Winger training

Winger training

Going Dutch Winger training is the fastest, the most multiskill dependant and skilltrading-suitable form of training. I will not comment any further on skilltrading, since my focus will be on multiskill training and team improvement, as always. I have not yet trained wingers myself, since the number of training spots didn't fit too well with my temper. I have often been tempted to train the sort of players that I spend fortunes buying, though. I see winger training as a transition training, as a way to create 4-5 multiskill players and then switch training type. My basis is the classic winger training (crossing), where you train four players at 100% in the winger positions, and four players at 50% on the back positions. Which players need winger skill? Wingbacks, wingers and forwards, obviously. But when it comes to wingers, there are several different types; the midfield oriented winger (with playmaking as secondary skill, aka. WTM: Winger Torwards Middle), the attack oriented winger (focus on passing as secondary), and "the perfect winger", which would be a combination of the two. The most desirable, but also the most expensive, winger, is a wingers with both playmaking and passing as secondary skills. Wingbacks Backs with winger skill is a fantastic asset to any team. A wingback played with the individual order "normal" (that is, neither offensive nor defensive), contributes with almost the same amount of defending as a defensive wingback. In other words, there is only a very small defensive gain by playing a wingback defensively, which is why we aim to design our wingbacks to play as either offensive or normal. The primary skill is still defending, but the demand for winger, playmaking and passing skill must be considered carefully. Passing is only a tactical factor (mainly AoW), which means not insignificant, but often too expensive compared to the actual relevance. Ball possession, aka. the amount of playmaking skill, is always decisive for your chances and your choice of tactics. Hence, we must not underestimate the playmaking contribution from wingbacks at 15-20%, when playing with normal or offensive orders. I'm a fan of the counter tactics myself, but that doesn't mean I consider passing more valuable than playmaking on wingbacks, on the contrary. I recommend playmaking as the, transfer-wise, very expensive third skill, which makes passing a matter of adoption. If you're left thinking everything has become a little too theoretical, here's my more specific suggestions: Defending skill recommendations: * VI and lower: Magnificent - World class * V-III: World class - Supernatural * II-I: Supernatural - Titanic Please note, that these are my personal recommendations for creating a economically viable and balanced team. The secondary skills (playmaking and passing) must be considered with respect to your financial situation, and with regards to winger skill and training strategy. I see Head and Powerful as the only worthwhile specialty options. Wingers I base my winger recommendations on the assumption, that the overall training strategy includes a couple of decent wingbacks. Winger, playmaking, passing and defending are the skills which come into play for our wingers. But I'll state straight away, that defending will be the lowest priority, even though I'd like to promote this very underestimated winger skill. A winger played towards middle (or normal) yields a quite decent defense contribution. But let us forget that for now, since the vast majority of us doesn't have infinite resources, and the price of a trainee with potential in all four skills will be astronomical. Our first focus will be playmaking, for several reasons: * Midfield is the basis for all lineups * Good tactical options, especially long-term * Always train players, who will improve your team from Day 1, and continute to add value The type of winger which we seek to train already has a sort of main skill in playmaking. This means, that they will be expensive to buy, but they can also help your team from Day 1, and still increase their value (as well as increase their "output value" on your own team). That alone is a great argument for training them. However, the tactical options are clearly the main force. As described above, we have a wingback behind our wingers, and this wingback has a significant level of winger skill (or rather: he will eventually), so we can let the winger have a decisive influence on how we play our wingback, and vice versa. Example: You have a winger with brilliant playmaking and play an opponent, where you can win midfield if this winger plays towards middle. But, at the same time you want a good side attack, so you play your wingback as offensive. The tactical options that the winger/wingback combinations produce, are unsurpassed. I recommend training 3 wingers in the total training programme. As a starting point, I think that (at least) one of them should be as good a playmaker as your best midfielders, because this will enable him to act as midfielder/substitute in the league match, while training as winger in the midweek match. But all 3 wingers must have decent playmaking skills - this will give you great rotational options with regards to training, form and tactics. Passing is a somewhat underestimated skill for wingers, but at the same time it is also a very expensive skill. Winger and playmaking are the most important skills, but you should buy a trainee with a little passing potential too. Also, because passing would be an obvious choice for your next training strategy, lateron. Playmaking skill recommendations: * VI and lower: Magnificent - World class (we're looking upwards!) * V and higher: World class - Supernatural (up, up and away!) With regards to specialties, I would rank them as follows: 1: Quick 2: Head 3: Unpredictable (w/ passing) Forwards There are three types of forward orders, which correspond with three types of forwards: normal, defensive and towards-wing, where we shall focus on the last two. Forwards-towards-wing are good at boosting your side attack without losing the entire central attack; a very handy tactical tool. I consider scoring the main skill for this type of player, because at club level, you will be forced to use the player as a normal forward in many matches. But apart from that, passing is very important. Most calculations indicate that 2.5 to 3 levels of passing corresponds to 1 level of scoring for a normal forward, which means that high attack ratings will