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Hattrick Season 77

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Eastheath
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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#400232

Postby Eastheath » March 30th, 2021, 12:34 am

Trying to handle a few curveballs at the moment
We were 5th away to 3rd, and capabale of winning midfield (but at expense of our attack/defence) but with their big attack and big defence it didn't seem to be the right thing to do. So we settled on a 433 CA strategy, try to limit their scoring with a chunky defence and nick a few ourselves by going heavy down a wing. Well it nearly worked...

Presumably they thought we would win MF too, so they CA'd as well. MF was theirs. We went 0-1 and 1-2 up in the game, looking good, then just to spoil our strategy our top defender got red carded. That skewed everything. Despite that we took it to 3-3 before they got a fourth, and thats how it stayed 4-3. Close but no cigar.

We stay in 5th, 4 pts behind 4th and safety and 5 pts above 7th and relegation.
The good news is the last three games are against 8th, 4th and 6th. 8th is a bot, so next week the red carded defender gets a reprieve, he wont be missed. The big game is the week after, away against 4th. That probably decides between safety and qualifier. The last game is at home.

Excluding their games against me, 4th, 6th are likely to get 3pts out of their other two games, and 7th likely to get 3 out of 9 so 7th and 8th are down, which means 1 out of 3 of us will get the safety slot.

Bink continues his 100% march to the top, and will I hope take the 3pts from each of 4th and 6th when he plays them. I think I'm counting on it!

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#400398

Postby ChiliMonster » March 30th, 2021, 6:26 pm

Congrats on the milestone post #400000 @Donut102

England Div III
I was sixth, home to 8th. A must win. They are a strong CA (Divine+) team. I noticed one of their 10* forwards was injured +2 last week, so I was confident they would play 5-3-2 instead of their other formation of 5-2-3. I did an unusual-for-me AOW and positioned both forwards to the wing and played offensive wingers, still confident of acing the midfield. I still lost 1-3 due to their CAs. I really can't work out how to play against CAs as I thought I had set up well for this one. Or is it a lottery?

That drops me to 7th and, while it is close at the bottom, escaping auto-relegation will be a challenge with one home game remaining. My thoughts are returning again to selling up and rebuilding on a cycle. If I do that, I'd love to take the opportunity to incorporate one-or-more HG youths, but it is currently looking like I'll have to wait 1.5 seasons before any candidates will be ready.

England Div VI
Home to the now-bot-but-still-unusually-resilient team who were 1 point behind me. The result was closer than it should have been at 3-2. I'm finally four points clear at the top. The stadium had just been expanded as much as my overdraft would permit but it sill sold 99% of the seats. Another expansion has just been ordered, again as much as I am permitted to go in debt for. Prize money will put me well into the black in three weeks' time.

Vietnam Div V
1-5 away win to the only-remaining, actively-managed team in the league. I am two points clear.

Cheers,

Kevster

Donut102
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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#400619

Postby Donut102 » March 31st, 2021, 4:41 pm

Congrats on the milestone post #400000 @Donut102


Many thanks! - didn't even notice...

I still lost 1-3 due to their CAs. I really can't work out how to play against CAs as I thought I had set up well for this one. Or is it a lottery?


I think you were a tad unlucky.

You had 4 attempts on the right wing (no goals) with a 36% chance of scoring - so the ME robbed you of at least one goal there.
An they scored on the left wing, with only a 6% chance - definitely robbed!!

Also one of their goals came from a free kick. Your Indirect Defense rating is mediocre at 8.5 - maybe some SP training needed on the Goalie?

Your set up looks fine to me - however it's the same as you played in the reverse fixture, so opponent could easily predict your ratings.
Alternatives could have been 2 x IMTW or play all 3 IMs Offensive. Or even a 442 to close out their central attack. Or 253 AOA, with both Wing Backs offensive.

But with your set up I'd have been looking for a 2-1 win, so 1-3 loss is harsh by the ME.

