[FM20] Tequila and Mariachi?

[Mikaelinho]

5 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

No. When I first made this tracking system, it was far less in depth than it is now and I never bothered looking at GK development because, at the time, I had one Sammarinese goalkeeper in the squad and he made over 1000 appearances - meaning that I didn't need to think about developing others!

I'd direct that towards @Mikaelinho as he may have done some looking at this...

I'm sorry. I've not collected any data on keepers either. But if it follows along the same patterns as for outfield players the most important attributes will also be the most expensive ones CA wise.

[Joe Horn]

Hi Ben, was just wondering if you could help explain everything about your excel spreadsheets as they've confused me even though I want to implement them in my own save.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe

[keeper#1]

7 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

No. When I first made this tracking system, it was far less in depth than it is now and I never bothered looking at GK development because, at the time, I had one Sammarinese goalkeeper in the squad and he made over 1000 appearances - meaning that I didn't need to think about developing others!

I'd direct that towards @Mikaelinho as he may have done some looking at this...

What sort of development research are you thinking about doing?  I'm only in year 2 of my Leonesa save and, as a result, only have one GK from youth intake at this point to track.  I can start some of this research since my save is "fresher" than yours at the moment.

[Tom14]

This thread is absolute gold from start to finish. I love the journey and the story (as I always do a lower league Spanish save) but the theory behind it and the graphical output and stats are nothing short of amazing. I'm going to re-read it all again so I can steal some of your tracking ideas. 

[_Ben_]

16 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

What sort of development research are you thinking about doing?  I'm only in year 2 of my Leonesa save and, as a result, only have one GK from youth intake at this point to track.  I can start some of this research since my save is "fresher" than yours at the moment.

To be fair - I've largely ignored goalkeepers because the data I can get from them (by building a whole new column for GK attributes and adding new formula etc) means I only get data for one new position, whereas now I get it for 10 other first team positions and however many positioning combinations there are.

I will have a think about it because I am terrible at developing goalkeepers but have got lucky on my long term saves with non-injury prone, reliable keepers.

[_Ben_]

13 hours ago, brookie1402 said:

This thread is absolute gold from start to finish. I love the journey and the story (as I always do a lower league Spanish save) but the theory behind it and the graphical output and stats are nothing short of amazing. I'm going to re-read it all again so I can steal some of your tracking ideas. 

Huge thanks for this comment! Glad you're enjoying.

[_Ben_]

17 hours ago, Joe Horn said:

Hi Ben, was just wondering if you could help explain everything about your excel spreadsheets as they've confused me even though I want to implement them in my own save.

 

Thanks,

 

Joe

Everything?!

The premise is simple, really.

I export all of the attributes for my players annually and take an average of all of their attributes to work out how much they have developed. This is completely separate from anything that is used in game but, for me, it's a constant metric that I can use to see how much things like personality, starting attributes, starting CA and PA etc influence their development.

For ease - I kind of pull everything together so that I can compare year or year and try to finds trends within that.

If you'd like a more concise explanation - have a look through the thread, pick out a couple of screenshots that contain info you're not sure about and stick them in a post. To be fair, I've added bits and bobs as the save (and my Excel knowledge) has developed so there are loads of little things in there that are useful and I can explain what they are/how they work.

[Ausie]

22 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

2039-40: Three year youth development

The last year that I'll be tracking the below group, who came through like this:

This was an interesting group of players with a few good personalities but some poor ones, too and was also my first mediocre intake. The progress was decent in the first year and I was not surprised that M.Citizen Sanchez made the best growth. The second year followed suit with some good developments, particularly for Cueda - who struggled in Year 1.

Here is the Year 3 progress:

As I previously alluded to - I sold off some players so it's not the whole cohort who has completed the three year monitoring but this won't happen in future. There are some interesting points to see here - particularly in the 'ranking' where previously top ranked player Espinosa has not made a huge amount of progress and instead, the better starting personalities of Bengoetxea, Gonzalez and Sanchez have caught up (and by this, I think that Espinosa has probably 'just' made the threshold for Pro due to the squad personality impact rather than being 'secure' in that area). I am also not surprised by the lack of development for Gustavo Pena and his terrible personality.

