the_eristic

Go to Training via your team's drop-down menu, find the Players tab at the bottom, click the Schedule menu for a player, Rest will be at the top of the options. You can also set training intensity and specific workload on the Training tab of an individual player.

Seem to have things sorted now, though still need a player or two for depth. Won my first four of the season straight, and have bossed my home games: 10 goals in 2, 1 against. Robertinho has 6 already! Just have to keep them all happy. My 6'5" target man option, CA Kotchoni, has been given leave of absence three times conecutively due to his inability to settle, and finally had to be transfer listed, so I've been digging as hard as I can with my €45/wk part time scouts to find a good replacement, preferably homegrown. Wish I'd noticed Sweden's HG rule before I signed so many South Americans and the like as key players!

Wages have been the main issue, though. I'm sure he'll be more likely to shop from the continent, where even the most modest PL wage will often represent a substantial raise.

Argh, thought my DM problem had been solved, but no. Malmo came in with a 625k bid for a highly promising 20-yr-old left winger in my squad (valued at 330k). I don't use wingers at all, so I was thrilled, but rather than sell him outright, I spotted a quality 21-yr-old DM valued at 335k in their side as backup, so I hit them with 250k + their player, and after weeks of waiting, they accepted. Day later the "offer contract" box pops up for the DM, click it, and "My client currently is not interested in negotiations with your club". Wtf is this?! How can a team trade me a player if the player won't even talk to me? The terms of his current contract would be easily matched, if not bettered, as he'd be first team for me. Properly annoyed now, as I've got less than a week to try to renegotiate something and get somebody in.

Won 4, lost 2 (one incredibly by giving up four in a row after cruising to 2-0 lead and generally dominating the game), drew 1, finished 7th. Board was happy enough, in spite of my callously investigating a couple way better jobs which popped up. Learned we have a fantastic tv deal, giving me a couple hundred grand to blow (vs <50k for much of the opposition), so spent big on a pair of young Brazilians who are easily the best players in my squad, made a couple sales, couple more reasonable additions, still have a bit to spunk on a DM and maybe a 3rd choice GK. Can't seem to shift the deadwood, though, even at seriously cut-rate prices. Refardless, we should have more than enough quality to gain promotion, and are aiming to win the league.

Just got this, started out unemployed, signed on as head coach of GIF Sundsvall with 7 games to play, won first match to take us from 9th to 7th, but don't know if I have enough time to get us into contention for promotion. Only have one senior keeper and my youth options are rubbish, so I've taken a free agent on trial who should be an improvement if he works out and am scouting a couple others. My budget is 140k max, so I may adjust that downward slightly so I can pursue free agents more aggressively with better wages. My squad is tiny, so I have to get bodies in. I have a feeling this game means my life is over.

Can not add enough "o"s to the word "no" to adequately express how the thought of signing Karl Henry makes me react.

I have us ending up 16th after a loss and a draw, Wigan passing us, QPR 17th on GD, Bolton and Blackburn down.

The were THE best part of that game for me, as far as actual gameplay went. I was sorely disappointed by the Brotherhood equivalents, the Lairs of Romulus, which were nowhere near as interesting or challenging. The only one that even approached them in terms of puzzle platforming was the Palazzo Laterano. Most were "run around, stab some guys, stab the main guy", which is too similar to the main game. The tombs in II were typically a fabulous break from the somewhat repetitive mechanisms driving you through the primary storyline. I do wish the difficulty scaled up more in all the games, that the Guild had been better implemented in Brotherhood, and that the games had more genuinely secret areas. With environments capable of housing tons of sweet places and things to discover, virtually all "secret" locations and their purposes were totally spoonfed. Still, all in all, quite a fun series when it hits its stride. Haven't heard too many positives about Revelations, though.

Seriously hope he's ok, both because I don't want to see anybody get hurt, our player or otherwise, and because with no Petrov, Herd, Makoun, Jenas, Delph we're ridiculously light in the middle.

Just saw the goal. 8^o

Wait, Andy has picked up a knock? Fffffuuuu...

So, you're saying this McCleish thing isn't all bad? Where'd the Optimism thread go?

I must've missed it in the buildup, what happened to Carlos? If Baker has been "working" on set pieces with the rest of our defense, that explains that. Also, was this the first time he's been used at CB in the Premier League? I remember him getting a couple games at left back last season. Looking at the scoreline, I normally wouldn't be terribly upset given the number of academy products taking on an incredibly expensive and experienced side, but we are in too dangerous a position to not be upset when we drop points, whatever the circumstances.

I think part of the problem is that he's been treated as such, stuck at defensive mid, on the wing, left back, but rarely has he been permitted to play as a more attacking left-sided CM. He looked his best at Leeds when he was allowed to burst forward at will, rather than being shouldered with so much defensive responsibility. As we've seen, he can't tackle and doesn't have the physicality required to play a defensive role in a Premier League midfield, so, imo, he needs to be used as an alternative for Ireland/Bannan (if he sticks around) at the point of a central 3, with Herd holding and Gardner or, uh, someone providing more box-to-box support. If he can grab a goal or at least start making some positive contributions to the attack, I think we'll see his confidence and form start to return.

Scoring rate is nowhere near as impressive as Dost's (but not many are, tbf), but yeah, the idea buying someone to take up Heskey's mantle is worrying.

Crouch has always been able to pull a quality "wtf" moment out of the hat at any given moment, but that one does top the all, I suppose! This guy looks (from the bits and pieces I've seen in the past few months, anyway) to be more aggressive and willing to use his size and strength to his advantage. Lots of his goals have been down to him winning the physical battles to get into the right position to finish off a cross or loose ball in the box, which, combined with what would appear to be instinctively good movement and above-average penalty taking, has proven quite profitable this season. Sustainable (especially since we haven't been doing too well supplying our own poacher extraordinaire, even if he's not the powerful target man type)? Who knows, but it has to be better a risk to take than more Heskey and/or Andy Johnson. Would still have some sell-on value, too, should things not work out.

I've tried not to jump on the hatewagon too readily, but holy ****, the absence of Jermaine Jenas hasn't been anyone's problem since grade school. That reeks of desperation to me. All of our midfielders are more than capable of keeping the ball and passing it reasonably well, they just haven't been allowed to do so, as, on the occasion the ball hasn't been lumped over their heads and/or given straight back to the opposition by the likes of Collins, the strikers and wingers haven't been allowed to attack freely, and aren't being coached to even move, from the looks of things. Not much one can do when the entire team is standing around in our own half.

Has he ever been "dubbed" this by actual people?

I may find myself chastised for blatantly displaying such optimism on VT, but midtable is extremely tight, so we could just as easily jump up the league in a flash with a win or two, and we now have a game in hand against a side sitting 10 points and 22 goals behind us in the first relegation spot.

If the tourists would just piss off... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallingwater

I'm not quite sure how a 5'9" quasi-winger is basically a Heskey replacement.

Eck, what are you doing to our younger generation...! Get the Fonz studying Heskey, why don't you. There is plenty to be learned from studying Alan Hutton's play. For instance: "Ah, so I shouldn't tackle the boards around the halfway line when the guy I'm supposed to be marking is in our box with the ball!"

Yikes. Any workable free agents out there?

Had the chumps just sorted the set piece problems, I believe our Goals Against would be in teens, one of the best on the list. They're reasonable enough at defending when it isn't something so uncommon and confusing as a corner, apparently.