Creating a Player

[Braumiller]

Six months into my game since buying my 16 year old project (post #14 for his screenshot, post #35 for his training schedule) and he is progressing nicely.

1 point stat rises so far in crossing, finishing, first touch, technique, composure, concentration, creativity, agility and pace.

Pleased with his progress and planning on him playing a lot more reserve team football next year, with first team run outs in the easier home Premier League games where possible.

What REALLY has me excited is my latest purchase, the likes of a player I have never owned.

Screenshot below, please note his height, jumping and heading (along with his age & coach recommendation rating).

I have always played with fast strikers for the most part, but I just could not turn down the chance of trying to nurture him into one fearsome man mountain of a striker!

Looking for advice on how best to construct the best target man you can.

His main weakness in target man terms I believe is his bravery. Can this be raised by tutoring?

What PPMs are considered good for a target man to have (he currently has one, 'Tries First Time Shots')?

His personality is already listed as 'Professional', so happy there.

Immediate stats that jump out to me for training are First Touch, Passing, Technique, Composure, Decisions, Teamwork, Acceleration and Pace.

Would be very interested to hear advice on how to set about molding this guy.

[SnUrF]

I believe 'Plays with back to goal' ppm would be good for a target man.

-SnUrF

[Romanista1994]

Six months into my game since buying my 16 year old project (post #14 for his screenshot, post #35 for his training schedule) and he is progressing nicely.

Immediate stats that jump out to me for training are First Touch, Passing, Technique, Composure, Decisions, Teamwork, Acceleration and Pace.

Would be very interested to hear advice on how to set about molding this guy.

Good to hear your first guy is progressing well.

The most amazing thing about Bryant is how mobile he is for a 6'8" giant. His pace, accelleration and agility will all easily reach 15/16. Coupled with the 20/20/20 he'll end up with for jumping/heading/strength this is a fearsome prospect. You should only really tutor him if you have a more determined player with at least 'Professional' as personality.

With his finishing I'd definitely consider 'Shoots with Power' as a PPM, but if you do teach him that, you're best off raising his technique to at least 16. High technique + high finishing + powerful shot = goals. So the first thing to focus on is technique to go with the Shoots with Power PPM. Later you can raise his first touch and composure to make him score even more and when that's done you can raise other attributes like passing, off the ball and his physical attributes to your liking.

Did you buy him for 55k? If so that's one of the bargains of the century, but in any case this guy is going to be the best striker in the world. You will absolutely have to post in a couple of seasons to show how he's grown.

[Braumiller]

Good to hear your first guy is progressing well.

The most amazing thing about Bryant is how mobile he is for a 6'8" giant. His pace, accelleration and agility will all easily reach 15/16. Coupled with the 20/20/20 he'll end up with for jumping/heading/strength this is a fearsome prospect. You should only really tutor him if you have a more determined player with at least 'Professional' as personality.

With his finishing I'd definitely consider 'Shoots with Power' as a PPM, but if you do teach him that, you're best off raising his technique to at least 16. High technique + high finishing + powerful shot = goals. So the first thing to focus on is technique to go with the Shoots with Power PPM. Later you can raise his first touch and composure to make him score even more and when that's done you can raise other attributes like passing, off the ball and his physical attributes to your liking.

Did you buy him for 55k? If so that's one of the bargains of the century, but in any case this guy is going to be the best striker in the world. You will absolutely have to post in a couple of seasons to show how he's grown.

Excellent advice, thank you.

He had just appeared in the Darlington youth team when he popped up in my scouting reports and was valued at 20k. The scout report said 50k would be needed to get him, so I actually just offered the 60k from the drop down value list.

Agreed, downright bargain

I will absolutely update as he progresses

[Falahk]

You did an awesome job with both players, Muniain because you've significantly lengthened his career that way (and when his physical attributes start to decline he could easily be transformed into an AMC, which would help him last even longer!)

I did have the AMC role in mind when I set about developing him, but maybe not the role as you picture it, I'm playing him as the AMC in a 4-3-1-2 on semi regular basis, so for me Speed and Dribbling is the first thing I would look at, once he gets older and his pace starts to tail of I will probably be moving him up front to use his intellegence and finnishing, but right now he is taking on the role of an inside winger or wide forward depending on which system im using

the defult training (for defense, midfield and forwards) really is perfect when you wish to develope a players allround game with a slight focus on the physical side of things, which was what I wanted for Muniain, with the specific training focus often being enough to give an element of control over an attribute I would consider to be very important, to be honest, I think many ppl overcomplicate things when it comes to training, unless you want something extremley specific from it like developing a pure playmaker with little focus on defending or physical attributes, you would probably do perfectly fine with the defult training that comes with the game

and Crescenzi because I have never seen him that good.

I had him as my first choice rightback for a few years when I tried an all-Italian save, but even then he never developed and I sold him when I brought in Davide Santon. Had he been 17 on FM12 a definite area for focus would be that pace, which even in your screenshot is low, while all other attributes are good enough to be a top level fullback. Just out of interest, who did you tutor him with to get his determination to 18?

its a bit tricky to remember who I used for mentoring since it was some time ago, but I think it was Nelson Rivas..... I normaly prefare brazilian style wing backs for wide defense thought, so he is a bit to slow side for my taste aswell, but the sentimental value of having players from your own youth academy making it at the big stage far outwights that personal prefarence, and Crescanzi dont cost to much in wage and is stedy and flexible enough when called upon anyway so I have not seen any reason to sell him (even if I could have got £15m for him)

[sakrai]

I found the most perfect youngster I've ever seem ever!

