Direct Transfers

There are a number of things that are significantly different between direct transfers and normal transfers. Some of these are covered in the rules but I will go over some other things that are less well covered.

Clones

When a player is listed a clone is created. When the transfer is completed the original player is removed from the selling team and the buyer gets the clone player. Clones do differen in a number of ways from the original player:

• The clone has a different name.
• The clone has a mini-CR so can be under/over evaluated. This happens at the time of listing so any extra games or form changes won't affect the skill after he's been listed.
• The clone will usually have different teamwork to the original player.

If you do a direct transfer and sell a player you have listed then buy him back before the original transfer market transfer is completed then he will still be sold.

Name Changes

Players can normally only have their name changed once. This is not reset after a direct transfer.

Evaluations

Evaluations of players in your league cost 150k regardless of player value. On the player page the evaluation will ONLY show the teamwork of the player, not any hidden SQs. In the transfer page it will show hidden SQs - which is possibly a bug.

Agents fees

OK this is in the rules but probably deserves repeating. The agent fee for a direct transfer is 15% of the transfer fee, with a minimum of 250k and maximum of 1m econ.

Integrating defence & keeper

Traditional X11 wisdom dictates that the freekicker and the goal keeper are the most important players in the team. Here I'm going to post some thoughts on goalkeepers.

Basics

Keepers all have a save percentage stat, so you can easily check how successful a keeper has been during his career. One thing you have probably noticed is the better keepers don't seem to have massively amazing save percentages. Usually just a few points better than lesser keepers.

Generally speaking a bar of skill translates to about a 3% difference in save percentage. If all the players in both teams are of similar skill levels then 30-35% conversion rate might be typical, so around 65-70% saved. Dropping 2-3 bars on your keeper skill could realistically only be 1-2 goals a season - not necessarily something to get too worked up about.

But it's not that simple....

In the X11 team ratings there is a rating for the defense as a whole but the keeper isn't separated from this, and it appears X11 does treat the keeper and defence as a single unit, and my recent experiences suggest a really strong defender could be more important than a really strong keeper. Part of this is the reduction in chances a stronger defender will give but I also think defenders affect the quality of chances, so the liklihood they will score.

Recently I had a team who were bringing on a youth keeper, 18/5. The overall team strength was around 12/13 bars which was slightly good for the division but nothing special. He ended the season with a save percentage of 65%, which is pretty stunning for a youth keeper. I think the relative strength of the defence helped make the chances less potent somehow.

The team conceded 11 goals in 14 games, but he missed a game where I lost 5-0 (allrounder in goal) so his record was 6 goals conceded in 13 league games. I think big part of keeping the goal count low was  adjusting the style of play to suit the unusual circumstances of a youth keeper.

In most games I dropped the aggression down a notch on how I would usually play a notch less offensive than I usually do (so normal instead of offensive etc). Additionally I tended to play offside traps on marginal referees (S4/S5) in the belief reducing chances was more significant than conversion rate against such a weak keeper. I also didn't cheat in most games where cheating would usually be the case. There's scope for missing out on freekicks, but if you are carrying a very weak keeper I would say  conceding is much more of a risk.

2 of my other sides have started out as long term projects but reached the top as the keeper was on his way out. One was replaced with a 21/10 and the other with a 26/13 - and both sides went on to win the title despite having a disproportionately weak keeper.

A strong keeper is incredibly important for games where free kicks are likely to be significant but otherwise a very strong defender may be a better investment and is certainly a strategy worth testing.

Press release generator updated

Thanks to a fellow manager for expanding the Press Release Generator with a LOT more phrases to make it less repetitive. There are also buttons to modify it for female managers or female teams.

There is also a box for a player name now - you can leave this box blank if you wish.

The manager, who wish to remain anonymous, described the update as "more effort than any amount of press releases". I guess developing software isn't as easy as people might think.

Questions from Wayne - April 2014

The X11 crew recently put some user questions to Wayne, the longest serving of the Xpert Eleven Developers. The complete article can be found here but below I've  copied some of the key questions affecting team building & tactics:

Michelep asked, "We have the following figures for DV assimilation over Average Age. Is there any chance to fill in a few more blanks - especially just a year off so 30/24. Also people often wonder how much ME you get on really low AA - so a figure for 17?"

20 / 80%
25 / 99%
29 / 99%
33 / 80%

Wayne:
24 / 96%
30 / 96%
17 / 63%


Basilbrush303 asked, "Does having the Gold Heart still mean the player is less likely to retire when they get older or was that phased out sometime ago?"

Wayne: Yes, it still means the player is less likely to retire.


KingConan asked, "What advantages does a player with all visible SQ's have over a vanilla?"

Wayne: No other than what is described in the rules. A special quality always affect to a small extent but it´s only a few percentages better than a vanilla player.

