Ajax – When The Real World Meets Football Manager FM14

[Sleepydude]

In my Ajax save I signed Jari Litmanen on a year long contract as a tutor and nobody has complained yet. I did play him as a sub in a few cup matches and he actually got 7+ ratings (despite his 3 pace, haha).

I'm hoping he'll stay on as a coach after his contract expires because he's a club legend and one of my favorite players in real life.

[Cleon]

Because my board expect me to concentrate on youth and an objective of mine is to bring through and play youth players. So signing a bunch of 30+ players would go against playing youth. Plus, on the 'player signings' tab within board confidence they might see Zenden and Litmanen as old and past it and not good enough for the team.

Why would it go against playing youth? You can sign the older players and not play them like I did and mentioned in the tutoring section of the thread. My board wanted me to develop youth and play them, I still achieved that. The older players were just tutors nothing more hence why I stuck them in the reserves.

Plus what does it matter if they are old and past it? The whole purpose of bringing them in would to be a tutor wouldn't it? It doesn't matter what the fans/board think you'll not get sacked unless you get bad results but that wouldn't be anything to do with them as you'd not be playing them

I understand this. But I wanted to try and reduce the 'confrontational' personality in Ozen, so teamed him up with someone who is not so confrontational, but also determined as this is the closest match I could find in my team. Is he just against learning and changing his personality or am I doing something wrong?

How do you know hes not confrontational though? He can still be fairly pro and have higher other hidden attributes that prevent him from wanting to work with someone else and be confrontational.

I'm not a fan of tutoring with like for like personalities, it kinda seems pointless and against the whole reasons behind wanting to tutor someone. Sure you increase the risk of clashes but I must have tutored 300+ players on FM13 so far and I've had less than 10 bad results. So the trade off of risk vs reward is worth the gamble for me because when it does work the effects you see are greater and more beneficial. Even the times where it might seem it hasn't worked the player 9/10 still comes away with improved attributes from what I've seen in all the ones I've done.

[fmFutbolManager]

Why would it go against playing youth? You can sign the older players and not play them like I did and mentioned in the tutoring section of the thread. My board wanted me to develop youth and play them, I still achieved that. The older players were just tutors nothing more hence why I stuck them in the reserves.

Plus what does it matter if they are old and past it? The whole purpose of bringing them in would to be a tutor wouldn't it? It doesn't matter what the fans/board think you'll not get sacked unless you get bad results but that wouldn't be anything to do with them as you'd not be playing them

How do you know hes not confrontational though? He can still be fairly pro and have higher other hidden attributes that prevent him from wanting to work with someone else and be confrontational.

I'm not a fan of tutoring with like for like personalities, it kinda seems pointless and against the whole reasons behind wanting to tutor someone. Sure you increase the risk of clashes but I must have tutored 300+ players on FM13 so far and I've had less than 10 bad results. So the trade off of risk vs reward is worth the gamble for me because when it does work the effects you see are greater and more beneficial. Even the times where it might seem it hasn't worked the player 9/10 still comes away with improved attributes from what I've seen in all the ones I've done.

Regarding the confidence levels, I just like to keep them high. Plus I'm coming up to the end of my contract and I've still not been offered a new one, so I'm trying to do everything to keep the board happy and confidence up. (Despite being in all cup competitions and top of the league in March). Bringing in older players might upset the board and/or fans.

As for the confrontational aspect, Ozen is is 'outspoken' in his 'media handling style', so his confrontational rating is 15-20 whereas Martinez is reserved so 1-5 confrontational.

I wanted to bring down Ozen so assumed the best way would be to match him with someone that has the same personality (to reduce the chance of a clash) but has lower confrontation stats, e.g., someone reserved. Perhaps I should try with someone evasive or level-headed as they're 6-14 or 1-14 confrontational.

[Cleon]

Regarding the confidence levels, I just like to keep them high. Plus I'm coming up to the end of my contract and I've still not been offered a new one, so I'm trying to do everything to keep the board happy and confidence up. (Despite being in all cup competitions and top of the league in March). Bringing in older players might upset the board and/or fans.

As for the confrontational aspect, Ozen is is 'outspoken' in his 'media handling style', so his confrontational rating is 15-20 whereas Martinez is reserved so 1-5 confrontational.

