Player Development, Tactical Setups..the DUMDUM setup

[Rashidi]

Football Manager is so bloody distracting. I keep coming back to the forums as a lurker, and, I've been spending my time just doing my thang in real life and well I started missing writing these ....posts about training, tactics and systems. The thing about FM is that you get as much as you put into the game, and you don't really need to invest that much into the game as long as you have a solid system in your nugget that you can deploy. Over time, I will focus on training and how this translates into tactics, and this post will be continued in my blog because there are resources there I will be using for the game, including the development model I posted in FM13 which I continued to use in 14 and plan to test out again for 15. Tactically my approach will still be the same. Where possible I plan to do a matrix for roles as well, but thats a bit of a low priority since its something that will take me some time. The matrix will have a chart that actually breaks down what every role in the game does. At the moment that matrix sits in my head, and its a messy head with no hair. As always future updates will be posted here and on my blog. Will there be a twitch or live stream? No. Writing already takes a fair bit of time, and twitching will be annoying since I will need to slow down and explain a lot of stuff that happens intuitively and thats not very likely to happen. I know there are a fair bit of live streams out there, but I am not too impressed with them. The game isn't complicated its really simple, get the fundamentals right and its a breeze and thats going to be my plan. List out the fundamentals, make my assumptions and go from there.

Been a while, well if I am going to start a new save, thought I'd chronicle it as I go. I haven't really picked a club yet lol. So this outlines what I plan to do. The goal is to take a strong look at development modelling in the game and with that in mind I plan on picking a club that has the resources to develop youth, see how they fare and how far I can take the club. Tactically my approach will be the same as its always been, I plan to use a system that will form the basis of how I develop my players.

The formation can be tweaked where the trequartista can be pushed up into a lone forward position which would mean some role changes as well for some of the other players who support him. I was testing this formation with Liverpool during the beta tests and it worked surprisingly well. Its been a staple formation for me for most of FM 12-14. Based on this system I plan on fitting players into the system during preseason. Naturally you can't expect most teams to fit ideally into a system so I will have other formations that I can turn to. These would include slight changes to the system so that I don't turn the whole thing on its head. My back up would be a 4312 which I plan to play narrow.

First Steps

Day 1 Before Meeting Players

1. Assess Coaching Staff/Scouting/Physio/Director/Head of Development Anyone who isn't a 4 star is out. I plan to have a coach in every category, and my own setting will allow me to take one coaching slot.

2. Set up Filters Can't stress how important this is going to be for the whole season. Filters will need to be set up for me to be able to quickly assess whether players are suited to the roles they are going to play. The heaviest positions appear to be the central midfield area and this will be an important area Once the filters are firmed up I will update my blog with a section where it details what the filters were and how players were chosen

• Filter 1 Midfielders Support/Defend
  

Age, Stamina, Workrate, Positioning, Tackling, Pace, Passing, Determination. These will be my primary attributes and I will expand or reduce them but I need to set this up so I can pick players. Age is included since I want to focus on development

• Filter 2 Midfielders/Strikers
  

Age, Creativity, Pace, Off the Ball, Passing, Crossing, Finishing, Composure, Primary attributes these will be fine tuned later.

• Filter 3 Defenders
  

Age, Stamina, Positioning, Anticipation, Tackling, Jumping, Heading, Passing

3. Scouting Time to send these guys out and set em up to look for hot prospects.

4. Training

I will need to set things up for training, Since its preseason I will employ the same model i did for FM13 listed out here. It covers player development, my plan is too see if it still works, it worked for 18 seasons in FM13 and did again in FM14 so I reckon its still solid. SI hasn't really changed training that much over the years.

So these will be my first steps. Now the question thats been dogging me for the last few days which team do I pick? Cleon was kind enough to point me in the direction of Passion4FM, there are some nice options I see from there, and some guys on the forums have suggested sides like Lyon, Sporting and even some South American sides. I am still wondering which side will be the one

[Rashidi]

When I finally DO decide who to go with...I will do link up the filters, as these are so important..I mean they are literally CRITICAL to doing well in the game. yeah but first I really need to decide who the............i am gonna manage

[Guest]

Pick someone already!!!!!! Looking forward to reading this.

[Rashidi]

Sporting Clube de Portugal

Internationally known as Sporting Lisbon, and home to such talents as CR7 and the FM Legend that was only a legend within the game Quaresma, this will be the club that I will manage. It was a tossup between this and Vfb Stuttgart. Both clubs have storied pasts and the Portuguese club is part of a trifecta that forms the bedrock and foundation of the top tier of Portuguese football. It has never been relegated from top flight football. The club has attempted to shed its name "Sporting Lisbon" internationally but guess what, I'll be referring to them as Sporting Lisbon throughout. The decisions been made. I'm already at the club firing the backroom staff. What a beginning.

