Having clinched promotion back to ML (yay), I face a dilemma about how to handle the offseason.

I train playmaking (and have since the beginning of my team), but as midfields improve, I've been forced to train my mids higher (and older) than I would've liked. 3 of my 6 midfielders "should" be sold and younger ones bought, but my current midfield (using 3-5-2; 1 WTM) is only titanic (old) or so, which is weaker than most ML teams. My D and attack are better than most however.

So the question becomes: how much midfield can I give up (if any) and still get enough possession to allow the superior rest of my team to get me some wins and compete for a title, rather than for 5th.

Question #2: How much in wages can I be forced to pay? (With the viewpoint that I have no desire to kill my team with Goons or TT wages; however they're the top 2 in the league, so maybe I should...)

Here's a look at my 6 mids. (Ages are current)

1. Chang Shi-Kai (7886032)
23 years, passable form, healthy
Has titanic experience and weak leadership abilities.

Also part of Team Hong Kong!
Nationality: Hong Kong
Total Skill Index (TSI): 174 070
Wage: 102 552 US$/week including 20% Bonus

Stamina: excellent Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: mythical Passing: passable
Winger: poor Defending: wretched
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: wretched

Skinny : Toughest and most important decision. My top mid. 7.5* in passable form. Also is starting for his nat. team, so his high (and about to get much higher...) wages, will be subsidized if his form stays passable+. But he'll be 24, and near-magical, and will have crazy wages. Ugh. Listed him for 10M for the hell of it; one owner says he'd have interest if price was a little lower. Not sure how much less. 10M's crazy (I know); 8M (in this market) would likely be hard to pass up.

2. Neil Stewart (10912153) 1
22 years, passable form, bruised, but training
Has weak experience and weak leadership

Total Skill Index (TSI): 116 550
Wage: 51 936 US$/week including 20% Bonus

Stamina: excellent Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: extra-terrestrial Passing: solid
Winger: poor Defending: poor
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: weak

Skinny: 2nd best mid; 6.5* in passable. Wish his exp. was higher. Wages will go up. And he'll be 23. Still, clearly my 2nd best mid (on my already low-ML level midfield)

3. Sergio Tort (15890251)
21 years, passable form, healthy
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities.

Total Skill Index (TSI): 50 910
Wage: 14 136 US$/week including 20% Bonus

Stamina: excellent Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: supernatural Passing: excellent
Winger: passable Defending: poor
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: inadequate

Skinny: 5.5* in passable or so. Young enough and with nice enough side stuff that he'll definitely stay next season. Low wages should triple perhaps, but still be ok. Wish he had higher exp.

4. Erik Olsson (12851335)
22 years, excellent form, healthy
Has weak experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Speciality: Technical
Total Skill Index (TSI): 35 590
Wage: 8 976 US$/week including 20% Bonus

Stamina: solid Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: world class Passing: solid
Winger: wretched Defending: wretched
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: weak

Skinny: 4th mid, but at 22 (23 to be), older than I'd like. Wages would still be lowish. Being in excellent form, I might be able to get a premium from a team desperate for a key mid for qualification. 6* in exc. form.

5. Stefan Andersson (20479958)
20 years, passable form, healthy
Has poor experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Total Skill Index (TSI): 23 650
Wage: 4 992 US$/week including 20% Bonus

Stamina: excellent Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: magnificent Passing: excellent
Winger: wretched Defending: weak
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: poor

Skinny: 4th-5th mid. 5.5* in passable this week, so might not be much of a downgrade from 3-5. Exc. passing is nice too. Low wages, and only 20. Definitely staying. But can he become a 3rd (starting) mid right away? Or would that kill my mid too much?

6. Dominique Nicoletti (26956065)
20 years, passable form, healthy
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities.

Speciality: Quick
Total Skill Index (TSI): 14 120
Wage: 2 976 US$/week including 20% Bonus

Stamina: excellent Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: brilliant Passing: passable
Winger: weak Defending: passable
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: weak

Skinny: 4-4.5* in passable. Definitely my 6th mid. The decent passing and defending should be nice. Wretched experience is lame. Won't start for me next year. Low wages. Might sell to try to upgrade that slot though.

Team money situation 2M, but I need a new coach (current is down to weak exp.). My old clown would be a solid coach for 500k; exc. for 3.5M. Considering I don't overspend for potential U-20s and train until 22-24 nowadays, spending 3M extra for one level over that time period is likely not useful to me. So, will spend 500k for the solid.

Other positions are stable. Keeper's young. My 3 D's are youngish. 4th D will be 30, excellent. Should be cheap to replace. My wing, and 2 of my 3 forwards are young. One of my top 3 forwards will be 28, so should be fine for a little while. Wages are OK. My keeper will be like 100k; wing 50k; three forwards 150k total. D's total 35k or so. "Low", compared to my ML competition.

