Too Many Injuries

I know this has been beaten to death and you always blame it on us.

I've already had 10 injuries so far this year on the senior team and just lost 2 more in a friendly. This is without saying anything about my u-18 that is being managed by the an ai manager and has been

littered with injuries. On top of that both players I loaned out to other teams got injuries.

Now I know this is all my fault even though my training is on average, rest them in between games and rotate them. So rather than tell I'm doing it wrong. Please for the love of God in the next FM add an injury slider.

As you rightly said, this has been discussed many times before and each time it has been reported that the level of injuries is set at a level which is slightly below the actual level from real life figures. There are many things, apart from the ones you have quoted, that you as manager can do to influence injuries, but bear in mind that you may also have players with a high hidden attribute for injury proneness.

So you know it's something you're doing, but you don't care about finding out what that is, you just want a slider? Not going to happen. FM is a sim. As a sim, it's currently simulation fewer injuries than real life. If anything, there needs to be more injuries.

By your logic, I don't care about tactics or how to build them. I just want a win button. Would make life so much easier.

Let your assistant manage training, if it's a problem. Let him manage in friendlies if that's a problem. Try FMC, which streamlines the training module, so you don't even have to pay attention to it. Also make sure you don't have injury prone players.

It's not the amount of injuries that's the problem, it's the fact that players don't train when they're injured in game. This is simply not the case any more in real life, aside from 1 or 2 specific injuries.

It's not the amount of injuries that's the problem, it's the fact that players don't train when they're injured in game.

I don't know how much players train IRL if they're injured, so I can't comment on that. To swing this thread in a more constructive direction, why is it a problem that players don't train in FM when they're injured?

So you know it's something you're doing, but you don't care about finding out what that is, you just want a slider? Not going to happen. FM is a sim. As a sim, it's currently simulation fewer injuries than real life. If anything, there needs to be more injuries.

By your logic, I don't care about tactics or how to build them. I just want a win button. Would make life so much easier.

Let your assistant manage training, if it's a problem. Let him manage in friendlies if that's a problem. Try FMC, which streamlines the training module, so you don't even have to pay attention to it. Also make sure you don't have injury prone players.

If I knew it was something I was doing I would fix it.

Now why don't you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Additionally you told me to have the Assistant manager manage when the one I have for the U-18 has even more injuries. He constantly lets them run to 50% and I have to rest them whenever

I check my team in the club overview menu.

I don't know it's something I'm doing.

If I knew it was something I was doing I would fix it.

Now why don't you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

"Now I know this is all my fault".

If you are looking for help, provide info! Team Training Focus and Intensity? What percentage is spent on Match Training (that's the slider)? Do you do individual training? What intensity? Seems to be a factor (even though I have no idea) but did you change physios recently?

In your squad of "X" amount, how many are injured? Is it a constant during the season or only certain months? Is it a regular occurrence to have many players out? When your players are getting injured, is it in training, in a match or a combination?

Additionally you told me to have the Assistant manager manage when the one I have for the U-18 has even more injuries.

You're still in charge of training. It's March in my game and my U18 squad of 22 has 1 injury, the U21s have none and 25 of the 26 in my 1st team are un-injured.

The Ass.Man is quite possibly over-playing the players, starting them with low condition or not taking them off when their condition gets really low. It could be him all on his own.

I don't know how much players train IRL if they're injured, so I can't comment on that. To swing this thread in a more constructive direction, why is it a problem that players don't train in FM when they're injured?

Oh, it *is* a problem, because players usually don't develop while injured (or they even undevelop). For some players it is a race to reach their PA, and a few injuries can be the reason why they don't. I am talking about the sim mode, don't know about the classic one.

I 've noticed however that players sometimes keep developing while injured for a short time. Personally, I don't have a problem with the way it works right now.

A RL example of a (basketball, sorry) player who worked out really hard while injured for 6 months was Dragan Tarlac (Olympiacos and later NBA). He came back to the game with a completely different physique and much stronger upper body. I don't remember what his injury was, but it was on the leg.

"Now I know this is all my fault".

If you are looking for help, provide info! Team Training Focus and Intensity? What percentage is spent on Match Training (that's the slider)? Do you do individual training? What intensity? Seems to be a factor (even though I have no idea) but did you change physios recently?