So far I've sent 4 coaches packing, and have started hiring quite a few. At the moment we have 8 coaches on the roster. I am planning to push this up even more with a couple of U-19s coaches, strengthening the treatment rooms as well as the directors box will also be a priority. Filters have been set up I am currently using a simple one which helps me determine who should be playing in my system which is heavily played out in midfield

To identify who will slot into my system of play which is based on this formation/system. There's also another filter I have set up for friendlies that lets me quickly decide who I want to play. These are all the done on the fly and I will probably hone these further and update them on my blog as a full set of filters. For now though its more important to get the season underway and with 6 coaches on their way in this should be interesting.

I need to add more text, damn these forums haven't changed in 10 years. Over time these filters will be refined for match day choices as well, as to who should be playing and who shouldn't be playing. Plenty of bugs in the UI that need to be worked around as well

[Cleon]

Had a feeling you'd go Sporting or Anderlecht. Sporting is a great choice, you should be able to build something pretty special with all the youth players given a bit of time. I'll be following closely as usual, good luck mate

[Jambo98]

Nice choice of club, and also a good option for being able to give youths training time. The portugese league does have some very below average teams towards the bottom which might allow you to play youths and still pick up points. Of course it also has 2 excellent teams at the top (Benfica and Porto) and a couple of plucky top half sides (Brag/Guimaraes/Rio Ave) who can compete at least.

I will be very interested in the youth development model, being deployed now at a much bigger club. Your training approach for the 15 - 17yr olds is similar to something i started to kick off late in FM14 with Hearts. In essence taking the approach of Craig Levien and Ian Cathro (who was at the time expected to become Hearts HOYD, but instead has ended up as Ass Man at Valencia to Nuno). Put simply, the observed that so many youth players were graduating to the first team squad at 18/19 without basic footballing abiltiy. They might be big, strong, fast, a great finisher or tackler, but they could not do a couple of very basic football task to an acceptable standard. In essence, Levien observed that if you couldnt pass a ball, and trap a ball, then you were of no use to him regardless of other ability.

From that i selected 4 attributes which i believed reflected the desire to have all players reach this minimum pass and trap ability:

- Passing (obvious)

- Composure (because it is very much linked to passing)

- First Touch (again obvious)

- Technique (because it underpins passing and first touch IMO)

I set up an analyse and training programme's so that each player must reach a minimum level in all 4 before age 19. With Hearts of course, that minimum "level" was lower than it would be a bigger clubs, but the principle remained the same. It was an interesting exercise, particularly given the brutal state of Scotland's youth development. No co-incidence that our biggest shinning youth product of the last 5 years came through that very Craig Levien/Ian Cathro model (Ryan Gauld - one of your own players in this save!)

I might need to dust mine off and give it another run, inspired by your detailed efforts

Best of luck and look forward to continuing to hear about your innovations and approach as always

[Rashidi]

In the model that i used. My focus for player development in the formative years i.e., 15-18 is all about physical conditioning and ball control. Thats my entire emphasis till they hit 18, and then its been about the rest. Yeah I looked at the Ryan Gauld chappie and went..hmm..this one should be one to watch lol. There are quite a few, but the biggest challenge is the start 4 hours in and I am still setting things up. This is a clean install of FM on a new machine, that has NO history of seeing any version of the game. This should be fun, but god the colors are driving me nuts. Green

[jozza800]

In the model that i used. My focus for player development in the formative years i.e., 15-18 is all about physical conditioning and ball control. Thats my entire emphasis till they hit 18, and then its been about the rest. Yeah I looked at the Ryan Gauld chappie and went..hmm..this one should be one to watch lol. There are quite a few, but the biggest challenge is the start 4 hours in and I am still setting things up. This is a clean install of FM on a new machine, that has NO history of seeing any version of the game. This should be fun, but god the colors are driving me nuts. Green

If you purchase the ingame editor, you can alter the the club colours to something a little more palatable!!

Looking forward to this. I've had the same way of developing youths for a number of years. Itr will be good to see something a little different.

