The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

[UncleIan]

Unlucky Eastheath.

Got unceremoniously dumped out of the Jason Ivy Cup, well I was playing my actual B team, so no great surprise, that's ok, not like it's the proper cup.

League was a 10-0 bot bash. A hattrick for one lad, and four for another. Nice. I'm having to play my 4th best striker as he appears to be top of the top scorer charts, he chalked up another couple. Okay, I don't have to, but I quite like trying to get the league top scorer.

We stay first in the league, unbeaten, second also had a bot bash, and third, they played a CA team that had five counter attacks and missed all of them, so they escaped with a 1-0 win. They're both three points behind me, and my only realistic competition.

Next week I have a really odd one. Should be an easy win, they log in regularly, has been playing since 2012, has 37 players, 31 of whom are over 30, in fact, 25 are over 35, and most of them have TSI 0, are not potential coaches, six are injured, two of those with the infinity symbol next to them. It's like he doesn't know there's a "sack player" button. I mean, I know the wages are only £167 for English and £200 for non English, but that's 4 or 5 grand a week totally wasted. Oh, and as I say, they log in regularly, but play 2-5-2, or maybe 3-4-2. Seriously? Thanks to all the bots he's actually 4th in the league. Anyway, recent ratings give me nothing to fear. An obvious 2-5-3 PIC.

[Darkish]

I had a top of the table clash between the only two unbeaten teams. His by merit and mine by luck. I wouldn’t say I threw the game, but I never tried to win. The reason being if I did fluke a win and get promoted I would get hammered and so decided to concentrate on my consolation cup. I got hammered in the league and gave out a hammering in the cup. And so now have my first home cup match against a div III. I will PIC again this week and then have two bot matches.

Other developments are that my stadium will soon finish construction and will have a 40,000 capacity and secondly I’ve brought myself a brilliant young goalkeeper to replace the passable one who was at the club when I joined. Next on the list will be some defenders as mine are about as much use as those for Man City (though this is over a season away)

[UncleIan]

My opponent actually played 11 players this week. A sign of respect? Or just a player back from injury? Looks like they actually set orders. Interesting. I was slightly alarmed that we were only winning midfield a little, 48/52%, but we were dominating 60/40 in most other areas, so I wasn't too worried. Maybe I should have been, at 27' it was 1-2, then again, halftime was 1-4, final score 1-7. Interestingly, is says chance distribution was 6-9, so maybe the result flatters a little. Still, not gonna complain.

Still first in the league, unbeaten on 18 points, second and third both on 15, and 8 and 12 goals behind me. I play second at home next week in the first of the double headers (already!), and, to be honest, it looks like a PIC to me, seems crazy that I can PIC second at home, in fact, I could probably PIC away too, but I probably won't. Third place meanwhile has the team I played this week in the double header, looks like I softened them up nicely, so if all goes to plan, they'll take over second place, and be three points behind me. I expect that to carry on until the last week of the season, when we go to their place. Hopefully by then we'll have an even better goal diff than them, and it will essentially be a dead rubber. Better not count my chickens yet though, I've been pretty lucky with injuries and form so far this season.

[Ashfordian]

My mirroring of UncleIan's season continues.

My opponent who I was away to, was a team that would really good if they their players had stamina better than poor. This created a dilemna for me as they would rate better than me for the first 30 odd minutes in the game and then their ratings collapse.
I decided to play a 2-5-3 pressing formation which I had an Excellent tactic skill in. They went with a 3-5-2 pressing formation (hi-brow formations down here in V ). This resulted in a bit of stalemate with limited chances, 2-3 to me. Fortunately my freekick chance scored and I ran out 0-1 winners. A draw or defeat would have been really bad. The only negative was a 1 week injury to my best trainee who went off after 62 minutes so I now have to find space for him in my George Carey cup game which means a few interesting subs.

I may investigate this pressing tactic a bit more in a game I am certain to lose as I can deploy more defenders to get a higher rating.

Still 1st in the league, unbeaten on 18 points, second and third both on 15 pts. 2nd are 1 GD ahead of me and 3rd are 7 GD behind me. I play 2nd at home next week in the first of the double headers, which is also a derby game. A win would almost guarantee promotion to IV even if I lost the return game which being a derby makes it a little easier.

I'm still in the George Carey cup and last week had my first home game. Gate receipts from the 2/3rds home split were over £75k which means the cup game now covers my weekly expenses. Another home game this week which on paper looks easier than last week so hopefully I can progress another round.