Now it's my ultimate goal to buy him even thought he's not interested in playing for me. I mean look at this guy:

How would you train this guy? I'm thinking Deep Lying Forward.

[AlexHarris]

One thing I find really useful for figuring out what stats to train is to use the "View Key Attributes" on the Profile page for the player and choose what role you want him to play. It will highlight the skills they need to be the best at that position. That way you can go through and see where they are the weakest and what they need improving on. I find it helps a lot even when I am trying to find players as high numbers can be distracting if they are not in a stat they need.

[5uare2]

How would you train this guy? I'm thinking Deep Lying Forward.

Hmmm. He could make a good technical target man - think Ibrahimovic, otherwise either a DLF or a trequartista. I'd go for target man if your tactic can accommodate it, because his flair and creativity are an issue, as is his technique, while the only area he's really lacking in for a target man is strength - his height and weight will improve over time. If you do make him a target man, make sure to never fine him for yellow or red cards - you want his aggression to go up, not down.

[furiousuk]

What REALLY has me excited is my latest purchase, the likes of a player I have never owned.

Screenshot below, please note his height, jumping and heading (along with his age & coach recommendation rating).

Immediate stats that jump out to me for training are First Touch, Passing, Technique, Composure, Decisions, Teamwork, Acceleration and Pace.

Loads of tactical (for decisions, teamwork, concentration and composure - 4 deficiencies are difficult to overcome so loads and loads of tactical, luckily they haven't started low for a 15 y/o, I've seen players like this crippled with 2 for decisions or 4 for technique), and plenty of ball control (for first touch & mainly technique, individual focus on technique and this guy will be top class). I'd favour attacking over finishing as well - the low long shots wouldn't bother me in the slightest and his finishing will rise to 17-18+ without much effort at all but moving his off-the-ball to 20 would be great as would boosting his creativity & passing a few points). The even better news is that he has points to loose from defending (so long as you don't want him out wide much) so he's not only got all that potential to fill but also got some redistribution.

Romanista - Great work getting your chap for free, a by-product of a successful scout network no doubt.

I've got a couple of further questions for you (!): Do you change your training schedule as the player grows? i.e. focus on mental for 2 seasons, then round it out with 2 seasons of technical focus or do you create a schedule and let them go until they pretty much hit potential? Also, have you got any method to judge where to place your sliders or do you just feel the balance of the sliders based on your experiences creating schedules?

[Romanista1994]

How would you train this guy? I'm thinking Deep Lying Forward.

This guy can become anything you want really, but given his high teamwork and work rate he would be an ideal candidate for the Rooney role as SFraser saw it: a beast who works hard both for his teammates and for himself and can create and score effectively. Take a look at Rooney's attributes to see where he should improve to play that role. Also look at his PPM's, iirc he has 'Comes deep to get ball', 'Shoots with power' and a few others, all of which Hupperts could easily learn. This is another candidate for future updating if you manage to sign him.

Romanista - Great work getting your chap for free, a by-product of a successful scout network no doubt.

I've got a couple of further questions for you (!): Do you change your training schedule as the player grows? i.e. focus on mental for 2 seasons, then round it out with 2 seasons of technical focus or do you create a schedule and let them go until they pretty much hit potential? Also, have you got any method to judge where to place your sliders or do you just feel the balance of the sliders based on your experiences creating schedules?

Yes, I do change the schedules around occasionally. For example, I just lowered Erichsen's strength training a lot as his strength hit 16, while at the same time I raised his tactics, ball control, attacking and shooting to hopefully squeeze a couple of extra points of growth in those areas. This is the second time I've changed his schedule around though, I make the changes based on the development of the player in a certain area, rather than a fixed pattern of yearly or two yearly changes to the schedules.

On FM10 I used to subscribe to and use SFraser's method to create schedules, but nowadays I just go by feeling and use the whole range of sliders instead of sticking to a multiple of the attributes trained in a category. This is partly due to changes to the categories and partly because I hope to get that little bit extra out of the player with the more extreme schedules I create today.

[Cleon]

Introducing

I thought I’d introduce you all to the latest player to roll off the conveyor belt at Santos in the 7

^th

season. I have high hopes for the player especially as I was told by my staff that he is one of the best players of his generation.

Meet Michel;

As you can see he has great technicals and some very good mental attributes already. But his physical side of the game is poor in comparison. So I need to focus on his weak areas as soon as possible to give him the best chance of making my first team.

I’ve decided to hold off having him tutored just yet as my best tutors are already tutoring someone. I’ve also put him in the under 23 squad so I can leave him on a fulltime schedule because once he turns 16 in a few months time he will be a bit part player in the first team to aide his development.

That is the schedule I’ve decided to give him for now. It focuses heavily on the physical aspects of his game as I feel that’s what he needs at this time. I will be following his development very closely and having regular fortnightly checks on him just to make sure everything is going to plan.

You’ll also notice that I have put him on individual focus for stamina and made it heavy. Again for me this is the area he is the most weakest in. As he’ll end up been a central midfielder for me he won’t actually need pace for the role he’ll play but I’m confident I can get that to a respectable standard at a later point through individual focusing. But stamina is an issue if I don’t raise that as soon as I can.