I wanted to bring down Ozen so assumed the best way would be to match him with someone that has the same personality (to reduce the chance of a clash) but has lower confrontation stats, e.g., someone reserved. Perhaps I should try with someone evasive or level-headed as they're 6-14 or 1-14 confrontational.

The signings won't matter because they don't effect your job. What the fans think of you and the signings doesn't really matter. Keeping them up will have no bearing on a new contract or not, that's down to results.

[fmFutbolManager]

The signings won't matter because they don't effect your job. What the fans think of you and the signings doesn't really matter. Keeping them up will have no bearing on a new contract or not, that's down to results.

Ah okay I didn't know that. I assumed because transfers was a tab under the board confidence that it would effect on my job if my transfers weren't what they expected. In that case I will scour the globe in search of model citizens.

As for my other point above, regarding the confrontational aspect of my players personality. Do you think this could be reduced through tutoring? If I find the right balance between the right tutor and him?

[Cleon]

Ah okay I didn't know that. I assumed because transfers was a tab under the board confidence that it would effect on my job if my transfers weren't what they expected. In that case I will scour the globe in search of model citizens.

As for my other point above, regarding the confrontational aspect of my players personality. Do you think this could be reduced through tutoring? If I find the right balance between the right tutor and him?

You could do that yeah and try to reduce it via tutoring

[Riddler]

Hey Cleon, great article. Pure class!

I'm Dutch, so it's great to see some attention for our way of training;) But, I also want to give you a tip. Nowadays there are two great youth teams: Ajax and Feyenoord. There is a big difference between the two clubs. Feyenoord trains the players in a more scientific way. Lots of analytics and psychological ways of training. Ajax on the other hand wants more football players to train the youth. So, if you want to keep it realistic (doing a great job already;)) I would recommend you hire more ex-football players as trainers and focus more on the technical side of football. Now you maybe have to much non football players in your trainingstaff. Something Ajax really doesn't want anymore. (Really never ever)

Again, you're doing a great job!

[Cleon]

Hey Cleon, great article. Pure class!

I'm Dutch, so it's great to see some attention for our way of training;) But, I also want to give you a tip. Nowadays there are two great youth teams: Ajax and Feyenoord. There is a big difference between the two clubs. Feyenoord trains the players in a more scientific way. Lots of analytics and psychological ways of training. Ajax on the other hand wants more football players to train the youth. So, if you want to keep it realistic (doing a great job already;)) I would recommend you hire more ex-football players as trainers and focus more on the technical side of football. Now you maybe have to much non football players in your trainingstaff. Something Ajax really doesn't want anymore. (Really never ever)

Again, you're doing a great job!

The reason for that is they start with bad attributes so you can't train good enough because of the low attributes. It's all good trying to stick to real life as close as possible but that becomes harder when the game gives the coaches low attributes what aren't fit enough to teach a League Two side let alone a club like Ajax. Hence the mass cull

I do have lots of ex players though as coaches, remember you've only seen screenshots from the first season.

[Riddler]

True story! Just keep an eye out for trainers with football experience, or else Cruijff will punish you for it. Even Van Gaal loses from an angry Cruijff

[Cleon]

True story! Just keep an eye out for trainers with football experience, or else Cruijff will punish you for it. Even Van Gaal loses from an angry Cruijff

5 Champions League titles in 8 seasons, the Ajax fans have forgot who Cruijff is

[tomtuck01]

5 Champions League titles in 8 seasons

Piddle off. In my first season I was knocked out in the first knockout round and in my second season I got knocked out at the group stage - had to settle for getting to the semi finals of the Europa League instead.

[bmcosta]

"Pre-season is high fitness until all are fit which takes about 2 season friendlies. Then it's heavy tactics with teamwork as a focus until the tactics are all fluid and the team has blended."

What about the percentages, how do you put the training slider regarding the percentage that match prep have in pre-season for example?

[Rashidi]

Woot, my youngsters, I decided to give them their first league start. I have a striker 17 years old whos scored 17 goals in 16 appearances for the reserves, only a 4star, and another striker also 17. I decide what the heck lets just put in another youngster for good measure in the "hole" behind the striker. The "hole" makes 3 goals, my 4 star scores within 5 minutes, my other striker scores the 4th goal, and the rest of the team chips in with 3 other goals. What a debut...I love it when the young ones get good, time for me to prepare myself for selling them...

