Training & Youth Intake - A Brief Guide **Updated for FM20**

[herne79]

Kindly updated for FM20 by @Seb Wassell

Training

Foreword

For FM19 we completely overhauled training!

It is possible to take as large or as small a role in training as you wish. The Assistant Manager is fully qualified to run training in your absence, he will base his decisions on your tactics, the time of season and his own attributes and preferences.

Taking control yourself allows you to set training from our extensive list of templates on the Training > Calendar page or delve into each and switch one session for another, creating bespoke schedules for the situation at hand. The Assistant always sets training up ahead of time for you, so if you wish to have him mostly run it but dip in and tweak here and there you absolutely can. The easiest way of doing this is directly from the weekly training preview news item that you will receive each Sunday evening. You can even create your own schedules from scratch on the Training > Schedules page and apply them to the Calendar months in advance.
The more specific you wish to be with training the more specialised of a squad you can craft. Training has both short term - the upcoming match - and longer term - player development and attribute growth - influences.

The best piece of advice is to take your time, learn the system and try to get inside the head of a real manager.

Basics

Training is run weekly via Schedules.
Each schedule is made up of Sessions.
There are 3 sessions per day, Session 1, Session 2 and Extra. 
Each session is available for training in a wide variety of exercises, from general team Outfield work to specific Chance Conversion work and even Team Bonding.

Units

The team is split up into training Units.
These are Goalkeeping, Defensive and Attacking.
By default players are placed into the most suitable unit for them; strikers into Attacking, centre backs into Defensive, etc.
It is possible to move a player from one unit to another. It is also possible to promote a youngster from the youth or reserve team into a senior unit, where he will train on the senior schedule.
The unit a player is in defines what part he takes in each training session.

Sessions

Sessions are training exercises run on general or specific ares of the game.
Sessions are either performed as a whole team or in units.
Each session has Impacts. These are how the sessions will affect the players.

Impacts

Each session has various impacts, including the attributes it influences, any tactical familiarity gained, the risk of injury during said session and so on.
Each session can have up to three focuses, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary.
Each focus will receive a different amount of attention, and as such the impacts will both differ in type and weighting.
When training in units, each unit receives a different focus. As such, some units may receive 60% of the coaches' attention whilst another may only receive 20%.
Whilst team sessions are performed as a whole group, there can still be different focuses.

• For example, 'General > Attacking' sees all Outfield players (that is the Attacking and Defensive units) train together, switching places during the session to allow both attack and defence. As such, all players receive 60% focus on attacking attributes, such as Crossing, Dribbling, etc., and 20% focus on defensive attributes, such as Marking, Tackling, etc. The Goalkeeping unit receives 20% of the focus on their specific GK impacts.

Training that is split into positional units has one unit work against the other to complete the exercise, with a certain unit being the main focus of the session.

• For example, 'Attacking > Attacking Wings' sees the Attacking unit as the main focus of the session, receiving 60% of the attention, meaning a 60% focus on the attributes and impacts listed, such as Anticipation, Finishing, etc. and the associated impacts, such as a slightly increased injury risk. The Defensive and Goalkeeping units work to defend against the Attacking unit and whilst they are not the main focus of the session, they still receive 20% of the attention each, meaning a 20% focus on their relative attributes and other impacts.

For FM20 we have added three new training sessions!
Attacking overlap, defending from the front and playing from the back.

Intensity

Each session has various impacts, as discussed above. Some of these impacts are things like Injury Risk and Condition.
Intensity is Injury Risk + Condition.
Each day in the schedule has an Intensity associated with it, the combination of Injury Risk + Condition for all three sessions that day. 
This is measured against the %age of an average match.
Only match days would be expected to hit 100%. Only the most intense training would exceed this, with most training days falling comfortably below 100%.
Intensity can be measured for each individual unit or the team as a whole.

Mentoring

Mentoring is how more influential players in the squad pass on their experience to younger players.
Mentoring allows the manager to group players together for the purpose of sharing Player Traits (PPMs) and passing on desirable (or undesirable) personality traits.
Players must be in the same squad to mentor one another and each group must consist of at least 3 players.
A good starting point is one experienced professional that is a social leader grouped with several younger up-and-coming players that play in a similar position.
It is also possible to set up a short period of one-on-one mentoring via the 'Welcome to club' interaction on signing a new player. This will invite a current player to mentor the new signing off the pitch for a short period of time and ease his transition into his new group of teammates. This affects personality and settling at the club only, no Player Traits (PPMs) are passed.

Individual Training

Individual training has moved in a more realistic direction.
Complimentary attributes are now grouped together, where it would be impossible to train one without influencing the other.
Some attributes are no longer available under individual training. This is because it is not realistic to be able to train these on a one-on-one basis. They are included in the team and unit training sessions however.

For FM20 we have added to Individual Training!
There are now brand new bespoke Goalkeeper focuses alongside reworked outfield focuses, which include the ability to individually train Crossing and Heading.

Best Practice

Pre-Season

It is advisable to run a proper pre-season, whether this be from our list of pre-season templates or your creating your own. If left to the Assistant, he will run pre-season according to his preferences.

