Advice for new hattrick players

[ur_land]

Thanks Pez Junkie.

Alright, I plan on training playmaking in a 3-5-2. Right now, I'm searching the transfer market for inner midfielders with passable playmaking. I'm seeing several 17-18 year olds with passable playmaking for REAL cheap. Shouldn't I grab these guys ASAP?

The reason I say ASAP is because I'll be training stamina at first, and these guys are probably valued low because of their low stamina. Shouldn't I get these guys in there now, so their stamina will raise with the rest of my team?

Sure--snap them up, but what do you mean by cheap?


---Also, I'm running a 3-5-2 with 3 inner midfielders. As I understand it, I should change one of my central defenders to "Extra Inner Mid" and keep the two wingbacks set...right? If so, which of the Inner Mids should I have being defensive...will that automatically be the converted center defender player?

Your choice of whether to convert a CD or wingback to "Extra Inner Mid" ("EIM")should depend on your opponent. I have several teams in my series that have a strong central attack and play AIM (Attack in Middle) tactic. for these teams I make a wingback (from their weaker attack side) the EIM. For the other teams I make a CD the EIM.

The choice of playing an IM "defensive" or "offensive" also depends on your opponents, you players' skills, and you tactical goals. The EIM will always be positioned as a "normal" IM. One or both of the 2 regular IMs can be played offensive or defensive. Offensive adds some to central and one side attack and takes away some defense. Offensive mids should have high passing. Defensive takes away from attack and adds to central and one side defense. Defensive mids should have good defense. If your opponent has a good attack, you might want to play a mid defensive. Most of the teams in my series have crap offenses, and since mine usually sucks as well, I often play two IMs offensive. Choose what makes sense for your players, that game, and your opponent.

---How good of a goaile should I spring for? Mine is weak, but should I even worry about upgrading him if my team is gonig to suck anyway? Would I better off just buying all my trainess?


You need at least a high inad or a high passable goalie. Use teh kkeeper tool (www.hottrick.org) and find a cheap one on the TL.

Damn, you guys are going to be pissed at all of my questions :)

Not if you answer your HT-mail!

[ur_land]

Starting in V will mean that, yes, you will probably get killed. Depends on the other teams in your series. You may be able to compete with a couple of the weaker teams. No big deal. Take your lumps & get your training program started.

Don't give up so quickly, though, stogey. You replaced a team that got 11 points through their first 8 games, and with that kind of head start you may be able to stay ahead of the two last place teams (especially since one owner has no points and the other--who has three--hasn't logged in in a month). If you stay in 6th place you have a good chance of playing a weak team or a bot team in your qualifier and get an MOTS win against them, which will allow you to stay up in D.V for next season, by which time all your trainees will be solids and you can at least compete by trying to control midfield.

I started in a similar situation, managed to luckily stay up, and in the middle of my second full season I'm among the top teams in my series. Playing a season against bots sucks from what I've heard, and you'll become a much better manager much faster by playing against human opponents.

My advice is buy a inad or passable keeper, get you trainees squared away, look for some cheap old defenders and forwards, and try your damndest to stay up.

[Qamle]

I'm in D VI. How do I know if my opponents are bots? I'm killing them now.

[Stogey23]

Thanks ur_land, your IM dissertation answered a lot of my questions. I saw your HT email..but hadn't responded yet....obviously.

Ok, LAST TWO questions for today (I hope).

1. Should I try to get a friendly organized for this week? I believe the deadline is Thursday (HT) time at 1:00. Will this give me a head start on training, or hurt my players for this weekend's game?

2. Should I pull a player from the youth squad? I've seen recommendations that say you should do it every week...because you'll never know what your going to get.

[ur_land]

Thanks ur_land, your IM dissertation answered a lot of my questions. I saw your HT email..but hadn't responded yet....obviously.

Ok, LAST question for today (I hope). Should I try to get a friendly organized for this week? I believe the deadline is Thursday (HT) time at 1:00. Will this give me a head start on training, or hurt my players for this weekend's game?

Go for it. Training occurs on Friday night, so your players will have an increase in stamina (and possibly an increase--or decrease--in form). The more training the better.

But now that I think about it, stamina trains your entire team, not just those who play, so only play players in low form that you want to try to get into higher form.