I’m excited by this player so we will be tracking his development over the next few seasons and see if we can make him reach his potential.

[Romanista1994]

Players with good technical and mental, but crap physical attributes are always interesting to develop, they make for a challenge even if they're very promising. You're left wondering whether they can cope with the speed and physicality of the game at first team level already, or if it's best to wait some more to ensure that they don't get discouraged by bad performances and the team doesn't suffer from having to carry them.

I agree that stamina is one of the most important areas to focus on early in their career, because if the player can't last more than an hour every match it'll be to the detriment of his and the team's performances. His high mentals and technicals mean he will usually do well if he's not too tired, so it's best to remove the possibility of him being tired early on.

It'll be interesting how he ends up in a few years and how far you'll be able to raise his creativity and composure, his two main weaknesses outside of physicality.

[Braumiller]

Introducing

I thought I’d introduce you all to the latest player to roll off the conveyor belt at Santos in the 7

^th

season. I have high hopes for the player especially as I was told by my staff that he is one of the best players of his generation.

Meet Michel;

As you can see he has great technicals and some very good mental attributes already. But his physical side of the game is poor in comparison. So I need to focus on his weak areas as soon as possible to give him the best chance of making my first team.

I’ve decided to hold off having him tutored just yet as my best tutors are already tutoring someone. I’ve also put him in the under 23 squad so I can leave him on a fulltime schedule because once he turns 16 in a few months time he will be a bit part player in the first team to aide his development.

That is the schedule I’ve decided to give him for now. It focuses heavily on the physical aspects of his game as I feel that’s what he needs at this time. I will be following his development very closely and having regular fortnightly checks on him just to make sure everything is going to plan.

You’ll also notice that I have put him on individual focus for stamina and made it heavy. Again for me this is the area he is the most weakest in. As he’ll end up been a central midfielder for me he won’t actually need pace for the role he’ll play but I’m confident I can get that to a respectable standard at a later point through individual focusing. But stamina is an issue if I don’t raise that as soon as I can.

I’m excited by this player so we will be tracking his development over the next few seasons and see if we can make him reach his potential.

Very interesting, especially placing in the u23s to make use of senior schedules instead of youth schedules. Going to use that theory in my game tonight.

I notice that Michel's overall training workload is Heavy (although only just it seems).

Do you often have your players venturing into Heavy, or does Michel have a personality (or something else?) that you feel allows you to give him a heavier training schedule?

[swedishchef_uk]

Out of interest - do people have a 'base' schedule that they then tweak? For example, would you have a generic schedule for a winger - and then add/remove a few clicks here and there depending on where the player has strengths/weaknesses? Or do you literally build from scratch every time?

What workload would people use? If you have a young player who you want to involve in a few games, but keep in the reserves - is a heavy schedule too much? Or can you get away with it if you keep performances down to 20 minutes here and there?

Love this thread and as the players age, would like to see how the training schedules develop with them.

I would like the challenge of building up my own training schedules per player. But with a 6 month old on the scene - my game time is greatly reduced! I've tried to include her, but she does like to whack the keyboard a lot. I suspect her mum is trying to teach her to break my game...

[swedishchef_uk]

@Cleon

I recall you mentioning that you feel that 'shooting' isn't worth training, better to use individual focus and pick finishing there so points aren't wasted on long range efforts (apols if I'm remembering this wrongly). This makes sense to me, but two quick questions:

1. Are there any other areas you feel the individual focus can replace normal training rather then just compliment it?

2. With Michel in your example, you have the focus set on the physicals, but still no shooting. Aren't you worried about losing points on this attribute? How long do you feel you would need to keep 'stamina' as the focus before you will swap the focus elsewhere?

[Romanista1994]

Out of interest - do people have a 'base' schedule that they then tweak? For example, would you have a generic schedule for a winger - and then add/remove a few clicks here and there depending on where the player has strengths/weaknesses? Or do you literally build from scratch every time?

What workload would people use? If you have a young player who you want to involve in a few games, but keep in the reserves - is a heavy schedule too much? Or can you get away with it if you keep performances down to 20 minutes here and there?

Love this thread and as the players age, would like to see how the training schedules develop with them.

I would like the challenge of building up my own training schedules per player. But with a 6 month old on the scene - my game time is greatly reduced! I've tried to include her, but she does like to whack the keyboard a lot. I suspect her mum is trying to teach her to break my game...

I start from scratch everytime, but it takes me about a minute or two for me to make a schedule now. In terms of workload I always go for medium, but that's a personal preference, as the results you get with heavy schedules depend on the player's personality. If they have a good personality they'll be okay with the extra games and training, if they aren't you can always lower the workload later on.

You can always limit the schedule building to your youngsters (especially if time is hard to come by with your kid), because older players shouldn't need developing much and can be left on default schedules.

[Cleon]

Very interesting, especially placing in the u23s to make use of senior schedules instead of youth schedules. Going to use that theory in my game tonight.

I notice that Michel's overall training workload is Heavy (although only just it seems).

Do you often have your players venturing into Heavy, or does Michel have a personality (or something else?) that you feel allows you to give him a heavier training schedule?

I normally avoid it but I see this schedule as a temporary one for now until his physicals rise a little. Then I'll alter it, but any changes I do I'll post about them in here

Out of interest - do people have a 'base' schedule that they then tweak? For example, would you have a generic schedule for a winger - and then add/remove a few clicks here and there depending on where the player has strengths/weaknesses? Or do you literally build from scratch every time?