Out of this cohort - Espinosa, Gonzlaez and Sanchez are in the first team as part of the 'backup squad'

Only just came across this thread plus Mikaelinho’s. I don’t think I have the time or patience to go as in-depth as the both of you but I am absolutely fascinated reading it. Terrific work 

 

Just a question on the first picture of the quoted post. The numbers on the right hand side of the picture under the positions, am I correct in thinking this is calculated on what would be their best position in accordance with their attributes? So Espinosa is best suited as a full back according to his attributes? 
 

Also, I know the majority of the time their attributes will be best suited to what position they are already natural in, but if it’s not then I assume you retrain them to what position your percentages come out as?

Any info on this would be great mate.

[_Ben_]

2041/42: Youth Cohort

This was initially a 'mediocre' cohort but there was a couple of really interesting players within the list. Here is their progress:

Quite underwhelming, to be fair. However - I think I can explain a slight dip in Falcon (as in less progress than his training performances would suggest) and that is that he has become natural in the AMR slot, moving from AMC. I know that (using @Mikaelinho's weighting list) that his attributes will need to re-adjust now - but, again, this is another can of worms that doesn't need opening right now!) and that this may have impacted what I was expecting to be a great year. Never the less - he makes the top 10 in my list of top 'end mean':

It is good to see Aguilar making 11th here too. This top list is becoming somewhat of a who's who of youth development with some really top names (looking at Spanish internationals Garcia, Barreda, Herrero and Almansour and Argentine international Martelli) so this any changes on the list now are likely to be quite rare.

---

The average cohort development was 0.83, which is a little up on the average of all cohorts and, largely, they have developed well:

As always - the poor personalities quickly find themselves at the bottom of the list (although Oscar Diaz has done surprisingly well for a player with a Temperamental personality (1.3 vs all cohort average of 0.6 from 4 players) and this further vindicates what the personality tracker is showing.

[_Ben_]

3 minutes ago, Ausie said:

Only just came across this thread plus Mikaelinho’s. I don’t think I have the time or patience to go as in-depth as the both of you but I am absolutely fascinated reading it. Terrific work 

Just a question on the first picture of the quoted post. The numbers on the right hand side of the picture under the positions, am I correct in thinking this is calculated on what would be their best position in accordance with their attributes? So Espinosa is best suited as a full back according to his attributes? 

Also, I know the majority of the time their attributes will be best suited to what position they are already natural in, but if it’s not then I assume you retrain them to what position your percentages come out as?

Any info on this would be great mate.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

In terms of those figures - they were made as part of the 'squad DNA' sheet that I sometimes use. They are a score (out of 121 - which I was never quite sure why it came to that!) that tells me a suitability based on the key attributes I want, which differ from the in game ones.

You mention Espinosa and his original rating of 67.9 as a full back. Here is the DNA sheet from the summer:

The rating has now grown to 81.4 and it's calculated from the sum of all of those attributes, divided by 20 (total number each attribute is out of) and multiplied by 11 (because that is how many there is). I can see that, in 3 years - he's significantly grown his ability to play as a full back but, out of my first team players, remains the 'worst' of the bunch. 

---

When you're asking about retraining - look no further than Barreda, shown on the above image.

Here is the screen from his intake:

You'll notice he was just an AM(RLC) but, looking at his suitability for my DNA, he was just as good at full back (even better as a forward but I had enough depth there and wanted a creative IWB anyway) so I retrained him there.

It's not an exact science, but it certainly helps me identify a few things!

---

Any more questions, feel free to ask!  

[_Ben_]

February/March 2042

Wow!