If you are a non league side whos done consecutive promotions, you won't get any top youth from your academy till perhaps your 5th season in the premiership and then only if you fulfill the rest of the conditions, so if you want to develop your youth fast, you need to grab them when they are 15-16 and get their HG status quick and make em learn their ppms. They should have em all before they hit 17. Man i am enjoying player development too much, tactics are boring.

[rvd313]

Any advice for developing this kid? I plan to use him as a CF(S), linking up the play and making a general nuisance of himself.

Here's his training overview:

I've been working on his strength for the first two months of the season, so he doesn't end up getting bullied off the ball (or crippled) by the SFL hammer throwers.

I also trained him to have the 'plays with back to goal' PPM.

[Cleon]

Woot, my youngsters, I decided to give them their first league start. I have a striker 17 years old whos scored 17 goals in 16 appearances for the reserves, only a 4star, and another striker also 17. I decide what the heck lets just put in another youngster for good measure in the "hole" behind the striker. The "hole" makes 3 goals, my 4 star scores within 5 minutes, my other striker scores the 4th goal, and the rest of the team chips in with 3 other goals. What a debut...I love it when the young ones get good, time for me to prepare myself for selling them...

If you are a non league side whos done consecutive promotions, you won't get any top youth from your academy till perhaps your 5th season in the premiership and then only if you fulfill the rest of the conditions, so if you want to develop your youth fast, you need to grab them when they are 15-16 and get their HG status quick and make em learn their ppms. They should have em all before they hit 17. Man i am enjoying player development too much, tactics are boring.

Have you started to get some decent youths through now Rashidi?

[Cleon]

Any advice for developing this kid? I plan to use him as a CF(S), linking up the play and making a general nuisance of himself.

Here's his training overview:

I've been working on his strength for the first two months of the season, so he doesn't end up getting bullied off the ball (or crippled) by the SFL hammer throwers.

I also trained him to have the 'plays with back to goal' PPM.

If you plan on using him as a striker then the first things I'd work on are Off the ball, finishing and composure. Without off the ball improvements he'll not make the kind of movement you want him to make and will be easy to mark.

[JojoVillaHursty]

Great thread Cleon, I am using it to help me rebuild Villa.

[mdbussen]

If you plan on using him as a striker then the first things I'd work on are Off the ball, finishing and composure. Without off the ball improvements he'll not make the kind of movement you want him to make and will be easy to mark.

I just want to ask a further question off this response. I always had it in my head - I assumed I read it somewhere but now I can't be sure - that you wanted to hit Physical attributes the hardest at a young age (15-18) and then do some of the Mental/Technical development later. The idea was that players developed physical skills better when they were younger and mental skills better in the 19+ age range. Is this just a load of phooey that I invented in my head, or did this used to be the case in older FMs?

[Rashidi]

Have you started to get some decent youths through now Rashidi?

I am only seeing 2+* PA players atm, its totally understandable compared to last season when they were only half a *. I reckon once my Youth Setup Category goes to 1, and my facilities go state of the art, i should see more come through. The challenge however is timing it carefully. It costs 2.5m a season to maintain that grade of youth facilities and I am not quite ready yet to plunge the cash. I should in a season, I hope.

These are the youth candidates that just came out of my academy..not much to shout about

And these are the rest..scouted and some of the other reserve players

What I am really impressed with is the really decent levels of physical ability some of these youth candidates have most of them have natural fitness >12 so thats good to see..its not bad not great either..but its a heck of an improvement over the season. My backroom coaching staff need to be improved some more..doing me best to find the right GK coach now, now that i have 5 stars in physical and attacking.

[manutdfan1999]

rashidi1 remember the youth candidate bug meaning you dont see their real star rating till after youve signed them

[yonko]

I have to say that this is one of the best, if not the best, threads ever. I haven't played FM13 in awhile (due to being busy at work plus being disappointed with 13.2.2 ME), but reading through all the info in here has inspired me to start playing again.

Cleon, you are something else, man. I know we have had our disagreements before, but I must say...I don't know how you find the time in your busy life to play so much FM and make threads like this.

I would like to ask you some questions, if you don't mind.