In your squad of "X" amount, how many are injured? Is it a constant during the season or only certain months? Is it a regular occurrence to have many players out? When your players are getting injured, is it in training, in a match or a combination?

You're still in charge of training. It's March in my game and my U18 squad of 22 has 1 injury, the U21s have none and 25 of the 26 in my 1st team are un-injured.

The Ass.Man is quite possibly over-playing the players, starting them with low condition or not taking them off when their condition gets really low. It could be him all on his own.

Training is Average intensity.

I leave General prep on Balanced and rotate match prep through everything but tactics once it is fluid. I left it on default scheduling.

Last season was fine for injuries on the senior team. There was still lots of injuries on the u-18. The u-18 manager seems to play them until they are in the red. I always go to club overview after one of my games and usually rest them as well as my guys. Especially when the schedule gets crowded.

Most of the senior team gets injured in games. There is the rare one that happens in practice. Maybe once a season. The U-18 seem to get injured in practice more often.

Edit:Both rest boxes are checked as well.

Training is Average intensity.

I leave General prep on Balanced and rotate match prep through everything but tactics once it is fluid. I left it on default scheduling.

Last season was fine for injuries on the senior team. There was still lots of injuries on the u-18. The u-18 manager seems to play them until they are in the red. I always go to club overview after one of my games and usually rest them as well as my guys. Especially when the schedule gets crowded.

Most of the senior team gets injured in games. There is the rare one that happens in practice. Maybe once a season. The U-18 seem to get injured in practice more often.

Seems you already have an answer for your U18s wrt the manager. He's not managing them very well then.

I don't know what default Match Training is, but okay. I'll repeat this though: Do you set individual training? What intensity?

I know this has been beaten to death and you always blame it on us.

I've already had 10 injuries so far this year on the senior team and just lost 2 more in a friendly. This is without saying anything about my u-18 that is being managed by the an ai manager and has been littered with injuries. On top of that both players I loaned out to other teams got injuries.

Now I know this is all my fault even though my training is on average, rest them in between games and rotate them. So rather than tell I'm doing it wrong. Please for the love of God in the next FM add an injury slider.

When this has been said in the past, I have really just fobbed it off.

The reason that I did so was that throughout the 19 seasons of my San Marino save, I have usually found that injuries were never an issue at all, (possibly helped by my penchant for a huge squad), and if anything, my thoughts are that we need to see more injuries if anything, not less.

Having said that, on 2 different occasions, we have absolutely been decimated with injuries for seemingly no reason that I could fathom. I did nothing differently then than I had been doing before, (or would continue to do since), but for some reason the result was that if I shook a player by the hand, or patted him on the back, then it was likely to result in a trip to A&E.There were breaks, strains, pulls galore and even a few mysterious bugs, (just to really stick the boot in when I thought I was coping). At the end of the season they just vanished again as quickly as they had arrived.

As my save has developed, (and the sheer nature of the save itself), it now means that it is almost impossible for me to be hindered by injuries/illness in this way. (I currently have 127 players contracted to the club).

To the OP I would say that it's just the way the cookie crumbles I'm afraid. Is it possible that you are not paying enough attention to something or other? Yes of course it is, but it is equally possible that you are just unlucky and that poo does indeed happen.

No to an injury slider. No no no no no. NO!

Sometimes you just have bad runs where you pick up a lot of injuries. It's just one of those things and not necessarily anything you did/didn't do. If it's happening every season or regularly, there will be a cause and the trick is to find what's causing it. Twice in 19 seasons is just unlucky.

Seems you already have an answer for your U18s wrt the manager. He's not managing them very well then.

I don't know what default Match Training is, but okay. I'll repeat this though: Do you set individual training? What intensity?

I do individual training for each player. Usually for their role at average intensity. I only have the option of light, average and heavy. So average for general and individual.

I'm not an expert when it comes to training, but your info is out there now, so people can advise you.

I can tell you what I use and it is working really well for me. I get the odd bad injury run, but then I have 4-5 players out in a squad of 26, so it isn't a problem.

I set General Training to Average. I set all Individual Training and at Heavy Intensity. My tactics are fluid, so Match Training is at 20%.

It's default scheduling for less/more match training.