This run of form is utterly ridiculous and we have set ourselves up perfectly for our first ever La Liga title. To think, a team who scored just over 1 goal per game last season have put five past Barca twice, five past Real, five past Mallorca and eight past Jaen this time around. What is more - we haven't conceded a league goal in over two months (last one was 18th January 2042) and have made progress in the Champions League, where we face Man Utd in the quarter finals.

With a steady run in, I will rotate the squad somewhat and try and retain the Champions League. I wouldn't mind an unbeaten season, either, but I'll still probably focus on one rather than both!

[Joe Horn]

Thanks for the explanation mate, I'm gonna try using Excel in my saves as I reckon it's help me keep track of certain things. Think I might do someone in Spain's lower reaches.

[_Ben_]

2041/42 Youth Intake

I got so excited when I saw another 'Samaniego' but, sadly, he's no relation to myself or my son - I wish 'cousin' or even just 'relation' was listed, but, to be fair, he's not born in the same place. This intake was classed as 'good.'

Pedro Luis Hernando. Moustapha Diallo.

This will be an interesting test of personality as my top rated player has the 21st (out of 24 that I've encountered) personality in terms of amount of progress across the first year in the game.

---

Here is my analysis of this intake (just a reminder - this is all automatically done for me via formula that have been carried over for years and literally takes one CTRL+P and one copy and paste from a html file!):

Despite being listed as 'good' - this is actually very strong compared to past intakes - something I've noticed as our reputation has increased over the last few years. There are significantly more midfielders than I normally have, also.

Only one player makes the top 20 based on his starting mean of attributes, and that is full back Jesus.

Ok, the top player through this intake, according to mean of attributes is Jesus. However, on the back of some of the things we've been discussing on this thread - here is some further data (which I won't do for each intake, just this one)

What I'm doing here is looking at the average of attributes that actually make up the CA. In the first 'adjusted mean' I have removed the attributes that have no value added to CA - aggression, determination, flair, off the ball and natural fitness). Sometimes, these become almost 'traits' of player - an aggressive player may be naturally fit, for example, and these extra points would skew that. Notice Djkine moves right down here - he has good aggression, flair and off the ball - but this would suggest his CA is lower than what my first mean was doing. The next adjusted mean removes the set pieces from this as they don't take up a lot of room in a players CA. From this, it's Nacho Gomez (a good corner and free kick taker) who takes quite a hit. 

Obviously, this works both ways. People like Jesus (very poor free kick and also average in all other set pieces as well as average off the ball) actually improve when taking this into account and his starting mean of 10.1 now actually makes him seem a decent player when compared to other players through my intakes. Hernando, with his awful free kicks and flair also gets a boost here, from 5th to 2nd best in this perceived CA calculation.

The last thing I could do is look at preferred foot as there is considerable weighting difference based on that but I'd need to think of an accurate way to weight each one - which is above me right now.

---

TLDR?

Basically, Jesus is probably the highest CA player in this intake. His PA, according to the game, isn't great. The intake is probably just 'ok' from a CA perspective.

[Ausie]

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Thank you very much for the kind words!

In terms of those figures - they were made as part of the 'squad DNA' sheet that I sometimes use. They are a score (out of 121 - which I was never quite sure why it came to that!) that tells me a suitability based on the key attributes I want, which differ from the in game ones.

You mention Espinosa and his original rating of 67.9 as a full back. Here is the DNA sheet from the summer:

The rating has now grown to 81.4 and it's calculated from the sum of all of those attributes, divided by 20 (total number each attribute is out of) and multiplied by 11 (because that is how many there is). I can see that, in 3 years - he's significantly grown his ability to play as a full back but, out of my first team players, remains the 'worst' of the bunch. 

---

When you're asking about retraining - look no further than Barreda, shown on the above image.

Here is the screen from his intake:

You'll notice he was just an AM(RLC) but, looking at his suitability for my DNA, he was just as good at full back (even better as a forward but I had enough depth there and wanted a creative IWB anyway) so I retrained him there.

It's not an exact science, but it certainly helps me identify a few things!

---

Any more questions, feel free to ask!  

Thanks, understand it better now. Your latest update was superb as well, great info.