I build from scratch everytime as each player is different and needs a different kind of training based on his weaknesses.

What workload would people use? If you have a young player who you want to involve in a few games, but keep in the reserves - is a heavy schedule too much? Or can you get away with it if you keep performances down to 20 minutes here and there?

If they play quite a few games for the first team then I normally make the schedule a little less demanding as I don't want to increase the risk of injury or causing tiredness. It mainly depends on a players stamina and natural fitness though, if there high enough then they should be able to cope.

I would like the challenge of building up my own training schedules per player. But with a 6 month old on the scene - my game time is greatly reduced! I've tried to include her, but she does like to whack the keyboard a lot. I suspect her mum is trying to teach her to break my game...

It literally takes less than 2 mins to create a schedule. The best way of doing it to create a new schedule and name it after the player. Then go to a players profile page, training tab, training levels then add him to the created schedule. Then if you switch to the Attribute development tab you can highlight what training catergory trains what by clicking the training catergory box just above the physical stats. Then keep switching from this to training levels tab to create the schedule.

It sounds more complicated than it really is. Honestly most schedules you'll be able to do 2 mins max, majority will take 30 secs after you done a few.

I recall you mentioning that you feel that 'shooting' isn't worth training, better to use individual focus and pick finishing there so points aren't wasted on long range efforts (apols if I'm remembering this wrongly). This makes sense to me, but two quick questions:

1. Are there any other areas you feel the individual focus can replace normal training rather then just compliment it?

Not really, I just use it to focus on the weak areas of a player when he needs to have a good attribute number for the stat.

2. With Michel in your example, you have the focus set on the physicals, but still no shooting. Aren't you worried about losing points on this attribute? How long do you feel you would need to keep 'stamina' as the focus before you will swap the focus elsewhere?

It only does finishing and long shots so I'm not too worried. Long shots is a waste for how I play and I can boost his finishing a bit later on if I feel he'll benfit from it with individual focus

[Cleon]

Michel is starting to develop quite nicely now, it's only been a few months but his physicals are improving especially his stamina. I think I've raised it by 2 already in 3 months. I'll post an update roughly at the same game time I posted the original post.

[Romanista1994]

Michel is starting to develop quite nicely now, it's only been a few months but his physicals are improving especially his stamina. I think I've raised it by 2 already in 3 months. I'll post an update roughly at the same game time I posted the original post.

That is excellent, at that rate he'll only need about a year of individual focus to reach a very respectable level. What attribute(s) will you focus on after stamina?

[Cleon]

That is excellent, at that rate he'll only need about a year of individual focus to reach a very respectable level. What attribute(s) will you focus on after stamina?

I'll go intensive mentals I think and just use individual focus to polish up the technicals he'll need to play on how I plan on using him. Atleast that's the plan at this stage.

How would you do it if it was your player?

[Romanista1994]

I'll go intensive mentals I think and just use individual focus to polish up the technicals he'll need to play on how I plan on using him. Atleast that's the plan at this stage.

How would you do it if it was your player?

Intensive mentals is a definite for me as well, but I'd be more inclined towards first raising his composure to a level where it stops being a hindrance to his performances. After that I'd do technicals like first touch and passing. When those feel good enough I'd probably take another look at his profile to see where he needs most work at that stage.

[Cleon]

Intensive mentals is a definite for me as well, but I'd be more inclined towards first raising his composure to a level where it stops being a hindrance to his performances. After that I'd do technicals like first touch and passing. When those feel good enough I'd probably take another look at his profile to see where he needs most work at that stage.

Aye composure will be the next thing I do after stamina with the individual focus. But I think i've also raised that 10 already as well. If not then it's 9 but I think I raised it by 2. Composure vital for him to be the DLP for me as they come under pressure sometimes, so he needs to stay calm and make the correct decisions.

But yeah it looks like we'd both treat him morealess the same.

[David Beckham_7]

Very interesting, especially placing in the u23s to make use of senior schedules instead of youth schedules. Going to use that theory in my game tonight.

The same can be done in La Liga, my u19 prospects are with the senior squad, to use senior schedules while making them available for u19 matches. Else if you place them in the u19s, you can only train them in Yth schedules.

[Braumiller]

Quick update on my guys, not purely because of fantastic training increases (yet, although I believe with their current performances they are right around the corner), but more as a marker to see if they do occur.

4th game of the Premier League gave me my first game I felt comfortable giving the kids a run out. Home to Wigan, who had lost 3 out of 3, including a 7-0 crushing to Chelsea last time out so their morale was not good.

My usual 442 formation, with Bryant in the TM (A) role and Corentin in the Poacher role (not his best role, but this was before I started experimenting).

A 6-3 win, with a Corentin hat-trick, 2 for Bryant (becoming mine and the Premier League youngest goalscorer at 16y 22d) and an OG made for the start of fun ride.

Next game up was a tough one away at Bolton and after some deliberation I decided to give the pairing another run out. 0-1 down with 7 minutes to go and given a dodgy penalty, up steps Bryant and 1-1. 94th minute and Corentin bags a corker. Very fortunate 2-1 win.

After this I drop Bryant to make sure I do not burn him out, but I keep Corentin playing (now in what will become his permanent role of TM (A)).

