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The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

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UncleIan
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The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#22069

Postby UncleIan » January 11th, 2017, 9:56 am

We've all stayed up, or gone up, or gone down, the first round cup fixtures are in, so it must be time for a new thread.

I've had my fire sale, and bought a load more players, as usual, I lost count, and have 8 trainees for the 6 100% slots. I'm going to train playmaking. Though I've only got 3 wingers, so I can stick the 7th guy in a B team winger slot for 50% training, umm, oops, sorry trainee 8. I have managed to recycle one of my defender trainees, he had decent IM skill and is still young, plus I've got three homegrown, though one is a bit old at nearly 24, I think he might be the number 8 trainee that misses out.

I got over excited and bought loads of players before the financial update, while I had players on the transfer list. My club is in danger of bankruptcy this week, with a balance of -1 million. 34k in interest charges, oops. At the next update I'll have 7m in the bank so that's ok. Short term cash flow issues.

Maybe I should have stayed my hand a bit, and splashed a bit more cash for better IM trainees, I'm a little worried about the strength of my midfield, though I'm playing games at the moment with "furious" team spirit, so that's making things look bad I hope. I've gone from two titanics and an E-T to one magnificent and two brilliants. Of course, as I'm training PM that'll only get better, but short term it may be painful. On the wing I've gone from two supernaturals, or maybe a titanic and a supernatural, to two world class wingers with worse PM. My ratings the first competitive league game are going to be a mystery, talking of which...

I've ended up in V.33, it's got two bots, and another team that hasn't logged in since the end of November. So I guess they'll be reset at the start of the season. Three bots! Looking at the stats, the team in second is fairly handy they'll have the beating of me in midfield, for now, but I'll trump them in defence and attack. Looking at the fixtures, the next two games should be against bots, so a cheeky early home MOTS may be in order. I'll have a better idea after TS reset and the cup match. There's also a massive defence and nothing else team, and a couple of 3-5-2 teams that shouldn't present too much of an issue, certainly at home.

Clearly, to me, it's try and win the first match, and suck up the fans and confidence until the big defence team in the double header, before kicking bottom until the final week. Coming second wouldn't be a massive shock, and wouldn't be the end of the world, more time to rebuild I guess. I think I'm planning on PM training for about 3 levels, probably 2 and a bit seasons, then switch to passing training.

That'll do for now. Roll on next Tuesday's bot bash!

Ian

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#22958

Postby Ashfordian » January 13th, 2017, 7:28 pm

UncleIan wrote:Roll on next Tuesday's bot bash!


When I first looked at my cup opponent I was concerned it was not a bot however it has been botified so Tuesday should be the bot bash.

I was tempted to switch out of my series but the fixture list looks favourable to me with lots of PICs and my nearest opponents in week 1(H)/14(A) and the double header in weeks 7(H)/8(A) so I'm staying in V.185. A bot in weeks 2(A)/13(H) makes the weeks 1/14 games easier.

League

My aim is to win the series and auto-promote which closely matches the fans expectations of "We have to win this season". The season will be a failure if I do not do this

Cup

The fixture list and my league opponents may give me a chance of improving my best of R3. I wouldn't mind a run in one of the minor cups as well.

Training

Will be mainly PM but can fall back on Defence training if I need to play CA for any reason.

Youth Academy

At the mid point of season 63 I had no potential promotees with a main skill above Inadequate. Since then I've scouted 4 very trainable players, the best being an Excellent Defender. The Youth team will pay out in the next 1.5 seasons.

Stadium/Finances/Coach/etc

I don't expect to expand the stadium above its current capacity of 50 290
Coach recently dropped to Passable leadership so he is good although I already have his replacement ready to take over when required. I have 3 other first team players who are on the coach production line.
Finances are healthy at just under £4m

Future player changes

I'm not sure if these changes will happen this season but some of my team are starting age and require replacing. Two wingers that were in my starting team are now both over 28 and I'm lacking in the striker department with two Excellent scorers as my 2nd & 3rd best strikers. All these need replacing for when I reach IV. I've yet to decide what build their replacements will be but know the £4m will not be enough.