require high salaries... unless the players have passing. Scoring skill recommendations: * VI and lower: Magnificent - World class (again, we're looking upwards. All VIth level teams should have a plan for their way to Vth) * V-III: World class - Supernatural (with passing!) * II-I: Supernatural - Titanic (passing rocks!) Winger skill is very dependant of your training programme. If you want to train your forwards 100% in winger skill, I would recommend a relatively high starting level. This may appear illogical, but let me explain: You train your forward 100%, which in my opinion means you aim to create a superb forward-towards-wing, ie. a forward with about the same level of scoring and winger skill. This will take time, so a high starting level is necessary. However, if you want to train your forward mostly 50% (ie. play him as wingback in midweek matches, like I would), you can start with a relatively low level of winger skill. This is cheaper to buy, and the increase in value via the quick skillups at low levels will be quite good. Moreover, the side attack contribution from a normal playing forward's winger skill is often underestimated. Specialties: 1: Quick 2: Head 3: Unpredictable (w/ passing) Lots of plans and few training slots? Yes! Winger training requires careful planning and prioritizing several player type options. Even though I have promoted the tactical possibilities with winger training, the flexibility actually isn't great - especially, if you aim for glory in both League and Cup matches. The type of winger training outlined here demands peridocally training your wingbacks 100%. Therefore you should aim to give them winger spots as much as possible in the beginning of their training course, and then perhaps a little less as time progresses. It gets complicated to plan. I won't recommend playing your backs both as wingbacks and wingers in the same week, since this would be a waste of the already limited training slots. As I see it, the wingbacks should play as wingers in all matches where they won't alter the outcome (certain wins/losses). I believe that the forward-towards-wing is the least important player of the three types described here, which means that they should primarily play as wingbacks in the midweek matches. This is my personal preference, though, and there's bound to be a lot of managers who disagree. Training setup summary * 3 playmaking wingers: They can rotate between midfield and winger (and wingback, keep reading), which means rotate between 100% and 50% training. The weakest winger may possibly be sold during the winger training progress, or in the end when you switch to another training form. * 2 wingbacks: Basically, it's hard to train wingbacks 100%. It demands sacrifices, and I recommend that in any "given" match (which will be won or lost, regardless), wingbacks play as wingers. One should also consider playing the 3rd best winger as wingback in some matches. This will make it possible to adjust the training, since wingbacks demand a significant amount of 100% trainings (ie. playing as wingers). This cannot be stressed enough. * 2 forwards: Train them as wingbacks in midweek matches. Tactics Here, we assume that we only play one important match per week, or that we're nearing the end of our winger training programme (which would mean that we have developed the players we set out to create). The most obvious formations are 3-5-2 and 4-5-1. These are formations, where we can focus on midfield and side attack. 3-5-2 can be used both with a broad attack, as well as wing attack only. The main focus in 3-5-2 is winning midfield - this is quite ordinary, but the close observer is aware that the settings for our 3-5-2 are not ordinary. 4-5-1 typically yields two options; counter attacks or midfield dominance with AoW (Attack on Wings). Counter attacking will often focus on wing attacks, since it is difficult to achieve enough central attack with just 1 forward, but whenever possible, do spread out your attack. Our 4-5-1 counter attack will hopefully still focus on midfield, since we aim to lose ball possession as little as possible, while taking a couple of goal chances from the opponent. 4-5-1 can also be a very good formation for attacking on the wings, with midfield dominance. Apart from the good side attack and midfield options, it also opens up the possibility for a very strong defence. All in all a very underestimated lineup - it is even useful as your "PPP"-lineup ("PiC, Press, Pray"). 4-4-2 and 5-4-1: Obvious formations for counter or pressing, but I don't consider these two suitable for our training. To achieve full traiing, 4-4-2 must be played with 2 wingers, which means throwing away extra midfield - and that's rarely beneficial. 5-4-1 requires at least 3 central defenders (ready to play, in form, ban- & injury-free at the same time), on top of the midfield dilemma. 5-3-2: Can be used as last resort counter formation - close your eyes and pray. It will probably turn out bad. 3-4-3: Not exactly your typical winger training formation - not many winger trainers have 3 good forwards hanging around. Only considering two formations as suitable for our winger training may appear simple, but again: These two formations can be combined with almost any tactical option, you can wish for. The fact that we have a good counter formation, combined with several midfield dominance options, will prove decisive for most matches. The main problem is the eventual predictability of the side attack based counter tactics. The challenge here is to adjust your lineups in advance, to avoid playing the obvious counter matches. 4-4-2 may be an option, but I would hardly ever compromise the training outcome. Number crunching Side attack contribution: _____________Winger__Wback_______IM_______FTW__ Offensive_____100______ _62_________NA________NA___ Normal________85________52_________NA________18,5___ Defensive_____74________32__________NA________12,5___ TM___________57________32__________NA________NA__ TW____________________NA_________55_________50____ Explanation: According to this table, a wingback contributes with 62% winger skill to his side attack, when playing offensive. That's a lot. A midfielder (IM) played towards wing contributes with a handsome 55% to the side attack, but he will lose midfield contribution. Training times More to come. Skilltrading Maybe more to come. If you have comments, criticism or compliments, you're welcome to mail me in Hattrick, or send me an e-mail.

onsdag den 08. apr 2009