HOW TO BUILD A STRONG TEAM
 

In order to consider each aspect in detail this section will be released into two parts. But before we begin I would like to clarify that the views expressed here are my own and what I have come to understand by playing the game.

In order to build a competitive Team you need to consider the following 2 factors.

1 MANAGEMENT SKILL

2 TEAM DEVELOPMENT

v MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Even though you as the manager handle A-Z about your team but some things are not in your hands like Player maxing etc. Sometimes even if you have the best training method employed it does not mean all of your youths would become star players.

So I want to highlight areas where you have the most influence on your team’s growth and require your management talent.

1 Finance

2 Transfer Market

3 Youth strategy

4 Formations

1) FINANCES

A very important aspect of your team. A team with good finances will be able to buy the few gems that we get in the transfer market as well as not think twice before sending your players to TC.

Your Weekly Transaction

=>Income Source

1 Friendly match, 2 home games.

2 One home league match.

3 Sponsors

4 Cups and FL.

=>Expenditure

1 Player salaries

2 Staff salaries

3 Stadium upkeep

4 Youth Academy costs

All you have to do is simple planning and keep your INCOME more than EXPENDITURE.

There are some things you have to spend on like Stadium Upkeep and Youth Academy cost. That leaves you with Players salary and Staff salary.

Player salary is better left as it is unless you have a squad more than 36 players which includes youths or if you are spending more than 10,000,000 INR. Good quality players will ask higher salaries so it’s not much you can do here unless you are planning to rebuild from scratch.

ð Staff Salary.

You need coaches to train your players better but too many of them means you will save less. The key here is to get the right balance. Get good quality coaches for less for your seniors and cheap (0-2 stars) ones for your youths. Have a look at how many coaches Ileague teams have to get a rough idea.

How much you save each week mostly depends on your staff salary and also the first place you need to look at if you are looking to cut down on your expense.

2) TRANSFER MARKET

You guys might be thinking why I haven’t discussed this in finances. Advantage of teams in Indian league is it’s easy to earn money compared to managers from other high user base nation as you can get promoted easily but unlike them we don’t have a good transfer market.

Good players are hard to buy as you have to also compete with managers from other nations as well as fellow managers. To make it worse quality players are hard to get. You miss one and next best can take you weeks or months to get. So in most cases it’s not money you will be worrying about. Stay active and if possible login each day. Have a look at the transfer market whenever you login for Indian players.

Here are some tips

ð Buy young players if you are a new manager.

Try to find unmaxed(training in all skills or important ones like speed, stamina etc.) player by asking the team owner. Chances of that happening are slim but it will help you know what other skills he is training in.

19-21 age preferably for new managers.

19-26 age preferably for managers looking to improve.

19-30+ age preferably for managers with a strong squad.

ð Foreigners

You are allowed to buy 3 foreign players. I would recommend new managers to buy players between the age of 19-24. As young players have lower salary. Go for unmaxed players. If you are lucky he might become your team’s STAR player or you can always sell him for profit.

Now you even have the option to view training graph of a listed player in the Transfer market (only for club members).

Here is an example

CHELSEA F.C bought this player when he started.

http://managerzone.com/?p=players&pid=127926986

Have look at the price he bought and later sold him for.

HYDERABAD SULTANS

http://mzplayer.se/?id=1115150937

When I bought him he was a 9 ball striker with just 6 in Ball Control and 7 in Speed and stamina.

But if you have a good squad it’s better to go with a complete player with good stats as time is important higher up the table. Experience and Player intelligence are important so keep in mind those skills when buying.

ð Buying smart

Youths are very unpredictable. Even if you train them well they can max. early in important skills. In such case, transfer market plays a vital role. Try to avoid overspending and buy those who have the potential to be later sold off for profit as you will be spending on their training and weekly salary.

70% of Ileague Champions CHELSEA F.C players have been bought through the transfer market.

3) YOUTH STRATEGY

I had briefly covered this topic in the basic section and also repeatedly pointed out how important it is for your team’s development."How to train them" will be discussed later in the TEAM DEVELOPMENT section.

Here we will be talking about Youth strategies used by our own ileague champions and managers from other nations.

Youth Strategy

1) Get 16 or more youths in the same season.

2) Get 12 youths, same season.

3) In small group of 3-6 youths each season.

     Before I explain in detail about each strategy here are some facts to remember before deciding.