GL all for the coming season

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#23538

Postby Donut102 » January 16th, 2017, 4:20 pm

Still in V. Came 5th again last season, losing out to 4th place on GD only.

I'll be targeting 4th again. Not really setting the bar high...

Cup - target R2 and then 4 further rounds in the secondary cup. Based on scouting for R1 that should be achievable

Training - been training PM since I restarted. I got them up to level 13, and to be honest got a bit bored. So switched to Scoring in the off season. I think I'll change training every season, more to keep the game fresh for me.
I'm training 3 pure strikers, two of which have good PM secondaries and Technical. The other 3 trainees are playmakers, so secondary skill training. Sold one of my prior trainees for £1.6m and replaced with an 18 yr old Head with 12 PM, but only 1 in scoring. Would have liked 6+ in Scoring, but couldn't find a Head specialist on the transfer market with those skills. Decided to prioritise Specialities rather than skills, and training from low levels is very quick these days. Figure he could be up to passable by the end of the season.
Is this the right approach? Answers on a postcard....

Finance - stadium has 48,000 capacity, and should be fine this year.
Budgeting a profit of £1.4m this season, and have £8.2m in the bank. Not rushing to spend my cash pile, as I remember from my first stint in HT always being frustrated never having enough working capital to fund new trainees/ players.

Coach - Solid coach, disastrous leadership. Like Ashfordian, I have 3 players being XP trained as future coaches. Two now have Solid experience, and will convert one to Excellent coach when he pops the next level.
That will make a dent in my cash pile, but I don't really use the transfer market and prefer to adopt the buy & hold approach.

Youth - I've got a Passable Def & Wing with Quick who'll join my first team as a trainee. Also three other players with Excellent PM, Excellent Def, and Solid Def respectively. No useful specs on those three, so will be sold.

I'm convinced as I can be that Homegrown with the right Specs is the way forward. I've got 5 in my first XI already and this chap will make it 6.

Good luck all!~
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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#23962

Postby Eastheath » January 17th, 2017, 10:14 pm

Having survived the qualifier, I have another season in IV to look forward to.
We are the 5th best team based on rankings, so the task this season is to finish 4th or better.
To try to get there, I need to get some fresh legs in defence, midfield and maybe a new goalie.
Aren't good players expensive these days!

Have bought one defender, but got some more buying to do.
Stadium at 50,000+, no change
Money in the bank, around £2.8m.

1st round Cup just finished, 0-10 away win, hope to get past the 3rd round this time.

good luck all.

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#25302

Postby Darkish » January 23rd, 2017, 7:37 am

Cup

Already knocked out of the cup. Was a tight game, but always going to be tight and came out on the wrong side.

League

With having 2 bots would try and get 5th, but 4th would be fabulous (though would need to check on payment). Had a shock away win yesterday.

Youth Academy

Have one more season of scoring followed by another playmaking.

Youth Academy

Nothing great coming out soon, but hope one may come between seasons.

Stadium/Finances/Coach/etc

Currently 35k and would like to move to 40k by end of season. Finances are £1.8m but mave bid £1.6m on first transfer target. Coach has been upgraded to solid/solid

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#25310

Postby UncleIan » January 23rd, 2017, 9:09 am

League

First match of the season was going to define how the season went for me, at home to what looks like the strongest team in the league, yes, possibly stronger than me. We lined up in a standard 3-5-2 and I decided, looking at Tuesday's cup match, to not go for the cheeky early MOTS, but stick with a PIN. They beat us in midfield, 48/52, and both our defences were better than our attacks by roughly the same amount, though maybe we edged it a little. A coin toss basically. Chances 5-4. Luckily, it went in our favour with a nervy 2-1 scoreline only made safe to 3-1 in the 87th minute.

Of course, it's early season and there's three bots in the league, so league positions are a little random, but the win puts us in third, behind one real team that thrashed a bot, and a bot that beat another bot. Next two weeks I have two of those bots to bash, while the current leader has two real teams, so I should be top of the league soon.

