Defending Training Plan

The Defending Training Plan idea is to maximize the number of players who are receiving Defending training in relation to your economic conditions.

Defending for Newbies

This plan is for a manager new to Hattrick who wants to minimize the initial outlay. Initially you start by training goalkeeping. This should last for 30 weeks, or two seasons. This is because buying 10 defending trainees is beyond the budget of a new player.

Step 1: Goalkeeping training

Buy 2 trainees (17yo):

• One has passable defending (6) with as much set pieces as you can get. This trainee will be your long term goal keeper.
• Trainee B should have passable goal keeping. This trainee will be sold.

Train goalkeeping with a level 4 assistant coach until Trainee B hits "world class" keeping. Meanwhile, if you earn money, upgrade the rest of your team with old layers, but don't spend too much on these players, they will soon be sold. Follow this order:

• 3 inner midfielders,
• 2 forwards,
• 2 wingers,
• 3 defenders.

They are just there so you start winning some games.

Once you have a decent squad and you are winning then start your youth team. It is not recommended to start a Youth Academy until you've bought all of the above players, because the 20 000 € needed every week can instead be useful to buy a decent player every three weeks.

Step 2: Switch to Defending

After 2 seasons you are ready to sell your "world class" GK. This will get you a lot of money.

You then use it all to buy the following 9 trainees:

• 3 CD trainees (at least passable defending)
• 2 WB trainees (at least passable wing and inadequate defending)
• 4 IM trainees (at least solid playmaking with inadequate defending)

You now play 5-5-0, 5-4-1 and 5-3-2, with your 4 IM trainees and GK trainee being your defence for friendlies. When you GK reaches a level of defending that you are happy with, you can then start playing 4-5-1 and 4-4-2.

Your goal now is to keep improving your team, but minimize the disruption caused by selling trainees.

• Every time you sell your CD trainees, buy better IM trainees and gradually make you IM trainees become your CD trainees.
• When you sell your WB trainees, just buy better WB trainees.

Max A Team

Here is a training plan for a team playing 4-5-1 and 4-4-2 for league games and 5-4-1 for friendlies. Note that this regime increases the chance of injuries to your IM players as they play twice each week (which is why they need to be young so they heal fast).

Your team A:

• 4 central defender trainees,
• 1 winger (19-20yo) who plays in defence in friendlies to become a nice balanced wing back. He needs as much wing as you can afford.
• 4 IMs who also train defending in friendlies.
• 1 winger who is old and cheap.
• 2 forwards who are old and cheap.

This gives you the flexibility to play all kind of 4-5-1 and 4-4-2 in competitive matches, with any amount of repositioning you like. It also keeps your outlay low as your non-defence players become trainees during the friendlies. That means you don't have many players hanging around without training and losing value.only 3 team A outfielders are non trained!

Variant

The above plan can be adapted to the following trainees:

• 3 CD trainees
• 3 IM trainees
• 3 WN trainees
• plus the same old and cheap 3 players (1 WN and 2 FWs).

As you sell your trainees which are playing CD you replace them with an IM trainee and buy a better IM player and add more defence on them.

Of your 3 WN trainees 2 will be playing WB, as you sell them your other trainee moves to WB and you buy a better winger and add more defence on them.

So essentially your new trainees start in the midfield and are played twice a week and as you sell your defender trainees you move a IM into the back line and buy a better midfield trainee (with more primary skill and passing to improve your attack). This way your constantly improving your ratings in each sector.

The Multi-skill Approach

Further information: Detailed Multiskilled Defending Training

Imagine a hypothetical multi-skilled "dream team". How many players in this team would benefit from defending training? Perhaps something along the lines of the following at an age in the early 20s and with a useful specialty (like head or powerful).

This would take a total of 9 long term trainees:

• 1 GK with a primary skill high enough to achieve your goals, but low enough not to drain your cash stock in the meantime,
• 4 normal IMs with decent passing,
• 2 CDs with around 11-13 PM,
• 2 WBs with around 11-13 winger.

The other slot could be used on whatever you like. Alternatively one could play 4-4-2, 4-5-1 instead and not fill the other slot.