[UncleIan]

if they their players had stamina better than poor...They went with a 3-5-2 pressing formation

They have poor stamina, but play pressing? Which uses up stamina more quickly? Okaaaay...that's nearly as weird as logging in regularly but still only having a 2-4-2 lineup like my opponent had in the past.

You got away with it, but if you wanted a win, I'm not sure I'd have played pressing. I always thought that was best for if you reckon you'll lose, and want to keep the score down, or get a jammy draw. Knowing they have poor stamina, then playing a tactic which uses up my own stamina more quickly would seem to level the playing field for them. I'd have been tempted, if I had the players, to chuck on fresh legs for the last half hour to take advantage of their weakness. That would work even better against a pressing team I'd have thought. Decent subs definitely worth it if you are the pressing team yourself. Anecdotally, it seems a lot of pressing games end up with a minor flood of goals near the end against the pressing team, as they run out of legs.

[Darkish]

I won my home game on a PIC 3-1 and was preparing for my fist home game in the Craig Wozniak Cup. I was playing a div III team and thought it would be a shoot out once I saw the percentages (me marginally better in midfield and we both had attacks better than opponents defence). It ran out comfortable winners 7-2 and managed a brilliant midfield rating

[Ashfordian]

if they their players had stamina better than poor...They went with a 3-5-2 pressing formation

They have poor stamina, but play pressing? Which uses up stamina more quickly? Okaaaay...that's nearly as weird as logging in regularly but still only having a 2-4-2 lineup like my opponent had in the past.

You got away with it, but if you wanted a win, I'm not sure I'd have played pressing. I always thought that was best for if you reckon you'll lose, and want to keep the score down, or get a jammy draw. Knowing they have poor stamina, then playing a tactic which uses up my own stamina more quickly would seem to level the playing field for them. I'd have been tempted, if I had the players, to chuck on fresh legs for the last half hour to take advantage of their weakness. That would work even better against a pressing team I'd have thought. Decent subs definitely worth it if you are the pressing team yourself. Anecdotally, it seems a lot of pressing games end up with a minor flood of goals near the end against the pressing team, as they run out of legs.

You are correct, I definitely got away with it however I knew their ratings drop off a cliff after 60 minutes. The idea of my pressing tactic was to stop them scoring in the first 30 minutes as trying to claw the goals back has been troublesome in the past despite their ratings drop-off.

I've got 2 teams like this in my series and if/when they train stamina they will be strong enough to create trouble for IV teams let alone V so I want out of this series before that happens. Fingers crossed that happens this season.

I won my George Carey cup game last night so I'm into the last 64. The 90k gate revenue puts my weekly finances in the postive despite it being an away week. Going long in the secondary cups is definitely worthwhile. Next weeks cup game is tougher as my priority is the league. How I play it will be decided on what I decide to train next week. I have a choice of PM, Passing or Set Pieces.

[Bink333]

Hello again.

I've been having a git of a season in the Prem (other than the opening fixture where I got 3pts away from home I had no right to get), posting my best ever hatstats at home on Sunday (559) only breaking my previous best that I'd also set at home a fortnight earlier (538). The 538 resulted in a draw, and the 559 resulted in a very squeaky 6-5 win. I'm now in 5th spot, 4pts off the lead with the double header against Posti's Jol-lification who are in 6th. I'm only 2pts ahead of 8th though...

Still in the cup, as are all of the other Prem teams.

In Oceania I've had a glorious fixture list with home games against all the title contenders to see me on 18pts after 6 (also a narrow 5-6 win away at the weekend) before having my 22 match unbeaten streak put to bed in the cup where I lost 2-3. I'd kicked-off in a 4-5-1 (no press) using a 50% defensive tactical strategy to try and keep them out, and then as their stamina affected their ratings, switched to a 2-5-3 to try and get myself into extra time and go on to win. Unfortunately they scored 1 too many for me to catch up.

I've been pondering whether to try to bolster the side for a possible run at promotion to the OCP or to save my AU$ to buy players for my 5% stamina defender training stint (planned to kick in toward the end of next season when my home grown GK hits titanic). The resources definitely won't stretch to being competitive in the OCP that's for sure,

[UncleIan]

Blimey Bink, in the Prem in one country, and in II in another. What's the secret?

Meanwhile, after playing Hattrick for 13.5 years, down in V ...

First of the double header, and it's me at home to second, I couldn't quite work out why he was in second, so put the boys out on a PIC, they pressed, but were only passable at it, we won midfield 56/44 and everywhere else except my central attack v defence. 2-0 at halftime turned into 7-0 at full-time.