[Jambo98]

In the model that i used. My focus for player development in the formative years i.e., 15-18 is all about physical conditioning and ball control. Thats my entire emphasis till they hit 18, and then its been about the rest. Yeah I looked at the Ryan Gauld chappie and went..hmm..this one should be one to watch lol. There are quite a few, but the biggest challenge is the start 4 hours in and I am still setting things up. This is a clean install of FM on a new machine, that has NO history of seeing any version of the game. This should be fun, but god the colors are driving me nuts. Green

Yeah i think part of the challenge of recreating it in FM was that in reality the focus on basics needs to start before 15/16. It starts way back at the U12 age group and even below. Obviously we have limited impact on this within FM, other than perhaps:

- Good youth coaching spending

- Possibly the coaching style of the HOYD?

I would regularly spend a good 3hrs or so before i even advance past about day 1 on a new save. Its worth it

As well as the green, that bland badge would drive me nuts! Get a logos pack downloaded, improves the visual element no end!

[Jambo98]

Out of interest rashidi, in portugal do you have no control over the "B" team like in spain? If so, how do you plan on working with that? ~

I was having a look at doing a save with Athletic, focused on youth, try and bring back some of the work i started with Hearts. However of course i had overlooked the issue of the B team. I could just use the U18's and main team, but i think there should be some value in that middle ground. Particularly with the lure of competitive games.

Way back around FM12 or so, i used to get around this by adding a second manager, assigning him to manage my B team, then putting "him" on holiday most of the time (with the tactics set to my choice). Only coming back when i wanted to tweak training. Is that seen as acceptable i wonder....

[Rashidi]

Its a really telling issue with Sporting Lisbon, the fact that my B team plays very much like an affiliate leaves me very little wiggle room. I can't affect the tactics the player chooses, the training schedules they are on and the employment of the manager. This leaves me with control over the 19s and the main team only. They play one league below so I have a rough plan where I will focus on promising players making the jump from 19s to senior squad. Anyone who doesn't show significant improvement go to the B team or on loan.

If I am wrong, I hope i find out quick

[Rashidi]

Sporting Lisbon

Laying the Foundations

Deviant and Defiant

Preseason is done and its now time to sit down and map things for the club. We’ve played a few matches which has given me an idea of who’s in an who’s not. There are two ways to play this game, one is to fit teams into a system or create one for a specific group of players. I’ve decided to take the harder route where I will make them fit into my tactical system.

The formation that we will play is called Deviant. It’s a fairly adventurous system which depends heavily on midfield, in fact there will be no out and out strikers here. Personally, I have always maintained that the good old fashioned strikers of the past are anachronistic. Their time has passed and I have been singing the same tune since 2002. If anyone still remembers my systems from FM12, I was going around with strikerless systems back then, they were harder to replicate but infinitely more fun.

Deviant

This system will rely heavily on several outlets. There are two fullbacks who are expected to be lending support to the 3 frontmen. Goals will come from the TQ, and the Inside forward on the right flank. I am relying on fantastic bursts from the IF and since I am playing a unique style on the left flank, I should see the left BBM surge into the box on a regular basis, whether he scores or not remains to be seen.

Defensively we will rely on the DLP to provide some cover, but I full expect us to play most matches in the opposing half where we are better than the opposition. Now since the main purpose of my game is to develop youth, I will require my team to play with a more orthodox striker so that I give players a chance to get that role down. To do that I simply adjust my system by converting my TQ into a DLF or a false 9. There will be some minor role changes

When that happens the system will take on the look of Defiant, which is very similar to my old tactic with one small caveat, it has attacking fullbacks. These could be changed depending on the match opposition.

Defiant

I may create a 3^rd formation which is really likely, but this doesn’t imply that I will be using all 3. I strongly believe that one system works, however I need 3 to ensure my players development isn’t hampered by limiting us to one system.

Staff and Training

I’ve hired a whole slew of coaches but it seems that U19 coaches are hard to come by, good ones that is. And since I can’t control my reserve team, I plan on getting the U19 team to focus training on Physical and Mental aspects of the game.

As you can see we have a shortage of talent to cover for training in defending/attacking and tactical, so we will focus on the physical side and ball control as much as possible. Once the players turn 19 I will move them to the senior squad..

In terms of training focus for the main team, I will still be following the approach of FM12-13, there will naturally be some changes as I go along but the general theme will still be the same:

That will be my training schedule for the season, and the load levels. Each individual player should have a heavy workload, and the reason for choosing the general areas the way I do will be evident when you realize what attributes it affects. General training will not be the key to player development it will be individual focus that plays a huge part.

Game time plays a big part in overall development , I had a rule of 25 games for the EPL, things may change here, but I reckon I will be using a percentage based system. Total games a player can play, and how much he actually plays, I will also weight bench time as well. For a player to have a positive development he needs to play and be part of a winning team. That’s always been the best metric but its not scientific and I doubt I will be going back to the hallowed days of FM98 when I used to math everything out. So for now, I will assume a 25 game rule. For more on this you can refer the the old post

15-17 Player is in the U-19s team, they learn all their ppms by the time they

are 17.

