FM2012 Training And Match Prep Masterclass

[mantralux]

This article was originally posted on www.mantralux.com, and is much easier to read there, with colour-coded attributes and better readability.

This article is an updated version of the ‘FM2011 Training Masterclass’, and will go through the training and match preparation modules in Football Manager 2012 – how it works, what’s changed from FM2011, what all the sliders do and how to utilise them properly. All info presented in this article is factual, confirmed by the developers either through personal messages or through this official SI forum. Any speculative information will be noted as such.

Training Categories

There are nine different training categories – two of them are fitness related, two of them are goalkeeping related, and the other five are general training. All categories affect visible player attributes only, and you can read more about what player attributes do and how they interact with each other in the Player Attributes Explained article.

The first important thing to know is that all related attributes in a training category have an equal chance of increasing. As an example; the strength training category affects jumping, natural fitness, stamina, strength and work rate, but none of the attributes have higher priority than the others – they all have an equal chance of increasing if you’re training the strength category. Although it takes longer to increase an attribute from 19->20 than from 10->11, that doesn’t affect the chance of the attribute being trained.

Lets go through the training categories one by one:

Strength (Physical Training)

This category controls 5 attributes: Jumping, Natural Fitness, Stamina, Strength and Work Rate. In FM2011 it only affected 4 attributes – Jumping was previously in the Aerobic category. This category is used for boosting overall fitness (players losing condition quickly in matches) and physical impact (will keep your players tenacious and able to win more take-ons through strength). It’s also an essential category for pre-season training (see the Pre-Season section for more info). Goalkeepers training in this category will not see an increase in Work Rate.

Aerobic (Physical Training)

This category controls 4 attributes: Acceleration, Agility, Balance and Pace. This category is mainly for improving the athleticism of your player. It will make him faster, more agile and steadier on his feet. Often used in conjunction with the Strength category to increase a players overall physical presence, and is also used for Pre-Season purposes.

GK – Shot Stopping (Goalkeeper Training)

This category controls 4 attributes, 2 of them goalkeeper specific: Reflexes (GK), One On Ones (GK), Composure and Concentration. This category trains the goalkeepers mental abilities, and only includes background or prime attributes.

GK – Handling (Goalkeeper Training)

This category controls 4 attributes, all of them goalkeeper specific; Aerial Ability (GK), Kicking (GK), Handling (GK) and Throwing (GK). This category trains the goalkeepers secondary (accuracy) attributes. Side note: Aerial Ability is the goalkeeper equivalent of Jumping.

Tactics (General and Goalkeeper Training)

This category controls the most amount of attributes (8), as it also trains goalkeeper attributes if applied to one: Anticipation, Composure (non-GK), Concentration (non-GK), Decisions, Teamwork (non-GK), Command of Area (GK), Communication (GK) and Rushing Out (GK). Being the category that affects the most amount of attributes, it’s the most important one, especially for younger players. It teaches them to read the game, how to move and how to make good decisions. If a goalkeeper is training this category, it’s an extension of his mental goalkeeping training, making him interact better with his team and make better goalkeeping decisions.

Ball Control (General Training)

This category controls 5 attributes; Dribbling, First Touch, Technique, Flair and Heading. All are technical or accuracy attributes except for Flair, which is an attribute that controls the unpredictability of a player. This category is useful if you feel your players repertoire is limited, and/or if you feel the player needs to control the ball better, as indicated by the category name. Goalkeepers training in this category will only increase their First Touch.

Defending (General Training)

This category controls 3 attributes; Tackling, Marking and Positioning. A fairly straightforward category – useful for all defensive minded players to increase their defensive precision. In FM2011, this category included the Concentration attribute, but it has now been swapped with the more suitable Positioning, which is the defensive equivalent of Off The Ball.

Attacking (General Training)

This category controls 4 attributes; Crossing, Creativity, Off The Ball and Passing. Not as simple as the Defending category though, as this one contains the prime attribute Creativity, which essentially controls how many options a player has to choose between, together with Technique and Flair. It’s also the only category training the Passing attribute. Useful for all players on the pitch, but obviously most useful for attack-minded players.

Shooting

Lastly, this category controls 2 attributes; Finishing and Long Shots. In FM2011, this category included the Composure attribute, but that has been properly removed from this category in FM2012. The Shooting category is self-explanatory – useful for all players expected to provide end product, and will increase a player’s accuracy in front of goal.

As mentioned at the start of this section, all attributes in a category have an equal chance of being increased, and this is true regardless of how many attributes are in a category. It gets complicated when you include attribute value into the equation, but more about that later.

Training Score (Advanced)

So now that we know what the different categories do and what attributes they affect, it’s time to understand how this is all calculated to result in an increase for one or more attributes. Simply explained; a training score is calculated in every training category, and then that score is used to decide whether or not attributes are increased or not, and if so; how much.

This training score is calculated from three different factors:

• Category Workload – how high the slider for the category is set.

• Coach Workload – light, average, heavy or none.

• Coach Ratings – the amount of quality (stars) the coaches have for the category.

