I'm playing in my first season of Div V and holding my own so far, giving the top teams a decent run and beating the teams I should. I am training mids and run a 3-5-2 with an offensive wing and a forward towards wing on the same side. I think I have the basics down but my friend who introduced me to the game has gone AWOL due to RL and I feel I need to start learning a few more tricks to improve. Basically, I have no idea about tactics beyond MOTS and PIC, I am currently carrying 31 players which is probably way too many. I don't really know who to sell and when yet, and players I think are going to be studs on the transfer list are popping in between 2nd and 3rd string instead ( my formidable wing I paid a mint for ) I use Hattrick Organiser to set my lineups but don't really use any of the other tools and have no idea about Hatstats and the other tools or how to best utilize them. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. My team is Belmont Comets (223123) if anyone wants to take a look at them.
You should have only 23 players: 11 on the first team, 11 on the second team, 1 coach. Sell EVERYONE else. If they're not good enough to be on your backup squad, let another team have them. When it comes to buying players, shop around. A lot. Like, every time. Use the transfer compare option. Heck, you can even go to the Transfer thread in this forum, see the stats of the listed players, then go on Hattrick and see how much they sold for. All of these things will help you gauge how much you should be paying for players. It'll also help keep you from buying new players who are non-starters. Unless you're picking up new trainees, never buy a player unless he's going to be a first-teamer. And make sure that the new player will make a significant difference over the guy he'll be replacing. Otherwise you're just burning money.
a good rule of thumb is to go 2 levels up at least when replacing a starter. A good trick is for non-training positions, get an older player with experience who will perform better and cost you less.
I tend to buy younger guys with decent experiance ( i search that in every transfer) so that when it comes time to upgrade the position again you can sell the other guy and still make bread. for example 500K for a 22yr outstanding skill player, a couple seasons later you upgrade to a 1M magnificant. You can still sell the now 24yr outstanding for 400K or so thus the upgrade only costs 600K not 1M...you use your uprgardes like an equity investment to slowly build up the over all level of your team without taking huge hits everytime you get a better player. You can do it for older players too, but i find the drop off of value diminishes greatly after a couple seasons when they are old as to when they are younger.
Are you on AOL Instant Messenger or something similar? I'm c628496 on AIM and can also be found on other messengers; I'd be happy to help.