The first thing you need to do is examine your existing player base, talk to the coaches and the assistant manager and find out where your weak areas are. You will want to set up your own formation and tactics and so you’ll need to ensure that you have the correct personnel. You can check how strong each player is in their detailed profile which you reach simply by clicking on their name.
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There is a lot of useful information in here and you should start by checking out each tab:
- Attributes – lists all of your player’s skills
- Positions – shows you which positions they can play in
- Personal – tells you about any personal issues and preferences
- Contract – tells you their contract status
- Transfer – shows their value, transfer status and whether any clubs are interested
It is vital you have players who are excellent in each role you have to fill on the pitch. If there are any players you don’t like the look of then transfer list them but watch out for personal relationships. If a player is good friends with another member of the squad (this is indicated in the Personal tab) and you transfer list them then the friend will become annoyed.
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Once you have the list of players you want to keep make sure they fit the role you want to play them in by checking their Attributes and Positions screens. You can retrain players to play new positions but they will always be best when they are described as Natural at a specific position, like in the screenshot which shows Martin Petrov is a natural left midfielder. He is also ideal as a Winger because his Crossing, Pace, Acceleration, Off the Ball, Stamina and Natural Fitness attributes are all high.
