Week 1 Training Results
This week’s training results are easily divisible into “good news” and “bad news.” First, the good news:
Reg Nichols
Position: Winger
Jersey #16
17 years old, passable (6) form, healthy.
A pleasant guy who is balanced and honest.
Has disastrous (1) experience and inadequate (5) leadership abilities.
Specialty: Technical
Nationality: American
Assessed Value: $203,000
Wage: $1,400 per week
Stamina: Weak (4)
Playmaking: Passable (6)
Winger: Excellent (8)
Scoring: Weak (4)
Goaltending: Disastrous (1)
Passing: Poor (3)
Defending: Weak (4)
Set Pieces: Passable (6)
As things turn out, Reg is an even better winger than we originally thought. The amount of raw talent this kid has is incredible, and he has proven to be a “first week excellent.” It’s too bad this is an off-season for the U-20 clubs, or I would be tempted to switch to a full-time winger training program and land Reg a spot on the American U-20 team.
Also worthy of note this week are midfielder Charlie Bautista and reserve forward Forrest “Gump” Tobias. Charlie improved to weak (4) experience this week, while “Gump” improved to poor (3).
And now for the bad news:
Form Changes
4 players improved in form this week, including three starters:
-Forward #14 German Galvez: solid (7)
-Central Defender #18 Cameron McDonald: passable (6)
-Wingback #22 Tyler Willard: solid (7)
12 players saw their form remain the same this week.
7 players dropped a level in form this week, including four starters:
-Midfielder #6 Charlie Bautista: inadequate (5)
-Midfielder #23 David Burton: inadequate (5)
-Midfielder #8 Niklas Ivarsson: weak (4)
-Winger #9 Valentin Rubio: passable (6)
You will notice that, out of our starting five midfielders,
four players dropped in form this week! Our midfield play has been bad enough as of late, and now this. To make matters worse, we’re hosting Croats In Miami this week. We’re going to get crushed.
In the Zone
Again, we have no players displaying excellent (8) form at the moment. We do, however, still have a total of six players in solid (7) form:
-Forward #14 German Galvez
-Wingback #17 Mattias Leier (reserve)
-Wingback #5 Arlen “Headcase” Lucas
-Winger #25 Paul Peralta (reserve)
-Keeper #13 Darryl Read (reserve)
-Wingback #22 Tyler Willard
“Headcase” and Tyler continue to impress us with their consistently good form. I had been toying with the idea of letting Tyler go at the end of the season, but the more I see from him, the more I want to keep him around for a long, long time.
Form Dogs
Our list of form dogs this week (all in weak form) contains way too many midfielders:
-Midfielder #8 Niklas Ivarsson
-Midfielder #19 Jerry Smith (reserve)
-Midfielder #7 Lucian Tere (reserve)
-Forward #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias (reserve)
Player Values
Average Player Value: $174,130 (+$8,739)
Total Player Value (23 players): $4,005,000 (+$201,000)
This week’s numbers are rather skewed. Olav Mauffret has not been included, due to his impending sale, so the average player value numbers are a little out of whack (he’s valued at only $55,000). The total player value numbers are skewed as well, because of the addition of Reg Nichols to the roster. Still, it’s nice to see that we’ve finally broken the $4,000,000 barrier. Speaking of Reg…
Assessed Value Milestones
$200,000+
-Winger #16 Reg Nichols ($203,000)
$300,000+
-Forward #14 German Galvez ($306,000)
Up Next: This week’s youth squad promotion (let’s hope for another Reg Nichols to add to the roster) and financial update. Stay tuned!