1) How do you set up the training for your youth team and reserves? Is it the same as your first team? I mean the general team training and match prep....(I know you've already said that you use Low Intensity Balanced focus for your General team training + 10% of Match prep, I assume on Tactics only, once your team is familiar with your tactic after the pre-season period)

2) How does your training look like for first team, reserves and youth team during pre-season? Do you set the balance between General Training and Match Prep to 50/50? Do you use Very High Intensity Fitness for General Training and for how long? Do you set or keep each player on Individual Focus and at what intensity during pre-season?

I'm guessing you do something similar to me: 2 weeks focus on Very High Fitness with Match Prep on Tactics Only (50/50 split) during pre-season. Arrange 5-6 friendlies spread across one every 3-4 days (do you set any rest days? I don't). After the 2 weeks, then I switch my General Team training to Team Cohesion on Very High Intensity, Match Prep is same as before and the split remains 50/50. During that period I may add some Individual or Role focus on some players at Medium Intensity (do you do that?). Once my team's tactic familiarity is fluid, then I set my General Training to Low Intensity Balanced Focus, my Match Prep is set to Attacking Movement and the split between the two is set to 80/20. I also set Individual or Role focus on all players and set its Intensity to High. I don't set rest days until March/April when I start resting players after a match.

Please, let me know what you think and if anything is different than your Training set up.

3) What do you recommend to someone like me who plays in La Liga (remember, I always play as Barca) and can't have full control of the B team? Should I also add a second manager in my save and take control of Barca B team, for example?

BTW, I love that document you posted on page 2 about the study on the Top European Academies.

[Rashidi]

rashidi1 remember the youth candidate bug meaning you dont see their real star rating till after youve signed them

Yeah I am fine with that :-) makes it even more interesting

@Yonko

Lets see how far me and Cleon differ this will be interesting:

1. For Youth team: Overall Season - Balanced Low & Match Prep Intensity 10%. When first signed I do quickness if their pace is really low for about 6 months at least then focus on Balanced training based on what position benefits them most..ie if I see someone who has the potential to play an AMC I choose the training programme which develops his attributes the best. And I start making him do PPMs, his focus intensity is Heavy

2. Reserves - 2 kinds, those I care about and those I don't

Those I care about, I focus on ppms, their role they will play in the team and do an evaluation at 6 months, to see if they need a change. Sometimes I don't bother for one season. Once they have learned all 5 ppms, and have spent a minimum of 3 seasons with me and don't see a lot of first team action they become loan candidates.

Those I don't care about, I don't really bother leaving em on a balanced training program & monitor ppms, get them to play if I can otherwise loan/sell/release

3. Preseason Fitness Match Prep Intensity 40%(Slider two notches from left); Match Prep Cohesion/Tactics/Teamwork. During pre season they also work on attacking/defensive movement and set pieces. First two weeks of actual season they are on cohesion default. Then I move slider to 10% ( ie no more match prep). Yours and mine look almost the same :-)

I would do exactly that, because if you don't and your regens go to the B team you can't control their development otherwise

[Cleon]

I have to say that this is one of the best, if not the best, threads ever. I haven't played FM13 in awhile (due to being busy at work plus being disappointed with 13.2.2 ME), but reading through all the info in here has inspired me to start playing again.

Cleon, you are something else, man. I know we have had our disagreements before, but I must say...I don't know how you find the time in your busy life to play so much FM and make threads like this.

Thanks for the kind words

The only fault with creating threads like this is keeping them updated. I don't always have the time to update as much as I would have liked so at times it can seem like the thread is dead but that's not the case. It just means I have a busy period in my life currently but as soon as that eases up I will carry on updating this thread

1) How do you set up the training for your youth team and reserves? Is it the same as your first team? I mean the general team training and match prep....(I know you've already said that you use Low Intensity Balanced focus for your General team training + 10% of Match prep, I assume on Tactics only, once your team is familiar with your tactic after the pre-season period)

I actually use ball control and 10% for the youths because it puts higher focus on first touch, dribbling, heading, flair and technique attributes. Not much, but it makes a little difference and fits in with the way I play and how my tactic works. I also feel it fits the Ajax way so to speak

2) How does your training look like for first team, reserves and youth team during pre-season? Do you set the balance between General Training and Match Prep to 50/50? Do you use Very High Intensity Fitness for General Training and for how long? Do you set or keep each player on Individual Focus and at what intensity during pre-season?