Halfway through the season, and how are we doing? Pretty darn well really. First, unbeaten, three points ahead of second, a +13 goal difference over them, and two points above the auto-promotion line. Can't ask for much more than that can I? I know pride comes before a fall, but I think my only tricky match is going to be the last one, away to the team now in second. Hopefully I can go unbeaten until then, have an even better goal diff over them, and be more than three points above the autopromotion line. That's the plan anyway.

Ian

[Bink333]

I was in 5th away to 6th (Postigod's Jol-lification) in the Prem. Unfortunately my home-grown NT winger (the 'secret' behind this squad was that it was built around this player for many seasons training at low stamina with a home grown midfield) had picked up a minor knock in the game against Lithuania. He's too important a player for both club and country to risk aggravating the injury, and so he was on the bench. It forced a complete rethink of my starting 11, and I decided to CA for the first time this season, hoping that I'd be able to cover off their attacks in all sectors and edge their defence with my attack in all sectors. That plan worked, and it was going OK (2-1 down) until my formation in-xp event (5-3-2) which give them advantage against both my side defence sectors and compromised my advantage in all 3 attack sectors. A couple of subs helped me to edge left and centre attack, but they went on to score 2 more and as with all the other home sides collected the 3pts.

So, at mid-season I'm in 7th on 8pts along with the other auto-promoting side who is on 6.

I have the team in 7th in the double header in Oceania. I spent £2m on a 33y/o magical xp Quick winger (money burning a hole in my pocket again) who came on as a sub, and had no trouble picking up 3pts in the home leg. This keeps us top of the table by 5pts.

[Bink333]

In the cup last night, I had 49%, and the same hatstats as my opponent - Windsor Krauts (a quite brilliant team name from the German manager for his 2nd team). I'd set up to cover off a potential CA, but had an inkling they might put out a better m/f than I'd seen in my research of their team, so I was concerned as to whether I'd put enough into m/f at kick off.

I've an anecdotal based theory which generalises within rock-paper-scissors theory that AIM and AOW tactics work badly against teams that are pressing. The trouble was that although they AoW'd in the previous round, there was still a possibility that they'd CA, and pressing not only uses up stamina faster (which is a bit crap in evenly matched cup ties) but is also trumped by CA in rock-paper-scissors theory.

The other anecdotal based theory says that if you win m/f, especially by a small margin, that you shouldn't utilise AoW or AiM partly because we know it weakens your other defence sector (wings for AiM and middle for AoW) but may actually reduce your number of reported chance generation.

Last night's game could just have been a random flip of the ME, but it could also provide fuel for this particular anecdotal fire, as they had 4 reported chances to my 7. Final score 1-5, with the real nose rubbing coming in the form of my lot bagging the corner-Head SE when they had fielded 5 Head specs to my 3. All 8 Prem sides are through to the last 16 (not sure I can remember that ever happening before in England) although I'm not the only one of us to have relied on some luck to get there.

[Darkish]

I got knocked out of the cup this week. I was playing a team top of div II and never realised it was going to be played at a netrual venue, so I suppose it must have been a semi-final. My boys gave a good account of themselves and there was a shock on the cards as I was 3-2 up after 69 minutes but ended up going down 5-3.

In the league I played the bot for the second week running, but interestingly the top team drew a game so I sit on top of the league again. My team spirit is currently PoE I'll PIC next week before a home tie against the team in second place when I will unleashed the full force of my midfield is a blitz attack. I now think I have an outside chance of winning the league which would be amazing

[UncleIan]

I got knocked out of the cup this week....In the league I played the bot for the second week running, but interestingly the top team drew a game so I sit on top of the league again.

A good week for you then!

In the reverse fixture, after a 7-0 home win last week, we notched up a 0-5 away win, which was nice. Only shaded midfield 48/52, but nearly everywhere else was far more definitive. They changed tactic against me, but it didn't help, four goals in the first half hour and that was that. Even better, second place only drew, looked like they were absolutely robbed by the match engine...if you get 58% possession (64% 2nd half), and you beat your opponent in every sector, your confidence is fine because you won 6-0 last weekend...you should win, honestly, I've had some bad results, but that one must have been a 1 in a 100. I guess they have to happen some time, but ouch. This means I'm now five points clear at the top. Woo hoo!

I'd love to go the season unbeaten, I'm at home next week to the team that held 2nd to a draw, I won 7-1 away so should be an easy win on a PIC, then it's bot, human at home, bot, bot, 2nd away, I'll be PICing every game until the last, but probably not going to save any team spirit, as my coach has dropped to wretched leadership. His replacement waits in the wings, probably needs another 8 or 9 games to get to the next level of experience. Does that matter? Or when you're converting to coach does it take the fractional part of the experience into account? I think it does, so he'll probably get converted at the end of the season.

