Training: Post-Match should be different for bench and pitch

[Piperita]

Hello,

I really love the training modules and how it allows us to develop the squad in certain directions.

What I don't like is how the days after matches are often kinda wasted on bench/reserve players unless one does heavy micromanagement after each match to give everyone on the pitch a day off or to reduce their workload for a day. Sometimes we have one unit of travel and the game expects us to have one unit of recovery which only affects the playing half of the squad.

This leaves one free unit and when playing in continental cups or in certain leagues that commonly have mid-week games that really eats up available resources over time.

At least my local club (VfL Wolfsburg) usually handles this by dividing up schedules on the day after (or two days after when giving a day off) between players that played a certain amount and players that didn't play or only had short appearances. Usually the reserves have then one to two usual units whereas the others are doing a classical cool-down schedule and are off-pitch.

This would better balance the workload between playing and non-playing squad members and allow us to give the former their regeneration while the others get their training.

As for the implementation, I have three ideas:

1) The recovery training module gets changed so that it runs concurrently to another unit. The recovery unit only affects players that fulfill one or more of the following
a) have played a match the previous day for over x minutes
b) are judged by the medical staff to need a rest
c) have just come back from an injury and are not yet fully rehabilitated
d) are put in the new training unit "recovery" that can be set additionally to the main unit.

2) One can click a box at post-match units that can be toggled between "free", "rec" and "all" which sets how squad players train these units

3) We simply get special boxes at the training main page. They could amount to the following:
a) "Squad players recover after match" which makes them recover the first post-match slot.
b) "Squad players participate in tactical training" They only participate in training if it is tactical in nature (Match Review, Match Tactics, pot. Shadow Plays and Match Prep.) and if it is not the first slot while recovery is ticked)
c) "Squad players participate in light training" They participate in training that is not one of the four physicals, Match Practice, or Pressing unless it is in the first slot while recovery is ticked
d) "Squad players participate in training" They do all sessions unless it is in the first slot while recovery is ticked

Only one out of b-d can be ticked as d contains c and c contains b.

[Abdullah Patel]

Thanks for the suggestion, do you have any proof of teams doing this in real life that we can look into? Trying to bring more realism into the game is generally a good shout when raising features.

[autohoratio]

1 hour ago, Abdullah Patel said:

Thanks for the suggestion, do you have any proof of teams doing this in real life that we can look into? Trying to bring more realism into the game is generally a good shout when raising features.

https://mart1buch.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/lacome-small-sided-games-in-elite-soccer-does-one-size-fits-all.pdf
Study "Small-Sided Games in elite soccer: Does one size fits all?" by Mathieu Lacome, Ben M. Simpson, Yannick Cholley, Philippe Lambert, Martin Buchheit. They analysed Paris Saint-Germain in 2014-15 and 2015-16, who (if I've summarised the study correctly) implemented 40-45 (or 60 including running drills) minutes of high intensity training across several drills for the players who didn't play in a previous day's match. Additionally, I believe AFC Wimbledon have something similar when it comes to their Substitutes Coach (or "Finishers" Coach as they like to call them)? The aim there is to spend the 15 mins. half time preparing the subs for impacting the second half with high intensity drills and I suspect (but can't remember for sure) that they do higher intensity than normal training the next day for those players (Perhaps with the relationship between SI and AFCW it might be worth asking?).

Edited February 23, 2022 by autohoratio