I'm guessing you do something similar to me: 2 weeks focus on Very High Fitness with Match Prep on Tactics Only (50/50 split) during pre-season. Arrange 5-6 friendlies spread across one every 3-4 days (do you set any rest days? I don't). After the 2 weeks, then I switch my General Team training to Team Cohesion on Very High Intensity, Match Prep is same as before and the split remains 50/50. During that period I may add some Individual or Role focus on some players at Medium Intensity (do you do that?). Once my team's tactic familiarity is fluid, then I set my General Training to Low Intensity Balanced Focus, my Match Prep is set to Attacking Movement and the split between the two is set to 80/20. I also set Individual or Role focus on all players and set its Intensity to High. I don't set rest days until March/April when I start resting players after a match.

Please, let me know what you think and if anything is different than your Training set up.

I approach pre-season very simliar to you but I do the odd thing different. I don't use fitness at all because I'm one of the lucky ones who gets sent on training camps. Which means players learn things slightly faster than they normally would. Plus I play around 9 friendlies in pre-season so my players get fit rather quickly especially as I don't have a massive first team. I also set my reserves to play around the same number of friendlies which means I can have my whole squad, first team, reserves and youths all match fit in about 3 games.

Due to this I focus on Team Cohesion and tactics as the focus. if I've brought a new player into the club or lost some tactic familiarity. Then I just revert back to my normal method. Normally this happens before the friendlies finish, normally around the 7th friendly

3) What do you recommend to someone like me who plays in La Liga (remember, I always play as Barca) and can't have full control of the B team? Should I also add a second manager in my save and take control of Barca B team, for example?

If you really want to develop players then if you have the time and patience I would do this yeah. If not you can't really control or influence the development as much

@Rashidi - It seems we differ quite a bit which is good because it shows people different ways that all work

[Rashidi]

Thanks for the kind words

I actually use ball control and 10% for the youths because it puts higher focus on first touch, dribbling, heading, flair and technique attributes. Not much, but it makes a little difference and fits in with the way I play and how my tactic works. I also feel it fits the Ajax way so to speak

Youth can get their own training schedule?

[Cleon]

Youth can get their own training schedule?

Youth have their own match training yeah

[Rashidi]

Youth have their own match training yeah

Yeah but thats only if you take control of the squad i assume, cos i don't see it otherwise, oh yeah the drop down tab..i forgot about that

[Cleon]

Yeah but thats only if you take control of the squad i assume, cos i don't see it otherwise

Yeah, which I do because I play in the Next Gen Series

[Rashidi]

Ah once i hit state of the art this year I will..cash position finally good, I just need to sell like 40million of talent every two years..and thats easy.

[steakfaced]

rashidi1 remember the youth candidate bug meaning you dont see their real star rating till after youve signed them

Whoa, really?! well, ****.

[yonko]

Thanks for the kind words

The only fault with creating threads like this is keeping them updated. I don't always have the time to update as much as I would have liked so at times it can seem like the thread is dead but that's not the case. It just means I have a busy period in my life currently but as soon as that eases up I will carry on updating this thread

I'm sure the updates will be worth waiting for.

I actually use ball control and 10% for the youths because it puts higher focus on first touch, dribbling, heading, flair and technique attributes. Not much, but it makes a little difference and fits in with the way I play and how my tactic works. I also feel it fits the Ajax way so to speak

That makes sense actually. I will try using ball control focus too. Interestingly I already have set Match Prep at 10% for my U19s at Barca. But for the first team I keep it at 20%

I approach pre-season very simliar to you but I do the odd thing different. I don't use fitness at all because I'm one of the lucky ones who gets sent on training camps. Which means players learn things slightly faster than they normally would. Plus I play around 9 friendlies in pre-season so my players get fit rather quickly especially as I don't have a massive first team. I also set my reserves to play around the same number of friendlies which means I can have my whole squad, first team, reserves and youths all match fit in about 3 games.

Due to this I focus on Team Cohesion and tactics as the focus. if I've brought a new player into the club or lost some tactic familiarity. Then I just revert back to my normal method. Normally this happens before the friendlies finish, normally around the 7th friendly

You say you don't set focus on fitness because you get sent to training camps. Are training camps a substitute to fitness? I guess I'm a little unclear what role training camps play in FM13. Could you please elaborate a little?

