Hattrick Season 76

[Eastheath]

for those of us that indulge, here is the thread for the new season. Good luck all.

[Eastheath]

I havent quite got over losing my first game at home 2-3, back in series 5. The simulation says I would have won 13/20 time, so it was closer than I thought it would be, but still. What a match engine, a 90th minute goal did me in. Just like the premier league this season!
Still in the cup, which is good, and should be able to put the league season back on track this weekend.
The aim is to promote back to IV this year, which has been made much harder by cocking up last weekend, but hey ho I'll give it a go.
Training scoring, got £4m in the bank, but need to buy defenders and stiffen the midfield. Apart from that, its all yankee doodle dandy.

[Donut102]

Thanks for setting up the thread:

Div III

Newly promoted, and not expecting a huge amount from this season - avoiding auto relegation is the goal.
Not a great start, losing 0-2 at home.
This week I've got an extreme CA team, with monster attack and defense ratings, but no midfield.
Going 550 Long Shot, and expecting a hiding.
Still in the Cup, which will be the priority.

Div V

Finished 3rd last season, and I'd expect the same again. Still on the training treadmill @ 10% stamina.
Won at home in week 1.
In the Cup last week I went 550 Long Shot, really to get formation experience as that is plan for this Sunday's game. I really, really don't have a good LS team, getting just a Passable rating.
Still - a goal from a freekick, and normal chance from the wing gave me a 2-0 win. So through to R3 for the first time with this team.

Good luck all.

Donut

[ChiliMonster]

So, I finished 2nd in IV.44 last season. The league winners won their play-off and were promoted. I did a lot of transfer activity towards the end of the season and late in the off season I did a spontaneous trade where I realised my fourth-choice MF was on £26K salary and due to drop significantly in Transfer Compare after his next birthday, so I put him up for sale at just above what I paid for him a season earlier. I got a bid of £2.4mill and off he went. I bought a replacement for £1.33 mill who is titanic MF, Ex def, solid passing and a couple of years older at 28.5, but I've released nearly a mill of equity and reduced my salary bill to close to £260K, £20K less than it was towards the end of last season. Both trades caused a TS hit, though.

Winning the league is a possibility this season. Let's see. I could have won last season if I hadn't focussed on the third round of the Cup, played a weakened team in the league and lost that game.

Still training Winger. I'm upgrading my trainees from outstanding MF to Supernatural and they will be coming through this season. I am thinking of trading my CD to one with a reasonable amount of MF, too.

Week 1:
Easy Cup match against a bot. PIC, of course.
League: Away to demoted team from div III. I had confidence that they were beatable on PIN. Their MF in their Cup game seemed a little higher than I would have expected, suggesting they may have forgotten to set PIN for that game. I won 1-3.

Week 2: Cup game played an won on PIC. League game to come, home to probably the weakest team in the league who autopromoted from Div V. I should have a straightforward win on PIC. Week 3 Cup game is also winnable on PIC, so that will be my TS up and running.

Oh, and I just won TMF Plus II youth league, which I almost missed noticing.

Cheers,

Kevster

[ChiliMonster]

I got my levels mixed up - Winger trainees are being upgraded to magnificent PM (12), not supernatural.

Kevster

[Donut102]

Div III

This week I've got an extreme CA team, with monster attack and defense ratings, but no midfield.
Going 550 Long Shot, and expecting a hiding.

We lost, as expected, but at 2-4 it wasn't as bad as I expected.
Currently in 7th on 0 points, just above the bot team on GD. It's going to be a long season....

Still in the Cup, and should win this week.

Next week I've got the complete opposite - a monster MF side. Going for a 532 CA or a 523 Extreme CA, but expecting to lose (again).

Div V

In the Cup last week I went 550 Long Shot, really to get formation experience as that is plan for this Sunday's game. I really, really don't have a good LS team, getting just a Passable rating.
Still - a goal from a freekick, and normal chance from the wing gave me a 2-0 win. So through to R3 for the first time with this team.

I went 550 LS in the league, but only managed to get a Weak rating. We lost 0-1.

Still in the Cup, but going out this week for sure.

Currently in 4th with 3 points.