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#400879

Postby ChiliMonster » April 1st, 2021, 3:49 pm

Thanks for taking a closer look @Donut102.

It appears to have been bad luck.

My GK has 14 SP, so not too bad, I think. He was actually my second choicer keeper, selected on form over my 'best' keeper, who only has 9 SP.

I don't have sufficient experience in formations other than 3-5-2 or 4-5-1 at the moment. I did play 2-5-3 in a friendly a couple of weeks ago, thinking about expanding my options. I'll get my experience up, to increase the variety of options open to me in future.

Cheers,

Kevster

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#401763

Postby Bink333 » April 4th, 2021, 11:59 pm

2 games to go.

England

12/12 for the season sees us 8pts clear and 6pts ahead of the auto-promotion line. Looks like promotion is on the cards then. The plan is to sell Zombie next week tot he U20 manager that gave him his first international caps - in order to get defender training done before he goes back to PM to the NT. As a home grown with solid leadership and the support spec, it's going to be sad to let him go.

As soon as he's sold, the training plan is to switch to wing training for a season, so I expect to demote next season, as there's little point in buying other than solid leadership players for xp training, until that part of the training cycle is complete.

The youth team is going to produce a solid 17/0 GK next season with passable defending - injury permitting. That's a pretty rare one.

At U20 level, we narrowly missed out on a shot at the continental title, and the WC R1 group has not been particularly kind, so we have some exciting games ahead. The incumbent NT manager has agreed to become my assistant coach if I nominate myself to be elected, and he's not convinced we have a better option atm. I'll probably have to give up helping South Africa if I get elected, so there's that..

Oceania

We've won the group this weekend, with +2pts ahead of the auto-promote line and no tricky games left. Stamina is going up, although a small headache is that one of the Oceanian Wb got injured +3 on Friday so won't benefit from the stamina boosted training. Wages are over £400k atm so we really need NT caps to make the team viable, and 8 of the first 11 have a reasonable chance for NT selection. The GK problem is that I have a young unpredictable who I'd like to sell to buy an NT regular unpredictable, but the logistics are a nightmare. Work in progress.

The YA has a quick multiskilled Fwd due to promote soon who may help with this swap over as well as help me win the Talbourne comp on the Oceania forum.

South Africa.

I'm 2pts ahead of and playing the team in 2nd in Sunday. Currently -3 GD behind the autopromote line to II, and due to switch to GK in week 4-5 next season - selling off my hg defender trainees including a 17/0 (Technical) excellent def promoted this week. The team has never once been rating as having the best ratings in the league stats (or stars) but I'd be happy with a play-off.

I recently expanded the stadium for all 3, so hopefully the gate receipts will help..

Good luck to all for the end of season run in!

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#401945

Postby Eastheath » April 5th, 2021, 11:28 pm

We had the benefit of a home game against the league bot, so the 7-0 win came in handy, improving the GD and letting my top defenders red card play out without causing much grief. We stay in 5th, 2pts behind 4th and 8pts clear of relegation, which means we are safe from automatic drop. Bink did us a favour by beating 6th, who are 3 pts behind us.

Our last two games are away to 4th (tricky) and home to 6th (tricky too). 4th also has to play Bink last game, so no pressure Bink... ;)
Both of us (4th/5th) know we have to win our game against each other next week to avoid the qualifier. Thinking cap at the ready....
Onwards and sideways!

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#401964

Postby Donut102 » April 6th, 2021, 9:30 am

Div IV

2-0 win against 6th placed team was straight forward.
Still in 3rd, 5 points from the top and 11 points from 5th.

I face 2nd next week, who is 2 points ahead. If I win, I could snatch 2nd but in the final week I face 1st away from home. I've lost against both of these teams before, and it's hard to see me changing that form.
I'll PIC this week to give myself half a chance in the final week, but if I lose it wont be a surprise.