Safe to say, it's going well at Albumen Towers!

Ian

[Bink333]

Yeah fractions count, so I'd consider converting him once you've played him against the Cup bots (more xp in cup games than league).

I had a pleasant enough weekend, winning 1-6 in Oceania against the team in 7th, keeping me 5pts clear of 2nd (who have better average ratings and a home game against me before the season is out). They in turn are now 7pts clear of 3rd who has been pulled into a real dogfight with 6th place just 1pt behind them. The bottom two sides have been cut adrift, so it looks as though its going to be a straight fight for the title, with a trickier fixture list on the run in than I had in the first half of the season. I'm pretty happy with 8 straight league wins in Div II, even if it is the weakest of the 4 in Oceania, that's the payback for it having been the strongest during my first two seasons here.

In England we won 4-1, switching back from 7th spot to 5th again. The home teams won all 6 games across the teams sitting 2nd through 7th, but 8th seems to have decided to focus on the cup and so Bedworth picked up a useful away win yesterday to retain top spot.

My opponent in the cup had an England NT midfielder injured on Friday, but with another returning from injury, it didn't affect my thinking too much. Yesterday though, they had a playmaker red-carded, but just to even things out I lost a forward inside ten minutes. I've plenty to think about in any event.

[Ashfordian]

It's not gone well over at Wycombe Towers in the last 8 days. The double header games have been a disaster and promotion this season is now pretty much over.

Week 7 we are at home to our title rivals. With it being a derby game home advantage is pretty much irrelevant. To give me a chance in both this game and the consolidation cup game I choose defence training for the week as I know PM training will not give me the required MF ratings
I put out a 5-3-2 PIN formation in the league where I can get good MF ratings although needs OCD or 2. I decide to go with 2 OCD's to get MF ratings high enough to at least match my opponent. They play 3-5-2 with 3 CD's and 2 WTM's. The teams run out and we are 50/50 possession. From here it goes wrong and everything goes their way, chance distribution is 4-8, their player gets the powerful weather event. They are 1-3 up at half time and run out 1-5 winners. The only goal I score is a corner->head special event! Not the start to the double header I wanted. Hatstats were 325 v 326.

Onto the consolation cup game where I play a 5-3-2 CA formation. I didn't realise it was now at the stage with neutral venues however that is not an issue with the line. In a game that should not be that close they have to score a late winner to win 2-1. It was a game I expected to lose but one I think I could have won had the league game not produced the confidence killing result.

This weekends game where I am away but the derby swings to my advantage. I knew I needed to win one of these two games to keep promotion alive so put out the best team on a 2-5-3 PIN believing I have enough to get the win as his coaches leadership means that he would not have the MF ratings of last week.
Possession at the start of the game is 46/54 in favour of the good guys so it is obvious when halftime comes that I will be 6-1 down. The game finishes 6-3 with chance distribution being 6-5. Hatstats are 298 v 317

I'm now 3rd on 18pts with 1st and 2nd on 21pts. 1st verses 2nd takes place in week 11 and only a win by 2nd away from home will maintain my chance of promotion. It's unlikely to happen so I face another season in V!

This is the 3rd season running I've had two games in a season go against me where a better result in either game would have meant promotion to IV. There are things I could have done differently but to lose both games, particular the 2nd one in that manner, when you know you have done enough to win at least one is hard to take.

It's passing training this week before back to PM training for at least the rest of the season. I wonder how strong this team needs to be to stop these harsh results season after season. I will be looking around to potentially swap series as while I want to win this game the team is now being held back by not being the next level up.

[Bink333]

That was a lot easier than I was expecting. A 4-0 win over II.1 side TabaX puts me through into the quarters for the first time in a very long time indeed.

The other 7 teams consist of 6 other Prem teams and the reigning Champion and his Long Shots team based in Div II.

I now face Red away on Sunday and in the Cup on Tuesday, one of two Premiership side double headers this week.

[UncleIan]

Very impressive Binkster!

We were at home to fifth. In any decent V league they'd be fighting relegation, but with three bots, they're fifth, eight points behind fourth. A PIC and a fairly banzaii 2-5-3 saw a hat-trick from one of my strikers, and we ran out 7-0 winners, no cards, no injuries. Second third and fourth were all playing bots, so they stay five, nine, and nine points behind me. Bot for me next week, while second are away to third. I'm still only two points ahead of the auto promotion line.