[Eastheath]

After last weeks 'mare of a start, back to form with a 1-4 away win, no great shakes there, 2 games down and 3 pts, will try not to drop too many more. The next game is at home and should be straightforward (famous last words etc.).
Cup - so far its been a 0-4 and a 2-5 win, next its another away game but far more evenly matched, I can't afford the PIC and might even have to go 1st XI.
Three of my four defenders have been crocked the last few weeks, which meant bringing in an old timer to fill gaps while they mended. Two are now on plasters so can give them a run out.
Still training strikers, and playing 3-4-3 or 4-3-3. Waiting for a few budding scorers to come through the youth team.
The youth team finances section is interesting - it tells me that last year I made half a million profit from the youth, mainly mother club money from those sold on. In fact since season 62 (when the data goes back to) my profit has been £3.5m. Might be small fry compared to those really playing the game, but I guess its come in useful over the years.

[ChiliMonster]

Week 2 update: Straightforward home win in the league 6-0. Second by GD on 6 points.

I'm expecting to win my Cup game on PIC. Looking forward to next Sunday's league game I'm away to a team who can do well but last season seemed to focus on the Cup and only picked up 4 points in their first 5 league games, but still rallied to finish fourth. I'm trying to work out if they're doing the same this season, but their Cup ratings don't seem so hot, either. I'm hoping to be able to PIC away and still win. I won this 0-4 last season just before they went out of the Cup.

Kevster

[Donut102]

he youth team finances section is interesting - it tells me that last year I made half a million profit from the youth, mainly mother club money from those sold on. In fact since season 62 (when the data goes back to) my profit has been £3.5m. Might be small fry compared to those really playing the game, but I guess its come in useful over the years.

Just checked mine - £4.3m in total (also from S.62), but just £170k last season.

But this is only half the story - 9 of my main squad of 15 are homegrown youths and will never appear on those stats, and they tend to be the better graduates from the academy.

My 2nd team is £0.3m in total, with a loss of £(120)k last season. 6 of the main squad are homegrown.
But this only has been going since S.72.

[Donut102]

Div III

Next week ....... - a monster MF side. Going for a 532 CA or a 523 Extreme CA, but expecting to lose (again).

532 with 2 x IM and Counter Attack was the final selection. I won 3-0 to propel me into 6th place.
If I can hang on to that for the rest of the season I'll be delighted.

Cup game this week is winnable, albeit I'll have to sacrifice some of my defending training spots to do so - planning 343.

Next week in the league I'm playing 2nd away from home. Going 550 PIC Long Shot & Pray.

Div V

In 4th spot, playing 2nd at home. Thought I'd have a good chance, and went 253 PIN. Won easily 5-1 final score, setting a new hatstat record for this team of 263.
This has given me 2nd place, 1 point off the leader who I meet in the double header.

Next week I play 7th away from home. They've had a dreadful start to the season, but I'm not taking any chances. I've played them 4 times in the last 2 seasons and lost every single time. If I can beat them, I'll be looking to cement my 2nd place and maybe put some pressure on the current leader.

Still in the Cup, but going out this week for sure.

I went out, but it wasn't as one sided as I expected. 3-3 after 90 minutes, and they scored the winner in extra time. Pretty chuffed with the performance!

[Eastheath]

Straightforward 4-1 home win, keeps us on our recovery track. Next three games involve two bots and another probable win, which will set us up nicely for a double header with the current league leader in weeks 7 and 8.

I'm also beginning to see what the stamina and form ratings do to the performance of older players. My defenders are getting drained fairly quickly!

The Cup game was a frustrating 2-1 defeat, I went for training over performance, and paid the penalty. So its the conspirator memorial cup for me this week....

[ChiliMonster]

League wk 3:Away win 0-2 on PIC, which was expected, though given the ratings I thought I'd get 1 or 2 more goals. So just two of us left on 100% points and I play them at home next week. My TS was POE! straight after but has already dropped to Walking on Clouds. If I PIN my Cup game it will be delirious next Sunday, but if I PIC my Cup game (current setting) will it possibly be a higher sublevel of delirious?

