:D That's why I almost never go bezerk on a team. I used to be Mr. Nice Guy all the time, but then I noticed that if I chewed them out a little bit, but rarely Angry or Embarassment if they were playing like crap they picked up their form again.

I've only ever used Angry once and Embarassment once and both times the player and/or team responded well to it after an initial significant morale drop.

Oppsie, we were 6th in EPL as Rushen 11 games in and playing against Newcastle who were 5th. It was 0-0 at halftime and i went with encourage, final score was 4-1 and we were dominated in the 2nd half. I went off on the team hopefully i don't get the same result.(had to go to work so i haven't played any more games)

Neon Chaos - When talking to your players consider their temperaments, experience and suchlike ...

I'm guessing (and could be utterly wrong on this) - that your team was somewhat over-performing (compared to expectations) and is relatively young in age ...

I'd expect your team talk added pressure to them to perform, they tried to react positively to this - but their lack of experience/personalities have lead to some rash decisions and lost tempers as they push themselves harder - hence the red cards etc.

I finished third in the EPL with Plymouth, only two points behind winners Newcastle. I lost two games late in the year against teams well-done in the table. One more victory and we would have had the title.

Man Utd finished second. We tied both league games but I met up with them in both the FA Cup Final and UEFA Cup Final. Both times they beat us by a single goal. :(

What a game...

What does this mean.

I think it means that your team, Galway United, were not expected to sit at the top of the Irish table and thereby qualify for continental competition but your recent winning streak suggests otherwise.

It likely means that your team is towards the top of the standings. The top few places at the end of the season qualify towards some of the European team competitions, which mean money and prestige that would help you to sign better players.

I don't know how many qualify or for exactly what competition in the Scottish league though. I would expect that the champion goes to Champions League, and the second/third place would go to the UEFA Cup or something like that. I'm sure someone will give the exact details.

I'm not in the Scotch League, I'm now in the Irish Premier League. I'm in 6th place.

Im now the GM of the Wales national team!! so exciting. Forest Green has been stuck in L1 for awhile but this might be the year to crack the Championship division.

We're touted as promotion contenders, expected to finish in the top half.

I have two 19 year olds in my first 11, 3 vets (30+) and a spattering of middle-age players 23-27. Funny though, my 19 year olds have the best morale right now. One of my vets got suspended for a summary of 3 games (one two-game redcard suspension and a one-game redcard suspension)

I managed to right the ship a bit by starting some guys from my reserve team and letting some of my stars with low morale to rest a bit.

Currently back on form, morale is slightly leveling. Yikes.

I think I'll be more cautious about ripping up my players during Full Time. :)

Eh. Same island. Almost. ;)

There's another comp under the EUFA Cup, but I don't remember what it is offhand. I'd imagine you need to finish top four.

/kinda wishes he played in a Scotch League..

The Intertoto, or the Enter Two-Bob, as it's derisively known by some teams *naturally the teams that would never stoop so low as to qualify via that route :D*

You know, I was really excited about managing the England U21 team, but I just couldn't get into it. I didn't know the players, and there weren't enough matches for me to really get acquainted with them. Just because we were in competitions with very bad teams, we managed to win every game easily at first. Eventually, we faced teams that were halfway decent, and I didn't know what to do. I was relieved to get fired.

I hope you have a better experience with your Welsh squad.

Galway United is up to 4th Place in the IPD, quite a ways off from 2nd, but we haven't lost in 10 games (7 wins, 3 draws). We are also in the Final of the Irish Cup (although that's mostly been due to an unbelievably lucky draw - in each leg we've drawn easily the worst team left, and haven't faced an IPD team yet).

I agree with these comments about national team management. The greatest managerial accomplishment would seem to be a World Cup win, but it's tough to be a good national manager when the games occur so infrequently. The few games that go on in a year do make it tough to get to know your players. Maybe that's part of the challenge, but there are a lot of times where I find that national team management is a distraction from my club career. I'm not sure how we could make national management more interesting beyond more media interaction, job speculation and undercover reporters watching our every move...