· 1 season=13 Weeks

· You can send max. 6 youths together at a time for training in Training Camp (TC) or Youth Training Camp (YTC).And always send them for 5 weeks for maximum training.

· Therefore you can complete training of 12 youths by 10 weeks. If you send more youths to TC it will overlap into the next season.

· You can send each player/youth to TC/YTC only once in a season.

· It takes youths 3 seasons to graduate (Move into your senior training field).

· Starting a Youth academy costs money apart from the youth academy maintenance cost you will be paying each week. Your youth academy will be closed if you don’t get a single youth and will have to shell out money just to start the academy again. So it’s advisable to get at least 1 each season.

· You get 4 Free TC for youths each season.

Speed, stamina, ball control and position skills like shooting n tackle are important. So when I say maxed youths it means they cannot train in one or more than one skill mentioned above. Generally if a player maxes early like say just at 5-6 balls/value then managers tend to avoid sending them to TC anymore and only train them using coaches.

1) Get 16 or more Youths

Get 16 or more at the start of the season and don’t bring more youths to your Team till the current lot graduate or reach the age of 19-21.

Advantage

· You can participate in U18 and U21 Youth leagues and CUPs. These competitions help you get additional cash for you team.

· Generally from a batch of 12 youths only 4-8 develop into good players. So with more options, your chances of developing good players also increase.

· By playing in CUPs, FLs and friendlies your players start to get experience skill early. Experience Skill is very useful in current SIM.

· You have immediate replacement if a player maxes early in any skill.

Disadvantage

· More options means more confusion and harder to manage.

· You won’t be able to send all your youths to TC each season. Hence you will have to pick players which can be tricky at the start when your players have not maxed in any skill.

· Lower efficiency as a potential Star player could miss valuable TC as it initially involves guess work.

· Expensive if you don’t take part in Cups or Fls or U18 and U21 youth leagues. All the above competitions are not free.

· Sudden surge in player’s salary when youths graduate.

2) Get 12 youths.

Get 12 youths at the start of the season. Don’t bring more youths to your team till they graduate or till they reach age of 19-21 but only if none of them max early in any important skill. If they do then replace your Maxed Youths by getting new ones. Maxed youths can be trained using coaches while TC for the new recruits. The idea here is to keep the count of players you wish to send to TC each season exactly at 12.

Advantage

· Easy to manage

· Player TC will not overlap into next season as 12 youths will take just 10 weeks as previously explained.

· You can wait for the right TC without worry as you save 3 weeks.

· Less money spent on Youth academy cost each week.

· Can calculate approximate value of your each season expenditure on TC.

· Efficient method

Disadvantage

· You cannot participate in U18 leagues and Cups.

· If a player maxes mid season you don’t have immediate replacement. Have to wait till the start of next season.

· Have to keep a tab on your Youth page when your youths are about to graduate to avoid getting any more unnecessary youths.

· Sudden surge in player’s salary when youths graduate.

3) Groups of 3-6 youths each season.

You get fresh batch of youths each season and same amount of players graduating each season.

Advantage

· Low Youths academy cost.

· You get Fresh youths at the start of each season.

· Can wait for the right TC to send your youths.

· No. of new youth and no. of youths graduating each season remains constant. So you don’t have to worry about getting unwanted youths in your academy (not to worry abt no. of youths).

· It’s more flexible as no. of youths can be lowered just in case you want to accommodate TC for players between the ages of 19-21.

· Efficient method

· No sudden surge in player’s salary when youths graduate.

Disadvantage

· Little difficult to send all your youths to TC till the age of 19-21 because of constant graduating youths.

· Slightly lowers your chances of developing a good Uxx side from your youths as your graduating youths will be of different age.

· Players TC can overlap into next season if no. of youths you get each season is increased more than 4.

· Can be expensive if you don’t play them in Cups,Fls n Uxx leagues.

Below is the list of Ileague winners and their Youth Strategy.

ð SikkimF.C(id kabaddi21 ):-They usually get maximum number of youths. Strategy 1.

ð Believe The Impossible (kirandas_bba):-Usually get maximum number of youths. Strategy 1.

ð Chelsea F.C (chelseax1):-Like to work with 12 youth or sending only 12 players to TC. Strategy 2

ð Forest Hill (pmoiab):- They get youths in batches of 6 each season. Strategy 3.