I do individual training for each player. Usually for their role at average intensity. I only have the option of light, average and heavy. So average for general and individual.

It seems fine.

I haven't checked to see whether it makes a difference in FM14, but do you have physios? Other than that, just try to rotate as much as you can and upgrade training facilities when possible.

As my save has developed, (and the sheer nature of the save itself), it now means that it is almost impossible for me to be hindered by injuries/illness in this way. (I currently have 127 players contracted to the club).

Don't mean to derail the thread but why on earth would you have 127 players?!

He gets really attached to players?

It seems fine.

I haven't checked to see whether it makes a difference in FM14, but do you have physios? Other than that, just try to rotate as much as you can and upgrade training facilities when possible.

Don't mean to derail the thread but why on earth would you have 127 players?!

The long and the short of it is that I am managing both San Marino teams. I have a big Senior squad anyway, but I also have tutors who never play, an U18 squad that I want to be competitive and then that's before we even get into (SMR) Nationality players who I like to keep at the club so that they can develop to their potential.

It seems fine.

I haven't checked to see whether it makes a difference in FM14, but do you have physios? Other than that, just try to rotate as much as you can and upgrade training facilities when possible.

Training is Average intensity.

I leave General prep on Balanced and rotate match prep through everything but tactics once it is fluid. I left it on default scheduling.

Last season was fine for injuries on the senior team. There was still lots of injuries on the u-18. The u-18 manager seems to play them until they are in the red. I always go to club overview after one of my games and usually rest them as well as my guys. Especially when the schedule gets crowded.

Most of the senior team gets injured in games. There is the rare one that happens in practice. Maybe once a season. The U-18 seem to get injured in practice more often.

Edit:Both rest boxes are checked as well.

Just noticed the edit. Average general + average individual + at least 2 rest days a week? That seems very low. My training is more intense and I only set 1 rest day a week after a match.

At the very least, take one of the rest days off. The way you have it now will mean the team will rest 4 days if they play 2 matches a week. With Match Training, your players are barely going to train in those weeks.

Injuries in games would also suggest to me that your training is too low. They're not training enough and picking up injuries in a game. Imagine not training very much and having to do 11km in a match? I'll pull both hamstrings!

Another injury thread

Just to add a few thoughts, some of which have possibly already been covered:

A) Expectations - Injuries happen all the time, you should always expect to have a few players injured in your squad at any given time. In a squad of 25 around three would be normal although from experience in FM14 you can easily have long spells with less than that. If you have good spells with less players injured you'll also always get bad spells with more players injured from time to time as Jimbo has mentioned.

B) Physios - IMO (Based on experience) do absolutely nothing to prevent injuries. They are there to report on injuries and give you an accurate recovery timescale, nothing more. You can argue this is an area that could be improved but for now it is what it is.

C) Training - Balanced is best, too much and players risk injury from being overworked, too little and players risk injury from not being fit/strong enough. I've always worked on medium (Just below heavy) with no issues.

D) Tactics - Very important and the cause of a lot of users injury issues. In general its a case of pushing your players too hard on the pitch but often you can dig deeper, is it a specific position or player that often gets injured? maybe a winger who is being constantly asked to turn and run in the opposite direction. Maybe a midfielder who is out of position but is asked to stretch to make tackles all the time etc etc.

E) Injury prone players - Its not always listed as a weakness on the reports and some that are don't have that much of an issue with it. There is an injury history tab for every player and once you get a few seasons into the save its easy to see who the problem players are. For me it doesn't stop me signing them but I do try to not overload my squad with them.

F) Perception - Playing a lot of matches in a session can easily give you a false impression compared to RL where those matches would take place over a few months.

Just to backup what I've said one of my saves is here in the careers forum: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/385986-FM14-%E2%80%9CIn-football-everything-is-complicated-by-the-presence-of-the-opposite-team%E2%80%9D

I've listed in that thread every injury my squad has received during each season, if I get time I might summarise them for you later.

I know this is off topic but is there some place that shows the cost of upgrades? I'm trying budget whether or not my club can afford an upgrade to the training facilities.

Costs vary based on a number of factors so there is no set price list for each upgrade level, as an example it will cost more to undertake major facility upgrades in big city than it will in a small town due to increased land, labour & administrative costs.

