1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 _ _ ___ _ _ ___ ____ ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____ ____ _ _ _ ___ ____ |\/| | |_/ | |__/ |__| | |\ | | |\ | | __ | __ | | | | \ |___ | | | | \_ | | \ | | | | \| | | \| |__] |__] |__| | |__/ |___ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ___ ___ ____ _ _ |___ | | |__/ |___ | | | | | |__] |__| | | | |__| | \ | |__| |__| | |__] | | |___ |___ _ _ ____ _ _ ____ ____ ____ ____ |\/| |__| |\ | |__| | __ |___ |__/ | | | | | \| | | |__] |___ | \ ____ ______ / __ \____ | | | | | / / | | | | / / | |__| |/ / \____//_/ _______________________________________________________________________________ Training Guide for Football Manager 2007 (aka Worldwide Soccer Manager) Training in Football Manager 2007 is a important way to improve your team and players. Spending a little time on training, looing for good coaches, and changing from the default training schedules, can help your team, among other things to: * Overcome problem effecting the team such as speed, finishing, passing or any other area. * Improve the value of players brought into the team, but increasing the abilities that are required in their position. An astue manager could easily bring in players cheaply, then sell them after increasing their skills with training. * Develop Youth Player into future superstars, by setting them up to for their future position. * Increase the depth of your team, developing players by increasing the competency in extra positions. All these and more are possibly with astute training setups. Many people are not sure about what does what with regards to training, and I hope this will improve their understanding of this area of football manager. Training Schedule Basics How schedules work, and what they improve: The default schedule, will be what all players are on until moved by the manager. For the most part, these will be an almost equal amount of each training area (ie Tactics, Strength, Goalkeeping etc). Whilst this is okay for those not willing to "micro-manage", it is not efficient. When you set your own schedule, any training area which is being trained more than the default, will improve that area, although the more you set over the default, the more improvement you will see. Of course, specific players and situations (for example age) can change this, making a player less likely to improve, or more likely to improve. Setting a training area below the default, will decrease the training area and can lead to reductions in that area's attribute for a player. Workload - As a result of how much training in each area you set, the "Workload" slider will move from None, to Very Light, Light, Medium, Heavy and Very Heavy. In general, the final notch of Medium is the maximum you should go, unless you are trying to destroy a player who is leaving the club in the future, in which case you should max out the physical training and goalkeeping, whilst retraining him in a position he hates. And sticking him in the under 18's. This slider can be moved itself, and it will adjust all the sliders down or up. Many people advocate a pre-season training, but I personally do not see a need, using the regular training, as long as it has a decent phsyical workload, combined with a few friendlies, should see a player match fit and ready to go. Training Area and Attributes Each training area can improve a players attributes like such: * Strength - Natural Fitness, Stamina, Strength, Work Rate. * Aerobic - Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Jumping, Pace, Reflexes. * Goalkeeping - Aerial Ability, Handling, Kicking, Throwing, One on Ones. * Tactics - Anticipation, Decisions, Positioning, Movement, Teamwork, Command of Area. * Ball Control - Dribbling, First Touch, Technique, Flair, Heading. * Defending - Tackling, Marking, Concentration. * Attacking - Passing, Vision, Creativity. * Shooting - Finishing, Long Shots, Composure. * Set Pieces - Crossing, Corners, Free Kicks, Penalties, Long Throws. My Youth, Full Time and Part Time Schedules Part-Time - This has much less scope for training, as the players are (obviously) not full-time, and probably have pubs to go to, and families to ignore. You should never have an "intensive" training area, as doing so will sacrifice the other areas. You will generally get at most 1 "High" then 1-3 "Medium", and the rest as "Light". Most teams with "Part-Time" players would be in lower league teams, such as Conference in England. Image - http://tinyurl.com/ylvvtj Youth - Youth Training should be geared more towards physical attributes and then their main areas. The Default for Youth is quite varied, and includes a (compared to the other defaults) heavier Strength and Aerobic training. Positions generally have a "prefered" physical area, so you should work to that area. Like part-time, "Intensive" is ruled out, but mainly because you need to concentrate more on Physical training. Image - http://tinyurl.com/yaflf6 Full-Time - Players who are Full Time play for the big guns, such as Grimsby Town and Peterborough. Most schedules will have at least 1 "intensive" and 2-4 "High". "Light" and "None" for the other areas will depend on the position being trained. Image - http://tinyurl.com/yethsb Download All Schedules in FM2007's .tsh format for import into FM2007: http://tinyurl.com/yys5cl Position Overview The goal then is to increase the areas that a player does need for their position, and reduce areas that the player does not use. A basic breakdown of this is: Strikers or Forwards Main Areas: Shooting and Attacking Lesser Areas: Defending, Strength This will improve Finishing and Composure, and other areas increase vision, movement, flair and other attacking skills. It will reduce tackling, marking and other defensive skills. Wingers Main Areas Attacking, Set Pieces, Ball Control, Aerobic Lesser Areas: Defending, Strength This will increase Flair, Dribbling, Crossing, Penalty Taking, Pace and others. It will decrease Strength, Tackling and other defensive skills. Attacking Midfielders Main Areas: Attacking, Control, Shooting Lesser Areas: Defending, Strength This will increase Flair, Dribbling, Technique, Pace, acceleration, and other attacking skills. It will decrease strength and defensive skills. Defensive Midfielders Main Areas: Defending, Tactics, Strength Lesser Areas: Shooting, Attacking. This will improve