In the next 4 games he scores another 7 goals and now am I very hesitant to drop him (at 16!).

Anyway, here are Corentin David and Matt Bryant's early improvements and their schedules.

Corentin's determination drop off is due to a tutoring issue. This will be resolved as soon as I can hook him up next time around as Lorik Cana is ideal for him and my new Ball Winning Midfielder.

Highlighted are the Target Man - Attack main attributes.

My current plan is to develop Matt Bryant into a Complete Forward - Attack (these are the attributes highlighted).

Matt's training schedule seems to be a lot more flexible into how much I can pile into it as opposed to others. Due to his very professional personality?

Either way, intensive in tactics, ball control and attacking should result in increases in all the right places (once his scheduled training increases from 35% as it is now due to other infringements).

I would be very interested in feedback and advice on anything you would do differently with these two.

Delving into this side of the game for the first time and completely revitalized my love for the game.

As Cleon said, they take next to no time to set up once you get the hang of them and it is the first thing I do for all new signing now.

[Cleon]

Quick update on my guys, not purely because of fantastic training increases (yet, although I believe with their current performances they are right around the corner), but more as a marker to see if they do occur.

4th game of the Premier League gave me my first game I felt comfortable giving the kids a run out. Home to Wigan, who had lost 3 out of 3, including a 7-0 crushing to Chelsea last time out so their morale was not good.

My usual 442 formation, with Bryant in the TM (A) role and Corentin in the Poacher role (not his best role, but this was before I started experimenting).

A 6-3 win, with a Corentin hat-trick, 2 for Bryant (becoming mine and the Premier League youngest goalscorer at 16y 22d) and an OG made for the start of fun ride.

Next game up was a tough one away at Bolton and after some deliberation I decided to give the pairing another run out. 0-1 down with 7 minutes to go and given a dodgy penalty, up steps Bryant and 1-1. 94th minute and Corentin bags a corker. Very fortunate 2-1 win.

After this I drop Bryant to make sure I do not burn him out, but I keep Corentin playing (now in what will become his permanent role of TM (A)).

In the next 4 games he scores another 7 goals and now am I very hesitant to drop him (at 16!).

Anyway, here are Corentin David and Matt Bryant's early improvements and their schedules.

Corentin's determination drop off is due to a tutoring issue. This will be resolved as soon as I can hook him up next time around as Lorik Cana is ideal for him and my new Ball Winning Midfielder.

Highlighted are the Target Man - Attack main attributes.

My current plan is to develop Matt Bryant into a Complete Forward - Attack (these are the attributes highlighted).

Matt's training schedule seems to be a lot more flexible into how much I can pile into it as opposed to others. Due to his very professional personality?

Either way, intensive in tactics, ball control and attacking should result in increases in all the right places (once his scheduled training increases from 35% as it is now due to other infringements).

I would be very interested in feedback and advice on anything you would do differently with these two.

Delving into this side of the game for the first time and completely revitalized my love for the game.

As Cleon said, they take next to no time to set up once you get the hang of them and it is the first thing I do for all new signing now.

Some nice progress with Bryant

The only thing I would have done different was individual focus on his finishing to 16 then do it for composure. I find these better than first touch for a youth as you can easily alter first touch when the player is 18 or so. But I find finishing quite tricky to alter if you don't do it early enough.

[Braumiller]

Some nice progress with Bryant

The only thing I would have done different was individual focus on his finishing to 16 then do it for composure. I find these better than first touch for a youth as you can easily alter first touch when the player is 18 or so. But I find finishing quite tricky to alter if you don't do it early enough.

Advice taken and implemented, thank you

[Cleon]

Advice taken and implemented, thank you

Ohhhh I didn't mean you should do it, it's just what I would have done.

[Braumiller]

Ohhhh I didn't mean you should do it, it's just what I would have done.

Heh, I trust your judgement on this more than mine. If I can learn on those of you here with more experience on training (what appears easier to learn at what stage, for example) while I myself learn it, then all the better

[Romanista1994]

Some good advice there Cleon, with Bryant learning to shoot powerfully soon his accuracy will be slightly reduced, so that's another reason to improve his finishing first.

Increasing the total number of good chances he gets can be a good area to start off with, but in this case I would avoid it because when he blasts shots over or wide due to the power he puts into the shot it decreases his ratings. His technique would be next on my list of attributes to get high, because he'd benefit from having better shooting technique to further improve his conversion of chances by having a wider repertoire of shots. Only after that would I go about increasing the absolute amount of chances he gets through a better first touch.

Both of your players are improving very well though, and they're also transferring those improvements into performances on the pitch. Their goals to appearances ratios are fantastic for their age.

[flipsix3]

Good morning gents, long time CM-FMer of old (Stories forum regular, until real life had it's wicked way). Now, like many others it seems, I find myself with some time to play again and thanks to the work of the likes of Cleon, furiousuk, and the late SFraser I'm enjoying a new found passion for playing the game at a slower pace - taking the time to develop my squad and players more. That's not to say that I had no success in the past, quite the opposite, but I believe I always did so despite rather than because of my fairly limited position-focused schedules.