After managining Canada and Ireland, I've now moved on to Spain in 2018. Hopefully we can do some damage at the 2020 UEFA Championship and 2022 World Cup.

Easy. Turn the fog of war into your advantage.

Make being a national manager a full time job, No club and country type things.

Each week, you choose to attend a game and watch potential candidates play. This replaces scouting, it also leads to good Media Interaction..

"England team manager Hans Gruber was spotted at today's Coca-Cola Championship match between Leeds United and Crystal palace. It was thought that he was scouting 20 year old James Thompson, who's seemingly on verge of breaking into the national team setup."

(then if it's you who's the manager, the press asks you what you think of how the player did.. with responses from "He was clearly the best player on the pitch and will definately get a look" to "He certainly has some work that needs to be done to earn a spot on the national side" (with no-comment costing points from your media interaction rating, since the pressure is on the national managers constantly from the press)

(June 16) Gretna stunned by Anderson Silva transfer demands!

Yeah, you can bet I am, considering... (June 15) Anderson Silva wants to stay - Anderson Silva has asked to be taken off the transfer list.

How important are physical attributes for goalkeepers? Obviously, the natural fitness will be important... but does pace / acceleration / strength have a great bearing on whether or not a keeper can do the job?

Agility and Strength are definitely physical attributes that you should consider.

And Acceleration is fairly important if he has to come off his line often

A lot depends on your teams style of play - for instance if your team defend deep and force a lot of long shots then its going to be positioning, concentration and agility most likely to be important, pace and acceleration won't come into things too much as he shouldn't ever be rushing out to smother balls that much really ...

Is there any way to influence the type/quality of players your youth teams produce, or is it entirely random?

Good question. I've been wondering the same thing. For three years now, I get one 'promising' player and the rest are scrubs that I release after one year.

Has anyone ever got a 'wonder kid'?

the only way is to improve the youth academy

Quality...yes. As SirFozzie said if you get to the Youth Academy stage, then the quality improves. If you're talking about getting more tall strikers who are good in the air, then I don't think there's anyway to produce that kinda player in your batch of youth players.

What exactly do you mean? I have a youth academy. I thought that was the best you could do. Are you saying you ask the board to improve further?

No, I don't think he meant it quite that way, since a youth academy is the top level. I think he meant to say to improve your training facilities as a whole.

Please bear in mind that 'wonder kids' are very few and far between, in England we probably only have one emerge every 2-3 years maximum (and some of these never make the grade in the long-run).

To improve how your kids mature ensure they're groomed by coaches suited to the task at hand (ie. good working with youngsters stats) and have some professional veteran players at the club to look up to.

Marc, what criterion is there for determining who is a veteran player and who isn't? I'm just a little paranoid that my Maidenhead team might be getting a little too young.

Just to warn you--I am pulling this out of my ass. But having played various FMs and CMs, and being somewhat familiar to the SI approach, I think I have a handle on what Marc means.

A player probably isn't a vet unless he has done most of his developing. So look for players 24 and up at the very least (and actually 28 and older is even better). The better vets will be more consistent with their play and their attitude, with no big variations. They should have plenty of first team experience, and will be looked upon more as leaders if much of that first team experience has come with your club (it will take time before a vet brought into the club has that kind of influence). You would also want these vets to have the kind of attributes which will help youths follow them the right way. Look for "Model Professionals" and "Sporting" types, with high Influence and Teamwork.

If I am not mistaken, the "wonderkid" tag has a reputation requirement which means you are not likely to ever get a youth pull [Hattrick term] who is a straight "wonderkid".Interestingly, while Arsenal already has a "Top facilities plus youth academy" from the beginning, I've been including the upgrade facilities clause in my various contracts just for shits and giggles. The game does tell me that the construction has started and ended but I have noticed no difference.

As an aside, I'm getting peeved at my lack of youth pulls. I think I have to trim my squad down. Meh.

