Run for your life..

I'll give you some secret info. This is like at uni when the professor told the few poor souls that met up for the 8 am lecture on Mondays what stuff they really should focus on before the exams. Same thing here, if you found the blog, I'm happy to share some information with you.

Today's topic is Acceleration and Pace. How important are these attributes to boost the average ratings for players in certain positions?

I did a screendump of all players in their respective positions in Clough before it closed down, and here is what i found. I'll even throw in new and revised Jumping attributes..

Again, no guarantee for any sort of validity to these numbers, but I think they are fair to use as a guide as a minimum.. :)

DLs: Acc: 9th - Pac: 3rd - Jum: 1st
DCs: Acc: 3rd - Pac: 5th - Jum: 1st
DMs: Acc: 13th - Pac: 7th - Jum: 2nd
MCs: Acc: 4th - Pac: 28th (!) - Jum: 2nd
AMs: Acc: 5th - Pac: 15th - Jum: 3rd
STs: Acc: 2nd - Pac: 5th - Jum: 4th

MLs are not included due to the simple fact that I normally play 4-3-3, so why focus on players I will never buy?

So as you can see, some differences for Jumping compared to my previous post which was based on Nicholson stats!

Now go get those Jumping 20 players from your GW!

So you think you can Jump?

It is with great interest I read the posts in the FML beta forums where people say jumping and speed are the only attributes needed to get a good team nowadays in FML.

Well, the proof is in the pudding. Over the weekend I created some scripts for my MBP to easily grab screenshots from FML and convert them to hard numbers to play around with.

The results were found through regression analysis, with (almost) all attributes set up as independent variables and average rating as the dependent variable. Criteria for the filters were 20+ major appearances and only players playing in a specific position were included to avoid false data.

In this scenario, a positive outcome means that an attribute has a higher chance of increase the average rating, a negative outcome means that the attribute is less important for the average rating.

Here are the Jumping B-coefficients, note that these numbers are by no means decisive, but I think they offer an indication of the ranking of attributes for specific positions:
GKs: 0.084 - 8th most important attribute
DCs: 0.357 - 1st most important attribute
DL/Rs: 0.395 - 1st most important attribute
MCs: 0.067 - 9th most important attribute
ML/Rs: 0.032 - 14th most important attribute
STs: 0.105 - 7th most important attribute

The conclusion? If you want to get high average ratings for your defenders, you definitely need someone with high jumping attributes! :)

More to follow.. Perhaps some stats around pace and acceleration. I'm waiting for players to get enough matches in Miller so I can get some updated numbers from there too..

Oh, and one more thing. I'm not really going to hand over to you the list of the important attributes.. Where would the fun be in that? ;)

When to close down your YAs?

First things first. I don't believe youth academies are wortwhile in their current format. At least not in the long run. The demand is just too high, and supply is perfectly inelastic given the need of balancing the total potential in a GW.

But let's have a look at the numbers, that's why we are here.

Let's define the average market price as it would be if all graduates were sent directly to transfer auction.

I'd say something along the lines of this in a well-established GW:
5.0*: £3m
4.5*: £1.5m
4.0*: £500k
3.5*: £200k
3.0*: £20k

How can someone predict these numbers I hear you say. Well, I can't. Still, I think they give a rough estimate of the average market value for players in a GW.

In my live GW i found the following youth distribution of potential for one season:
5.0*: 15
4.5*: 31
4.0*: 81
3.5*: 235
3.0*: 450

So in total, youth for one season are worth:
£3m*15 + £1.5m*31 + £500k*81 + £200k*235 + £20k*450 ≈ £200m

We will assume that 75% of youth are generated through YAs = £150m.

Every graduate costs £25k in running costs to produce (running cost of academy / graduate output). The equlibrium can be calculated as total youth market value from academies / graduate cost: £150m / £25k = 6000 graduates each season in the GW.

This roughly comes down to 700 3* academies.

So there you have it. Once you see more than 700 academies in your GW you really should close down your academies and spend your hard earned cash elsewhere.

Of course, this doesn't take into account the start-up costs for the YAs. If we expect a 3 year lifetime for the YAs we build, we can add around £15k pr graduate in construction costs and the total cost for a graduate wil be £40k.

Taking into consideration these costs, you should probably close down your academy after around 400 academies have been established in your GW.

From a financial perspective, to have the slightest chance of expecting a positive return from your YAs, you should go all-in from the start of the GW with the knowledge that you will have to pull out once enough academies have been established in the GW.

Practically speaking though, my gut feeling is that the overall equilibrium numbers shown here are too high, and that YAs never will be worthwhile if you choose this route as a way of improving your finances graph.

Of course, unless you manage to find some obscure country producing raw talent day in and day out!

Get the most out of your skill points

I'll give you three simple rules to follow when distributing your hard earned skill bonus points after reset. First you need to prioritize your specialization areas from 1 to 5.

#1: Pick 5* learning in specialization area 3 and 4
#2: Spend the rest of your bonus points in specialization area 1 and 2
#3: Do not learn any learning skills in areas where you are distributing bonus points

#1: Pick 5* learning in specialization area 3 and 4
This is where you will spend most of your time learning skills after reset. It is also where it takes the longest to learn new skills, 25% reduction of the time taken here is essential in the long run.

#2: Spend the rest of your bonus points in specialization area 1 and 2
Chances are that you will max out at least one specialization with your remaining bonus ponts. If you have a decent amount of points, you will come quite far in specialization area 2 as well. There is always the trade-off that you could do some learning skills for specialization 2 if you will be learning this area for 50+ days, but do not let this influence your choice of spending your skill points on 5* learning in specialization 3 and 4.

#3: Do not learn any learning skills in areas where you are distributing bonus points
Simples. You want to get as much as you can from your bonus points. For every point you put into a area you already have a learning skill in, you essentially lose 25% of the net worth of that point.


Personally, I will choose Finance and Scouting as my specializations 1 and 2. Coaching and Physio will be my 3rd and 4th choice. The reason being that both Finance and Scouting need 5* of a skill to get the wanted results (Commercial and JP). Coaching and Physio however, only require 4* to achieve the wanted results (Attribute training & Injury specialization). Infrastructure is just not worth it for me, as I will only bother with stadiums. I'll get the essential skills up to 3* at some point, and that should be enough for my construction expenses.

Happy skill distribution..