maxi is he's quite slow, which has never worked for me as a winger.

[glennuk]

Sounds like an excellent winger, that! He'll score lots of goals on crosses, probably more of those than if he play as a striker.

No doubt in my mind about this one.

Play him as an inside forward in an AMR position and watch him gobble up the goals.

My formation is

4-1-2-2-1
4 Defenders
1 DM
2 CM
1 AML (Inside forward)
1 AMR (Inside forward)
1 St

The two inside forwards both being resonable at heading, which usually results in one crossing for the other to score a headed goal at the back post.

Would LOVE to have your player, for that reason.

[BiggusD]

Well, the role he'll play is more of a deep striker who I'll have drift about. We'll see how he does with that. Poor ol' Diego Salomon though. He just didn't cut it and on his return to Honvéd II got sent off and Nigel seems to have dropped him down the pecking order there too!

It actually bothers me a little that my youth prospects are not given the chance to prosper as they would if playing for me. Seeing the AI spoiling the chance of having excellent players at their hand by letting them rot in the reserves or not play at all - I don't like it! Even those youth prospects that I deem as lost causes, I take a peek at them now and again to see how they are doing and they rarely do well - being neglected in favour of players I would not even bother having around at all. I wish I could comment on another manager not using a former player of mine, bashing him a little for not knowing what is best for his team...

The only thing that bothers me more (when it comes to former players of mine) is leaving a club and watching what I have built up over years or even a decade crumble to dust in a matter of months! I stopped doing career games because of that!

[milnerpoint]

have you ever seen the opposite happen? I let a youngster go that i felt would never make it, he moved to Brechin in the first division played 2 brilliant seasons there, then rangers bought him for half a mil or so, and 4 years after that Birmingham bought him for £10m and he is the starting Scotland right winger, it has annoyed me so much that i let the kid go, especially considering the two i thought were better prospects have both been sold to championship clubs and play back up to rubbish clubs.

[Some Guy!]

Actually, he's a tad quicker than I thought:



The issue is that would mean I'd have to change my formation drastically. Currently I'm playing a 4-4-2 type of formation. It does the trick and I've got the squad to do so. Maxi if I can get that strength up a bit will be a weapon striker rather than first choice unless he is truly something special. The idea is essentially to have an extremely quick striker (Moreira with 20-20) and a extremely big striker (as above). He also would need to be trained completely to be a right midfielder and lacks the pace and crossing that I'd usually like. On that point though he also lacks anticipation, but hopefully I can train that.

[Some Guy!]

have you ever seen the opposite happen? I let a youngster go that i felt would never make it, he moved to Brechin in the first division played 2 brilliant seasons there, then rangers bought him for half a mil or so, and 4 years after that Birmingham bought him for £10m and he is the starting Scotland right winger, it has annoyed me so much that i let the kid go, especially considering the two i thought were better prospects have both been sold to championship clubs and play back up to rubbish clubs.

Oh yeah. I think I may have been a bit quick to dismiss Ouseb!



He's got 30 goals in 39 appearances for Arsenal in the 2 years since he's left. He is a bit ill disciplined though. He's gotten drastically better though!

[BiggusD]

have you ever seen the opposite happen? I let a youngster go that i felt would never make it, he moved to Brechin in the first division played 2 brilliant seasons there, then rangers bought him for half a mil or so, and 4 years after that Birmingham bought him for £10m and he is the starting Scotland right winger, it has annoyed me so much that i let the kid go, especially considering the two i thought were better prospects have both been sold to championship clubs and play back up to rubbish clubs.

I haven't actually regretted letting a youngster go, no. Not that I can remember. Mostly I am pleased if a player I sold becomes an important player to their new club(s).

I sold this guy this season, though:

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He was touted as a possible Leading BBVA player (3,5 stars) but I got only space for one youngster in the first team so one of the five prospects I have at the club that summer had to go. The choice fell on poor Marcelinho there because he seemed more limited (or unoriginal) than the two closest competitors:

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Evandro Ferreira, 4 star potential but evidently struggling to make an impact for Levante in BBVA.

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Anton Korneev, 4 star potential already making an impact for me.

There is also a 15-year old in my u18-team:

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Fuska, awaiting pace and acceleration to become better than all of them!

It looks like Marcelinho will do well, but I doubt I will regret selling him. Agree?

[Some Guy!]

This chappy is the one who'll partner Maxi when he plays this season. This guy for pace, Maxi for the height.



He's a bit older than that now, but I can't be bothered posting a new picture. He's up to 39 Portugal goals now though.

[milnerpoint]

I haven't actually regretted letting a youngster go, no. Not that I can remember. Mostly I am pleased if a player I sold becomes an important player to their new club(s).

I sold this guy this season, though:

Fuska, awaiting pace and acceleration to become better than all of them!

It looks like Marcelinho will do well, but I doubt I will regret selling him. Agree?

Yeah i would have sold the player you did as well, that 15 year old would excite me in a big way, fantastic stats for such a young player, i would just be careful about rushing him in until his physicals go up a bit, definitely the right choice tho.
Ill get a screenshot of the guy i let go later on, i still dont think he looks that great, BUT he plays consistently well so im guessing he has very good hidden stats which make up for his poorer attribute.

[milnerpoint]

This chappy is the one who'll partner Maxi when he plays this season. This guy for pace, Maxi for the height.



He's a bit older than that now, but I can't be bothered posting a new picture. He's up to 39 Portugal goals now though.

Christ pace to burn eh!!!!

[Some Guy!]

He's the only striker I've found with that much pace and a decent finish so far. A beast of a striker.

[CityAndColour]

He's the only striker I've found with that much pace and a decent finish so far. A beast of a striker.

This guy goes close, my record signing for Forest Green.

Daouda Soro

Found him playing in the UAE. Has outstanding stats for an advanced forward, I'd probably like his off the ball to be a point or two higher but his anticipation, first touch, pace and acceleration ensures he is lethal sitting on the shoulder of the last defender. Finishing, technique and composure means he puts away his chances, and workrate and stamina means he keeps at it all day.

[Some Guy!]

Good player!

I had a player similar to Moreira and younger too (by 3 years). He was in fact slightly slower but stronger and better in the air. I figured selling him to another Hungarian Team would be the best choice in the long run. I really want Hungary to be the best league in the World and it's really on its way now!