Squad Management-the dilemma

Ladies/Gents,

Please bless me with your wisdom. I can't choose the best way to manage my squad and would love some advice.

Lots of my friends have a first 11 and a few good subs. They play the same formations with, perhaps, a couple of variations and have quite a few 1-2 star players in their squad to keep the ave. rating down. They do well, generally speaking, and always do very well in the cup.

I prefer to have (almost) 2 entire teams, with no player less than 5 stars by the 7th day of the season. This allows me to play 2 strong teams every day and play, within reason, any formation within the game. However, I always come up against a much better team in the cup and lose out on the rich spoils this brings.

At level 12, I'm reaching the point where everything is becoming about $$ and sense the cup revenue is going to become crucial.

How do you guys do it?

I generally have the same philosophy as yourself. One thing that has helped me is my youth, they have low salaries and helps my budget. You can also play friendlies as often as possible to get revenue.

The Cup to me is a distant dream. If I make it to round of sixteen, I do a happy dance. Having a good, full team will always get you a tough Cup draw. Some people sell off their players and get FA's to lower their Q average. This is not something I could do, i have trained my guys and really am attached to them. So I just do the best I can with Cup (keep in mind when you have the good team you get into a higher Cup and better prizes too).

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Originally Posted by Cat Harrison

I do a happy dance. .

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I'm in QF now since a lot of time and doing the dancing of the rain... LOL

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Originally Posted by Cat Harrison

The Cup to me is a distant dream. If I make it to round of sixteen, I do a happy dance. Having a good, full team will always get you a tough Cup draw. Some people sell off their players and get FA's to lower their Q average. This is not something I could do, i have trained my guys and really am attached to them. So I just do the best I can with Cup (keep in mind when you have the good team you get into a higher Cup and better prizes too).

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It's a shame, because I had some real joy in the cup in levels 4-8, but haven't had a sniff for a long time. The last team I went out to was 2 or 3 (can't recall which) levels above and had an amazing first team, all world class, but rubbish subs!
Presumably I make more revenue in the first few rounds, therefore nullifying the advantage of being in a lower tier of cup and going 2 extra rounds?

Well, not more, but not nothing, you know? And with a good team you make it far into Champs League, usually. So it's not so bad, budget wise. I still try my best for Cup, by training my players at the beginning of the Season, but I don't put as much priority on it like I used to.. it's too disappointing!

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Originally Posted by Cat Harrison

Well, not more, but not nothing, you know? And with a good team you make it far into Champs League, usually. So it's not so bad, budget wise. I still try my best for Cup, by training my players at the beginning of the Season, but I don't put as much priority on it like I used to.. it's too disappointing!

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I know what you mean. Too much heartache! :) Mind you, I'm a Gillingham fan. Disappointment is our bread and butter.

am at same strategy too, but pushing one team to 5* and one team 4*
I used to have teams full of young scouts (PT) and 5* 2nd team to play at easy matches,.. but in cup i struggled facing 7*-8* teams (guess was seeded among the token sharks being in top 64 of my server) .. it was a massacre
since then i decided to drop my standard to 5* (got bored of PT tbh) + some 4* subs and just have fun, and suddenly am seeded to lower QT teams who are as good as me, and i started to reach more semi and quarter finals
meanwhile i discovered that financially playing at stronger cup give you better money prizes at each round ..ex: my team was better QT than my friend one, when he show me his cup, i noticed for same level his money prizes were really almost half of mine

Perhaps you could incorprorate a bit of both strategies by buying some 3* fasttrainers as sub. I reckon they're not (much) more expensive then a "normal" 5* player. They will get your avg Q down a bit, but it's not like you're wasting T or cash as you'll be able to sell em without losses if you keep and train them for a little while. On average they will perform quite adequately if you use them, while some might turn out to be little gems.

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Originally Posted by russ2000_uk

I know what you mean. Too much heartache! :) Mind you, I'm a Gillingham fan. Disappointment is our bread and butter.

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Won the league last season!

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Originally Posted by July Fourth

Won the league last season!

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Indeed. A rare glimmer of joy! It's normally not that impressive, believe me. :)