New to the game this year and have only played a little over two seasons between my "learning" dynasty and my current one with Cambridge City.
In my games I have had three coaches, one scouting next opponent and two searching for talent. Being a small club my scouts only search the UK, Ireland, and Scotland for players. The only young players they have ever recommended to me have either been released by their club, on the trnasfer list, or still playing
and recommended as a good signing. The youngest player I recall seeing was 16.

Do scouts ever come up with young guys that have never played pro or semipro? Or will they always be found on some obscure club?

Is 15 (IIRC the youngest age you can scout for) the youngest player the game creates? Is it possible to find a 14 year old playing for a school team
that nobody else has heard of? I'm not sure how this all works in the UK but think about a baseball scout here is the US running across some 14 year old playing as a froshman in some out of the way town in Idaho, Iowa (my home state), or Mississippi.

im enjoying running the Wales team. Youre right in that it seems a bit like an afterthought but it does serve to break up the monatany and add another facet to the game.

Great job Marc!!

How does everyone play when it's raining? Do you go with shorter or longer passes? Run with ball more or less? Slower or quicker tempo?

I'm finally challenging for a promotion spot and this game is so much more fun. I was addicted to this game when I was underacheiving. Now that I'm having some success, I can't stop at all. This is sick, sick, sick.

15 is the youngest I've seen. When I started out in the Conference North, I sent out a scout with a 'judging potential ability' of 16 to find players who were 'no more than 16' in the UK & Ireland area. He found one 'John Huges', who was unattached to any club. He was an AMC, but could play every position on the pitch except Striker and DC. I used him as a ML and every year he improved. When I resigned from Vauxhall Motors and got a job with Plymouth, I spent $3.5 million to buy him. He's now 24 and leading the Premiership in assists.

The funny thing is, his attributes are not 'world-class'. The coaches reports over the years have all indicated he'd never make it. And while his personality is 'unambitious', he's performed above a 7.00 AvR every year for 8 years straight.

Easily the best find I've ever made.

What about reducing red cards/penalty kicks against your team? I just had a match with 4 penalty kicks against.

Was your team's moral bad? I usually find that my team will give away more red cards/penalty kicks when I'm on a losing streak and/or moral is bad.

Also, if you have some players on hard tackling that would also cause both to go up.

I have two players who are just constantly getting red cards and giving up penalty kicks. If it weren't for that they'd be my best defenders. I've got them tackling easy, but don't really know what else to do.

by the way - what is Euro Vase? Should I be excited about it?

Isn't the Euro Vase SI's generic version of the UEFA Cup or Inter-Toto Cup?

Inter-toto. If you win a few matches there, you'll end up in the UEFA cup.

I had one guy like this, I can't imagine having to deal with two of them. My answer was to put him on the transfer list and let him become someone else's problem. His good defense did not off-set the disadvantage he put the club at with his red cards and being sent off. One of the best moves I have made.

This is my first career of any length, but I've found year in and year out that managing the defensive line is the toughest thing to get right. Pretty much any pair of forwards will do, and the midfielders can be programmed to play to their strengths, but that back line - man, when it doesn't play well, it just murders you.

I tried to do asearch for this info because I am sure it was asked int he past. How does the game especially the NorthAmerican WSM handle the MLS? I am most interested in MLS play. But since, this game and soccer ingeneral has always leaned to European rules I wondered how accurately it followed the rules of MLS?

I think it follows the rules exacty. I can't imagine them not. I think the only complaint I've heard in this year's game is that the prospects in the draft are not that great.

The longer you play into an MLS career, the more dependent you are on non USA players being key on your team

Selfish bump on this question. :)

OK, so I finally played the demo, and now I'm thinking of buying the game. Damn you SI! :)

Anyway, for Americans, what was the final verdict on how to purchase the game? On-line? Retail? I note that gogamer.com doesn't appear to even list it now.

Considering how slowly I play and how much time I spend tweaking my tactics it's funny that I really don't adjust much to the weather at all. My teams tend to favor shorter passes to begin with (if the talent level allows) so I don't change much for rain. If I have a longer passing tactic I will shorten it up if it's really windy, but other than that once I'm happy with how my tactic fits my team I don't mess with it much at all.