17-19 Players start getting runs in the senior team and they are moved to the reserves. Good players are identified at 19 for promotion to senior sides

19> any player who can’t slot into a senior team is put on loan. There need to be at least 5 players who are going to get a run in the senior team. These players end up playing as covers.

By the time a player is in the reserves his training will focus on his role, because by then his ppms should be covered. A player can learn as many ppms as he needs to, I am not sure what the upper limit is, but one of my players has 8 ppms now. Don’t get fixated by ppms, I find that for the key roles they usually need only 5 ppms, anything more is usually unnecessary and a waste of time. Training ppms takes a player away from player development so he really needs to get back to role training asap.

The challenge with Sporting is the lack of a reserves team for me to help in player development and I can’t find a way to directly affect player development there. As it stands I can see why they play in a the lower league competition and as such are treated as an affiliate, which does mean that the B side may just end up being my “fail squad”.

Coming Up : Player Identification and Filters

[Cleon]

Why the high match prep during season but low in pre season? Normally its high during pre season (to raise tactical familiarity) then low during the season as you are focusing on player development so don't want to waste training time. You're wasting a lot of training time here as match prep isn't important especially for someone with your knowledge.

[Rashidi]

Aha so people do read this;-)

[Cleon]

Got them the wrong way round?

Btw Rash there has been quite a big change to coaches, they actually matter now on the game and if they have heavy workload's you'll not see much improvement for those categories at all. So if you have a category that is heavy add another coach to it to make the workload less. It can be any kind of coach he doesn't even have to be good but you need to split their workloads now.

[Rashidi]

Yeah i got some dodgy coaches lined up just for that

[peleJunior]

Bobby Mimms!! A blast from the past Great preparation being done here. You said you were going to be focusing on ball control and physicals but you don't schedule much for fitness? Or have you a different schedule mapped out for the younger squads?

[Jambo98]

btw the workaround for managing your B team should work just fine in Portugal? Sporting B play in the second division, which is playable? Its a bit of a b*all-ache, but it can be done and i think its fair to do in order to get proper control of your full club.

Worse in Spain, i have a "C" team as well as a "B" team to deal with!

[Rashidi]

Bobby Mimms!! A blast from the past Great preparation being done here. You said you were going to be focusing on ball control and physicals but you don't schedule much for fitness? Or have you a different schedule mapped out for the younger squads?

Bobby Mimms, David Platt...same names each save..lol I have a different schedule for my youth team at the moment.

btw the workaround for managing your B team should work just fine in Portugal? Sporting B play in the second division, which is playable? Its a bit of a b*all-ache, but it can be done and i think its fair to do in order to get proper control of your full club.

Worse in Spain, i have a "C" team as well as a "B" team to deal with!

Yeah I did think of adding another manager and playing them there too, but its overcomplicating the game. Furthermore if thats how its done in Portugal then thats how its gotta be done. I can't even fire the manager lol he's playing a "defensive" system. No wonder they have low morale.

**By the way are there any issues with uploading videos that I am not aware of. Tried doing one to youtube from in-game, comes out as .ogv but goes out as gibberish on youtube.

[john1]

Interesting write up, rashidi1. Will be keeping close eye on this.

[Jambo98]

Yeah i was a little caught between "That is how it would work really" and wanting total control. In the end, my view is that on the save in question, i am effectively going to operate as both Head Coach and Director of Football. Even with teams with "b teams" with a totally seperate manager, the parent club will absolutely be able to dictate everything about the "B" team - formation, tactical approach, training. Barca are obviously the easy example - The volume of players and managers who go seemlessly from the "B" team into the main team, because the tactics/approach/philosophy are the same. Great example of it just the other night when they brought in 4 or 5 "B" team players and absolutely trounced Elche with those players looking like they had been at the big club for years.

I would be interested in how you approach staff recruitment - Do you look at personality types as well of course the all important coaching stars? What about stats outside of those 2 (Eg adaptability, motivating). It has always been a bit of an unknown area, in that i am not sure these stats even make any difference (but then why have staff had them for the last 4 or 5 years!). Does being not being able to speak the language impact a coach's effectiveness?