And go ahead and play the youth pull lottery too. My first youth pull was the only great one I've ever had.

[Stogey23]

Great thanks. Any easy way to find a friendly? Do I get cash for a home one?

[ur_land]

I'm in D VI. How do I know if my opponents are bots? I'm killing them now.

On the team page there's a section that says something like this:

Owner: Tom Saxbe
Alias: Suxbee******
E-mail: (Hidden)
More details about owner


If that's not there, the team has no owner and is a bot.

Every team in your series has an owner. The reason you're killing them is that you've played your first two games against a team that got their team around the time that you did and has never ever logged in. I suspect your game next week against Brazil United will be much more of a challenge.

[ur_land]

Great thanks. Any easy way to find a friendly? Do I get cash for a home one?

Go to a buch of team sites, find one that doesn't have a friendly and try to schedule one. And/or post an ad in the ad conference that you want a friendly. Revenue for friendlies is split 50-50 no matter where you play. But friendly revenue is usually only $100-$3000 (when you play a D.v or lower team), so it's no big payday. Also, be aware that it costs $6000 to go away for an international friendly ($0 if at home), although intl. friendlies give a slightly higher experience boost. If you play an intl. friendly, try to schedule a D.I, D.II, or D.III opponent. That way you'll at least make back your travel costs.

[Stogey23]

And go ahead and play the youth pull lottery too. My first youth pull was the only great one I've ever had.

Well I pulled one, a goalie...but he's not a keeper. Har har.

At least I now have a backup goalie, which I didn't have before.

[Qamle]

I suspect your game next week against Brazil United will be much more of a challenge.

Word. Thanks for the help... it's going to be a bitter struggel against Brazil, but my guys are tough SOB's :)

[Stogey23]

Bought my first player in my PM training plan. Passable playmaking for 15K. Not bad, eh?

Paul Schrader (39018230)
17 years, passable form, healthy
I speak US English!


A sympathetic guy who is calm and honest.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Total Skill Index (TSI): 300
Wage: 537 US$/week
Owner: New York Cows
Warnings: 0
Stamina: wretched Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: passable Passing: poor
Winger: wretched Defending: wretched
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: wretched

[ArsenalTexan3]

not bad and he has inad scoring. Train him up well. :)

[MLS SupaStr3]

Bought my first player in my PM training plan. Passable playmaking for 15K. Not bad, eh?

Paul Schrader (39018230)
17 years, passable form, healthy
I speak US English!


A sympathetic guy who is calm and honest.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Total Skill Index (TSI): 300
Wage: 537 US$/week
Owner: New York Cows
Warnings: 0
Stamina: wretched Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: passable Passing: poor
Winger: wretched Defending: wretched
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: wretched


he may not actually turn out too well. when searching for PM guys, you should look for a higher stamina (unless your training plan involves a lot stamina training). Stamina is very important for your mid's. let me give you an example:

this is one player on my team--he has good playmaking for my team but he still cant crack the starting line up even though he has good playmaking for my team. he averages a little over 2 stars


Stamina: weak Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: formidable Passing: wretched
Winger: poor Defending: wretched
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: weak

this guy is in my starting line up and consistantly averages over 3 stars--


Stamina: excellent Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: excellent Passing: poor
Winger: wretched Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: wretched

buying IM trainees with excellent stamina is a luxury that you and me prob cant afford now. next time try getting inad or higher and you'll be better off

[kuhnscoot]

Bought my first player in my PM training plan. Passable playmaking for 15K. Not bad, eh?

Paul Schrader (39018230)
17 years, passable form, healthy
I speak US English!


A sympathetic guy who is calm and honest.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Total Skill Index (TSI): 300
Wage: 537 US$/week
Owner: New York Cows
Warnings: 0
Stamina: wretched Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: passable Passing: poor
Winger: wretched Defending: wretched
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: wretched

nice first pick up for you, should be a good one to train, does need the stamina help though.

The best way I found to get friendlies if you don't have one yet, is search the regions. Start with your own region and click on online users, and it will bring up the users that are online, click on the owner name and go to the team page, if they don't have a friendly yet then challenge them. Do about 5-10 if you can find that many without friendlies, one is bound to accept it.