When this score has been calculated, it’s put up against several other factors, such as player happiness, hidden mental attributes and current attribute levels, and then decides if the training has been a success, and at what rate. Higher value attributes are harder (slower) to train, and player morale affects the training performance. The final result is simply that one or more attributes are increased – or not.

The higher the training score is, the bigger the chance that one or more attributes will be increased. In order to achieve the highest training score (and therefore highest chance of increasing attributes), make sure your coaches have as many stars as possible, are on a light workload, sliders are set to maximum in the category you want to train, and that your player is professional and is on a superb morale.

Category Workload Sliders

There’s been much speculation about the mystery of the sliders since they were introduced in Football Manager. Several theories exist (e.g X amount of notches will give you X result), but there really is no mystery to them: there aren’t any trigger limits, the increase is purely linear, forcing you to find the sweet spot on your own for every individual player. The labelling (medium, high, intensive, etc) is only there for visual feedback.

Every notch increases the final training score (the chance of a player improving an attribute). In order to have a realistic chance of one or more attributes to increase, a minimum level of medium is recommended for the slider connected to the category in which the attributes are tied to.

Even though a player could still increase an attribute at the lowest possible slider setting (notch 1), the training score at that setting is so low that the chance of an attribute increase is almost non-existant.

Even though the sliders are only one part of the equation that forms the training score (coach workload and quality/stars are almost as important), the final training score is drastically reduced when the category workload sliders are below ‘light’.

Also worth keeping in mind is that the higher the overall workload, the bigger risk of injury and player unhappiness. This doesn’t mean you can’t push up the individual sliders to max setting (in fact, I recommend you do, to increase the training score) – it just means that you have to keep an eye on the bottom slider, the overall workload. Try to keep the overall workload one notch below heavy and you minimise the chance of injuries/unhappiness.

Coaches & Workload

When it comes to coaches, it’s simple really: the more stars, the better. The stars take everything into account, and are to be 100% trusted. If two coaches both have 4-star rating in Tactics, you will achieve the exact same training score regardless of which one you use.

The coach workload decides the speed of the attribute increases. ‘Light’ will get you results faster, ‘medium’ slower, ‘heavy’ slowest and ‘-’ none at all. The coach workload doesn’t affect the level of attribute increase (how much), just the rate (speed) of the increase.

If you have a 5-star coach and a 1-star coach training the same category, the training won’t be affected by the low level coach. The rating is all that matters, it’s the overall indicator of how well the category is being trained. Therefor, it’s safe to sign high level coaches for all 9 categories, and then use low level (cheap) coaches to fill out the category workloads to ‘light’. It also doesn’t matter how many categories a coach is training in.

So with all that in mind, the best long term plan is to prioritise star rating over workload.

Coach Attributes

Similar to player attributes (more about that in another article), coach attributes consists of background, prime and secondary attributes, but they have a different meaning when dealing with coaches specifically:

Background Attributes

There are two types of background attributes. The first type (coaching) influences the training score for individual players. They are Man Management and Working With Youngsters. They are the equivalent of each other, so the former is preferred for first team or regular coaches, while the latter is preferred for youth coaches.

The second type of background attribute (mental) controls things like how well the coach settles at the club and his tactical knowledge. This also includes his judging abilities, so mental background attributes are most important when choosing an assistant manager.

None of the background attributes have an influence on the star rating of the coach.

Prime Attributes

Prime attributes are used for every training category when calculating quality rating (stars). They are Determination, Level of Discipline and Motivating. If these three attributes are high enough, the coach is generally good at most of the training categories, regardless of his secondary attributes. Prime attributes can make up at least 50% of the maximum star rating for all categories.

Secondary Attributes

Secondary attributes only affects specific training categories. Here’s how they affect specific training categories, and how much:

• Attacking – 43% attacking and 24% shooting

• Defending – 43% defending

• Fitness – 62% strength and 62% aerobic

• Goalkeepers – 43% GK (shot stopping) and 43% GK (handling)

• Mental – 24% ball control

• Tactical – 43% tactics, 19% defending and 24% attacking

• Technical – 43% ball control and 43% shooting

With all this information we can now make some pretty good assumptions on how to select and appoint coaches. High background (coaching) attributes will increase the training score, and high background (mental) attributes are best for assistant managers. High prime attributes are preferred in all cases, and then the secondary attributes are used for specific categories.

Custom Schedules

Compared to FM2011, there’s a new default schedule called ‘Conditioning’ from the start of your save. This training schedule can be used for any fitness-related training, and works pretty well for Pre-Season purposes. These default schedules are only there to make training easier for those who don’t wish to travel deeper into the training module, but in order to maximise your players potential you should create custom schedules.

There are different approaches here. Some create general schedules (similar to the default ones), but with altered category sliders. Some make schedules for every position, and some even make schedules for every individual player.

Making schedules for every single player isn’t necessary in FM2012, as we have individual focus on top of the general training. More about that in the next section.