Finally, do you take any note of the coaches "tactics" preferences. In my Hearts save last year ,i tried to get an entire staff with at least close to the same styles in here, as part of the desire to create a single unified approach throughout the club. I found myself wondering again though, whether it actually makes any difference. I seem to recall that for HOYD it can influence the player type in the intakes, but solid info is hard to come by

[Cleon]

Finally, do you take any note of the coaches "tactics" preferences. In my Hearts save last year ,i tried to get an entire staff with at least close to the same styles in here, as part of the desire to create a single unified approach throughout the club. I found myself wondering again though, whether it actually makes any difference. I seem to recall that for HOYD it can influence the player type in the intakes, but solid info is hard to come by

Yes it matters, you have more chance of players having the personality types of the staff when they spawn. Also the staff formations are the players you will produce, so if they have 442 listed then you'll more than likely get players who can play in those positions. But if its a 3-5-2 then you are less likely to get fullbacks. It's why you should build a backroom team that is like minded to influence personality types and the type of players you produce on intake days.

[peleJunior]

Yes it matters, you have more chance of players having the personality types of the staff when they spawn. Also the staff formations are the players you will produce, so if they have 442 listed then you'll more than likely get players who can play in those positions. But if its a 3-5-2 then you are less likely to get fullbacks. It's why you should build a backroom team that is like minded to influence personality types and the type of players you produce on intake days.

I knew about personality types but the formation influencing player positions is a great feature; makes getting like minded coaches more worthwhile.

[Jambo98]

Yes it matters, you have more chance of players having the personality types of the staff when they spawn. Also the staff formations are the players you will produce, so if they have 442 listed then you'll more than likely get players who can play in those positions. But if its a 3-5-2 then you are less likely to get fullbacks. It's why you should build a backroom team that is like minded to influence personality types and the type of players you produce on intake days.

Thanks - Yes i specifically target backroom team with good personality types across the board (although more leeway with physios and scouts of course) for that reason.

Just to clarify, will the tactics preferences of all backroom staff influence the intake "shape" - Presumably HOYD has the biggest impact, youth coaches would have an impact, but do senior coaches also impact the intake via these "preferences"?

Related to that, not sure if you can answer this, but are these preferences "dynamic"? EG, if i have a guy who prefers 442, after 3 years of being part of my coaching staff where we exclusively play 352, will his preferences on tactics change or is it static? I realise that might be expecting a bit much of the game btw - just curious!

[Cleon]

Thanks - Yes i specifically target backroom team with good personality types across the board (although more leeway with physios and scouts of course) for that reason.

Just to clarify, will the tactics preferences of all backroom staff influence the intake "shape" - Presumably HOYD has the biggest impact, youth coaches would have an impact, but do senior coaches also impact the intake via these "preferences"?

Related to that, not sure if you can answer this, but are these preferences "dynamic"? EG, if i have a guy who prefers 442, after 3 years of being part of my coaching staff where we exclusively play 352, will his preferences on tactics change or is it static? I realise that might be expecting a bit much of the game btw - just curious!

Aye the HOYD has the biggest impact but all other staff have an influence too even if its only a small impact.

The formation used to be static not sure if that's changed though, I've not really looked on FM15 but I can't say that any of mine have changed after 8 seasons so I assume its still static.

[Jambo98]

Cool - Thanks as always for the great info Cleon.

Damn me for selecting a 3 at the back formation which so few staff have as a preference! Ah well, retraining shall be my friend for intake fullbacks

Really looking forward to seeing how you approach player selection / filters rashidi - I am in the process of documenting my equivalent, relating the desired base skills of my young players to my overall system and ethos, and considering minimum targets for each based on age group and perceived role. I shall almost certainly "borrow" some ideas once you have posted yours

[Rashidi]

Finally, do you take any note of the coaches "tactics" preferences. In my Hearts save last year ,i tried to get an entire staff with at least close to the same styles in here, as part of the desire to create a single unified approach throughout the club. I found myself wondering again though, whether it actually makes any difference. I seem to recall that for HOYD it can influence the player type in the intakes, but solid info is hard to come by

This da interesting question...thats my profile

My assman...

My coaches seem to like the 4123DM wide formation, and some are inclined towards 442 and 443. Most of the personalities appear balanced. For one thing, I would in the long term be looking for coaches who fit the "adventurous" mentality however thats easier said than done. I tend to focus a lot more on "stars" then on the personality traits of coaches tbh.

Coaching stats for me determination, motivation are important as baseline, but they can't be the MAX ones..its the specialised areas that need to be maxed out. While its ideal to have a set of traits to zoom for, sometimes you can't afford them as I have found out at Sporting. Not every coach want to go there..so I am forced to accept even the average ones. If this save continues past the 3rd season I will definitely will be rejigging the bootroom.

Staff recruitment is vital, I focus principally on stats for coaching, once coaches are shortlisted I look at likelihood of employment then I look at personality traits to determine. If I were a bigger club that had more pulling power then I would be a lot more selective.