Stamina, Workrate, Decisions, Tackling, Marking, Teamwork and other defensive skills. It will have a moderate decrease in Shooting, Attacking and Aerobic Attritbues. Wing Backs Main Areas: Aerobic, Defending, Tactics Lesser Areas: Shooting. Wing Backs are quite unique, this training will generally keep a balanced grouping of skills, with an increase in Defensive skills, but still maintaing attacking skills and crossing. Center Back Main Areas: Defending, Strength, Tactics Lesser Areas: Shooting, Attacking This will improve marking, tackling, Stamina, Work Rate, Decisions, Positioning. I will heavily decrease shooting, flair and attacking skills. Goalkeeper Main Areas: Goalkeeping, Aerobic, Tactics, Defending Lesser Areas: Shooting, Attacking - This improves a range of goalkeeping skills both mental and physical. Position Training A player can be trained in a new position (or trained to improve an existing position). Players can be trained in any position barring Goalkeeper. A Striker can be retrained as a Central Defender, and vice versa. They can also be trained to "switch sides" such as a AML becoming an AMR. Ideas for re-training include: * Giving a "one-sided" player like a Left Midfielder the ability to play more positions such as AML or DL.* Training a player who has natural talent for a position but does not play that position (such as finding a wing back with finishing, composure and dribbling, and retraining as a striker or attacking midfielder). Often found in quality youth players. * For extra depth or cover for positions, such as training a AML to be a AMR\AMC, a DC\MC as a DMC, a DL as a DR/DC. Position Training Ranks * Natural - This is the highest rank. It can never be trained. You either have a natural ability or not. Example - Cristiano Ronaldo as an Attacking Midfielder Right Or Left. * Accomplished - The highest you can train a player. They have worked hard and know a great deal about this position, but do not have a natural, instinctive gift for it, perhaps training in this position after their youth, or long-term exposure to playing in these positions. Example - Jamie Carragher as a Left or Right Defender. * Competent - The player has some reasonble experience and training in this area, but would not be a first choice in the position - Example Jonathan de Guzman as a Defensive Midfielder. * Un-convincing - Player has some training and experience in this area, or possibly the position is an opposing side of their main or secondary role. Example Micheal Essien as a Right Defender. * Awkward - Player has some basic training and ability in this position, and could play the position in an emergency. Example - Wayne Rooney as a Goalkeeper. * Ineffectual - Usually only seen in a player who is theoretically capable of playing the position, or has just started training in the area. Improving Position Training Training a player from "nothing" to "accomplished" can take months of work and training. Some ways of helping or understanding the process better include: * Player Age - The older a player is, the longer it will take. Conversely, a young player will often quickly pick up new skills. * Once you have chosen a new position, check their personal page training section to see if they are happy with a new position. If they are unhappy it may be wise to stop re-training. * Position Side - If the new position is on the same side as their usual position, it can help speed the process. Example a AMR training as a DR or WBR. * Similar Role - If the new position is the same role as their usual position, it can help speed the process. Example a DR training as a DL or DC. One final note is that the players ability in a trained position can degrade if they are started on another position, or are not being played in that position. Training and Coaching Coaches are a vital part of training. Using sub-standard coaches can cripple your training, and heavily reduce the the benefit of coaching. Good coaches can be found even for lower league teams, such as in the Conferance and also in "exotic" leagues such as in Africa or Asia. A team will have a "Star Rating" for each training area, and this will be made up the skills of any coaches training this area, from 1 to 5 stars. 0 Stars if there is no coach at all. Of course, the better your training facilites are, the better the overall training will be. Staff Skills and star ratings The following is what a coach will need to give you a "5 star" rating in a training area, note that some areas require coaching ability in more than 1 area above a certain amount, and requires 1 area high, and 2 areas combined above a certain amount ( a "+" denotes equal to or greater): * Strength - Fitness 18+ * Aerobic - Fitness 18+ * Goalkeeping - Coaching Goalkeepers 18+ * Tactics - Tactical 18+ * Defending - Defending 20 and Tactical 10+ or * Defending - Defending 19 and Tactical 14+ or * Defending - Defending 18 and Tactical 18+ * Ball Control - Technical 20 and Mental 10+ or * Ball Control - Technical 19 and Mental 14+ or * Ball Control - Technical 18 and Mental 18+ * Attacking - Attacking 20 and Tactical 10+ or * Attacking - Attacking 19 and Tactical 14+ or * Attacking - Attacking 18 and Tactical 18+ * Shooting - Technical 20 and Attacking 10+ or * Shooting - Technical 19 and Attacking 14+ or * Shooting - Technical 18 and Attacking 18+ * Set Pieces - Tech 20, Ment/Attacking = 30+ Combined (eg 20+10, 15+15) or * Set Pieces - Tech 19, Ment/Attacking = 33+ Combined (eg 20+13, 17+16) or * Set Pieces - Tech 18, Ment/Attacking = 36+ Combined (eg 20+16, 18+18) or * Set Pieces - Tech 17, Ment/Attacking = 39+ Combined (eg 20+19, 20+20) Finally, you can use the "Coaches" option in the Training menu and either "Auto-Assign" all your coaches to training areas, or do it yourself. Generally, the AI will do a resonable job of allocating coaches, but doing it yourself can give you some important gains in star rating as well as workload. Thank you for reading my guide, and possibly downloading my training schedules. I hope they improve your team and help you to victory. Or staving off relgation. At the very least stopping you from getting sacked. _______________________________________________________________________________ Inevitable Copyright section. The various things in here are copyright. I don't really care what you do as long as you don't try to claim them for yourself. I don't care if you put this on another site, just credit me.