FM14: player development and heavy rotation system

hey,

so i have great young players at my club dinamo zagreb, like angelo hernandez, fierro, balanta and many very young players..

I have at least 2 players for each position. More like 3, but now i'm trying to get it down to 2 players for each position and just some very young players to serve as backup if an injury happens..

My questions is, is it enough to play a certain player every second match? So let's say i rotate hernandez and fierro. one plays the first match, the other second match and so on.. Will that be good enough to develop a player? Im asking because my great young players, with 4.5 or 5 star couachs and (im not sure, but 4.5 star facilities) and th club is doing good, high ratings... but they are not developing like other players at other clubs... In a couple years i didnt notice too much of a development in almost all of my players...

what do you think?

I'd be interested to see peoples views on this as well ..

It does develop them, obviously not as much as they would be if they were the first option. The more first team time you give them, the more they develop.

I rotate every match and my young players turn into the best players in my game. What you are doing shouldn't stunt their development. I give all my youngsters heavy role training and an overall training workload of heavy.

Youth development is one of the things I focused the most on since the move from 5 to 7 substitutes was made. Every match I'll have a youngster on the bench. The score permitting, I'll try to get the youngster at least 15-30 minutes of playing time. Heck sometimes I'll throw them in there anyway even if a match is close.

I remember in FM10 I had a 16 yr old AM come on a grab a goal and an assist in 10 minutes against Arsenal This season that player for me has been Andreas Pereira. He's done really well every time I've played him.

You don't mention their personalities. Have you developed those through tutoring first?

Good way of getting youngsters some needed playing time. I believe they need to play at least 15 mins to get a match rating and, therefore, the 'bonus' of playing in the first team. A higher match rating gives a higher bonus - obviously making it easier to develop strikers, while GKs or DCs are harder

From my experience, around 20 starters pr season is fine. More than that will not significantly help development, less is okay, but try to give very promising young players about 10-12 starters. That is, if they are at all good enough to start in the first team, and not a direct liability. If they fall into that category, keep them in the reserves or loan them out.

I may have an odd view on this, some might find it interesting.

The way I see it is this:

A player will develop up to a certain level based on games played, training (coaches & facilities) and the quality of the league. Personality also comes into effect.

Assume you're playing at a top club in England with top facilities, training is done right with good coaches and good tutors and the player has great potential.

At youth level -> He will quickly reach around 120-125 CA (Championship quality) before stagnating, and will need higher quality matching to improve at the same rate as before.

On loan to championship club -> If the player is already Championship quality development will be slow as he needs higher quality matching to improve at a quick pace. If he's not Championship quality will still be slower compared to keeping him at the club due to quality of coaches and facilities, but if lucky a player might reach around 135 CA. If it is a class prospect though I wouldn't recommend doing this, because as development slows down any mid- to long term injury will offset any gains.

As a rotation player -> A player may reach around 150 CA (Continental level) before stagnating, and will need more matches. To start with I recon 10-15 starts in cup games and easier games, and as many substitute appearances as possible is enough. As the player becomes a quality one though, that should be increase starting more than 50% of games.

As a key player -> Playing around 2 out of every 3 games seems to be the spot where any more doesn't make a difference, other than to tire the players out. Only injuries and personality will hinder his development at this point, with his ability obviously stagnating more and more as he reaches his PA.

So the best route of action to me is keep him in the youth team until he is around championship level, and from then give him as much game time as you can afford. It's not realistic, but that way a player can reach his potential before he's 20.

Because the players, in my opinion, can reach a high level too quickly playing for the youth team, and the gains from matching is not much better in Championship/Segunda/Serie B/etc, there is really not much point in loaning out players like this to a lesser league. If you can't fit him in the first team, the best option is to try and loan him out to a team in the lower end of the top leagues.

Playing in Croatia I don't know how this will be different, but I imagine you can't really loan out players, and matching quality is slightly lower.

* The CA numbers are guesses. I haven't done any testing with this and I haven't used 3rd party tools to check CA. It's more of a general insight after hours and hours with this game.

Cleon is the acknowledge board expert on player development. He always shares his knowledge and advice over in the Tactics and Training forum.

Check out Cleons thread in the tactics/training forum, something by the name of Ajax and youth development. Amazing read and really changed the thought process of developing youngsters.

here it is : http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/380395-Ajax-When-Real-Life-Meets-Football-Manager-FM14