Approaching Pre-Season - My take On It

[lewis999]

I'm the same after my pre-season, all fluid and onto team cohesion I go.

[Andy 23]

General Training - Fitness - Very High

Scheduling - More Match Training

Match Training Default Focus - Tactics Only

No rest before or after matches

This is exactly what I thought of doing, good to hear it works! A couple of additional queries I came on to ask:

1. In addition to the above, will it work to give players individual focus on physical attributes over pre-season, with heavy intensity? For example, a player with low stamina, this is an attribute I'd like him to increase during pre-season.

2. I read that Teamwork is a good Match Training Default Focus so new players settle in. Is this better than Tactics? Will the squad learn the tactics from playing friendlies anyway?

[Cleon]

I've had a lot of PM's this week saying people have seen better results in the opening weeks compared to normal because they've got their tactics fluid. I think some people don't realise the importance of doing this and the impact it can have on players doing silly things or only getting a draw when you should have won comfortable etc.

General Training - Fitness - Very High

Scheduling - More Match Training

Match Training Default Focus - Tactics Only

No rest before or after matches

This is exactly what I thought of doing, good to hear it works! A couple of additional queries I came on to ask:

1. In addition to the above, will it work to give players individual focus on physical attributes over pre-season, with heavy intensity? For example, a player with low stamina, this is an attribute I'd like him to increase during pre-season.

2. I read that Teamwork is a good Match Training Default Focus so new players settle in. Is this better than Tactics? Will the squad learn the tactics from playing friendlies anyway?

1 - You'll not see stamina increase that much over a short period of time. You'd be lucky if you got it to raise by 1 attribute yet alone enough to make a bigger difference in such a short space of time. Surely this is something you'd work on throughout the year and not limit it to pre-season? As the 4-6 weeks focus on it will make little difference in all honesty.

2 - The more match training you have the faster tactics will become fluid. There is no best and it depends what you need. Getting your tactic fluid is probably the biggest impact on your results throughout the season. Without it been fluid in all areas you'll struggle. I'd never change it to anything other than tactics until everything is fluid. It just wouldn't make any logical sense to do that at all.

If you read the thread you'll see I do everything you've suggested and get players settled and fluid with ease.

[Andy 23]

Thanks for the reply Cleon. In truth I've never been interested enough to bother much with training until now so I really am learning the basics. However, I think I remember reading one time that individual training has more of an effect if it is suited to the team training. That's why I was thinking that players can increase physical attributes while the team is doing Fitness General Training. Is this incorrect?

[Cleon]

Thanks for the reply Cleon. In truth I've never been interested enough to bother much with training until now so I really am learning the basics. However, I think I remember reading one time that individual training has more of an effect if it is suited to the team training. That's why I was thinking that players can increase physical attributes while the team is doing Fitness General Training. Is this incorrect?

If you choose an individual role then a player will focus on that role and whatever general training is set to, the emphasis will be on those attributes.

If you choose an individual attribute focus then they will still do an optimal amount on their natural position. The team training will still put an emphasis on which other the focus is on too but it'll be a lot less than the individual role one mentioned above because you've already instructed which attribute needs working on.

[fmFutbolManager]

Okay so this was my first time trying this approach. Focussing fully on match preparation to get the team fluid and less so on fitness and my team has fallen apart. It could just be an unlucky coincidence, but I've suffered the following

Ribery out 3-4 weeks

Roben out 5-6 weeks

Neuer out 4-5 weeks

Contento out 2-3 weeks

Lahm out 2-3 weeks

I've played two games so far, My condition is really low on a lot of players. Perhaps 5 weeks isn't long enough to get the fitness levels up as well as fluid tactics?

[Bielsista]

Nice advices. I implemented some of them in my team as Im in pre-season.

Just one question, you Cleon mentioned that your team is in a training camp. Is that something I could ask to my Board or is it something that was offered to you?

[lewis999]

Nice advices. I implemented some of them in my team as Im in pre-season.