In my own opinion, the best approach is to make custom schedules for: every base position + team specific + pre-season. So in my case, first I make schedules for goalkeepers, central defenders, full/wing backs, defensive midfielders, attacking midfielders, wingers/wide forwards and strikers. I then create a ‘prime’ schedule (a team-specific schedule in which the main focus of my team is trained – maybe my team has an attacking personality, so the focus would be on that). Lastly I have a pre-season schedule for increasing player fitness levels when they come back from their season break.

Individual Focus & Set Piece Training

Just like in FM2011, you can set individual training focus for all players. This is helpful if you want to be more specific than the training categories allow you to be, targeting single attribute boosts.

Individual Focus allows you to focus and spot train one of 7 physical (all except Natural Fitness), 3 mental or all 14 technical attributes – the most powerful being the prime attribute Technique, and also the important Composure attribute – controlling how well a player performs under pressure. In FM2011, Tackling wasn’t included as an option in Individual Focus, but it is available as an option in FM2012.

The other important aspect here is that in FM2010 and earlier, you had a specific Set Pieces training category. With that being replaced by the goalkeeping categories in FM2011, you have to use individual focus to train set piece attributes that aren’t affected by regular training categories: Free Kicks, Penalties, Long Throws and Corners.

Match Preparation

New for FM2012 is the updated match preparation panel, giving you a visual indicator as to how comfortable your team feels with your tactic. It also has a temporary effect on specific matches, depending on the special focus area you’ve chosen. It’s now located in the tactics module, as opposed to having its own module in FM2011, but the functionality is exactly the same as in FM2011.

First important thing to understand is that the workload level and the special focus areas do not impact one another directly, other than special focus areas taking time from all other training activities (including familiarity rate). A higher workload will NOT increase the effects of the special focus areas, and none of the special focus areas will have an effect on the tactic familiarity levels.

Workload Setting

Having this at the highest setting (Very High) will not make your players unhappy with the level of training. It will just take away more time from normal training schedules (lowering the training score). It’s safe to push this up all the way when learning new tactics, as a short-term solution.

As soon as the familiarity levels reach fluid for all tactics trained, lower the workload slider to Low to maintain the levels, shifting more power to your regular training schedules in the process. The match preparation workload setting cuts into regular training time, so if you leave the slider on Average/High/Very High, training scores will be affected.

Familiarity Levels

As these increase, your players will perform the tactical instructions better. Always aim to have all bars on fluid. Whenever you alter your tactics, even the smallest of changes will make the game re-calculate the familiarity levels of your team. This is also true in a match – using touchline shouts or altering tactics mid-game could have a negative effect on the team, as they’re not as familiar with the “new” tactic.

Special Focus Areas

These selections are made to gain temporary benefits on a match-to-match basis. They will not stack up (except Teamwork), and should be viewed as a boost for the next match only. If you have a tough game coming up you might want to focus on Defensive Positioning, if you have an easy game coming up you might focus on Attacking Movement, and so on.

Worth noting is that if you have any of the special focuses selected the familiarity levels of the tactic(s) won’t increase as quickly. So if you want your team to learn the tactic(s) as fast as possible, don’t have a special focus selected.

The way these focus areas translate into the match engine is to give temporary boosts to related attributes. The boost is only given if the player is familiar enough with the tactic used, so that’s how familiarity levels and special focus areas tie in together.

Teamwork (Previously Team Blend in FM2011)

This is the only focus that stacks up over time, and the only focus that is not "active" during a match. Instead, it’s active in between matches. Having Teamwork set as the default special focus, and then focusing on a specific area one day before a match will give you double the benefits. What Teamwork does is to increase player relationships, gelling them together, which ultimately increases morale and performances.

Tutoring & Player Preferred Moves (PPM's)

When you go to a Player Profile – Positions, you’ll see a list called ‘Preferred Moves’ (or ‘PPM’). There are two ways to have a player learn a PPM: First one is to have a private chat with him, telling him specifically what PPM you think he should learn. The second one is to have a senior player (that currently has the PPM you want your player to learn) tutor him, hoping that the player learns that specific PPM.

In order to tutor the player he needs to be young – age plays a big part in tutoring. The older the player is, the more reluctant he will be to learn new tricks.

Even though tutoring is mostly designed to give you an option how to have your players learn PPM’s, the other benefit is that you can build relationships within the squad. You always run the risk of creating enemies as well, but a positive outcome is likely if you take player personality into account when selecting tutoring pairs.

Player Workload & Training Levels

In the Player Profile – Training panel, you will see overall workload percentages in the bottom left corner. These will tell you how much the player is focusing on the different aspects of training. Every time you add purpose-built training like PPM’s, new position or Individual Training Focus, it takes a piece out of the main training schedule the player is currently in (causing the training score to take a hit).

The match preparation also cuts into this share. The ideal situation is to have at least 70% dedicated to ‘normal’ scheduled training, and the rest dedicated to individual focus and/or match preparation.

Training Levels (Advanced)

An often overlooked panel is Training Levels, located in Player Profile – Training Levels (the far right tab at the top). The reason this panel is useful is because it tells you how high your training score is in a specific training category – the bars indicate how well a category is trained, based on player happiness, fitness, hidden attributes, current attribute levels, training facilities, etc.

