All Youth Teambuilding

Probably half the managers in the game seem to be building all youth sides but a lot of projects aren't successful because managers fail to account for the 2 way average age rule and many of them lack suitable mentor players.

Starting the project

OK so you've cleared out your old players, or the ones you don't want, and it's time to start with a blank canvas. First off you need a strategy - how do you see your team developing.

It is at this stage you need to consider the formation(s) you plan on using in the future and build a team around that structure. You also need to consider what type of team you are going with - you might want  all players of the same age to peak at the same time, or you might want to build a conveyor. The team you want to build will dictate the players you want to buy.

Budget and Choose your players carefully

You have a budget - but this is a long term project (10-15 seasons or more) so you will need cash down the line to pay for training, buy new mentor players, maybe stopgaps. To build a successful side you very likely need 20m+ spare cash after you've bought your initial team. If you only have 30m then you need to budget maybe 10m for players, or consider spending a season generating some cash. More money = better players but a very good side can be built from 18/4 path players (circa 500k each) if done well.

You also need to put in careful consideration to the players you are buying at this time because they will be with you for the long haul. Some managers prefer SQ-laden players on a lower skill path to higher skilled vanilla players. Usually the goalkeeper and a freekicker are seen as the most important players so extra will usually be spent on these.

Evaluate all potential players. On the youth players teamwork isn't such a big deal because they will all converge over time. What you will need to be aware of is divas. Divas converge much more slowly so anything less than "good" teamwork isn't good enough. Teamwork on mentor players is more important so ideally look at good or better teamwork. I discuss the types of mentor players you need to be looking for in an earlier post. Ideally you need your team average age to be 24+.

Building a flat team structure

A flat team structure, where all players are approx the same age, will be the strongest in the long term but it will have a short window where the team is at it's maximum strength before players start to age, the 2 way average age rule affects your performance and then players start to retire. For this type of team you need to buy all your final team players right at the start plus mentor players. This could mean having 6 youth midfielders and 2 mentors. This is a lot of players to give experience to and this team benefits especially from holding some cash back to maybe buy an extra player when the team matures. Having a defender and midfielder with allround SQ can really help later on.

Building a conveyor

I briefly discussed building a conveyor team in an earlier post. With a conveyor you need to stagger the ages between players. As players get older and more skilled they need more games. Building a flat team suffers in this respect in that once everyone gets over about 22 it's very hard to get DV=AF on all the players. With a conveyor you can play more games with the youngsters to get better DV in the early years.

When starting a conveyor it is probably best not to buy all your youngsters in one go. What you can do is buy maybe 2 generations at one time. For example you may buy 2x 20/6 players and 2x 17/4 (or whatever path and ages you are working on  Only having 4 youngsters means they can get more match experience and DV in the earlier seasons which will be beneficial. After 3-4 seasons you can sell one of the developed 20/6s for a profit and buy maybe 1 more 17/4. Again another 3-4 seasons in you add an extra youngster.

Admittedly the first generation might be weaker  but it gets you competitive 3-4 seasons sooner and this approach allows a few seasons of pushing the DV a little harder and also a few investment players along the way to top up the bank balance.

Playing matches

When building a youth side there are 2 rules I always stick to. Firstly never let promotion/relegation get in the way of developing your players. Your team will achieve the success it deserves in time as long as you don't neglect your players.

The second rule is always play to be competitive. Many managers have had brilliant teams that got to the top but they were tactically naive. Play every game like it's important, make sure you are constantly aware of tactical issues. This doesn't necessarily mean paying for scout reports or big win bonuses (50k is always good) in the early days but look at the opposing team, play to get the best result possible. Losing every game badly will make it harder and more expensive to maintain form while gaining promotion will usually give a higher level of opposition helping your players gain DV faster.

Developing Players

To develop players to their best you need high DV and in part that is based on good form. Aim to keep your players form over 17 all the time, and look for 17 DV as a minimum for anybody under 23. Sometimes this means training players with green  form arrows who may look fine - more form is always better but it costs. Never ever be in the position of having to choose which player gets the training because you are short on funds.

Use substitutes. This will let the 2 players share more DV overall per game but also players get a heart after 13 games and this helps them perform better and therefore maintain form better. Even substituting a player on 90 minutes will count as a game for this purpose.