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Have we managed to avoid relegation?

By
donatello167
– December 17, 2012Posted in: Team

Connected to my previous post – we had a serious away matches problem. 5 games, 0 points, 2 meager goals scored.  Pathetic. You can’t hope for a decent placing with being a donor like that.

This week we had a relegation derby vs. last placed team FC Zalog. And we needed a result. At least a point. I would sign it straightaway. It would mean that we would keep them on a two point distance and with results going our way it might just be enough. But how dou you hope for a point when all you showings so far were appaling?

The proper answer is – take inspiration in EURO 2004. We all know now that Greeks played with reinforced concrete defence (if concrete would be of such strength no bridges would ever collapse) and squeaked out series of 1-0 wins. Which ultimately brought them the most improbable title. So I have placed a 5-3-2 formation with all possible players pulled back (only 3 CDs and keeper played normal), with pressing and PIC (morale was already at furious because of home MOTS games). Still, HO showed about 30% draw possibility and 70% narrow loss chances. Ah well. That was the best chance anyway.

First attack of the match brought us a 1-0 lead! Great! FC Zalog isn’t exactly known by their superscoring abilities, from 10 goals for on their account 3 came against us in 4th round and 3 were fired in next round at home ground. I had a reason to believe it might be a good chance to get a point, I expected them to score 1 goal tops. If our defense would only hold… (insert a few nailbiting smilies here)

And it did! We did not have any more chances and they wasted their three, so we even got a win! Crucial one, as this places us in a really great situation. As 7th team, Veliki vrh also lost it’s home game, we remained on 6th spot but with 3 points clear of the 7th place, three games remaining.

We play two of those three at home, where we won three and drew two, so I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to calculate 3 points from those, which would bring our tally to 17 points. Especially as we play against a team that has not managed a single point away from home in next round (we have to watch against “our” surprise scenario). The best part is that both teams that are chasing us play against each other in round 13.Both of them play two games out and both play a game out against top team. Veliki vrh has an extremely tough opponent at home – NK Brsnikmico – they drew 4 out of 5 and allowed only 2 goals away due to extremely closed tactics. I just don’t see any of my competition getting over 15 points which would mean even a draw from last the matches is enough for so desired 6th spot…

No wonder some fans are still dizzy from weekend’s ravagings and cedlebrations… We might just managed to avoid relegation. I would be delighted if anyone offered that at the beginning of the season.

2

Fourth league

By
donatello167
– December 9, 2012Posted in: Team

From my last post many things have changed in HT. I have agreed to help our National Team (NT), so I was a bit more busy than I expected. I wanted to learn a few new things so that my writing here would not be a blabber but some real useful thing for another managers reading my blogs.

I was decided to play in 5th league for quite some time more – I had a few youngsters that could develop into something useful plus I wanted to collect a lot of money before going on promotion. But then I hit a bot in qualification. Drat and double drat. Of course I duly won and was promoted to 4th league. Which is on 16th place out of 64. Oh boy. :(

Things went really bad in first five rounds. I managed two draws at home and lost all three away matches without even scoring. I was pretty displeased because I thought that although I am not prepared for 4th league, my team didn’t seem that bad. Inbetween I have acquired one active NT player and I felt I could at least compete decently with lesser teams in the league. So I decided I will step up my game.

A few new tactical ideas helped and I won my next three home matches. But the league situation is extremely tricky so I might need 17 points or more to enter qualifications for relegation. And my away form still hasn’t produced points so I will need to get another good idea about that. I certainly need some away points in order to survive.

We will see how I’ll be able to transform this into reality. Next away match on Saturday is crucial – I’m playing against relegation rival. A win there (still in clouds how to achieve it) would probably mean 6th place is reached.

3

Prices over last three years

By
donatello167
– August 12, 2012Posted in: Transfers

I have noticed a severe discrepancy over offered prices for trainees lately and the amount of money you can actually earn for selling a top prospect or a great player. This brought me about thinking, whether it still pays out to train players to earn money and under which circumstances.

For my example I have taken the Italian league, which is in top 3 according to number of active users and has a lot of transfers, which then reflect a reasonable value, even if a few players are sold as bargains or at overhyped prices.

You would see that in last three years prices have fallen from approx.:

  • 60 to 35 €/TSI for group of 32,000 to 64,000 TSI,
  • 100 to 50 €/TSI for group of 16,000 to 32,000 TSI,
  • 140 to 60 €/TSI for group of 8,000 to 16,000 TSI,
  • 170 to 70 €/TSI for group of 4,000 to 8,000 TSI,
  • 150 to 60 €/TSI for group of 2,000 to 4,000 TSI.

