MixaM talking, and other members of the community
Freekick focuses on matches, tactics and transfers. I didn't like the way Hattrick (HT) had so much focus on things that had nothing to do with what happened on the field. In Freekick (FK), there is no "ideal" tactic that will work every week - you need to look at and maximize your strengths and exploit your opponent's weaknesses to win.
Transfers are a bit different - you see the average bid, not the highest bid, so I would recommend studying transfers in FK to try and determine what you should/shouldn't pay for certain players. Try bidding 1.5 the average price to start. You can search for Recently Sold players by doing a transfer search to understand values of players, and can even look at bid histories.
Perhaps the most important thing about FK is realising that players need to be strong in multiple skills to be useful, especially midfielders. For example, a striker with Scoring 90, Offensive Positioning 20 and Ball Control 20 will be almost useless in FK, because they will never be in an Offensive Position to actually shoot in comparison to the defenders Defensive Positioning. Study the FK manual and read the table for the skills needed for each position, it will be very good to know.
The way potential skills work in FK is a bit different than HT. Look for young players with high potentials in complementary skills - they could be future stars. Also, note that players can be trained above their potentials, but at a much slower rate. For starters, look for good (50-59) 15-16 year olds in the main skills.
In FK you CAN win games against better teams by choosing the right tactics. The game does not simply depend (in HT, the midfield has a much greater influence) on your midfield. You don't always win a game by just having good passers. Your midfielders need to be good at doing everything in the middle of the pitch.
Every newbie should (from the start of their career) always take the time to read the match report. Assume that information in match reports are relevant in FK instead of the opposite for HT. In FK, you always know WHY you've won or lost a match. You just have to read the match report. In HT, there is at least one game per season after which I had no idea why I won/lost from reading the match report.
Unlike in HT, spending a lot of money on youth is not a necessity. It is one way to play the game, but not the only one. You can be very successful manager by spending your money improving your team from the transfer list as well. This is a huge difference between HT and FK. If you are a new manager, you should consider waiting a while before investing big amounts of money in the Little League.
If you do choose to train youths and pour money into them, don't sell every good draft you get! It's not a good way of getting money, it probably won't cover what you put into the youth squad every week, and you are letting go of good future players. Economy is not the focus of the game, money only represents what players you could get for it.
Of course, if you have a great player that just doesn't fit in to your team, like if you only ever play passing and draft a Forward with great AE (Aerial) but can't use him, then by all means sell him. But do not make selling Little League drafts your strategy to make money. If you want money and don't need young players, just stop investing. It's far easier and far more cost-efficient.
As a former HT manager, you should remember that:
- Constitution is important for all positions. Players need about 40 to finish a match without getting tired, 31 for youth players.
- All players get trained. They do not need to play in a match that week. The position that they played does not affect training.
- You do not need to hire a Coach
- Senior players train faster then youngsters, not the other way around
- You can train two skills at a time, and not necessarily the same thing for the entire team.
- No home and away games and no home team advantage. Attendance money is split between the two clubs playing.
- No weather forecasts
- Different rating system for players
- No random goalscorers. Forwards will score frequently.
- Player aging: (1.6 yrs/season) and the fact they do not all age at the same time. Players have unique birth dates.
- Players in FK have a stamina/constitution (CO) level
- Players low in constitution should (generally) not be used
- HT tactics or strategies will not work in FK
- Substitutions and tactics are changeable whenever you want in FK
- One-skilled (or mono-skilled) players are totally useless in FK
- Understand that every (outfield) player uses every skill he has at some point
- Midfielders do some of the defending and should be your must well-rounded players
- Don't trust your Assistant Coach to set the team's tactics or select players. Learn what to do and do it yourself (even if you set it badly, you learn from it)
- Experimentation is the key to knowledge. Schedule friendlies and learn from them.
- Friendlies have no effect on your players. They start the game as if they had full stamina, and after the game they return to whatever level of stamina they had. No injuries in friendlies. Don't use friendlies thinking you will get experience or extra training for youngsters (wrong), just use them to experiment with tactics and to have some fun.
-In FK, transfers are different, you see only the average bid. Expect to pay about double, but that is a guess.
-In FK, not all of your players have the potential to become a superstar. Look at the talent and current ratings for each player.