Contrary to popular belief, the bars do not tell you how hard the player is training – they aren’t telling you if the player is in the risk zone for injuries or unhappiness. So keep this in mind:

If a bar is low, it tells you that either a) the workload slider for that category isn’t high enough to make an impact, or b) the player already has very high attribute values in the category, making it less likely that his attributes will increase, or c) the player has ‘run out’ of current ability points, so there is nothing left to take from to increase attributes.

If a bar is high, it means this category has a high chance of improvement – calculated by current attribute values, category workload, and so on. You should aim to have as high bars as possible in the categories you want to train, but there is no penalty for low bars – that just means that the chance of improvement in the affected attributes is small.

This info means that we can customise training schedules solely based on this information. With access to a visual indication of our training score, we can control the height of the bars by increasing or decreasing the workload in the player’s current training schedule. For example, if you only need a player to increase his Tackling and Pace attributes and don’t care about the rest, you could use the Training Level bars as a guide to scale away all unnecessary training.

Training Tips & Tricks

Using all the information we’ve reviewed in this article, here are some suggestions on how to use training efficiently. Just to be clear, this entire section is speculative and just my personal opinion based on the facts presented earlier in the article.

Pre-Season

Use a specific training schedule, focusing mostly on tactics, strength and aerobics to have players work up their fitness and key mental attributes after the summer break. Have your main tactic loaded as the only tactic in Match Preparation, and have the workload slider set to Very High. Have the Teamwork special focus selected all the way through pre-season.

As soon as the fitness information (Player Profile – Attributes) says a player is either match fit or in superb condition, he does not need pre-season training anymore, but I usually keep all players on pre-season training until 2 weeks before the season starts, just to get the benefit of the mental attribute increases from the high workload in the Tactics category.

Set Pieces

Assign individual training focus Free Kicks, Penalties, Long Throws and Corners for your corresponding set piece takers. There is no set piece training category in FM2012, so all set piece attributes has to be increased through Individual Focus.

Short-Term Training

If you want to quickly raise a specific player attribute, first find the training category in which the attribute is learned. Then check to see if the attribute can be learned through individual focus. Here is the list of what attributes are trained by what category/focus;

Technical Attributes

• Corners – individual focus Corners

• Crossing – training category Attacking / individual focus Crossing

• Dribbling – training category Ball Control / individual focus Dribbling

• Finishing – training category Shooting / individual focus Finishing

• First Touch – training category Ball Control / individual focus First Touch

• Free Kick Taking – individual focus Free Kicks

• Heading – training category Ball Control / individual focus Heading

• Long Shots – training category Shooting / individual focus Long Shots

• Long Throws – individual focus Long Throws

• Marking – training category Defending / individual focus Marking

• Passing – training category Attacking / individual focus Passing

• Penalty Taking – individual focus Penalties

• Tackling – training category Defending / individual focus Tackling

• Technique – training category Ball Control / individual focus Technique

Mental Attributes

• Anticipation – training category Tactics

• Composure – training category Tactics / individual focus Composure

• Concentration – training category Tactics

• Decisions – training category Tactics

• Flair – training category Ball Control

• Off The Ball – training category Attacking / individual focus Off The Ball

• Positioning – training category Defending / individual focus Positioning

• Teamwork – training category Tactics

• Work Rate – training category Strength

Physical Attributes

• Acceleration – training category Aerobic / individual focus Quickness

• Agility – training category Aerobic / individual focus Agility

• Balance – training category Aerobic / individual focus Balance

• Jumping – training category Strength / individual focus Jumping

• Natural Fitness – training category Strength

• Pace – training category Aerobic / individual focus Quickness

• Stamina – training category Strength / individual focus Stamina

• Strength – training category Strength / individual focus Strength

The attributes that has both a training category and an individual focus assigned to them will have a higher rate and chance of increasing if both are used. The attributes that you can’t increase through training are Aggression, Bravery, Creativity, Determination and Influence – all mental attributes that are increased through other means (first team action, player growth, etc).

In order to increase a specific attribute as quickly as possible, create a custom training schedule with the corresponding category on Intensive (all the way up), then have the player set on individual focus for the intended attribute. Remove all positional and preferred moves training, and keep the match preparation training as low as possible. Make sure your coach(es) have an ok star rating in the category you’re training, that the category workload is ‘light’ (workload is more important that star rating in short term training), and that the player is happy (high morale). These factors will give you the highest possible training score, and therefore the highest chance that an attribute will be raised.

Long-Term Training

The long-term training is used for creating a team personality and instill a recognisable character to your team. Do you want to be known as a possession-based team? Masters of the defence? With long-term training you will build a specific set of attributes to shape the behaviour of the team.

Using the above list for attribute/training category/individual focus, we can build a custom training schedule that I like to call a ‘prime’ schedule. It should be balanced enough that almost all outfield players should be able to take part in it, to be shaped into your team’s personality and philosophy. But also specifically focused on 1-3 training categories.