During pre-season players will most likely be at their minimum level of fatigue, the exception being those returning from summer international duty. When fatigue is low a player that works hard physically (sessions that increase fatigue) will improve his long term fitness, meaning he can stave off jadedness longer into the season. However, when a player is already becoming fatigued, sessions that are overly physical (increase fatigue) will tire the player further, meaning he will eventually become jaded.
As such, if you run a proper pre-season the players will remain fitter and last longer into the season proper. Under-working the players in pre-season or over-working the players during the season itself will lead to fatigue.
Of course, too much physical work at any time raises the risk of injury, but this can be an acceptable trade-off if you wish to work the players hard.
Pre-season is also a great time to work on those physical attributes that simply cannot be worked on in any great amount during the season itself due to the fixture schedule.

Matches

It is important to have a Match Preview session before each match, this contains the Pre-match Briefing.
It is also important to run a recovery session after a match and/or allow the players some rest. This is important for regaining condition and staving off injury and fatigue, especially during busy periods.

Sessions

Other than during pre-season or periods of deliberately working the players hard, say a week with no match, it is not advisable to run more than 2 sessions per day, leaving the Extra sessions as Rest.

Fatigue

Employing a Sports Science is essential to both reducing fatigue and improving recovery from jadedness.

Coaches - NEW

[Seb Wassell]

Newgens & Youth Intake

Youth Recruitment
The Club’s recruiting of Juniors, those of home and foreign origin.

Youth Facilities
The training facilities available for Juniors (only).
Does NOT apply to visible players already at the club. All visible players currently at the club use Training Facilities regardless of age.

Junior Coaching
The quality and quantity of Junior Coaches at the Club.

Nation Youth Rating
The potential maximum quality and quantity of Juniors produced in that Nation.

Game Importance
How important football is considered to be in that Nation.

Producing Newgens
The Clubs with the best Youth Recruitment will generally pick up the best Junior talent from that Nation first, the scale of that talent being determined by the Nation Youth Rating and Game Importance. The lower the Youth Recruitment the further down the pecking order a club will find itself. Two clubs with identical Youth Recruitment will be sorted by Club Reputation. Being lower down this pecking order does not mean quality Newgens cannot be produced, it simply lowers the chances.
Youth Facilities and Junior Coaching then simulate and determine how that Junior progresses in the Club’s Junior system until a Newgen is produced and appears in game. It is at this point that the Current Ability (CA) and Potential Ability (PA) of the newgens are decided. The above factors all contribute to both CA and PA equally.

Head of Youth Development (HoYD)
The club’s HoYD is responsible for bringing Newgens into the club. He will influence what “type” of players are selected and can partially or fully pass on his personality to some of these Newgens. The “type” of players selected refers to a player’s position and style, for instance a HoYD with a preferred 4-5-1 formation and a Technical Coaching Style may produce more technically styled midfielders than another HoYD.
The HoYD will also influence the rare “freak” or exceptional Newgens that come through, modifying their ability and style.
This role is filled by the HoYD by default, however if none is employed whichever staff member is set to be responsible for youth development will fill this role.

Youth Intake Preview

In FM20 the Development Centre will provide a preview of the upcoming youth intake ahead of the day itself.
This preview will provide some information on the general quality of the intake, positions that are either blessed with or lacking in quality and any other notable highlights.

Junior Player Poaching

In FM20 it is possible for Juniors to be poached from another club's youth system. This will most commonly occur from smaller reputation club > larger reputation club.
When this occurs a inbox item is received, offering a few details (similar to that of the Youth Intake Preview) on the player that has been poached. Poached players will appear in the next appropriate youth intake.

[Extra Time FM]

A great read. Thanks Herne. It's certainly something I'm getting to grips with. Normally I let me assistant take control. 

[joekim87]

I have a question about youth development training.

 

I am currently playing as Liverpool so all my training facilities are top notch. I have a couple of 16 year olds I want to develop. I believe that until the age of 18, training is more important than match experience. So, is it better to have my 16 year olds train in the U18s squad, OR, should I have them train with my main squad and make them available for the U18s team? Or, does it not really matter?

 

Thank you!

[Pedroig]

4 hours ago, joekim87 said:

I have a question about youth development training.

 

I am currently playing as Liverpool so all my training facilities are top notch. I have a couple of 16 year olds I want to develop. I believe that until the age of 18, training is more important than match experience. So, is it better to have my 16 year olds train in the U18s squad, OR, should I have them train with my main squad and make them available for the U18s team? Or, does it not really matter?

 

Thank you!

From another thread:

On 30/10/2019 at 21:26, Rashidi said:

General rules of thumb I follow

1. If a player is 18 years old, he must play regularly, but he shouldn't be overplayed. He still needs time to train.

2. Playing time with first team is valuable but only if he is good enough and its in games we can actually win

3. If a 4-5 star player is 18 years old and he hasn't got the attributes to play in my first team. I have failed at my job. There is absolutely no reason why a high potential youth player can't be good enough to start at least cup games in your first team squad. This usually points to a problem with the youth team. Check youth team for excessive injuries/ poor training schedules

I usually only keep 1-2 players of 4-5 star potential in my club. Nearly every other player is loaned out, and only to clubs who are playing competitively and where my player gets game time. 

