Does playing in a league with a fewer number of games affect a players development?

[Liam McCance]

Hi Guys,

Not sure if this has been asked before but here it goes:

Let's say I'm playing in the Finnish league or the Gibraltarian leagues which has around 20-something league games compared to the Premiership or Serie A with 38 games. For arguments sake, the leagues reputation are equal and all clubs have equal training and staff etc.


Would this have an effect on player development or are the games weighted equally? So essentially it wouldn't matter in which league you are playing in - as the games in the league in which you play fewer games count "more" towards their development?


Would this ultimately be balanced across the game?


My thoughts fwiw - it would make sense to me that player development would be based on league reputation (or quality of the league) and also training/coaches. Based on league reputation - the total sum of the league games played in a league (or even the number of minutes played) would contribute to a players development as a percentage.


For example -


Premier league club development - potential development for the season is 100% (maximum stat growth based on the players CA/PA) based on the league overall reputation.
If a player played the full season 38/38 games or 22/22 games this would be classed as a percentage - 100% of potential development
Likewise if a player played only half a season 19/38 games or 11/22 games this would be classed as a percentage - 50% of potential development.


Where as a league with a lower reputation receives a lower maximum potential development even if they play all of the games or if there are a fewer number of games.
If a player played the full season 38/38 games or 22/22 games this would be classed as a percentage - 80% of potential development
Likewise if a player played only half a season 19/38 games or 11/22 games this would be classed as a percentage - 40% of potential development.


This would then lead to factoring in the level of facilities, coaching staff and potential injuries.


In conclusion, I would assume given that a league's reputation is equal to another and the level of facilities and coaching staff are equal then the total number of games in a league would not really be factored in.


Thoughts?

 

[RuiBenfica80]

I think so

I have managed both in Portugal and England.

So far I noticed no development issues in Portugal. Players seemed to be able to reach their potential at Benfica....if you played them a lot.

But it can also be that at Benfica they were playing against weaker teams and having better performances.....and that is for sure a multiplier in development.

Tough I think the number of games is also a factor and it must be balanced.

To be honest I think this is kind of silly but is one of the many strange decisions on the game development.

Its like....player development does not depend if he is a first team player or not.
It depends a lot more on his working ethic and on the level of training the team has.
In real life a Man Utd sub can develop faster then a 1st team at Benfica. Even if he would play more games at Benfica.
The problem in real life is that many players don't deal well with being subs and they will not practice so hard if they don't feel they will be used. But this can be addressed with some squad rotation. Its not at all necessary to play a youngster on every single match for him to develop.
Lets be honest here....Messi did not pay every single game on his first season with Barcelona. That still did not stop him from becoming the best. He could understand he was still too young and he could understand it was best for him to work hard as a sub for the 1st team instead of being 1st team somewhere else.
Same thing happened with Cristiano Ronaldo....tough he already played a lot of games on his 1st season with United, but he was not playing all games and that did not stop him either.
Some more actual examples I know best from Portugal. We have Andre Gomes who spent a whole season being a sub at Benfica. He came on the pitch to play a couple important matches and next season he was at Valencia.....and you all know where he is now. But he was not by far a 1st team player at Benfica on his 1st senior team years....and it did not cripple his development.

Sometimes I think game developers are not really interested in football.
Get some programmers who actually love the game!!!!! They will know these things and program something which is close to real life.