[Rashidi]

Am i missing something or are goal highlights just coming out gibberish?

[Cleon]

It was bugged but was fixed in the last update I thought. I always use snag it to capture video though as its a thousand times quicker.

[AndrikoDS]

I am sorry if you said this and I missed it (I also read your site that you linked), but what individual focus do you use for your youth team?

I am finally going to start trying to use the training on this game instead of leaving it to AssMan, and I think you said to train the reserves and first team for their main role (so my Rumdrinker (no, I am not even going to try and spell it properly) trains 'RumDrinker' role, for example). But what about the kids? Do I train them in the position I expect them to play, or would it be better to train individual abilities that need some work, such as a kid with no stamia getting stamina focus?

Ty, and keep up the good work. Advice on training is horrifically scarce!

[Rashidi]

We are up to our first champions league game, having won that 3-1 at Legia Warsaw. With straight wins under our belt in the league, I thought it'd be time for me to highlight the squad and my plans

Since managing in Portugal limits me to my U19 side and my senior side, I have to make some hard decisions on how I want to develop my players and thats irking me, but I will accept that for now, and this means that I need to make some adjustments to how I normally do things. Since i don't have control over the reserves this effectively means that once a promising player emerges he needs to be moved to the senior squad once he hits 18.

Players will need to be identified between the ages of 15-18 as potential targets and then once they are 18 and contracts can be awarded, they move to the seniors, those who aren't good enough will stay with the reserves, and if need be that reserve side will need to be culled. I don't want that side to be greater than 24 players. So squad side for all three teams will be capped at 24. Thats not a rule, but it should ensure that most players get time and those who aren't good enough get loaned off.

For now the señior squad seems to be light on defenders so they will be brought in, all players who are 4 stars and higher and have the right attributes will go to the seniors. Players who are old but have good ppms will stay, those that don't go to the reserves or out on loan. At the moment this is what we look like after the changes

These players have been added to the senior squad and their development will initially be focused on their roles, some will have slight adjustments. Each player will follow the main team schedule in terms of timing and then will switch focus whenever the general training changes. So if general training is set to balanced and we are changing it, and an individual player is on role training, his training either gets changed if he is on a specific focus (e.g. marking) or be left alone if not.

One of the first players i spotted was for my DLP or B2BMC role

This english player was a no brainer he will be trained as the Raumdeuter or a winger and he's already banging in the goals in that role as a RD

We need defenders, sorely depending two seniors and the future looks bleak and this has to be a long term focus of the club

A potential world class player in the making, his development will need to be handled with care

These are just some of the rest of the players who will be trained

I've been trying to upload videos of some of the goals we have scored, the systems working well thus far. With Liverpool, they were literally unstoppable, it looks like Sporting are doing ok thus far, even though I have a lot of concerns about not being able to have enough players to fulfil the crucial ball winning roles in midfield.

[Rashidi]

I am sorry if you said this and I missed it (I also read your site that you linked), but what individual focus do you use for your youth team?

I am finally going to start trying to use the training on this game instead of leaving it to AssMan, and I think you said to train the reserves and first team for their main role (so my Rumdrinker (no, I am not even going to try and spell it properly) trains 'RumDrinker' role, for example). But what about the kids? Do I train them in the position I expect them to play, or would it be better to train individual abilities that need some work, such as a kid with no stamia getting stamina focus?

Ty, and keep up the good work. Advice on training is horrifically scarce!

I will do a full write up for the blog on Monday for the moment I am testing something new out since Sporting is different from other leagues simply because I don't have control of the reserves. What I normally do for "FULL CONTROL" sides is

1. 15-18 U-19 Team - Training Focus is on Fitness and Ball Control. The spread between general and match prep follows senior training

2. 18> they get moved to reserves, where they end up following the senior team training. Individually they get assigned to role they will most likely be ideally suited to

@Cleon...u one rich dude..snagit? thats dope for video screen capture.

[Jambo98]

Did you just refer to Ryan Gauld as "This english player" ........

/me goes off to get his Sgian Dubh to attack..........

On a more serious note, nice work so far. One of the things i find interesting is handling players who are in the 19 - 22yr old range when i take over. I have a very clear set of principles and philosophy on how to develop my youth from 15/16 through to 20, but of course these guys are already mid way through or towards the end of that cycle. It means i have to adjust approach slightly in order to not throw away a good prospect who at age 20 has perhaps not been properly developed.