-In FK, there is no "best" tactical scheme. In HT, most teams play a 352 formation; all other teams use different schemes because they want to "train" defense, attack...you have flexibility in FK and are not locked in because of the training.
-In FK, Little League investment depends of all other clubs in the world, which is represented by the Key Value. In HT, it is static and limited.
-In FK, every skill is important for outfielders and goalkeepers. Some more than others...
The FK interface takes awhile to come to grips with, but once you get the hang of it it is nice to use.
To join a new forum:
Settings > Forum > Choose a forum to join:
(If you do not see your country listed, join the forum named "Mixed")
It is hard to get a grip on this game when you are a newbie, but please realise that it is worth it! Freekick has the superior match engine and the biggest plus: It resembles real football a lot more than Hattrick. We here at Freekick call it T.O.G. or that other game...
November 25, 2009
November 24, 2009
How to Train Passing
written by aussie
This post is for the people who can't understand that passing (PA) is less important for midfielders than offensive positioning (OP) and ball control (BC).
Of course, yes, a midfielder needs to be able to pass. To do this, he needs to get free (with his OP) or win the reception (with his BC). If a midfielder can't do one of those two things, then his PA becomes worthless.
Therefore, OP and BC are trained before PA, because without them there is no point training PA, because he will not get a chance to use it.
Therefore, because OP and BC are trained before PA (and in preference to it), OP and BC are more important than PA.
Even though PA contributes to the zone, BC and OP also contribute to the zone. Therefore there is no advantage to train PA for that reason. PA also contributes to the zone where the player is passing to, but again to do this he must win the reception and have enough OP or BC to do so.
Therefore PA is a luxury skill, and can only be trained to a high level (superb or higher) once all other offensive and defensive skills are maximised. Turn the "MF Skills" option On (located on the left of the screen) and slowly train passing so that it is not capping (noted with the asterisk *) the other skills. The point is that you need the minimum PA while training other skills.
PA has lots of uses at the high levels of football. Do not forget that to dominate the midfield zone (and earn more opportunities), the passing rating of all of your midfielders are added and compared to the other team. However, there is no point training passing to a high number unless you have already trained OP/BC because you won't get to use it. Therefore OP and BC are more important than PA because the match engine checks for the player's OP and BC first before PA.
This post is for the people who can't understand that passing (PA) is less important for midfielders than offensive positioning (OP) and ball control (BC).
Of course, yes, a midfielder needs to be able to pass. To do this, he needs to get free (with his OP) or win the reception (with his BC). If a midfielder can't do one of those two things, then his PA becomes worthless.
Therefore, OP and BC are trained before PA, because without them there is no point training PA, because he will not get a chance to use it.
Therefore, because OP and BC are trained before PA (and in preference to it), OP and BC are more important than PA.
Even though PA contributes to the zone, BC and OP also contribute to the zone. Therefore there is no advantage to train PA for that reason. PA also contributes to the zone where the player is passing to, but again to do this he must win the reception and have enough OP or BC to do so.
Therefore PA is a luxury skill, and can only be trained to a high level (superb or higher) once all other offensive and defensive skills are maximised. Turn the "MF Skills" option On (located on the left of the screen) and slowly train passing so that it is not capping (noted with the asterisk *) the other skills. The point is that you need the minimum PA while training other skills.
PA has lots of uses at the high levels of football. Do not forget that to dominate the midfield zone (and earn more opportunities), the passing rating of all of your midfielders are added and compared to the other team. However, there is no point training passing to a high number unless you have already trained OP/BC because you won't get to use it. Therefore OP and BC are more important than PA because the match engine checks for the player's OP and BC first before PA.
Tactics to Create More Opportunities
written by Markov
Question: How does a team create Opportunities?
Have as much PA (Passing) as possible in the midfield. Playing with 5 midfielders will obviously give your team a bonus. If you have one or two flank backs/wingbacks with higher PA than any of your midfielders, you can set your team tactic to Flexible and get a bonus from those players at the back instead of your midfielders.
If one or more of your midfielders have higher BC than PA, you can set your team tactic to Creative. This way, BC is used instead of PA for calculating the number of opportunities (only if BC is higher than PA, that is). Furthermore, wingbacks (important: I am talking about RWB LWB, not to be confused with flankbacks LB RB) may create their "own" opportunities if they have high enough (decent/40 and higher) CO. Their opportunity will be breaking free with a dribble or receiving a pass in midfield. They will not start an opportunity by passing. For this reason, some managers prefer high BC at the expense of low PA on their flankbacks/wingbacks.