The reason why i don't like leaving them in the U23s. There are some leagues where the U23 is actually a death sentence for development. They hardly have competitions worth playing in, so you need to continually check their schedule or loan them out as well, or go create competitions for them. Even in my saves, the worst players in the club, the ones i want to sell or haven't got time for are in the U23s. My vault, my future, my prized assets are my youth team. And from these prized assets ONLY the very best stay at the age of 18 walk into my first team. The ones who have the potential or are nearly there are loaned out, these are usually my 3-4 stars. The ones who have low potential are there to make up the numbers. I do track how each and every player is doing. 

If you manage the youth teams well, you can get some explosive development. And these players out on loan - if they go to good clubs with good facilities they can sometimes surprise you. One of my best experiences was seeing a 4 star player who had some potential spend around 3 seasons back in Portugal playing for Sporting Lisbon on loan. I was disappointed he didn't walk into my first team. He spent 3 years there on loan as i considered his future. With his contract running out in a year I brought him back. His loan reports were crazy good, when he came back he walked into my first team at the age of 21 and became one of the greatest players i ever had. 

This approach works, very very well. Actually too well, but seeing the new interactive trailer by SI I guess thats the best approach to take. If you can't play him at the age of 18 in your club, you have to play him somewhere where he has the chance to prove himself. Take your team and find the right team for him.

 

On 18/11/2019 at 18:17, Seb Wassell said:

Broadly the best advice is this:

<18 training and mentoring are paramount, with match time important but secondary

18< match time is paramount, with training and mentoring important but secondary

Match time must be at an appropriate level for the player's ability

So if they are a STUD <18, get them on the First Team, to get full benefits of mentoring, make available for the U18's, else let them train/develop on the U18 with the best facilities (not youth facilities) and U18 coaches you can afford/get. (Liverpool shouldn't have much of a problem in either of those departments)

[joekim87]

18 hours ago, Pedroig said:

From another thread:

 

So if they are a STUD <18, get them on the First Team, to get full benefits of mentoring, make available for the U18's, else let them train/develop on the U18 with the best facilities (not youth facilities) and U18 coaches you can afford/get. (Liverpool shouldn't have much of a problem in either of those departments)

Thank you so much! Cleared up everything I wanted to know/

[The Solman]

On 29/10/2019 at 14:20, herne79 said:

Kindly updated for FM20 by @Seb Wassell

Training

Foreword

For FM19 we completely overhauled training!

It is possible to take as big or as small a role in training as you wish. The Assistant Manager is fully qualified to run training in your absence, he will base his decisions on your tactics, the time of season and his own attributes and preferences.

Taking control yourself allows you to set training from our extensive list of templates on the Training > Calendar page or delve into each and switch one session for another, creating bespoke schedules for the situation at hand. The Assistant always sets training up ahead of time for you, so if you wish to have him mostly run it but dip in and tweak here and there you absolutely can. The easiest way of doing this is directly from the weekly training preview news item that you will receive each Sunday evening. You can even create your own schedules from scratch on the Training > Schedules page and apply them to the Calendar months in advance.
The more specific you wish to be with training the more specialised of a squad you can craft. Training has both short term - the upcoming match - and longer term - player development and attribute growth - influences.

The best piece of advice is to take your time, learn the system and try to get inside the head of a real manager.

Basics

Training is run weekly via Schedules.
Each schedule is made up of Sessions.
There are 3 sessions per day, Session 1, Session 2 and Extra. 
Each session is available for training in a wide variety of exercises, from general team Outfield work to specific Chance Conversion work and even Team Bonding.

Units

The team is split up into training Units.
These are Goalkeeping, Defensive and Attacking.
By default players are placed into the most suitable unit for them; strikers into Attacking, centre backs into Defensive, etc.
It is possible to move a player from one unit to another. It is also possible to promote a youngster from the youth or reserve team into a senior unit, where he will train on the senior schedule.
The unit a player is in defines what part he takes in each training session.

Sessions

Sessions are training exercises run on general or specific ares of the game.
Sessions are either performed as a whole team or in units.
Each session has Impacts. These are how the sessions will affect the players.

Impacts

Each session has various impacts, including the attributes it influences, any tactical familiarity gained, the risk of injury during said session and so on.
Each session can have up to three focuses, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary.
Each focus will receive a different amount of attention, and as such the impacts will both differ in type and weighting.
When training in units, each unit receives a different focus. As such, some units may receive 60% of the coaches' attention whilst another may only receive 20%.
Whilst team sessions are performed as a whole group, there can still be different focuses.

• For example, 'General > Attacking' sees all Outfield players (that is the Attacking and Defensive units) train together, switching places during the session to allow both attack and defence. As such, all players receive 60% focus on attacking attributes, such as Crossing, Dribbling, etc., and 20% focus on defensive attributes, such as Marking, Tackling, etc. The Goalkeeping unit receives 20% of the focus on their specific GK impacts.

Training that is split into positional units has one unit work against the other to complete the exercise, with a certain unit being the main focus of the session.

• For example, 'Attacking > Attacking Wings' sees the Attacking unit as the main focus of the session, receiving 60% of the attention, meaning a 60% focus on the attributes and impacts listed, such as Anticipation, Finishing, etc. and the associated impacts, such as a slightly increased injury risk. The Defensive and Goalkeeping units work to defend against the Attacking unit and whilst they are not the main focus of the session, they still receive 20% of the attention each, meaning a 20% focus on their relative attributes and other impacts.

