Star player and international group stages

[Broetchenholer]

How ist the game expecting me to manage play time happyness of a starplayer in a first half run of the Bundesliga with 6 championsleague group stage games + 2 domestic cup games and 17 league games. There were 5 weeks at the start of the season with 1 game per season, then the only break in my schedule were the international breaks. In those, the players play as well. I do understand that this is exactly as in real life, but i doubt that in real life the star player of a team would be like, yo coach, i haven't played in 90 % of the matches this season, i am now super pissed. My team is certainly not as deep as it should be, but that does not help at all if the players want more play time then their bodies can take. How do you guys deal with that? I have tried to play my midfield star as much as possible, in the end it have been 10 full games and 5 times from the bench, from 20 games including the 3rd league team in the first cup round. That seems low, but he is just absolutely gassed all the time.

 

Oh, and second question. Is it possible to have two goalkeepers and none of them be on First-Choice Goalkeeper? My First is not exactly good enough to play more then 60% of the time and is not extremely good compared to the squad as well. There seems to be no real option to have a 50/50 split for goal keepers, they are either playing 10% of the matches or all of them :/

Edited May 20, 2022 by Broetchenholer

[Prepper_Jack]

I really do my best to avoid giving anyone star player status, unless their quality just drops everyone else in the squad down a couple pegs. Yes, they get annoyed if they don't play virtually every match. It doesn't count if you sub them on. They need to be started to fulfill the requirement. You can sub them off at some point later and they'll be fine with it. They don't actually care about minutes played. So, if you want to start them every match during a very busy season, which is essentially what you offer them with the star player status, better have a player happy to be an emergency backup for them. Prospects work well for this, and they tend to grow decently in that position as they're getting an awful lot of minutes if you throw them in at half time each match.

If you have an important player, you can usually swap in a breakthrough prospect into a start a handful of matches a season, and they won't mind overmuch. You can also pair a regular starter with a fringe player who seem to require roughly 75%/25% time on the pitch respectively. Squad players can be rotated repeatedly. I usually just have two squad players covering a position plus a prospect in case of injury, and everyone is usually delighted.

Generally I think it's best to focus your talent in specific areas that serve your tactic well, and leave the rest to squad players who are at 2.5-3 stars, which isn't really that far off 4-5 star in quality in the grand scheme of things. Preferably you want some veterans with a good personality dotted around for mentoring. If someone outgrows a position as a squad player, and you have prospects waiting in the mix, well.. you've got a decent player to sell.

In terms of goalkeepers, it's perfectly feasible to give each of them squad player status and rotate them each match, or give both backup status if they're really at that level.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Prepper_Jack

[Broetchenholer]

It sounds wrong to have your players start and sub them off after 45 minutes, but it could save my bacon, so thanks for that tip. I am having a lot of problems with playing time as well, i would prefer not to have 3 star players and 3 important players, the problem is that my wage structure is still very low for Bundesliga. Fo a while the only good signings i was able to do, where wonderkids from the balkans or north south america. They wanted to play for me only with super high playing time promises, as my club was 2te Bundesliga or projected relegation candidate for 2te Bundesliga and people were too good for the club. So now, i am sporting 3 players on 1.3 to 2m€/y contracts worth 80 million, and finally new players coming in recognize they won't immediately be stars in this team. But i also can't get the old (20-21 year) guard to accept less playing time either I am also not really into making all the moneys, i want my team to start growing older now. But i guess the problem will solve itself within a year or two, as i won't be able to keep them here anyway.

Edited May 21, 2022 by Broetchenholer

[sherrymirza]

fcuk star players, man. They almost got me fired multiple times. Unfortunately, injuries are the only way a star player will accept not starting a game.

 

Have you tried 'discussing a rest' with them? Sometimes they agree to sit out a week if they are professional personality.

 

As for goalkeepers, I have two 'backup' GK. I had a first-choice but he wanted to become an 'important player', so I sold him.

 

 

If you are giving a contract and you don't have a first-choice, it will be hard to convince him to accept backup status unless his CA is way lower than the others in your team.

[kevkel]

I find using the the column highlighted in the screenshot helps when picking the team, anyone who is regular starter/important player  gets rested when they are happy , Very happy or Delighted. Star players get rested when they are Very Happy or Delighted and if its a league game they make a small appearance for around 10-15 mins from the bench so they have still featured

 

Also note the minutes per game column highlighted, my star players only average around 70-75 mins per game, this is from them being substituted regularly when the game is won, usually around the 75 minute and when being rested from starting they come on as a sub for 10-15 mins.

 

Another thing I do straight after every match is rest my 10 outfield starters from previous game for 1-2 days depending on their condition so they are always ready for next game.

 

[Broetchenholer]

Thanks, those are very helpful tips. I think most of my star players are actually not that much into the prestige of the position, they just want the payment. Or they are too young to actually push for those playing time associated. But i will probably get this problem with them soon as well. THose tips will then be really helpful.

[du Garbandier]

Germany is difficult to manage, I've always found (am finding at the moment, being at Bayer Leverkusen). With star players, I generally do as I please, and only start them every match after they've complained, and once they're happy I go back to rotating.