 

Keep it up mate.

[Joe Horn]

Hi Ben

 

Just a quick one, the intake analysis spreadsheets you could upload as templates that'd be incredible in my opinion mate. Just a suggestion lol

[keeper#1]

3 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

To be fair - I've largely ignored goalkeepers because the data I can get from them (by building a whole new column for GK attributes and adding new formula etc) means I only get data for one new position, whereas now I get it for 10 other first team positions and however many positioning combinations there are.

I will have a think about it because I am terrible at developing goalkeepers but have got lucky on my long term saves with non-injury prone, reliable keepers.

Given my screen name, I was a former goalkeeper so I'm always interested in their development.  Their development always takes a bit longer both on FM and IRL.  You don't see too many world-class goalkeepers who are still in their teens.

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, Joe Horn said:

Hi Ben

 

Just a quick one, the intake analysis spreadsheets you could upload as templates that'd be incredible in my opinion mate. Just a suggestion lol

Whilst I am not against the idea - it's just my own method of analysing and provides nothing but a number to 1DP from year to year. The premise of creating averages or creating your own formula on Excel is relatively straightforward and I'd be happier to assist with something 'built for purpose' if you understand?

[_Ben_]

2 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

Given my screen name, I was a former goalkeeper so I'm always interested in their development.  Their development always takes a bit longer both on FM and IRL.  You don't see too many world-class goalkeepers who are still in their teens.

I'd love to see what you can find out as I'm getting further and further down the rabbit hole and can't give the time to find everything! I guess you have your young Qatari (I have read but keep forgetting to post in your thread!) keeper that you can track, too, whereas I have Fulvio who is already world class and isn't going to need replacing for 10 years.

[OlivierL]

6 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

To be fair - I've largely ignored goalkeepers because the data I can get from them (by building a whole new column for GK attributes and adding new formula etc) means I only get data for one new position, whereas now I get it for 10 other first team positions and however many positioning combinations there are.

I will have a think about it because I am terrible at developing goalkeepers but have got lucky on my long term saves with non-injury prone, reliable keepers.

I had the same problem and created a formula for goalkeepers only . After every youth intake or squad calculation i have to copy paste the formula , only for the goalkeepers.

It's not great but it works

[_Ben_]

Title

And with five games left to play, too...

[OlivierL]

4 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

2041/42 Youth Intake

I got so excited when I saw another 'Samaniego' but, sadly, he's no relation to myself or my son - I wish 'cousin' or even just 'relation' was listed, but, to be fair, he's not born in the same place. This intake was classed as 'good.'

Pedro Luis Hernando. Moustapha Diallo.

This will be an interesting test of personality as my top rated player has the 21st (out of 24 that I've encountered) personality in terms of amount of progress across the first year in the game.

---

Here is my analysis of this intake (just a reminder - this is all automatically done for me via formula that have been carried over for years and literally takes one CTRL+P and one copy and paste from a html file!):

Despite being listed as 'good' - this is actually very strong compared to past intakes - something I've noticed as our reputation has increased over the last few years. There are significantly more midfielders than I normally have, also.

Only one player makes the top 20 based on his starting mean of attributes, and that is full back Jesus.

Ok, the top player through this intake, according to mean of attributes is Jesus. However, on the back of some of the things we've been discussing on this thread - here is some further data (which I won't do for each intake, just this one)

 

Going to copy some of your yearly notes about youth intakes. great ! I'm going to do this for my Paris FC save (and future saves).

[keeper#1]

39 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Title

And with five games left to play, too...

Congratulations on this achievement.

[RageMaster]

Congrats on the title @_Ben_

[_Ben_]

4 hours ago, keeper#1 said:

Congratulations on this achievement.

 

2 hours ago, RageMaster said:

Congrats on the title @_Ben_

Thank you!

I guess it's been a bit of an anti-climax with us being so good this year that it's not really been a competition at all. I actually prefer the chasing to the winning but we'll see if this kind of domination lasts over the next couple of years - if so, I may try and end on a real high note!