For FM20 we have added three new training sessions!
Attacking overlap, defending from the front and playing from the back.

Intensity

Each session has various impacts, as discussed above. Some of these impacts are things like Injury Risk and Condition.
Intensity is Injury Risk + Condition.
Each day in the schedule has an Intensity associated with it, the combination of Injury Risk + Condition for all three sessions that day. 
This is measured against the %age of an average match.
Only match days would be expected to hit 100%. Only the most intense training would exceed this, with most training days falling comfortably below 100%.
Intensity can be measured for each individual unit or the team as a whole.

Mentoring

Mentoring is how more influential players in the squad pass on their experience to younger players.
Mentoring allows the manager to group players together for the purpose of sharing Player Traits (PPMs) and passing on desirable (or undesirable) personality traits.
Players must be in the same squad to mentor one another and each group must consist of at least 3 players.
A good starting point is one experienced professional that is a social leader grouped with several younger up-and-coming players that play in a similar position.
It is also possible to set up a short period of one-on-one mentoring via the 'Welcome to club' interaction on signing a new player. This will invite a current player to mentor the new signing off the pitch for a short period of time and ease his transition into his new group of teammates. This affects personality and settling at the club only, no Player Traits (PPMs) are passed.

Individual Training

Individual training has moved in a more realistic direction.
Complimentary attributes are now grouped together, where it would be impossible to train one without influencing the other.
Some attributes are no longer available under individual training. This is because it is not realistic to be able to train these on a one-on-one basis. They are included in the team and unit training sessions however.

For FM20 we have added to Individual Training!
There are now brand new bespoke Goalkeeper focuses alongside reworked outfield focuses, which include the ability to individually train Crossing and Heading.

Best Practice

Pre-Season

It is advisable to run a proper pre-season, whether this be from our list of pre-season templates or your creating your own. If left to the Assistant, he will run pre-season according to his preferences.

During pre-season players will most likely be at their minimum level of fatigue, the exception being those returning from summer international duty. When fatigue is low a player that works hard physically (sessions that increase fatigue) will improve his long term fitness, meaning he can stave off jadedness longer into the season. However, when a player is already becoming fatigued, sessions that are overly physical (increase fatigue) will tire the player further, meaning he will eventually become jaded.
As such, if you run a proper pre-season the players will remain fitter and last longer into the season proper. Under-working the players in pre-season or over-working the players during the season itself will lead to fatigue.
Of course, too much physical work at any time raises the risk of injury, but this can be an acceptable trade-off if you wish to work the players hard.
Pre-season is also a great time to work on those physical attributes that simply cannot be worked on in any great amount during the season itself due to the fixture schedule.

Matches

It is important to have a Match Preview session before each match, this contains the Pre-match Briefing.
It is also important to run a recovery session after a match and/or allow the players some rest. This is important for regaining condition and staving off injury and fatigue, especially during busy periods.

Sessions

Other than during pre-season or periods of deliberately working the players hard, say a week with no match, it is not advisable to run more than 2 sessions per day, leaving the Extra sessions as Rest.

Fatigue

Employing a Sports Science is essential to both reducing fatigue and improving recovery from jadedness.

I am really interested to know how I should approach training with my Arsenal side. I am looking to play a 4-2-3-1 with counter pressing and a high tempo. Am I meant to approach training with that in mind or are you trying to work every single element or picking and choosing thsoe suitable to your style of play?

[Seb Wassell]

On 27/11/2019 at 17:55, The Solman said:

I am really interested to know how I should approach training with my Arsenal side. I am looking to play a 4-2-3-1 with counter pressing and a high tempo. Am I meant to approach training with that in mind or are you trying to work every single element or picking and choosing thsoe suitable to your style of play?

In a very broad sense, I would say you want to train for your tactic. Which means a good balance between preparing the team for the next match and crafting their attributes towards those that are most useful for your playing style.

For something that involves high tempo, counter pressing I would suggest looking at the 'Gegenpress' default schedule. It is specifically designed for that style of play. You can then tweak from there as you see fit.

[dioniz]

Are youth coaches coaching youth players already visible or junior players that are not yet visible and are coming through youth ranks in few years? 

[alanschu14]

Youth coaches are the ones that will be assigned to your youth team (typically U18 or U19 team), but not the junior pre-intake players.

You can see this a bit more clearly when you look at the coaching assignments for the youth team (as it'll have primarily your youth coaches! You'll also see which coaches are able to work double duty between youth team and junior team)

[thefmveteran]

This is a great read and contains very useful information.

[53bast1an]

Perfect. And very helpful as I'm working on an article with a similar topic in German

[OlivierL]

A question about mentoring. I know we can create groups in our first team and youth team(s) :

I think it is better to promote the good U18's to the first team and put them in a mentoring group from the first team ? Is it also a good idea to promote the best U18's to the first team 'units' ?

What about the mentoring group in youth teams, are they useful ? Or just promote all the hot prospects to the first team and mentor them their ? 

Players +18 get first team apps or are loaned out to teams where they should get games with if possible good training facilities . I think that is the right approach ?

Edited December 23, 2019 by OlivierL

[Marbah]

On 14/11/2019 at 18:37, Seb Wassell said:

Newgens & Youth Intake

Youth Recruitment
The Club’s recruiting of Juniors, those of home and foreign origin.

