Players

A team is the virtual football team one owns and manages in Hattrick. It consists of a number of virtual football players, usually between 20 and 30 (maximum 50). The manager chooses a formation with 11 of these players for each game, plus 5 substitutes.

If the 50-players limit is exceeded, Training is lost for that week. Please take note that the Coach is considered a player, as he may well play (and often does!)

Each player has an individual name, and is made up of assorted skills, personality, form, experience and specialties. He'll also have an ideal position, but you'll need to work that out through experience!

Skills

Each player has 8 basic skills, which can be improved through training, and decline with age. These skills are Stamina, Playmaking, Wing, Scoring, Goalkeeping, Passing. Defending and Set Pieces. Each of these skills has a a value between disastrous and divine.

Form

Form is one of the most important characteristics for any player, determining how well he is able to use his skills. You'll note that a good player who is out of form will often be outperformed by a not so good player at the top of his game.

Experience

Some players may not have the greatest abilities, but their nouse and knowledge of the game more than makes up for it. Thus, old and experienced players often play much better than their younger, greener colleagues.

For a full discussion, click here.

Player Specialties

Some of the players in Hattrick have specialties that differentiate them from other players. A player may have only one specialty, and no more.

The five specialties are Head, Technical, Powerful, Quick and Unpredictable

To learn more about the diffrent specialties and how they affect the match, click here.

Personality

Finally, a player also has four personality characteristics, leadership, agreeability, honesty and aggressiveness.

Injury and Suspension

All this is well and good, but sometimes a player isn't able to play...

Injuries

It won't matter how good a player really is if he's not on form or is injured.

Sometimes players get injured. If this is the case, the injury, unless very slight, will put them on the treatment table for a couple of games. The risk of injuries increases as the team increases the intensity of training. Older players take longer to heal than young ones. You should also remember that the injury times stated are only estimates. A +1 injury could heal within 3 days with the assistance of doctors, but equally if your 35 year old star forward has a week-long injury, it might take him 10 or 11 days to get fit again.

For more information, see Injury

Yellow and red cards

Players may get booked or sent off during games. Two bookings during a match will automatically lead to the player being sent off. Bookings and Sending-Offs during competitive games eventually lead to a suspensions. A player will be suspended for the next match if he is sent off, or if he has accumulated 3 bookings during a season. This is shown by a red card symbol on the player page. You can also see how many yellow cards have been received so far. At the end of the season all cards are cleared.

Whilst a player can receive cards during friendly matches, they have no other effects than those seen during the game.

Highly aggressive players will tend to be booked more often than other players. Especially if they're also dishonest or lacking in experience.