Important player expects to be played even when his injury risk is increased!

[2feet]

I have Marc Guehi at centreback and his game time is at Important Player, so he expects to start all games.

I won't play him if his injury risk is Increased or High from playing too many games though.

But now he complains he's not getting enough games!

So he expects me to play him even when he is prone to being injured!

That doesnt sound correct, what player would ever do that?!

Is this by design or is it a bug?

 

Edited August 18, 2022 by 2feet

[herne79]

30 minutes ago, 2feet said:

his game time is at Important Player, so he expects to start all games

No he doesn't.  Even Star Players only expect to start 90% of matches.  @HUNT3R knows the playing time amounts iirc.

Anyway, unless the player is particularly injury prone (if he is, sell him) then don't molly coddle him.

[HUNT3R]

Thanks for the nudge, Herne79. Out of the matches available, how many matches has he started?

An Important Player would be looking at about 75-80% of starts.

[2feet]

Do substitutions help satisfy their game time, or is it only starts that count?

[HUNT3R]

Sub appearances help, but starts are obviously much more important. 

[FrazT]

For most game time issues, starting is what matters ( unless the game time promise is as an impact sub, of course).  Starting a player and them immediately subbing him will cause issues not only with player and team happiness but with the impact that his game rating will have on his value, so not recommended.  Try to only offer game time promises that you intend to try and keep is the long term answer.

[2feet]

I think there's an option in the dressing rom talk after a game where you can explain why you took the star player off early. That probably appeases him.

[HUNT3R]

6 hours ago, Renyy said:

Does game time matter at all or is it purely starts as a primary thing and subs as a secondary? Can I appease a star player by starting him every game despite him being subbed out after 5? Now that most leagues have 5 subs I gotta admit this is very tempting to do with some troublemakers. 

You can't do that IRL, so I can't see you getting away with doing that. Minutes on the pitch count as well.

I had 5 Star Players in the team last season and was able to keep all 5 happy. I wouldn't advise having that many and I'm certainly not going to do it again, but it showed me it's possible.

[kepz]

On 19/08/2022 at 18:22, 2feet said:

I think there's an option in the dressing rom talk after a game where you can explain why you took the star player off early. That probably appeases him.

I believe you've confused the "I've taken you off because of a tactical change / we were in control of the match / etc." post-match statement that you can make directly to the player subbed. I've noticed that helps appease them sometimes. 

[glengarry224]

On 18/08/2022 at 08:53, 2feet said:

I have Marc Guehi at centreback and his game time is at Important Player, so he expects to start all games.

I won't play him if his injury risk is Increased or High from playing too many games though.

 

I can't remember where I read this but I'm pretty sure that more injuries occur in training than in matches, and also that during matches, injuries are more likely to occur if a player has low condition or match sharpness.  So I think it's better to give individual players a day off from training, or lower their training intensity, rather than bench them.  But also be prepared to sub them off when their condition hearts turn orange or red.

Just my (maybe wrong) point of view:  I don't worry unless injury risk gets to 'very high'.  Especially during the second half of the season, especially if the schedule is packed, the day after a match, I'll give all tired and all high/very-high risk players a day off.  Another approach I've used is to lower the automatic intensity settings to:

(or keep the full-green-heart at 'double intensity').   Note that these settings will slow down player development.

[ImDaWeasel]

Play him until his feet dissolve or is sold. That's what the game wants you to do.

[santy001]

I tend to have 5-6 players carrying the "concerned" tag about their playing time happiness most of the time. But that covers levels like squad player as well. It's manageable at that level you do need to give them runs of a few games from time to time to ensure it doesn't get out of hand. There are times where I'll look at a run of fixtures and will try to map out who will be playing when to keep them happy and also at a good level of fitness. 

You do have to use the Star Player/Important Player sparingly. 

[2feet]

5 hours ago, ImDaWeasel said:

Play him until his feet dissolve or is sold. That's what the game wants you to do.

I think I recall there's an option to 'buy bag of hydrochloric acid' buried somewhere in one of the menus

[collisonmullan]

It would be good if you could offer players more specific playing time like GK. For example, league cup or europa league opportunities for younger and fringe players etc so they know what games to expect to play in. 

[Butters76]

On 18/08/2022 at 20:18, HUNT3R said:

Thanks for the nudge, Herne79. Out of the matches available, how many matches has he started?

An Important Player would be looking at about 75-80% of starts.

 

But when I play games almost every 3 days. I have no chance to give any player 80% of starts. I have this problem with Jesus at Arsenal. Granted he is star player.
I have to keep starting him and take him off at half time so he'll be able to start the next match. Coz when he played roughly 75% of games he was concerned about his playing time.
He didn't come to me and complain. But under happiness tab he is concerned about his playing time.

[K94]

50 minuti fa, Butters76 ha scritto:

 

But when I play games almost every 3 days. I have no chance to give any player 80% of starts. I have this problem with Jesus at Arsenal. Granted he is star player.
I have to keep starting him and take him off at half time so he'll be able to start the next match. Coz when he played roughly 75% of games he was concerned about his playing time.
He didn't come to me and complain. But under happiness tab he is concerned about his playing time.

Since I often rotate the squad to keep my most important players fit for CL mathes, I find myself having Important players worried about their playing time.

What I usually do is, knock down their expected playing time every time I can, in addition of course to regularly play them in CL+League matches played once a week (maybe twice if I don't have a close CL match). I found that if you have a good relationship with them, more often than not they will come to chat because they're worried about their decreased playing time, just to then drop their worries immediatly because they're happy I approached them to talk about it. Worse case is if they don't, and you can just apologize and bring things back, which pretty much makes them happy again.

Of course you won't be able to turn Star players into Squad players, but Star player -> Important player and Important player -> Regular starter usually work for me. It might not be ground breaking, but it definetly helps, especially for someone that you want to keep but would not be willing to renew his contract unless he gets a role that's one level higher than what you'd be willing to give them. 

Edited August 25, 2022 by K94

[Butters76]

Yeah I try to decrease their roles too. But like you say it doesn't always work.