Youth Facilities
The training facilities available for Juniors (only).
Does NOT apply to visible players already at the club. All visible players currently at the club use Training Facilities regardless of age.

Junior Coaching
The quality and quantity of Junior Coaches at the Club.

Nation Youth Rating
The potential maximum quality and quantity of Juniors produced in that Nation.

Game Importance
How important football is considered to be in that Nation.

Producing Newgens
The Clubs with the best Youth Recruitment will generally pick up the best Junior talent from that Nation first, the scale of that talent being determined by the Nation Youth Rating and Game Importance. The lower the Youth Recruitment the further down the pecking order a club will find itself. Two clubs with identical Youth Recruitment will be sorted by Club Reputation. Being lower down this pecking order does not mean quality Newgens cannot be produced, it simply lowers the chances.
Youth Facilities and Junior Coaching then simulate and determine how that Junior progresses in the Club’s Junior system until a Newgen is produced and appears in game. It is at this point that the Current Ability (CA) and Potential Ability (PA) of the newgens are decided. The above factors all contribute to both CA and PA equally.

Head of Youth Development (HoYD)
The club’s HoYD is responsible for bringing Newgens into the club. He will influence what “type” of players are selected and can partially or fully pass on his personality to some of these Newgens. The “type” of players selected refers to a player’s position and style, for instance a HoYD with a preferred 4-5-1 formation and a Technical Coaching Style may produce more technically styled midfielders than another HoYD.
The HoYD will also influence the rare “freak” or exceptional Newgens that come through, modifying their ability and style.
This role is filled by the HoYD by default, however if none is employed whichever staff member is set to be responsible for youth development will fill this role.

Youth Intake Preview

In FM20 the Development Centre will provide a preview of the upcoming youth intake ahead of the day itself.
This preview will provide some information on the general quality of the intake, positions that are either blessed with or lacking in quality and any other notable highlights.

Junior Player Poaching

In FM20 it is possible for Juniors to be poached from another club's youth system. This will most commonly occur from smaller reputation club > larger reputation club.
When this occurs a inbox item is received, offering a few details (similar to that of the Youth Intake Preview) on the player that has been poached. Poached players will appear in the next appropriate youth intake.

Hi there, late to the party but I have a tiny question.

Is there any guide or explanation of what the phrases in the 1st youth intake message mean? 'looks promising', 'has the ability to go far', 'showing great potential', ' etc. what should I look for in my intakes and what should I avoid?

 

[Seb Wassell]

On 10/03/2020 at 12:46, Marbah said:

Hi there, late to the party but I have a tiny question.

Is there any guide or explanation of what the phrases in the 1st youth intake message mean? 'looks promising', 'has the ability to go far', 'showing great potential', ' etc. what should I look for in my intakes and what should I avoid?

That would be telling. There is no "X adjective = Y ability".

[ScoreMore (Mico)]

When looking for an assistant manager who would take care of training, what attributes would you say are important? (not talking about preferred formation and style here).  Thanks

[Guest]

General Rule:

- JPA (Judging Player Ability)
- JPP
- Man Management
- Determination
- Level of Discipline
- Tactical Knowledge

For training I will search

- Motivating
- Attacking
- Defending
- Technical
- Tactical
- Mental

Personality

- Model Citizen
- Model Professional
- Professional
- Perfectionist
- Fairly Professional

This what I am searching for AM.

[Seb Wassell]

If you are hiring a member of staff (Assistant, Coach, Under X Manager, etc.) for training purposes only, these are the attributes you'll want to pay attention to:

Determination, Level of Discipline and Motivating apply to all categories

Working With Youngsters applies when working with youth teams 

Edit - Updated FM20 - 11/05/2020

[ScoreMore (Mico)]

Thank you. My question is however, attributes for an assistant manager who sets up the schedule.  So let´s say 2 assistant managers with the same preferred style, formation etc.  Are there any attributes which would make one set up better training schedules than the other?  Thank you

[Experienced Defender]

11 hours ago, ScoreMore (Mico) said:

Thank you. My question is however, attributes for an assistant manager who sets up the schedule.  So let´s say 2 assistant managers with the same preferred style, formation etc.  Are there any attributes which would make one set up better training schedules than the other?  Thank you

Not sure, but I guess the Tactical knowledge attribute should be welcome.

[ScoreMore (Mico)]

thanks Experienced Defender

[KrKAlex]

Hi everybody,

Thank you for this useful post. 

[Sergiob Ramos]

On 21/03/2020 at 08:56, Seb Wassell said:

If you are hiring an Assistant, or coach, for training purposes, these are the attributes you'll want to pay attention to:

Determination, Level of Discipline and Motivating apply to all categories

Working With Youngsters applies when working with youth teams 

Thanks for this very helpful! 

[Tilling]

 

On 14/11/2019 at 16:37, Seb Wassell said:

Head of Youth Development (HoYD)

This role is filled by the HoYD by default, however if none is employed whichever staff member is set to be responsible for youth development will fill this role.

 

Does this mean that if you have an U18's manager who would be a better Head of Youth Development (but won't sign a contract to be a HOYD), you could sack your current HOYD and allocate the responsibility to the U18s manager? Would that work the same way as appointing the U18s manager as the Head of Youth Development?