Cup

Through to the second round no dramas, but Tuesday's match looks very tough, decent midfield, huge defence, no attack, they won their game at the weekend, and the fans think "It will be a close affair". I tried out a 2-5-3, and my defence still trumped their attack, no really, that bad, literally poor, but my midfield still didn't match theirs, and my attack, well, I tried AOW and I was getting close. So I've changed plan completely to a 4-4-2 CA, I should get a few CAs, but we shall see, I've definitely set my penalty takers, as it could be one of those. My fingers are also crossed.

Youth Academy


Oh yes, I'm top of the youth academy league, just thought I'd mention it. ;)

Ian

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#25847

Postby Eastheath » January 24th, 2017, 7:59 pm

!st league match at home, to a promoted team, and we were pretty much equal on rankings but I had noticed two things - they were winning games they really really shouldn't, including winning their qualifier to promote, in which their opposition ran rings around them on all fronts yet managed to lose 1-5; also, their human manager had gone AWOL so they were running on pre-set formations.
You would have thought that makes it easy, and for much of the game it looked so. We were 3-1 up with 66 minutes gone, despite not edging midfield.
Then they pulled out three goals from somewhere, and we lost 3-4.

That's one of our easy games gone to pot. 4th looks more remote now, we might even be pushed to get 5th.
Cup game - could go either way.

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#25958

Postby Ashfordian » January 25th, 2017, 8:51 am

League game at home to a team that seems to have given up logging in so I knew the line-up I would face. Hopefully he will be a BOT come week 14 :)

Planned for defence training this week so a 5-3-2 PIN yielded a 3-2 win with hatstats of 304 v 265.

The cup was the reason for defence training as a really tough draw meant I could not surpass my opponents MF. He does not take the game seriously so plays his best 11 for every game but was going to get over 300 hatstats with an Excellent MF. Expecting my opponent to play 5-4-1 this set up nicely for my 5-3-2 CA. He scored the only goal of the match via a quick SE while I did not convert any of my 5 chances (3 CA's) to win 1-0 so I am relegated to one of the consolation cups. A shame as my next 2 league fixtures would have allowed me to field my best 11 in the cup :roll:

League game this Sunday is a bot this so my cup opponent will be facing the best 11 which is going to be needed as it is another tough draw. The league is the focus but a cup run would be nice to keep the entertainment up

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#26090

Postby UncleIan » January 25th, 2017, 2:41 pm

My cup match was against a team that haven't logged in since 13-03-2016! They've got supporter, and this is their second team. Well that's a waste of money. So they were very predictable. I CA'd them, my defence v attack was 85/15% we got two chances, both CAs, and put one away, they had ten chances, and put none away. 0-1 final score. That strategy worked then! :) Home match next round.

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#27363

Postby Eastheath » January 30th, 2017, 9:47 am

League game was away to a fellow potential struggler, we were pretty equal on all measures, we slightly edged midfield and they slightly edged attack. They had more chances than we did, 7 to 5, but they put none away and we managed two quick goals, so a 0-2 win gives us some breathing space.

The rudderless team that beat us last week (we were 3-1 up and they scored three late goals) has just done it again. They were 3-1 down with five minutes to go and somehow scored 3 goals to win 4-3 again. I must find out what that secret recipe is!

We are away in the Cup to a high flying series V (whereas we are a low flying series IV). If they throw the sink at us the game will be theirs, as I am playing my trainee forwards, who wont score a thing. We shall see.

Next league game we are away to a team that thumped us last season 1-5 and 4-0. Damage limitation beckons!

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#28057

Postby UncleIan » February 1st, 2017, 8:56 am

Had a bot at the weekend. Played the B team, won 8-0. Up to second in the league on goal diff. from 1st. We're the only two teams unbeaten.

The cup match, got the A team out on a PIN, and reckoned it would be tight. Went 0-2 down, then it was 3-3 on 50 minutes, my 65th minute wing sub was clearly a work of genius, with two late goals both coming from...the other wing. 5-3 final score. It was one of those games that I would have been slightly miffed if I'd have lost, but it would have definitely been within the bounds of "not that unusual" match engine antics, they edged midfield, but I trumped them everywhere else except their attack v my defence.