[Joe Horn]

Congrats on the league pal first of many huh?

[Joe Horn]

5 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

Whilst I am not against the idea - it's just my own method of analysing and provides nothing but a number to 1DP from year to year. The premise of creating averages or creating your own formula on Excel is relatively straightforward and I'd be happier to assist with something 'built for purpose' if you understand?

I'd just quite like to learn how to analyse in depth youth like you and others I've seen do lol. 

[_Ben_]

21 minutes ago, Joe Horn said:

Congrats on the league pal first of many huh?

Thank you very much!

An honest answer:

The tough seasons (with Copa del Rey, Supercopa, Champions League, Club World Cup every four years) combined with how high profile the team is now (so wages etc are astronomical and it's wayyy harder to get youth players into a team this good without sacrificing on-field quality) means that, no, it's probably not the start of a dynasty. I'd like to see our centenary in (2047 - so five years from now) but in days gone by, I'd want 20 league titles, for example. With the depth of the analysis, that's not really the kind of save I want these days.

[-Jef-]

Congrats on the title! Have been following from the beginnning and really admire your work.

 

Have also started a save in Spain with Real Zaragoza.

 

Might start up a career thread myself as I want to keep track of it in one place which also probably means I'll bug you a lot regarding excel

Edited May 23, 2020 by rosque

[ifinnem]

Epic and inspiring as always Ben. Congrats on the title win - in awe of your staying power to build up and keep at it!

any lessons you can share from what works and doesn’t work as far as mentoring goes? I am finding it really hit and miss and makes me hesitant to buy youth with poor personalities...

 

[Fosse]

The academic side of this so brilliant and this thread stands up alongside Cleon’s Ajax one in terms of youth development. Congratulations.

[metallimuse]

May I ask a question with help regarding a future thread I’m creating?

I’m putting together some spread sheets to help me analyse data throughout the save and having a bit of trouble on how to grade personalities.

If you guys were to divide all personalities into 5 brackets, let’s say 5 is best 1 being worst, what number would you put each into?

[scousevasey]

On 04/11/2019 at 18:17, _Ben_ said:

In game nuances:

Over the past couple of editions, I've grown some different ways of approaching my save which make them a little more immersive for me. I thought that I'd create a short post to outline them now rather than introduce them as the save goes on.

2. Attribute Bars

Not quite the same as last year - as it seems the coding has changed but, thanks to @Shrewnaldo on Twitter and @wkdsoul (I think!) I have managed to sneak in and grab this download. I spoke with Shrew at the end of FM19 about this way of playing the game moving forward and we both shared a very similar outlook. Each colour represents a group of attributes - white: 0-4, light green: 5-9, dark green: 10-14 and gold 15-20. I really think that this is the most realistic way of playing - look above, Kevin De Bruyne is an outstanding/world class/incredible (insert another adjective here) passer of the ball yet, as you'd expect, is heading is below average/poor/weak. I feel that a real football manager would utilise this information rather than just a 'score' out of 20.

The added difference this year is that, with no attribute bars, and actually just the font colour of the number matching the box behind it - it is even harder to distinguish the value within it. Last year I began to be able to tell the difference between a 5 and a 9, for example. But this time, I cannot.

3. Player position colours

As a huge fan of versatility, I have decided to change the colouring slightly. I have found literally no difference between accomplished and natural on the pitch - so have coloured them the same. It means that, even if just a placebo effect, I feel that I have a more versatile squad. I have also changed competent and unconvincing to the same colour as they both neither show up on the player position indicator but both offer a 'role' for that position, given by the assistant manager.

Hi @_Ben_

I have been dipping in and out, and like the way you mask the values in terms of colouring.  How do you go about doing it, as I am struggling and looking at the Skinning Hideout I seem to be either missing a key bit of information, or there is an assumption that people looking to skin know more than I do

 

Cheers

 

[OlivierL]

1 hour ago, metallimuse said:

May I ask a question with help regarding a future thread I’m creating?