[zlatanera]

@Tilling Yeah you can select a different staff member and their tactical style etc. will influence the newgens instead. At Sampdoria they have a club legend who is a rubbish HoYD so I selected the Director of Football instead. 

You don't even have to sack your HoYD. Just go Staff -> Responsibilities -> Overall -> (Scroll Down) Youth Development and change who is selected (and press Confirm of course). 

EDIT: Above only applies up to FM19. 

Edited April 12, 2020 by zlatanera
I did not know what I thought I knew

[Tilling]

4 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

@Tilling Yeah you can select a different staff member and their tactical style etc. will influence the newgens instead. At Sampdoria they have a club legend who is a rubbish HoYD so I selected the Director of Football instead. 

You don't even have to sack your HoYD. Just go Staff -> Responsibilities -> Overall -> (Scroll Down) Youth Development and change who is selected (and press Confirm of course). 

I can't seem to find anything other than Provides Youth Development Information

[zlatanera]

3 minutes ago, Tilling said:

I can't seem to find anything other than Provides Youth Development Information

Ah my bad. Forgot that I'm not on the most current FM so that was bad advice. I'll amend my post to say it only applies up to FM19 and hopefully mr. Wassell will help you out  

[lbowman6]

In my game I have created a reserve ‘II’ team for RB Leipzig in my save.

Currently they are playing friendly matches, but is there a way to ensure they are entered into the German lower leagues in my save next season?

For example Bayern Munich’s II team play in the lower divisions..

[Weston]

I'm getting incredibly poor youth candidates, which isn't in and of itself terribly unrealistic as I'm a club that has gone from Serie C to Serie A in a few short years, but I still feel a little surprised. I'm the biggest club in my region of the country, I've upgraded my youth recruitment and facilities every change I get (they're being upgraded again right now), and I have a pretty solid HoYD and U20 and U18 staff I put a lot of time into searching for.

Obviously any advice in terms of getting better youth candidates is welcome, as tired as I'm sure everyone is of hearing that, but my real questions is, is it bad if I just don't sign any of them? Maybe I sign one or two? I've reached the point where I have very few players below the first team and have consolidated them all to the U20s and left the U18s empty. I do a lot of scouting and poach a lot of good young players to add, but not enough to make up the numbers, and I usually loan them out anyway.

I used to just sign all the youth candidates and let what happens happen. But now I'm being picky and will let poor attributes or personality dissuade me from keeping them, which is most of them. Will I regret this in the future? Or no, because most of them would leave eventually anyway? Am I saving enough in wages for it to make a dent in finances? Any perspective is helpful.

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, Weston said:

I'm getting incredibly poor youth candidates, which isn't in and of itself terribly unrealistic as I'm a club that has gone from Serie C to Serie A in a few short years, but I still feel a little surprised. I'm the biggest club in my region of the country, I've upgraded my youth recruitment and facilities every change I get (they're being upgraded again right now), and I have a pretty solid HoYD and U20 and U18 staff I put a lot of time into searching for.

Obviously any advice in terms of getting better youth candidates is welcome, as tired as I'm sure everyone is of hearing that, but my real questions is, is it bad if I just don't sign any of them? Maybe I sign one or two? I've reached the point where I have very few players below the first team and have consolidated them all to the U20s and left the U18s empty. I do a lot of scouting and poach a lot of good young players to add, but not enough to make up the numbers, and I usually loan them out anyway.

I used to just sign all the youth candidates and let what happens happen. But now I'm being picky and will let poor attributes or personality dissuade me from keeping them, which is most of them. Will I regret this in the future? Or no, because most of them would leave eventually anyway? Am I saving enough in wages for it to make a dent in finances? Any perspective is helpful.

It depends from "youth importance" of your club.

It is a hidden parameter. I don't know why SI keeps hide these important factor.

[Weston]

5 minutes ago, Cadoni said:

It depends from "youth importance" of your club.

It is a hidden parameter. I don't know why SI keeps hide these important factor.

My club went bankrupt the year before I took over and it came up from Serie D, but I don't think the game factors this in, as I imagine they'd have lost all their youth players too?

In any case, will I suffer if I drop almost all of the youth candidates I'm getting?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Weston said:

My club went bankrupt the year before I took over and it came up from Serie D, but I don't think the game factors this in, as I imagine they'd have lost all their youth players too?

In any case, will I suffer if I drop almost all of the youth candidates I'm getting?

The youth quality it depends by "youth importance" as well as from other parameters (youth requi. range etc).

I don't think negative money balance has to do something with this.

[zlatanera]

@Weston even on FM19 I'd not sign guys who had terrible personalities and/or poor potential - its just a waste of time. 

If you're in Serie A youth contracts really aren't making a dent in your finances, but what's the point of keeping around a player you won't care about enough to focus on his training and development? 

I do look closely at each player though - one that only has 3-star potential but attributes in all the right places and a good personality might be more worth keeping around than a guy with an extra half star who'll require a lot more work on his game. 

[Weston]

1 hour ago, zlatanera said:

@Weston even on FM19 I'd not sign guys who had terrible personalities and/or poor potential - its just a waste of time. 

If you're in Serie A youth contracts really aren't making a dent in your finances, but what's the point of keeping around a player you won't care about enough to focus on his training and development? 

