danej

I just re-read this: Training & Youth Intake - A Brief Guide **Updated for FM20** - Tactics, Training & Strategies Discussion - Sports Interactive Community (sigames.com) There is this interesting section: Best Practice Pre-Season It is advisable to run a proper pre-season, whether this be from our list of pre-season templates or your creating your own. If left to the Assistant, he will run pre-season according to his preferences. During pre-season players will most likely be at their minimum level of fatigue, the exception being those returning from summer international duty. When fatigue is low a player that works hard physically (sessions that increase fatigue) will improve his long term fitness, meaning he can stave off jadedness longer into the season. However, when a player is already becoming fatigued, sessions that are overly physical (increase fatigue) will tire the player further, meaning he will eventually become jaded. As such, if you run a proper pre-season the players will remain fitter and last longer into the season proper. Under-working the players in pre-season or over-working the players during the season itself will lead to fatigue. Of course, too much physical work at any time raises the risk of injury, but this can be an acceptable trade-off if you wish to work the players hard. Pre-season is also a great time to work on those physical attributes that simply cannot be worked on in any great amount during the season itself due to the fixture schedule. I wonder whether this means that it could be a good idea to use a heavy physical schedule as long as almost all players have no fatigue (not even "low" fatigue but only the best category). And on the contrary, stop the heavy physical training once more than perhaps 2-3 players have low fatigue.

Btw do you have more specific suggestions regarding which of his videos or playlists to watch? There are so many videos on his channel, a jungle in itself.

My screen doesn't look like that. I don't see the circles and percentages. Perhaps I should check my setting. Anyway, from what you write I imagine that that dark green with arrow is above 85%. That can't be totally wrong at least. Thanks for the guidelines.

I don't see any exact number when I hover over with the mouse. Besides, when you say green Match Fitness, do you mean thumbs up, darker green, or light green, almost half green/half yellow? I guess it is less insignificant whether the arrow is upwards or downwards in this context.

Btw shouldn't this thread be pinned? I think I would have noticed it if it was pinned, but it isn't.

Thanks I didn't know about that thread. So perhaps I should usually try that one first before posting a separate thread? What are the rules regarding what should be in the quick questions thread and what should be a separate thread? 85% match fitness, isn't that something from older FM versions? I don't know what that means. I only know the hearts - full green, mostly green, yellow, red and the various nuances.

Does cleon have a YouTube channel? What it is called?

He, that is funny I suspect it is true as well, but at the moment I can't judge that, I don't have enough knowledge. I suspect that I will eventually find out that you are right.

I don't really know what is dubious and what is not. Some stuff is obviously dubious. But at the moment I feel like there is a lot of stuff that I find valuable that seems disregarded on this forum. Certain Youtubers and web pages. It could be that you guys on this forum is right and that certain YouTubers etc. are overrated. And I wouldn't be surprised if I eventually land on that conclusion myself. But I am not there at the moment. And as mentioned, I generally think that the information obtainable via guides etc. on this forum is generally to sparse, not detailed enough. so there is a need for more info.

Perhaps part of the problem is sort of different perception. More specifially: I suspect that with FM, as with many things in life, it is difficult to learn new stuff. At least complex stuff such as becoming knowledgeable about FM. Stil more specifically, I am not aware myself that I ask questions where I have already been giving the relevant advice. I trust you and guess you are right when you say so. But my point is, perhaps I just don't get it the first time. Perhaps not the second or third time either. Like a student at school. I think it is like this in many aspects of life. The knowledgeable teacher feels like he has given all the advice and information that needs to be given. At that is sort of true. At the same time, some slow to normal learning students might just not get it. They get perhaps 10, 30, 60% of what is being said. The rest they didn't get. They didn't even understand the least bit of some crucial parts of the information given. I often notice that with my ongoing FM learning now. I can read or watch the same stuff several times. And I will learning some new and important every time. Something I just totally didn't get the first or second time I looked at the material. I can certainly understand if me asking similar questions repeatedly is annoying and I apologize if I sometimes do that. Just know that that is never my intention. I guess it is about my unknown unknowns as Donald Rumsfeld once said. I know so little about FM that some knowledgeable person can explain stuff to me 1, 2, 3 times, and parts of it I still won't get. Sometimes I guess I don't even remember the least bit of the advice given, it is beyond me, too complex for me to understand even small bits. Personally I don't think this is about you or me or any other specific person here. I imagine this is a general dynamics here and elsewhere. Incompetent, possibly slow learning students like myself, eager to learn, needing many repetitions before they finally get it. Knowledgeable people who could get slightly annoyed at times because of seemingly being asked the same question over and over. Btw just to be clear I appreciate all the great input you have given me here and on earlier occasions. And I certainly won't hold it against you if you at times ignore my posts, in case I unknowingly ask sort of a similar question that has been answered before. A final thought - I don't think I am the only one gathering advice (good or bad) from many different sources. If possible I would prefer to only use top quality sources. Perhaps this forum is the best, I am in no position to judge that. But in any case I think there is a lack of guides etc. on this forum. The guides that exist, the pinned posts, manuals from SI etc. are vague and sparse in their information. I think that drives many people towards Youtubers etc. of dubious quality. Better to have some dubious opinion on a given topic than to get no input at all. SI should make much more extensive game manuals in the future.