I’m putting together some spread sheets to help me analyse data throughout the save and having a bit of trouble on how to grade personalities.

If you guys were to divide all personalities into 5 brackets, let’s say 5 is best 1 being worst, what number would you put each into?

Use this :

 

[_Ben_]

7 hours ago, ifinnem said:

Epic and inspiring as always Ben. Congrats on the title win - in awe of your staying power to build up and keep at it!

any lessons you can share from what works and doesn’t work as far as mentoring goes? I am finding it really hit and miss and makes me hesitant to buy youth with poor personalities...

 

Many thanks!

Mentoring has worked really well for me - but I've worked tirelessly to limit the amount of poor personalities coming through my intakes (and, a tiny proportion of those that have come through have amounted to anything - so see that as a negative too, in terms of changing them) and I've only really tried to sign youngsters with good personalities.

Essentially - anyone coming in to the first team has had a good/average personality so it's made the mentoring groups a lot easier, as there is 'less' change to do.

[_Ben_]

4 hours ago, Fosse said:

The academic side of this so brilliant and this thread stands up alongside Cleon’s Ajax one in terms of youth development. Congratulations.

Thank you! Once this save has ran it's course - I'll be hopefully packing all of this stuff up and carting it straight into my next save, with new things to focus on to and with all of the knowledge I've now picked up.

Last year, I started at Beira-Mar and it was in my second save, at San Marino, where I kind of put in place what I'd learnt. I guess though my next save has a lot more to live up to!

[_Ben_]

4 hours ago, metallimuse said:

May I ask a question with help regarding a future thread I’m creating?

I’m putting together some spread sheets to help me analyse data throughout the save and having a bit of trouble on how to grade personalities.

If you guys were to divide all personalities into 5 brackets, let’s say 5 is best 1 being worst, what number would you put each into?

 

2 hours ago, OlivierL said:

Use this :

 

I can't see that I completely agree with that!

But - as it has all of the personalities there. I guess you can do it a little like this:

• Orange can stay as 3 as they are average.
• From the green group - I'd have Model Citizen, Model Pro, Pro as group 1 (because I massively rate professionalism over ambition) and the rest in group two. I think that the rest have a lot of gaps that (particularly without knowing media handling) mean you are guessing!
• The red group can probably go mainly into four with Low Det/Unambitious and Casual as my group 5 - just based on historical evidence in my game - although I haven't had all of them anyway.

 

 

[_Ben_]

3 hours ago, scousevasey said:

Hi @_Ben_

I have been dipping in and out, and like the way you mask the values in terms of colouring.  How do you go about doing it, as I am struggling and looking at the Skinning Hideout I seem to be either missing a key bit of information, or there is an assumption that people looking to skin know more than I do

 

Cheers

 

I'm not sure really.

Have you downloaded the panels? Have you cleared your cache and reloaded your skin? 

What is the exact problem you are having?

[_Ben_]

April/May 2042

I have built an absolutely monstrous squad and this league title is completely deserved as we have been, by far, the best team in the league since day one.

The last two months have seen almost a party atmosphere and, despite the results not being quite as extravagant, the damage was done with the demolitions of Real and Barca - who, in their first season under a different manager since 2019/20, finished way off the pace in third. 

It was Sevilla, the only two to beat us twice this season (league and Copa del Rey) who ruined the perfect season but we still end with a magical three figure points - scoring at 2.66 points per game, up from just 1.26 when we first made it to La Liga and even the 2.29 that we recorded as runners up, two years back. 

---

Once again - there is a game left to play this season, as we beat Barca after being taken to extra time by Man Utd. We, once again, face off against Inter Milan...

[OlivierL]

26 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

 

I can't see that I completely agree with that!