Forwards/strikers very low PA, often will lose the ball if they receive it in midfield. If your attackers are very bad at receiving the ball in midfield and your opponent's midfielders have very nice defensive skills, consider setting your team tactic to Long Ball. The forwards/strikers will not drop back to midfield, instead they will stay up and wait to receive the ball in the penalty box. You may not get as many attacks, but at least two of them won't be totally lost by having a forward not knowing what he is doing with the ball in midfield.
catacombrocks talking
If you have enough defensive skills on your midfielders and wingbacks, another trick is to set your team tactic to Opportunistic (counter-attacks) efficiently. If Flexible and Creative won't give you extra attacks, and Long Ball doesn't seem useful, and you think you can stop opponent in midfield, playing with 2 wingers and Opportunistic will dramatically increase your counter-attack chances. As you may expect, some of your opponents failed attacks become your opportunities. Also, a keeper with high Control, or defenders with some passing will help increase counter-attacks if your opponent passes your midfield, and if you win a clear defensive margin.
Midfield domination
The PA skill of the 4 highest PA midfielders from every team is compared. The team with the highest average PA for his midfielders will achieve Midfield Domination. By getting the Midfield Domination, that team will get up to 4 extra opportunities.
Notes:
- Only midfielders will get the ball in midfield from these extra opportunities.
- Every 5 points more in average will give a team one extra opportunity. Fractions of this will mean chances to get the opportunities.
- The midfield domination is calculated every minute, being based on the real PA skill of the midfielders, and is affected by stamina loss.
- If one team uses only 3 midfielders, then the midfielder with the lowest amount of PA will get his PA multiplied by 2 for calculating the midfield domination.
- When using the Flexible tactic, and with a 4-4-2 formation, you can sneak in a LB/RB/LWB/RWB who has extremely high passing but is more of a defensive midfielder. You can field your four midfielders with sup, sup, sup, good passing and then put on a sup passing flankback and have the good passing midfielder contribute with some other very high skill such as exc offensive positioning, exc ball control or tackling.
Question: How does a team create Opportunities?
Have as much PA (Passing) as possible in the midfield. Playing with 5 midfielders will obviously give your team a bonus. If you have one or two flank backs/wingbacks with higher PA than any of your midfielders, you can set your team tactic to Flexible and get a bonus from those players at the back instead of your midfielders.
If one or more of your midfielders have higher BC than PA, you can set your team tactic to Creative. This way, BC is used instead of PA for calculating the number of opportunities (only if BC is higher than PA, that is). Furthermore, wingbacks (important: I am talking about RWB LWB, not to be confused with flankbacks LB RB) may create their "own" opportunities if they have high enough (decent/40 and higher) CO. Their opportunity will be breaking free with a dribble or receiving a pass in midfield. They will not start an opportunity by passing. For this reason, some managers prefer high BC at the expense of low PA on their flankbacks/wingbacks.
Forwards/strikers very low PA, often will lose the ball if they receive it in midfield. If your attackers are very bad at receiving the ball in midfield and your opponent's midfielders have very nice defensive skills, consider setting your team tactic to Long Ball. The forwards/strikers will not drop back to midfield, instead they will stay up and wait to receive the ball in the penalty box. You may not get as many attacks, but at least two of them won't be totally lost by having a forward not knowing what he is doing with the ball in midfield.
catacombrocks talking
If you have enough defensive skills on your midfielders and wingbacks, another trick is to set your team tactic to Opportunistic (counter-attacks) efficiently. If Flexible and Creative won't give you extra attacks, and Long Ball doesn't seem useful, and you think you can stop opponent in midfield, playing with 2 wingers and Opportunistic will dramatically increase your counter-attack chances. As you may expect, some of your opponents failed attacks become your opportunities. Also, a keeper with high Control, or defenders with some passing will help increase counter-attacks if your opponent passes your midfield, and if you win a clear defensive margin.