Decisions to be made: I'd want to sell mids #1,2,4, and 6 perhaps. What can I replace them with? Can I sell off my parts and replace them before wages go back up? Or can I sell/buy before the season, to avoid team spirit drops. Or should I keep any/all of those mids, to be best able to compete in ML? (But would kill my wages, and to train guys 23-24 years is annoying to me). And what about the replacement mids: I can't/won't buy someone lower than outstanding playmaking and want guys with solid+ passing. Can I find those sort of guys, young enough so I can keep them 2-3 seasons, rather than 1? Guys like my #3 and #5 mids would be ideal.

Decisions, decisions.

With the prices down at the end of the season, it might be worthwhile to wait until the start of next season to sell anyone unless you want to get some stamina training in. That's my two cents. The rest is beyond me, but good luck in the ML next season!

I'd sell Chang now because if something happens to him (long injury, long form drop) and he was dropped from the nat team, wages would kill you. Not that I have any expereice as anything higher than a 6th place III team, but I'd think I'd want to have an American at that high of a skill level.

You definately need a new coach and start makin use of the TS...
Getting only titanic midfield is way below the potential of what you shuold be able to get with 3 mids and a towards middle like that. You should be able to PIC to around magical at home with that.

Other than that i have no time to check it out right now, gotta deliver this shitty project which got me only 2,5 hours of sleep tonight :)

Out of curiosity, would you be able to augment your midfield via a new winger or an offensive centreback? Maybe that would allow you to get Andersson into the starting lineup and Stewart onto the transfer list without too much pain.

Neither of you 20 year olds impress me, I'd sell both, especially the brilliant.

To answer some q's:
1. Re: waiting: I wouldn't want the spirit hit potentially. Plus, if I sell and buy guys at cheaper prices, would save a little on agent fee. The key is for me to be able to sell and then buy within a few days. If I sell 2-3 now; and take 2-3 weeks to restock, the market should improve by then and I'd be in bad shape.

2. Re: coach: he dropped to weak this season. When I PIC'ed the first 6-7 rounds of Cup, spirit was able to get to POE (although would not be able to stay there for a match), so it didn't hurt me any. This was especially true late in the season when there were no PICs anyway. I will change it in offseason though.

3. Re: O defender or wing: I won't be able to give up some defense. My defense will keep me in games, and I think the upside of a little more mid compared to the downside isn't so much. As for wing, my one wing is titanic, with passable PM. I'd rather use the money on mids than on a slight upgrade at wing.

4. Re: Andersson "not being impressive", I tend to not look for U-20s. I try to find guys with nice passing (to help my attack, with my defensive coach), who will become titanic PM by 22 or so. He fits the bill. I'm not going to sell all 6 guys afterall :)

Listed #1, #4, and #6...all for high prices. If I get a bid, great. If not, I'll list for normal (or 0) next week for 1-3 of them.

3. Re: O defender or wing: I won't be able to give up some defense. My defense will keep me in games, and I think the upside of a little more mid compared to the downside isn't so much. As for wing, my one wing is titanic, with passable PM. I'd rather use the money on mids than on a slight upgrade at wing.Agreed on the defense issue. I was thinking more about you being able to upgrade the playmaking skill on your winger with as little as possible or no downgrade to the winger's offensive contribution.

End result:

Sold #1 (Shi-Kai) for $7.95M. Higher than I expected.
Sold #4 (Olsson) for $4.13M. Less than I expected.

Bought:
1. 19 year, brilliant PM, passable passing, inadeq. D for 3.15M. 3 years younger than Olsson, and should be up to his level of PM by around end of 20 year season.

2. 19 year, world class (+4) PM, passable passing, passable wing for 5.7M. I'm told he's in the mix for possible U-20 use. Overpaying a bit for the possibility of that is worth it as far as risk/reward. Worst case, I'll have a guy who should be 20/titanic near end of this season.

So (after aging), I'll have:
1. 23 ET (halfway to mythical), solid passing
2. 22 supernatural, exc. passing
3. 20 world class, passable passing
4. 21 magnif, exc. passing
5. 21 brilliant, passable passing, passable D
6. 20 brilliant, passable passing'

Younger and a nice balance. However, I should get beat up possessionwise in ML.

I have around 4M left. Can upgrade if in danger. We'll see.

Also, my payroll this week was not in the top 15 in II, and would be at the bottom of ML. Considering no one's PM is WAY high, I'd expect my wages to be less than 1/2 of Goons/Titans.

Cool. My aggregate midfield is actually better than a former MLS'ers. Rock on. ;)

I dunno about the brilliant. I'd say you overpaid there more than the WC. Passable passing is nice, but not that nice. I would expect that price on a magnificent, particularly in this market. On the other hand, a WC went a little high but since he's 19, that's a crazy market since you're talking about bleeding edge growth.

