Community » Hattrick Press

FOUR EASY Ways to Improve Your Team

Written by saintroy16

I recently watched an infomercial, where a man who flipped houses was trying to sell me a dvd/book/blueray/brochure that would unlock the secrets to making 100k a year in your spare time. It was 3am, and a bachelor party weekend. The boys and I had had it rough, so we stopped to listen to this guy talk about nothing for 10 minutes. This is just like that, but different.

If you already do these things, please ignore me. If you don't, and are stuck in the quagmire that is HT-USA VI-V, doing some of these things may change your fortunes.

If I was selling something, I'd say "YOU COULD WIN THE ML!!!", but I'm not, so I'll just say you might have more fun (as long as you find winning more games 'fun').

1. Gotta Have more Cowbell/Midfield

Chances are, unless you are this guy (767512) or a disciple of his counter-attacking philosophy, you could use more midfield. Why?

Remember when you were a young soccer player, and you wanted to bloot the ball to kingdom come every time it came near you? What did your coach say?

"Keep the ball son/daughter. If you have the ball, they don't. And if they don't, they can't score on you."

In Hattrick, it is said "midfield is king", and if you don't want to look like Man City/United vs. Barca, you had better wise up. Midfield determines the odds to earn chances to score on your opponent, and even if you are a counter-attacking team, a little more midfield means fewer chances you'll have to defend, and sometimes that is a good thing.

a) Team Spirit (TS) manage

"Well, I need to improve my midfield, better buy new midfielders."
Slow your roll Sparky, there are simpler ways to improve your midfield.
You have the option to change your team's attitude towards the match. Playing it Cool (which I will call PiC from now on) raises your team spirit (TS), and PiCing on days you'll dominate, or lose horribly can be a great idea. The higher your TS, the better your midfield. Sure, playing the #1 team in your series sucks, and they are going to put 8 past you. But look at it this way: PiC, Press (to reduce chances for both sides) and pray for a decent result, you'll be better off in your next match. Possibly so much better off, you can afford to PiC again to dominate.
Don't get too nuts now, you shouldn't PiC every game, and there is a set ceiling for TS. The lower your coach's leadership, the lower the ceiling. I wouldn't even suggest trying to TS mange unless your coach has poor or better leadership. Remember, TS drops slowly as the week progresses, so the TS level you have after a match isn't what it will be by the time you play your next match.

b) Oldies/New IMs

"Yes, yes, saintroy16 is peddling old people to me again. Can we just put this guy in jail?"

No, you can't, and shouldn't. If you aren't training playmaking (the only skill that contributes to midfield), you could always buy better midfielders. You could buy cheap oldies, or younger folk, but regardless, aim for a consistent tier of skill. At the VI-V level, you can get away with midfielders having brilliant/magnificent pm skill.

Eventually, you'll want to get that up to supernatural +(III+ range), and at multiple positions as well if you want to play with the big boys, but we'll take baby steps here.

2. Get a Solid Coach

A solid coach not only trains players faster, but improves your player's form and stamina. Thus, the longer you only have a passable coach, the longer you are at a disadvantage developing your team. Stop losing time and energy! Splash some cash!

"So I should recruit a coach externally...?"

NO! What a waste of money. Buy an older player *ducks*, 35+years, brilliant or better experience and at least inadequate leadership *ducksagain*.

Now stop throwing things. In one season (to the second you bought him), this player is eligible to be a much cheaper, internal coach for a fraction of the cost. During that season of waiting, while you still have the passable coach, I suggest training something fast (Goalkeeping or Short passes) to minimize the fact you are training slower that other teams.

The more experienced the player you buy, the cheaper he'll be to convert, and the more leadership, the more effectively they'll manage Team Spirit as a coach.

3. Specialty Optimize

Some players are physical specimens. I could write a whole article summarizing the best specialties by position, and the theory behind why those players are best suited there. So, I'll be as brief as I can, and give you the...

Can't Go Wrong Specialties by position:

Defender- Head/Powerful

Inner Midfielder- Head

Winger- Head, Quick

Forward- Quick, Head

Defensive Forward- Technical, Head

Notice something? A player with the Head specialty can always score you a corner+head event, and forwards/winger/IMs can get onto crosses by wingers and score more easily.

Powerful defenders do well in the rain, and only lose a little stamina in the sun. An early Positive rain event will really boost their stats.

Quick wingers can try and beat defenders 1v1, or pass to a forward (but only if you are playing a forward!). Forwards do the same thing. The more scoring the player has, in either case, the more likely they'll convert the 1v1 event.

Defensive Forwards can basically have the same skills as Offensive Inner Mids, high pm, high passing. The technical spec gives a bonus to wing attacks, and some teams have traditionally played a style that boosts mid, ignores central attacks, and sends attacks to the wings. These player dovetail with that strategy.

However there are some bad specialties in places that you don't want to have, the...

Worst Specialties by position:

Defender- Unpredictable/Quick*

Inner Midfielder- Unpredictable

Unpredictable players can cause a positive passing and scoring event from anywhere in the field, but those events are skill-based, requiring high passing and scoring skill. Thats all well and good, but without sufficient defending skill, these players can give up a negative event which could give away a goal out of nowhere from the Defender or IM position.

*Quick, in the rain, an early negative event can decimate a quick defender. However, I starred this guy, because a quick defender will stop the first quick 1v1 that comes his way, always. So, used properly, these players can be very useful.

4. Train Set Pieces

Last but not least, take a couple weeks to train set pieces. It is a skill ignored by most teams, but an important one. 15% of your chances in a season, are set pieces, 10% are direct (penalty, or direct free kick), and 5% are indirect. Imagine you earn 100 chances, and that you must defend 100 chances in a season in competitive matches, against teams who ignore set pieces (as many managers do in the VI-V range).

If you have the edge in set pieces 15% of the chances you earn means that is 15 possible goals you have an advantage to obtain. Look on the flip side now, 15% of the chances you need to defend will be set pieces too, thats 15 goals you have the edge to prevent.

Thats a total swing of 30 possible goals a season, in relation to your team, that you have a weighted chance of success in your favor.

I train set pieces in the 'off weeks', when no league matches are being played between seasons. This is popular among plenty of teams in hattrick. I've heard plenty of successful managers I know also train sp on weeks they need to play the best players in the best positions (maybe for a big cup match as well) but didn't want to lose training. You can then make up that week of pm, defending, winger or whatever in an off week, when you would have train sp anyway.

Anyway, let me know how one or all four of these things work for you via HT-mail, or call me out in the comments or a thread on the HT-USA forum. Good luck getting through the quagmire, I'm rooting for you.