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[Thendash]

I usually stick with 4-4-2 because I tend to play lower league teams without access to superstar players so I feel the need to keep it simple.

[Alexhans]

Anyway.  Can someone explain to me how I can manage to exceed expectations with a team that was meant to be 9th (in a 10 team league) and then when everything seems to be going peachy and I have an almost perfect away form and came back from beating 2nd placed team 5 0 (biggest win so far, unexpected) I get so cocky I end up losing 4 0 against the currently 8th team?  What is WRONG with me!  Board confidence was almost flawless and now I have that ugly record...).

In my Welling United save, I won the Champion's league last year, yet I will sometimes lay an egg against the 15th place Premier League team.  Try and keep your player morale up (using 'Passionate' and 'I have faith' works well for me), have a chat with them if they have a few bad games in a row.

Basically even the best team Can and will get complacent. Yell at them after a stupid loss and then move on. How'd you lose, specifically? Did their formation not play well against yours? Better players? Own goals?

I always talk to my players to get them motivated happy or at least focused but it was mainly a problem about tactics.  You see, I'm still a worse team than the others and the predictions of my away games are that we will lose or draw.  In this case, it was a draw against slightly favorites St. Pats.  But knowing they were generally sucking and that I had won all but 1 away games I came out with my standard formation (not thinking that much about defending).  They scored early on and instead of handling it like an adult I just lost it and went for attack.  Then condeded another goal before the end of the half time and kept rushing my decisions.  I just wanted the match to end at some point and didn't focus on saving my ass.  Kept attacking (or on standard and pushing up) and received 2 more goals near the end.

I yelled at them aggressively, that's for sure.  Fortunately, we are mostly back on track.  Despite a couple of close draws.

I tried 5-4-1 counter attack in pre-season but we were awful so finally switched to 4-4-2 with a forward that keeps saving my ass with his dribbles and holding the ball and a not very agile but efficient poacher.  I went on holiday once because my main forward had sustained an injury and I was out of ideas and my manager played an interesting 4-5-1 that I adopted as a backup tactic from then on and it has worked interestingly well in a couple of shrewdly played matches.

Having a less-fortunate team in terms of players, I'm trying hard on the scouting parts of the game, to find suitable players to develop and a couple of them seem to pay off.  Training is also high unless the players are specifically unhappy about it (and focused on def, mid or forw although I'm likely to specialize something for wingers soon).  After the good run, I've changed my objectives to reach an european competition (looking good) so now the wage budget doesn't look so utterly sad and I convinced the board to increase the number of coaches to 4

Coaches I can pay are not too good though.  Oh, and I'm only playing with the Irish league active because I wanted a fast game.  I don't know if that might've made things easier in the long run (lack of impressive players from other parts of the world?)

[Maldevious]

I've found attacking can get you in trouble, especially on the road, unless you are significantly better than the other team. That's why I usually stick with counter on road games where I am not favored, control when I am. Even at home, I rarely switch to attack unless I desperately need a goal. I do have my players hassle the opponent, play to open spaces, and one other touchline instruction that I can't recall ATM.

From what I've seen, winning the midfield battle is the most important aspect of the game, so I like to have as many midfielders as I can manage, plus some fullbacks who automatically reflect my philosophy.

As far as scouting goes, I tend to value high determination, work rate, and team work. I hated when my less developed teams gave up late goals like clockwork, and I believe those stats (particularly determination and work rate) have a lot to do with those late letdowns. I am pretty sure that having more leagues active will give you a greater scope of players and coaches to work with, so maybe consider activating a few leagues in France/Spain/Brazil/UK? I found it very hard to locate 5 star or 4.5 star coaches when I only had the EPL loaded.

[Sowelu]

Has anyone had much luck with sweepers?  How about defensive strikers?  I'm looking for a way to spice up my physically able but technically weak 4-4-2 / 4-3-3 Blue Square Bet North team.  (Even when we win, we have 40% possession.)

Also;  I've been ignoring star ratings and micromanaging players by their stats lately, which sometimes means fielding fast dribblers with merely silver stars.  Terrible idea, or potentially awesome?

How long does it generally take to train an average player to green in a new position?

[Alexhans]

I can't really answer any of what you ask but star ratings, afaik, are just the perception of your assistant managers and coaches.  Not completely reliable unless those guys are good at judging.

And potential will always depend on whether you train the kids and first team football will also aid in their development.

on my UCD news.  I had my most rewarding moment so far winning the league cup in the most emotional game so far.  Went down 2 - 0 at half time (first goal 6 min in) and by the 75th minute I already felt defeated.  Went attacking against Limerick away and in the 86th minute or something i scored a goal.  I wasn't able to look at that point, went overload and scored again in the 93rd.