OceanChief asked, "I would love to know if the crew see the current Youth Academy setup as working. From my point of view it is deeply flawed and it's implementation certainly put a dent in my enjoyment for the game. Or more generally, what are the plans for the future of the Youth Academy?"

Wayne: We are aware of that a lot of users dislike the youth academy. We would say that it does work but we understand the users who say it don´t as well. We are willing to change it but we don´t think it has been of high priority. The youth academy is somewhat complex and it needs to be well balanced. As I said, we will do something about it but don´t know when.

Advanced Tactics: Offside Traps & Playmakers

On with the statistical analysis. I looked at all my games within the last 3 years  and tried to see what I could work out from them. We are talking over 1000 games but I stripped out any friendlies or games where either side was playing any formation other than 352, 451, 442 and 541. These are probably the only formations that are regarded as being competitive in todays environment.

Additionally I only looked at home games. Away games tend to score less and concede more goals so a difference in playing styles in away games would bias the data. note also these figures are based on my teams so half the games I will be home, half away, and also reflect the various home advantages.

Offside Traps

One thing I checked for was offside traps. How much difference does it make, what about with different referees.

TPs v OST	NO	YES	S>=7	S=6	S=5
Chances	275	119	59	22	30
Goals	82	35	16	7	8
Conv	30%	29%	27%	32%	27%
Games	62	32	19	6	6
Cha/Game	4.4	3.7	3.1	3.7	5.0
Goals/Game	1.32	1.09	0.84	1.17	1.33

The above chart shows how effective through plays are in different situations and how many games are in the sample. For this data I only used games where the defence and midfield of the 2 teams was broadly similar strengths.

Playing TPs when the opponent doesn't use offside traps ends up with an average of 1.32 goals a game.    Looking at the games as a whole where the opponent played OST then there are only 1.09 goals/game.
This is not the whole story though. and I have broken down these chances according to the skill of the referee

I often play OST on S6 and S5 refs as a margin call. S6 refs look ok, but with a small sample of data. With S5 refs it really is negligable.

I would like to stress the sample sizes here are tiny, especially on S6/5 refs.

Using a playmaker

I also looked at the benefits of using a playmaker. Same sample data as above except I ONLY checked games where the away side pid a win bonus so I could filter out inactive teams.

When the home side didn't use a PM they scored an average of 0.8 goals/game. Using a playmaker increased this to 1.34 - a significant jump.

I then what happened depending on opponent marking options.

If the away side manages to mark the playmaker they reduce the goals massively to a goal a game. Marking anyone other than the PM helps a little weighing in at 1.3 goals/game conceded. Marking nobody at all is slightly weaker at 1.4 goals/game.

The moral of this story - always pick a playmaker, you probably still do better if he's marked than if you don't have one.

PM Marking	None	YES	Mark PM	Mark Any1	None
Chances	257	1258	215	1129	171
Goals	66	390	73	339	53
Conv	26%	31%	34%	30%	31%
Games	84	292	75	267	39
Cha/Game	3.1	4.3	2.9	4.2	4.4
Goals/Game	0.79	1.34	0.97	1.27	1.36

An interesting point is when I ran the data with matches where the home side was significantly stronger. Here's the same chart as above:

PM Marking	None	YES	Mark PM	Mark Any1	None
Chances	347	1088	128	1068	239
Goals	115	403	43	390	86
Conv	33%	37%	34%	37%	36%
Games	70	195	35	193	39
Cha/Game	5.0	5.6	3.7	5.5	6.1
Goals/Game	1.64	2.07	1.23	2.02	2.21

Now the home side gets more chances and scores more goals. Having a PM adds less benefit now than if the sides are close. and if you manage to mark the PM then you gain a MASSIVE benefit. It seems if you are facing significantly weaker opposition then using a PM is potentially more of a risk than it is worth.

Making a league homepage

If you want to do a web page for your league X11 gives you a useful tool to help. There's a script that lets you get the league table for each division and put it onto your own web page - as shown above. There are other options too, such as the last round of matches, coming games etc.

If you are a league admin go to your League Info menu then choose "settings"

On the right hand side of the screen there is a hyperling labelled "External league script" - click on this and the rest is easy. Just setup things the way you want and generate the script. 

You will need to be admin to get the script but you don't need to be logged in to run it so you can just modify the following with your league ID, or any league ID.

<script language="JavaScript"  src="http://www.xperteleven.com/standingsExternal.aspx?Lid=822313&Div=1&SWO=1&SEV=1&SLO=1&SLR=1"></script>

Feb/March 2014 updates

The following are the major update from March 2014:

Increased number of possible substitutions in friendly games to 5

Gold heart addition - Player with gold heart will perform an extra 3% better than players with heart if your team is losing

The most significant update in february was this;

added player injury stats to the player page