How many players per position?

[ItsJordannn]

How many players do you guys usually have per position?

That includes youngsters too because I think I have too many players which means I am forced to play some because they are complaining instead of giving my youngsters a game. Cheers

[Cougar2010]

A lot depends how many matches you play in a season tbh.

If you only play around 40 matches or less (One match a week most weeks) then around 22 should be fine with the odd youth player capable of filling in an odd game.

If you play 50+ matches and two games most weeks then I would add a few more and have around 25/26 players.

It also depends on your formation and how versatile your players are.

I always have two players per position and then a 3rd player capable of playing there either from another position or a youth player. In positions such as DC you might get away with three main players + a young spare if you play two at the back. Three at the back means five is normally enough.

[BoxToBox]

22 first team players, two for each of the 11 positions, and 11-18 players in my reserves(all youngsters), hopefully at least one for each position. That's not including loaned out players, of course.

[ItsJordannn]

Thanks, I am a top prem side and usually compete for every competition every year. What about for your youth and reserve squads? How many player do you have then?

I think my main question is how many players do you have at the entire club during a season? I always seem to loan out too many youngsters where they would be better at my team playing every so often or I don't loan out enough which leads to a disrupted squad

[Cougar2010]

Thanks, I am a top prem side and usually compete for every competition every year. What about for your youth and reserve squads? How many player do you have then?

I think my main question is how many players do you have at the entire club during a season? I always seem to loan out too many youngsters where they would be better at my team playing every so often or I don't loan out enough which leads to a disrupted squad

I don't use reserves, they serve no point except sucking up wages.

Everyone is either a first team squad member or a youth player.

Youth players I tend to just leave, offer full time deals to those I think have potential and release the rest when their youth contracts end. If the youth team squad gets too big 30+ players I might release a few no hopers to get it down a bit.

[ItsJordannn]

Thanks, last thing is how do you decide which youngster to loan out, who to keep in your squad or who to sell/release?

[Cougar2010]

Thanks, last thing is how do you decide which youngster to loan out, who to keep in your squad or who to sell/release?

Loaning out is easy, I'll loan out any player I'm not using in the first team so any of the youth squad + any of the random odd players you get from time to time that you are trying to sell before their contract ends.

Who to keep/who to sell? well thats your decision as a manager. Are you using them? Can you replace them? Do you have an upcoming youth player to take their place?

[jc1]

I generally start with 20, 4 strikers, 6 midfielders, couple of wingers,2 goalies and and 6 defenders, then I can add any youth player if injuries are bad. I find trying to keep 22 players happy pretty hard especially in FM15, too many moaning about lack of games.

[thomit]

Arsenal 1.st team: 22 players (double-up) + 1 or 2 of the very best prospects. The best players in the U21 team gets to play in the league cup, and in matches where the result is unimportant. The 1.st team get rotated extensively, for example in matches where the odds are clearly stacked in my favour where I let the "second best" player in that position have a go. Or whoever of them has had the least starts. Also when my "first choice" is a bit low in condition, I let the "2.nd" player play if his is better. Very rarely have jaded (over-used) players, or players that are unhappy that they're not playing enough. It's important that my "first" and "second" players in each position are very close in quality.

[JordanBlackpoolFC]

Two players for each posistion and a couple of extra high potential youngsters. I can just about manage with that, but any more and I would have players complaining constantly.

[dllu]

What everyone else said.

Generally two players per position and then use youngsters when needed due to injuries / bans.

[thatlastbiliousbead]

Had to sign in and respond as I don't think even real life managers know so its fascinating reading responses. I think FM brilliantly captures how difficult it is to keep two players for every position happy.

Squad management is a very cyclical process so after 12-18 months if say my right winger never gets injured then I don't need a backup. By the time I know that it makes sense to have trained another useful squad member as a right winger just in case. In an ideal world I'll have my eleven, a spare keeper, a jack of all trades for defence, and a couple of alternative style players on the bench and the rest can be youths

[QWERTYOP]

At least - Two goalkeepers, two left backs, two right backs, four centre backs, two left wing, two right wing, 4 centre mid, 4 strikers. Bit more depth here and there where applicable due to formation or injury or whatever.

[isignedupfornorealreason]

How many players do you guys usually have per position?

That includes youngsters too because I think I have too many players which means I am forced to play some because they are complaining instead of giving my youngsters a game. Cheers

2 Keepers, 1 youth.

2 Full backs, 2 youth, 1 'L/R' versatile backup - Just in case you get an injury crisis and you don't want to throw the youngsters on.

3-4 Centrebacks, 2 youth - 3 is risky, 4 is safer, if the 'backup' for fullback can play here then even better.

Repeat^ for all other positions.

A lot of it depends on the quality of youth, I prefer to give youth players a chance with rotation and so on. However, if they simply aren't anywhere near good enough then I will make sure I have an actual quality backup player. Usually this means in the first few seasons I play the game traditionally by offloading all the crap kids that researchers tend to hamstring potential-wise and wait for regens. I find regens can more or less slot into a 'backup' position straight away at 15-17 years of age sometimes.

[MECAP]

they complain about squad status, probably you have too many first team or squad rotation, or backup players don't play at all, don't count silver stars youngsters at all, I usually have 2 players per position - 22 players, plus 2-3 versatile players - DLRC, DM/MC/AMC, (D)MR/L, MRLC, AMC/SC total 25, but most of the time I'm either short of two good players or I have two or three that can be first team, because player signing was too good to miss...so I either change tactics or retrain some to be versatile players.

[dllu]

In an ideal world I'll have my eleven, a spare keeper, a jack of all trades for defence, and a couple of alternative style players on the bench and the rest can be youths

In an ideal world I agree completely. And then your three key players are injured simultaneously and you have no unhappy reserves to replace them with. No one said it was supposed to be easy to be a football manager...