Asunto: National Team U21

Can’t recall if posted, but Collina now formid def -

adequate stamina tragic keeper
solid pace formidable defender
good technique very good playmaker
adequate passing hopeless striker

Thanks.

There will certainly be a drop off in defence next season from our current Magical/Bril/Bril/Outs def line

So I have been majorly procrastinating doing uni work and as such, have been sorting out a bunch of U21 stuff for next season.

We lost around 80 potential players with the age update, bring us down to about 130 to choose from (but I'd say more than half of these are in bot teams, or potentially no longer exist).

I have also, for fun, picked the U21/20/19/18 youth teams for a bit of your own enjoyment. MIDs have to be taken with a grain of salt, as it is very difficult to work out who is actually decent, and if they have low passing, they may not have been "selected" despite being one of the best mid potentials we have once Pass is trained

To start off, we say farewell to our current U21 team. Although not exhaustive, these are the players mostly used, who made this season what it was

GK - Newton - one of the best U21GK we've had, although we have been blessed with many great ones
DEF - Bailey - Lead what was a very strong defensive line this season
DEF - Reynolds
DEF - Selling - will be back next season to lead the defenders
DEF - Ho
DEF - Collina - at just 19, he was playing well above his paygrade
MID - Curcija - The shining light in a very weak midfield. Will be missed
MID - Beltrame
MID - Beldham
ATT - Trappe - Part of a very even set of strikers who all got game time
ATT - Fuller
--------------------------------
GK - Fihaki - Unlucky to get more game time, but will be out #1 GK for 2 more seasons to come
ATT - Theoklitos
ATT - Singleton
DEF - Slappa (Salapasidis) - probably never expected to make the team, but regularly filled the hole
MID - Wood - Not a bad midfielder for our 3rd best GK

We had a number of other defenders also fill in as mids, which shows just how weak our midfield was, with Boutsianis, Dunn, Worthy, Nelson, Graham all having a crack.
(editado)

Now for some of the exciting stuff. The next generation of U21's. Formation has not yet been thought about, and as such, tactics not set, but this will give a glimpse of those who are likely to see a lot of game time next season if I am in charge.

GK - Fihaki (20)
GK - Graham (21)/Farmer(19)
DEF - Selling (21)
DEF - Worthy (21)
DEF - Dunn (21)
DEF - Boutsianis (21)
DEF - Collina (20)
DEF - Jones(20)/Last(20)
MID - Rowley (21)
MID - Beldham (21)
MID - Rudan (20)
MID - Harnwell (21)/Jones (20)/Hill(19)
ATT - Singleton (21)
ATT - Trappe (21)
ATT - Gray(20)
ATT - Cole (21)/Maka (21)

As you can see, there are a few familiar names there. Mainly comprised of 21yos, with a couple of 19yos sneaking in as well.
Should be an exciting season, although the team is unfortunately getting weaker overall, which hopefully with a few new youth schools joining up, will help to stop the downturn and even make up start lifting in a few seasons

Finally, some underage teams. As I said, this is very unreliable for mids, especially ones with low passing who don't make the teams, but are some of our best mids if trained, but can't have underage teams without listing the mids.
All ages are ages as of NEXT season

U20
GK - Fihaki, Farmer (19)
DEF - Collina, Last, Jones, Collins (18), Nesic(19), Rudan
MID - Rudan, Jones, Hill(19), Ross(19), Mason
ATT - Gray, Elrich(19), Mathers, Silvagni(19)


U19
GK - Farmer, Moon
DEF - Collins(18), Nesic, Chen, D'Souza(18), Franklin(18)
MID - Hill, Ross, Nesic, Bishop, O'Connor (18), Hirons (18)
ATT - Elrich, Ross, McNally, Silvagni


U18
GK - Allen
DEF - Collins, D'Souza, Franklin
MID - O'Connor, Hirons, Franklin, Aguis, Diggins, Scarparolo (17)
ATT - Diggins, Aguis, Ponting, Chan, Karavatkis (17)


U17
GK - :(
DEF - :(
MID - Scarpa, Munn (don't actually know Munns skills)
ATT - Karavatakis


Keep the updates coming, and these teams may change. It will be interesting to see how they develop as time progresses

(editado)

Finally, some help when knowing who to keep when pulling youths.

Here are the wages of the 10th and 20th best players for their age group (age next season).
Even at 20, these players have a good chance of playing as not everyone will be trained, and they may be part of an area where we are in short supply

Age/10th wage/20th wage

21yo / 2 125 $/1 575 $
20yo / 1 225 $/950 $
19yo / 900 $/675 $
18yo / 600 $/we don't have 20 U18 players

16 and 17 we don't have 10 players
(editado)

Wow, managed to save our number 2 midfielder this season with some preplanning.

