These players should be considered as those common real-life types, the ìnjury-prone’ footballer. The Darren Anderton and Jon Woodward type of player, always beset by injury. In effect a fader doesn’t add experience every time he plays, he loses it, so gradually, unless trained, his performance level will reduce. Obviously this raises a different set of problems for the manager. Do I train him, where do I train him too, and when is his level going to reduce (galling indeed when you rain him and the same session he loses that level). It’s even worse if he is a specialist who costs more levels to rain in the first place. Still, faders often cost much less to buy and put into your team, and aren’t to be dismissed out of hand like some do. Remember as well that once they get to level twelve they DO NO T fade any further as long as they don’t get injured.

A problem arises though if they go star as fading will start again and when they do fade they will go to a level eleven as losing a level has to reduce their performance level by one, and you can’t have a level eleven star thus the star status ones. Training them to thirteen is always a good idea, but this might be an on-going things a they lose a level at various times during the season! Better though to have a level 13 fading star than a level six ordinary player??

Another thing to remember about faders is that they ALWAYS stay faders. There are five levels of fader, from low fader to ?ou really don’t want one of them’ type of fader. At the end of every season a fading star slips down from where he was to the next worse level so over time a fading star is going to become worse and more difficult to handle. When he reaches the bottom rung he stays there for the rest of his career, hugging the bench and taking his wages, so to speak, until you get rid of him. Of course, every now and again their are different times in the auction that might well assuage these problems, but that’s in the lap of the Gods isn’t it??.

Risers, of course, are the type of player that everybody wants. This type of player rises automtcilly with games played in terms of perfomacne levels. In effect he receives an enhanced experince game every time he plays which means his level will rise much faster thn through nornal experience. As with faders there are five seperate levels of risers, Every season a riser will decrease one level from his satrting level and when he gets to the lowest level then the followign season he will revert to a normal player and lose any risign status that he had.

It is important to emembe this when buying a riser, even worse there is no way to know what level a riser (or a fader) is currently at when you buy hime. Through the auction you are given ‘some’ idea but often it isn’t very clear.

Please reailise with both risers and faders that the amount of added experience that a player gians or rises each turn is randome, modified by his age and fader/ riser level. Thus rising and fading will never be a fixed, quantifiable amount, it is bound to vary. The number of mons about ‘my riser has stopepd rising’, or “my fader has started to fade twcei as fast as earlier in tehe season’ are easily explianed if you keep this in mind.

After you have selected your team and ADDED up the levels correctly to come to a SUB-TOTAL of levels in each area, it’s time for the Application of Additions. This encompasses a number of items and can also be the difference between winning and losing if done correctly. The number of mistakes made her, the number of times a player gets something wrong or for soeme explicable reason forgets to add on or all of them and even fail to come to a FINAL total box is quite amazing. Make sure you do this every time and get it right.

The biggest problem here seems to be the simple one of woring out what you are entitled to, it’s explained in the rulebook and really shouldn’t be that difficult. Please remember that the dreaded three-times rule (ie no outfield area may be three times larger than any other), applies to both sub-totals and final total boxes by the way. There is nothing worse than seeign your lovingly laid-out tem coming abck emsculated by the computer that has moved one of your players to eradicate this mistake.

The number of levels given to you by your captian is shown on your squadsheet. Sometims your captain will get to the next level which triggers another level, during a session This you can use immediately if you are aware of it.

You have a limited number of the former, so use them wisely, an unlimited use off aggression, but this carries it’s own penalties. Playign aggression on certain areas raises the chacne of the players in that area collecting bookings and sending-offs by the ay. Remember also that a GK or SW uses 2MP/AGG to rise him by one point and that you put 2/4/ etc in the relevang box, but only raise his final performance level by the one/2 levels, etc. Remember also that the total aggro or MPS you may use in a game is ten (of both not either by the way).

Then all you have to do is add them up (if you keep making mistakes then teampick is for you cos it does all the maths and leaves you free to oncntrate on tactics and planning).

These are the type of players that will often give you the edge on your opponents. By the end of a season a decent team is quite likely to be able to field a full team of level twelves, so you need something else to give you an advantage and that is where specialist players come in. Each one gives a different type of advantage, some always available, some only coming into play when certain conditions apply. Obviously they cost alot to purchase as they are very effective players to have in a side, or you might be lucky enough to discover them, either though training apprentices, through your youth scheme and in the case of MF/G’s during the ageing process.

They are still expensive though as to train them up to effective levels costs many SPS, which you cannot use for your other players.

A point here about all players whose type is followed by a ‘/’ is valid here. Remember that with these players not all of them add levels to the other areas of your team (and when they do REMEMBER to add them won’t you). It’s only the Midfield specialists that adds levels each and every time, an MF/G or DF/A never adds levels, or should I say, YOU NEVER add the levels to your side!! The levels are added by the computer after it looks at your side and compares it with your opponent. It might be that no levels are to be added, or it might be that all levels are, but whatever, it ISN’T YOU who adds them and for the addition of levels purpose you treat them as normal players.

Also, remember that for certain players to be effective they might have to combine with another player (an FWT has to have either a DF/A or WG in the side to have a chance of doing anything), certain conditions might have to be met (a WG has his best effect against a team who play offside against you, or it might be a pure case of outfield levels (thus a DF/A really come into it’s own if your DF is stronger than the opponents FW-line and can get forward and create shots on target).

One interesting specialist player is the FWS. This player type can play anywhere without loss of levels, so is in effect a UT type player, but it also acts a a quasi-star as well. Not quite as effect as a Star because the lower the level that a FWS is, the less effective he becomes at creating chances, though even a level 2 FWS might generate extra chances each game. This is somewhat mitigated however, that when a chance becomes a shot on target the FWS is always more likely to score as that is his job indeed. If you look at the table of highs scorers then you will invariably see that FWS’s appear in them in inordinately large numbers. So the FWS is a very effective player perhaps under-rated by some of you. See how many times his name appears in moments of brilliance and that is only when he creates a chance, the rest is invisible to you.

There is a very full description of each specialist player in the rulebook, and perhaps it stands rereading very now and again, lest we forget what they all do and how to get the best out of your team.

Everything has to fit. How many of you have decided to play positive and five-man attack and then included a SW and MF/A only to find that both these players don’t play to their full potential?? How many of you have a team full of Midfield specialists and find that there is no room for those DF/A’s to speed up and down the flanks cos there is no room for them to play??.

Remember that when you play a player out of position, he loses half his levels rounded-up to the one above. Getting this wrong can be costly indeed. He will play at this level through the match and will be assessed (marking, shooting, evading the offside trap, etc.) throughout the match at this level. He also gains OOP levels, even in a friendly though at less a rate, which will eventually - when he gets to ten OOP levels - turn him into a UT able to play in any outfield position without losing any levels now. Please note here by the way, that when completing your teamsheets there are only five possible positions, GK/SW/DF/MF/FW. Specialists, Ut’s etc are always put down as one of tehse positions. Remember, the computer knows what their player type is and wants you to tell it which of these positions you want it to play in (valid ones that is!!). So remember there are only five positions to put down under Pos on your teansheet.

Please note by the way, that a UT doesn’t quite do ANYHING as well as a normal non-UT player does in that self-same position. His ability is to play anywhere at all but not quite as well as the normal player. Having too many UT’s in side isn’t a good thing and can help to explain why you still seem to lose out in midfield and don’t hit the target as many times as you feel you should?