U18 players in the U21 team

[fm20]

In previous years the reserve team would automatically use U18 players if they were available. I used this to make sure they'd get a lot of game time by keeping the reserves empty so the U18 team would play both.

From what I can tell in FM2015 the U18 players aren't automatically selected for the U21 team - does anyone know if there's a simple way to make this happen? It's a particular concern for the U19 cup as I want my U18 players in that rather than the grey makeweights. If I make the U18 players available for the U21s they seem to become ineligible for the next U18 game, which is going to require a lot of manual work in moving the players around before and after each game.

Frankly I just want my U21 manager to be able to call on the U18 players as he needs them!

 

[SwiftNG]

Bump, need an answer for this too! Frustrating XD

 

[dave4787]

Could you put all your U18s into the U21s and make them available for U18s? This way your U21 manager will use the ones he needs and the rest are still free to play for the U18s. Plus you have the bonus of a few of the better U18s playing regular U21 matches, bit of a better standard

 

[fm20]

I'd thought about that, but still doesn't solve the problem; making an U21 available for the U18 team makes them unavailable for the U21 team. In addition the player's training will be done by the U21s, making all those top quality U18 coaches I recruited a bit redundant.

 

[dave4787]

I wouldn't have thought it would make them unavailable for the U18s. If you make a first teamer available for the U21s and he doesn't get selected, you can still use him in the first team. If your U18s are all getting selected above your U21s then it may be best to try and cash in on your current U21s and just promote your U18s. Yes your U18s may be all greyed out after, but the 'real' players are playing a higher level.

I'm in my second season with Bournemouth so don't really have any outstanding youth at the min, although I do have a 16 year old regen who's already in the England U21s, but I'm not in Europe so I'm quite happy with him playing standard U18s at the moment. But I would def sacrifice the U18s league performance to get my top youngsters playing in the Euro Youth League given the chance.

 

[dave4787]

In regards to your coaches, who you got? (I need some top coaches for U18s). Can they not be signed as U21 coaches? That way they'll still be working with the youth players?

 

[fm20]

Unfortunately, making a U18 player available for the U21 team DOES make him unavailable for the U18. At the moment my U21 team is pretty poor, there's a lot of deadwood and I'd prefer for some of the U18 players to get that experience. In addition the U19 champions cup is played by the U21 team meaning most of the team are actually ineligible for it anyway.

What I've done in the past is limit the entire squad to about 50 players - basically 3 per position for senior and reserves, including those loaned, which makes the reserve team empty. I'd then have 2 per position for my U18 team which were used for both U18 and reserve games.

I can do the same now, it just means that before every U21 game I have to make the entire U18 team available for it, then make them available again for the U18 afterwards, but that's not ideal.

With the coaches, I actually find it confusing - U21 coaches are included in the training for the senior squad. I think that under the hood it's still basically just the reserves.

 

[dave4787]

Yeah I've noticed that with U21 coaches, they are ideal as they coach all your squad. What coaches do you currently have? I'm wanting to build a good academy and need to improve my coaches.

Back to your point though, how about taking over your U21s? That way you can have the players playing how you want them to play, and it'll give you a bit more influence over their development?

 

[fm20]

I can't recall specific coaches I employed, just got rid of the rubbish already at the club and searched for suitable other candidates with high determination, motivation, working with youth and discipline. For the U18s I have a manager and assistant manager, with a coach for each specialism, plus one extra for general coaching. I was only allowed 4 U21 staff so after a physio and a GK coach didn't leave me with much flexibility.

The main issue I have with managing the U21s myself is time, the amount of time it takes to prepare for and then watch each match, never mind scouting players means I'd never finish a season

I'm sure the answer here is to re-evaluate my squad composition, but I'm struggling to work out the balance of how many players to have in the U21s and U18s respectively. A full squad of 25 each seems on the high side.

 

[fm20]

Into season 2 and I've reshaped my squad, getting rid of most of the dross that was there. I've actually gone back to some of my old habits -

My U21 team contains no players that are at the club - only those out on loan (right now I have a 19y/o goalkeeper there however as I've decided not to send him on loan).
My U18 team contains a squad of about 25 players (it's 27 at the moment), effectively two per position with a bit of cover and some tactical flexibility.
As I get the notification before each U21 game I manually make every U18 player available for the U21s, 90 minutes. After the game I manually make them available for the U18s again.
This means my U18 team are getting a LOT of game time - I'll need to keep an eye on condition and training.

As things stand I've left in place a separate U21 manager and assistant - one thing I'm interested in exploring is having the U18 manager take control of both teams. I've also for this season allowed them to use their own tactics - results are generally better, I've found.

 

[Cruiseylee]

Was just looking for any help on why there is hardly any u18 strikers on free transfers in fm15 and found this.


Fm20 did you not know you can take control of the reserves and set instructions for the reserve manager if you hand control back over to him. It's where the quick pick section is. It becomes clickable once you are in control. You can tell him to pick from the u18 squad and what condition to pick or not pick and what squad status and other stuff.

Also i saw you manually move all the players in between squads want sure if you meant 1 by 1. You did know you ca select the whole log by clicking and dragging over there info section then right click and move all of them you can also do this on short lists etc up to about 500 players and offer all trials or put on diff shortlisted etc or anything you want.