A beginner guide on squad, fund and T management

[HeavensAAA]

First thing first. There are so many different formations and individual preferences that could vary on your choice of players, but there are some basics that new managers should take note before putting all the starting 80 tokens down the drain. For beginners, this is just a guide, not rules. Most of these are learned through some painful experience and ‘I-would-not-bid-that-much-if-I-could-think-a-while-more-but-that-is-what-auction-does-to-people’.

Experienced manager should know all these after a few seasons.

Manager level 1

Suppose you are going to start a new season in the coming Sunday GMT 2.30am or later.

1) Money is a huge concern. Good AML/ST/AMR are more relevant in scoring goals to win games, hence trophies. A good bench is a luxury. You need 1-2 FTs for start of next season.
Dos:
a) Starting 19yo 80%+ player. If he’s a ST/AML/AMR/MC, keep. If not, sell for funds (expensive in T to buy any of those 4 at 80%+)
b) All other 18-21yo player of under 60%. If he’s a GK/DL/DC/DR/DMC, keep; if not, sell for funds (too weak for attackers/midfielders under 70% to win games)
c) Rough rate of seasonal growth in value gain of 18-21yo is 70%+ net; for 22-24yo is 50%+ net. So you need a good mix and balance of 75%+ quality players of 18-21yo & 22-24yo to fill the remaining positions, on top of the 1-2 FTs that you want to bring forward to season 2 (75%- players are way cheaper in T than 80% players, and still can do the job)
d) Now you will feel you need a little bit more money - squeeze them out by selling the unneeded 22yo+ players for those 100k+ (under 100k and 60%- in quality may be worth more to keep for training)
e) Watch all 13 daily ads each @ 10k (2 ads for team bonus - refer to other thread for details)
f) Slowly and gradually buy your first-11 @3-4T or less ideally, then after all first-11 bought, start buying 2/3 position 25-27yo 40%+ quality players @50k and 1T each or less to fill up reserves. They are there to max your manager training level
g) By end of season ideally by 2.30pm AMT, sell up all players, except the 1-2 FTs & all your 13-14+ 25yo+ training reserves (You need 14 players for the draw for next season; some players may take up to 12 hours to be sold by system, though most within 4 hours; keep a 40%+ GK and you need that at start of season 3)
h) Don’t forget to exhaust by training all your players to around 5-10% conditions before refresh for new season. Those experience is a lot for level 1-4
i) Make sure you hire all the free youths available - they will slightly affect your draw, but are very valuable in being sold for funds for your team
j) To get a favourable easier draw for next season, the key is to keep a lower AVQ of the top 14 players, which is usually consisted of 6-9 core players we bring forward to next season, with the rest filled by 1* players ideally. There are no 1* players available in auctions or elsewhere, and we will get them by keeping the low 3* players and have them reduced by 1* per season by getting promotion (by SuperDunk & Sillybq)
k) Keep bench trainers quality as low as possible by adding an SA or another position. This will impede quality gains and help them achieve negative quality a lot faster if manipulating draw. Do not do this for young bench players as you will sell them and can benefit from their increase in value (by Sillybq) - The aim is to lower the top 14 AVQ, and maximise value gain for players to be sold by end of season
l) Avoid training SA and additional positions at levels 1 and 2 as training level is low. Exceptions to be made for a young 18 year old FT that you will keep for many seasons. But it’s really ok to not have an SA. It has very little effect (by Sillybq)
m) Training for new managers has lower efficiency because of the drills not being maxed yet. Do try to upgrade the first drill of all category to pro level asap to enhance training results (by SuperDunk)

Don’ts:
a) Buy any 25yo+ players, especially those of 80%+. They will cost a lot of T for minimal gain in value, which is hard to afford before season 4 at least
b) Overbid to win any player - there are always the next one who cost less and within our preferred budget
c) Buy any recommended or scout players, as it will blow your whole budget onto a player you will keep, and you will not gain much value for players for next season


Manager level 2

Hopefully been through a steep learning curve, won the double (with the little but precious money prize) and know what not to buy at what price.

