Massive squads

[BuzzLIte]

Im Man Utd 2nd season and my first team has 31 players. I want to sign 8 more players in January on frees and 2 more in the Summer in addition to any really good bargains that might come my way.

I would probably put all the players not good enough in my reserve squad, but is there a problem with having a team this big? Would I be in a bad bad financial situation, would morale drop, would players not develop as well as they could...

I know I don't need them, but I hate missing out on good players. After all the transfers, I'd probably have 11 wingers just to give you an idea.

 

[Quasit]

Sign only players that are asset to the first team OR promising youngsters. Take a lesson from SAF transfer policy it's quite effective.

 

[paetoja]

i usually have 23 players and loan the rest out, try to create a dynasty , a team that can play together for 7,8-10 years with a few minor changes
the other players i get from my u19 or sign are usually on loans and i sell them mostly after 2 3 seasons when i can get a good price for them 10-15 mil mostly

 

[LiCO3]

Have a look at Man City (IRL) which is a financial disaster and has a lot of fantastic players on the fringe
Also you will have to resettle the squad if you bring that many new players in and unless they all agree to Backup or Rotation squad status there will be unhappy squad members esp if you get knocked out of any of the cups/europe

why don't you look at selling some current squad members to may room for your bargains?

It will be interesting to see in FM12 how the financial fairplay rules will be implmented

 

[TJD07]

MY team is usually around 30-32 players, around 20-25 of those would be first team players, rest are 18-20 year olds that I rotate in every so often or are on loan.
My reserve team is pretty much empty.

 

[Jamees]

Have a look at Man City (IRL) which is a financial disaster and has a lot of fantastic players on the fringe
Also you will have to resettle the squad if you bring that many new players in and unless they all agree to Backup or Rotation squad status there will be unhappy squad members esp if you get knocked out of any of the cups/europe

why don't you look at selling some current squad members to may room for your bargains?

It will be interesting to see in FM12 how the financial fairplay rules will be implmented

Manchester city have a Weekend Game lineup.. and a Midweek Game lineup... totally different players exept the goalkeeper, i wouldn't call that congested, more.. depth..

 

[slbenficacoach]

When I was more of a newbie with FM I had that same mistake too!
Hire essencial players, if you wish to hire more, hire young players (and you can buy many if their contract is going to expire in June) and then loan them around until you can use them in first team or just sell them! With a bunch of those kids you can eaisly make 30 million where there was nothing!

 

[mjpresto]

I prefer too maintaining a small line-up in my senior team. Last season, my 5th season on a current game save, I only have 23 players. This season, I sold a lot of my players because I want to start developing my promising youngsters so I only have 21 players (2 of which are youngsters who just graduated from the yoith team). I like it this way because I do not want several players who lack match fitness and suddenly unsettles the team if he wants first team football. Although I have very limited bodies on each position, typified by that 2 players for GK, 5 for 3 attacking positions on a 4-3-3 (my preferred tactic), and 3 (one of which is the youngster) for CB's. I'm usually been hit by injury crisis but I was able to go through them by playing my best U-19 players.

Furtheremore, I was able to save a lot in wages. I'm only using less than half of that alloted for me by the board. That way the club will have more money in signing the best staff available.

 

[Montanaro]

I hate being in leagues without reserve fixtures.

Played a long term italy save...had to manually schedule a whole season of reserve matches. Otherwise the 20+ backups I had would never be fit.

 

[mjpresto]

I hate being in leagues without reserve fixtures.

Played a long term italy save...had to manually schedule a whole season of reserve matches. Otherwise the 20+ backups I had would never be fit.

I agree. I've been playing in Spain and during my first few seasons I kept a large senior team squad. As a result several of my players never get enough playing time and resulted to lack of math fitness and unhappiness. So in the succeeding seasons, as I've signed more and more quality players for the first team I kept the senior team smaller and smaller. As I've said I only have 21 players on my sixth season, two of which are promising youngsters.