Just noticed the edit. Average general + average individual + at least 2 rest days a week? That seems very low. My training is more intense and I only set 1 rest day a week after a match.

At the very least, take one of the rest days off. The way you have it now will mean the team will rest 4 days if they play 2 matches a week. With Match Training, your players are barely going to train in those weeks.

Injuries in games would also suggest to me that your training is too low. They're not training enough and picking up injuries in a game. Imagine not training very much and having to do 11km in a match? I'll pull both hamstrings!

Good call!

Damedius, may I suggest that you do away at least with the "rest before match".

I actually don't use either automatic rest days. I manually rest some players after a match (for 1 day) if their condition is low (70-75%) and another match is coming soon and I don't plan to rotate them; or if their condition is very low (<70%). It seems to be working for me, I have only had 1 bad injury crisis in the 5 years of my save, when I unfortunately messed up training intensity during heavy schedule. But I learnt.

I have to rest much more than one day. If I didn't I would need to field two whole squads.

There are a few times a year in the Skrill Premier where I'll get 3 games in a week.

The players are pretty much resting all week when this happens.

Edit:I guess I could untick the box though, since I do manually rest my players so much.

I have to rest much more than one day. If I didn't I would need to field two whole squads.

There are a few times a year in the Skrill Premier where I'll get 3 games in a week.

The players are pretty much resting all week when this happens.

Edit:I guess I could untick the box though, since I do manually rest my players so much.

Oh, are your players in full-tme or part-time contracts? If it's part-time, I think we 've found what is going on. Their training is too light with the empty training days and all those rest days. Do away with all rest days immediately. Try not to rest them manually either. On 3-match weeks, just change their team training to light (by Sunday 3pm so that it takes effect the following week) and rotate as much as possible.

I have been though that, this is what I was referring to when I said that I had an injury crisis once when I messed up training intensity. It was Skrill Premier with a part-time club!

The reason that people think there are too many injuries is that in this game when it rains injuries, it often pours. For example, in the last three in-game weeks, I've had 3 strained knee ligaments, 1 torn hamstring and 1 broken foot on my team. Naturally, two of the injured players are my top two choices at left back and two others are my top two choices for a left winger. So, if someone were to ask me now if there are too many injuries, I might be inclined to say yes. If I had been asked during the previous season when it was difficult to find enough playing time for everyone, I probably would have said no.

Oh, are your players in full-tme or part-time contracts? If it's part-time, I think we 've found what is going on. Their training is too light with the empty training days and all those rest days. Do away with all rest days immediately. Try not to rest them manually either. On 3-match weeks, just change their team training to light (by Sunday 3pm so that it takes effect the following week) and rotate as much as possible.

I have been though that, this is what I was referring to when I said that I had an injury crisis once when I messed up training intensity. It was Skrill Premier with a part-time club!

So this didn't help with injuries and I still had to rotate players and use call ups from my u-18 squad.

However I think it helped my players develop faster. When I was resting them all the time I don't believe they were getting enough training time and developed slowly. My younger players seem to have progressed more this year. could just be a coincidence but I think it might have helped.

So this didn't help with injuries and I still had to rotate players and use call ups from my u-18 squad.

However I think it helped my players develop faster. When I was resting them all the time I don't believe they were getting enough training time and developed slowly. My younger players seem to have progressed more this year. could just be a coincidence but I think it might have helped.

Of course it helped, more training means more development (unless they get injured of course, which is why we don't necessarily put players on heavy training).

Sorry to hear my advice on injuries didn't help, it worked for me when I was at SP. I am out of ideas then.

Of course it helped, more training means more development (unless they get injured of course, which is why we don't necessarily put players on heavy training).

Sorry to hear my advice on injuries didn't help, it worked for me when I was at SP. I am out of ideas then.

TBH I think part of the problem is two of my wingers are injury prone. Even though it doesn't say that. They both have been injured several times during the last three seasons. So replacing them should alleviate some of the problems. The other thing that might be a bit of problem is that my pitch is in terrible condition. Not sure if this has much of an effect on injuries.

Right, you should probably do that. I often find that injuries history is more important practically than the actual value of the injury proneness attribute. But it could also be that you are asking too much of them or they are your best players and the opponents try to kill them. Referees are very lenient in Skrill Premier.

