Quickly reaching potential with youth - Easy in Brazil.

[braceletwinner]

I haven't seen any threads specific to this subject, so I thought I'd create one, give my two cents, and hopefully others will add some more useful tips. The purpose of this post is to highlight how great it is to coach in Brazil and to be able to get your youth players more competitive games than usual so that their progress is as quick as possible. Quite a bit of the training youths "advice" is drawn from other posts and other sites, but I know it works for Brazil so I'll restate it. I'm not trying to take credit as virtually all of my knowledge about this game has come from others (thank you all, of course). I just noticed that there isn't a great deal of discussion about Brazil, and for the type of manager that loves to bring through inexpensive youths and develop them into first division leading stars, Brazil is a perfect country in which to do so.

Doing the things below has made my club into a perennial title contender with a squad deep enough to challenge in both major cups*, while basically being a selling club. So if that's not appealing to you, this isn't the post you're looking for.

* I am just above moron-level when it comes to tactics, so anyone can do this.

Some necessary background on Brazil: When you start in Brazil, it will be in January, and you have very little time before the first game - around 10 days. The squad usually comes back mostly fit and it only takes a couple of friendlies to get in reasonable shape. The reason for the short pre-season is that, in Brazil, most clubs play in two leagues per year. The first is a state championship, which has various formats, but is basically like a cup in that you get to play some vastly inferior sides (assuming your coaching in the top two divisions), but unlike a cup because it uses a league table (again, each state has its own rules, but the few I've seen use league tables, maybe with a play-off). I've only seen twelve teams in a league, so it's 22 games, but I'm sure other states have different numbers. You'll end this league around April 30. Unless you're a top-top side, the board don't care too much about this competition.

The Brazilian Cup will start during this period, but you may get a bye or two, so it could be later. I have been either very unlucky in the initial draws (almost always drawing a top-division side in the 3rd/4th round), or the draw is somehow weighted. Every round is home-and-away**, even the final, so it's quite a few games if you go far, although there is no extra time. If you're in the Copa Libertadores, you'll also have the group stages (February to April). I haven't played in the Copa Sudamericana, so I don't know how this would affect your schedule, but I believe it is a knockout tournament from start to finish.

** There is a rule that, in the first two rounds, if you are the away team in the first leg (the higher division team is always the away team first) and you win by two or more goals, you are through to the next round and the home leg isn't played. Consider this if money is tight and you really want the income from the home match.

You get a short break - anywhere from one to three weeks before the Série A starts. 20 clubs, 38 games, nothing you haven't seen before. However, you end the season around December 1st, so you only have six months to play these games plus any cup games in which you're still involved. It can get quite hectic, and if you're in both cups until the end, you will be playing twice a week, every week, and sometimes three times. I just had a ten-day stretch in which I played four games before my entry into the Brazilian Cup.

Now to the point: Having this many games requires a large squad. I figure that until you're out of both cups, you want close to three full squads (of varying ability). Most teams can't afford to have 30-35 suitable (expensive) players, so young (cheap) players are needed (youth also demand fewer matches). This is a very good thing, though. Assuming you only have 1-3 worthy opponents in the State competition, that leaves you many games that don't matter all that much, but games that you should win with 0-1 star youths anyway. These are competitive, so play your best prospects, and you will see remarkable improvement. In the games in which I'm a 1-33 favorite, I usually start virtually all Under-20s and still win most of the time. You don't have to start all youths, of course, and your key players will want games (plus you want them match fit), so sprinkle in your top players when you have a cup break or when they start to lose some fitness or complain. But again, starting youth players here as much as possible should be your priority. Of course you can use them in the easier Brazilian Cup games as well, but if you continually get tough draws, their playing time will be limited.

A secondary point: Unless you have such a large squad that it's virtually unmanageable, do not send players out on loan before you are out of one of the two cup competitions. Get top training facilities as soon as possible and manage every detail of your prospects. When they arrive in January, have them tutored from day-one, and about the time the tutoring ends (depending on your fixtures) will be a decent time to send them on loan. However, I always keep close to a full squad of my absolute best prospects in the Reserves squad (that are only available to play Reserve games when match fitness is needed) as a back-up for major injuries, but also so that I can sub-in one or two a game. Always try to do this early enough so that they get a rating. Of course one may blow a match for you, so adjust accordingly if you're in a tight title/relegation race, but the benefits far outweigh the risks. Even if it's just to increase a player's value, get them games.

Third: Brazil is amazing for young talent (also note that you can't have more then three foreign players per match-day squad, so having Brazilians is mandatory). I constantly find outstanding youth players for < $500K (yes US Dollars - convert to your currency accordingly), and I usually only pay $100-300K for even the best of them. After training them for a few years, selling them for millions is common. I keep the best ones, of course, and I'll also keep a few decent players in the Reserves if they have one of the Professional personalities specifically for tutoring. When they get good enough to demand a move (very rare if you keep winning, of course) or a $25K+/wk salary, I move them. Clubs like Santos/Corinthians are willing buyers, and you'll have to compete against former players quite a bit, but knowing that they bought a four-star talent from you that just paid for three five-star PA youths and bigger stadium/more scouts/better junior coaching, etc... is satisfying.

Finally: Brazil loves them some 4-2-2-2. This means loads of good DMs, M©s/AM©s, and strikers. Other positions are well-represented, but there are more than usual of these types of players. There is also more demand for them, so if you get the training right, clubs will be buying your superior players, so in general don't worry about too much supply***. There is an added advantage of the 4-2-2-2 that wasn't obvious to me for a long while (again, just above moron-level here): You need fewer versatile players. This is a huge advantage because every match squad has four each DC, DM, M/AM©, ST, and two each D® and D(L) (squads in the Brazil-based competitions are 23 with 3 subs allowed). No more agonizing over whether to include your backup DLP or Anchor Man - bring everyone so that no one ever has to play out of position!

*** I currently have 15(!) 3.5-star-plus PA strikers and am finding it hard to get them all game-time or loan them out - be wary of having way too much of a good thing. I've added quite a few playable leagues to encourage more buying of my players. I'll see if that works next season.