Here are some prime schedule examples;

Attacking/Possession (Arsenal, Barcelona, etc) – Tactics and Attacking

Defensive/Counter (Real Madrid, Inter, etc) – Tactics, Defending and Shooting

Muscle/Control (Chelsea, etc) – Strength, Ball Control and Tactics

The prime schedule should be used mainly for newcomers to the club, so that they blend in well with the rest of the squad, giving them similar attributes. Make sure that your main tactic(s) reflect the training focus as well, it’s pointless having an attacking prime schedule if your main tactic is a defensive one.

Summary

Hopefully you’ll understand more about the training and match preparation functionality of Football Manager 2012 now, even though it is quite a lot to take in. If you have any questions, or maybe your own tips & tricks for training, go ahead!

[Cleon]

A good thread but for some reason I was expecting a bit more for FM12, I guess I just had a higher expectation. That's not to say this isn't a good read though, its very well written and informative.

Nice job

[mantralux]

A good thread but for some reason I was expecting a bit more for FM12

As you pointed out in the other thread - not much has changed from FM2011, so the article is more of an update on the last one. =)

[Braumiller]

Mantralux, great read as always, thank you.

Cleon, wow. Just wow.....

[Coentrao]

Just a small correction, Tackling was available as an individual focus on the latest patch of FM11.

Great read and i'm happy to finally see positioning on defending training!

[mantralux]

Just a small correction, Tackling was available as an individual focus on the latest patch of FM11.

Great read and i'm happy to finally see positioning on defending training!

Good spot, updated it.

[furiousuk]

Positioning is useful for all players though, particularly if you like to keep the ball. Agreed though that it is most useful for defenders and should be in the defending category

Great stuff as always Mantralux (like Cleon I was hoping for more new nuggets of wisdom but I understand that as things are different it would be pointless to write what would be basically the same stuff again)

I particularly agree about pre-season. No matter what training method you choose to use a pre-season schedule is pretty invaluable (the number of 'niggling' small injuries that a player picks up during a season has dramatically declined when I adopted a dedicated pre-season routine)

[mantralux]

Positioning is useful for all players though, particularly if you like to keep the ball. Agreed though that it is most useful for defenders and should be in the defending category

Positioning is actually just a defensive attribute and has no impact at all when you're in possession. Off the ball movement is controlled by the attributes 'Off The Ball' and 'Positioning', the former is used when you're in possession of the ball (attacking), the latter is used when the opposition is in possession of the ball (defending).

In a week or so I have a new article about player attributes coming out, it'll be posted here as well. =)

[furiousuk]

Positioning is the ability of a player to read a situation and position himself in the best possible position to deal with the unfolding events. Anticipation will help him in the first stage but in terms of his actual positioning, it comes down to this attribute. A higher rating will ensure the player takes up a better position.

Thats from the online manual so I always assumed it had some function whilst in possession, I have to say though that the players I've brought in with higher positioning also have higher anticipation and off the ball so any increase in positional ability I've noticed in possession could be down to other factors (I don't entirely trust the validity of the online manual). Certainly I'd always rate off the ball above positioning for midfielders or attackers.

I'll look forward to your new article, much of my current understanding of attributes stems from your other article

There was something else I was meaning to ask - I've often noticed that upping the Match Prep workload slider seems to boost the special focus bonus i.e. you get more special bonus with higher workload at the expense of less time actually training. I've used this method to help get out of a slump many times (although I've used other techniques as well so can't attribute an upturn in form to any one thing). Just wondering what your take on it is.

[Cleon]

I particularly agree about pre-season. No matter what training method you choose to use a pre-season schedule is pretty invaluable (the number of 'niggling' small injuries that a player picks up during a season has dramatically declined when I adopted a dedicated pre-season routine)

I've also noticed this too. I've had far less injuries during the season since I used pre season schedules.

In a week or so I have a new article about player attributes coming out, it'll be posted here as well. =)

I will look forward to reading this. Can you give any hints as to what about player attributes you discuss?

[phnompenhandy]

The new 'conditioning' schedule worked brilliantly for me as a pre-season schedule with few injuries. Is that the same for everyone else?

Whilst positioning is clearly key for defenders, it is also important for goalkeepers. That it has been removed from the GK category is a problem. We will be able to compensate with individual player training, but AI managers presumably won't, meaning POS for all other keepers will decline.

[Cleon]

The new 'conditioning' schedule worked brilliantly for me as a pre-season schedule with few injuries. Is that the same for everyone else?

Whilst positioning is clearly key for defenders, it is also important for goalkeepers. That it has been removed from the GK category is a problem. We will be able to compensate with individual player training, but AI managers presumably won't, meaning POS for all other keepers will decline.

Yep that is a worrying thing and one that's been flagged already I think.

There isn't any real reason to ask strikers to take the shooting catergory either you might aswell just use individual training for shooting, training them long shots is just a waste imo.

[phnompenhandy]

There isn't any real reason to ask strikers to take the shooting catergory either you might aswell just use individual training for shooting, training them long shots is just a waste imo.

Seriously? As a lower league manager with inadequate numbers of coaching staff, that's a right good tip! Is there Individual training on finishing, or is that labeled 'shooting'?