Just one question, you Cleon mentioned that your team is in a training camp. Is that something I could ask to my Board or is it something that was offered to you?

There's no way to request it, it's usually top division teams and sometimes even then, they don't get a training camp.

[Cleon]

Okay so this was my first time trying this approach. Focussing fully on match preparation to get the team fluid and less so on fitness and my team has fallen apart. It could just be an unlucky coincidence, but I've suffered the following

Ribery out 3-4 weeks

Roben out 5-6 weeks

Neuer out 4-5 weeks

Contento out 2-3 weeks

Lahm out 2-3 weeks

I've played two games so far, My condition is really low on a lot of players. Perhaps 5 weeks isn't long enough to get the fitness levels up as well as fluid tactics?

Fitness should be fully match fit with-in 10 days. Like I've pointed out above 4 weeks is enough.

Maybe you had players away on international duty? Maybe you still had them learning an individual role? Maybe those players you mentioned are injury prone? (I've honestly no idea about that because I've never used them).

Did you rotate the players and sub correctly when their condition dropped in game? From what You've posted and the players you've got out injured I'm inclinded to think this is the issue. Condition must have been low in a game.

Either way it shouldn't be down to training.

In fact what kind of injuries did they all get?

[Cleon]

Nice advices. I implemented some of them in my team as Im in pre-season.

Just one question, you Cleon mentioned that your team is in a training camp. Is that something I could ask to my Board or is it something that was offered to you?

It's something the board does and that you cannot request.

[fmFutbolManager]

Fitness should be fully match fit with-in 10 days. Like I've pointed out above 4 weeks is enough.

Maybe you had players away on international duty? Maybe you still had them learning an individual role? Maybe those players you mentioned are injury prone? (I've honestly no idea about that because I've never used them).

Did you rotate the players and sub correctly when their condition dropped in game? From what You've posted and the players you've got out injured I'm inclinded to think this is the issue. Condition must have been low in a game.

Either way it shouldn't be down to training.

In fact what kind of injuries did they all get?

Mixture of injuries: Broken finger. Cracked ribs. Torn calf (I think). I rotate my squad almost 100% each game as I have 22 players that can play. I have to having two games a week until January.

We have just had a World Cup, you think that could be the cause. Wouldn't explain the German players though. If I have specific role training does this make them more prone to injury?

[Cleon]

Mixture of injuries: Broken finger. Cracked ribs. Torn calf (I think). I rotate my squad almost 100% each game as I have 22 players that can play. I have to having two games a week until January.

We have just had a World Cup, you think that could be the cause. Wouldn't explain the German players though. If I have specific role training does this make them more prone to injury?

Workload would be far to heavy if you continued to train a role.

[fmFutbolManager]

Workload would be far to heavy if you continued to train a role.

How should it be used? When is it appropriate to train a role so that the workload is not to heavy?

Just got two more injuries. Alaba out for 2 months and a striker out for 1 month. Not having much luck this season and I'm only 3 games in.

[Cleon]

How should it be used? When is it appropriate to train a role so that the workload is not to heavy?

That depends on you and what you want tbh.

Ideally you'd remove them for pre-season so you don't increase risk of injuries etc.

[fmFutbolManager]

That depends on you and what you want tbh.

Ideally you'd remove them for pre-season so you don't increase risk of injuries etc.

I just want to train my players to be the best in their positions that they can be. Assumed to do this I'd have them training their roles.

I should note I'm out of pre-season now. I'm 3 games into the season. Sorry if I didn't make that clear from earlier posts.

[Cleon]

I just want to train my players to be the best in their positions that they can be. Assumed to do this I'd have them training their roles.

I should note I'm out of pre-season now. I'm 3 games into the season. Sorry if I didn't make that clear from earlier posts.

I'm confused ....you got the injuries in pre-season or after? This thread is purely just for pre-season, I don't train this way once the season starts. I train players like explained in the Ajax thread

[yonko]

It's something the board does and that you cannot request.

