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How to get the most out of your ‘Old Boys’ (1/2)

Old Boys. The reliable, Mr.Dependables who may not be figuring in your first team but are fringe players.

Don’t just discard them; use them.

One of the best tips for using old players is in Training.

Personally I arrange my training thus:

General: Any player between 23 and 29 training on Intensive Tactics for the 1st season after which changing to skills or maintaining tactics if I feel they aren’t quite wised up. These players are your regulars and the core of your starting 11 (I normally end up with about 9 or 10 players in here, maximum of 14 in most cases). Any players who you will rotate should be placed in one of the below groups:

Fitness Section: I ignore. Nobody on your team should be worth training Fitness wise unless they are seriously struggling to string games together or have come back from injury and their attributes have taken a massive nosedive.

Shooting: Now I always put everything up to Medium apart from Shooting. Then I put all my SC in here with all the Old Attacking players. People like Teddy Sheringham, Davor Suker and other skilled individuals (I have currently just signed Dean Saunders just for this reason). With them the young kid SC should find it more suitable and enjoy it more and learn faster (Defoe went from 13 finishing to 18 without me playing him in a game in just 3 months) and this is pretty average result for most kids, apart from those with no ability in which case they can be spotted pretty quickly as their stats don’t change at all.

Skills: Again set everything to Medium apart from Skills. In here you want players like Di Canio, Ginola, Merson, Litmanen and other similar Flair players like that. With them you stick all your AM kids and any ML/MC/MR players who you think need to improve their general ability and technique. Remember though, skills doesn't just mean flair. It also represents all the skills a defender may have. So if you place Defensive Old Players in here, the kids will learn their skills much faster instead though I prefer to have defenders in Tactics anyway.

Tactics: Now I set all these to Medium again. Apart from Shooting, which I leave at Low, and Tactics/Skills which I raise to Intensive. In here I place my old guys. Players like Stuart Pearce and Nigel Winterburn, Tony Adams and Martin Keown. Also Players like Gary McAllister and John Moncur who may not be out and out defensive characters, but they aren't attacking players either and are pretty useful in protecting your back line. Then again you shove all your kids in with them. Players who are basically required to be more methodical and less skilful. Players who you aren’t asking to take shots very often and don’t have to be skilful on the ball. DM's, DML, MC's whatever you think is appropriate because obviously not all MC's are attack minded.

Goalies: I waz up their Skills, Tactics and Fitness to Medium but keep Shooting at Non-existent. This means that they aren’t just improving their basic keeping skills, but also their general physical abilities plus various skills. Which although not particularly important I don’t see how it can hurt and my keepers have never complained and have always ended up amongst the best in the world.

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