Midfield domination
The PA skill of the 4 highest PA midfielders from every team is compared. The team with the highest average PA for his midfielders will achieve Midfield Domination. By getting the Midfield Domination, that team will get up to 4 extra opportunities.
Notes:
- Only midfielders will get the ball in midfield from these extra opportunities.
- Every 5 points more in average will give a team one extra opportunity. Fractions of this will mean chances to get the opportunities.
- The midfield domination is calculated every minute, being based on the real PA skill of the midfielders, and is affected by stamina loss.
- If one team uses only 3 midfielders, then the midfielder with the lowest amount of PA will get his PA multiplied by 2 for calculating the midfield domination.
- When using the Flexible tactic, and with a 4-4-2 formation, you can sneak in a LB/RB/LWB/RWB who has extremely high passing but is more of a defensive midfielder. You can field your four midfielders with sup, sup, sup, good passing and then put on a sup passing flankback and have the good passing midfielder contribute with some other very high skill such as exc offensive positioning, exc ball control or tackling.
November 23, 2009
Building a Squad
written by Butlee
Building a Squad
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Finding your base level
2.3 New players A Maintain
2.4 New players B Step Up
2.5 Topping Out
2.6 Consider your Competition (Jagger)
2.1 Introduction
Building a squad is basically about how and why you add players to your squad. It is about finding your weaknesses and strengths and just aiming so that you have all the tools available to you when creating a strategy.
This is really my area of expertise. I spend a lot of time looking at my players, ensuring that I have adequate coverage for all my positions, formations, tactics and strategies and even a few for my theories. All that for short term and long term as well. The idea behind this chapter is how to build your squad up from scratch, to be an elite squad. Keep in mind that building the squad is only half the battle, the other important factor is strategy and winning games!
2.2 Finding your base level
Before you can begin to build you need a foundation, that's pretty simple. Finding that foundation is a bit harder. I think the trick here is to be really pessimistic about your side, and totally undervalue your squad for now. What am I talking about? Well in this stage you basically have to come away with a the ability to say (for example) The worst possible striker I would use right now is dec SC, good OP and weak BC. You need to be able to do that for all positions, and you need to be able to look at a player at a glance, and decide if he's worth another look to be around the level of your squad.
This stage is basically a decision making stage. You look at all your prospects in a certain position and then pick a mid-range guy from there and take that as your base level. It's not an exact guide, but the trick is to pick a level that you never want to be worse then, that is why you need to pick a realistic base level.
Let's do this with an example:
You have to pick a level you're happy to play with. So say you pick a defender in your squad that is dec in CO and good TA and good DP. You decide that that is your base level and from now on you don't settle for anything less. If you've only got one of these, there's nothing saying you can't buy an older guy, like 30 plus years, to support the one you already have.
All in all, this 2.2 Section probably doesn't make sense, but it's usefulness will become apparent in the other sections.
2.3 New Players A - Maintain
To put it differently, the Maintain stage could be called "The Art of Not Getting Worse". Once you have a base level, it is important that you at least stay at that level.
So let's look at the type of player you're thinking of to maintain your level:
This player will be used to maintain the step you are on. He's mostly to replace guys who can no longer maintain your step (due to age and skill deterioration). This player doesn't want to be too young, as by the time he is ready to maintain, he may actually be a step back.
In the defenders example, you would want a 'maintain' option to cover for any guys over 30 years old. So you probably want to buy a guy 25+ years with dec TA dec DP and dec CO, with potential to go to good TA and good DP. That way, in one season from now, when the 30 yr old's skills drop below good/good, you have a 26-27yr old to maintain the good/good level you want.
But if you bought a 22yr old as a "maintain" player, by the time he is 27 it's been 2-3 seasons, and over that time you want to move forward, so you don't really want to be relying on dec/good/good defenders now.
2.4 New Players B - Step up
Step up in my opinion is the best and smartest way to get a better squad. The overall idea is that you look at your squad at any given time, and when all positions are maintained, then you pick where you wish to step up, and start looking for players accordingly.
Let's have a look at what you'd look for in a player set to "step up" :
The idea is to buy a younger player that you can train, that will be better then your current players. These guys can vary in ages, but your general idea is that the younger the player, the better he needs to be potentially, as you will assume your team is getting better.
