What should I train?

Discussion in 'Hattrick' started by Kevin in Louisiana, Jan 7, 2007.

  1. Kevin in Louisiana

    Kevin in Louisiana New Member

    Feb 7, 2003
    Metairie, LA
    [Skip to the third paragraph if you'd rather not be bored with a history of my team.]

    When I started my first real training regimen, probably eight or nine seasons ago, I did playmaking for a while, kept a few to IM's to start for my team, then sold the rest. Then, I switched to defending, training a few players up anywhere from brilliant to supernatural, until I had a decent core to my defense. A season or two ago I switched back to playmaking, since I was needing better and better players in my league (V.246), but mostly because by offensive was anemic, playing either 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 all the time (toward the end, I was probably mixing in some 4-5-1 for league matches, but mostly to no avail). I also trained a little bit of passing (the defenders and midfielders one, whatever they call it), either during the off-season and once for about half a season.

    So rather then sell my old guys (now 26-28 years old), I just bought a few new trainees. In what might have been an ill-advised move, I even bought one of my old trainees, past training age (24 now, probably 21 or 22 when I bought him). I figured, his price is cheap, so I'll bid on him, and if I drive up the price for someone else, great, and if not, I've got my new #1 midfielder for a cheap price. I think he was world-class or supernatural when I bought him; now he's up to extra-terrestrial, and as you can imagine, the wages for him and the others are going through the roof. My wage bill isn't unreasonable--$172k--but with the slashing of interest rates, I tread water or lose a bit when I used to be able to break even every fortnight. Now obviously, the main source of income in the game is training, but that's nowhere near as lucrative as it used to be, due to the wages.

    So the long and the short of it is, I'm treading water and I've been a little bit bored with Hattrick for quite a while--I'm basically on autopilot, checking in a few times a week just to keep everything running smoothly--and I'd like to shake things up and get myself re-involved with the game. I don't want to train playmaking anymore, so I'd like to switch by the start of next season. But what do I train?

    Defending: done it before. I enjoyed it, I suppose, but I'd rather not do it again, because if I do, I probably have no shot of winning my league.

    Winger: an intriguing choice. I can play basically any formation I want and still get maximum training, so that's nice. The downside is that I'm not quite sure what's currently in vogue: lots of winger + lots of passing, lots of winger + lots of PM, a little bit of everything, etc. And winger training requires buying players who already have the PM or passing, or training some combination of winger, PM, and passing. So it's a bit more labor intensive.

    Forward: fairly simple, and with my defenders I can feel pretty good about playing three in the back. You can do some interesting tactical things with 3-4-3 and 4-3-3, wingers, no wingers, forwards toward wing, etc. But I worry a little bit about sacrificing midfield. When I trained passing, I was trying to get defenders with good passing for CA's sake, but even with pretty good CA ratings it's too darn hard to win matches without a good midfield.

    Keeper: as simple as can be. But maybe a little too dull? Buy two trainees, try to skilltrade, repeat. Etc.

    Playmaking: I guess I owe it to myself to consider the pros and cons of just sticking with playmaking. I've got enough money in the bank that I could have plenty of red ink all over the books and still survive for quite some time. The wages aren't anywhere near bankrupting me, yet. And I've seen first hand that playmaking training improves a team much more than anything else I've tried. But eventually, the wages will catch up with me, or, if I sell the players with ridiculously high wages, I'll just be buying players five or six skill levels lower for the same price. So even if I don't change now, I'll have to, sooner or later.

    The other types: the hybrids (defensive positions and wing attacks) seem a little pointless. But passing (either version) intrigues me a bit. Is there enough of a market for passing to make it worth my while? Will it improve my team as much as the regular types of training?

    Also, a little bit of info on my team: averaging 218 hatstats so far this season, been finishing anywhere from 3rd to 6th in the past few seasons, about $6.3-$6.5 million in the bank. I used to enjoy sitting on the money, but the new interest rate makes me want to get rid of quite a bit of it, and my stadium is decent-sized, so that doesn't need any money, and my team is fairly good all the way around, so I can spend that money setting up my new training, if need be.

    Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I know I haven't posted a whole lot lately, but I know y'all always have good Hattrick advice.

    Kevin
    Metairie United AFC (225567)
     
  2. Kermmy803

    Kermmy803 Member

    Jul 10, 2002
    Denton County, TX
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    First of all, I am prejudiced by my training history, but....

    Winger training, with its flexibility in tactics and formations and the bang-to-buck ratio you get with regards to skill level versus actual match ratings, would be my suggestion.