How many weeks of heavy, physically oriented training is the best during pre-season? From what I know so far I would imagine somewhere between 1-6 weeks. Rashidi (BusttheNet on Youtube) made a recent video where he effectively seems to opt for 1 week (his BootCamp training schedule). Zealand advocates for a similar style heavy physically oriented pre-season training regime, but for 4-6 weeks. Other knowledgeable FM people seem to be within the same range, 1-6 weeks of heavy physical schedules. It would be nice with more detailed input on this. It is a big difference whether you spend 1 or 6 weeks on physical training during pre-season. I certainly wouldn't consider doing it 4-6 weeks unless it pays dividends. There is obviously lots of other useful stuff that you can do with your training, not least at the start of each season. I play Gegenpress by the way. Perhaps that matters as well. I imagine that it might be wise to add a few extra weeks of physically demanding pre-season training when you use an extremely demanding tactic like that.

Another thought: You are sort of right, watching videos etc. does make me confused at times. But in this case I see it as a good thing. This sort of confusion means that I am learning something interesting about the game. Before I started learning about the game, I just played very rigidly. Played like I used to do, had no clue about anything, knew nothing about in which aspects of the game I performed well (compared to the AI) and in which aspects I didn't perform well. I prefer to learn a lot about the game. Then I find it easier to eventually make my own informed decisions. To decide in which aspects I prefer to overperform compared to the AI, and in which aspects I don't want to overperform. Before I started learning about the game I had no clue about anything (I realize now). Including that I was too incompetent to judge my own performance level in various aspects of the game. In any case, this is how I appreciate to play the game. I would imagine that many experienced and knowledgeable FM players have gone through the same process at some point. Learning a lot about the game or at least certain interesting aspects of it. And eventually knowing what you want to know, toning down the research, settling on your preferred playing style, rarely learning much new about the game. All this reminds me - I think that at times there is a way of debating on this forum that is not ideal (at least of this training/tactics subforum, I barely know the other ones). Sort of like - a few of experienced users are at times a bit impatient and belittling towards newer users. Sort of like, "just keep quiet and play the game", "stop obsessing about details about the game mechanics, it is not that important". I can certainly understand why many if not most experienced FM players might feel that way. But still I would think that a lot of players, perhaps primarily inexperienced players like myself, appreciate obsessing about game details, at least for a while. Before we also learn enough, find our way, lose interest in further extensive research.

I don't agree on the "stop watching videos", I think I learn a lot from it. But I appreciate all the rest, great input.

I ask because I am still undecided how well I want to develop my players. I prefer to play the game in a non-OP way. I don't want to develop my players significantly better than what happens at similar AI-led teams. Not least I am undecided as to how efficient a training regime I want to build. It is obviously very easy to build an OP training regime if you want to. Specifically I wonder: If you delegate all training to the ass man, does he do as good a job as what happens at AI-led teams? In case the ass man does a worse job, to which extent? If delegating all training is uncompetetive, I would probably to some extent take over parts of training myself. In order to improve player development so that it is as good or marginally better than what happens at similar level AI-led teams. A separate question regarding physical pre-season training: In case you wish to improve or perfectionise pre-season training, how many weeks should you opt for a heavy, physically oriented training regime? From what I read and see I would imagine somewhere between 1-6 weeks. Rashidi made a recent YouTube-video where he effectively seems to opt for 1 week (his BootCamp training schedule). Zealand advocates for a similar style heavy physically oriented pre-season training regime, but for 4-6 weeks. Other knowledgeable FM people seem to be within the same range, 1-6 weeks of physically heavy pre-season training. But it would be nice with more detailed input on this last question. It is a big difference whether you spend 1 or 4-6 weeks on physical training. I certainly don't want to do it unless it pays dividends compared to all that other useful stuff that you can do with your training. I suspect that Rashidi is more correct than Zealand on this one, he usually is. But who knows. I play Gegenpress by the way. Perhaps that matters as well. I imagine that it might be wise to add a few extra weeks of physically demanding pre-season training when you use an extremely demanding tactic like that.

Good question. I would like to know the answer to that one as well. Although I guess the game tells us. After all, there is there columns on the mentoring screen where it says how much a player contributes to the mentoring group + learns from the group. Those colums don't lie I would think. If people have average or significant effect from being in the group I would imagine that all is fine. And the other way around if not.

Another idea: If you haven't already, try to search this forum for pinned posts and other relevant posts via the search field. There is a lot of good content lying around even if you sometimes have to search quite a bit to find it.

