Each player has a training report that can be viewed on the Individual Training screen or on the Training section of his Development tab. A player’s training report displays an up to date summary of key information relating to his training and fitness. This information is grouped into three categories, Feedback, Individual Training and Fitness, each of which is explained below.
Feedback
On the Feedback panel one of your coaches will provide you with any useful information he is aware of regarding the player’s training performance, including his attitude to training, and training happiness.
He will also comment on any match experience requirements that he believes are important for the player to further his development. In particular, he may mention that the player would benefit from more playing time or from playing at a higher level.
If you are viewing the report from the Individual Training screen then clicking View Player’s Development will take you to the Training section of the player’s Development tab where you can also choose to view the opinion of a different coach if you wish.
Training Performance
Further to the feedback available at any time on each player’s training report, your assistant manager will send an overall training report to your inbox at the start of every month highlighting impressive performances and concerning performances during the previous month. This can be useful in bringing your attention to good and poor training performances if you do not regularly check the Individual Training screen. You can also view notable performances, both good and poor, on the Training Overview screen.
In addition, on the Training section of a player’s Development tab you can view the changes over the previous twelve months in any group of attributes by clicking the icon to the left of each attribute. You can automatically select the attributes trained by any of the general training focuses or additional focus roles using the Highlight drop-down (regardless of whether these focuses have actually been used).
If a player has performed poorly in training then you can ask him to step up his efforts by selecting Criticise Training Level (or alternatively Criticise Youth Development for young players) from the Discuss Training drop-down on his training report or from his Interaction drop-down. You may also want to consider increasing his individual workload, as discussed below.
If a player has performed well in training then you may want to assess his attribute ratings and decide whether to amend his training accordingly. For example, if you want him to improve lower rated attributes that you consider to be important for him then you may want to switch his additional focus to a different attribute when the attribute currently being focused on has improved by a certain amount. You may also want to praise his training performance in order to increase his morale and develop his relationship with you. This is done by selecting Praise Training Level (or alternatively Praise Youth Development) from the Discuss Training or Interaction drop-downs.
Individual Training
On the Individual Training panel you can view the player’s individual workload and current training happiness, while you can also set up each type of individual training.
Individual Workload
A player’s individual workload is initially determined by the team training overall workload, which was discussed earlier. Giving a player any individual training will then add to his individual workload, with each additional type of individual training that is set further increasing his workload.
Each type of individual training contributes a different amount to a player’s individual workload. Additional focus (light intensity), position training and player trait training each add a small amount to the workload, additional focus (average intensity) adds a slightly larger amount to the workload, and additional focus (heavy intensity) adds an even larger amount to the workload.
The heavier a player’s individual workload is the more benefits he will gain as a direct result of the extra, or more intensive, training he undertakes. For example, setting a greater amount of general training, more intensive general training or a more intensive additional focus will have a greater effect on a player’s attribute ratings, while setting position training will allow him to play more effectively in a different position.
However, a player may become unhappy with training if he believes his workload is too heavy, although on the other hand he may become unhappy if he believes it is too light. A heavier individual workload can also cause fitness issues.
The effects of heavy workloads on both happiness and fitness are discussed further below, along with advice on managing workloads.
Training Happiness
If a player is unhappy with training then this can potentially result in his morale falling, which can in turn affect his match performances.
There are many possible causes of training unhappiness for a player. These include:
- Giving him a workload that he believes is too heavy – a player with a less professional personality is more likely to become unhappy with a heavier workload. It is therefore beneficial to try to build a squad of players with more professional personalities, as discussed in the Squad Building guide.
- Giving him a workload that he believes is too light – a player with a more professional personality is more likely to become unhappy with a lighter workload.
- Not giving him a particular additional focus that he believes would be beneficial for him.
- Giving him individual training that he does not believe is beneficial for him.
- Giving him position training when he does not want to learn a position.
- Scheduling an amount of match preparation training that he believes is not enough.
- A poor standard of fitness coaching – the quality of coaching is discussed in the Assigning Coaches guide.
- A poor standard of goalkeeping coaching.
- Not giving him enough coaching attention in a training category – this is caused by the coaches’ workload for the training category being too heavy.
- Not using a fitness coach.
- Not using a goalkeeping coach.
However, in most cases where a player is unhappy with training it is possible to keep his morale high through good man management and team performances. Therefore, if you believe a player’s reason for being unhappy cannot or should not be resolved, for example because you want to give him a specific type of individual training as part of shaping his development, then you may want to simply keep a close eye on his morale.
Individual Training Time
A player’s individual training takes up a set amount of time which is in addition to the time he spends in team training. This means that whatever individual training is set for a player his team training is not affected. However, each type of individual training that he is given will take time away from the rest of his individual training.
The split of a player’s individual training time between the three types of individual training is shown at the bottom of the Individual Training panel. Each type of training takes up a different proportion of time, as follows:
Additional focus (average intensity) / position training – both take up roughly 2 times as much time as additional focus (light intensity).
Additional focus (heavy intensity) – takes up roughly 3 times as much time as additional focus (light intensity).
Player trait training – takes up roughly 4 times as much time as additional focus (light intensity).
If a player only undertakes one type of individual training then he will spend 100% of his individual training time on that particular type. However, if he undertakes two or three types of individual training then the time will be split using the above proportions.
The less time that a player has allocated to a particular type of individual training the less effective that training will be. Therefore, if you consider a particular type of individual training to be especially important then it can be useful to reduce or remove any other individual training.
The effects of spending more time on each type of individual training are as follows:
Additional focus – the training will have a greater effect on the attributes trained.
Position training – familiarity in the position will be gained more quickly.
Player trait training – the player will have a greater chance of learning the new move.
Fitness
On the Fitness panel you can view the player’s current condition, along with his match fitness or, if relevant, his injury status. In addition, your head physio may comment on the player’s fitness, informing you if he is jaded and possibly giving information on fitness related attributes.
The heavier a player’s individual workload is, the more likely he is to suffer from jadedness and training injuries, although other factors also have an effect, such as his fitness related attributes. You will therefore need to manage individual workloads so as to avoid incurring an excessive amount of training injuries, as discussed below.
Explanations of player fitness and fitness related attributes, as well as more detailed advice on managing player fitness, are provided in the Player Fitness guide.
Managing Workloads
If your squad is suffering from a large number training injuries then this may be because individual workloads are too heavy. A large number of players being unhappy with their workloads may also indicate that workloads are too heavy and could lead to poor squad morale, although individual unhappiness can potentially be managed as discussed above.
You can resolve these problems by either reducing the amount of individual training where necessary or reducing the team training overall workload. The latter is advisable if only a small amount of individual training has been set or if you want to gain more control over shaping the development of each individual player by concentrating on individual training more than general training.
Advice on managing the workloads of individual players according to their fitness related attributes is given in the Player Fitness guide.