[kevkel]

19 minutes ago, du Garbandier said:

Germany is difficult to manage, I've always found (am finding at the moment, being at Bayer Leverkusen). With star players, I generally do as I please, and only start them every match after they've complained, and once they're happy I go back to rotating.

Are there any months in particular that are worse in terms of how many fixtures ?

Playing in England December/January are the worst so I set a yearly note lower my training intensity on the 31st Nov and raise it back up on the 5th Feb. That way every players training intensity is automatically adjusted throughout the season depending on their condition. When I lower it in Dec they are automatically rested from training for a day or two if they need it. Their individual intensity must be set to automatic for this to work though.

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by kevkel

[du Garbandier]

I leave general training to my AM. As for months, it depends what you mean. I find the late season more difficult, because games thin out as you go out of European & cup competitions, so it's hard to keep squad players match-fit; but at the same time you have less margin for picking rotated sides as you need to keep winning. Fortunately, at the moment, I have some excellent youth prospects who are still getting match time with the u19s.

[kevkel]

12 minutes ago, du Garbandier said:

I leave general training to my AM. As for months, it depends what you mean. I find the late season more difficult, because games thin out as you go out of European & cup competitions, so it's hard to keep squad players match-fit; but at the same time you have less margin for picking rotated sides as you need to keep winning. Fortunately, at the moment, I have some excellent youth prospects who are still getting match time with the u19s.

By months I mean months where you generally have more fixtures than others. In England if your with a top team and successful you play around 5-7 games per month but in Dec you can play up 9-10 games and Jan 7-9 games so I lower the intensity intensity of training to allow more rest.

That way my players are always available even when I'm playing every 3-4 days.

You can still do this with your AM in charge of training.

In terms of keeping your squad players match fit do you allow them to play for your reserve team when your not using them.

[du Garbandier]

21 minutes ago, kevkel said:

do you allow them to play for your reserve team

Ha! Sore point. B teams don't work very well in Germany, for some reason. I can set the automatic select-when-lacking-match-fitness option all I like, but if there aren't any games then there's nothing I can do.

[kevkel]

10 minutes ago, du Garbandier said:

Ha! Sore point. B teams don't work very well in Germany, for some reason. I can set the automatic select-when-lacking-match-fitness option all I like, but if there aren't any games then there's nothing I can do.

Just looked at German setup on my save, I can see exactly what you mean.

Easier in England as the U'23 have their own league and you can play a GK and 3 outfield players over the age of 23 in each game.

[Draakon]

Depends on your squad - perhaps it's too big?

In my save there's 34 league games (Eredivisie), 6 Champions League group stage matches, cup games and European knockout stages, when I'm successful enough. In a regular season 40-45 games, in a successful season perhaps 45-50.

I believe that I rotate a lot. At least I try to rotate a lot, to keep players fit and give chances to youngsters as well, but almost all my key players (4-5 leaders on the pitch in several areas) play 30+ games. So, in that regard 10 starts in the first half of the season seems definitely too low for a star player.

I try to balance my game time so that first team players get at least 20 starts (let's say that I have two equal players in one position, it means they both get fairly equal amount of starts) and even fringe players or breakthrough prospects get around 10 starts in the season (cup games help a lot in that regard). Obviously injuries, suspensions and occasional international duties force my hand sometimes and make the task of selection easier.

This sort of game time distribution is a challenge when you have more than 25 players, though.

[du Garbandier]

2 hours ago, kevkel said:

Easier in England

That's why I don't manage in England, at the start of my saves at least -- as I prioritise youth development, that aspect makes it a bit too easy for my taste. 

[Broetchenholer]

4 hours ago, Draakon said:

Depends on your squad - perhaps it's too big?

In my save there's 34 league games (Eredivisie), 6 Champions League group stage matches, cup games and European knockout stages, when I'm successful enough. In a regular season 40-45 games, in a successful season perhaps 45-50.

I believe that I rotate a lot. At least I try to rotate a lot, to keep players fit and give chances to youngsters as well, but almost all my key players (4-5 leaders on the pitch in several areas) play 30+ games. So, in that regard 10 starts in the first half of the season seems definitely too low for a star player.

I try to balance my game time so that first team players get at least 20 starts (let's say that I have two equal players in one position, it means they both get fairly equal amount of starts) and even fringe players or breakthrough prospects get around 10 starts in the season (cup games help a lot in that regard). Obviously injuries, suspensions and occasional international duties force my hand sometimes and make the task of selection easier.

This sort of game time distribution is a challenge when you have more than 25 players, though.

My squad is not too big, i simply have too many players on high playing time promises. I am not very good at scouting and i am really bad at finding meh players to fill up my roster. THe players i got were usually wonderkids from sniping everyone on the top50 NxGn list that was not at a bigger club, and those players only joined when they were promised to be important players or higher. This became already problematic before i had 8 2 match weeks in  row, now it's really hurting me Fortunately young prospect signings are now more then happy to start as breakthrough prospects or fringe players for me, i will just have to try to survive this season with my super tired core of players, without all of them hating me for not playing them enough. THe first season in european competitions is always the hardest i suppose, because of the additional playing time and your team not being build around the additional games