So here I am in FM12, embarking on a 4th season at Ewood Park which has so far seen the FA Cup, Euro Cup and League Cup arrive over the first three years - largely retaining the original squad with one or two key signings each season, but mainly focusing on bringing in youth to create the holy grail of a Wenger-esque conveyor belt of talent (but hopefully utilising and keeping it!). I've been running primarily a variation of SFraser's 4-2-3-1 system, with occasional forays into what I consider an attacking 4-4-2 (but which FM seems to look at as a 4-2-4) and I've got a dozen or so very strong prospects in my youth roster - along with a small number getting regular bench time and occasional starts in the seniors (they sit in the Reserve squad to enable full-time training schedules).

I could go into them all in detail, but that would be overkill, rather I wanted to put up two particularly strong candidates along with my thought process. I'd appreciate any comment on whether you think I'm missing anything obvious,, or committing any howlers. First up is Dennis Andersen, a Danish defender with a 4-star future predicted. I picked him up around his 16th birthday and he sent last season on loan in League One - making 35 appearances (30 of them starts) and rating around 6.6. In retrospect that may have been too early to send him out(?) but I was keen to see him get competitive experience and with Det at 15 I was comfortable under a decent manager.

Light on technicals, but I see plenty of potential for him to develop into a Samba-esque rock at the back - Samba will be tutoring him, but recently finished a stint with another player and is 'greyed out' at the moment (is there some set period between tutor sessions? I find myself just trying at random every few game weeks). My main issue in the immediate future is composure, hence the heavy focus on this area, and high levells of Defence and Tactics seem a given. I've also put a decent amount into ball control to try and boost those red figures up just a little...

Secondly, and something of a departure from my usual youth policy, I give you Fausto Paterna - signed in the summer for a cool £10m and immediately coming in as a regular substitute and occasional starter against weaker opposition. In the past I probably would've been happy with taking him and sticking him on a regular schedule and not think twice about it, particularly if he delivers a decent number of goals, but I suspect there's potential for a real world class striker here (4.5 stars according to my staff). I play Danny Sturridge up front at present, and for the role of a lone striker Fausto is the next best option on my books by some way - at least in the longer term.

Composure focus is in play again, his score isn't terrible but as a lone striker I'd like it higher, otherwise it seems logical to be spreading the load between Tactics Attack and Shooting - his technicals look more of a 'maintenance' job to me(?). He'll generally sit on the shoulder of the DC and look to interact with my 3 AMC slots - Creativity is probably on the low side therefore, and I'm wondering if I ought to push Attacking a little higher in exchange for a notch or two off Ball Control or Shooting?

Again not Tutored at present as Sturridge is greyed out, but with Det of 19 he seems the perfect choice to me.

So, any thoughts/counter-arguments?

edit: Apologies for small images, struggling to get to grips with embedding/linking images on the forum for some reason. Larger copies can be found here...

http://www.flipsix3.co.uk/Other/FMScreens/21535399_xd77vk#!i=1738470087&k=nC5qtWf

[Cleon]

Good morning gents, long time CM-FMer of old (Stories forum regular, until real life had it's wicked way). Now, like many others it seems, I find myself with some time to play again and thanks to the work of the likes of Cleon, furiousuk, and the late SFraser I'm enjoying a new found passion for playing the game at a slower pace - taking the time to develop my squad and players more. That's not to say that I had no success in the past, quite the opposite, but I believe I always did so despite rather than because of my fairly limited position-focused schedules.

So here I am in FM12, embarking on a 4th season at Ewood Park which has so far seen the FA Cup, Euro Cup and League Cup arrive over the first three years - largely retaining the original squad with one or two key signings each season, but mainly focusing on bringing in youth to create the holy grail of a Wenger-esque conveyor belt of talent (but hopefully utilising and keeping it!). I've been running primarily a variation of SFraser's 4-2-3-1 system, with occasional forays into what I consider an attacking 4-4-2 (but which FM seems to look at as a 4-2-4) and I've got a dozen or so very strong prospects in my youth roster - along with a small number getting regular bench time and occasional starts in the seniors (they sit in the Reserve squad to enable full-time training schedules).

I could go into them all in detail, but that would be overkill, rather I wanted to put up two particularly strong candidates along with my thought process. I'd appreciate any comment on whether you think I'm missing anything obvious,, or committing any howlers. First up is Dennis Andersen, a Danish defender with a 4-star future predicted. I picked him up around his 16th birthday and he sent last season on loan in League One - making 35 appearances (30 of them starts) and rating around 6.6. In retrospect that may have been too early to send him out(?) but I was keen to see him get competitive experience and with Det at 15 I was comfortable under a decent manager.

Light on technicals, but I see plenty of potential for him to develop into a Samba-esque rock at the back - Samba will be tutoring him, but recently finished a stint with another player and is 'greyed out' at the moment (is there some set period between tutor sessions? I find myself just trying at random every few game weeks). My main issue in the immediate future is composure, hence the heavy focus on this area, and high levells of Defence and Tactics seem a given. I've also put a decent amount into ball control to try and boost those red figures up just a little...

Secondly, and something of a departure from my usual youth policy, I give you Fausto Paterna - signed in the summer for a cool £10m and immediately coming in as a regular substitute and occasional starter against weaker opposition. In the past I probably would've been happy with taking him and sticking him on a regular schedule and not think twice about it, particularly if he delivers a decent number of goals, but I suspect there's potential for a real world class striker here (4.5 stars according to my staff). I play Danny Sturridge up front at present, and for the role of a lone striker Fausto is the next best option on my books by some way - at least in the longer term.