[Cleon]

Seriously? As a lower league manager with inadequate numbers of coaching staff, that's a right good tip! Remind me, what are all the categories under 'shooting'?

Shooting and Long Shots only.

If you go to a players profile, training tab then click the training catergory button you can see which categories train what

[llama3]

good work mantralux!

[Marcelo]

In order to increase a specific attribute as quickly as possible, create a custom training schedule with the corresponding category on Intensive (all the way up), then have the player set on individual focus for the intended attribute. Remove all positional and preferred moves training, and keep the match preparation training as low as possible. Make sure your coach(es) have an ok star rating in the category you’re training, that the category workload is ‘light’ (workload is more important that star rating in short term training), and that the player is happy (high morale). These factors will give you the highest possible training score, and therefore the highest chance that an attribute will be raised.

Can this approach be used to create a training schedule for an old olayer, that has great technical and mental attributes but quickly declining physical attributes? For example, setting a very high strength and aerobic workload, with all other categories very light, and with player focus on quickness, will help the player mantain his acceleration and pace? Or the fact that his CA is decreasing makes this useless?

Match Preparation

First important thing to understand is that the workload level and the special focus areas do not impact one another directly, other than special focus areas taking time from all other training activities (including familiarity rate). A higher workload will NOT increase the effects of the special focus areas, and none of the special focus areas will have an effect on the tactic familiarity levels.

So what you are saying is that if your tactics are already all on fluid, letting your match preparation on a high workload prior to a match will not have any effect on the match performance? So it is safe to leave the match preparation workload on very low, as long as the tactic familiarity levels stay on fluid?

[mantralux]

I've often noticed that upping the Match Prep workload slider seems to boost the special focus bonus i.e. you get more special bonus with higher workload at the expense of less time actually training.

Hmm not sure what you mean here - are you saying that bossting the match prep slider will up the percentage for, let's say, Tackling as an example if you have that picked as your special focus? If so, it's surely a bug?

[mantralux]

I will look forward to reading this. Can you give any hints as to what about player attributes you discuss?

It's basically just going through every visible attribute and what it actually means and how it translates into the match engine - but it's explained in a different way than usual - grouping the different attributes to give you another way of understanding attributes.

It also works a little bit like a reference that you can print out if you want a quick overview of attributes (which is what I use myself when searching for players with specific requirements).

[mantralux]

Can this approach be used to create a training schedule for an old olayer, that has great technical and mental attributes but quickly declining physical attributes? For example, setting a very high strength and aerobic workload, with all other categories very light, and with player focus on quickness, will help the player mantain his acceleration and pace? Or the fact that his CA is decreasing makes this useless?

Several things going on there, as you point out - his CA declining means there aren't more 'points' available for an increase. However, if you're heavily training him in certain attributes, one would assume that these attributes would be the last ones to decline.

So what you are saying is that if your tactics are already all on fluid, letting your match preparation on a high workload prior to a match will not have any effect on the match performance? So it is safe to leave the match preparation workload on very low, as long as the tactic familiarity levels stay on fluid?

Yes - match preparation workload has only to do with the familiarity bars, and nothing to do with the special focus areas. You will get the exact same special focus bonus regardless of the slider setting.

[Marcelo]

Yes - match preparation workload has only to do with the familiarity bars, and nothing to do with the special focus areas. You will get the exact same special focus bonus regardless of the slider setting.

Ok, thank you. How did you come to that conclusion ?

[furiousuk]

Hmm not sure what you mean here - are you saying that bossting the match prep slider will up the percentage for, let's say, Tackling as an example if you have that picked as your special focus? If so, it's surely a bug?

No, sorry, I should of explained better, I meant the Match Prep Special Focus areas (attacking movement, defensive set pieces etc).

Just realised you answered this in the post above!! Doh!

[mantralux]

Ok, thank you. How did you come to that conclusion ?

It's just the way it works - the workload is only about increasing familiarity levels, while the special focus areas give you a match-specific boost in the area you choose.

[MishiesML]

Great read – thanks.

Am I correct in saying that if we have a thoroughly professional player with superb morale on our books, playing well and working with all 5* coaches on light workload with all sliders the same height then the training scores are all equal.

The graphs would be the same height for all categories?

Would the deciding factor for gains then be the ease of increase for a particular attribute? The attribute value? Or do the type of player and his position hold any weight to where gains can be made?

[mantralux]

Great read – thanks.

Am I correct in saying that if we have a thoroughly professional player with superb morale on our books, playing well and working with all 5* coaches on light workload with all sliders the same height then the training scores are all equal.

The graphs would be the same height for all categories?

Theoretically yes, but that requires all the players attributes to be on the same level as well. The higher the attribute, the slower the increase.

So if a player has 19 in Acceleration and 9 in Tackling, his training graph for Aerobics would be lower than the one for Defensive, as there is less chance of improvement on his Acceleration attribute.

The graphs essentially show you the chance of increase - if a bar is low, it means there is less chance of an increase. If it's high, you have an excellent chance of increasing the attributes in that category.

[Vim]

Excellent guide Mantralux, though on your article you have (Physio training) next to Strength and Aerobic, but it should be fitness no?