My CUP game is interesting. Playing a team who are top of their Series IV - it seems a bit early to be playing a similarly-ranked team, and they get the home advantage. If they get their usual Cup ratings, plus allowing for them playing at home, I reckon midfield will be close to matched, but my attack/defence ratings should be significantly better than theirs over mine. If they switch in their league team I'll be swamped. Judging by their players' ages, I would think they are training IM, so I would hope they will maximise their training by retaining their usual Cup MF, so I have a chance. Do I PIC or PIN?

Eastheath, on the subject of age and stamina, I get nervous when I have several players over 30 in my squad. I only have 3 at the moment which is comfortable, but 5 or more and I worry that I am aging and depreciating. I see that top teams seem to have a lot of ~32yos, though. But when I see team's performances drop off significantly in the last quarter of a game, it seems so much ratings being given away that I struggle to see how it can work out. I've not found any forum discussions on this topic, but maybe I don't know how to search them as I find little of any use there. Any pointers?

Cheers,

Kevster

[Donut102]

But when I see team's performances drop off significantly in the last quarter of a game, it seems so much ratings being given away that I struggle to see how it can work out. I've not found any forum discussions on this topic, but maybe I don't know how to search them as I find little of any use there. Any pointers?

From the Unwritten manual (apologies for formatting)

Stamina Avg 90' 45' 90' 120'
1.7-min 65.2% 58.9% 26.5% 10%
2.0 67.1% 60.8% 29.4% 10%
2.5 70.2% 64.0% 34.4% 10%
3.0 73.3% 67.1% 39.3% 10%
3.5 76.3% 70.3% 44.2% 15.6%
4.0 79.3% 73.5% 49.1% 21.8%
4.5 82.3% 76.7% 54.1% 28.1%
5.0 85.2% 79.9% 59.0% 34.4%
5.5 88.0% 83.1% 63.9% 40.6%
6.0 90.7% 86.3% 68.8% 46.9%
6.5 93.1% 89.4% 73.7% 53.2%
7.0 95.3% 92.6% 78.7% 59.5%
7.5 97.1% 95.8% 83.6% 65.7%
8.0 98.5% 99.0% 88.5% 72.0%
8.5 99.7% 100% 95.6% 79.1%
9.0 100% 100% 100% 86.3%
9.4-max 100% 100% 100% 92.0%

As you can see there is a massive drop off in the last quarter.
If you have players with 15+ skills there is no point in having less than Excellent (8) stamina.

I see that top teams seem to have a lot of ~32yos, though.

The problem with players over 30 is that to maintain that rating stamina needs to be 30-35% - which means less training. So it's better to have a squad of roughly the same age to optimise stamina.
Which in turn leads to the boom and bust cycle of training - Bink has done this a few times, but I just don't have the mind set to achieve it.

[ChiliMonster]

The problem with players over 30 is that to maintain that rating stamina needs to be 30-35% - which means less training. So it's better to have a squad of roughly the same age to optimise stamina.
Which in turn leads to the boom and bust cycle of training - Bink has done this a few times, but I just don't have the mind set to achieve it.

I agree. It's not currently possible to have all players under 30, but a few with lower stamina can be managed with substitutions. Most of my non-trainees are around 27-28. I go through the season with about 17% stamina and up it to 30% in off-season to get any 30+ players at least up to solid for a bit. Several of those mid-age players drop to solid during during the season, but as my average stamina seems to be higher than most opponents, even with some drop off in performance, it is less than the opponents' so I still see an increase in sector %ages.

Clearly working with older players can be done as many top teams do so, but I prefer something more sustainable rather than the rebuild every few seasons. I don't think I could spend six seasons or whatever not caring about my results but just taking pleasure from watching the perfect, multi-skill, homegrown players develop. If that means I'll never reach Div I or II, perhaps so be it.

Kevster

[Donut102]

Clearly working with older players can be done as many top teams do so, but I prefer something more sustainable rather than the rebuild every few seasons. I don't think I could spend six seasons or whatever not caring about my results but just taking pleasure from watching the perfect, multi-skill, homegrown players develop. If that means I'll never reach Div I or II, perhaps so be it.

Yep - that's the same conclusion I came to.
I enjoy the training, and the weekly puzzle of trying to outwit your opponent. But I couldn't do a hardcore strategy of some of the top teams.