So once you have a good/good CB, and a maintain CB to replace your old guy(s), you pick a step. Do you want to try and get some AE on your CB's? In which case, maybe your next step is getting dec/dec/good/good AE>DP. Or, maybe you're finding attackers get free too much, or there's a lot of OP in your division? You could make this step dec CO, good TA and exc DP. Or are you promoting fast? You may want to go higher.
Say you take a bit of a large step up, and you want your backline to be dec AE, dec CO, good TA, exc DP. So now you do a bit of rough math and figure out what current skills a guy needs to be able to reach that. I'd say 1 denomination per season for 2 different skills (roughly, I think it's a pretty conservative estimate also!). So two seasons is 3.2 player years, so maybe I'm going to look for a 22-24yr old with weak AE, dec CO, dec TA and good DP. That gives me heaps of time to train him up if he has the potentials I need.
Further to this stepping up process, you don't just plan to cover 1 era. Your next step after dec/dec/good/exc might be dec/good/exc/exc - you decide that you need to make some tackles better, and you feel you can gain an advantage from more CO then your opponent. So now you do some numbers again. Maybe I can find a 17yr old with weak TA, weak DP, but already dec CO and weak AE? Mostly now though, we're looking for potentials that are good/good TA/DP that will rise to exc/exc and the potential to have the CO needed.
Just keep in mind that there's nothing wrong with a maintain style player. And there's definitely nothing wrong with simply maintaining your current level long term in a certain position or area of the field. Don't step up too fast either. Remember, the idea is never to have to step back, so if you push too hard stepping up, you're basically ignoring the principles of the idea : to avoid stepping back ever!
2.5 Topping Out
I just wanted to put a few little comments here too. It is possible to top out in 2 ways. The first is financially. If you can't afford to buy the step up players then you've topped out for your level of playing. Generally there's only 1 think I can offer here: be patient. You've bought the players that will eventually give you the strongest possible team with that "budget", so eventually that's going to start paying off… focus on those +25 years maintaining players without breaking the bank.
The other part to topping out is simply availability. This really is only a factor when you hit the "high rollers" market. For example, my modest side runs CB's that look like exc/dec/bril/bril or dec/exc/bril/bril, and that's my maintain level. I can hover with different levels of CO, or go sup/awe in TA/DP, but I can't really step up from where I'm at because the step up players just aren't available for purchase…….well they do say every man has his price, but in my case it brings me back to the financial "top out" position : the maintain players I can afford, the extra step (ie, up to world class players) is out of my financial reach at this time.
So availability and finances/budget are the two ways to top out in terms of building your squad.
2.6 Consider your Competition
You should also look at your competition for the week (opposition) and other teams in the league. Pick a mid-level and top opponent within your division. Look at the skill levels of their goalkeepers, defenders, midfield and forwards. You could also look at the Achievers (Stats) section of the league. This will give you a base level objective of reasonable skills needed to compete within the division.
Personally, I would recommend building a team beginning with goalkeeping, then defensive backs, then midfield, then offense. Goalkeepers are expensive but the most important position on the team, in my opinion. Good defending backs and defending midfielders will make a newbie team competitive quicker and at less expense than the glamour forwards.
Building a Squad
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Finding your base level
2.3 New players A Maintain
2.4 New players B Step Up
2.5 Topping Out
2.6 Consider your Competition (Jagger)
2.1 Introduction
Building a squad is basically about how and why you add players to your squad. It is about finding your weaknesses and strengths and just aiming so that you have all the tools available to you when creating a strategy.
This is really my area of expertise. I spend a lot of time looking at my players, ensuring that I have adequate coverage for all my positions, formations, tactics and strategies and even a few for my theories. All that for short term and long term as well. The idea behind this chapter is how to build your squad up from scratch, to be an elite squad. Keep in mind that building the squad is only half the battle, the other important factor is strategy and winning games!
2.2 Finding your base level
Before you can begin to build you need a foundation, that's pretty simple. Finding that foundation is a bit harder. I think the trick here is to be really pessimistic about your side, and totally undervalue your squad for now. What am I talking about? Well in this stage you basically have to come away with a the ability to say (for example) The worst possible striker I would use right now is dec SC, good OP and weak BC. You need to be able to do that for all positions, and you need to be able to look at a player at a glance, and decide if he's worth another look to be around the level of your squad.