[mantralux]

Excellent guide Mantralux, though on your article you have (Physio training) next to Strength and Aerobic, but it should be fitness no?

Not sure I follow you, where in the article are we talking about? =)

[MishiesML]

Theoretically yes, but that requires all the players attributes to be on the same level as well. The higher the attribute, the slower the increase.

So if a player has 19 in Acceleration and 9 in Tackling, his training graph for Aerobics would be lower than the one for Defensive, as there is less chance of improvement on his Acceleration attribute.

The graphs essentially show you the chance of increase - if a bar is low, it means there is less chance of an increase. If it's high, you have an excellent chance of increasing the attributes in that category.

Great - thanks

I was trying to work out if I have model professional DC, CM and ST all working at optimal conditions on the same schedule they all develop in the same way.

The first attribute gain will always be the least weighted one.

If all their attributes were 10.0 then the same attribute would increase first in all cases.

[Vim]

Not sure I follow you, where in the article are we talking about? =)

At the start when you list the types of training, shouldn't Strength and Aerobic be called 'Fitness training'? Just so it isn't confusing that it is the Fitness attribute one should look for as Physio stat is for injuries etc.

[mantralux]

At the start when you list the types of training, shouldn't Strength and Aerobic be called 'Fitness training'? Just so it isn't confusing that it is the Fitness attribute one should look for as Physio stat is for injuries etc.

Ah I see what you're saying, good point. I'll word it differently.

[loxz]

And where can dowload him?

[Bootador]

Description for Teamwork/Team Blend is incorrect to my knowledge. You cannot get double the effect by using it during the week and changing on match day.

The benefit of team blend is only calculated post matches to prevent this "doubling up"

[mantralux]

Description for Teamwork/Team Blend is incorrect to my knowledge. You cannot get double the effect by using it during the week and changing on match day.

The benefit of team blend is only calculated post matches to prevent this "doubling up"

It's been confirmed on several occasions that Teamwork is cumulative and not match-specific - it builds up over time. The longer you have it selected, the more cohesive your squad gets, and therefore the best approach is to have Teamwork selected as default, and then change to match-specific focus areas before games, depending on the opposition.

[Bootador]

Yes it builds over time, but it is not culmulative as in every time you press continue. I'm prettry sure I've seen this confirmed on one of the many discusssions last year.

[mantralux]

Yes it builds over time, but it is not culmulative as in every time you press continue. I'm prettry sure I've seen this confirmed on one of the many discusssions last year.

Oh I see what you're saying now, you're saying that in order to get a build up from the Teamwork focus, you have to select it for matches, and then after the match it starts stacking up (doesn't matter if it's selected in between matches)?

That's not what I've been told, and I'm pretty sure it hasn't changed for FM2012. I've been told that it doesn't really matter where it adds up, the point is that it adds up over time, and that the longer you have Teamwork selected, the more you will build up in that bonus effect on the team. Selecting Teamwork as the default will add more cohesion to the squad, regardless of if it's on during matches, or in between matches.

Obviously it's more logical if it works the way you're saying, as it's in the match preparation section. I will have to investigate on the matter, but basically I'm just writing what I've been told from the devs - I might have misinterpreted some info somewhere, but I'll look into it.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

The first important thing to know is that all related attributes in a training category have an equal chance of increasing. As an example; the strength training category affects jumping, natural fitness, stamina, strength and work rate, but none of the attributes have higher priority than the others – they all have an equal chance of increasing if you’re training the strength category. Although it takes longer to increase an attribute from 19->20 than from 10->11, that doesn’t affect the chance of the attribute being trained.

Given what you have emboldened, why would it take longer to increase an already high attribute than a low one?

[wayne1089]

brilliant insight Mantralux.. i've never really gotten into making my own training schedules. I've dabbled but without ever really knowing what i was doing and whether it was beneficial. Your piece given my a stack of ideas for my United save. Great stuff Mate, really helpful!!

[mantralux]

Given what you have emboldened, why would it take longer to increase an already high attribute than a low one?

Because their learning curve increases - all attributes have an equal chance of increasing, but the time it takes from 19-20 is much longer than from 9-10. =)

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Because their learning curve increases - all attributes have an equal chance of increasing, but the time it takes from 19-20 is much longer than from 9-10. =)

Would you please tell me where this comes from?

[Marcelo]

GK – Shot Stopping (Goalkeeper Training)

This category controls 4 attributes, 2 of them goalkeeper specific: Reflexes (GK), One On Ones (GK), Composure and Concentration. This category trains the goalkeepers mental abilities, and only includes background or prime attributes.

An outfield player will also train his composure and concentration if assigned to a schedule with a high Gk-Shot Stopping slider? And can he train these attributes simultaneously with the tactics slider?

[mantralux]

Would you please tell me where this comes from?

To be honest with you, most of the research for this article was made over a year ago (for FM2011 originally), and although I should have saved all the quotes and PM's from SI devs that were the basis for this article, I foolishly didn't. But I promise you that it takes longer for an attribute to increase from 19-20 than it does from 9-10. =)

[mantralux]

An outfield player will also train his composure and concentration if assigned to a schedule with a high Gk-Shot Stopping slider? And can he train these attributes simultaneously with the tactics slider?