OK, as other have suggested above, I would consider dropping tactical instructions like hassle opponents and get stuck in (if you are using them) when the schedule goes heavy. Or maybe micromanage condition a bit more in 3-match weeks (i.e., reduce mentality or rhythm when the match is already won or lost). Other than that, I do rotate a lot pre-emptively, and in your shoes I would probably consider playing sub-optimal players in the middle match of 3-match weeks.

Don't know what else to say other than that Fitness issues improve considerably when players become full-time. Skrill Premier was definately the most challenging devision fitness-wise for me up to now (I am in SB1 now). Hopefully others with experience from Skrill Premier will chip in with their suggestions here.

EDIT: Yes, it seems to me that bad pitches make a noticable difference as far as injuries go.

After last season being not too bad for injuries, I'm getting devastated by injuries again.

I lost 3 players in my first game of the season. Which brings me up to 5 injuries on my senior team 1 game into the season.

I also have one player on my senior team who has already injured himself twice in training with a light workload. The second time he got injured in training, general training was set to very low and individual was average. His overall workload was light. I turned his individual down to low, hopefully that will keep him from getting injured again.

Not a good start to the season.

After last season being not too bad for injuries, I'm getting devastated by injuries again.

I lost 3 players in my first game of the season.

I also have one player on my senior team who has already injured himself twice in training with a light workload. The second time he got injured in training, general training was set to very low and individual was average. His overall workload was light. I turned his individual down to low, hopefully that will keep him from getting injured again.

Not a good start to the season.

Turning it down isn't doing yourself any favours.

Too little training is as bad as too much when it comes to injuries.

So I shouldn't turn it down when the schedule gets congested?

That doesn't make sense. If a team had to play lots of games in a short period of time they would cut back on training to not get too tired. So I do the same.

So I shouldn't turn it down when the schedule gets congested?

That doesn't make sense. If a team had to play lots of games in a short period of time they would cut back on training to not get too tired. So I do the same.

Its not something I would do and I don't have injury issues.

I skimmed through earlier and you are managing a part time club are you not? which means the players don't train everyday as it is, you also rest them before and after matches and now you cut back further on training - Do they even do any now?

The only thing I do is use the manual rest option from time to time if I feel the squad is getting too tired and won't recover in time for the next match.

My club went professional so they are full time.

I took some of the advice in the thread and stopped resting players manually. Also stopped resting them before games(unmarked) but they still rest after them(marked). I leave individual training at Average and started turning down general training to Very Low when I get 2 or 3 games a week.

Edit:My U-18 team just got three injuries in one game. Two dead legs and a leg gash. Managed by an U-18 Manager.

I leave individual training at Average and started turning down general training to Very Low when I get 2 or 3 games a week.

There has been some good advice in this thread and I am glad you have taken some of it, but I am not sure you are making the correct decision here.

I understand the issues of playing twice and even three times a week, but lowering training intensity is going to cause you more problems rather than fix your existing problems. Let me explain.

Sat. You have a game today so your starting XI all play and a couple of your subs play. Obviously no players in your senior squad play today because the senior squad have a match, (that's even those who are not in the starting XI). If they are in the senior squad then they do not train.

Sun. You are set to rest players after the match so no senior squad train today. Not the guys that played, not the reserves that never got on and not the players who didn't make the match-day squad. If they are in the senior squad then they do not train.

Mon. So you don't have a Senior game today, but you do have a Reserve game. You have players in the Senior squad who need match time so they are made available for the reserves. Because they are playing for the reserves today, they do not train. The rest of the squad trains as normal.

Tues. It's a mid-week game today so again none of the senior squad train. The starting XI and the subs that are used obviously get to play in the match, but those that don't get on the pitch and those that don't make the match-day squad do not train at all.

Wed. The senior squad played yesterday so it's a rest day today and nobody trains in the Senior squad. If you are a player who is on the fringes of the starting XI, then it's possible that you made the 1st match squad, but not the 2nd one, and never got on the pitch in the first game anyway. It's possible that you didn't play Saturday, didn't train Sunday, played for the Reserves on Monday so didn't train, didn't play on Tuesday, and didn't train on Wednesday.