Working on my model now, at the same time as watching Athletic play pretty poorly on TV to "inspire" me

[Double0Seven]

Great read so far. I suppose your team is the youngest one in the league? Do you worry about team cohesion? If you are developing so much talented youth players and bringing in new ones every year, changing up the team line up every game(as it looks like you want to give youth playing time). What is your team cohesion at the moment?

[Rashidi]

The Raumdeuter goal...built from the back. There are plenty of good goals like this from that position. Some fine-tuning is needed still.. The goal scorer is in his own half but the system is meant to win the ball there and then overload their defense

GAULD's SCOTTISH

[Rock787]

Hi Rashidi

You mention from 15-17 you want you're players to have learn't all of their PPM's. I'm guessing by the screenshot of William Carvalho you will still teach PPM's to players older than that. Is that because you inherited Carvalho and he does not have the PPM's you desire for the position or would you make this exception with a regen that you've had since he was 15?

[Rashidi]

All players are inherited, tis my first season and even the seniors aren't rich with ppms. I have assigned a coach to teach him the dictate tempo PPM, I plan to develop him into an AMC so he will also end up with killer ball and run into box ppm

[Rashidi]

Great read so far. I suppose your team is the youngest one in the league? Do you worry about team cohesion? If you are developing so much talented youth players and bringing in new ones every year, changing up the team line up every game(as it looks like you want to give youth playing time). What is your team cohesion at the moment?

yeah we are easily the youngest team on the field in most games. Having benched a few senior members my biggest worry is consistency. So match prep for tactical familiarity was a priority. We have won 6 on the trot now. And one of the senior players is trying to lead a player revolt lol.Experience has shown me that results are as important to developing consistency in the team. I have noticed with more games it is getting harder to win. The first 3 games were won in the first 30 mins by scoring 3. My last two games were harder forcing me to reduce width, but that was due more to the fact that older stronger players were outmuscling me in midfield forcing me to go high tempo and hit them on the break.As games go on I do expect it's going to get harder cos the more experienced guys will need to be match fit as well and I dunno how they will react to playing in the B team. So it gets to be quite a juggle. I have a clear goal atm and that is to develop 4 of the youth with Carva and Gauld being the priority, so the juggling becomes very dicey but it's gotta be done.It's not hard it just requires a fair bit of planning

[Rock787]

All players are inherited, tis my first season and even the seniors aren't rich with ppms. I have assigned a coach to teach him the dictate tempo PPM, I plan to develop him into an AMC so he will also end up with killer ball and run into box ppm

Sorry what I meant was when you have played a season or two and you have your squad the way you want it would you then only teach PPM's to players up to 17 years old or would you keep teaching them past that age if needed?

The reason I ask is that I'm doing something similar with Hajduk Split who have a lot of young talented players in their early 20's but most dont have all the ppm's for the roles I'd like and your youth setup has inspired me to give it a go to.

[Rashidi]

Sorry what I meant was when you have played a season or two and you have your squad the way you want it would you then only teach PPM's to players up to 17 years old or would you keep teaching them past that age if needed?

The reason I ask is that I'm doing something similar with Hajduk Split who have a lot of young talented players in their early 20's but most dont have all the ppm's for the roles I'd like and your youth setup has inspired me to give it a go to.

I had done detailed work on ppms in fm13, I am going to base a lot of what I do on the methodology I had set out then, and will verify if these still work. The post on my blog is here. Based on what I did then, a player could learn up to 5 ppms by the time he was 20. I usually focused on ppms when they were young and once they hit 20 I would then focus on role development. I plan to do the same again. This will depend on coaches and tutors too,I am trying to get some of the 20s in my team to start picking up ppms as well,

[Rashidi]

The reason I've used that unique training schedule in the past where i distributed general training into several focus areas aiming for at least 4 months of each was so that I could 'force' a certain profile of player to emerge from the training. It has worked before, but in the absence of a reserve squad I will have to modify it and reduce the risk of undertrained players. The team will now train 9 months Balanced and 3 months Tactical. I have chosen tactical because of the attribute spread. My personal preference is to have first touch, but the tactical category has more attributes I need.

[Rashidi]

Time for a dirty update...

The season has gotten off to a good start. I am planning on changing my training schedule slightly to adapt to the absence of a reserves side and will be keeping tabs on 6 players. These 6 players will be tracked for as long as I play the save. Tactically we are keeping with the same system I alluded to earlier. Our results thus far are encouraging. I had to rest some of the main players ahead of our ECL clash with Juventus, a match I was expecting to lose.

Instead we pulled off quite the result. we even had the chance to seal the win, a glorious move resulting in a clear cut chance for Nani who showed why he's surplus to United.