Then went defensive and time wasting (full) to reach penalties (my players were absolutely exhausted) but I ended up clinching a goal with 4 minutes to go.

The league cup wasn't a priority for the board but it was my proudest moment.  I also won the premiership drawing a lot in the end but keeping a comfortable lead.  Now I guess I'll activate some more leagues (english maybe) and have another go with UCD to see if I can improve in the senior cup and not get completely smashed in Europe.

[Sowelu]

Well, star ratings seem pretty darn similar between coaches.  I ignore potential because I'm a crap team; I focus on younguns who are /already/ good and if they improve more, it's a bonus.  But I've found that star ratings are an aggregate of (relative stat value * importance to player's position), and I don't always agree that I need what my coaches think I need!  IE, who cares if my striker has a flair of 2 and mediocre finishing.  He's got a huge pace and acceleration and decent dribbling, so I tell him to run past the keeper and hit from close range.  Coaches see his flair and rate him super low.  But, he has high skills in what I care about.  It seems like a specialized 3-silver can, used properly, beat a well rounded 2-gold.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Silver- Rating compared to youth team.
Gold- Rating compared to senior team.

Meaning- it's like apples to oranges. Of course certain youths have large natural speed or certain abilities; but generally a senior member of the team is not only more well-rounded, but also more motivated. Unless you've got a 'Hot prospect' type world-class youth; but I doubt you do since they're extremely expensive to snag. It's generally best to leave those with youth ratings on the reserve/youth squad and sell them or wait to develop. I just sell players now; though.

It's a lot of work to make a 5-silver youth into a 4 or 5 star [if you're the luckiest bastard in the world] senior player. Too much to do for one head coach, atleast. I've not been at a club for more than 8 years in my experiences, so it's just cheaper, easier, and much more effective to hire mid-to-late-20's and 30-something players. Never discount a 35 year old who is still playing football, they know what they're doing. And if you do that you get free tutors for your youth squad. Younger [especially >20] players with any real amount of ability are so hard to come by and so expensive when they're already signed that I mostly stopped bothering with 'em and pick up generated youths for my non-senior teams. Then again I don't really do the youth coaching part of the game; it's kinda a pain in the ass to train people to greatness when there's 50k+ out there already who are better.

[Maldevious]

Has anyone had much luck with sweepers?  How about defensive strikers?  I'm looking for a way to spice up my physically able but technically weak 4-4-2 / 4-3-3 Blue Square Bet North team.  (Even when we win, we have 40% possession.)

Also;  I've been ignoring star ratings and micromanaging players by their stats lately, which sometimes means fielding fast dribblers with merely silver stars.  Terrible idea, or potentially awesome?

How long does it generally take to train an average player to green in a new position?

How is your midfield set up? I'd look there if you are losing a lot of possession. And what passing style do you use? With a less talented team, direct passing can be trouble, as they try to bomb it across the field looking for an open man and miss a lot. I use a sweeper keeper, and I've had some good success with a stopper/cover central defender combo (mostly in higher leagues), but I've never tried a defensive forward. Seems to me that's minimizing his effectiveness in both roles.

I wouldn't entirely ignore star ratings, as the players who aren't even in the gold for you yet have quite a ways to go. Keep in mind, too, that the stars are reflective of the current level of competition. A 5 gold star BSN player will probably be a 4 or 3.5 on the next league up, and by the time you're in L2 he will be down to 2 stars. This was very disconcerting to me as I rose up through the ranks, as I had vastly overpaid for some 5 star BSN guys. Imagine my surprise when they were mediocre to average players by comparison a few years later.

That being said, some players outperform their stars significantly. I have an AML, former striker, who is a 3 star Premier League player, but he consistently bangs in goals, hits great free kicks, and is fantastic working with my main striker. He just has some sort of knack that isn't well explained by his stats. Don't be afraid to consistently play players like that. If they work, they work.

I have found that players can train up a new position in a season or two. Keep in mind that if you just want them to train up a backup position, you'll want to take them off the training before the new position becomes their standard position. I think once they get to accomplished, if you keep training them in the new position it switches over to their main one, with the other one becoming the backup.

Here's a tip I use: at a lower level, look for free transfers that your coaches think are at least 3 stars. Have one scout whose Judge Potential is as high as you can get. When they find someone who is affordable and 3 gold stars or above, have your 'Potential' scout take a look at him. If the potential scout agrees with the coach's assessment (3 stars and above), pursue that player.

In Welling news, I lost the first (away) leg of the Champion's League semis to Barcelona 2-0. My team was simply uninspired. I think I screwed up by starting them off in counter mode... Barcelona just ate me up until I switched back to control. Also my new starting goalie is cup locked for me in this competition, which hurts. That  AML I was talking about earlier rattled two shots off the post in stoppage time, so I didn't even get an away goal. Sigh.