A team with no forwards?

Back in October, I outlined my plan to develop my team in the League of D (Huge Pythons at the time, but since renamed Grim Fandango), which involved rotating 4-5-1 and 5-4-1 and heavily developing three defenders and three midfielders at a time. I've been getting excellent returns on DV, but I've found the side currently yo-yo between the two divisions - the mentors are good enough to haul the team to the top flight, where they get thrashed. I've also only been able to train six players at a time in five slots.

I've since had a bit of an epiphany, thanks in no small part to one of my other sides - Steel City Starlets. Now, the Xpert Ladies is an odd league in that youths cost a small fortune in the closed season and the YA is a worthy investment. I'd got the defenders and midfielders I needed to take the team forwards and was using my strikers to generate revenue. However, my YA had been falling short on quality strikers to train during the season, so the ones I was promoting I was actually leaving out. Instead, my two youngest mids are all-rounders and I'm rotating them up front, thus allowing me to play my strongest midfield. That got me thinking, why not just scrap forwards altogether?

I have a dim view of forwards right now, both in terms of their utility and their profitability, but I figure I could use the forward slot as a means of training up my very weakest youths if they are all-rounders. The plan would be to use a permanent 4-5-1, with my mentors as a GK, two DF and three MF. That leaves me two defensive slots, two midfield slots and a forward slot for youths. I could rotate three youths in defence, three in midfield and then have an all-round defender and all-round midfielder rotate in the space up front. They'd earn 85% of the usual ME, which multiplied by the 63% earned for half a match means that, if they rotate at half time, the ME gained is still like playing one whole game out of two up front. With all-rounders being handy in a small squad anyway, it seems like a no brainer, especially with me developing two extra youths at a time.

I'm hoping to adapt my Orange Mooses side to use all-rounders in this closed season, then will shift to my other teams in due course. I'll let you know how it goes.

Starting a team from scratch

While most managers will get their enjoyment from winning trophies (and don't get me wrong, that is pretty sweet), part of my enjoyment comes from taking a hopeless team and building them up from nothing to being competitive. I managed it with Huge Pythons in the Master League and I'm hoping to do the same in the Xpert Ladies. Most of my teams are usually in a stage of development as opposed to competing directly for silverware.

My latest project, in the League of D, had enough about them to get promoted to the top division, but the sheer lack of assets means that we're in for a drubbing. I've got five youths training up this season, but I've come up with my approach for the next two or three seasons.

The key to this project will be profitability, although I will be aiming to actually win some games in the lower tier while I'm at it. I'm starting to move away from forwards as a source of income since:

• more and more people are realising how useless they are; and
• those people are now training up young forwards themselves, driving down profit margins.

The plan will be to make as much money as possible from young defenders and midfielders, using rotation of formations and decent mentors. I'm aiming to have a veteran GK, 2 defenders, 2 midfielders and a striker. That doesn't necessarily leave many spaces in the line-up for giving young'uns game time, but the approach will be to use two subs at 45 minutes each game, and rotating between 4-5-1 at home and 5-4-1 away. The section with 5 in can give two players a full game and two a half game, which should be enough to get all the prospects to a point where DV > AF, so I only need to worry about training the life out of them. Eight training sessions should be just about covered by the team's weekly income, so as long as I've enough cash to bring in my building blocks, I should be laughing.

As it stands, there are three weeks left in the current season, so I'm looking to build up as much cash between now and the start of next season (hopefully doubling a couple of the youths I currently have) and we'll see how it goes.

Growing your own vs. using the market

I'm a fan of the "conveyor" style of team building, i.e. having players spread over a range of ages, with younger players developing to replace older ones when they retire. Part of the process of the conveyor is bringing in younger players to train up, but there are times when it may be more beneficial to just skip the process and just buy a ready made player that meets your requirements.

Goalkeepers and free kick takers

These two players are often touted as the most important in any side - they are the players that can win you matches on their own. While you can develop these players by yourself, there is definitely an incentive to buy them from the off, notably with 'keepers. A young goalie can cost you results while they develop so you could skip that step and buy an older, better keeper one straight away, while you can have a young FK specialist training up, you'll want a decent one taking free kicks in the meantime. If you're looking to maintain a side at the very top (as the likes of Imperium Sine Fine have done remarkably well) then you may find that just buying goalkeepers at their peak will be the way forward.

Starting out

I tend to start new teams (although I effectively overhauled FC Ballbreakers) and, while I'm developing a smaller number of youngsters in the opening seasons, I will bring in older mentors to assist their development (and make sure I don't get drubbed too badly each week). It's unlikely with most new teams that the older players will be of the quality you require to maximise experience for the youths, so picking up a couple of cheap veterans will often be helpful.

Strengthening the first XI

Another time I'd look at buying in a player is if I was looking to bolster the starting lineup, primarily for a promotion / title push. One downside to the conveyor is that, while a selection of the players will be fully developed, some will not yet be at their peak, and having to field these will weaken your side. Bringing in quality players could be needed to really compete in the higher divisions.

Pros and cons

• If you're training your players from scratch, you're in control of their development and compatibility should be excellent by the time the player reaches their peak, but it will take time (especially in longer leagues), and there's a risk that one or two bad seasons development may scupper your plans.
• If you're buying players from the market, you don't have to worry about those seasons of developing a player where they're not much use to you, but you're at the mercy of the market. This means you can't guarantee a ready supply when you need it, or you might not find a good level of compatibility, or you may have to pay a premium for a player.

You may find that in leagues with long seasons, you're best using your younger players to generate cash and buying most of the players you want to compete on the market. In leagues with short seasons, you may find that developing players quickly can be the more cost effective approach.

Calculating a player's exact skill

Here's a quick and easy Javascript skill calculator that will allow you to use a player's change report history (which is sadly VIP-only) to check their current skill. I've also attached an image to show you how to use it. :-)

Note: sometimes the calculator may return multiple values. This may be because there is not enough information to narrow down the player's exact skill (for example, a youngster with just one change report), or there may be one or more values that fit the data provided (which can start to happen once a player gets above 12 skill or so, and an increase of 0.1 becomes smaller than an increase of 1%).

Now updated to show the calculated history for a player's skill value.

05/08 - Updated so that, if you specify the player's current age and one result is returned, required DV for single / double will be shown. For multiple values, you will need to use the calculator I've placed here for the moment.

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Enter the player's skill and change as shown on their CR history.
Enter the player's skill prior to their first CR (if you know it) in the row below as well.
Hit Go!

Age: Please select 16-20 21-22 23-25 26-28 29-31 Skill Percentage