Composure focus is in play again, his score isn't terrible but as a lone striker I'd like it higher, otherwise it seems logical to be spreading the load between Tactics Attack and Shooting - his technicals look more of a 'maintenance' job to me(?). He'll generally sit on the shoulder of the DC and look to interact with my 3 AMC slots - Creativity is probably on the low side therefore, and I'm wondering if I ought to push Attacking a little higher in exchange for a notch or two off Ball Control or Shooting?

Again not Tutored at present as Sturridge is greyed out, but with Det of 19 he seems the perfect choice to me.

So, any thoughts/counter-arguments?

edit: Apologies for small images, struggling to get to grips with embedding/linking images on the forum for some reason. Larger copies can be found here...

http://www.flipsix3.co.uk/Other/FMScreens/21535399_xd77vk#!i=1738470087&k=nC5qtWf

For the first player, don't you think focusing on his red attributes is a waste of training points? I actually try and reduce mine on a player and rather spend them somewhere useful and on attributes more beneficial.

[Cleon]

I know the following isn't about the players I mentioned above but I thought it was still worth while showing you a couple of screenshots. This post is about the tutoring side of the game and because this as just happened in my game I thought I'd show it you.

So the player in question;

The Tutor;

One of the most important aspects of tutoring is to change the hidden attributes of a player. Toloi has the description of 'Fairly Determined' which means he has a decent determination attribute, decent professionalism and a fair bit of ambition (both hidden attributes).

Airton was 'Balanced' meaning he has a neutral personality is all round.

As he is young I wanted him to become more of a pro and become 'Professional'. That's why I choose who I did to tutor him. Now after a few months I got this message from the Assistant Manager;

The above screenshot means his hidden attributes have changed and he is now been shaped into the player I want him to be.

Now when I check his description it says 'Fairly Professional' which means he has good professionalism and a fairly good temperament (both hidden attributes)

Theres no point to this post really other than to illustrate how you can tutor players and try and alter them into what you want them to be. So put a little bit of thought into who you allow to tutor your players.

[flipsix3]

For the first player, don't you think focusing on his red attributes is a waste of training points? I actually try and reduce mine on a player and rather spend them somewhere useful and on attributes more beneficial.

A good point, I guess I tend to want at least an element of all round ability which may well be wasting points - I think I had half an eye on the dribbling stat, although realistically I suppose he'd be looking to pass the ball away quickly (passing isn't great either - but when he does play I've tended towards a limited defender role to compensate)

On a completely unrelated note Cleon, can I ask what skin you're using? Random, I know.

[Cleon]

A good point, I guess I tend to want at least an element of all round ability which may well be wasting points - I think I had half an eye on the dribbling stat, although realistically I suppose he'd be looking to pass the ball away quickly (passing isn't great either - but when he does play I've tended towards a limited defender role to compensate)

On a completely unrelated note Cleon, can I ask what skin you're using? Random, I know.

The skin is Steklo X2 from the skinning forum

As for your player, well what I do is try and maximize his strengths at an early age and focus on them. That way he becomes good in an area and this can allow him to excel. You can always make him more balanced at a later date but you don't want to use up all his ca/pa on useless attributes. His passing should become better over time though games, tutoring and training.

[flipsix3]

Makes sense, I think that is the area I need to develop from my old days - I used to run schedules where everyone had an element of everything in their training, although obvious priorities to their chosen areas. I'll take a look and winding back the Ball Control and pushing Def/Tactics an extra notch or two.

[Cleon]

Makes sense, I think that is the area I need to develop from my old days - I used to run schedules where everyone had an element of everything in their training, although obvious priorities to their chosen areas. I'll take a look and winding back the Ball Control and pushing Def/Tactics an extra notch or two.

I build players to their strengths for how you are going to be playing them. So if you think he will be dribbling for you in the role you use him then train him in that. Just think about the role you wnat him to do and train the attributes needed for that

[TRC]

Got a youngster who Liverpool are after, he's very good, but has a natural fitness of 4. He can play DM natural, and accomplished RB and CB, I mainly use him as RB back up. The natural fitness of 4 is a problem though, think I should ship him out now whilst his stock is high? He is only 17.

[Romanista1994]

Got a youngster who Liverpool are after, he's very good, but has a natural fitness of 4. He can play DM natural, and accomplished RB and CB, I mainly use him as RB back up. The natural fitness of 4 is a problem though, think I should ship him out now whilst his stock is high? He is only 17.

Low natural fitness can be a problem, but I've had Lamela with 6 have a good career because I trained his stamina early on. What's your player's stamina like? It would be hard to make a judgement on selling a player without seeing a screenshot of his profile first though.

I know the following isn't about the players I mentioned above but I thought it was still worth while showing you a couple of screenshots. This post is about the tutoring side of the game and because this as just happened in my game I thought I'd show it you.

So the player in question;

The Tutor;

One of the most important aspects of tutoring is to change the hidden attributes of a player. Toloi has the description of 'Fairly Determined' which means he has a decent determination attribute, decent professionalism and a fair bit of ambition (both hidden attributes).

Airton was 'Balanced' meaning he has a neutral personality is all round.

As he is young I wanted him to become more of a pro and become 'Professional'. That's why I choose who I did to tutor him. Now after a few months I got this message from the Assistant Manager;

The above screenshot means his hidden attributes have changed and he is now been shaped into the player I want him to be.

