Hattrick

[Lone Star]

Originally posted by Kevin in Louisiana
If I'm training something other than goalkeeping or general, will my GK's make no improvement at all?
That's correct. Your keeper isn't going to improve in his primary skill one bit while you train playmaking. Well, his playmaking might go up after 3-4 seasons. In the meantime, his form will flucuate and his value will slowly improve, but that's about it.


Panther City FC
Major League
0-3-10 and on my way back to D2!

[AvidSinger]

Originally posted by Lone Star
That's correct. Your keeper isn't going to improve in his primary skill one bit while you train playmaking. Well, his playmaking might go up after 3-4 seasons. In the meantime, his form will flucuate and his value will slowly improve, but that's about it.According to the game manual, if you hire goalkeeping coaches, your GK's keeper statistic will improve, albeit very slowly.

[AvidSinger]

Originally posted by Kevin in Louisiana
How long does it take to improve your youth system if you pump in $20k a week from the start? One season ago, my youth squad was "weak" and I've been pumping $20k into it almost every week since. Now my youth squad is "solid" and I expect it to be "excellent" sometime during the first half of next season.

[Craig P]

Originally posted by Kevin in Louisiana
I've got an 18-year-old inadequate GK who's the most valuable player on my team and I was wondering if I should concentrate on training him. Right now I'm training playmaking.An inadequate gk isn't that close to being salable (in the sense of bringing in serious cash). You could get him up to excellent in about a season, but IIRC that's still not worth that much. You'd need another level (about another six weeks, I'd think) before you were talking serious money.

However, 18 is still young enough to be a decent trainee (even if he will be 19 in three weeks). It really depends on what you have for PM trainees. If you train gk, you'll rely on transfers to improve midfield and offense; since gk contributes heavily to defense, you can let improvements in that area slide.

[champmanager]

Who's tried counterattacking? I tried it for the first time today, switching from a 3-4-3 to a 4-3-3, and I'm "solid" at it. Very surprised, since while my defense is good, their passing is not. its something I'll definitely have to think about next season in div III, but I've gotta have more data.
Even with confusion (I've never tried 4-3-3 before, haven't used anything but 3-4-3 in two seasons) I'm up 2-0 against a division II team (though my second team midfield is pretty good, am 7-1 in cup matches and 4-0 in friendlies this year).

[ArsenalTexan3]

I think i tried counter attack, but it didn't help me. I still lost. :(

Trying attacking wings in this next friendly since I have two passable wingers on offensive. I'm starting to use a 3-5-2. I've also been excellent at 3-4-3, but crowding the mf might be my best bet.

[Craig P]

The thing to look at is your zonal attack ratings (or your matchup against your opponent's zonal attack ratings) rather than your individual players. If you have a better matchup on the wings, consider AOW, if it's in the middle (less likely to be an opponent's weakness unless they're doing AOW, but a 3-4-3 will make the attack rating here a strength) then AIM, if it's all well-balanced do something else.

I tried counterattacking one game. The trouble was, I won the midfield. :(

[ArsenalTexan3]

Well according what I saw in my opponent's last match, they used a 2-5-3, but they pushed everyone towards the middle and this in theory leaves the wings unmarked. Plus one of their forwards was defensive. I'll let you know if anything happens out of it.

[champmanager]

I definitely didn't win the midfield, but I don't have a clue what my "solid" counterattacking was due to. was it entirely due to my defense, or did it have to due to the matchups? The m-----r f----er played his coach at striker, the m-----r f-----r, for awhile I thought my second string was playing the game of their lives. I let the m-----r f-----r know about it, too, the m-----r f-----r.)

[ArsenalTexan3]

I hate this. Almost out of debt and I find these players. 2 young wingers and a forward. Good news is I have a day or two to monitor them to see if their prices increase.

Darren MacNey (17650410)
17 years, passable form, healthy
A popular guy who is balanced and honest.
Has disastrous experience and passable leadership abilities.
Speciality: Powerful
Nationality: Scotland
Assessed value: 74 000 US$
Wage: 840 US$/week
Owner: Celtic FC Juniors
Warnings: 0
Stamina: poor Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: poor
Winger: solid Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: inadequate
-----------------------------------------------
Olav Dahl (16089321)
17 years, passable form
A pleasant guy who is balanced and righteous.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.
Nationality: Norge
Assessed value: 61 000 US$
Wage: 792 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: The Plague
Stamina: passable Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched Passing: disastrous
Winger: excellent Defending: poor
Scoring: wretched Set Pieces: poor
----------------------------------------------
Kevin Morrison (13282162)
20 years, solid form, healthy
A controversial person who is temperamental and honest.
Has wretched experience and solid leadership abilities.
Speciality: Quick
Nationality: Scotland
Assessed value: 49 000 US$
Wage: 730 US$/week
Owner: Shetland Dons
Warnings: 2
Stamina: passable Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: poor
Winger: poor Defending: poor
Scoring: solid Set Pieces: solid