Now I've got two teams I did consider using one of them as a pure cash generation unit and then look to buy the core of a truly competitive team - maybe one day!

[Bink333]

It's an odd one this.

What's similar is that we like to do the best we can with the players we have available. What drives my approach is wanting to train players to the NT with the challenge to make sure my team benefits from those players in order to become more competitive and gain additional experience, which in turn helps both club and country.

It's a lot more tricky with top player prices now being in excess of what you can hold at the bank without a financial assistant.

This week in Oceania, their NT manager has alerted me that the wing-back my 3 Oceanics (together with two English) are competing with for NT consideration (all 4 should make it based on the strength of CDTW) needs a new home. Ideally, with placed with my lads. I've listed a magificent xp solid leadership forward (FTW) with high set pieces as well as the Norwegian Technical Wb I bought quite recently in order to raise funds to buy this 4th Wb to complete my Oceanic 'set' (the best 4 of their generation). Once that's done I need 3 weeks to pop my 18 y/o support spec Defender and then I can sell him (freeing up a training slot for a home grown journeyman solid leadership quick) and with anything left over from the purchase I can then consider replacing the forward, ideally with one in a similar age bracket to the Wb, although I'd prefer to pick these guys up as the defender training cycle ends mid way through next season. I'll need to replace the other older forward and the young unpred GK I'm training as well, before this team will closely resemble the CA specialist team I'm planning to try to compete with when the stamina goes up, toward the end of next season. I also will need to replace the coach and at some point swap the 2nd assistant coach into a weekly contract so I can bring in staff to help when they are needed.

The reshuffle to bring in the Oceanian comes at a less than ideal time, but the current owner in Ireland has already over-trained the player in PM, and so we need to get him back into defender training asap. It's just getting to an interesting time in the Cup too, with a good chance for getting knocked out tonight, and if either of the two players I've listed take a knock it could also put a spanner in the transfer works.

In South Africa, I've been promoted from head NT scout to assistant manager, we pulled off a lucky draw away to Palestine this week, but managed to record the lowest hatstats in the group. With Austria clear favourites, it's a battle over who gets the 2nd qualification slot, and my experienced head says we just don't have the players (both GK are 34-35 with the next best worth considering for NT experience aged 25. This is a result of a lack of communication with the managers of up and coming talent combined with being a small nation. It's an exciting new challenge, and with South Africa's power and internet 'issues' I've had to be pretty hands on so far, helping their new manager (Cape Town based) to get the team selected.

In England I had a difficult start to this season, not helped by training passing (just one season then some more when they stars are NT ready) and wanting to field 16 training players a week (many of which are hg youngsters) in order to get some pops and sell them into the system for hopeful further training and additional revenues up the line. I got knocked out of the Cup in R3 by a team playing 5-4-1CA. They were lucky to convert 4/5 chances but not as lucky as my league opponents on Sunday who won 3-1 with 44% and a worse attack vs defence comparison as well. Confidence is currently poor as is coach leadership, but the league season starts here with -10GD and zero points.

In Oceania we're 5th on 4pts and in South Africa 2nd on 7pts and at home next to the leaders, a team that have won the III.13 division title the last 2 seasons running and 3 times in the last 5. Last season I held them to 2 goalless draws, although I'll need to actually put one past them one day, which has not happened in any of the 4 previous attempts.

[ChiliMonster]

Cup Round 4: last week I said:

Playing a team who are top of their Series IV - it seems a bit early to be playing a similarly-ranked team, and they get the home advantage. If they get their usual Cup ratings, plus allowing for them playing at home, I reckon midfield will be close to matched, but my attack/defence ratings should be significantly better than theirs over mine. If they switch in their league team I'll be swamped. Judging by their players' ages, I would think they are training IM, so I would hope they will maximise their training by retaining their usual Cup MF, so I have a chance. Do I PIC or PIN?

