Asunto: »[JNRS] Juniors - formidable +

Nice player.

What are your plans for him?

Is he that good? The playmaking is worthless without passing. You might be able to get a decent striker out of him.

Well, it wouldn't be too hard to train him passing. He'd popped in other skills whilst doing so too. Plus he has excellent technique, which I like. He's not the best but he's a nice player but you'd need to train him, of course :) haha...

But while you're training passing he's not getting the pace he also needs to be a winger.

I look at it like this. Assign him 8 pops over the next 2 seasons of training. Where would they be best placed?

poor [3] stamina
hopeless [1] keeper
good [7] pace +3
weak [4] defender
excellent [10] technique
solid [8] playmaker
hopeless [1] passing
weak [4] striker +5

And you've got a 29 sumskill 20 year old striker who'd be a good bet for the U-21s.
If you go winger

poor [3] stamina
hopeless [1] keeper
good [7] pace +3
weak [4] defender
excellent [10]
technique solid [8] playmaker
hopeless [1] passing +5
weak [4] strike

And he's still only adequate passing with excellent tech and pace.

Its the striking [4] vs passing [1] skills he has now that says striker,

Everyone to their own ;)

Of course. I just think it's easy to look at that Playmaking and say "He's a mid", but his passing completely undermines it.
He'd probably be better as a defender than a winger, because then he doesn't need the high level of passing but you're still stretching his training in a direction he doesn't need to go. The path of least resistance in this game (at least for outfielders) is always striking because they only need 3 skills. Wings need 4, def and mids 5.

Fair enough mate, fair point but I still think you can train him up, even with that passing and his pace too, that's all I'm saying. With skills that low, he'd pop quickly.

I've trained many a player with low passing so I wouldn't be fazed by it.

The chances are, his tech would reach outstanding by the time he hits 21, without actually needing to train it. Likewise for other skills. I suppose it helps having a top coach...

I'm not saying he's the best player or anything like that, just saying he's nice.

I trained this guy up from 17yo (excellent)...

Dennis Sheringham, age: 21
club: Chuck Norris FC, country: England
value : 515 400 £
wage: 5 055 £
superdivine [18] form
brilliant [14] tactical discipline
height: 176 cm, weight: 71.3 kg, BMI: 23.02
bookings:
good [7] stamina hopeless [1] keeper
incredible [13] pace magical [15] defender
outstanding [12] technique adequate [6] playmaker
excellent [10] passing good [7] striker


From...

tragic [0] stamina
hopeless [1] keeper
very good [9] pace
good [7] defender
hopeless [1] technique
hopeless [1] playmaker
good [7] passing
poor [3] striker
(editado)

He’s a fantastic defender, congratulations. Get the pace to unearthly as soon as you can.

Better player, younger and you trained him in the right direction because he's clearly a defender.

The problem with the other player is by training passing, you're trying to fix a problem that doesn't need fixing. Using him in the midfield will require a lot of passing training that could be used elsewhere. If he's a defender, general training will sort that passing out to an OK level. If he's a striker, passing isn't needed at all.

Ok put it another way. Playmaking 8, passing 1.
If it was Playmaking 5 and Passing 4, would you still see a midfielder?

I'd say either a defender or striker, maybe. You could train him in all sorts, just depends what you fancy to do with him.

If I promoted him and had the space, I'd give him a go and see how he got on. If his progress was slow I'd sell him. However, I'd hope he was.

As I keep saying, I'm not saying he's a special player, he's just nice. I wish I had a team full of special 17/18 yos but sadly I don't. Actually, I don't have any decent youngsters coming through at the moment so even a player like this catches my eye. Young and English but I don't have space in my side just at the moment...

Cheers mate. I'm currently training him tech but pace will soon follow!!

@Camus...

Just out of curiosity and not getting funny about our chat mate... But what would you train this 16yo (good) player in?

weak [4] stamina tragic [0] keeper
average [5] pace adequate [6] defender
unsatisfactory [2] technique average [5] playmaker
hopeless [1] passing tragic [0] striker

What would you say he looks best for in the future?

He's now 19 and I've been torn as to what to align him to. I'll share his latest skills after you have a little guess, as I'm interested. Note, this guy has hopeless passing, hence why I'm interested to hear what you'd say/suggest.
(editado)

100% a defender.
As for the order he's trained in, there's a general consensus that you train pace first but I'm not really a fan of that way of thinking.

What I'd be looking to do is rotate between pace, tech and defence over 2 seasons to try and get them roughly the same. Let general training take care of Passing and Playmaking.

So I was thinking a midfielder or possibly (a long shot) but even a striker...

He's currently at this level at the moment and I'm training him tech:

very good [9] stamina tragic [0] keeper
outstanding [12] pace excellent [10] defender
formidable [11] technique solid [8] playmaker
average [5] passing weak [4] striker

I'm hoping he'll get into England U21 side soon! Maybe next year.

Doesn't have the passing or playmaking to play midfield. He could have, but doesn't mean he should when he's a natural centre back.
Pace and defending and he walks into the U-21's.