And wow, you actually set up 9 friendlies? How do you find the time in the calendar to do that? The most I've set up is 6 friendlies, because I like to give my players at Barca an additional week of rest or two.

Do you ever remove the individual focus in training from your players during pre-season or do you just keep it going all the time? And if you keep the individual focus during pre-season, is this the time you choose to focus on some physical attributes for each player like quickness, agility, strength, etc.?

If you really want to develop players then if you have the time and patience I would do this yeah. If not you can't really control or influence the development as much

Yeah, I've been thinking that I need to take control of the B team in order to have full control of the whole club and the development of players. I guess I will do that once I start a new save with Barca when the next update (with January transfers) is released at some point.....hopefully with some improvements in the ME also (long shots, dribbling, crossing and tackling issues).

You know, I've done quite well in all my Barca saves (4 in total so far since the Beta) at developing all the young talented players and never really needed to buy players from other clubs, other than a good young GK and regens. And I've already been doing some of the same things as you in terms of training and player development. But I feel like in this thread you've shared some important differences and knowledge for me to think that I can use some of it and do even better job once I start a new save with the updates.

[Hazza22299]

Cleon just got a quick question,

Do you know the order of the coach's feedback on development in terms of most development?

Eg.

Player x as improved a lot as a footballer

Player y as improved significantly footballer

Player z as improved as a footballer

What are all of them and which one signals the most development?

[lewis999]

Cleon just got a quick question,

Do you know the order of the coach's feedback on development in terms of most development?

Eg.

Player x as improved a lot as a footballer

Player y as improved significantly footballer

Player z as improved as a footballer

What are all of them and which one signals the most development?

I know you asked Cleon but I hope you don't mind me trying to answer he seems busy at the moment but I would say just going on the wording that the one with the most development is "significantly improved as a football" then the middle one is "Improved a lot" and then "Improved" on it's own.

[ramie]

How much impact does general team training have on a player?

I tend to leave mine on high ball control for 6 months and then high tactics for the other 6 months. Not sure what improvements it has had on my players

[Sleepydude]

I know you asked Cleon but I hope you don't mind me trying to answer he seems busy at the moment but I would say just going on the wording that the one with the most development is "significantly improved as a football" then the middle one is "Improved a lot" and then "Improved" on it's own.

Cleon is a she

Also the one I always hope to see in the end of season training summary is "improved leaps and bounds". That's the best one you can have as far as I know.

[Hazza22299]

I know you asked Cleon but I hope you don't mind me trying to answer he seems busy at the moment but I would say just going on the wording that the one with the most development is "significantly improved as a football" then the middle one is "Improved a lot" and then "Improved" on it's own.

Thanks, it seems like Remarkably improved is the highest although I may be wrong.

Edit: Just seen Sleepy Dude's comment

[tomtuck01]

Cleon is a she

Yeah, uhm, he's not in the slightest. Though it's not really relevant either way.

-------

Finally got around to playing my own Ajax save a bit more, so I'll post how Dejan Meleg is coming along as a CM - DLP later on when I'm home from work. He's improved a fair bit from the start of season two.

[lewis999]

Cleon is a she

Also the one I always hope to see in the end of season training summary is "improved leaps and bounds". That's the best one you can have as far as I know.

He's not, the other day he said he couldn't be on because of the wife and he also has a kid so i'm pretty sure that was just a bit of a joke.

[Gee_Simpson]

He's not, the other day he said he couldn't be on because of the wife and he also has a kid so i'm pretty sure that was just a bit of a joke.

Thanks for clearing this up as I wasn't sure either!

[Hazza22299]

Does it really matter if he/she's male or female?

[tomtuck01]

Does it really matter if he/she's male or female?

Yes. I couldn't respect a female who wasted her time playing FM when she should be making dinner, ironing, etc.

[tomtuck01]

As promised earlier I will now update on how Dejan Meleg is coming along. Firstly, herr is a post back on page four of how he looked back in August 2013.

Here is now in December 2014;

He has improved steadily if not spectacularly in the past 14 months, and this will probably be due to the lack of game time I have afforded to him. He still has plenty of time to improve yet, and hopefully I will get more chances to rotate the team over the next half of the season.

[Cleon]

I've been away so not been around, I'll try and catch up with the questions tomorrow though.