[Darkish]

I played away to a mid-table team ahead of the big clash next week. Being top by a point it meant a win next week is more important than Sunday’s result. I thought I could win with a PIC and still won midfield, with my attack better than his defence and he only had one attack on any note down one wing. But it looked like one of those days when I went 1 down, which before you knew it was 4-0. However with 15 mins to go I got my consultation goal, quickly followed by another and then within 5 minutes we were 4-3 and had 12 minutes to show true champion qualities. Sadly, to say we are not that good and the game just fizzled away. However, there were 7 second half goals and only 1 minute of added time. Considering, you meant to have added 30 secs for every goal and sub, I would have expected at least 4 minutes added time and the CEO has written in a formal compliant to Hattrick HQ – only joking).

Next week will be interesting as I’m coming up against a Supernatural Defence and will be throwing every ounce of PIN energy at that brick wall until it crashes down or we die of exhaustion.

[Bink333]

I spent a great deal of time agonizing over how to play my match on Sunday against the team I'm also facing in the cup on Tuesday.

The conversation in my head went something a bit like this. And I changed line up from 5-3-2 CA and back to 2-5-3 about half a dozen times.

I should PIC
But will he PIC?
I bet he's dropped his TI.
No-one drops their TI before a home game when they can produce a magical m/f on a PIN.
Will he definitely PIC though?
He will, it's obvious, he's at home and he will want his TS up for the Tuesday game.
And he'll win m/f
Or will he?
Yeah probably, but what if I PIN. Sets 2-5-3. Flicks the PIC toggle on and off a few times to look at the horrifying drop it makes to m/f ratings.
Sets subs for insurance and stamina drops.
I'll Be at a TS disadvantage on Tuesday....
Switch PIC toggle to 'on' position.
And, it will probably still be a coin toss result (Red lost 6-5 when I was home in the reverse fixture and lost another 6-5 since)
And, I'll have to reduce m/f to include a Set Piece taker. (swaps out a player for SP taker),
Switches PIC back to PIN.
I'll have no quick defenders though and he's only going to use Quick defenders, and lots of quick attackers.
What about CA?
He has Mythical-Utopian attack ratings in two sectors.
Mythical if he's going for m/f on a PIC though, right?
What if he thinks you are going to CA, he'll just big up the attack.
(Asks England manager what he thinks I'd do - says he'd PIC and flood m/f - as CA won't work against that attack)
That settles it then.
Set's CA.
Sets subs for stamina drops.
It might just work.
No it won't.
(go back to top)

In the end, I was set to CA at kick off, and it very nearly worked, but for two shocking failures to convert with 60%+ relative attack vs defence sectors. Final score 3-2, and my quick defender stopped their attempted Quick SE.

I'm now 6th on the table, and expect to be having the same conversation in my head all over again between now and kick off tomorrow. In the meantime I'm watching in horror as my TS levels drop with each passing update as does my corresponding projected midfield.

In Oceania I had a crazy game against an expected CA. I went 2-5-3 AoW and had had an FTW replaced with a playmaker early on through injury. This created an additional problem as one of my stamina subs was to take off my old TDF and replace him with an IM who's proposed slot had been vacated by an IMTW who was switching to the OWB position who in turn was being subbed for a CD.

After these subs left the IM still on the bench, my GK then got injured, and so one of my other 2 IMs was selected to go and stand between the sticks. Rather amusingly I watched all this happen as I'd woken up in the middle of the night and thought I'd check to see what was happening.

Not much I thought, as I turned it off and went back to sleep.

That's 27pts from 9, still 5pts clear, and the seriously tricky away fixtures (against Supernatural+ m/f) start on Sunday. I've also managed to get a winger suspended for it...

[Eastheath]

Apologies for going off grid the last few weeks, have had my mind on other things for a short while.

Where are we, yes, nine games gone, equal bottom in series IV with W1 D2 L6. I have one aim now, to get to 6th, as getting any higher in the league is already pretty much impossible. 6th has 6 pts, we have 5. 5th has 16 pts....
Our only win was against the bottom team, and the team in 6th beat us at home 0-3, which was hard to take. The irony is, our back to back games 7 and 8 were against the league leader, and we drew both of them. Maybe they saw us as easy prey and took the foot off the pedal.

Anyway, there are two games we have to win in the remaining games (against 6th and 8th) to have a chance of getting a qualifier, and if we can nick something elsewhere, that would be nice. I'm not banking on it!

Week 10 game is home to 4th, would be nice to get something there, but the week after is away to 6th, so I have to save my damp gunpowder for that one.
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