This stage is basically a decision making stage. You look at all your prospects in a certain position and then pick a mid-range guy from there and take that as your base level. It's not an exact guide, but the trick is to pick a level that you never want to be worse then, that is why you need to pick a realistic base level.
Let's do this with an example:
You have to pick a level you're happy to play with. So say you pick a defender in your squad that is dec in CO and good TA and good DP. You decide that that is your base level and from now on you don't settle for anything less. If you've only got one of these, there's nothing saying you can't buy an older guy, like 30 plus years, to support the one you already have.
All in all, this 2.2 Section probably doesn't make sense, but it's usefulness will become apparent in the other sections.
2.3 New Players A - Maintain
To put it differently, the Maintain stage could be called "The Art of Not Getting Worse". Once you have a base level, it is important that you at least stay at that level.
So let's look at the type of player you're thinking of to maintain your level:
This player will be used to maintain the step you are on. He's mostly to replace guys who can no longer maintain your step (due to age and skill deterioration). This player doesn't want to be too young, as by the time he is ready to maintain, he may actually be a step back.
In the defenders example, you would want a 'maintain' option to cover for any guys over 30 years old. So you probably want to buy a guy 25+ years with dec TA dec DP and dec CO, with potential to go to good TA and good DP. That way, in one season from now, when the 30 yr old's skills drop below good/good, you have a 26-27yr old to maintain the good/good level you want.
But if you bought a 22yr old as a "maintain" player, by the time he is 27 it's been 2-3 seasons, and over that time you want to move forward, so you don't really want to be relying on dec/good/good defenders now.
2.4 New Players B - Step up
Step up in my opinion is the best and smartest way to get a better squad. The overall idea is that you look at your squad at any given time, and when all positions are maintained, then you pick where you wish to step up, and start looking for players accordingly.
Let's have a look at what you'd look for in a player set to "step up" :
The idea is to buy a younger player that you can train, that will be better then your current players. These guys can vary in ages, but your general idea is that the younger the player, the better he needs to be potentially, as you will assume your team is getting better.
So once you have a good/good CB, and a maintain CB to replace your old guy(s), you pick a step. Do you want to try and get some AE on your CB's? In which case, maybe your next step is getting dec/dec/good/good AE>DP. Or, maybe you're finding attackers get free too much, or there's a lot of OP in your division? You could make this step dec CO, good TA and exc DP. Or are you promoting fast? You may want to go higher.
Say you take a bit of a large step up, and you want your backline to be dec AE, dec CO, good TA, exc DP. So now you do a bit of rough math and figure out what current skills a guy needs to be able to reach that. I'd say 1 denomination per season for 2 different skills (roughly, I think it's a pretty conservative estimate also!). So two seasons is 3.2 player years, so maybe I'm going to look for a 22-24yr old with weak AE, dec CO, dec TA and good DP. That gives me heaps of time to train him up if he has the potentials I need.
Further to this stepping up process, you don't just plan to cover 1 era. Your next step after dec/dec/good/exc might be dec/good/exc/exc - you decide that you need to make some tackles better, and you feel you can gain an advantage from more CO then your opponent. So now you do some numbers again. Maybe I can find a 17yr old with weak TA, weak DP, but already dec CO and weak AE? Mostly now though, we're looking for potentials that are good/good TA/DP that will rise to exc/exc and the potential to have the CO needed.
Just keep in mind that there's nothing wrong with a maintain style player. And there's definitely nothing wrong with simply maintaining your current level long term in a certain position or area of the field. Don't step up too fast either. Remember, the idea is never to have to step back, so if you push too hard stepping up, you're basically ignoring the principles of the idea : to avoid stepping back ever!
2.5 Topping Out
I just wanted to put a few little comments here too. It is possible to top out in 2 ways. The first is financially. If you can't afford to buy the step up players then you've topped out for your level of playing. Generally there's only 1 think I can offer here: be patient. You've bought the players that will eventually give you the strongest possible team with that "budget", so eventually that's going to start paying off… focus on those +25 years maintaining players without breaking the bank.