This is interesting. I recently started a save with Liverpool and set the game to start in England(July) which is same as when I've been playing with Barca and set the game to start in Spain(also July). But all my Barca saves have started in the first week of July, whereas my Liverpool save started in the middle of July (July 14th, to be precise). I didn't have a pre-season camp and was wondering why is that, because with Barca I always had one, every save. I was also wondering how and where do I request a camp.

As a consequence my tactics familiarity is progressing very slowly, even though I'm preparing only one tactic. I've managed to play only 5 friendlies, due to the fact that Liverpool have to play in the 3rd qualifying round for Europa league. Though I set up an additional friendly between the 2 legs for Europa League. I have my Match Prep at 50% and on tactics only. My General Training is set to Team Cohesion because I've brought 4 players - I bought Fierro, loaned in De Sciglio from Milan and got Del Horno and Cristiano Zanetti on free.

So far I've managed to play 6 friendlies plus the 1st leg of the Europa League tie, which is 7 games in total. Yet, my tactics familiarity is far from "fluid" and in fact it is a mix of "competent" and "accomplished".

BTW, this is my second save as Liverpool, because the first one went pretty much the same way, though I had 3 tactics then. I thought because of that my familiarity never got to where it needed to be and I had a poor start in the EPL. So I restarted the save and set up only one tactic.

Is there any way to boost my tactic familiarity when the board hasn't sent my team to pre-season camp, other than what I have done already and continue to do? My team is playing better with my current tactic (4-2-3-1) on the 2nd save, than it did on the 1st one, even though the familiarity is still pathetic. Could it be because I'm using Team Cohesion (1st save I had Balanced) as my General Training?

[fmFutbolManager]

I'm confused ....you got the injuries in pre-season or after? This thread is purely just for pre-season, I don't train this way once the season starts. I train players like explained in the Ajax thread

Yeah sorry this is JUST after pre-season. So I trained like this and as soon as the season started I got 6 injuries. That's never happened before, but I could chalk it up to just bad luck.

[Babak G]

This may not be the right thread for the following but what happens as the season starts? Should we attempt to keep the overall workload on medium or heavy?

[Cleon]

This may not be the right thread for the following but what happens as the season starts? Should we attempt to keep the overall workload on medium or heavy?

It depends what kind of training you want. It's all explained in the Ajax thread though

[Cleon]

This is interesting. I recently started a save with Liverpool and set the game to start in England(July) which is same as when I've been playing with Barca and set the game to start in Spain(also July). But all my Barca saves have started in the first week of July, whereas my Liverpool save started in the middle of July (July 14th, to be precise). I didn't have a pre-season camp and was wondering why is that, because with Barca I always had one, every save. I was also wondering how and where do I request a camp.

As a consequence my tactics familiarity is progressing very slowly, even though I'm preparing only one tactic. I've managed to play only 5 friendlies, due to the fact that Liverpool have to play in the 3rd qualifying round for Europa league. Though I set up an additional friendly between the 2 legs for Europa League. I have my Match Prep at 50% and on tactics only. My General Training is set to Team Cohesion because I've brought 4 players - I bought Fierro, loaned in De Sciglio from Milan and got Del Horno and Cristiano Zanetti on free.

So far I've managed to play 6 friendlies plus the 1st leg of the Europa League tie, which is 7 games in total. Yet, my tactics familiarity is far from "fluid" and in fact it is a mix of "competent" and "accomplished".

BTW, this is my second save as Liverpool, because the first one went pretty much the same way, though I had 3 tactics then. I thought because of that my familiarity never got to where it needed to be and I had a poor start in the EPL. So I restarted the save and set up only one tactic.

Is there any way to boost my tactic familiarity when the board hasn't sent my team to pre-season camp, other than what I have done already and continue to do? My team is playing better with my current tactic (4-2-3-1) on the 2nd save, than it did on the 1st one, even though the familiarity is still pathetic. Could it be because I'm using Team Cohesion (1st save I had Balanced) as my General Training?