Div V

4-0 win against a bot.
In 1st, 5 points clear of 2nd.
Playing 3rd this week (away) and then 2nd at home. I only need to one of these games to secure the title, so decided I will go MOTS this week to give an opportunity for PIC in the final week to prepare for a possible qualifier. I'm 1 point above the cut-off at the moment.

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#402094

Postby ChiliMonster » April 6th, 2021, 5:27 pm

England Div III
An expected 0-2 loss away to the now league leaders. However, 5th, 6th and 8th all won, dropping me to 8th, 3 points below 7th. I'll need at least 4, if not 6, points in the last 2 games to have a chance of reaching a play-off. The new graph on the league fixtures page reminds me how I won the first 2 games of the season, then my series of forwards' injuries happened. I'll see what happens this weekend, but I'm mentally preparing for an overhaul if I get relegated. I don't have suitable YA candidates to based a rebuild around for another 1.5 seasons. I was considering starting a cycle based on purchased core trainees who already have nearly 2 seasons of def training done, so I could miss that tedious step, but finding English players with these requirements could be very difficult, and a forum post has reminded me about how important the HG advantage and English-player wages could make a difference in the long run (and it is long strategy, so beginning with an inherent weakness should be avoided). The alternative is to accept relegation and plan to start a cycle with a couple of HGs in 1.5 seasons and in the meantime try to earn a bit of money. As soon as relegation is confirmed, therefore, I'll be listing all my higher-wage players for sale (eg primary skill 16) and either:
- investing in lower-wage (skill 14-15) alternatives to tide me over for a season and a bit of average Div IV performances; or
- going for the cycle with no HGs.

A trainee sold this week for only 75-80% of what I was hoping to get for him, having already received no bids when listed at the bottom of the TC range. I know this is a bad time in the season for prices, but I'll have to be prepared to list and re-list my players in the forthcoming firesale to ensure I don't give away too much value.

England Div VI
A nice 1-5 away victory to a bot and confirmed as league champions, 4 points and lots of goals above the autopromotion line.

Vietnam Div V
4-1 home victory over the ownerless team in second place, leaves me 5 points clear, so not confirmed champions yet, but it is in no real doubt. 7 points clear of the autopromotion cut off.

Cheers,

Kevster

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#403763

Postby Eastheath » April 13th, 2021, 12:01 am

In 5th away to 4th, we won our penultimate game 0-3 and switched positions, we are now on 18 pts and 5th is on 17pts (6th is on 15 pts). Considering a win was crucial for both teams, I didn't expect a convincing result, their 5-3-2 AIM won midfield against our 4-3-3 CA, they edged us on hatstats too. Not that I'm complaining! Looking at our league statistics, and excluding the bot, we are 7th in ratings and on stars, so clearly punching above our pay grade.
Its not all plain sailing yet, the final game is at home to 6th, and they would have to win by nine clear goals to pip us on GD. I suspect they will PIC and save their TS for the qualifier. 5th is away to Bink, so unless Bink throws the game I should finish 4th. I'd be happy with that.

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#403776

Postby ChiliMonster » April 13th, 2021, 1:22 am

England Div III
I was in 8th, at home to last season's runner up in this league, though I did beat them in a surprise win in the away fxture earlier this season. I was mentailly preparing to be relegated and was planning on starting to list players for sale straight after this match, but I won 4-1! I was a little disappointed, even, when my goals went in. I'm still in 8th place, but it's really tight - I'm only 3 points behind third, 4th, 5th and 6th are on 5 points, and 7th and 8th (me) are on 14. If other results go to my expectation next week (huge assumption), the outcome for me may be: I lose - finish bottom, I draw - finish 7th, I win - possibly finish 4th, which would be some turnaround.
I reckon therefore I'll MOTS as I'm not expecting to need to save anything for a playoff. Win or bust.