But - as it has all of the personalities there. I guess you can do it a little like this:

• Orange can stay as 3 as they are average.
• From the green group - I'd have Model Citizen, Model Pro, Pro as group 1 (because I massively rate professionalism over ambition) and the rest in group two. I think that the rest have a lot of gaps that (particularly without knowing media handling) mean you are guessing!
• The red group can probably go mainly into four with Low Det/Unambitious and Casual as my group 5 - just based on historical evidence in my game - although I haven't had all of them anyway.

 

 

Do u have a list with all the personalities split in each group ?

I was planning to use those three groups. I have a list with the attributes for most of those personalities like ambition, professionalism, pressure etc

Edited May 23, 2020 by OlivierL

[_Ben_]

6 minutes ago, OlivierL said:

Do u have a list with all the personalities split in each group ?

I was planning to use those three groups. I have a list with the attributes for most of those personalities like ambition, professionalism, pressure etc

No, I don't.

It's down to personal preference, I'd say. Those personalities are largely positive but what I've tried to do is focus on professional players so a Born Leader - for example:

Born Leader
Leadership 20, Determination 20

Has no indication of professionalism - so you're just guessing at what it might be. My player, Claudio Lopez, moved from Pro to Charismatic Leader as his Leadership went up but I know that his professionalism was already great - so I don't care as much. I, probably, wouldn't sign a Charismatic Leader though.

---

Those 3 groups are a perfectly fine starting point though.

 

[_Ben_]

Retainers

In a game that pretty much mirrored that of last year - we have retained our CL title and have won a scrappy game with a goal from a youth academy graduate (although, this time, not in the last minute!)

We were, again, kicked off the park by Inter who continue to field an aggressive side who are quick to close down spaces everywhere on the pitch.

A fantastic treble of league, UEFA Super Cup and Champions League sees me top off my most successful season, ever!

[LUFCspeni]

Fantastic! What are the plans for the save now? If it were me I would probably lose all motivation, once I've done everything I never really carry on.

[_Ben_]

1 minute ago, LUFCspeni said:

Fantastic! What are the plans for the save now? If it were me I would probably lose all motivation, once I've done everything I never really carry on.

I think I want to see what kind of Real and Barca I face next year - whether I've awoken the beasts or whether they'll just fade into the background. Going forward, I don't really know - as we have some great young players still and I'd like to see what they can do. I'm tempted to see what the AI does to my team but that always ends badly!

However - we are five years from our centenary and three more years until the next Club World Cup, which'd be the icing on the cake I guess.

We'll see...

[ifinnem]

1 hour ago, _Ben_ said:

Many thanks!

Mentoring has worked really well for me - but I've worked tirelessly to limit the amount of poor personalities coming through my intakes (and, a tiny proportion of those that have come through have amounted to anything - so see that as a negative too, in terms of changing them) and I've only really tried to sign youngsters with good personalities.

Essentially - anyone coming in to the first team has had a good/average personality so it's made the mentoring groups a lot easier, as there is 'less' change to do.

 Would appreciate your insight into how you construct the groups. Large vs small? Mix of senior players vs those needing mentoring. Impact of social group, age, position etc.

I know you think about this deeply so I’m sure you have good insights!

 

[_Ben_]

1 minute ago, ifinnem said:

 Would appreciate your insight into how you construct the groups. Large vs small? Mix of senior players vs those needing mentoring. Impact of social group, age, position etc.

I know you think about this deeply so I’m sure you have good insights!

 

No deep thinking for mentoring, at this point!

With such good personalities throughout - I tend to go for 2 experienced players with good personalities and the one that I want to develop.

Something to look further into though...

[_Ben_]

End of 2041/42 Season Update

A wonderful season!

The whole idea of the main squad and the backup squad worked out really well - with quite a clear split in minutes played and, to be fair, performances. The biggest change this year has been the goals scored - with two players in the twenties and one just below. However, my favourite performance smust be that of my full backs who have sixteen goals and 29 assists between them.

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Things are looking fantastic!

[Ausie]

@_Ben_ can I ask you for some tips in what you think is the best way to develop your youth?

For example, in my current save I just took in a decent batch of youth players. Couple of them have good personalities, a couple have rubbish and the rest are ok (balanced).