I PICed. Their ratings turned out to be their typical league rather than Cup ones, so I wasn't hopeful. It started out with me getting about 32% midfield ratings, averaging 31% attack vs their 38% average. I scored a penalty in the first half, which seemed fortunate, and they equalised early in the second half. But then their weaker stamina started to kick in, as discussed last week. There were no more goals in normal time, but by 90 mins (by which time I had used my subs) midfield ratings were almost even and my attack rating were superior to theirs. Further fall off of rating in ET caused a further swing such that I was confident I should win, but there were no goals. On 119 mins, they made 3 subs. They were old and only getting 3 to 4 stars, so I assumed they were penalty takers. Two of those three missed their pens and all four of mine who got a chance put theirs away, so I'm through to the 5th round. It's a derby. I'm at home to a Div III team who also had a derby in the fourth round, so I'm hoping the ratings estimation will be reliable.

League week 4:
Home to Barr Point who are top of goal difference. A must win if I am serious about the league, but reasonably confident of my chances on a PIC, looking ahead to Cup round 5. I didn't play quite my strongest 11 as I used my 1st and 4th-choice winger trainees and has subs planned to replace IMs if I had a decent lead. I took the lead early, then a crazy period between mins 41 and 44 saw the score go to 5-1. Final score 7-1. That leaves me top with 12 points. Club overview says "Confidence: completely exaggerated". Seems justified to me!


I'll PIN my Cup game tomorrow with TS expected to be walking on clouds. I expect their attack ratings to be superior to mine, so I'll need to win MF. They don't look like their stamina is so weak, so I can't rely on that falling off. I'm hoping to get more than £200K from the gate.

Kevster

[Donut102]

Div III

Cup game this week is winnable, albeit I'll have to sacrifice some of my defending training spots to do so - planning 343.

Went 343 in the cup, as planned, and won 3-0. Much easier prospect this week who play 532 CA, so I'm reverting back to 532 (for full defender training) but I'll still dominate MF. Confident they wont get past my defense on the counter, and my attack will be good enough for 2-3 goals.

Next week in the league I'm playing 2nd away from home. Going 550 PIC Long Shot & Pray.

Changed my my mind and went 532 CA on a PIC. 0-0 final score, so a bonus point for me.
That pushed me up to 5th, albeit 1 point ahead of 7th. Right now that is exceeding my expectations for my first season in III so happy bunny.

Bot team next week.

Div V


Won a tight match in the secondary cup 2-1.

Well and truly out-classed this week, so ready for my spanking.

Next week I play 7th away from home. They've had a dreadful start to the season, but I'm not taking any chances. I've played them 4 times in the last 2 seasons and lost every single time. If I can beat them, I'll be looking to cement my 2nd place and maybe put some pressure on the current leader.


We won 1-3 away from home - a great result.
League leader slipped up and only got a draw so I'm now in first spot on 9 points, with 2nd & 3rd both on 8 points.

Easy home win this week against the league's whipping boys, and then a run of 4 games against the two teams in 2nd & 3rd.
That run will effectively determine if I can win the league.
My target going into this season was to get 3rd, and challenge for 2nd - so to be in this position is great.
I'm sure I'll screw it up somehow though....

[Eastheath]

A 0-5 win over a bot, spoilt by a +2 to one of my IMs. Up to 2nd now, 3 pts behind the leader who won away at our patch in the first game.
Basically we are both likely to win our remaining games until we meet for the rematch last game of the season. Which I will have to win and also have the GD advantage by the end. At the moment they are 4 goals better off than us, so we will have to do some scoring in the meantime.

Last weeks secondary cup game went our way 0-3, this weeks is against a peer and made more tricky thanks to the +2 to my IM. I will probably be 'concentrating on the league' by wednesday....

To wrap up a so so week, Coach fell to disastrous leadership today so out he went into the Hall of Fame (a 400 game veteran, 300 of which were in the first team), replaced by a magnificent experience, passable leadership coach.

e

[Eastheath]

The cup went all wrong as feared. Despite going 3-0 ahead after 28 mins, the team wasnt set up to hold on to the lead and in the 86th minute they completed a gradual comeback and won 3-4.
The league featured a poor 3-1 win against a weaker team, with another injury and a red card to make the next league game harder than it should be. It didnt do much for our GD either when our rivals won 7-0 and the GD gap between us rose to 11. Need to close that gap quickly.