Asunto: The "give your team the hairdryer treatm

it's official, the woodwork hates me. it's so sad i don't know whether to laugh or cry

at least i made my 20 goal target, but the woodwork denied me of more that 10 goals i'm pretty sure...

boo-ooo
=D

Was just looking at the coutries statistics, and I must say, it isn't looking too good at all, I don't think I've ever seen this big a gap between divisions in Australia

60.2 A-League
48.0-46.0 Division II
30.6-21.7 Division III
18.8-16.5 Division IV


Our new users list goes all the way back to when Krayzee Coconuts first joined Sokker (Before Tong, Oowie, Snappa, Vivski, Minkee, Fantum, sx and uber)


I decided to look at this when I checked out the NZ premier league and realised I hardly recognized
any of the current teams.

That's my 5th season in II and my team ratings are just only matching yours when you were in II.4...
I admit I could have taken the easy road, buy 25+ foreign players and have better results, it would have shorten it by a season or two at most.

This is just a slow process to get at the top; I think the gap between AL and II is big and the one between II and III is as well. When I see Naph buying these multi-millions dollars players like there's no tomorrow I'm just thinking the road just gets longer and longer each day.

Sorry :(

I'm not trying to kill other's interest in the game, honest.

I was on the slow-build for a long time and am currently in probably the most "win-now" configuration I've ever had my team in. I'll pay for it in the future as for $$$ I should be selling my entire midfield now. I can't bring myself to do it however, so I'll pay for that eventually.

I've been thinking of putting together a strategy post on list-management. I don't think I'm even close to being the best tactician around, but I've been pretty decent on the managerial side of the game.

Ha, I don't think he's blaming you, just using the gap as an example.
You've certainly done the best in recent seasons at progressing forward, but as Cometer proved, not unbeatable.

I also think a lot of your success has come from continuing to be active. The last few seasons have seen some A-League teams becoming bots, and even more just plodding along rather than growing. Really, if we all (teams of the same age) remained active and didn't plod, we may not be quite as good, but the gap would definitely be closer

I'm not blaming you :)

You're doing great on the managing side for sure!
We've seen you limitations in the CC and against Cometer last week though :p

What would be a killer would be to have both... I think we've been lucky to have either good tactician or good manager in the past so far.

I'm not trying to kill other's interest in the game, honest.

If anything you're increasing mine because I'm trying not to let you get too far ahead. I think I'm about 1 season behind you player wise at this stage. Cash wise I'm roughly the same.

Vivski isn't too far away either, just needs a few high scoring midfielders and a striker.

There are no short cuts in this game...

Unfortunately the biggest shortcut in the game has been decreased over the past seasons. With the right tactics (and not necessarily luck) you could overcome almost anyone, and with a decent scoreline, but with all the improvements (which seemed like good ideas), it seems to be harder and harder to have tactics crack teams even only a little better. And I don't mean one off beating them, because that can still happen, but regularly.

you're giving me an excuse :)

I feel good players are quite affordable these days... probably cause more people are reaching the top and maximising players more easily than before.

With the right tactics (and not necessarily luck) you could overcome almost anyone, and with a decent scoreline, but with all the improvements (which seemed like good ideas), it seems to be harder and harder to have tactics crack teams even only a little better. And I don't mean one off beating them, because that can still happen, but regularly.

That's because the top have got such elite players now across the park making it pretty hard unless they do something horribly wrong tactically to lose even with tactic choice. Back earlier whilst sides were strong, most weren't super freak players and there were often pickable holes. The match engine has become a bit static too which probably doesn't help either.

I don't think you'll see many bad tactics in the A-League nowdays. The teams competing for qualification should be able to win by bringing out a good tactic. You can't expect to beat the top team if you're running lower in div 2, and I don't think that was ever the case.

Those stats don't really tell the story, 'cos the top teams in div 2 are still pushing A-League type ratings.

Everyone had decent tactics now, but I think using a static tactic is almost bad as having a bad tactic. Only a team with players so much better than everyone else (like tribe) can get away with it.

You could even argue Tribe doesn't get away with it either ;). I've beaten them 2 of the past 4 times I've played them in official matches (not counting juniors/friendlies).

I'm counting the juniors :)