I do look closely at each player though - one that only has 3-star potential but attributes in all the right places and a good personality might be more worth keeping around than a guy with an extra half star who'll require a lot more work on his game. 

Guess I'll just sign the least bad two out of a sense of obligation and then redouble my efforts in looking for prospects to sign from the outside  

[Seb Wassell]

On 16/04/2020 at 17:03, Cadoni said:

It depends from "youth importance" of your club.

It is a hidden parameter. I don't know why SI keeps hide these important factor.

I am assuming you are referring to the Youth Importance hidden attribute. If so, you are speculating and you are incorrect.

Youth Importance is how important the current board consider youth to be. This is attached to the board and not the club. It is used in a number of places, such as contributing to the Club Vision. It is also used in deciding whether to upgrade youth related facilities, such as Youth Recruitment. It has no direct impact on youth production. If you can convince your board to upgrade these facilities anyway, it won't hold you back.

It is hidden for realism and gameplay, nothing more.

[Seb Wassell]

On 16/04/2020 at 17:16, Cadoni said:

The youth quality it depends by "youth importance" as well as from other parameters (youth requi. range etc).

I don't think negative money balance has to do something with this.

You're posting in the thread where I've explained how it works. Please read that and don't speculate. This is how misinformation gets spread.

If you have an issue with my explanation - perhaps it is not clear or you believe me to be in error - please ask me.

[Guest]

Hi @Seb Wassell

Thanks for your answering. 

I was reading that topic here:

I have opened the editor and I found that "youth importance". I didn't find it on the game. 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Guest

[Seb Wassell]

3 minutes ago, Cadoni said:

Hi Seb,

Thanks for your answering. 

I was reading that topic here:

I have opened the editor and I found that "youth importance". I didn't find it on the game. 

I'd be interested in seeing an up to date version.

If the results were the same, I'd then want a bit more information to ensure no false conclusions are being drawn before investigating.

[OlivierL]

On 16/04/2020 at 17:29, Weston said:

I'm getting incredibly poor youth candidates, which isn't in and of itself terribly unrealistic as I'm a club that has gone from Serie C to Serie A in a few short years, but I still feel a little surprised. I'm the biggest club in my region of the country, I've upgraded my youth recruitment and facilities every change I get (they're being upgraded again right now), and I have a pretty solid HoYD and U20 and U18 staff I put a lot of time into searching for.

Obviously any advice in terms of getting better youth candidates is welcome, as tired as I'm sure everyone is of hearing that, but my real questions is, is it bad if I just don't sign any of them? Maybe I sign one or two? I've reached the point where I have very few players below the first team and have consolidated them all to the U20s and left the U18s empty. I do a lot of scouting and poach a lot of good young players to add, but not enough to make up the numbers, and I usually loan them out anyway.

 

What do u mean with 'poach a lot of good young players to add'.  Can we poach junior players from other teams like the AI can do with ours ?

Also a question about this. Some people say they have players been poached but those players never pop up in a future youth intake of their 'new club' . Is it possible that they are not being 'promoted' because after a few years of development ,they are not good enough ? of what is the reason please ? @Seb Wassell

Edited May 5, 2020 by OlivierL

[Seb Wassell]

3 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Can we poach junior players from other teams like the AI can do with ours ?

Also a question about this. Some people say they have players been poached but those players never pop up in a future youth intake of their 'new club' . Is it possible that they are not being 'promoted' because after a few years of development ,they are not good enough ? of what is the reason please ? @Seb Wassell

Yes to both.

[OlivierL]

18 minutes ago, Seb Wassell said:

Yes to both.

Thanks Seb , how can we poach juniors  ? Or is our HOYD doing this at the background ?

[Gee_Simpson]

15 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Thanks Seb , how can we poach juniors  ? Or is our HOYD doing this at the background ?

Good question. 

[Weston]

5 hours ago, OlivierL said:

What do u mean with 'poach a lot of good young players to add'.  Can we poach junior players from other teams like the AI can do with ours ?

Also a question about this. Some people say they have players been poached but those players never pop up in a future youth intake of their 'new club' . Is it possible that they are not being 'promoted' because after a few years of development ,they are not good enough ? of what is the reason please ? @Seb Wassell

I scout around and sign existing players that are in other clubs' youth teams.

I also received an inbox message saying a club that is currently less successful than mine somehow poached an academy child from my own system, this must be what you're referring to. I was wondering if a player by this name would then appear in Parma's youth intake, but your comment makes me think he may not, which is really odd. He's grayed out and unclickable. He doesn't seem any good anyway, but then again all the grayed out placeholder players never are.

I have no idea how we could stop this from happening, nor how we could do it to other clubs, nor why this player chose to leave.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Weston

[OlivierL]

2 hours ago, Weston said:

I scout around and sign existing players that are in other clubs' youth teams.

I also received an inbox message saying a club that is currently less successful than mine somehow poached an academy child from my own system, this must be what you're referring to. I was wondering if a player by this name would then appear in Parma's youth intake, but your comment makes me think he may not, which is really odd. He's grayed out and unclickable. He doesn't seem any good anyway, but then again all the grayed out placeholder players never are.

I have no idea how we could stop this from happening, nor how we could do it to other clubs, nor why this player chose to leave.