Since it is not very easy to find an offer (at least in the mean playing times – weekends) for under 120 €/TSI for a trainee of 18 years I wonder, where does profitability lies. I want to sell a trainee for profit. But at the moment I can take a trainee with 18 years and TSI 4,000, that is on market for 500,000 to 600,000 € and I can expect a return of meager 400,000 in 2 playing years, when I will sell him for about 1,000,000 with TSI of about 18,000 to 20,000.

Differences between groups are smaller in terms of percentage (in 2009, drop from 140 to 100 €/TSI from 9,000 to 18,000 TSI player meant a difference of 29%, whereas from 60 to 50 €/TSI now means only 20%), but all other costs remain the same (salaries, stadium costs etc.), meaning you earn comparatively less with sales. No wonder ticket prices went up.

I’m asking (if anyone has made that) – do you have a calculation that could be demonstrated for how much longer one needs to train people to get the same return in cash in nowadays price structure than compared to three or four years ago? Roughly estimated I would say that you need now about twice the amount of trainees than in 2009.

If someone can dispute this claim, please, otherwise I’ll have to pull up the sleeves and do some maths, I’m afraid… Haven’t done that for long so please save me. :)

donatello167

3

Burden of a favourite

By
donatello167
– July 19, 2012Posted in: Team management

Long time no see. Sorry, real life was exhausting lately. As my little daughter is progressing well you can imagine what kind of joys I was busy with lately. :)

After five rounds played I have found out a very interesting thing in my league standings. Because we won the league three rounds before end last term my fans of course demand to win the league again. Although we sold a few players and we do not boast the best TSI total in league, I think due to the development stage of my main competitor Benedikt we should justify the role of the title pretenders.

And just as sometimes the “best” team falters inexplicably under pressure I gaze with a bit of disbelief into the league table. We are second, unbeaten with a solid W3 D2 L0 GF 25 GA10 PT 11 score after five rounds. Yet the favourite numer 3 has 5 wins out of 5 with a 26-1 goal difference and we are playing on Saturday on his home soil. So let’s do a bit of thinking.

If I win, I should not bother at all. I’ll reduce deficit to a single point and when in round 10 I am the host I kick his butt and never mind what happens inbetween. I will draw a bit more games, but he won’t win them all too. Case closed, fans are happy and drunk to oblivion.

If I draw (not a bad result, because opponent isn’t bad) we stay 4 points apart. In case I win at home (I am fairly convinced I will, I have enough class for it) I still need his slip in one or two matches to wrestle in front. But that is achievable, if draw is the outcome I rate my chance to 70% to win the league.

What if I lose? I can lose, no one is unbeatable. But then – the difference rises to whopping 7 points. If I beat him at home I still need two more draws from him and I can’t lose a point anymore. Suddenly I am pressed with my back against the wall full time. In such occasions people tend to make mistakes since they want to force the score and the result would be not even top 2 finish for me but… No, that is not an option. I do not want to think about it at all.

Pretty grim situation if I lose on Saturday, eh? Very interesting 90 minutes awaits us. Our players better understand the twist I tweaked into my Saturday tactics or I’m doomed…

It is very easy to go to zero from hero. I hope I won’t experience it myself.

donatello167

4

Multiskilled players

By
donatello167
– June 7, 2012Posted in: Uncategorized

I have promised that article to my dear friend Horus70 (btw, congratulations on the promotion!) so I feel obliged to fulfill my promise.

These players are of course a real blessing, provided that they don’t have injury problems (get a few medics and physios in the team if they do!). I try to train all of their virtues in a certain way.

Just for an example – let’s imagine we have an excellent young winger with solid playmaking and solid scoring, plus passable passing (wet dreams much? do those exist?). As his primary skill is wing, I will let him play there and since I predominantly train playmaking, his skill in this field will certainly raise to higher levels, so far even that it might surpass his primary wing skill.

But if I will encounter such a player, for at least 2 weeks in the season I will train his primary skill too and also I will train his passing skill (short passes in this case).This will enable him to advance slowly in his primary skill (which might not be of the paramount importance to my team as whole but is needed for decent play) and also his passing skill will advance, meaning that my team will play better and more harmonius, which will mean I will win close encounter with greater probability. Plus when my main players in his secondary and tertiary field get injured, he will be able to deputise for them. Very important thing – if such player has good leadership skills, he will play a lot of matches and be very experienced, which is good if you will want to convert him into a trainer.

We all would like to have such players, wouldn’t we?

donatello167

0

New season

By
donatello167
– June 7, 2012Posted in: General

A lot of real life work has prevented me to visit HT United, let alone write some things. I barely managed to fix the team, but now I might be having a few more minutes for the blog.

We have won the league and botched the promotion as planned. I would have gone into a league that is in top third of IVth leagues in Slovenia and would get my butt kicked big time. Except for my fans (which are upset big time) all the others are happy. But – if we will win two or three matches comfortably, the fans will be throwing their scarves in the air from joy again.

