The Catch-22 Of Youth Development

As I have said before, I am quite devoted to developing my own youths, but I have stumbled across an almost impossible situation and rather annoying problem regarding the development of my youths. The developing of stats is becoming harder and harder, to a point where it is turning into a laughable Catch-22 situation.

Now for those who haven't read the novel by Joseph Heller, Catch-22 is a law defined in various ways throughout the novel Catch-22. First, the main protagonist Yossarian discovers that it is possible to be discharged from military service because of insanity. Always looking for a way out, he claims that he is insane, only to find out that by claiming that he is insane he has proved that he is obviously sane — since any sane person would claim that he or she is insane in order to avoid flying bombing missions.

Elsewhere, Catch-22 is defined as a law that is illegal to read. Ironically, the place where it is written that it is illegal is in Catch-22 itself. It is yet again defined as the law that the enemy is allowed to do anything that one can't keep him from doing. In short, then, Catch-22 is any paradoxical, circular reasoning that catches its victim in its illogic and serves those who have made the law.

Breaking this down into smaller portions and translating it to the youth development, you would get a situation like this.

1. Premise: If a youth player is to develop his stats in a decent tempo, he must get decent average ratings in the matches he plays.

2. Premise: If a youth player has decent stats, he will more easily achieve these higher average ratings,

3. Definition of implication: since a youth player who wants to develop further in a decent tempo does not already have decent enough stats, it follows that he will not play to his full potential for quite a while.

4. De Morgan: since this player cannot play to his full potential for quite a while, his performances are lacklustre and will result in decent but not spectacular average ratings.

5. Modus Tollens: since a players average rating is not very spectacular, his stats will not rise very much during the course of a season, causing his average ratings to stay the same, et cetera...

Surely you can appreciate the wonderful circular logic behind this... A player needs a high average rating to develop at a decent pace, yet he can only obtain or achieve this rating by developing into a better player first... By decent tempo, I mean that a player should be ready for first team in his early 20's. Anyway, this dilemma, gentlemen, is Catch-22.

Now of course there are ways around this. You can re-invent your tactics to actually suit a players strenghts more and compensate for their weaknesses a bit, but in general I believe the coaching skills are a bit underpowered.

You see, the coaching skills will boost the rate at which a player improves. This means they boost both attributes and Current Ability (CA). CA is just a reflection of a player's attributes, or vice versa, they aren't really seperate entities as the match engine for example doesn't know about CA at all, it only cares about attributes, which are in turn set according to CA.

Regardless of coaching skills, a player won't improve beyond his Potential Ability (PA), however he is more likely to reach his potential. A 2.5* potential player can only ever become a 2.5* player, no better, however a 3.5* potential player at another club may never reach that level. In that sense it is possible for a player with a lower potential to become better than a player with higher potential. This, of course, is true regardless of skills, but increased coaching skills allow you to get the most out of your players.

The problem is that the coaching skills really only kick in when the average rating is decent as well. So how can we make a youth really live up to his potential? A bit of luck that he faces weak opponents? Or just lots of tactical tinkering until we find a formation to play him in…

What Goes Around Comes Around

Besides this phrase being used in a tacky song by Justin Timberlake, it's also one of the fundamental principles of karma. As you sow, so shall ye reap. What you do to others, you are really doing to yourself for when it comes back to you.

I believe this principle can also be used in FM Live. Over the past few weeks or maybe even months, I have heard people complaining about the Game World Economy, its inflated prices and the reduced chances of selling players to anyone.

When you apply the idea of what goes around, comes around to FM Live, you would see less of this nonsense. If nobody overcharges, the inflation will not be as severe. If you sell for fair prices, people are also inclined to sell players to you at fair prices. Oh yeah, with fair prices I mean a maximum of double MV...

Anyway, the people moaning should also look at themselves. If you don't sell at prices based around MV, why should anyone else be inclined to return the favour? It does work the other way around, as I myself have experienced on several occassions.

When you sell for prices based around MV, you are far more likely to get the same courtesy from another manager when you negotiate for his player. In time, you will establish a network of managers who are all inclined to do the same, which basically makes transfer dealings easy and pleasant for all involved.

People should keep this in mind, next time they start moaning about how bad the Game World economy is. Chances are they themselves have contributed to its present state with their own actions.

A New Style Of Advertising; Endorsement

After my guerrilla advertising, trying sympathy stories, I am trying a new approach to selling players. Linking players to real-life legends seems to work as well, especially if there's any reality in the link. Everybody likes to own the new Ronaldo, Messi, Pirlo or Villa.

Technically, it's not really an endorsement, but it's close enough and since I can't come up with any better terms for it, this is what I'm calling it for now. Point is, I am pretty confident it will work.

Here's my first attempt at it.

Gentlemen, allow me to introducé you to the new Recoba, Aníbal Morales. The boy has a lot in common with the real Recoba, as his strengths are his dribbling, technique, pace and a strong, accurate left-foot shot. He is a free-kick specialist, and has scored goals of great quality before.

His left foot does not only pack amazing power and precision, it possesses an exquisite touch as well. Beautifully balanced and deceptively fast, he can be a classic winger on the dribble, lethal on the turn inside the box or he can be a gifted play-maker in the centre of the pitch, feeding the forwards superb through balls.

Basically, the boy is a talented and fabulously gifted all-rounder, elegant and tough, who can score with his head and left foot. Aníbal Morales is a talented youth, whose attributes are already on par with those of players three or four years older.

Also take in consideration that his wages are relatively cheap. In a day where top youths go for 10k or more, this talented youth has 4k wages and can be youth locked until he’s 22 when you sign him now. I would also like to point out that he’s in an auction starting at a mere 1 quid, so you may be able to get him cheap.