SI

Hey, not "former" anymore! :P

Sorry, wasn't in chat today so I didn't know. I was watching football with a friend in town from KC.

SI

That Brilliant seems like a definet overpay.

you planing on running a 3-4-3 Billy??? cause if you go 3-5-2 with your lack of high level midfielder's that might come back to haunt ya. But i know in a 3-4-3 in good form you can pull off a divine defense and magical/divine central attack. That would help make-up for your weaker middies compared to TT, Goon's, KCW, and even Spork as good middies now.



(i didn't read the whole post so if you already said it then my bad )

Havok,

I plan on having a few different looks. The main consideration is just how much midfield I can give up. If I run a 3-5-2 (with 1 wtm), and lose possession 55/45, is it worth it for me to run a 3-4-3 (boost attack a few levels) and lose it 60/40 instead.

It depends on my opponent. If the choice is 50/50 or 55/45, i'd likely choose 55/45. If it's 55/45 or 60/40, I'd likely choose 55/45. I'm good with losing possession, but not getting KILLED in it. My attack in a 3-5-2 is still good enough to convert chances.

This is even more the case after my latest purchase, this morning:

Finn Gravås (8160806)
24 years, passable form, healthy
Has inadequate experience and weak leadership abilities.

Nationality: Norge
Total Skill Index (TSI): 15 300
Wage: 8 040 US$/week including 20% Bonus

Stamina: poor Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: poor
Winger: formidable Defending: magnificent
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: poor

3.2M cost, which seems reasonable to me.

This lets me run him normal or offensive and should give me a divine+ (old) side attack, combined with my titanic wing, in a 3-5-2.

He ALSO gives me the possibility of running a 4-4-2 in tough road matches. I currently have 4 magnif D's (form's a bit lousy though), so I could have a very impressive D (with my magical keeper), generate at least *some* possession and have a great attack too. Maybe good for stealing a 0-1 win (I hope :)).

(And yes, my team's well-built to be potentially counterattacking, but they don't have much passing, and my attempts at CA 2 seasons back were so poor that I'm not going that route...yet)

So, I expect to run 3-5-2, 3-4-3 and even 4-4-2 depending on the opponent and my form/injuries/cards.

Wow, just in that one post you have given me more insight into my own team and its possibilites than any other I have read for a long time. Certainly some food for thought. Do you have any ideas for a discussion, website, or anything else that might provide more information about how to go about planning your formation based on your team and your opponent?

Havok,

I plan on having a few different looks. The main consideration is just how much midfield I can give up. If I run a 3-5-2 (with 1 wtm), and lose possession 55/45, is it worth it for me to run a 3-4-3 (boost attack a few levels) and lose it 60/40 instead.


Me personally I'd take the 60/40 if I knew I'd score on my chances (i.e. your attack will be a good deal better than opposing d's) as you'd only lose about 1 chance per game maybe compared to 55/45. But, I play 3-4-3 as my base while I train MF so of course I'll say that :D

sounds good to me Billy!! Good luck bro, We'll all be pulling for ya!!!

...you'd only lose about 1 chance per game maybe compared to 55/45.Maybe. That's a reasonable proposition, but I don't think we know enough to accurately characterize the exact relationship of possession to chances. Or, for that matter, how many chances there are available when the teams are really good.

Maybe. That's a reasonable proposition, but I don't think we know enough to accurately characterize the exact relationship of possession to chances. Or, for that matter, how many chances there are available when the teams are really good.
why would there be any less than 5 reg chances per half regardless of how good or sucky the teams are?

my understanding is that possession is the percentage CHANCE that you will get a particular scoring chance. So in theory, 55% gets you 2.5 chances per half and 60% gets you 3. Since there's no half chances, 2.5 will sometimes be 2 and sometimes be 3. And of course, HT doesn't fall the way the numbers suggest all the time due to that pesky chance :) That's why I used "about" and "maybe" in there.

As I said, if the drop in possession is small (I condiser 5% to be small) then I would take the boost in attack (or defense if you were to do that) over the possibility of losing 1 chance, maybe :)

why would there be any less than 5 reg chances per half regardless of how good or sucky the teams are?

my understanding is that possession is the percentage CHANCE that you will get a particular scoring chance. So in theory, 55% gets you 2.5 chances per half and 60% gets you 3. Since there's no half chances, 2.5 will sometimes be 2 and sometimes be 3. And of course, HT doesn't fall the way the numbers suggest all the time due to that pesky chance :) That's why I used "about" and "maybe" in there.All of that is the popular theory. Based on my body of experience, I'm just not convinced that's exactly how things work. I don't have any particular matches to use as examples, just a general feeling from seeing a lot of them.