I already have control of individual training for them. It’s more the mentoring, loaning and what squads to have them in I’m interested in. 
 

I hate to have my first team squad bloated with youth players so I’d prefer them to be in my under 23 squad at the minute. But am I correct in saying if I want to try and mentor the bad personalities away then I need to have them in my first team? 
 

And should I keep them at the club for at least a year or two before I consider loaning them out for first team football? Assuming they still weren’t ready to be around my own first team at that point.

I’m aware you may not want to be taken as gospel here but any thoughts would be great.

[_Ben_]

11 minutes ago, Ausie said:

@_Ben_ can I ask you for some tips in what you think is the best way to develop your youth?

For example, in my current save I just took in a decent batch of youth players. Couple of them have good personalities, a couple have rubbish and the rest are ok (balanced).

I already have control of individual training for them. It’s more the mentoring, loaning and what squads to have them in I’m interested in. 
 

I hate to have my first team squad bloated with youth players so I’d prefer them to be in my under 23 squad at the minute. But am I correct in saying if I want to try and mentor the bad personalities away then I need to have them in my first team? 
 

And should I keep them at the club for at least a year or two before I consider loaning them out for first team football? Assuming they still weren’t ready to be around my own first team at that point.

I’m aware you may not want to be taken as gospel here but any thoughts would be great.

There is really no best or worst way. I have my methods which I've documented throughout this thread but it's personal preference really.

Firstly - I only use my first team for first team players because I have a B team in an active league. I have worked really hard on personalities so tend to have less poor personalities in the squads anyway but they'll play in the B team if they are good enough.

Once they get to the first team - they are mentored if they don't have a personality I desire. See below for how I tend to do that:

As many good personalities as I can spare in with the one I want changing.

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I also don't really use the loan market much, but that is because of my B team. I only really loan out if they're in the U19s and not getting game time but aren't really ever going to do anything of note. I would, as a rule, keep them at the club until 18/19 though. The more developed they are with your good facilities, the 'better' they should perform out on loan. Of course there'll be exceptions to that rule though.

[_Ben_]

World Cup shock

It's 2042, granted, but Barbados aren't exactly a great team!

[_Ben_]

2042/43 Squad Preview

Not a lot in terms of changes this year, just three more youth players coming into the 'backup squad' to replace Zaros (€35m to Flamengo), Gonzalez (€9m to Levante) and Garcia (currently discussing a €43.5m deal abroad). Zaros wanted upwards of €300k p/w to remain here and Gonzalez and Garcia were not performing great and will hopefully be usurped by academy players, anyway.

That leaves my strongest team like this:

Geovane Henrique had a bit of a breakthrough year last time round and comes in as the slightly unfashionable hard worker within the team, getting up and down. He's now a full Brazilian international and has more potential to fill. The rest of the team remains the same, with four (Barreda, Herrero, Garcia and Almansour) youth graduates. I'd, ideally, like a few more youth graduates in this team but we are lucky to have produced this many great players, as it is!

The 'backup squad' now looks like this:

In comes Duarte to replace Zaros, Yuste to deputise as a backup centre half and my next top prospect, Julen Falcon, who I have really high hopes for.  The best part about this squad is that ten of these eleven (minus Fulvio) are academy graduates. They are young, have great personalities and are already good enough for La Liga, with some having plenty more room for growth. This is the kind of academy that I set out to build - and, with 31 academy graduates currently playing in La Liga or La Liga 123 (excluding those at my own B-team), we are close to surpassing the feats of La Masia, some thirty years prior to this.

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Like I said - I want to see how this season pans out in terms of the difficulty we have in our quest to retain the title. There are some fantastic players now in their peaks but a whole host of my academy graduates have yet to reach that level yet, so I'm kind of torn between a new idea and staying put for five seasons of winning each game! If I do the latter, I may move to the IR button (for easy games, anyway) and kind of take a step back from first team manager to essentially become a Head of Player Development.