When to stop training new position?

[Bromley Raven]

I had a player (Tom Ince) who I wanted to play as ML but he was only competent there. Through training and playing him there I've managed to get him to natural. A few questions:

If I take him off new position training but keep playing him there will he drop to accomplished?

If I take him off new position training but he doesn't play for a while (e.g. injured or between seasons) will he drop to accomplished?

If I keep him on new position training but he doesn't play for a while will he drop to accomplished?

If I keep training and playing here will he get to a point where he is automatically taken off new position training and stays natural permanently?

[zenzen]

I don't think they ever get natural permanently, and I have two players trained to play on their non-natural positions and not training anymore, the only drop I saw was when one of them was out with an injury for a month or so.

[oneronaldo]

To get them to reach "Natural" for a certain position, playing them there can help as they get more and more familiar with the position. But if you don't play them there often, its really hard to maintain it at Natural.

[Norfair]

Don't stop training them there. Even if you play them, they'll gradually lose the ability. At least that's what has happened for me.

[conshaldo_bonaldo]

Playing there helps to get them natural and keep it natural, but will have to play there often.

[Kick Wilstra]

My experiences is that once a player is natural he will stay natural without further training if he plays in that position regularly. It depends a bit on the players as wel though. There's a hidden attribute versatility, a player with high versatility will become natural quicker, is likely to maintain that without further training, even if he isn't played in that position very often. A player with low versatility needs to both training and playing time in that position to maintain his familiarity.

Although versatility is a hidden attribute, there are a few indicators. Listed from quick and dirty to slow but accurate:

- Players who are already natural, accomplished or competent on a range of positions are usually more versatile than those with just one natural positions and not much else.

- Versatile players are more likely to get a decent rating if they're played in an unfamiliar position than players with low versatility. Some experimentation in friendly matches could give you an insight here.

- Versatile players will gain familiarity with new positions much quicker and loose it much slower. I've trained one of my central defenders to right back with sole purpose of gaining a good tutor for that position. I never played him in that position and he started with 0 familiarity, still he had already gained accomplished level when I did a checked his progression 3 months later. He's of positional training over a year now, isn't played here but still accomplished. I've had an other player who took better part of a season to raise a position from competent to accomplished.

[jere_d]

I think K W i right once natural it'll stay for ever no matter where you play him

[Norfair]

I disagree, I have a player who lost his trained natural DL position quite quickly once I stopped training him for it. And he gained it quite quickly too so there's gotta be a high versatility rating there.

I stand by what I said.