how to keep players happy?

[FMFanatic8080]

How do you fit the players into your squad plans to keep them happy?

I like having a squad of 22, and 3 reserve players and i am running into problems keeping them happy.

how many games for each? what other things to keep em happy?

[FMFanatic8080]

anyone?? i really like to know how u manage ur team

[Columnarius]

Option 1 (easier to manage but less realistic):

Keep your best 5-6 players who collectively can sub in and finish out a game without leaving a large hole. That means if the Striker or the Right Winger or the Left Back has to come out, you aren't going to get torched but it doesn't have to mean you don't lose a step.

Example:

1 Goalie

1 LB who can play LW or RB

1 CB who can play DM or RB

1 guy who can play RW, CM, AM

1 ST

These guys only have to be perfect - they just have to get you through THAT game. This means you really have a team of about 16-17. Make sure that you sub in 2 of them each game, and rotate as best you can. Throw them a few starts when playing an easy opponent, cup matches or European group stages that you've already clinched.

Everyone else who you care about gets loaned out to teams who promise to play them every day. Make sure you negotiate for "allow recall". I don't see teams who want a player saying no for this reason ever.

If you lose a starter for 1-2 weeks, live with it and use one of the sub guys. If you lose a starter for 2-3 months, recall your best player who can fill the void if that isn't one of your regular bench guys.

By the time the starter comes back, it will be close to January window (re-loan the guy) or the end of the year.

Option 2 (more realistic, more hassle, more satisfying?)

Rotate your subs each game while ensuring you still are covering all positions. Keep track and rotate through who you sub in whenever possible to give everyone game time.

Keep a second team of all the guys who don't regularly start. Play them for all easy cup matches, or European group stages when you've already clinched. Finally, rotate a few of them in during easy home matches.

This is typically enough games to make them satisfied.

Good luck!

[Nomis07]

There are certain players that play no matter what e.g. captains and wonderkids, but otherwise I rotate my squad nearly every game. I only change a few positions at a time though, because otherwise they never really gel properly, but at one point I had 4 strikers who had played toughly 20 games each and had 12 or 13 goals scored each It means you don't really make much of a showing in the rating tables, but it keeps them happy and can benefit you sometimes keeping an eye on who is in top form and who is a little shakey.

[kevin_chn]

Yes, what sometimes troubles me is that it is hard to keep everyone happy when the squad consists of, say, 24-26 players, which is quite common IRL. One way to get around this is to keep a small squad of 20 players or so, with certain players being capable of playing many positions (AM LRC, for example).

[tarbanrael]

well i think it may depend as well on the players you have, their ambition, expectations...

I have just been promoted to the EPL. Of course I started recruiting more players, the kind that would allow me to stay up. However, I started to get complaints from some of my players about competition. In turn I had to take a real hard look at the players complaining and think of how they would fit into the squad. Plus, I already know these moaners could cause trouble.

So far I have sold 7 players, 2 of the moaners, 3 that would not cut the mustard in the premiership and the last 2 youngsters which I could not really consider as regulars for another few years (plus I got good money for these).

It;s all give and take!

[dwood]

You guys think you have problems? In my first, reserve and youth teams I have a total of 97 players. I have loaned out 15 and maybe 30 are useless players I will use in part exchange for other players. So I have about 40 players who could do a job for me in the first team im only playing barnet I have 4 players who i consider stars, there are about 35 players i could interchange.

[Serj]

I keep my first team as small as possible, often around 18-21 players. I do fill my reserves with lots of talent though. If they become unhappy you can always use loans or affiliates. I use cup games to play some youngster.

A solution from real life would be to keep the core of your team the same and rotate others accordingly. Make sure your main GK, DC, MC and ST play and rotate other areas

[postal postie]

i always have loads of good central midfielders

gerrard

mcherano

alonso

javi martinez

michael johnson

lucas

veloso

difficult to play tghem all regularly but i sort of mange it by playing martinez and gerrard on the right sometimes, or changing my formation every now and then to have just the 1 striker and a DM instead of my normall 442

[djhayes383]

I have a lot of midfielders that can play central with Liverpool:

Gerrard

Mascherano

Alonso

Lucas

Luka Modric

van der Vaart

Barton

I usually stick with Gerrard and Mascherano and then put Modric out on the right instead of Pennant but I sometimes chop and change the squad depending on the game. If it's a league game against an inferior team then I might put Barton in there or van der Vaart for a European game because he has more CL experience than Barton. It's all about juggling your squads, making sure you have your best players in the biggest games and then giving one or two of the back-ups a game here and there to keep them sharp. The squad selection save is really useful and should help you to assemble different squads for different games and easily switch between them. I have found it useful to have quite a deep squad, I have a squad of about 26 players now. I used to only have maybe 22 players but I find the bit of extra depth has helped me out quite a bit as I am actually leading the league with Liverpool, something I have found extremely difficult to do in my first season in my other numerous attempts at managing my beloved Reds.