Between the Lines - Build your Dream Team in 5 Easy Steps

Source: (link)
Comment: Well, this is a far more recent article from the Bottom Divisions Federation newspaper Between the Lines. I have done these 5 easy steps and you are immediately forced to think about how you want to play and what players fit in best with this tactic. Make yourself only buy those players that fit in. By example buying a 'cheap' winger that doesn't fit in your plans, you train scoring and always play 3-4-3 without a winger, is quite expensive actually. Credit to Ainvar for this nice article and BTL for making a very interesting publication.

Build your DREAM TEAM in 5 (that's V for you HT-heads) Easy Steps

While tactical choices in HT are imposed on us by our training regimens, quite a bit of flexibility in tactical choices is possible, even for traditional playmaking, scoring, defending, or winger trainers.
The sad thing is, most users build their team haphazardly, looking only at good deals for players on the transfer list or buying "standard" X main skill with Y secondary players. This, in turn, significantly limits their tactical options even more than their training type does. All of a sudden, they are forced to play essentially the same lineup, week after week, switching up only which side their offensive winger is on or where to focus their defensive strength.

But with careful planning ahead, you can dramatically increase the tactical flexibility and unpredictability of your team, without sacrificing training.

Step I Identify your two formations

Every training type has at least two viable tactics associated with it.
Scoring: 3-4-3, 4-3-3
Playmaking: 3-5-2, 4-5-1
Defense: 5-4-1, 5-3-2
Winger: 3-5-2, 4-5-1
Keeper trainers may of course play whatever tactic they wish. May I recommend 3-5-2 and 3-4-3?

Step II Choose tactics

Do you want to Counterattack? AIM? AOW? Press? Every team should have the ability to do at least two of these.
Ideally, you want one agressive tactic and one defensive tactic, so a scoring trainer could choose to be able to play AIM and CA, while a Winger trainer might work on AOW and Pressing as his strong suits.
Tactics don't have to be limited to the official tactics. You can play a "storm the middle" style, or an "overload one wing attack" or a "lots of [Head] specialists and special events" system, to name a few.

Step III Build a Dream Team

Without choosing skill levels, build a theoretical team that you would ideally like with descriptive adjectives.

Types of players:
F - Forward
DF - Defensive Forward
IM - Inner Midfielder
OIM - Offensive Inner Midfielder
DIM - Defensive Inner Midfielder
WTM - Winger Towards Middle
W - Balanced winger
OW - Offensive winger
DW/OWB - Defensive winger/Offensive wingback
WB - Wingback
CD - Central defender
OCD - Offensive central defender
(IM's towards wing are generally agreed to be useless, though a counterattacking or AOW team might want to use one. They tend to match the characteristics of WTMs or OWs. WB towards middle are just CD type players.)

Add a (p) if you want your player to have passing for tactic skill in a position that usually doesn't require it as a secondary.

At this point you should also add any specialties you consider indispensable, as well as special notes. For instance, perhaps you want all your defenders to have experience since the rest of your team is young. Or maybe you want your set piece taker to be a forward so that you get some long shots. Don't forget a captain!

From the list above, choose a set of players you would find tactically interesting.
Remember to indicate subs in important positions, or to choose your A team with enough depth. Make your player selection satisfy all your chosen tactics and formations.

Step IV Select skill and subskill levels for your dream team

This is when you start being more realistic. What players you have already fit into your grand plan? What level players will you be able to afford in the near future? What is a goal date for you to have your dream team by? Which positions do you want to purchase first? Of course, once you've got your tactically flexible dream team, you can begin upgrading it. Just make sure that player secondaries stay just as good while main skills increase, and your tactical options should remain the same as you upgrade.

Begin hunting the transfer list for perfect players. Unless you intend to hold a player for a short time and then resell him (daytrading or just as a stop gap technique for an injury or a card) don't buy a player, no matter how cheap, unless he fits into your overall plan.

Don't forget to purchase experience, set pieces, specialties, and the ability to be team captain!

Step V Reap the benefits

Now you have a flexible team, you can play various tactics, and your series mates worry about playing against you. Now is the time to learn your players inside and out, to experiment with how good your ratings can get in various situations, and to really bring your whole squad together as a well-oiled machine.

Remember to play both your formations, at least in friendlies every once in a while, so that you maintain formation experience.

***

Here's an example from my own squad.
I'm a scoring trainer.

Step I
3-4-3 (main) and 4-3-3

Step II
Two-prong attack
Storm the middle
Counterattack

Step III
Forwards - Trainees. Not too much passing since I don't play much AIM. But enough so they sell. [Head] if possible.
Midfield - OIM, DIM, DIM/OCD, WTM/OIM, W(quick)
Defense - CD(p), 2x WB(p), CD/OCD(p)

Step IV
I'm not going to tell you. I don't want my future opponents to know what kind of players I plan to buy. Suffice to say I set a minimum main skill level and a minimum secondary level. I plan to find a SP taker somewhere in my D, and I'm letting specialties happen randomly except the OW.

Step V
My standard setup will be 3-4-3 with a CD or OCD, two WB's, and either a WTM or a WO. This is my "two-prong" attack--central and one wing--which should keep my opponents on their toes.
Now, if I want to play 4-3-3 CA, I have my four defenders with passing and I'll play my two best form midfielders and winger.
If I want to storm the middle, I'll play my two OCD candidate players, and my OW with some playmaking as WTM.
Chances are, between the passing defenders and the OIM and WTM players, and the passing on forward trainees, that I'll also have a decent AIM. But this is a side bonus and I'm not building my team for it.

That's it! Now all I have to do is spend hours on the TL until I find my dream team for the right price.

By Ainvar