The other part to topping out is simply availability. This really is only a factor when you hit the "high rollers" market. For example, my modest side runs CB's that look like exc/dec/bril/bril or dec/exc/bril/bril, and that's my maintain level. I can hover with different levels of CO, or go sup/awe in TA/DP, but I can't really step up from where I'm at because the step up players just aren't available for purchase…….well they do say every man has his price, but in my case it brings me back to the financial "top out" position : the maintain players I can afford, the extra step (ie, up to world class players) is out of my financial reach at this time.
So availability and finances/budget are the two ways to top out in terms of building your squad.
2.6 Consider your Competition
You should also look at your competition for the week (opposition) and other teams in the league. Pick a mid-level and top opponent within your division. Look at the skill levels of their goalkeepers, defenders, midfield and forwards. You could also look at the Achievers (Stats) section of the league. This will give you a base level objective of reasonable skills needed to compete within the division.
Personally, I would recommend building a team beginning with goalkeeping, then defensive backs, then midfield, then offense. Goalkeepers are expensive but the most important position on the team, in my opinion. Good defending backs and defending midfielders will make a newbie team competitive quicker and at less expense than the glamour forwards.
Guide to Special Abilities
written by Butlee
Ambidextrous - Always active, Off foot penalty is 5 or 10% to PA of players playing on the opposite side to their preferred foot. No zone effect. Except for flank backs since they are the only ones who contribute to a zone with PA.
Anticipator - Triggers when a pass is made to that player. Seems to offer 10-15 pts of OP. No zone effect as far as I know. It can be triggered also when the player is the active defender and he will get a bonus to his DP.
Artistic - Triggers when the player does an action. The theory is that it raises flair, which in turn effects attendance. No zone effect.
Aviator - Triggers when receiving high passes. No zone effect as far as I know. Do not know numbers.
Fair Player - Always in effect. Potential chance to "foul less" (or not at all?) and avoid yellow and red cards.
Handsome - Always in effect. Theory is that the more minutes on the field, the more this ability raises your flair. Theory is that it will stack. Perhaps higher attendance?
Long Shot - DOES NOT MAKE YOUR LONGSHOTS BETTER. Allows your player to get free to achieve a longshot (the player must be set to longshot on long choice). I hesistantly say it is a triggered ability. No zone effects.
Master of Set Pieces - This one I know a bit better. Triggered ability. Is +15 PA to a corner kick taker. Potentially used for set pieces next season. No zone influence. Half of the potential bonus is added to the PA skill of the player when deciding who takes the corner (ie, if my LM has 50 PA, and my CM has 55 PA, 7.5 is added to my LM's PA, so my LM will be chosen to take the corner. This does not garauntee that the SA will trigger (at 65PA total) or not (at 50PA).
Playmaker - Triggered ability. Bonus to PA while passing. As far as I know no zone effect. I hazard a guess that this is +10 or +15 to PA or to a pass when triggered.
Quick - Triggered ability. Seems to be an OP/DP boost whenever their is a lose ball or an opportunity start. No zone effect. Unsure of the bonus amount.
Reliable - Always active. I believe this to be just like an Experience boost. Make players perform nearer their actual skills - chance of over and underperforming is reduced.
Steadfast - Always active. + 15 to CO. No other zone effect (though the higher CO *may* effect the zone if it pushes CO above 50.... this is not confirmed).
Stopper - Triggered ability (seems to trigger often). When a challenge is made it is a boost to TA. No zone effect as far as I know. I do not know the numbers for it.
Sure Feet/Hands - Triggered effect. Boost to BC or CT. No zone effect. Not sure of the bonus, but it doesn't seem that large. I would guess +5 or +10.
Tough - Potentially used to prevent injuries.
=================
Explanation of the Special Abilities taken straight from the Freekick manual:
Ambidextrous - Always active, Off foot penalty is 5 or 10% to PA of players playing on the opposite side to their preferred foot. No zone effect. Except for flank backs since they are the only ones who contribute to a zone with PA.
Anticipator - Triggers when a pass is made to that player. Seems to offer 10-15 pts of OP. No zone effect as far as I know. It can be triggered also when the player is the active defender and he will get a bonus to his DP.
Artistic - Triggers when the player does an action. The theory is that it raises flair, which in turn effects attendance. No zone effect.
Aviator - Triggers when receiving high passes. No zone effect as far as I know. Do not know numbers.
Fair Player - Always in effect. Potential chance to "foul less" (or not at all?) and avoid yellow and red cards.
