Squad Management in Soccer Manager Worlds

Part of being a good manager in Soccer Manager Worlds is what I call “good squad management”. It’s just as important as being successful in the transfer market and getting results right on the pitch.

I think I do this aspect of the game quite well, as since “Player Concerns” were introduced many years ago, not one of my players have developed a “Lack of Games” concern.

If you aren’t familiar with “Player Concerns” or in particular the “Lack of Games” concern, then I highly recommend you read the Help article titled (believe it or not) “Player Concerns“. The article covers all of the different “Player Concerns” within Soccer Manager Worlds. I think the most important part of the article is the section on “Lack of Games” because this is the most common concern that managers encounter.

I previously wrote an article titled “Squad Cap or No Squad Cap – That is the Question!” as this topic has been debated on our forums numerous times and it’s always a heated subject. I’ll try and summarise the article for those that don’t want to revisit it but I do recommend spending some time reading it.

The general consensus is that certain managers hog players. Numerous suggestions have been put forward on how to combat this problem, for example squad caps, but in my article I said that we’ve an unofficial limit in place with the recent changes to finances and concerns. I also touched on how I manage my squad and also give numerous examples of players with concerns in Game World ID 3065, which i’m currently managing in.

Is a squad cap a solution to player hogging and would it work?

I’ll try not to repeat myself in this article and I won’t use anyone elses squad as an example. Instead i’ll solely focus on my Castilla in Game World ID 3065 because I believe i’ve managed to get the right balance and this might help others keep concerns at bay.

I’ve already said that i’m quite proud that none of my players (either in my first / youth squads or loaned) out) have any concerns or had any in the past (if you exclude the old wage concern that has now been phased out). This is because I have a small squad of 21 players with a current average rating of 92. I have a dozen or so younger players out on loan and my first team is complimented with a handful of players in my youth squad that are rated 85-86.

So what is the makeup of my current first team squad? Well i’ll list it below in a simple format of Position | Rating | Appearances | % of Games Played and this is after playing 24 league, 7 SMFA Cup, the Charity Shield and one domestic cup game:

*Note that these players have only recently been signed or have had a long term injury and therefore weren’t available for selection.

If you’ve read the Help article titled “Player Concerns” you’ll notice that it states that when a player comes on as a substitute it’s classed as half an appearance. So if you take my F(RLC) 96 who has made 26 starts and 6 sub appearances, then that counts as 29 games for example. Also in Gold Championships, SMFA Cup group games aren’t taken into consideration, meaning that even though i’ve played 33 games in all competitions, only 27 of those are taken into account. So this will save any confusion if you’re trying to work out how I came to the percentage of games played.

One of the players with an asterisk, D,DM,M(C) 92 has only featured in 11(1) games or 42% of the total games so far this season. However, this isn’t too much of a concern because he was out injured firstly for 2 weeks 5 days with a groin strain and then again with the same injury for 4 weeks. This meant that he’s missed 19 games in all competitions. So therefore if I recalculate the total games he’s played out of those he’s been available for selection, he has featured in 11(1) of the 14 games and that is 82%.

It’s a similar story with the other players with an asterisk next to them and therefore I don’t have anything to worry about when concerns are run in Game World 3065 in the coming days.

I think my squad is quite well balanced at this moment in time and looking at the guidelines in the Help article titled “Player Concerns” I don’t think i’ll fall foul to them going forward:

• Your 5 highest rated players and those rated 94 or higher expect to play in approximately 80% of the number of Turns;
• Players rated 92 or higher expect to play in approximately 75% of the number of Turns;
• Players that would expect to be in your first choice line-up and those rated 90 or higher will expect to play in approximately 65% of the number of Turns;
• Players that would expect to be a substitute if you selected your first choice line-up and those rated 89 or higher will expect to play in approximately 30-40% of the number of Turns.
• The rest of the players within your squad will only expect to play a few (if any) of the number of Turns.

So what advice would I give? Keep a well balanced squad. Rotate your players.  Make use of substitutions. Finally sell players that you don’t need and don’t simply hog them for the sake of it. After all, if you’ve got the following to choose from: 94, 94, 96, 94, 99, 95, 94, 93 and a 99 for your attackers (yes this is a real example that i’ve come across), then you can’t complain when they are developing concerns because that is player hogging plain and simple.

About the author – Steven Gore

Steven is one of the co-founders of Soccer Manager and has been playing SM Worlds since August 2005. He can be found in Gold Championship 7 (Game World ID 3065) managing Castilla if you’d like to join him.

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