Training
Training is how your players get better. Every week your squad trains, and some of them improve their skills. Training works the same way in the free and premier games, but the premier games give you much more control over it.
How training works
Each type of training works on particular skills:
- General training: two skills, which change from week to week
- Passing practice: passing and marking
- Short plays: tackling and reflexes
- Shooting practice: shooting and handling
- Long plays: speed and heading
Not every player improves every week. Young players improve fastest. Players in their prime improve more slowly, and once they are past their peak they rarely improve and slowly start to lose their skills. Intelligent players pick things up more quickly.
The harder players train, the faster they progress, but hard training tires them and makes injuries more likely.
After each turn, the training report on the training page tells you who improved, and by how much.
In the free games
Training is kept simple. In Club > Training, choose one type of training for the whole squad, and up to two players for intensive training. Intensive training helps them improve faster, at the cost of more tiredness and a higher risk of injury.
Good players to train intensively are young players with promise, or a player whose weak skill is holding your team back. Change them now and then, so nobody stays tired for long.
In the premier games
You set training for each player, not just the squad. In Club > Training, choose each player's type of training, including penalty practice, and how hard he trains:
- Light: the least tiring and the least risk of injury, but slower progress, and skills fade a little more
- Normal: the usual balance
- Intensive: the fastest progress, but the most tiring, with the highest risk of injury
So you can push a young prospect hard, give a tired player a lighter week, and keep a veteran ticking over.
A good head coach helps all your players improve faster. Without one, your assistant coach runs training. See Team Staff.
You can also send the whole squad to a spa for a week instead of training. It lets them rest and recover their fitness, and lifts their spirits a little. The better spas help more but cost more, and you have to wait a while before the next visit.
Tips
- Train for what your team needs: if you keep conceding, work on tackling and marking; if you cannot score, work on shooting.
- Keep an eye on fitness. A player worn out by intensive training will not play at his best on match day.
- Your best young players are worth the most time in training: they have the most to gain.
- Read the training report each week to see whether your training is paying off.