Cup competitions, youth policy and development.

[matty2323]

Coaching the big teams in game, ive always put a high priority on using the cup competitions to develop my youth and get them first team experience while getting match fitness for fringe players. Im sure this is quite common practice, as most focus on league positions. My questions are, at what stage of the competitions do you trade out the youth for the big names? Is there a benefit in game of playing youth in 'big games' to develop mental or hidden stats? I like persisting with my lads all the way through, and if they make the final, they deserve an appearance in the side.. i just wanted to know if there's any benefit in game in doing so?.. thanks.

[furiousuk]

I've always assumed there is. There is an event-driven mechanism in the game that means when something extraordinary happens, like playing well in a cup final or winning the cup, certain boosts occur as well. I don't know if the stats change and maybe I'm imagining it but when I first went on a good cup run with my squad (who were unused to such things) they looked edgy, nervous and as if they couldn't take the pressure. The next year, with basically similar players, was better and the year after that, when I had some success, the guys looked much more comfortable. Maybe my teamtalks improved but maybe, as you would expect, players learnt to better deal with the pressure.

[mkjellander]

Maybe I haven't come across it just yet because my Southampton team is still getting used to having some success, but I wish there was an option to negotiate with the Board to sacrifice a competition for youth development, i.e. being able to go to the Board and ask that the League Cup expectation be that you use it to blood the youth, so to speak. I feel like I may have seen this expectation occur for higher rep clubs, is that the case? If so, I guess I just need to continue to have success in other competitions.

[5uare2]

i.e. being able to go to the Board and ask that the League Cup expectation be that you use it to blood the youth, so to speak. I feel like I may have seen this expectation occur for higher rep clubs, is that the case?

It would be a great feature if you could go to the board with a request like that.

A board will ignore your results in a competition for one of two reasons:

1. If you're a very small club, then they might say "we hope you learn from the experience of competing in X" - I've seen this come up a lot when I'm a newly promoted side whose main focus should be avoiding relegation, and the board will say that one or more of the cup competitions aren't important

2. If you're a very big club, then they might say "we do not consider this competition important and will be judging you on other competitions" - i.e. a Champions League club won't be too fussed about the Carling Cup.