I played Maka Rowley for 5 minutes in our week 7 match against Latvija, so that he got his cap just in case he got fired/team went bot, and in the last 24hrs, the team who had him fired him, which saw him go to the TL.

I am in shock that it actually paid off, and to someone who will be useful for the U21 NT this season.

I guess I will be taking on Maka until I can unload him elsewhere

Do you have Maka's age/skills? Sorry, haven't looked him up yet.

Also, some further pops for Last -

Dheran Last , age 19
good stamina tragic keeper
formidable pace very good defender
hopeless technique hopeless playmaker
solid passing poor striker

This one isn't relevant for u21 anymore, but....
Nelson Salapasidis , age 21
good stamina hopeless keeper
excellent pace excellent defender
poor technique poor playmaker
weak passing good striker

Yeah Maka is currently on the TL.

Oh slappa, he really did try so hard and really helped fill that DM position.

He is a fair way behind ever making the senior NT so unless you can find someone to buy him, he may be having an early retirement.

Good to see with Last. Will have to see how his newly updated skills affects his chances of playing this season

Maka doesn't fit my training plans, but I have bid for Agius to fill one of my 2 def training slots.

Hopefully some of the teams, and the stage regarding wage above, help decide who is worth persisting with junior wise, when it comes to pulls.

For any individual player chances to discuss etc. feel free to contact me.

Nice job you make there, my friend! Good luck for new season!

Shame Devil’s not keen on a return. Lack of game development & Polish dominance main reasons he’s not interested...& time as well.
I’ve given him one last try to see if any chance just to set up team for NT training as would only need once a week log in to manage YS & hover around top of div2...which could peak interest later. :)

Don’t forget everyone to vote in the NAT and U21 elections which have commenced.

So with the new NT season about to start, thought it would be worth having a brief look back at the season.

Firstly here are the stats I posted at the start of the season

The current stats for the Aus U21 side.

Users: 12 (but realistically, 3 pulling, selling and training, with another 3 pulling but often getting lost in a non-training, non-playing role in their side)
Rank: 50
Rank points: 1587.30 - this always takes a hit in WC seasons
Number of players: 38
Average form: excellent
Average age: 19.9
Average value: 518 811 AU$
Total value: 19 714 800 AU$

Compared to now

The current stats for the Aus U21 side.

Users: 13 (but realistically, 3 pulling, selling and training, with another 3 pulling but often getting lost in a non-training, non-playing role in their side, although this may be starting to improve)
Rank: 54
Rank points: 1554.23
Number of players: 40
Average form: excellent
Average age: 19.9
Average value: 373 570 AU$
Total value: 14 942 800 AU$

So firstly, looking at the raw stat difference. I did mention in WCQ seasons, the rank points does take a hit, so only dropping 40 points, with a game to go, is an accomplishment in itself, especially given the group we were in.
Average age for the U21 NT side is the same, but our average value has taken a massive hit, losing about 25% value in one season.
Our rank has dropped 4 spaces which is a little frustrating, but we are in a clump of teams, so it can be pretty flexible over 10-15 places.

Results wise, we didn't get what we were after in the WCQ regarding points, but a lot of that was due to Honduras having a gun team, which despite being the in the 5th basket, managed to rate and come 3rd overall. We did however destroy their goal difference, which shows how well we performed against higher ranking teams without actually pulling in the points. We were on par with the 3rd basket team, LAtvija, who we beat in a friendly.

Friendly wise we won 4/5 against teams ranked (at the end of the season):

40 Paraguay U21 1901.36 (loss) 1-2
49 Latvija U21 1626.54 (win) 2-1
70 Pilipinas U21 985.67 (win) 1-0
56 Sakartvelo U21 (win) 1-0
57 El Salvador U21 1478.82 (win) 5-0

Remembering finished rank 54, so overall pretty good


Moving forward, we will be aiming to try and keep that 4th basket spot despite losing a lot of skill compared to the same time last season. Although we are only 6 places short of the 3rd basket, given the loss of skill, it will be a miracle if we can get there.

The plan was to go in the mini world cup, however the organizer has decided to make it an U20 MWC, which I have decided is not in our best interests to compete, one due to how quickly our skill level drops off, and two because it is a bit of a slap in the face for those who have trained players to the 21 age this season.

If anyone has any suggestions or would like a specific kind of match run, I am all ears, otherwise we shall hopefully keep progressing and training up our young guns both for the U21 NT, and in the future, the big time (which I have made sure to pass on last years 21yos so they can be followed over the coming seasons).