[video=youtube_share;Dmp2tUXv9yw]

I was really pleased with how well our players tackled in the game, my goal was to see my frontline putting in a strong shift, but overall the spread was good.

Both my AML and AMR dropped back to support the team, Nani was surprisingly decent

My Box to Box midfielders was spot on defending around our half

Over on our left flank, I was concerned that we would be losing out there to Juventus, so I had set up OI off closing down on their biggest threat and Silva put in a decent shift

On paper we were the weaker side, I had a bunch of youngsters on the pitch and was expecting the floodgates to open the moment the fans took their seats

The stats show that even though Juventus had more chances, their cccs weren't that good, 2 in total, what was even more gratifying was where they were coming from

We should have won the match, we may have had few chances but they were good enough for me to get off me seat

Overall. tactically the boys are getting a good run going, whether we last in the ECL remains to be seen. With better players we should have ripped into Juventus. The training program we are following won't reap any results anytime soon, but I fully expect it will get going once i get better players into the side

[RTHerringbone]

I've been slack at looking at threads recently, so just had a snoop in here again. Great form rashidi1; always nice to see a streak of green dots in the schedule. Good luck for the upcoming fixtures

The recent swathe of detailed player development threads makes me pine (only very slightly) to play Fat Mode FM again. It's brilliant to see so many well illustrated and detailed threads doing the rounds at the moments. It means I can be even lazier than usual

[Rashidi]

The Importance of Being Earnest - Do that List

I can’t stress how important it is to be organised in Football Manager. Probably the first thing I do every edition after making my game look fantastic is set up custom lists. These are vital to help you gauge the type of squad you have at your disposal and can help you monitor the development of your squad.

When taking a new club the first list I set up is something I call my Matchday Squad which eventually gets updated with important statistics like completion ratios. Every manager has a style of play thats dependant on a side having certain key characterisitics. For me these are embodied in Pace, First Touch, Composure, Decisions and Stamina amongst others. And I like to analyse my side quickly to determine who can and cannot fit. Furthermore, its also always a good idea to keep track of the personality types in your squad as these allow you to handle them more effectively

A frequent problem I’ve always had is failure to track their contract expiry dates and these are also included along with other information such as starts and appearances allowing me to make sure key players who are under development are getting as much game time as possible to max out their development

When it comes to training I start looking at another type of list that includes their ppms, focus intensity, key attribute areas, match performance and training performances and I will split these up broadly into Goalkeepers, Defenders, Midfielders and Strikers. I don;t think you can create a custom list and stick players in, something i would love to see.

This is what I called a Master List where I track players based on a certain mould I want checked

And I have other lists for midfielders, defenders and strikers

On matchday I typically simplify the look of my lists and use one which i rely on during a match and these relate usually to the simple stats such as stamina and completion ratios. For some reason which i find extremely annoying, the match day screen flows are bugged. Columns always disappear so I tend to set something in them to act as a placeholder like the coaches recommendation so that my important information is captured.

And then when its down to checking individual profiles during train I modify the player screen to include any relevant information that helps me.

These lists are vital for tracking…this will be the list that I will be using to track my defenders training at the end of the season where I will be doing attribute development analyses. Over time I will start collating all the information into a spreadsheet. This is for me own personal use. Granted there are several approaches to training, and SI did not set the game up to have a one ring to rule the rest kinda setup. This implies that there are various approaches you can take to training. This season I've modified mine slightly and have changed to a Balanced Approachs for 9 months and Tactical Training for 3 months. My goal is to have players develop a certain way so I will be tracking these attributes for my defenders to see how well they've done. Is one approach better than the rest? Last time around i did my Focused style of General Training and it worked really well for my team. This season I will try this new approach and monitor the results. I do believe they will produce the desired result.

O..

I do need to switch over and spend time admiring the development of my players, it took me a while but I finally settled on something that works for my style of play..

This shows me everything on a certain player at a glance.

Next Post

League to date Update including a Champions League performance and video highlights of matches against Barcelona and Porto

[gf_bay]

Excellent thread. Enjoing it very much. :-)

[peleJunior]

How do you customise the player profile screen like that?

[Rashidi]

How do you customise the player profile screen like that?

The resolution you are playing on affects the number of panels you can use. This is my laptop settings, on my iMac which is set to 2050 res, i can have more panels

[peleJunior]

Ah ok I'm limited by resolution. Damn shame, that set up was nice and detailed.

[Rashidi]

What res u playing on...? Andromeda has a lot of panels and it can be played on 1300X

[Rashidi]

Andromeda is one of only two skins I know of atm you can play on a laptop with a lower res and still get as many panels + it has a good individual training panel.