Playing time doubts

[Jervaj]

So, after getting some seasons going and wanting to go deeper in my squad management I started to pay closer attention to playing time happiness and the expected/real playing time each player has. I like to rotate a lot as a manager (as if not I get very low condition by matches's end) and so far I was trying to be as conservative as possible with my promises, even when I thought I would easilly give them more playing time to avoid issues, as I had a bad experience with an improtant player in the starting squad the team had which forced me to play him a bit below condition so he didnt kept brigning up the issue.

 

I no longer have any important players in the squad and quickly aim to lower anyones expectations if my director of football does the renewal and he promises too much. I was considering if maybe this approach had its downsides morale wise. But after analyzing it through the season Im very confused. So I wanted to bring up the following questions:

 

- How is "actual playing time" calculated? Its total minutes? Its about appearences as starter and subs (weighted appropiatelly)? Is by relative comparison to other players in the squad of any of these metrics?  Over which period of time?

 

- It is there any reason to promise more playing time to a player if you can get away with less? Does having a lower promise and overachieving it make them happier? Or is it better to have the hgiehst promise you can fulfill?

 

- Is there any other factors ,like personality or relative quality to other players, that affect how happy is a player with his playing time? I mean ndependently of the promises.

 

These questions come because observing my squad I dont see a clear pattern as there seems to be many inconsistencies. I have a player who  has 17 starter appearences (only the main GK with 18 has more) and 6 as subs and his playing time is considered only "Breakthrough prospect". At the same time I have players as low as 14 starting appearences and no sub appearences that have their actual playing time considered as "Important player". I even have 1 with 11 as an improtant player but I assume in his case is due to a long term injury which means he doesnt count those matches.

I have other minor discrepancies. For example players with 16 (10), 16 (4), 16 (2) that are only considered regular starters while players with 15 (4), 14 (11) are considered important. I verified that those two have less total minutes so even if that was the metric instead they theoretically should be below. Its also notable a player that with 11 starter apperances has its actual playing time considered as "Youngster".

 

Discrepancies aside, another thing that is surprising me is that the actual playing time is been higher than expected. It is why Im starting to wonder if I should be less conservative with playing time promises, but the thing is that it doesn't match my previous experience. As I mentioned I had this CD that was getting worried when he was been rotated 1 in 1 out (him been first option when needed to repeat due to injuries), yet now I have  9 "Important players" according to their actual playing time, despite they have only featured as starters 14-17 matches out of the 30 official I played so far this season. All the others are considered regular starters with the notable 2 exceptions mentioned above. Theres 3-4 other players with different ratings but they all got into my first team very recently (due to transfer or promotion after main team injuries) so Im not paying attention to them yet.

I wasn't expecting players with roughly have the amtches played to have that consideration. I thought over half will make them regular starters at best and I was using squad player a lot for my promises but seems like, it may not be neccesary?

 

My last queston before comes from another inconsistency I observed. Is that the happines seems to vary notably for the same situation. I have players that are delighted despite playing time just matches the promise, others are just satisfied there. I even have one player whose playing time is considered "Important" vs his "Regular Starter" promise and he is just satisfied. Most players in a similar situation are delighted, though theres a couple of happy and very happy here and there.

 

Can anyone help me make sense of all this?

 

Thanks in advance. Much appreciated.