Personally I don't know. And I don't miss knowing about those things. Among most other stuff, I delegate everything regarding shouts to the ass man. I also have no clue what to look for during matches. And I always play on key hightlights so I wouldn't have much tactical inspirational gameplay to look at in any case. My 10 cents is that if you often and rather consistently underperform xG wise, then your tactic might be weak. But I wouldn't know. Have barely used other tactics than the mentioned Gegenpress myself. Although I do remember that my teams often performed rather poorly when I experimented with other tactics in earlier saves. Another 10 cents - don't tweak. Don't switch tactics. At least only rarely. The team needs tactical consistency, getting a lot of time to get used to the tactics, build fluid tactical familiarity etc. Results will probably be awful if you tweak often. Tha's my impression at least. But a lot of people here have vastly more knowledge about the game than I do.

I am rather inexperienced myself, not least when it comes to tactics. But here is my 10 cents. I have no clue whether your 4-4-2 tactics is good or not, I don't have the competence to give a verdict. However, what I do know is that I get consistently great result with the preset/template 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress. So you could try that as a plan B. It doesn't work nearly as well on FM22 as on earlier FM versions. But it works quite well, at least for League One and above. IF - that is IF - you rotate a lot. And do whatever it takes to keep your players fresh throughout the season, prevent developing jadedness. This approach might come at the expense of developing young players though. This intensive tactic probably require more rest days for the players. But as mentioned, it works splendidly. In my last two saves I got back to back promotions from League One to the Premier League with Sunderland. Even though knowing rather little about the game. And even more importantly, in spite of playing with harsh self imposed restrictions in order to not make the game too easy. Among other thing I delegate most stuff to staff. Including everything regarding training, scouting and hiring/firing of staff. So I basically have an awful training routine, have awful staff, and obtain a very poor selection of potential transfer targets. I assume this means that the tactic is rather good, at least when implemented in the described way. I am sure that there are many better tactics out there. But this isn't the worst. In any case, good luck with the game. It is a great game, I am glad I picked it up again. I had an even longer break than you, didn't player any editions between CM 01/02 and FM21.

If I understand correctly this means that the various general training schedules are very different in their overall effectiveness. The best ones being Attacking, Defending, GK and possession (in ranked order). Overall and Outfield being worse. Tactical being worse again. Physical being the worst of them all. Interesting to know whether these numbers reflect the truth.

Great post overall. This last point made me wonder, what level do you currently play at? I ask because a lot of people seem to advocate usually having the top tier (right) / full heart rest setting on double intensity. I wonder whether it depends on the level of players, their natural fitness perhaps. Perhaps double intensity is a worse choice in lower leagues at least during 2 matches per week patches.

Yeah I was thinking the same after watching a Rashidi video about training recently. That made me understand a little more.

What constitutes the best possible staff? I am looking for any input. Regarding all types of staff. I am looking for info beyond the obvious. For example info beyound basic stuff such as important attributes for the specific roles regarding coaching, scouting etc. For instance I am interested in info regarding: - To which extent Working with youngsters is an important attribute for every coach/youth manager/ass man since most work with some youngsters - What makes a good HoYD - What makes a good ass man, youth team manager, youth team ass man - To which extent a good personality is important in the various types of staff - To which extent Man management is important to coaches. - Whatever else input is relevant when it comes to recruiting good staff. - To which extent Working with youngster is a more important attribute if a certain staff member has a load coach responsibility in one of the youth teams (some of the first team or U23 staff members can for some reason be used to coach younger age groups even if they are not officially associated with the squad of the younger players). I am sorry to ask about this here. This topic has probably been discussed extensively in the past. But I sincerely can't find much useful about this topic when I search the forums. Also little to no relevant info in pinned posts. I wouldn't want to resort to sources outside this forum if I can help it. Input from the top guys here seems generally more reliable than what can be found elsewhere.

Yeah I also got more sceptical towards this idea since I wrote this. I found some Rashiki videos regarding traning, they enlightened me a bit. Proved the point often mentioned on this forum that most stuff on YouTube is rather inferior to the best content such as Rashiki's.

I consider doing all aspects of training but one quite well. Doing good training schedules like what Rashidi recommends on his YouTube channel, setting up the coaches well (using cone men etc.), taking charge of individual training etc. The one aspect that I consider neglecting is the hiring/firing of staff. It would of course be both easy and quickly done to hire great coaches. But I wonder whether that would make training to OP for my subjective taste. In this case, hiring good coaches might be the one remaining piece of the puzzle. I imagine that this one change could make overall player development would go from decent/good to amazing. I wonder whether that would make the game too easy and boring for my subjective taste, like older FM versions. Any input on this? I ask because I am a rather new FM player. Have only played one moderately long save (4 seasons), otherwise only short experimenting saves. It would be nice with some input from experienced managers so I don't have to play through many seasons before finding the answer through experimentation myself. I have been rather obsessed about learning about training recently. Althought I want to not be too succesful in my saves, I learned that my previous approach to training was too bad, outright awful actually. Even young players barely developed at all. My training approach up untill this point has been to delegate almost everything to the staff.

Thanks. I have looked through his channel earlier but never came across this video.