Pob's Training Theory

[Pob]

Pob's Training Theory

disclaimer

Before I start I would like to say that I do not promise anything to be accurate, feel free to correct me if you have proof that I am wrong with anything. Partly, I am writing this to help other gamers, and partly I am writing this for people to poke holes in my theories. I put most of my success in the game down to my ability to train players well, especially as I use the default tactics and am not great at teamtalks and media interaction.

I have memory problems, so getting all this written down in a readable format is going to be very difficult. I will try to add screenshots and links to other people's relevant experiments if I can find them. Also, at the moment I have gone back to FM07 as I find it a more enjoyable longterm game, but I am pretty sure my observations apply to 08 and 09 as the training module has only been tweaked. I'm also writing this without the forums or the game open to refer to, so I may have made silly mistakes like misnaming some of the training areas etc. I'll pad it out a bit better some other time if it is well received.

contents:

CA and PA

Wrong foot ability

What causes CA to develop

Free attributes

Position retraining

Injury proneness

Other training factors

Happiness with training schedule

Tutoring

Staff ability

Pob's training schedules

CA and PA

CA is current ability, how good a player currently is as a number out of 200

PA is potential ability, how good a player could possibly be as a number out of 200. In the database it can be given as a number between -1 and -10 to represent a random PA within a certain range , or 0 to be completely random.

Wrong foot ability

A player who is single-footed (e.g. right only) will appear to have better attributes than a player of the same CA who is two-footed. The two-footed player will actually be the better player in the match engine. Foot ability is given as a value out of 20. Wrong foot ability can increase naturally in top players; it also increases if a player's position is retrained to the opposite side to his foot (e.g. a right footed right back retrained to a left back).

what causes CA to develop

CA will naturally develop until a player reaches his peak age for his position, and will then decrease naturally

Playing games can help CA develop much faster (and decrease slower when a player is past his prime), the higher the standard of the match the greater the effect, so playing in first team games is better than playing in reserve or youth games.

A player with higher determination will develop faster

A player at a club with better training facilities will develop faster (youth training facilities has no effect on CA development, it only effects the PA of FRED's)

Free atrributes

For each playing position there are a number of attributes which do not take up CA points. If a player can play in more than one position, his free attributes will only be the ones which are free for all of his positions . the (cutoff point for a position regarding free attributes is 11/20 IIRC, which is rated as unconvincing). It makes sense to design your training schedules to try to increase these free attributes as it would make the players better in the match engine without costing CA, however, free attributes develop differently in different editions of FM: in 07 free attributes develop quite easily; in 8.0.1 they did not develop at all; I didn't play 09 long enough to notice but I think I remember PaulC saying it was going to be tweaked to somewhere between the two versions. In 07, I train the following areas at their maximum:

GK's: "ball control" and (usually) "set pieces" as all of these attributes are free

FB's & CB's: "shooting" as finishing and long shots are free for defenders and composure is useful when under pressure

CB's & DM/MC/AM: "set pieces" as all of these attributes are free for these poisitions

ST: "defending" as tackling and marking are free for ST's

I usually train FB's and Wingers at maximum in set pieces because only crossing is not a free attribute, and crossing is usually a useful attribute for these players in my tactics.

I often train Strikers at set pieces as I like my strikers to be my penalty takers, but crossing is not a free attribute for strikers.

Position retraining

Position retraining does not cost CA unless it causes free attributes to no longer be free or improves the weaker foot ability.

It is good to retrain a player's position to help increase his wrong foot ability as long as it does not result in some of the players free attributes no longer being free, so I always retrain a full back or winger to his 'wrong' side, but don't retrain centre backs or strikers. For DM/CM/AMs I always retrain to improve the other central midfield positions as this does not cost CA as the free attributes are the same.

Before considering the weaker foot, it is more important to consider the tactics you use, for example, if you use wingbacks instead of fullbacks, you should retrain a pure FBR to WBR rather than FBL or WBL.

Injury proneness

Injury proneness is a hidden attribute. It can be approximated from scout or coach reports, or from physio reports in FM07. It is my observation that injury proneness has little or no effect to injuries in matches or from overall training intensity, but it has great effect on injuries caused by fitness (strength or aerobic) training. Therefore, if a player is injury prone, you should keep his fitness training light (3 clicks to the left of default); if there are "no concerns" about a players fitness it can be left at default; if a player "will rarely succumb to injury" then you can have fitness training as high as you want (I go anywhere up to 7 to the right of default, although usually 5 to the right of default). If you use a scouting program while playing, you can setup your fitness training to accurately match each player's injury proneness.