You do it the same way regardless of training camps or not. It should take around 11 games to be fluid if you don't go to a training camp and have set it to 50% match and 50% general and set the individual focus to tactics for the match prep.

[Cleon]

Yeah sorry this is JUST after pre-season. So I trained like this and as soon as the season started I got 6 injuries. That's never happened before, but I could chalk it up to just bad luck.

If it happened after pre-season then it wasn't down to pre-season training or you'd have experienced it during pre-season.

[fmFutbolManager]

If it happened after pre-season then it wasn't down to pre-season training or you'd have experienced it during pre-season.

Really? I thought pre-season training had a massive bearing on how your squad copes with the season ahead.

[Cleon]

Really? I thought pre-season training had a massive bearing on how your squad copes with the season ahead.

It wouldn't cause the types of injuries you had at the start though. It would cause injuries during the pre-season training and not after. It does have a massive bearing on the season ahead but it helps prevent injuries during the course of the season and players getting little niggles. It shouldn't be causing them.

[MartinGregory84]

Cracking post Cleon, This helps out a lot because the Match preperation screen is set out a little awkward compared to last year.

The multiple friendly situation is a great idea just one question.........

Chopping and changing the players will this be affected when it comes to tactics familiarity level? or is it just there to drill in each player that appears in pre season?.

[Cleon]

Cracking post Cleon, This helps out a lot because the Match preperation screen is set out a little awkward compared to last year.

The multiple friendly situation is a great idea just one question.........

Chopping and changing the players will this be affected when it comes to tactics familiarity level? or is it just there to drill in each player that appears in pre season?.

I chop and change and its fine

[yonko]

You do it the same way regardless of training camps or not. It should take around 11 games to be fluid if you don't go to a training camp and have set it to 50% match and 50% general and set the individual focus to tactics for the match prep.

Ok then, I've kept at it and have played 2 more Europa League games (won both of them:)) and 3 EPL games (2 wins and 1 tie) - that's 12 games total. Now, most of the bars for Tactics Familiarity are on Fluid, except the Formations bar. That is still only on Accomplished. Any idea why? I've been using only the 4-2-3-1 formation and never changed it in any of the games. I've only been changing some of the roles for the attacking 4 players and I changed my Strategy for one away game vs Tottenham (which I won 2-0, btw) from Control to Counter. I wonder if the Formation bar is lower than the others because the default formation for Liverpool is 4-4-2 not 4-2-3-1? What do you think? The other bar that is not Fluid yet is the Mentality bar, but it's understandable since I've been changing roles for some of my players and I've changed Strategy once. Also, just for the Tottenham game I set the Match Prep to Defensive Positioning, otherwise I've kept it at Tactics Only.

FYI, I'm also about to start a save with Borussia Dortmund. I wonder if their board sends the team to a pre-season camp? I guess that save starts in June, because the Bundesliga usually starts earlier than most high-level leagues. Have you had a save with a German team yet?

[Cleon]

Ok then, I've kept at it and have played 2 more Europa League games (won both of them:)) and 3 EPL games (2 wins and 1 tie) - that's 12 games total. Now, most of the bars for Tactics Familiarity are on Fluid, except the Formations bar. That is still only on Accomplished. Any idea why? I've been using only the 4-2-3-1 formation and never changed it in any of the games. I've only been changing some of the roles for the attacking 4 players and I changed my Strategy for one away game vs Tottenham (which I won 2-0, btw) from Control to Counter. I wonder if the Formation bar is lower than the others because the default formation for Liverpool is 4-4-2 not 4-2-3-1? What do you think? The other bar that is not Fluid yet is the Mentality bar, but it's understandable since I've been changing roles for some of my players and I've changed Strategy once. Also, just for the Tottenham game I set the Match Prep to Defensive Positioning, otherwise I've kept it at Tactics Only.

FYI, I'm also about to start a save with Borussia Dortmund. I wonder if their board sends the team to a pre-season camp? I guess that save starts in June, because the Bundesliga usually starts earlier than most high-level leagues. Have you had a save with a German team yet?