Now you’re probably wondering, what’s the catch Guido? Why are you selling him if he’s this good? Well, I’ll be frank. My reasons to sell him are two-fold. I have too many players, so I need to sell someone anyway. I also want to fill up a new three-tier stand with seating blocks, so I need the cash. Morales should fetch a handsome price, so get your bids in people.

I'm hoping to fetch 300k for the kid, so let's see what happens here.

Work In Progress; My Own 4-6-0 Part Deux

So far, I have basically set up three different formations, all using the “no striker” idea. The first one is the standard one I see most of the times when my opponent plays a 4-6-0. I have dubbed it the normal or standard version. It looks like this.

A solid back-four, complemented by a sort of pyramid-shaped midfield. The three attacking midfielders are the ones generally causing trouble for the defence, whereas the central midfielder is the one starting most attacks, whilst maintaining the defensive balance of the team.

The more defensive version I have seen features a real defensive midfielder and only one real attacking midfielder. It's a more conservative approach to the whole concept, aimed more at people looking to play a counter-attacking style.

This version offers more defensive stability, as there is less chance of players being caught out of position defensively. On the other hand, it's also a formation which has seen me draw a lot, as the offensive potency is somewhat limited.

Last but not least, there's my favourite formation, the most attacking formation of the whole bunch. This version offers nice matches to watch, whilst also ensuring I actually win most of them because my opponent is clueless how to counter it effectively.

With this version, you sort of have a 4-3-3 formation with wingers, just not with a real striker. The forward either runs onto crosses and through balls or lays the ball off for one of the midfielders to try his luck.

Next up, we're tweaking team instructions...

Work In Progress; My Own 4-6-0

Over the past few months, I have heard quite a few people moaning about the 4-6-0 and this tactic being an exploit of the match engine, since it overcrowds the midfield and uses no real striker. The main reason I have heard is that “using a tactic with no strikers just isn’t realistic as no real life team does this.”

I have read this excellent article on the development of tactics throughout history and the 4-6-0 in particular. Apparently it can be done and is done in real life, most notably by AS Roma two seasons ago, as they fielded Francesco Totti to operate in the hole between attack and defence, with no-one upfront.

Operating as a focal point as for example Didier Drogba was for Chelsea, he held up the ball, drifted, and created space for his team-mates to break into. Roma's 4-1-4-1 formation frequently became 4-1-5-0, a formation with no real striker, which resembles the 4-6-0 idea we encounter in FM Live.

Reading the information I have found, I decided to give this a go myself. After all, it’s all about learning new tricks and the concept sounds pretty solid in theory. As was stated in the article, the history of tactics is the story of the attempt to achieve the greatest balance of attacking fluidity and defensive solidity, which is pretty much what FM and FM Live are all about.

With all of this in mind, I started reading up on what others had achieved working with the 4-6-0. There’s no need to invent everything all over again, especially when others have left well documented settings. Threads I found particularly useful were this one and this one, as they provided me with some settings and tips.

As I started experimenting, I quickly noticed that a system with no forwards places a premium on fast, accurate passing through the midfield, which is fine on a good day. However, there will always be days when the passing fails to click, or when a team is forced on to the back foot and needs an outlet for holding the ball and relieving the pressure.

This is where your AMC becomes important. As general fitness improves, so the demands on attacking midfielders and forwards change, not least because defences cannot be relied upon to lose shape as they become exhausted. The AMC in this formation must be a universalist, a hybrid of the old strike-partnerships. He must be quick and strong, as he has to hold up the ball but he must also be able to chase after a through ball.

Ideally, you’re looking for an AM/FC in FM-terms. Players like Stevan Jovetic, Giuseppe Rossi, Antonio Cassano and Goran Pandev are ideally suited for this role. They are hybrids. A combination of the playmaker and the forward. They have the skill and technique to hold up the ball yet they are also blessed with stamina and the running power to move forward to pounce on loose balls.

From what I’ve seen so far, this formation works well enough. Defenders are having difficulties realizing who to pick up, as the running midfielders seem to catch the defenders off guard quite a bit. I will elaborate on settings and formations later on, as this is all work in progress at the moment.

Fifty Player Squad Restriction Is Unfair

Seriously, I can understand the need to limit the amount of players in a squad, as it will lead to hoarding and people trying to corner the market early on. I have no gripe with the rule as such, as I can fully understand why it was implemented. I do have a problem with the number of fifty players.

As it stands, a player is currently capable to create five squad. This generally means one senior squad and various youth squads or maybe even a reserve squad. Generally, the setup looks like this:

1. Senior Squad
2. Reserve Squad
3. U21 Squad
4. U19 Squad
5. U17 Squad

Given that the minimum size of a healthy squad would be around 16 players, that means you have 80 players running around the club.

I have neglected the fact that players can feature in more than one team though. A very good youth player might feature in more than one youth team and maybe even in the senior team as well.

Still, as you can see it takes considerably more than 50 players to run a team with a full on youth academy effectively. Please SI, can't you raise the limit, so we don't get punished by poor morale and players rejecting their auto extends, whilst they actually do play enough games and have no realistic reason to complain?

Another Quiz

Another Quiz was organised tonight and we had a record number of participants. This was the final score.

1. Abdul Muqsit 17
2. William Hall 11
3. Neill Smith 9
4. Tom Delgado 8
5. Nabz Khan 7
6. Paul Hills, Padraig Doherty 5
7. Bernard Tapie 4
8. Mike DiAmore, Sune Nielsen, Juan Manuel Cobos 2
9. Rafael Affonso, Dan Hyde 1