(Note: These notes are for people who manually complete a turnsheet. The majority of players now use TeamPick for creating and emailing their turnsheets)
To differentiate between your orders and your results, the former is generally called a TEAMSHEET, while the latter is known as a SQUADSHEET.
At the top of the sheet is the simplest part to complete. Here you must write your name, the name of your team, what League you are in, what division within that league, and what session the orders are for. Please ensure that you get these bits of information corrects, otherwise you might end up losing out. Below this is the section of the sheet that deals with your expenditure of success points from the last session. Here you mark your coaching of performance levels, your P/S training, and whether or not you choose to turn any of the SP’s into cash. Also here is the section of the sheet when you can designate the use of two PP’s to restore a player currently under the effects of an All-Season Injury. (Note: only an all-season injury can be treated like this, not lesser ones. All-Season injuries show as being injured for 99 games on the results sheet when they happen).
The spaces below this part of the sheet are for noting down any Scouting we wish to do over the next session, plus any finances we wish to allocate to either Tactical ploys, or Extra Scouting Information. To be successful with you scouts, you must ensure that you are scouting the right team, at the right venue, playing the correct opponents. In the next part of the sheet, we must negotiate contracts with any player that is currently on four weeks or less of his existing contract. The section marked for Auction bids is only to be completed if there is an Auction list in the current Newsletter, and you wish to try and purchase a player from it.
You may not bid for any player or item more than once, and unless we are instructed otherwise, your bids will stop after the first successful purchase. The transfers section allows us to unload our players onto the Non-league sides, or to conduct deals with other managers. In this part of the team sheet, you must be very clear about your intentions. Details on your team sheet must match the details written on the team sheet of any other managers involved in the deal, otherwise it will fail. Note also that the six slots show a maximum number of deals that can take place in any one session.
The last part of the sheet is there for us to pass messages on to other players through the press column, to query the GM on any matter, and to highlight any turn fees sent in with the orders. If there is a matter that needs resolving BEFORE the orders are processed, then it is wise to make sure that it is very clear to us, or that it is written on a separate sheet of paper entirely. Also note that unless your credit is entered on the sheet, it is possible that a cheque could be left, overlooked, inside an envelope and simply discarded. The reverse of the turn sheet is where we actually pick the teams and tactics we will use in the matches we have lined up for that session. There are three boxes available for our teams, clearly marked as MATCH ONE, TWO and THREE. The manner in which you fill these boxes in is the way in which your teams will be picked.
ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE CHECKED THE PROCESSING ORDER OF THIS SESSION’S GAMES!
If you enter your Friendly match as Match Two, and then put your Cup team down as Match Three, you are most likely going to find yourself with a superb win in a meaningless friendly match, and a sorry exit from the Cup! Choose your team in logical order, starting with a Keeper and/or Sweeper, and then listing all of your Defenders, then Midfielders, then finally your Forwards.
The Substitutes position should always be filled in as well, despite whether you believe that you need one or not, if you don’t fill in the Sub’s box, then be prepared to pay the consequences.
After all the players have been entered, we then tally up the skill totals of each one, and write them in the Sub Totals boxes below. Remember that players such as MF/A, MF/D and MF/A/D all add their levels to more than one area of the team, and these additional playing levels should be recorded here too.
Also, this is the first time the `Three Times Rule’ is checked, in that no outfield area can have more than three times the total skill levels of any other area.
For example, a team with a DF total of 13, MF total of 37 and FW total of 26 would be acceptable, while a team with DF 12, MF 39 and FW 27 would not. If this rule is broken, then the computer will rearrange your side in the manner it finds easiest to deal with, which normally entails moving your best player from the offending area into the offended one. And, for most players, this will result in the subsequent loss of performance levels for playing Out Of Position!
The additions columns below your Sub Totals are where you place the more subtle tactical choices, including the bonus levels gained from Home Advantage (or Playing Defensively), your Captain’s influence levels, any Aggression points you choose to use, and finally, any Motivation Points you desire. The Final totals are then added together, and they too must be checked against the `Three Times Rule’ as they were at the Sub Totals stage. It is always wise to double check these figures, as they are the ones that you will actually field in the game, provided you have made no errors of judgment in the above procedures. Below this is the Playing Style option, one of which you should select unless your sides conforms to no particular style at all. Remember that it is no use selecting a Style if your team formation does not conform to the requirements of that style. Finally you can then enter any marking you intend to use in the game, provided that you know the marking numbers of your opponents, which must have been gained through Extra Scouting Info, earlier in the same season. Once you have filled in one Match, then you can move on to the next of your fixtures for the session and repeat the process. The only difference here concerns the picking of newly discovered APP’s, or the subsequent qualification of the same. If a newly discovered APP was discovered in Match One and is also chosen to play in Match Two, then you should simply leave the Squad Number blank when entering his details for Match Two. He does not have a Squad Number as yet, and he has already been `discovered’, so there is nothing you can enter here at all. If an APP or SBY has qualified in an early Match on the same session, then they will play in any subsequent matches at their new performance level of 2.
Last, but by no means least, you must fill out the fourth box on the back of the sheet. Here you select the Penalty Taker for the session, whether you want to use up a Physio Point or not, the details of any Youth Players that may be discovered this session, along with any further investment in this option, money placed into both Supporters Club and Ground Development whether or not you wish to install the expensive modifications to your Pitch, and finally, whether or not you wish to change your designated Captain for the games this session.
Please don’t overlook this box, as in the cases of Penalty Taker and Youth details in particular, it may prove very costly if you leave it completely blank. Failure to choose a Penalty Taker will mean that the computer selects one of you team at random to take any spot kick you are awarded, while ignoring the Youth option will result in the forfeit of any player discovered through this option on the current session. Better safe than sorry, eh?
See also…