The formation will take slightly longer to learn because you are training 2 formations aren't you? Or did I read that wrong and you deleted the default 442 they start with? That will be the reason why though as you created from scratch and those tactics start with lower familarity than the ones you start with or the assistant recommend

[yonko]

The formation will take slightly longer to learn because you are training 2 formations aren't you? Or did I read that wrong and you deleted the default 442 they start with? That will be the reason why though as you created from scratch and those tactics start with lower familarity than the ones you start with or the assistant recommend

On my 1st attempt at a save with Liverpool I had loaded 3 tactics, but on this 2nd save I've loaded only one tactic and kept it like that. Yes, when I created my 4-2-3-1 from scratch, the team was actually set up with 4-4-2. I can't remember what was my Assistant's recommendation exactly, but 4-4-2 must've been one of those. Interestingly, the Marking bar was the first one to become Fluid for my tactic, even though I've used "hassle opponents" (which changes to Man Marking for everyone, I think) in a few games so far, as well as I've set up some specific man-marking assignments for a few players in some games.

Cleon, how about my questions for playing with a German team? Have you had any experience there or have you just played in England and Brazil?

[Cleon]

On my 1st attempt at a save with Liverpool I had loaded 3 tactics, but on this 2nd save I've loaded only one tactic and kept it like that. Yes, when I created my 4-2-3-1 from scratch, the team was actually set up with 4-4-2. I can't remember what was my Assistant's recommendation exactly, but 4-4-2 must've been one of those. Interestingly, the Marking bar was the first one to become Fluid for my tactic, even though I've used "hassle opponents" (which changes to Man Marking for everyone, I think) in a few games so far, as well as I've set up some specific man-marking assignments for a few players in some games.

Cleon, how about my questions for playing with a German team? Have you had any experience there or have you just played in England and Brazil?

I've never played in Germany, I only normally play in South American countries

[yonko]

I've never played in Germany, I only normally play in South American countries

The weather is nicer and the women are spicier....I don't blame ya:) Test yourself in Germany, you might like the beer and the bratwursts.

Look at me, I always played with Barca on FM12 and F13, but now I have a save with Liverpool and I'm about to start one with Dortmund (which I hated in the past cause of Sammer, but now I like cause of Goetze and Reus). No interest playing with Barca anymore.....until FM14:).

[Cleon]

The weather is nicer and the women are spicier....I don't blame ya:) Test yourself in Germany, you might like the beer and the bratwursts.

Look at me, I always played with Barca on FM12 and F13, but now I have a save with Liverpool and I'm about to start one with Dortmund (which I hated in the past cause of Sammer, but now I like cause of Goetze and Reus). No interest playing with Barca anymore.....until FM14:).

About an hour before you posted the question about me playing in Germany I'd posted on twitter that I fancied giving Dortmund a try

Bratwursts, I get them from the continental market when it comes to where I am every few months

[higgins]

I was used to set my general training regime (fitness focused) on average intensity during pre-season, then I tried to increase intensity to hard in a save I recently started; players become fit sooner but I'm experiencing more injuries, anyone else?

[Cleon]

I was used to set my general training regime (fitness focused) on average intensity during pre-season, then I tried to increase intensity to hard in a save I recently started; players become fit sooner but I'm experiencing more injuries, anyone else?

It depends what else you are doing in pre-season. Are you letting condition get low in games? or are players starting games with low condition? Are you subbing and rotating a lot? Are they still learning PPM's? Are they still using individual focus?

If the answer is yes to any of those then it is likely to be the reason. The type of injury a player is getting though is normally an indication to the reason why.

Also make sure you have more than 2 physios to stop players picking up little niggles and getting little knocks in games.

[Babak G]

So by that token you would suggest not to put everyone on individual focus even if your assistant virtually recommend every player to have some sort of individual focus be it an attribute or tactical?