Handsome - Always in effect. Theory is that the more minutes on the field, the more this ability raises your flair. Theory is that it will stack. Perhaps higher attendance?
Long Shot - DOES NOT MAKE YOUR LONGSHOTS BETTER. Allows your player to get free to achieve a longshot (the player must be set to longshot on long choice). I hesistantly say it is a triggered ability. No zone effects.
Master of Set Pieces - This one I know a bit better. Triggered ability. Is +15 PA to a corner kick taker. Potentially used for set pieces next season. No zone influence. Half of the potential bonus is added to the PA skill of the player when deciding who takes the corner (ie, if my LM has 50 PA, and my CM has 55 PA, 7.5 is added to my LM's PA, so my LM will be chosen to take the corner. This does not garauntee that the SA will trigger (at 65PA total) or not (at 50PA).
Playmaker - Triggered ability. Bonus to PA while passing. As far as I know no zone effect. I hazard a guess that this is +10 or +15 to PA or to a pass when triggered.
Quick - Triggered ability. Seems to be an OP/DP boost whenever their is a lose ball or an opportunity start. No zone effect. Unsure of the bonus amount.
Reliable - Always active. I believe this to be just like an Experience boost. Make players perform nearer their actual skills - chance of over and underperforming is reduced.
Steadfast - Always active. + 15 to CO. No other zone effect (though the higher CO *may* effect the zone if it pushes CO above 50.... this is not confirmed).
Stopper - Triggered ability (seems to trigger often). When a challenge is made it is a boost to TA. No zone effect as far as I know. I do not know the numbers for it.
Sure Feet/Hands - Triggered effect. Boost to BC or CT. No zone effect. Not sure of the bonus, but it doesn't seem that large. I would guess +5 or +10.
Tough - Potentially used to prevent injuries.
=================
Explanation of the Special Abilities taken straight from the Freekick manual:
Ambidextrous
A player who is Ambidextrous is equally good at both feet. This means that he can play at any side without penalty and that he contributes more with Passing and Ball Control when playing in a centre position.
Anticipator
Anticipator
This ability is a complement to the Positioning skills. The player has an innate ability to often judge what team mates and opponents intend to do. Both outfielders and goalkeepers can have this ability.
Artistic
Artistic
An Artistic player does fun things, and sometimes spectacular (meaning they are actually good for something). There are no drawbacks with having an artistic player in your team, but the advantage is more that he is entertaining than that he is better than other players. Both outfielders and goalkeepers can have this ability.
Aviator
Aviator
This ability is a complement to the Aerial skill for outfielders or when goalkeepers intercept high balls. The player might be freakishly tall or have a great timing in his jumps.
Fair Player
Fair Player
This player never draws a foul since he plays fair.
Handsome
Handsome
Women adore him, why a squad with handsome players get more attendance.
Long Shot
Long Shot
A player with this ability rarely misses goal when firing long shots and also is more skilled at finding opportunities to unleash them.
Master of Set Pieces
Master of Set Pieces
A player with an uncanning ability to execute set pieces. This player quite often surpasses himself when taking free kicks, corners and penalties. If a goalkeeper has this ability it means that he often overperform during these situations.
Playmaker
Playmaker
This ability is a complement to the Passing skill. This might be because the player has an eye for when and who to pass, or because the accuracy of his passes is better.
Quick
Quick
A quick player might run past opponents when dribbling, creating opportunities for his team. He is also more likely to be first to get to rebounds. Both outfielders and goalkeepers can have this ability.
Reliable
Reliable
A reliable player acts above his experience, why he is less likely to underperform or make foolish mistakes. Both outfielders and goalkeepers can have this ability.
Steadfast
Steadfast
This is a complement to the Constitution skill. It is always in effect, but only affects the part of the skill that deals with losing stamina during matches.
Stopper
Stopper
This ability is a complement to the Tackling skill. It can both apply to tackles and blocks.
Sure Feet/Hands
Sure Feet/Hands
This ability is a complement to the Ball Control skill for outfielders when it comes to receptions and controlling the ball after dribbles. It complements the Control skill for keepers.
Tough
Tough
This player never gets injured. Although this ability does not add to the prowess of the player in any way, it will help him to be able to play all matches. Both outfielders and goalkeepers can have this ability.
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