Thema: Squad size

I have stuck this in here as it looks like a newbie question, but i have been on the site for a couple of years now, but with not much success.

My question is this, is its worth running a squad of 11 to try and keep the wage bill down. As the trans window is always open it wont be hard to find a replacement for players that get injured. my prob is that a couple of years ago i got promotion to the 3 div and went for old players over young. That didn't work and when i came back down to the 4th i had to off load a lot of high paid players and coaches. I now have a junior school that really doesn't produce players that would get into my first team to start with. My thinking is to cut back on expenses so i can pay better players, that means running at 11 players and losing the juniors.

Your thoughts please.

It simply depends what you training imo. As you get training from friendlies too.

If you want to keep costs down.

If it's gkp, have 12
If train defending, have 16
If it's mids, have 16
If train forwards, have 14

That being said, I have a squad of 22 as I like to be able to rest my main squad for friendlies so that they don't get injured.

Plus, it's always worth having a few extras around anyway as you need subs for when your players have to come off through injury during matches.
(Edith war hier)

You definately need a bare minimum of 14 players (11 first team players plus 3 ATT trainees). Even that doesn't cover for injuries and suspensions very well.

It is the trainees and youth school that make you money in the game. Yes, you have to be lucky with the latter but it will come.

Having just 11 players means having no cover but more importantly, wasting valuable training slots.

My advice if i was starting again (and i may just do this myself now anyway) is get 22 young players and train them all in pace. Sell the least talented ones as you go along and buy in players that need pace but have skills that are high in other areas. As you continue to do this it should negate the need to ever really switch from pace much at all, therefore not losing training spots (when training technique for example).

Here's what i did when i started out and its working pretty well for me now. i'm in my third season btw.

First season: I bought 22 players all with low pace. They were cheap i spent a total of around £100000. I trained them the whole season on pace. After about 5 weeks i could start to see the ones with a decent talent. Thus i played those ones in official games... Heres an example of what a couple of the players looked like :


Konstanty Dzieciuch, age: 19

formidable [11] stamina hopeless [1] keeper
tragic [10] pace Very good [9] defender
adequate [6] technique average [5] playmaker
adequate [6] passing poor [3] striker

Karl Christian Michaelsen, age: 19

weak [4] stamina tragic [0] keeper
weak [4] pace good [7] defender
solid [8] technique good [7] playmaker
average [5] passing hopeless [1] striker


They werent great, but had good enough quality to win me the league...


Second season: At this point, i cut my team down to the best 11. 1 gk, 4 defs, 4 mids, 2 atts. plus but some really cheap older players for subs.

These players played both friendlies and official matches and the quality of my coaching staff was doubled. (But was financially stable. on weeks with official matches, i made profits which covered the slight losses on weeks without) I will only advice this if like me, you dont plan on selling these trainees for a while...

Third season (this season): I promote into III. I sell the two trainee strikers and goal keeper as i'm about to move from pace training. So now i have 8 trainees [4 defs 4 mids]. Invest £350 000 into older players to stay in III. I also opened my youthschool. Extra income has allowed me to improve my training staff again.

I'm now training defender do the def trainees play in official matches, and mids train in friendly matches. Heres what those two player from above now look like :


Konstanty Dzieciuch, age: 21

formidable [11] stamina hopeless [1] keeper
excellent [10] pace formidable [11] defender
adequate [6] technique adequate [6] playmaker
good [7] passing poor [3] striker


Karl Christian Michaelsen, age: 21

weak [4] stamina tragic [0] keeper
formidable [11] pace very good [9] defender
solid [8] technique solid [8] playmaker
adequate [6] passing hopeless [1] striker


It probably isnt the best economical decision to continue training these players (i have a training plan that will take them into their 24 - 25's), but i want to be able to compete at III with players i've trained my self. Things like this are part of the fun in the game ; you know, seeing your players progress every couple of weeks.

If my training plan goes according to plan, heres what i expect those players to look like when they are 25 based on my planned trainings. This is assuming they both miss 10 trainings due to injury + suspension over the course of the next 3 - 4 seasons. i also take into account slower popping rate due to older age

Konstanty Dzieciuch, age: 25

formidable [11] stamina hopeless [1] keeper
outstanding [12] pace incredible [13] defender
excellent [10] technique solid [8] playmaker
very good [9] passing weak [4] striker


Karl Christian Michaelsen, age: 25

solid [8] stamina tragic [0] keeper
outstanding [12] pace formidable [11] defender
outstanding [12] technique excellent [10] playmaker
excellent [10] passing unsatisfactory [2] striker


Obviously, this is a small benefit to be gained from around 6 seasons of training, but hey, i enjoy it so... just showing you what worked for me that my account balance is positive atm...

(Edith war hier)