The bad news is next season you will be competing with all managers in the same server for FTs. The good news is you should have saved up 20m+, so should have enough to buy 2-3 FTs to bring to season 3. Ideally, they would be at least 2-positions+SA 18yo 90%+

Guide for FT max value:
https://forum.topeleven.com/tutorial...ainers-18.html

Dos:
a) You can possibly afford a good bench of 3-4 18-24yo players of multi-positions around 75%+ who can cover all your positions. You need them to play some games to save greens, to sub first-11 when struggling to win, and also to play as starters in Cup/CL semi 2nd leg to avoid first-11 being suspended for finals (Yes, they are THAT important, so make sure they are at least 80%+ by season end finals [can grow by 15%+ for 18-21yo from start of season to finals])
b) With the FTs, better think ahead of how you want to build that 4-5 FTplayers into season 3 - AML/ST/AMR + MC and/or DC could be solid and save Ts in long run (multi-position FT will surely be better as they can vary your tactical variation without benching your best players)
c) Screen the CL & Cup draw to spot if there are any strong active players. Having weak opponents mean you could spend on younger 18-21yo players with lower quality instead of 22-24yo higher quality
d) look around for a gold 1-2 association to join at the start of season 3 (need to be invited by association). Extra T and packs will help a lot
e) Buying an assistant manager recommended player of age 18/19 with sponsor paying the full transfer fee could be considered if the player is too good to turn down (eg. DMC/MC with playmaker SA, AML(R)/AMC/ST with shadow striker SA, etc) plus you have accumulated enough greens to power-train him, and also you expect to save up enough T for next season’s team-building

Donts:
a) Buy further players when squad is complete. Funds are needed to upgrade the stadium and facilities (if maxing according to schedule, significant income would be felt by season 5). Only possible exception may be a multi-position FT 90%+ available in mid-season at a few T that could save Ts next season


Manager level 3

By now, it is likely you are experienced in all these. The only good difference is you now have a lot more money to play with, assuming that you have won most, if not all, trophies, while the bad thing is you would find all 80%+ players in auctions in the first 3 days are going at crazy T cost. Your 4-5 FTs plus the 12+ 10%+ reserves should get you through the first Cup round.

And welcome to the real TE world (hopefully you have been following your budget tight and can build a competitive team sooner)!

[SuperDunk]

You forgot to add draw manipulation, and by that if you have 5-6 good players for the next season plus the 2-3* players it means you will face easier opposition thus not needing 6* team every season.
At least for my new account at lvl 2 i only kept 1 good player and sold the rest at lvl 1, level 2 draw has been amazing, my final in cup is against 78% opposition, and in CL 79%, while i am 89%
I also have to add i m not active on that account.


this is my 2nd team if anyone is interested.
Also have to note that i took over my club in the last week of lvl 1 and i haven t been farming money or rests, just occasionaly.

[HeavensAAA]

You forgot to add draw manipulation, and by that if you have 5-6 good players for the next season plus the 2-3* players it means you will face easier opposition thus not needing 6* team every season.
At least for my new account at lvl 2 i only kept 1 good player and sold the rest at lvl 1, level 2 draw has been amazing, my final in cup is against 78% opposition, and in CL 79%, while i am 89%
I also have to add i m not active on that account.


this is my 2nd team if anyone is interested.
Also have to note that i took over my club in the last week of lvl 1 and i haven t been farming money or rests, just occasionaly.

@SuperDunk Yes, good point there. You are correct about the draw manipulation which I haven’t mentioned in specific, though it has already been done in season 1 when buying the 10+ 40%+ players for training level increase. Those 10+ players of around 25-27yo (if younger then too expensive to afford in season 1; if older then they would have retired sooner and cost us more T to replace) will serve both the purpose of training and draw manipulation.

That 10T for 10 players could be very efficient and well spent despite sounding a lot.

[SuperDunk]

@SuperDunk Yes, good point there. You are correct about the draw manipulation which I haven’t mentioned in specific, though it has already been done in season 1 when buying the 10+ 40%+ players for training level increase. Those 10+ players of around 25-27yo (if younger then too expensive to afford in season 1; if older then they would have retired sooner and cost us more T to replace) will serve both the purpose of training and draw manipulation.

That 10T for 10 players could be very efficient and well spent despite sounding a lot.