[Cleon]

As promised earlier I will now update on how Dejan Meleg is coming along. Firstly, herr is a post back on page four of how he looked back in August 2013.

Here is now in December 2014;

He has improved steadily if not spectacularly in the past 14 months, and this will probably be due to the lack of game time I have afforded to him. He still has plenty of time to improve yet, and hopefully I will get more chances to rotate the team over the next half of the season.

He's plodding along, I experienced the same. But he improved greatly once he hit 21 in my save, I'll try and put some more screenshots up of him towards the weekend.

Will he start to get more games now or is it to hard to drop De Jong, Eriksen and Andersen?

[tomtuck01]

He's plodding along, I experienced the same. But he improved greatly once he hit 21 in my save, I'll try and put some more screenshots up of him towards the weekend.

Will he start to get more games now or is it to hard to drop De Jong, Eriksen and Andersen?

I hope so, but to be fair he's not exactly in bad shape as it is.

It has been difficult to get him in. I've finally got Eriksen playing a good run of games, and I've also got Adryan who has developed at a superb rate. De Jong i use as my Striker (Deep Lying Forward), and Andersen primarily plays at AMR.

Until recently i also had Dennis Praet who was marginally ahead of him. Now Praet has gone, Meleg will get straight in if Eriksen or Adryan is missing.

[fuzzrab]

HI Cleon.

Great thread. It has really inspired me to take more notice of player development. So much so i have ditched my long term Rangers save and started again trying to implement your way of training. I will probably only se the benefits when I reach the SPL and stop hemorrhaging (SP? spellcheck says thats right but looks wrong to me) money each season thus being able to improve coaches and facilities.

KUTGW. looking forward to the updates when you have a chance to get them up.

[djennings1301]

Question for Cleon - I've been through the thread and I apologize if someone has already asked this ( if they have, just tell me im dense and to piddle off). How do you handle selling players? Do you transfer lust them and actively try to move them, or do you just wait for an reasonable bid to come in? And at what age? when they are fully developed? Do you handle selling players who you know won't be good enough any differently? Sorry, guess i should have said 4 questions

[Cleon]

Question for Cleon - I've been through the thread and I apologize if someone has already asked this ( if they have, just tell me im dense and to piddle off). How do you handle selling players? Do you transfer lust them and actively try to move them, or do you just wait for an reasonable bid to come in? And at what age? when they are fully developed? Do you handle selling players who you know won't be good enough any differently? Sorry, guess i should have said 4 questions

I sell any player who asks for more than 50k wages because I wanted to keep the wage bill down and not give in to pressure of high wages. So anyone who asks for 50k+ will be moved on and I'll promote someone from the youth team to replace them.

And I'll also sell a player if I recieve a crazy bid because I've always got a youth who can step up and replace them.

I don't really have to sell anyone as I have around £300 million in the bank and over a £200 million transfer kitty after 7 seasons. I just do it to keep the game fresh and allow me to bring the next batch of youths through

[tomtuck01]

£50,000 p/w? Christ that's high - I'm approaching the end of season three and have managed to keep it capped at £20,000 p/w. Although I anticipate that will be a bit of a problem for me come around 2017.

[djennings1301]

Thanks for the quick response. Being an American, i don't post too much because i am intimidated by everyone's vastly superior tactical knowledge, so let me ask a few more while i have my courage up. What do you consider crazy amount? 2-3x value? Or is that being unrealistic? I know it also depends on the player.

Also, what formation have you been working with on this save? I have been messing about with a 4-3-3 with a flat midfield and inside forward wingers, and a 4-3-3 with a DM against tougher sides. Success has been good so far. Because of these scope of this thread, i will understand if you don't want to go down this rabbit hole.

For the past two years, i have searching g for a different style of game other than my usual long term Liverpool save, and this thread has me highly intrigued. In my opinion, this is the best thread onthe forum. Thanks for letting a tactical noob such as myself pick your brain!

[Cleon]

£50,000 p/w? Christ that's high - I'm approaching the end of season three and have managed to keep it capped at £20,000 p/w. Although I anticipate that will be a bit of a problem for me come around 2017.

I've only had 1 player ask for that so far so its not been too bad in all honesty. But as I'm winning the Champs League fairly often I think that's about to change. I still have Eriksen though on 22k a week