[AAGunner3]

Guys, guys, if Stogey just started, he's likely going to need to undertake at least a couple of weeks to get his players conditioned. Maybe even a majority of the season that's left.

If he's gonna have to train stamina to begin with, this fella is by no means a bad purchase. But it may be next season before the guy is a quality IM.

I spent a lot of my first season training stamina. Plenty of time to get that stamina up with 6 games left. At this point he's probably better off planning for next season anyway and this gives him more money to spend in other areas.

Not a bad buy Stogey. Not great, but by no means a bust. If you're gonna train stamina anyway, you might see if you can buy some extra trainees that need stamina training and train them all up and sell off the ones you don't want a keep for a tidy little sum.

[ArsenalTexan3]

At the end of the season, switch from playmaking to stamina for two weeks and then back to playmmaking.

[Helghallen]

If you are not planning on training stamina, then no he would be a bad buy. Like Gunner said, some stamina training is in order as a matter of course. I have several players on my team that require stamina training in the off season and for several off-seasons.

When I began my Hattrick career, I decided to do PM as the skill I would like to train. It was week 10 and I went out and found an 18 year old solid PM/exc stamina. He cost me 155K. He was to shore up my midfield. He did that. My other training slots I found older passables and very young inadequates. The older passables I sold on after popping to solid to inject some cash and get some better trainees. I have trained stamina in the last two off seasons. Even going so far as to be a stamina factory at the end of last season.

Stamina is not a big factor in my purchase of my mids. I am expecting to be training stamina anyway in the off season.

[Stogey23]

I am going to train stamina first, and thanks for the heads up on the other players (stamina-wise).

One of the things people said not to do is hit the transfer market...well I HIT THE TRANSFER MARKET! :D Anyway, I'm pretty happy with what I've got after my first day. Here's a summary:

Like I said, I'm training playmaking in a 3-5-2...which should give me the opportunity to train 10 players per week. I signed those 10 players today for a total of $93,500. They are 6 passable playmakers and 4 passable wingers. 8 of the players are 17, and I bought a 19 and 18 year old. Here they are-

Date Type Players To/From Price TSI then
8/18/2004 Bought Fortunato Potiguar from Copacabana Cuca 10 000 US$ 250
8/18/2004 Bought José Ángel Ferrer from Pocitos FC 3 000 US$ 230
8/18/2004 Bought Agnis Vaļenieks from FK Mayertown 24 000 US$ 730
8/18/2004 Bought Chester Boyle from Montreal Mythol 10 000 US$ 120
8/18/2004 Bought Beniamino Di Fazio from Der Lawtons Alk 4 000 US$ 360
8/18/2004 Bought Paul-Émile Massicotte from Winnieton Unite 11 000 US$ 410
8/18/2004 Bought Sidney Fleming from Iowa Enforcers 2 500 US$ 330
8/18/2004 Bought Brian Cody from Jaguars FC 1 000 US$ 230
8/18/2004 Bought Don Stubbs from Christos 14 000 US$ 340
8/18/2004 Bought Paul Schrader from New York Cows 14 000 US$ 300

I also committed to 20K a month for my youth squad, got a passable level coach, promoted a crap keeper, signed 9 assistant coaches, signed 2 spokespersons, a sports pychologist, and a physiotherapist. I scheduled a friendly, fired 3 players, my head coach, and was outbid about 100 times for players.

After all this (I think I'm done for the week), I have 103,900 left. How quickly is that going to dissappear? Any comments on my progress so far? I signed several foreigners...does that hurt? My players are ready to train, should I really start with stamina, or make that up later?

THANKS and don't hold back!!!!

[Stogey23]

Let me re-iterate I'm doing the slow and sure method. I wanted to buy all of my trainees at once, so they would all gain stamina together. Once I get them to excellent stamina or so, I'll only buy similiar stamina players.

[kuhnscoot]

Maybe a week or two of stamina since you first started is probably not a terrible thing for you to do, especially this week since you will only have one game to train players before training, it's probably a good idea this week at least to train stamina. Dman you've made a lot of purchases this week, I don't even think I made that many in my frist season. Of course I didn't have anyone to help me and did crap when I first started it.