The goal for the next season from board, from players and from fans is clear – we must win the league. We are the favourites and to be honest we must win the league again, everything else would be considered a failure, not that we have no good teams in the league but our quality and potential at the time is superior. We have a few decent youngsters in the midfield that could evolve into great players for sale after this season so although I have set myself a goal of advancing past 5th round of Cup I don’t think I will pursue that goal with utmost zeal, because I will persist with youngsters setup in Cup matches and rather evolve them further in friendlies, when I fly out of the Cup. Buildup will be the motto of the season this time.

Sleeves up and make it happen! :)

donatello167

0

Flag chasing

By
donatello167
– May 18, 2012Posted in: HT community

Many of you might see that I have my flags presented on the page. I’m a flag chaser since I always play friendlies for flags, when I fall out of the cup.

For me this is just fine, as it does not really matter, what team you play in the friendly, it is important that you play your trainees to develop them. But the flag chasing has become an issue since HT mods found a lot of cheaters in less developed countries which had a significant impact on the flag chasers.

There is a very good tutorial for flag chasing in the World / News section of HT which explains what flag chasers are doing. I read it and was pleasantly surprised to see that I did many things like it says quite instinctively. There was one thing I would never support though and in last days I read that quite a lot of “chasers” are doing it, supporting the frauds.

People are actually giving away supporters for a friendly from an exotic country. Play me and you get Supporter for a month. You can play with bonus features while I get my flag. Well, I’m against this Chelsea or Man City style of flag chasing – buy ‘em all. I am sending friendly invites and if people accept it – fine. So far they did and I have some 5 more seasons of friendlies to collect over 128 flags (which is half of 256, that can be collected). And if there will be no teams that want to play me for fun and free, I will not collect further flags. But I’m not going to pay for it. I can give away Supporter to my friend for a birthday present, I can give it to a stranger if he convinces me that it would help him a lot for whatever reason, but not for a friendly match. Period. I rather don’thave that flag than to offer a “bribe” to get it.

Hope other people realize it too, then flag chasing will become fun and clean thing again. Otherwise it will still happen as it did in Mongolia – there are only 11 users left and all of their Premier league teams turned into bots. Sad but true.

donatello167

3

EURO 2012…

By
donatello167
– May 18, 2012Posted in: Non HT related

… is approaching fast. And I am asking my dear readers – who in your opinion is going to be the champion?

I am England fan but unfortunately I can’t see them winning the trophy. Spain won’t make it 3 in a row, Italians are at the moment putting the new, young team together, France is still haunted by Domenech at least a bit, Dutch don’t have the necessary luck to push all the way…

As much as it pisses me off (because I really don’t like the Elf) I’m afraid it will be the Germans. That is my prediction and I hope it will be a wrong one.

Who do you count on and why?

donatello167

3

Youth Team star

By
donatello167
– May 13, 2012Posted in: Team

I’m very excited about one particular youngster in my team, named Darko Verovnik. His HT number is 112914440.

Tomorrow it will be his 18th birthday and he has following skills:

defending solid (max. excellent),

playmaking passable (max. solid),

scoring passable (max. unknown).

At the time he is playing as defender to boost his skill to excellent and usually gets 7,5 to 8 stars, so he really seems to be top prospect. Darko should really have an excellent TSI and great versatility so this might be the cornerstone of my team for the future, maybe even U-20 player. This would be great as I never had a talent like him. My star player Rajko Kušar was also product of home academy but was only excelling in playmaking, but Darko is great in three skills out of four – he can’t be deployed on wing only since his max. in this skill is poor.

Wish I’d be as lucky with the youhsters more often. :)

donatello167

0

NK Melje – Valdoltra FC

By
donatello167
– May 12, 2012Posted in: Matches

Game 12 of Season 32

NK Melje 3 – 1 Valdoltra FC

Poor wretched sods, that would be the most appropriate description of the particular match.

We played our “regular” 3-5-2 formation, attack in the middle. I have put in to play relaxed though and left no big players outside, to be honest. Our opponents took 4-4-2 formation with counter attacks (predictable, they play this formation often) and since they needed the points, they might have MOTSed.

I’m not bothered by the fact I lost. I would have to lose one game in order not to get promoted but the result in Hatstats was quite devastating and that is the reason I’m pretty annoyed with the performance. 174! Our opponents managed “only” 192 and they beat us comprehensively and all the credits for them to do so. It has shown me just further that our team is miles away to compete adequately in 4th division so the decision not to get promoted was justified by all means.

The other disturbing fact in the loss was the performance of the two trainee midfielders, which posted rating of 3 stars in the game. Which is not good and a sign that I have to work a lot with them and to raise them to a 20,000 TSI level ASAP for the next season. Otherwise I will have trouble winning the league, which will be the goal for sure.

This one has not been a darling of mine and thank God it has no major influence on the season otherwise I would want to kick my butt a lot for such an inadequate result.

donatello167

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