What you didn t said is use a core of 3-4 max 6 players each season.If you have a full first 11 and then couple of 40% rating they don t matter at all actually.Keep only players under 20y old, or players that are already 100%+ rating but older, but don t keep many at once.
I ve also spent around 40-50T for this season, which is quite a lot if you do the maths, but since i don t farm greens and have many FT i can t afford to maintain a lot of youngsters.
Right now i am at around 80T mark again. Every season budget for the 2nd account is max 50T for new signings.

[HeavensAAA]

What you didn t said is use a core of 3-4 max 6 players each season.If you have a full first 11 and then couple of 40% rating they don t matter at all actually.Keep only players under 20y old, or players that are already 100%+ rating but older, but don t keep many at once.
I ve also spent around 40-50T for this season, which is quite a lot if you do the maths, but since i don t farm greens and have many FT i can t afford to maintain a lot of youngsters.
Right now i am at around 80T mark again. Every season budget for the 2nd account is max 50T for new signings.

Surely you are right there. I mentioned that in g) in season 1 on that all players except FT and 40% players should be sold for money. As SuperDunk said, there should be a core of players you will look to bring forward to the following season. The number of core players should be no more than 9, with the rest of 5 or more to be completed by reserve players for draw manipulation. Typically most players we bring forward would be at least 100%+ (Not expensive to buy back if under 80% next season).

Personally I would bring only those of 110%+ over as any player of 90%+ will cost 15T or more easily, and that really is up to individual manager’s preference. From experience, bringing core of 9 of 110%+ (about 2x 140%+, 4x 125%+ and 3x 110%+) will draw teams of around 75%-80% max, so should be easily handled by the core players plus some new players from auctions.

I also used to bring only 6-7 players before last season, but found that while the draw would be even easier (from 80% down to 55%-60%), it will cost more T to replenish those 2-3 first-11 to competitive 90%+ level when drawn with active good players who also strength a lot.
Eg. Proper 90%+ FT costing 30T to be used until 24yo (30/7T per season) vs 7-8T for a 90%- each season. You could see the average T cost is halved and also save our pressure in getting another 2 first-11 in the frantic first few days in auction.

By doing this, each season I gain at least 160T (100 from association, 40+ from logins and. 20+ and possibly more from boxes and events). 7 bench @ 5T each (35), 2 very good 90%+ first 11 @ 15T each (30) plus a new FT every season (30), I could still save up 65T+ net each season. Hopefully you find your way to save more T as well.

Yes, the draw is a little bit harder, but still very manageable when we have a good 9-core-player team that should win it all.

[SuperDunk]

Don t forget that training players at lower levels is a pain in the a**.
I m barely at lvl 26 at the lvl 2 account and there is a significant difference between my 1st account and the 2nd in terms of quality gained per drills.

[HeavensAAA]

Yes, those training level increase will be gained by those 40% reserve players even before we have completed buying the full squad in the new season.

What I did is upgrade the first skills in attack, defence and physical&mental to pro level first. The increase will not be as good as a higher level account, but only some 10%-15% less in level 2 onwards.

And 1 side-note on selling players. When selling players to system, the default value is 99% of face value of the player. There is a random chance of getting an extra value in 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 100%. The younger the player, the higher chance of triggering the higher % in extras. Bought an 18yo for 2.5m in season 2 with 1T (That was an impulse buy as it was just 1T but not fit for the team) and decided to sell after 1 day, and sold at 5m. That extra helped a lot then, so maybe new managers would take age into consideration when they are buying players to play in the season and also want them sold by end of season.

[Sillybq]

Looks good. A few points to add on which i realised a little late.

1) Keep bench trainers quality as low as possible by adding an SA or another position. This will impede quality gains and help them achieve negative quality alot faster if manipulating. Do not do this for young bench players as you will sell them and can benefit from their increase in value.

2) I would avoid training SA and additional positions at levels 1 and 2 as training level is low. Exceptions to be made for a young 18 year old FT that you will keep for many seasons. But it’s really ok to not have an SA. It has very little effect.

[HeavensAAA]

Thanks a lot for SuperDunk and Sillybq for their great insight and inputs, and added their points within as well.