England VI and Vietnam V
Wins and autompromoted champions of both leagues. I'll write more detail at the end of the season on my experiences and comparison of these leagues.

Kevster.

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#405186

Postby Bink333 » April 18th, 2021, 9:29 pm

England

Auto-promoting to III.7 with 13 winns and a draw. Sold my support spec home grown for over £10m which I want to sit on until my wing training is done, - late next season, so expect to go down. I did buy a solid leadership OCD (xp trainee)who got sent off in his first game, but it gives me a another option in m/f with 2 of 5 forwards playing on the wing, 2 up front, and one in m/f. My YA GK is now 7 GK and will pop to passable Def quite soon, with a good half season to max his skills.

The U21 adventure is going well, we've won the opening 3 WC games.

I've agreed to stand for election to become England NT manager again with Gary (the incumbent) as assistant manager.

Oceania

13 wins and a loss sees me promote into III.10. Sold a quick forward out of my YA for £6m last week, which means I should have enough for the GK upgrade and a 3rd forward for my CA specialist team. Stamina currently at 45% with 8 potential NT prospects in the side to try and ease the £400k wage bill. If I'm going to bolster GK and forwards. I'll want NT eligibles for wage discount puroses, but having had a look at my III, I think I've 16 weeks to shop around.

Won the prestigious TALBOURNE comp on the Oceania forum (subject to any late challenges) with the 3rd highest HTMS score in the history of the comp for my best 3 YA promotees this season. They all had specs as well, with no bonus points for that. Combined sales before agent fees for those 3 was £12,240,813. That's one hell of a season of youth pulls! All pf them were pulled on a Thursday morning.

South Africa

Todays away game against last season's runner up finished 0-0. I went MoTs Long Shots 5-5-0 using an OCD and 2xWTM but it wasn't enough m/f and we only had 3 shots - none being LS. Finished 0-0. Had we scored a goal we'd have auto-promoted, but instead I have a very tough qualifier against a side that beat me 0-6 in the Cup last October - although I knocked them out of the consolation Cup , 4-2 a month later. I'll need a lot of luck to beat them, but the experience gains will be very welcome. Defender training ends week 5 of next season, and I need to sell my quick NT prospect to a good home for PM training from 13 to 17 (then he needs Def from 15 to 17). It can wait until this time next week before I list him.

I pulled an excellent defender from my YA with tech spec, and he along with 3 other hg U21 prospects will be sold between now and when I make the switch to GK. I'll be sticking with African continent born players only to strengthen the team when they go, so I'm looking forward to that, although there's plenty of time before the stamina goes up, so I can shop carefully.

Hope you all had enjoyable seasons, and good luck for any qualifiers! Don't forget to set penalty takers!

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#405326

Postby Donut102 » April 19th, 2021, 12:17 pm

Div IV

1-2 loss to the team that won the league and has auto-promoted into III.

Finished 3rd in the league, which is fine while I complete Defender training - about another season to go, and then I'll be competitive again.

Div V

3-1 win against the team in 2nd. This was the 6th time we'd met, and I had lost 5, drew 1, so very pleased with turning the corner.

I won the league after finishing 4th, 3rd and then 2nd last season - steady progression!
Now face a difficult qualifier, coming on the back of a double MOTS to secure the title. I'm expecting to lose, but another season down in V will not be the end of the world.

YA

After seeing Bink's post about his youth pulls, I now understand why I always lose to his teams in the youth leagues.

My Div V YA made an £800k profit last season, but my Div IV YA was where the action was. I got two good pulls, and so I sold two ageing players for £5m and using the academy players as backfill for training.

GL Bink with the England campaign!

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#405419

Postby ChiliMonster » April 19th, 2021, 4:36 pm

Kevster's, England III.6

If other results go to my expectation next week (huge assumption), the outcome for me may be: I lose - finish bottom, I draw - finish 7th, I win - possibly finish 4th, which would be some turnaround.
I reckon therefore I'll MOTS as I'm not expecting to need to save anything for a playoff. Win or bust.