[Cleon]

So by that token you would suggest not to put everyone on individual focus even if your assistant virtually recommend every player to have some sort of individual focus be it an attribute or tactical?

Only for preseason yes

[higgins]

It depends what else you are doing in pre-season. Are you letting condition get low in games? or are players starting games with low condition? Are you subbing and rotating a lot? Are they still learning PPM's? Are they still using individual focus?

If the answer is yes to any of those then it is likely to be the reason. The type of injury a player is getting though is normally an indication to the reason why.

Also make sure you have more than 2 physios to stop players picking up little niggles and getting little knocks in games.

Generally I tend to rotate a lot my men during friendlies, no ppm's and no individual focus so I should find elsewhere the reasons behind my injuries.

The physios bit just reminded me I probably forgot to check if they're skilled enough to avoid little niggles, like you said.

[yonko]

About an hour before you posted the question about me playing in Germany I'd posted on twitter that I fancied giving Dortmund a try

Bratwursts, I get them from the continental market when it comes to where I am every few months

Nice coincidence, eh? I would be very interested to see your take on Dortmund! If you really make a save with them, would you share your experience with them in some thread (here or elsewhere) or via PM with me? I'd be curious to see how you approach the pre-season with them and the tactic you'd choose (specifically Gotze's role). I just loaded a save with them, which starts in Germany on June 26th 2012 and it looks like more of the leading player are on holiday until mid-to-late July (17th or 27th). Given that their squad is small, it would make for a really challenging pre-season in terms of playing a lot of friendlies and getting any tactic high on familiarity. Keep in mind that on Aug 15th there are International matches/friendlies. Also, around that time the season officially starts too. The other challenge is of course the fact that Dortmund do not start with a lot of money for transfers to buy players for squad depth and/or for future investment. But they got a big stadium...

FYI, I'm thinking of using 4-2-3-1 (as that is what I'm on lately) with Gotze as the selected playmaker in a AP(attack) role.

[yonko]

Cleon,

It's amazing how effective a pre-season camp can be when it comes to Tactics Familiarity! Here have a look at this screenshot:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

That's after playing only 3 friendlies and 10 days pre-season training camp! The save starts on June 26th, with 8 of my players on long holidays - 3 of them are due back on July 17th, the other 5 due back on July 23th. Right at the beginning of the save I set my training with Match Prep for tactics only at 50% and arrange my friendlies. The training camp ran from July 7th to July 17th, my first friendly was on the last day of training camp. My next two friendlies were on July 21th and July 24th. This screen is from the next day, the 25th. As you can see in 3 days I have a game with Bayern M, but I'm sitting pretty comfortable with my tactics familiarity already very high. If I didn't have 8 players away on longer holiday, I would've had 2-3 more friendlies played and my familiarity would've been all on fluid.

The only problem I have is that my players are not match fit yet due to their longer break. But I bet Bayern's aren't either. I have 3 more friendlies scheduled after the Bayern game.

[Cleon]

Cleon,

It's amazing how effective a pre-season camp can be when it comes to Tactics Familiarity! Here have a look at this screenshot:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

That's after playing only 3 friendlies and 10 days pre-season training camp! The save starts on June 26th, with 8 of my players on long holidays - 3 of them are due back on July 17th, the other 5 due back on July 23th. Right at the beginning of the save I set my training with Match Prep for tactics only at 50% and arrange my friendlies. The training camp ran from July 7th to July 17th, my first friendly was on the last day of training camp. My next two friendlies were on July 21th and July 24th. This screen is from the next day, the 25th. As you can see in 3 days I have a game with Bayern M, but I'm sitting pretty comfortable with my tactics familiarity already very high. If I didn't have 8 players away on longer holiday, I would've had 2-3 more friendlies played and my familiarity would've been all on fluid.

The only problem I have is that my players are not match fit yet due to their longer break. But I bet Bayern's aren't either. I have 3 more friendlies scheduled after the Bayern game.