    Passing is intriguing when I get above V mainly for team improvements more than profit. Winger can do that as well when training High-PM (Brill+) Wingers.

    The market in HT has crashed and the focus on training is moving more towards team improvement and away from a strictly for-profit operation.
     
  3. Kevin in Louisiana

    Kevin in Louisiana New Member

    Feb 7, 2003
    Metairie, LA
    So when you buy trainees, what do you look for? Slightly better PM than winger? What about passing?
     
  4. GROVESHSCOACH

    GROVESHSCOACH New Member

    Dec 26, 2004
    Detroit, Michigan
    I too am considering a switch to winger training. And this is how I plan on doing it:

    8 spots total, 4 100% 4 50%

    2 WB trainees with good defense excellent to outstanding and inad winger.

    2 WB trainees with good passing

    3 Winger trainees with at least inad in pm and passing

    1 uber-winger trainee with defense, passing and PM

    This will cost a lot of money! However I will sell my current wingers, of which I have three and will get 3 million or so.
     
  5. Kermmy803

    Kermmy803 Member

    Jul 10, 2002
    Denton County, TX
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I am to the point where I am looking for trainee with at least Formidable PM. I don't settle for less than Weak passing but it's not really necessary for some. Winger skill I look to be no less than Passable. Usually looking in the 19-21yo range where the training speed is still fairly quick for Wingers.

    Quick specialty will cost a premium but well worth it. Head specialty next to finish Wing and CK events. Unpredictable, Technical, and Powerful are good as well, but not as well cherished as Quick and Head specialty on a Winger.
     
  6. Craig P

    Craig P BigSoccer Supporter

    Mar 26, 1999
    Eastern MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I do two different types of trainees:
    * All-out winger: As much PMing as I can get, which is usually around inadequate, and as much passing as I can get. A truly naked winger is not worth a whole lot.

    * Combo/uberwinger: I buy a PM-trained player who was pulled with some winger. Typically, I buy these guys with passable winger, although I'd love to get solid if I can (which I haven't been able to do). Originally, I was buying formidable PM guys at 19-ish for ca. $900k. Now I buy world class guys at 20 for $2.2 to $2.5 million.

    The latter type are great if you can afford them because of the tactical flexibility they allow. My first WC one is up to formidable winger, before too long he'll be a true beast who can be used credibly either TM or on attack; right now I mainly use him TM and let my central attack and opposite wing carry.

    I only have two wingback trainees, and one has developed so far that I really need to turn him over. I bought for outstanding defense and passable winger minimum. My first guy like this is up to brilliant winger. :eek:
     
  7. Nyghtewynd

    Nyghtewynd I'd Rather Walk Alone

    May 30, 2006
    St. Louis, MO
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Or you can take my approach and train keeping. :) I'm only in my third season in HT, and I wanted to keep it as simple as possible until I figured out what I was doing. The nice thing about training goalies is that it's easy--just find two young trainees, train 'em up for a couple of years, and then sell them while incrementally improving other positions on the field through transfers as well as doing the investment work in your youth squad to maybe, someday, get something of use out of it. I like it, but maybe it's not the right approach for you.
     
  8. ToonUSA

    ToonUSA New Member

    Jan 11, 2005
    What kind of results does your team get though? If you're training keeping how do they score?
     
  9. CrewDust

    CrewDust Member

    May 6, 1999
    Columbus, Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Spend the rest of your money on Midfield and attack players. Since your goalies will get better quick boosting your defense ratings so you don't need to spend much on defenders. Plus you only will need to play with three defenders and one of those can be played offensive.
     
  10. Nyghtewynd

    Nyghtewynd I'd Rather Walk Alone

    May 30, 2006
    St. Louis, MO
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    My results are OK. I finished third last season against two teams that I couldn't touch, and I'm third right now after a shocking loss to begin the season, but otherwise I'm fine. I play a 3-5-2 because I have a relatively strong central defense. I improve through transfers on the cheap (usually nothing more than 25K), and I have about 300K in the bank which is waiting to (a) build a bigger stadium probably this offseason and (b) be augmented when I let my first goalie trainee go, maybe in a couple more seasons.
     
  11. Kevin in Louisiana

    Kevin in Louisiana New Member

    Feb 7, 2003
    Metairie, LA
    Thanks for the advice, everyone. I'm now in the process of buying some winger trainees. My first is a 17 year old solid winger/solid passer/inadequate playmaking. I'll probably train playmaking a little while longer, both for his sake and so that I can spend some time buying more trainees. Then I'll switch to winger training sometime in the near future.
     

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