[Ferris]

The Bigsoccer derby between Tyranny FC and Brays Bayou FC was a bit ugly at 1-5. Played some inexperienced people...oh well. Good game.
Tyranny FC V.114 USA (229034)

[Craig P]

Aside from a wide margin in midfield, your ratings were very competitive. If you'd had more possession, I'm not sure I would have won.

[AAGunner3]

next season how much the tactics might help a team with a poorer midfield. Please be sure to play each other early next season with Tyrrany playing Counter Attack and Brays Bayou playing normal. I sure would like to see what kind of difference it may make between this year and next. I'll volunteer too in this endeavor.

[Craig P]

If you want to try it out, there's no need to wait, the tactics are already available in friendlies.

I had Brays playing AIM against Tyranny.

[Ferris]

Originally posted by AAGunner3
next season how much the tactics might help a team with a poorer midfield. Please be sure to play each other early next season with Tyrrany playing Counter Attack and Brays Bayou playing normal. I sure would like to see what kind of difference it may make between this year and next. I'll volunteer too in this endeavor.
I had it normal because I wanted to see how the 442 worked with Dunning up front. The midfield is definitely the weakest part of my game. My defense is pretty good I think, with solid ratings in the middle and right side with close to three stars on the left. I've had success with attack along the wings before, but the one time I tried through the middle I got spanked. Definitely will have to invest in a new goalkeeper sometime.
I don't have anymore games listed in my match screen other than next weeks...does that mean the season is over after next week? Since I'm 6th in my group I think I'll have to play a qualification game...does putting MOTS on the last game affect it?
I'd welcome a friendly like that AAgunner!
Tyranny FC V.114 USA (229034)

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by champmanager
I definitely didn't win the midfield, but I don't have a clue what my "solid" counterattacking was due to.

How did you find out you had solid counter attacking?

I tried counter attacking this week in my friendly but still got hammered 4-0.

[champmanager]

Originally posted by kopiteinkc
How did you find out you had solid counter attacking?

I tried counter attacking this week in my friendly but still got hammered 4-0.

The match report said right off the bat "They tried counterattacking, and they seemed solid at it."

I think the rules say counterattacking is due at least in part to the defenders passing skill. But does it take the "average" of the defenders passing (in which case a 3-4-3 with three passable passing defenders might work well) or the total passing skill (in which case a 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 would be best).

I'm going to have a $5million in the bank when the prize money gets handed out, and I need to figure out what I'm going to do with it as soon as I know what league I'm getting promoted to, since the first match will be at home to the other newly promoted team, which has gotta qualify as a must-win. I'm going to have to come up with some kind of gimmick if my "excellent" midfield's going to compete in division iii. Counterattacking, pressing, letting the grass grow high, planting landmines around the goals...theres gotta be something that'll work.

[champmanager]

I went to the trouble of looking up the answers to my own question.
Counterattacking skill is determined by the total defense skill of your back line, plus (2x) the passing skill of your backline. So a 5 man defense is going to be much better than a 3 man line.
For anyone mathmatically gifted, the defense skills of my 4-3-3 were Solid, exc, outstanding, and magnificent. The passing was wretched, inad, inad, and poor.

Now...is excellent the highest possible rating for counterattack, as with formations? If so, then I'm probably one formidable defender/inadquate passer away from being able to play a 4-3-3 with an excellent counterattack.
Now, whose tried pressing? I've got 2 young strikers who are passable and inadequate defenders.

[AAGunner3]

Originally posted by Craig P
If you want to try it out, there's no need to wait, the tactics are already available in friendlies.

I had Brays playing AIM against Tyranny.
Let me rephrase that...
It would be nice to get a couple of games against the same opponent. The stronger midfield team playing normal while the team with the weaker midfield would play normal one week and then CounterAttack the next. I'm curious what differences we might see if we tried to keep the rest of the variables relatively the same(ie. form, players playing, formation, etc..)

[AAGunner3]

Originally posted by champmanager
Now, whose tried pressing? I've got 2 young strikers who are passable and inadequate defenders.

I've pressed(poor) in two of my friendlies. Match IDs 9793010 & 9840435. If you have any questions about my player stats let me know.