Designing Training Schedules

[KCHDD]

Hi so I'm relatively new to the game (judging by what I see from most people in the forums) and I've been thinking about my training. I initially just left the ass man to it but I felt like my training would be better if I specialised it further to train aspects of my tactical style. I am playing a possession based style so I am thinking about adding more specific modules like "play from the back", ball retention", "attacking patient" stuff like that in place of all the general sessions that my ass man does. However, I have seen different approaches being discussed, some which say that using general sessions would be much more beneficial to tactical familiarity, especially during the preseason. Some people even use the general sessions throughout the season. Can anyone give me some advice on how to set up my training, especially how I should balance general and specific training?

[Experienced Defender]

Your schedules look okay to me, generally speaking. 

[KCHDD]

@Experienced Defender I ave been trying to keep the technical aspects constant in all my schedules in order to develop those specific skills for my tactics, as well as shadow play. I do try my best to include both goalkeeping and physical sessions but I remove those in a 2 game week. I'm just considering dropping some of the technical sessions for the general (blue) training. Is that a good idea?

[Mandy42]

I've been thinking of tinkering with training myself (though I have up until now allowed the ass man to do it. My only thought regarding your schedules (that I would do differently) is where I would put the specific weeks, and sessions within said week.

Ie in your image, I would have the defensive week the week of the Liverpool game, as I feel I would likely be doing more defending in that game, and make sure the sessions I thought were key happened before the match.

Likewise, I would see the Bournemouth game as a good game to have the attacking training in with it being a home game and as a possession based side you would be expected to be on the front foot in that game.

 

[yonko]

On 18/07/2020 at 08:51, KCHDD said:

Hi so I'm relatively new to the game (judging by what I see from most people in the forums) and I've been thinking about my training. I initially just left the ass man to it but I felt like my training would be better if I specialised it further to train aspects of my tactical style. I am playing a possession based style so I am thinking about adding more specific modules like "play from the back", ball retention", "attacking patient" stuff like that in place of all the general sessions that my ass man does. However, I have seen different approaches being discussed, some which say that using general sessions would be much more beneficial to tactical familiarity, especially during the preseason. Some people even use the general sessions throughout the season. Can anyone give me some advice on how to set up my training, especially how I should balance general and specific training?

Since this new training module was introduced I have followed guidelines presented by @Rashidi

I create weekly schedules for Attacking, Defending , Possession and Tactical - I assigned them to each week on rotational basis. I also have a Technical schedule for a week with no match during International breaks and a schedule for the week when players return from International breaks. I have Preseason schedules too - Heavy, Normal and for Friendlies. 

During the beginning of the season my schedule consist of training sessions that address Tactical Familiarity - General sessions, Attacking sessions, Defending sessions, Tactical sessions and Match Prep. Most of those sessions target wide variety of attributes and add more training load. Once my Tactical Familiarity is full, I use schedules that are lighter and more focused on specific attributes. 

A good place to start is the default schedules. All my schedules are modified versions of the ones there. I use the Preseason Heavy - Early - No matches and modify that one to my liking. I also take the default schedules based on Training Style and modify those. You can add and replace sessions to suit whatever you need. 

Here are some examples for preseason and attacking week:

Heavy

Normal

Friendlies

Attacking Early Season to help familiarity

Second phase of the season to develop attributes I need

A schedule for two matches a week. I can use this version or change it by removing a session and shifting one of the other seasons. Depends how much I want to rotate my squad and help recover the conditioning of my players. 

From the Rest training tab you can also control the Training Intensity based on players' condition levels. 

 

 

[Experienced Defender]

10 hours ago, KCHDD said:

@Experienced Defender I ave been trying to keep the technical aspects constant in all my schedules in order to develop those specific skills for my tactics, as well as shadow play. I do try my best to include both goalkeeping and physical sessions but I remove those in a 2 game week. I'm just considering dropping some of the technical sessions for the general (blue) training. Is that a good idea?

I am not an expert in training, although I do set all first-team schedules myself, so please take this with a pinch of salt...

When it comes specifically to general sessions, I use them mostly in the pre-season (and to a lesser degree during the 2-week breaks when national teams play their matches), whereas during the season I tend to use more specialized sessions that suit my style of play - not ignoring other aspects of play -  but still including some general ones occasionally. The only general session I regularly use regardless of my playing style is Tactical, because I want to develop my players' mental attributes as much as possible. And when it comes to the mental attributes development, I use not just the General>Tactical but also Tactical>Shadow play.

In the preseason, I also tend to include more physical-related sessions (both Genearal>Physical and specialized ones, i.e. Quickness, Endurance and Resistance).