I consider fitness attributes to be more important than other non-free attributes (they are weighted more heavily in the CA-attribute model).

Other training factors

After training free attributes and fitness attributes, I will look to improve attributes affected by ppms the player has. If a player has "dives into tackles", I will look to increase his tackling attribute. If a player has shoots from distance or shoots with power I will look to increase those attributes.

For all other training areas, I train all outfield players on the highest "light" notch for each outfield training area, and similarly for goalkeepers with "goalkeeping" and "tactical".

My overall training intensity will be the same for each player (this is difficult to explain, but it is basically slightly above normal).

If the overall intensity is lower than this, then I will increase areas that I think are relevant; I particularly look to increase ball control in young players and the teamwork attribute in players that are future candidates to be captains.

I have specific schedules for each full time player; this has no detrimental effect on team gelling or morale. I have general schedules for each position for my youth players, who I will move onto a full time schedule if they are likely to stay at my club after they become ineligible for the U18's.

Happiness with training schedule

I occassionally check my schedules for each full time player to make sure they are still relevant.

If a player is "unhappy with training workload", I reduce the workload by decreasing the least important area of training. (I think this comes from the hidden "proffessionalism" attribute)

If a goalkeeper is "unhappy with the standard of GK training" then you need a better goalkeeping coach!

I generally ignore if a player says "unhappy with learning a new position" and using this training philosophy a player has never said "unhappy with high fitness workload" or any of the other possible "unhappy with.."'s

If a player is unhappy with part of his training, it does not seem to noticeably affect his overall morale, but it has been suggested that it may affect the player's CA development.

Tutoring

There are many threads about tutoring, so I am not going to go into detail, but primarily I look to pass on PPM's, and then I look to match a youngster with a tutor who has a higher determination attribute, as determination helps with CA development.

Staff ability

This is an area I hope to investigate more thoroughly soon. Staff have a CA and PA similar to players, however, just like with players, a higher CA does not mean they will perform better. A percentage rating of a staff members ability derived from their attributes can be seen by using a scouting tool like genie scout. Staff reputation has no effect on staff performance, but supposedly higher reputation staff will help keep big-name players settled. There is a debate currently whether a coaches higher star rating will help attribute development or not; personally, I think the people experimenting on this do not understand how CA is not developed by training. Until proven otherwise, I look to have the best coaches possible in the training areas involving the free attributes I look to improve (i.e. defending, shooting and set pieces). I also have a good goalkeeping coach so my goalkeepers don't become "unhappy with the standard of goalkeeper training".

A better physio will more accurately predict how long an injury will take to heal; it has no effect on injury length itself... also, having more than one physio seems pointless unless you have one main physio with a young understudy.

A better scout will give more information on a player per scout report, and also will be able to scout more players per day.

Pob's Training schedules

Some examples of full time schedules:

GK, prone to injury:

DC, no concerns regarding fitness:

Some examples of youth schedules:

DC:

ST, not a set piece specialist:

[Pob]

A full time DLC. He is injury prone, so fitness training is light, he is a defender so shooting is intense, he is a freekick specialist so set pieces are intense, I then make the overall training workload up to my normal amount by increasing tactics and ball control as he is a possible future captain and he is young.

[wyk]

Thanks for the effort. Great job indeed. However, i have read elsewhere that there aren't any 'free attributes' anymore in version 09, there is some 'relatively free but still cost a little of CA regarding different position'. Is it the case?

Keep on the good job.

[Doctor Who]

Thanks for the effort. Great job indeed. However, i have read elsewhere that there aren't any 'free attributes' anymore in version 09, there is some 'relatively free but still cost a little of CA regarding different position'. Is it the case?

Keep on the good job.

There are very few "free" attributes. Aggression and Natural fitness + a few hidden attributes off the top of my head. Then there are a number of attributes which weighs in with a rather low factor depending on position, which I guess could be perceived as free during experiments in the editor, but they really aren't.

[Pob]

I've tried searching, but can't find anywhere the free attributes for 09, but sorry if this was a waste of time.... I didn't play 09 long enough to delve into training before I took the game back.

[Striker·]

Nice guide