Interesting question, but I would assume that outfield players are excluded from certain attributes, just like goalkeepers are excluded from certain attributes in other training schedules (for example; if you put a goalkeeper on Tactics training, he won't increase his Composure, Concentration or Teamwork attributes).

And in fact, using the Attribute Development overview in the player tactics panel, the goalkeeper categories won't even show up, indicating that outfield players won't gain any attribute increases at all if trained in goalkeeper categories.

[phnompenhandy]

To be honest with you, most of the research for this article was made over a year ago (for FM2011 originally), and although I should have saved all the quotes and PM's from SI devs that were the basis for this article, I foolishly didn't. But I promise you that it takes longer for an attribute to increase from 19-20 than it does from 9-10. =)

Shouldn't common sense and a basic insight into human nature be enough?

[pigfacemonkeyman]

To be honest with you, most of the research for this article was made over a year ago (for FM2011 originally), and although I should have saved all the quotes and PM's from SI devs that were the basis for this article, I foolishly didn't. But I promise you that it takes longer for an attribute to increase from 19-20 than it does from 9-10. =)

Even though I didn't partake in FM11 (agents:mad:) I did read this thread. As I am now also FM12less, (third party crap) I came to T&T for a bit of relief from the GD forum and noticed you had updated, so I read through again and it just struck me as not quite making sense, even though I have seen it in the game. Shows where my head is at right now.

Cheers

xxx

[flere-imsaho]

Excellent article, mantralux. And thank goodness I read it because certain attributes moving to different training categories is a relatively big change!

[DMaster2]

Great read, i didn't quite understand how the training worked, i always overlooked some areas.

[dribbler]

I found this a very interesting section and it's just starting to sink in how important it may be:

MANTRALUX SAYS:

"Training Levels (Advanced)

An often overlooked panel is Training Levels, located in Player Profile – Training Levels (the far right tab at the top). The reason this panel is useful is because it tells you how high your training score is in a specific training category – the bars indicate how well a category is trained, based on player happiness, fitness, hidden attributes, current attribute levels, training facilities, etc.

Contrary to popular belief, the bars do not tell you how hard the player is training – they aren’t telling you if the player is in the risk zone for injuries or unhappiness.

If a bar is low, it tells you that either a) the workload slider for that category isn’t high enough to make an impact, or b) the player already has very high attribute values in the category, making it less likely that his attributes will increase, or c) the player has ‘run out’ of current ability points, so there is nothing left to take from to increase attributes.

If a bar is high, it means this category has a high chance of improvement – calculated by current attribute values, category workload, and so on. You should aim to have as high bars as possible in the categories you want to train, but there is no penalty for low bars – that just means that the chance of improvement in the affected attributes is small.

This info means that we can customise training schedules solely based on this information. With access to a visual indication of our training score, we can control the height of the bars by increasing or decreasing the workload in the player’s current training schedule. For example, if you only need a player to increase his Tackling and Pace attributes and don’t care about the rest, you could use the Training Level bars as a guide to scale away all unnecessary training."

ME AGAIN:

So it's just occurred to me that if you have a player with potential to improve, the left-hand bar of the graph which shows the overall training level is critical...assuming your player is match fit is it reasonable to say that if this bar isn't high then your training is wrong somehow? In other words if this bar isn't high you're putting training time into areas that won't improve much or into areas that aren't particularly important for his position.

[mantralux]

In other words if this bar isn't high you're putting training time into areas that won't improve much or into areas that aren't particularly important for his position.

Exactly. The bars are 'chance of improvement'. If the overall bar is low, it means the player has a low chance of improving any attributes at all through training.

[Ivan787]

Hi All,

just a question: slider increase is linear. Are there any proofs of this? Or somethinh citation?

I say this because I have read on a old Sfraser's post that workload mechanism is not so, but there is a number X of notch to increase equal to the number of attributed trained.

What is the truth?

[mantralux]

Hi All,

just a question: slider increase is linear. Are there any proofs of this? Or somethinh citation?

I say this because I have read on a old Sfraser's post that workload mechanism is not so, but there is a number X of notch to increase equal to the number of attributed trained.

What is the truth?

Although SFraser's effort and dedication was impressive, plenty of the content of his articles were speculative interpretations of what he thought was fact. The truth is that the training sliders are linear, and do not trigger things at certain notches.

[dribbler]

Exactly. The bars are 'chance of improvement'. If the overall bar is low, it means the player has a low chance of improving any attributes at all through training.

Thanks for answering mantralux (great post too)

Is it possible to go further and say that for any player with plenty of potential to improve it must be possible to get the left-hand bar high...if it's not high you've got the training wrong?

One further point. You say that "the bars indicate how well a category is trained, based on player happiness, fitness, hidden attributes, current attribute levels, training facilities, etc"...but I don't really understand what happiness and hidden attributes have to do with the training bars? Clearly they may affect how well a player trains but it seems a strange idea for SI to incorporate these things into the bars?