Yes that is wat i'm referring to . I show u a post from @XaW . He posted this in the youth challenge topic ( he has a lot of experience with poached players ). This proves that not all the poached dissapear .. tagging them like Xaw did is the way to keep track.

Quote

Here is the guy who Millwall poached from me a few seasons ago... Not a great prospect, but I hope he does well so I get payed.

https://gyazo.com/2879e6f55fca9086473731c9a3c99b11

[OlivierL]

On 23/12/2019 at 11:07, OlivierL said:

A question about mentoring. I know we can create groups in our first team and youth team(s) :

I think it is better to promote the good U18's to the first team and put them in a mentoring group from the first team ? Is it also a good idea to promote the best U18's to the first team 'units' ?

What about the mentoring group in youth teams, are they useful ? Or just promote all the hot prospects to the first team and mentor them their ? 

Players +18 get first team apps or are loaned out to teams where they should get games with if possible good training facilities . I think that is the right approach ?

I know already it's not the best idea to promote youngsters to the first team just for mentoring because they train more if they stay in the U19 squad.

If i promote a good 16 year old to the first team i can let him train with the first team players (and he'll be in one of the first team units) and i can mentor him in the first team . I could make him available for the u19 games but he won't train much because of the travel times from First en U19 team , right ?

If i keep the good 16 year old in the U19 squad but i add him to a first team training unit. He'll train with the first team, and can't be mentored . So an extra disadvantage.

Is this correct ?

[XaW]

4 hours ago, Weston said:

I scout around and sign existing players that are in other clubs' youth teams.

I also received an inbox message saying a club that is currently less successful than mine somehow poached an academy child from my own system, this must be what you're referring to. I was wondering if a player by this name would then appear in Parma's youth intake, but your comment makes me think he may not, which is really odd. He's grayed out and unclickable. He doesn't seem any good anyway, but then again all the grayed out placeholder players never are.

I have no idea how we could stop this from happening, nor how we could do it to other clubs, nor why this player chose to leave.

2 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Yes that is wat i'm referring to . I show u a post from @XaW . He posted this in the youth challenge topic ( he has a lot of experience with poached players ). This proves that not all the poached dissapear .. tagging them like Xaw did is the way to keep track.

https://gyazo.com/2879e6f55fca9086473731c9a3c99b11

Do note that the player in question didn't come into "existence" for a few years. The easiest way to spot this is to look in transfer clauses. If the player don't have any clauses I make a note of searching up his name a month or so after my own youth intake, since then most teams in my nation should be done getting players.

[OlivierL]

21 minutes ago, XaW said:

Do note that the player in question didn't come into "existence" for a few years. The easiest way to spot this is to look in transfer clauses. If the player don't have any clauses I make a note of searching up his name a month or so after my own youth intake, since then most teams in my nation should be done getting players.

Thanks, u should have the option to add him to some kind of shortlist. couldn't u search him by searching for 'poached' ?

Did u ever saw your HOYD poaching a player from another team, or how does this work ? Do u know this ?

Edited May 5, 2020 by OlivierL

[Weston]

Yeah I'm still pretty confused. What clauses are we talking about? So some are good enough to be poached but then not good enough to be promoted so they never appear at all? Do they not appear as free agents? This is all very strange and under-explained, it seems.

[XaW]

9 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Thanks, u should have the option to add him to some kind of shortlist. couldn't u search him by searching for 'poached' ?

Did u ever saw your HOYD poaching a player from another team, or how does this work ? Do u know this ?

I do have every ex-player on their own shortlist, at least when I play youth only saves. So every once in a while I have a look in transfer clauses, if anyone there don't have the youth tag I give them, I know they are poached.

I haven't had my HoYD poach any players, but I've seen screenshots of others who have had it done.

I don't know how though, perhaps HoYD need to be in charge of buying or something? Might be something to experiment with...

8 hours ago, Weston said:

Yeah I'm still pretty confused. What clauses are we talking about? So some are good enough to be poached but then not good enough to be promoted so they never appear at all? Do they not appear as free agents? This is all very strange and under-explained, it seems.

It's not really hard. The better academies (ie high youth coaching, youth recruitment and facilities, reputation? we haven't had this totally explained by SI, probably intentional to avoid abuse) will pick up players from lesser academies, and you will get a message when it happens. See above for how it looks when your team does it, and it looks like this when other steals your player:

When that happens that player will arrive in a youth intake in the future. When depends on how young the player is and how old players are at intakes in your country. So the player in the latest screenshot is probably coming in about 2 years time. Since it was not long until the intake when that happens and the player is 15, he came in two years later.

The clauses I mean are the transfer clauses in your transfers screen. As you can see in both screenshots, the club the player was poached from will get money if/when the player actually play for the team who poached him. So if "Kelvin Howsawi" (in the last screenshot) plays 10 games for Gillingham, I get £10k. Now, that's a transfer clause, and as soon as the player is generated into the game, he will be shown in the transfer clauses screen!

Now, I nickname all players who are poached from me "<name> (Poached)", so I remember it, that is not something the game does.

Did that help any? Or more confusion?

[OlivierL]

@XaW thanks ! do u give the poached tag after u receive the first message about your player being poached ? or is that not possible ?  Do u tag him after the real intake happens ? So u write all those names in a notepad ?

Can u search on 'poached' in the search bar ?