Reserve team useless?

[pewp3w]

My reserve team is now in third league and playing a lot of games. I thought this would be great for my youth players which so far never ever increased their skills in the reserve team. Now after the first half of the season I had a look, and still none of my reserve squad players has increased in skill.

I also tried to loan out my players, but even though they played dozens of games, they didn't increase even slightly.

My workaround for this so far has been to just put all players in the first squad because then their skills actually progress, but now I got a message that I can't have more than 40 players in my first squad.

 

Am I missing something?

[Zoot]

Yes it is like that i font like it also

[passenger58]

I seem to remember SI saying that players in reserve leagues don't progress. Their games are just to give them game time and show you who is playing well and potentially ready for a run in the first team. 

Similarly loaning a player to a non-playable league won't aid development. They need to be playing first team football in a playable league. 

@SI, correct me if I'm wrong. 

Edited August 13, 2020 by passenger58

[Marc Vaughan]

Players in reserve leagues most definitely do progress and will improve, them playing reserve matches does help and as passenger58 indicated it shows you who is potentially ready for a run in the first team as well.

That being said reserve leagues are NOT as competitive as first team football and loaning a player out can help someones development if they're able to get consistent first team football and 'cut it' at that level (whether that is a loan to an active or inactive league club - inactive leagues are 'spoofed' behind the scenes and will give experience to players who go out on loan to them).

PS - I will however do some double checking on progression in reserves, I've a feeling by the sounds of it that it 'might' be possible the attribute graphs aren't updating correctly for reserve players (so they don't look like they're progressing even if they are) ... I'll check as I mentioned.

[Ralto504]

I wanted to follow-up on this. I'm wondering where we find the progress for the reserve team? I figured we'd be able to get reports of how they're doing so we can evaluate when a player may be ready to be moved up to first team, but I can't seem to find this info. You can see all the games they've played, but I've got no coach report or average ratings, among other things.

[James Akintayo]

Virtual players (players with grey names) will not retain stats from game to game.

You can offer these players a contract to make them "real" and then get coach reports about them.