This goes on and on and just gets worse and worse. I don't know how your "squad management" is, but when people are complaining about stuff and they upload their saves for people like me to look at, what I find is that it's not this setting or that setting at all that's the problem. It's basic squad management. By lowering general training you are not doing yourself any favours. A far more sensible idea would be to rotate your squad when you have 3 games in a week, even if it means playing poorer quality players on occasion, (including kids).

Playing the same team 3 games in a week and just reducing training is not an effective way of managing this.

Reducing training levels simply because you have 2 games in a week is madness.

As a serious suggestion, why don't you upload your save and let some of the guys in here look at it. I promise that they will be able to give you some hints as to what is going wrong.

That makes sense when you look at it like that.

Edit:Here is the save.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/lc2bl7ika59n29u/Stockport_Take_Two_(Back_Up).fm

You have set a password so I can't take over and look at stuff properly.

PM......

Ok. Just having a quick look now.

First impressions are that match fitness is an issue. Your starting XI player are fine of course, but everyone else is low. (Just looking at Senior Squad for the moment).

Moke 78%

Graham 84%

Kennedy 71%.

Zieba 77%.

Kempson 70%.

Marrs 72%.

Luke 74%.

Peters 66%.

That's not including the players who are injured.

You have played 5 games this season and there were 6 pre-season games before that. Because you have effectively to teams in your senior squad, this possibly meant that they didn't get enough pre-season work.

I can't look at training which was the whole point of this!

You have a 16yo who is seemingly good enough to start for the senior team, but not good enough to sign a pre-contract so that he turns pro on his 17th Birthday.

Your U21's played their last pre-season friendly on 7th Aug and then didn't play a league game until 23rd August. Why the gap?

You have 22 players in the Senior Squad at the moment and not a single one of them is available for the U21 or U18 squad.

You only have 1 player in the U21 squad, (you can play overage players you know).

None of your 17yo's have signed full-time contracts so they are still training on a youth basis.

Your condition % were fine after the Barnet game.

It looks like you have tried to rotate player, but you are trying to bring players in who are not match fit. You are then surprised when they perform poorly and get injured.

Sorry, I can't see anything else because I am unable to take over the club. I can't look at training and I can't look at player perfomances.

Ok. Will have another look now.

You shouldn't hide the password though.

Let anyone who wants to have a look and see what they say. It might be that they can tell you much more than I can. We are not playing your game in a network. We are looking at our version of your game. You just continue as normal. There is no risk here, (that I know of).

Ok. This is the very 1st thing I have looked at.

You are in the 3 weeks into the league season. In the last 53 weeks 83% of your training has been balanced and 17% has been team cohesion. You didn't have a fitness based pre-season and you are paying for it now.

So you have to do fitness every pre-season?

I would have thought it would be good to do Team Cohesion. Especially because I bring in new people every year to try and improve the team.

So I usually do team cohesion during the pre-season and then switch to Balanced for the rest of the year.

Edit: That might explain why it takes till around July 10 for my guys to be ready for the first friendly.

Well let me turn that around. At what point of the season would you think that fitness would be a good idea?

Have you ever played football or if you haven't, ever looked at what sort of training players do in pre-season?

No it makes sense.

What's the problem with the U-18 team? Is there something wrong with the manager? They seem to constantly get injuries throughout the season.

Alex. I'm trying not to confuse him.

Ok. Here goes.

Damedius. I don't use a fitness based pre-season regime, but then again my training is set permanently to general. (At least I think it is. I just let the Ass Man deal with team training and I just deal with individual training). (No I am not suggesting that you do this). It's not important how your players get match-fit. It is important that they get match-fit.

You are playing a small number of games and expecting a large squad to somehow get fit just by that. If you just want to play 5 pre-season games, then you can't expect a squad of 22+ player to miraculously get match-fit. You must do something else to help them. If it isn't games then it needs to be training.

Where as your individual training seems to often be light, I absolutely hammer my players with heavy individual training. (I never use light for anything ever). This makes my players unhappy a lot of the time but I don't care. I ignore them and just let them get on with it. Whether or not this is good advice, it is what works for me. (No I am not suggesting that you do this). I am managing a big vlub with good staff and good facilities.

The main difference is that I spend quite a lot of time "managing" the squad. I look at who is going to be available for what team and if they are not 100% match fit then I ensure that they are playing so that the level improves. You on the other hand seem to take absolutely no notice of that.

