Squad Planner working?

[Cometdude]

A very small, but very frustrating bugbear of mine is the squad planner. I might not be fully understanding the purpose of the planner, or for that matter how it works but here is MY understanding of how it works in MY mind. Correct me if I am wrong.

The squad planner is a way of me communicating to my staff which players I rank for each position on the pitch. The player in number 1 slot is my first choice, 2 second choice and so on.

I add and remove players and juggle it around for the current season and the two following seasons so I can cast an eye on the players I have and if they are in contract etc.

For me it serves two purposes, I can judge the depth of my squad AND I can tell my staff which players I want in each position and those I don't.

 

Why is it then that before EVERY match the selection advice I get from my assistant manager is to drop my first choice striker (who scored 53 goals last season) and telling me to put my second choice left winger as a striker. Yes he has striker as an accomplished position but he is lacking in finishing and composure but is a very competent winger. He's a squad player and gets plenty of game time rotating with the other wingers in the team. The only reason I get from the ass man is that his ability warrants a place in the team.

 

Am I not understanding the squad planner or is it not working?

[Dagenham_Dave]

First of all your players have zero knowledge of the squad planner, it's purely there to give you a position by position view of your squad depth. Rearranging or removing players will have no effect on them. (or your staff)

Also, your assistant manager will order the players in their suitability for each role you have selected on your tactic. 

To give you a simple example, you might have a 4* striker, but who is only 4* when played in an advanced forward role. You might play a lone striker up front as a pressing forward. If you have another striker at the club who has a higher rating as a pressing forward (but might just be a 3* striker overall) then he will be ahead of your 4* striker. Of course, that's just how the assistant sees it, you can fully customise it yourself. 

The 'selection advice' screen you see before a game isn't linked to the squad planner in any way. At least I don't think so. I don't pay much attention to the selection advice thing anyway, as I always just pick my own team. Some of the AM's suggestions can be baffling, but then it's code without context. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Dagenham_Dave

[Mike J]

The squad planner is one of those relatively new additions that doesn't seem so well integrated yet, and this is one example of that. It's purely there to help with transfer planning in-game and has no effect on how your AM ranks your players in their selection advice. It's not even very good at that, as I've had suggestions to sell my star midfielder because he "doesn't feature in my plans according tot he squad planner" when he's started every game but I've forgotten to add him to the planner so he's at the bottom of the list. It's p[particularly annoying because the game already tracks playing time and that feels like something that your AM and DoF could use to effectively highlight who you're using and who you aren't.

[dankrzyz]

11 hours ago, Cometdude said:

Am I not understanding the squad planner or is it not working?

Think of the squad planner as the manager's private notebook, a simple management tool, in which he or she plans the depth chart for each position this season and in coming seasons.

The player's agreed playing time is what you seem to be referring to. This playing time promise is agreed upon when you sign a player's contract, but can also be changed in the player's profile. Agreed playing times include "impact sub", "fringe player", "squad player", "regular starter", et cetera. This is what the player (and their agent and your staff) understands the player's promised place in the team to be.

[Cometdude]

8 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

First of all your players have zero knowledge of the squad planner, it's purely there to give you a position by position view of your squad depth. Rearranging or removing players will have no effect on them. (or your staff)

Also, your assistant manager will order the players in their suitability for each role you have selected on your tactic. 

To give you a simple example, you might have a 4* striker, but who is only 4* when played in an advanced forward role. You might play a lone striker up front as a pressing forward. If you have another striker at the club who has a higher rating as a pressing forward (but might just be a 3* striker overall) then he will be ahead of your 4* striker. Of course, that's just how the assistant sees it, you can fully customise it yourself. 

The 'selection advice' screen you see before a game isn't linked to the squad planner in any way. At least I don't think so. I don't pay much attention to the selection advice thing anyway, as I always just pick my own team. Some of the AM's suggestions can be baffling, but then it's code without context. 

Just as I suspected, I had completely misunderstood what the squad planner is for. I don't normall pay attention o the selection advice, it's just this one is peculiar. Squad planner is essentially a digital version of my trusty notebook, got it 

[Cometdude]

44 minutes ago, dankrzyz said:

The player's agreed playing time is what you seem to be referring to. This playing time promise is agreed upon when you sign a player's contract, but can also be changed in the player's profile. Agreed playing times include "impact sub", "fringe player", "squad player", "regular starter", et cetera. This is what the player (and their agent and your staff) understands the player's promised place in the team to be.

Weirdly the advice doesn't appear to be linked to agreed playing time at all, striker is one of only two players with star player playing time at the club, the winger is a youth player with fringe player. That is probably what makes the situation even more vexing 

 

This is what happens when an old dog tries new things 

[dankrzyz]

1 hour ago, Cometdude said:

Squad planner is essentially a digital version of my trusty notebook, got it 

Yes, exactly!