Vanarama North - Plotting for Season 2

[steve.battisti]

Hi all,

So, I took over a Vanarama North side just two days before the start of the season. Obviously, that's made it a little difficult to shape the team the way I'd like. 20 games in and I'm firmly mid-table. I have precisely zero players on loan, and I'm struggling to find impact players in the free transfers and so on. I'd like to start plotting for the offseason. I have a senior affiliate in Sky Bet One who has given me precisely squat so far. I'd like to get a few solid loans to improve my club next season. Read a few articles that suggested getting Team Reports for teams in order to target them or swoop in if their contracts expires. Questions:

1. If I'm Vanarama North, how high up should I be looking? Sky Bet 2? Sky Bet 1? All the way to the top?
2. Should I be getting scouting reports on their U18 squads, or senior squads?

Any other advice?

Thanks!

[warlock]

For Premiership and Championship clubs I scout their u23s; for L1 and L2, many of them won't have an u23 squad so you need to scout both senior and u18 squads. In any case, concentrate on bigger clubs that are fairly local to you - players are less likely to move to the other end of the country.

For free signings, abuse the trial system - have 10-15 triallists at a time, anyone who might be a prospect. Even if you have attribute-masking on, a couple of weeks on trial will give your coaches enough to show whether they're worth signing. By the time you get to November/December a lot of youngsters who wouldn't give you the time of day in the summer get a dose of realism when they've been unemployed for a few months.

[steve.battisti]

3 hours ago, warlock said:

For Premiership and Championship clubs I scout their u23s; for L1 and L2, many of them won't have an u23 squad so you need to scout both senior and u18 squads. In any case, concentrate on bigger clubs that are fairly local to you - players are less likely to move to the other end of the country.

For free signings, abuse the trial system - have 10-15 triallists at a time, anyone who might be a prospect. Even if you have attribute-masking on, a couple of weeks on trial will give your coaches enough to show whether they're worth signing. By the time you get to November/December a lot of youngsters who wouldn't give you the time of day in the summer get a dose of realism when they've been unemployed for a few months.

Thanks! I didn’t realize that location played a role! Guess it’s time to brush up on my English geography! I’ve definitely been trialing constantly, but out of the hundreds of players I’ve trialed, only one was even four star current ability compared to my team. So, it’s been hard to find impact players. That’s why I’m hoping loans might help. 

[warlock]

2 hours ago, steve.battisti said:

I didn’t realize that location played a role!

Yeah. Who are you managing?

And remember star ratings are in comparison to  your current squad, so a 4-star player is very good indeed; 3-star players are actually pretty good for your team. As for loans, they can certainly help but you might need to temper your expectations - most clubs want their best prospects to be playing at a decent level, at a club with good training facilities. Vanorama North outfits don't usually qualify .

[steve.battisti]

42 minutes ago, warlock said:

Yeah. Who are you managing?

And remember star ratings are in comparison to  your current squad, so a 4-star player is very good indeed; 3-star players are actually pretty good for your team. As for loans, they can certainly help but you might need to temper your expectations - most clubs want their best prospects to be playing at a decent level, at a club with good training facilities. Vanorama North outfits don't usually qualify .

I’m coaching Spennymoor. I was hoping to get some loans from my senior affiliate (Lincoln), but so far they haven’t offered me any...

I understand that the stars are based on my team, but do I still not want to find players who would make a big difference? If all I can find are players who are as good as my “average” players, how can I improve my squad? Hmm. 

[warlock]

7 minutes ago, steve.battisti said:

I’m coaching Spennymoor

To save your geographical reading I'd recommend Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesborough as your main targets. Further afield, the Yorkshire clubs including Leeds, Sheffield (both), Huddersfield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Hull. I've had good loans from all of them in various Darlington saves over the years. 

As for improving the squad, unless you're very lucky you probably have a few 2.5-star players so a 3-star loan would be an improvement. You might not get upgrades on your best players but you should certainly be able to improve on the worst. Good luck 

[steve.battisti]

5 hours ago, warlock said:

To save your geographical reading I'd recommend Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesborough as your main targets. Further afield, the Yorkshire clubs including Leeds, Sheffield (both), Huddersfield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Hull. I've had good loans from all of them in various Darlington saves over the years. 

As for improving the squad, unless you're very lucky you probably have a few 2.5-star players so a 3-star loan would be an improvement. You might not get upgrades on your best players but you should certainly be able to improve on the worst. Good luck 

Sounds good. I just had done some digging and landed on Sunderland and Middlesbrough too. My squad looks like this: https://imgur.com/hYkn8BI I guess that seems relatively solid? All of the two-star players are on their way out, but I could definitely do with a few upgrades in the midfield. (Playing a 442.) Of course since it's Vanarama North, pretty much everyone is on a year-long contract. My hope is that I can retain my top players and perhaps pull in a few loan players who would be in that 3.5-4* range on my current roster.

So let me ask you something else too. I just got my team report back from Sunderland. It says "I've been unable to compile a full report on Sunderland Under 23s as very little statistical data exists for the team." I've tried a few teams now, but I get this every time I ask for any team report. I get a list of strengths and weaknesses, but never any indication that there are players I could loan. Am I doing something wrong, or is this just normal for some teams, and it just means they don't have any likely loan candidates?

Edited December 17, 2020 by steve.battisti