Your lack of a pre-season, small number of games, and then poor squad management is absolutely the reason why players are getting injured.

I have created a different "match selection" screen that I use instead of the default selection info screen. Because you use the selection info screen, (or whatever you use), you never even see match fitness as a rating. As a result it's not high on your list of priorities.

My suggestion is that you create your own squad view list and include whatever you want, but ensure that match fitness is one of them.

As for your U18 squad, well because you have only 1 player in the U21 squad, (because none of your senior players have been made available), it means that your U18's are not only playing their own games, but also playing the U21 games too. Were you aware of that?

Lets see how many pre-season games I played in recent seasons.

8, 12, 12, 17, 11.

Obviously it depends how big my senior squad is, (yes I make sure the Reserves and U18's are also playing pre-season), and I particularly like playing the seniors against the Reserves and U21's.

It doesn't matter how you get your players fit. All that matters is that they get fit.

Your players are never getting fit in the first place and then you are aksing them to play competitive football. Then, you are asking them to play multiple games per week. (In both the senior and U18 squads). If they weren't getting injured I would be surprised.

Yes. I have lots of U 18 players. Over 30.

I would think if they were managed properly. Some play the U-18 and others the U-21 they would be fine. It should only be a problem if they have the same players playing both games.

Should I split them between the two teams? Aim for a certain number of players on both?

As far as pre-season goes if I played more matches in the pre-season my players would be starting games under 90%. A few were ready earlier than July 10 but the bulk of them were below 90% until them. Maybe this is because I didn't start off with fitness training or because my individual training is too low. Also I thought 4 days in between games in the pre season was good to shoot for. This gets all my starters 100% match fit. Some of the subs need a bit more match fitness.

Edit:Another problem is many of the players I send on loan get injured as well.

Edit: That might explain why it takes till around July 10 for my guys to be ready for the first friendly.

eh? :confused:

Friendly games are nothing more and nothing less than a training tool. I play friendlies against my youth team within days of them being back at training. We hammer the kids and then after a few days we hammer the Reserves. Then after a few days we hammer someone else. Then we go back and hammer the kids again. It's great for morale, it's great for familiarity and it's great for fitness. By playing the Youth team and the reserves, I am ensuring that they also get a pre-season.

Yeah but I don't want my players playing friendlies at 60 and 70% do I?

That's what I mean by ready? The majority aren't above 90% till July 10th or so.

Yes. I have lots of U 18 players. Over 30.

I would think if they were managed properly. Some play the U-18 and others the U-21 they would be fine. It should only be a problem if they have the same players playing both games.

Should I split them between the two teams? Aim for a certain number of players on both?

As far as pre-season goes if I played more matches in the pre-season my players would be starting games under 90%. A few were ready earlier than July 10 but the bulk of them were below 90% until them. Maybe this is because I didn't start off with fitness training or because my individual training is too low. Also I thought 4 days in between games in the pre season was good to shoot for. This gets all my starters 100% match fit. Some of the subs need a bit more match fitness.

Edit:Another problem is many of the players I send on loan get injured as well.

I haven't played in England with FM14 and in Italy I don't have a U18 and U21 Squad. Instead I have a reserve squad and an U19 squad. I don't think there are any age restrictions to U21 games so start thinking of it as the reserves despite what it is called.

You have 17yo's still on youth contracts. If you offer them permanent contracts, (if they are good enough), then they will be training more than they currently do. certainly if you have designs on the right back who is playing for your senior team developoing then I would sign him on a pre-contract so that he turns pro on his 17th birthday, (although I never actually looked at how good he was so that's up to you).

If you drop players from your senior squad, then they will play in the Reserves. If you also sign some of the 17yo's to full-time contracts then this will help too. Who plays in what squad is up to you.

With the numbers you have, (and I seem to remember that there were very few 18yo's in the U18's then i would say leave them where they are, but "manage" them in that if you see that match fitness is becoming an issue, then make them available for U21 games on an individual basis until such time as they are match fit.

You have to remember that you are managing a rubbish club with rubbish players and rubbish facilities in a rubbish league. Why would you expect that your Ass man, (or whoever is looking after the u18;s), would be anything but rubbish?

You have to control things yourself if you want them done well.