Nice. I think its always harder to arrange a proper pre-season at the start of a new game due to you not been able to set the amount of time required. You're almost there with the match fitness though

P.S wish you'd not posted that picture, the yellow and black looks so good and I'm trying hard to resist starting a saved game with them

[clayts]

Thanks for making this thread cleon, i was still playing FM12 with crystal palace when i bumped into this i was struggling in the prem and was looking for some pre season inspiration so i followed your advice as much as i could with FM12 training etc and it worked wonders i hit the season running beating chelsea, spurs and liverpool.

I then decided id cracked FM12 :-) so bought FM13 and started in the BSN with Gainsborough trinity although my training is limited iv started the season perfectly.

So thanks again and i look forward to your next project

[Cleon]

Thanks for making this thread cleon, i was still playing FM12 with crystal palace when i bumped into this i was struggling in the prem and was looking for some pre season inspiration so i followed your advice as much as i could with FM12 training etc and it worked wonders i hit the season running beating chelsea, spurs and liverpool.

I then decided id cracked FM12 :-) so bought FM13 and started in the BSN with Gainsborough trinity although my training is limited iv started the season perfectly.

So thanks again and i look forward to your next project

Thank you, glad I could help you

[yonko]

Nice. I think its always harder to arrange a proper pre-season at the start of a new game due to you not been able to set the amount of time required. You're almost there with the match fitness though

P.S wish you'd not posted that picture, the yellow and black looks so good and I'm trying hard to resist starting a saved game with them

Yeah, I'm almost there, but not where I'd want. However, I will be for the start of the league. The Supercup game will just be like another friendly...well sort of, as much as it can be against a team like Bayern.

BTW, I posted the picture on purpose.;) Yellow is my favorite color, which was another reason for me to start a save with Dortmund. Come on, you are next....you know you want it....

[retrodude09]

Yeah, I'm almost there, but not where I'd want. However, I will be for the start of the league. The Supercup game will just be like another friendly...well sort of, as much as it can be against a team like Bayern.

BTW, I posted the picture on purpose.;) Yellow is my favorite color, which was another reason for me to start a save with Dortmund. Come on, you are next....you know you want it....

I'm not sure about Cleon wanting to start with Dortmund, I think I might want to.

[yonko]

I'm not sure about Cleon wanting to start with Dortmund, I think I might want to.

Did the screenshot make you want to?

[Rashidi]

As ever, a useful overview. The main thing I take from it is:

"I’ve seen people post saying they set general training focus to tactics to get familiarity levels up however that doesn’t actually work despite the misleading name. What you have to do is set the match training focus to tactics. This is what gets tactic familiarity up."

A simple but critical clarification. My tactical familiarity is generally pretty poor - after 15 La Liga games I'm still only accomplished with my formation (60%), which is frankly crap!

Everything else is at 100%, so I find it odd that just this one element is so far behind - any ideas?

Note this is the same formation as I used for around 20 games at the tail end of the previous season too - surely they'd be more familiar than that?!

Thats bad at the very most you should fill out all ur bars 3 matches in even if you have 3 tactics. How many preseason matches do u do?

[RTHerringbone]

Thats bad at the very most you should fill out all ur bars 3 matches in even if you have 3 tactics. How many preseason matches do u do?

This is completely resolved, and related to a few key **** ups:

1. I had two back ups tactics loaded as well as my main one - have since removed them

2. Not enough Pre Season games. Was having about 4 or 5 per season, now having 8

3. My AssMan was running Match Preparation, and he took the Scheduling down to less Match Prep and the Focus off tactics. Now I manage my Match Prep training in Pre-Season

[widowmaker-]

Thanks for this helped me a lot CLEON can you give me a link to your ajax/training thread please. ive done a search but cant find it, Thanks

[vkastanas]

Thanks for this helped me a lot CLEON can you give me a link to your ajax/training thread please. ive done a search but cant find it, Thanks

There you go...

[thread=343043]Ajax Youth Development – When The Real World Meets Football Manager[/thread]

[widowmaker-]

thank you