To jump to the conclusion, it wasn't a bad estimation of how things might turn out, though it was actually even tighter than that. I played MOTS away and the final score after several swings was 5-5. I finished 8th, but if their final equaliser had not gone in and it had ended 4-5, I would have finished third in the league!! Tbh, I am happy to go down as I am planning to rebuild in 1.5 seasons, and the salary cutting starts now: I would have a truly miserable season next season if I stayed in Div III. As it is, I might have a middling season in Div IV even after selling my top earners. I now have 7 players (more to come) and a YA graduate on the transfer list.

Hattid tells me I'm going to IV.27. Meanwhile, my fans are dancing in the streets!

Fly Suckers, England VI.286
0-5 win to a bot. Hattid tells me I'm being promoted to V.89, where I'll be canon fodder. It looks like the other autopromotion team will be a bot, so there'll be one team I can beat. I guess my aim will be to try to at least have a relegation qualifier; perhaps by then I might have a few squad players at higher levels than startup team.

Hoi An Lunt Kickers, Vietnam V.6
5-0 win over a bot. Hattid tells me I'll be autopromoting to IV.58, which is currently totally populated with bots. I guess some newbies will be assigned in the next couple of weeks, but most will drop out before mid-season.

So, to compare my first seasons with two new teams:
    Team in Vietnam is allocated a second-in-league position in Div V, just in time to win prize money for doing nothing; English team starts in seventh in Div VI.
    This provides a financial boost allowing the purchase of initial trainees at a slightly higher skill level, and lower age, than the English team.
    YA in Vietnam is started a few weeks before the YA in England for financial reasons.
    Exit from Vietnam cup in R1 still results in prize money as it is a small nation; This helps fund the external recruitment of a solid/poor coach.
    Both teams win league and autopromote with only one other manager in the league surviving to the end.
    Vietnam team will have another season free to train with no other squad improvements, and should still win the new IV league; English team will struggle in Div V with initial trainees at a lower level than their Vietnam equivalents, and trading will be required to attempt to bolster some positions, but it will still be a struggling team at the end of the season.
    Vietnam YA has a couple of interesting prospects that will be promotable in next season. I might have some fun trying to build something around them. English YA has not yet revealed anything to get truly excited about.
    Vietnam promotion prize money will be free to use for whatever I want; Promotion prize money in England is earmarked to promote a solid/passable player to coach.
    Both stadiums have had three expansion so far: Vietnam seats 21,710, English seats 17, 561. The Vietnam fan club will continue to grow rapidly; I'm assuming the English one less so as results will be poor?

So the near-term future of these two team is quite different. The English team will need to focus on building a basic squad to have some chance of surviving then competing, before I can seriously think about building anything. With the Vietnam team, I'm thinking about building a core training cycle around two or three YAs. It won't be optimal because they won't be in phase in terms of age, but it's never going to lead to a Championship team because I will run out of money before building an entire squad, but it should build some valuable players which I can sell and start over with a better chance second time around.

I'm still a little nervous that one of the teams will be suddenly taken away from me as I was never charged for the additional licence I was prepared to pay for a third team. I'm hoping I will at least be given a chance to pay up.

Cheers,

Kevster

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Re: Hattrick Season 77

#405435

Postby Eastheath » April 19th, 2021, 5:48 pm

Well done all on getting through another season ;-)
Despite drawing our final game 3-3, we held on to 4th place and survive to live another season in IV.
We had the lead twice which is a bit frustrating, but as we are 7th in ratings and stars for the league, I'm not complaining finishing 4th.
The top 3 were streaks ahead, Bink included, so 4th might be as good as it could possibly get next season....in fact I'm cleaning out the cupboards and a few of the oldies, so the quasi-rebuild might mean its a much tougher season than the last.

I can also confirm we wont be joining the European Super League....


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