Next week's cup match looks a bridge too far, next Sunday is another bot though, so I'll be saving the A team for the cup, and seeing if I get lucky.

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#28107

Postby Ashfordian » February 1st, 2017, 12:00 pm

Except for having an easier game in the secondary cup, my update is similar to UncleIan's above.

Had a bot at the weekend where I won 10-0 so the first team was saving for the Ruby cup game. Won that 5-0 and could well have an easier game next week :)

The league is going to be decided between the current top two teams who are the only ones with a 100% record, of which I am one. We play each other in the double header in weeks 7 & 8 and are from the same region so it has a nice bit of level competition about it :)

Next weeks league game is against a promoted team that logged in once and who I expect to turn bot mid-season so the reserves will be out against them and the first team playing in the secondary cup

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#29386

Postby Eastheath » February 6th, 2017, 2:52 pm

The Cup game went as feared, the oppo put a lot of effort in, edged midfield and won 1-0.
Hey ho, we are back into one of those 'losers' cups.
The league game also went as feared, away to a team that gets much better ratings and lo and behold, they ran out 2-0 winners. Better result than last year, so I guess we've had some improvement....
We stay in 5th, equal on 3 points with 6th and 7th, so its not as good as it sounds.
Next week we are at home to 7th, so I guess thats the first 6 pointer game for us.

And I'm selling my magical 28 yo striker, as his wages at £51k are mad and his trainee replacement is ready to step in (only at world class but he is also only 19)

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#29402

Postby Donut102 » February 6th, 2017, 3:29 pm

Haven't posted for a few weeks, so a bit of a catch up.

Week 1

Switched to Def training. Was originally planning Scoring training this season, but figured I'd get a bigger bang for my training buck.

2nd team in the league, and drew 1-1 in a game I could of won with the first team. The first team were put into the cup and lost. Hey-ho.

Week 2

Lost in the league to a recently promoted team. My own fault for not doing proper scouting. His CA tactic was spot on, and he deserved the 3 points. Wont make the same mistake in the return leg :oops:
Won the secondary cup game.

Week 3

League was one of the stronger teams. They blasted me with hatstats of 323 (as expected), against which I cant compete. Played my reserves and used it as experience training, but the 7-1 final score has dented my fans and confidence.

Expecting to get knocked out the secondary cup on Tuesday


So not a great start to the season, but the long term team structure is starting to take shape.
This time next year Rodney....

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#29804

Postby UncleIan » February 8th, 2017, 9:22 am

Had a bot bash in the league, so a nice 8-0 with the B team on a PIC. We go top of the league on 9 points and the same goal diff as second, but I've scored one more goal. Which is nice.

Got dumped out of the proper cup last night, no surprise really, looks like they took it very seriously indeed, pulled their biggest midfield since their first game of the season, which looked like a MOTS. We lost midfield 43/57, had three sectors winning 59/41, but the others were even. Chances 3-9 looks a little harsh, and luck gave them 5 chances on the 50/50 wing, and 0 chances on the 59/41% wing. The score of 1-2 at halftime turned into 2-5 at 70 minutes, no late flurry comeback. Ahhh well, off to the Jason Ivy Cup, and it might be a short stay in that one.

Next week in the league I'm away to fourth. They have a massive defence, and nothing else, so I'll be going banzaii, and seeing if I can break the wall down. Might be tricky with the usual cup exit where everyone loses their scoring boots, but we'll see. Second is away to third, so we could all be on 9 points on Sunday night. I hope not though!

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#31131

Postby UncleIan » February 13th, 2017, 8:59 am

Away to a human manager this week, and I had slight concerns of the post-cup blues. I set us up for scoring, a 2-5-3, as they have a massive defence, and nothing else. I was a little concerned at the end of the first half, we had nearly 70% possession, but had an experience event against us, and missed another, for a 0-1 scoreline - too close for comfort! The second half went a bit better, three more goals by the 61st minute, and it was over as a contest. Potential banana skin avoided.