Now when I check his description it says 'Fairly Professional' which means he has good professionalism and a fairly good temperament (both hidden attributes)

Theres no point to this post really other than to illustrate how you can tutor players and try and alter them into what you want them to be. So put a little bit of thought into who you allow to tutor your players.

I never saw or noticed that specific message before, but it shows very well how useful tutors with 'average' personalities can be in improving a youngster and helping their career and that immediately pairing a youngster with a tutor who has a brilliant personality isn't always necessary.

I build players to their strengths for how you are going to be playing them. So if you think he will be dribbling for you in the role you use him then train him in that. Just think about the role you wnat him to do and train the attributes needed for that

This is also brilliant advice and very much how I go about developing players.

flipsix - apart from the thing Cleon said it surprises me to see the strength training so high for your youngsters. Neither of them have major weaknesses in that area (indeed it is a major strength of Andersen's game) and by lowering some notches there you can free up a lot of notches and development in other areas where the player is weaker.

[Necleto]

Theres no point to this post really other than to illustrate how you can tutor players and try and alter them into what you want them to be. So put a little bit of thought into who you allow to tutor your players.

When choosing your tutors, you have two options:

- mentor to help improve his game.

- mentor off the pitch.

Which option have you chosen in your example?

[TRC]

[Cleon]

When choosing your tutors, you have two options:

- mentor to help improve his game.

- mentor off the pitch.

Which option have you chosen in your example?

2nd but IIRC they both do the same anyway it's just how the player been tutored responds to which he gets asked.

[Necleto]

2nd but IIRC they both do the same anyway it's just how the player been tutored responds to which he gets asked.

What criteria influence your choice between the 1st and 2nd option then?

[Romanista1994]

Image.

His stamina is good enough to keep him, but 4 for teamwork is pretty bad. I'd not actively go out trying to sell him, but if a good offer comes in I'd probably let him go.

[Cleon]

What criteria influence your choice between the 1st and 2nd option then?

Just how much of a 'problem' player someone is. If he has a negative personality then I'll try and use the first option. But someone more open and who has a positive personality will be more open to been tutored on and off the pitch. Atleast that's what I've found.

[flipsix3]

flipsix - apart from the thing Cleon said it surprises me to see the strength training so high for your youngsters. Neither of them have major weaknesses in that area (indeed it is a major strength of Andersen's game) and by lowering some notches there you can free up a lot of notches and development in other areas where the player is weaker.

Romanista, thanks for the pointer - the ideal 'maintenance level' is something I need to get used to, I agree that neither has a desperate need to massively increase their strength ratings however I felt that a mid-high point within medium was perhaps prudent. I'll give it a go dropping to the lower end of medium and see how things stack up.

[shirajzl]

This is one of the best threads in T & T discussion, kudos.

I'd like your opinion on two players. They both have the potential to "become good EPL players". For some reason the forum won't let me post 4 images in one post so I'll post them in two.

What do you think about the way I set up his training?

[shirajzl]

...and his training?

[Kantabron89]

Cleon any tips of how to develop my no bottle striker? He has it all, pace, finishing, composure, determination, but bravery of 1.

He's afraid of the ball like a 4 years-old boy,

Nice tips, I'll try them in my czech central defender, 16 years, and something like little Cannavaro (passing 4, technique 5, mental attributes all of them above 10)

[Romanista1994]

This is one of the best threads in T & T discussion, kudos.

I'd like your opinion on two players. They both have the potential to "become good EPL players". For some reason the forum won't let me post 4 images in one post so I'll post them in two.

What do you think about the way I set up his training?

Thank you.

If he's to become an AMC, I probably would lower his stength training a bit (while using individual focus on his stamina) and not give him any defending training. On the other hand I'd raise both ball control and attacking with the workload that has freed up. That way you would get a player who won't be much use at all when defending, but a more powerful threat through better technical attributes.

...and his training?

For this player my schedule would be along these lines: slightly lower in both physical categories (individual focus on strength so that he stops can start shoving other players off the ball. Maximum tactics because his mental attributes are pretty weak, little to no ball control (perhaps later individual focus to improve his heading), high defending training and no attacking. He won't ever be much of a passer so you're best off focusing his training into area's where he is good/which are required for him to play well in the centre of defence.

[shirajzl]

Thank you.

If he's to become an AMC, I probably would lower his stength training a bit (while using individual focus on his stamina) and not give him any defending training. On the other hand I'd raise both ball control and attacking with the workload that has freed up. That way you would get a player who won't be much use at all when defending, but a more powerful threat through better technical attributes.

For this player my schedule would be along these lines: slightly lower in both physical categories (individual focus on strength so that he stops can start shoving other players off the ball. Maximum tactics because his mental attributes are pretty weak, little to no ball control (perhaps later individual focus to improve his heading), high defending training and no attacking. He won't ever be much of a passer so you're best off focusing his training into area's where he is good/which are required for him to play well in the centre of defence.

I'm planning to use Stephen as MC, so he needs a bit of defending. He'll never be world class, but could be useful all-around midfielder if I spread out his training.

As for the defender, my reasoning for high physical categories was to try to make him strong and quick while he's young, and then after 2 seasons focus more on his mental attributes. I'm afraid lower physical categories would mean he wouldn't be strong nor pacey enough to use it as a base for further development.

I was under the impression you should focus on physical training while the player is very young, thus forming the "muscle" on which you add football intelligence (mental attributes) later on.