Second place was away to third, and as I thought after looking at the previous ratings, lost, they swapped places, and the league is started to shape into an expected order - me on top! I'm now the only unbeaten side, on my own on 12 points, and 2nd and 3rd are on 9 points. Obviously, now I'm there, the aim is to stay there. I think it's a pretty realistic aim though. Bot next week, what should be an easy away game the following week, then we play the new 3rd in the double header. I don't play second until the last weekend, hopefully it'll be a dead rubber by then. A long time between now and then though.

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#31407

Postby Ashfordian » February 14th, 2017, 9:31 am

After reading Ian's weekly post, it was nearly word for word how I would write my weekly post so I've used it as a template :D

UncleIan's template wrote:Away to a human manager this week, who looks like he is building a longshots. I set us up to attack with a PIC 2-5-3 pressing formation, as they have a massive defence and a good MF, although they fade quickly as his players have awful stamina. It was 0-0 at half time and they had 55% possession but I knew their rating would fade further in the second half. We scored the first goal and they got the corner-head event which I thought would mean the match would end in a draw however we snatched a late winner in the 84th minute. Potential banana skin avoided.

Second place was away to third and lost, who stay second and are now seperated from third by GD. The league is start to take shape with me on top! I'm now the only unbeaten side, on my own on 12 points, and 2nd and 3rd are on 9 points. Obviously, now I'm there, the aim is to stay there. I think it's a pretty realistic aim though. One of the VI promoted teams next week, what should be an easy away game the following week, then we play the new 3rd in the double header. I don't play second until the last weekend, hopefully it'll be a dead rubber by then. A long time between now and then though.


I'm still in the George Carey cup with a difficult but hopefully winnable away game as TS of WoC is giving my MF a great boost

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#31410

Postby UncleIan » February 14th, 2017, 9:56 am

Ashfordian wrote:After reading Ian's weekly post, it was nearly word for word how I would write my weekly post so I've used it as a template :D


Arf!

Ashfordian wrote:I'm still in the George Carey cup with a difficult but hopefully winnable away game as TS of WoC is giving my MF a great boost


There's a nice big difference there. My excellent coach that I got for my U20 goalie (woo! 4 caps! etc) only has poor leadership these days, and I've been playing PIN in the cup a bit too. My TS is something like composed, wait, no, calm, and it's not helping the midfield very much. Still, I think I can get away with it in this league, so with a bit of luck his replacement might pop to outstanding experience in time to take up the reins for my next stint in IV, assuming that's next season, or the one after. Hopefully I don't need him to get me out of V.

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#31770

Postby Darkish » February 15th, 2017, 3:55 pm

My league form has been perfect in terms of being 100% - though have had some big slices of luck with the match engine. Despite winning my home match this week 4-0 I slipped to second with the new leaders whipping a bot team.

I’m away to the leaders this week and expect to lose, though will give them a good match at my place.

I was knocked out of the main cup in the first round and am still competing in the Craig Wozniak Cup and am on the road each week. Had a scare last night going 2-0 in the first half, but levelled in the second and won 4-2 after ET.

Training scoring, is starting to pay-off and I can now give a decent punch. Hope to find a decent keeper sometime during the season as I don’t have huge faith in my passable keeper and feel an upgrade will be needed if I have any aspiration to push towards IV.

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Re: The Hattrick Season 64 Thread

#32824

Postby Eastheath » February 19th, 2017, 1:21 pm

Really narked at last weeks showing. Lost 0-3 at home to the only team I thought I could beat this season.
Outranked them on every rating everywhere, except they had a marginally better defence. Forecast was 2-1, 65% probability.
New goalie, defender and midfielder added over the past three weeks, has made less than a blind bit of difference. Ho hum. TS is irritated. I wonder why...
So, slipped from 5th to 7th, still on 3 pts. This week away to the bottom team that has had the edge over me recently. Not a good omen....

Still in the Jason Ivy Cup after a 2-0 home win. Next cup game is also winnable, but much closer.


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