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Theme Team Building Guide


Ashez
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Theme Team Building Guide

 

This guide is for theme teams but i expect you'll be able to take something from this guide on normal team building as well so it's well worth a read.

 

Transfers are one of my favourite aspects of football Manager Handheld and it's due to this i've always had a fondness for building teams from scratch, in particular i enjoy building theme teams as this means you more than likely have to leave your comfort zone and take risks. In this guide i shall be looking at how i go about building theme teams in the hope of helping this sort of challenge getting more popular among the community, so let's get started.

 

Picking A Theme

 

If you decide you want to do a theme team the first port of call is to decide what sort of theme you want to implement on your save. Themes can range from many things but the popular ones are based on nationality, age and something name or letter related. Selecting nationality as a base is a great challenge as it still leaves you with plenty of options like will you be focusing on a continent or just on a specific country, once that's decided you'll still have plenty of options available as the game covers most continents well while having a large range of nationality's available to select as a singular base. Age is an interesting option as it limits your available players but at the same time you normally have plenty of options due to the size of the database, within this type of challenge players are normally attracted from one extreme to the other with people normally selecting to go with teenagers or players in the twilight of their careers, this decision comes down to how long you want the save to last in most cases. A team based on a specific name has been done before and it's always interesting to see what Dave's are available on a save for example. People have also built theme teams around certain letters with people going for a theme of players whose last name begins with G and so on, another popular choice has been to select a club with a long name and only using those letters for sign-able players. My final example is only being able to use a certain clubs previous players, by this i mean if you played as Real Madrid you'd have to replace the current squad with other players the club had previously sold on, this is a difficult challenge which will require a lot of research but it has been known to be a rewarding one.

 

These are just some of the more popular ideas which come to mind but the beauty of this sort of challenge is you have freedom to be creative and the more creative you are the more interesting and fun your save will be. 

 

Selecting A Starting Club

 

As with any save selecting the club to start with is always an important step, even more so in this case as some themes might only suit certain clubs or leagues, for example trying to do a Brazil theme wouldn't work with an English League Two side due to work permits and funding. When it comes down to selecting a club it completely depends on the theme you are going for but in most cases selecting a big club with plenty of money at the start or available after sales is the best way to go, as this will mean you'll be able to bring in better talent.  Obviously if the theme fits and you want more of a challenge it is possible to use a lower ranked club but it would be completely theme depending.

 

Some Examples

 

1. South American Theme - Barcelona - Plenty of money available while having some of the best players already at the starting club including Messi, Suarez, Neymar, Mascherano and Dani Alves. 

 

2. Teenage Theme - Sporting Lisbon - Lisbon might not have tones of money lying around but they should be able to produce a decent chunk from sales, however the key aspect of Sporting is their fantastic youth training rank and the number of youngsters already at the club.

 

3. Any Theme - Real Madrid - Real Madrid are the richest club on the game while being able to whip up hundreds of millions of pounds due to their starting squad and their desirability. With money comes power and in the case of Madrid you can virtually sign any player on the game and this type of muscle can come in handy when building a themed team.

 

4. Former Players - Chelsea FC - If you want to base a challenge around former players you'll need a club which often sells quality players and Chelsea fit the bill nicely. Due to the way Chelsea have stockpiled players in the past few years you'll have plenty of options available while also having the funds to do the business.

 

5. Lower League Teams - Selected Nationality Theme - The lower leagues in countries are often less populated with foreign players which means you can have a great head start in life, for example if you wanted to do an English theme from the Conference you will need little investment at the start of the save, however it is worth noting this is a rather hard challenge as it can be hard to grow the club up when you can't rely on the cheap foreign signings many of us have grown to rely on. 

 

As you can see selecting a good starting club can give you one hell of an advantage when it comes down to playing the challenge, with the first example being the obvious one as you'd never be able to build that front three anywhere else (in one season anyway) or one even close to as good. If you're willing to put the time and thought into your theme and the club you wish to start at it can make all the difference between the idea taking off or failing.

 

Final Things To Consider Before Starting A Test Save

 

Loaded Leagues

 

Once you've selected your starting club and theme it's time to think about the less obvious things which will effect the save, for example which leagues to load? Once again selecting the right league combination can make or break your theme building process and if you're smart you can really give yourself an advantage, for example say you wanted to do a Spanish based theme it would be to your advantage to use all of Spain as this will bring more players to the database for you to abuse. 

 

Leagues To Load Suggestions

 

1. Playable League Based Nationality Theme - Load the league in question, if you want to do a German based theme you should load Germany, Spanish based load Spain and so on. 

 

2. Non Playable League Based Nationality Theme - If the theme you want to use isn't based on a playable league or international team in game it's worth loading various databases to see which database gives you the most options, for example if you wanted to do an African based theme you'd be best off loading France as this database contains the highest amount of African players (from my tests on 2014). 

 

3. South American Theme - If you intend to use a South American theme it would work out best if you loaded Brazil, loading Brazil will offer you more players from the home nation while also giving slight boosts to other nations within that continent like Argentina. 

 

Adding more leagues to the file can also be done and it's something i would suggest doing unless it reduces the number of players available, one of the secondary leagues i'd always add to a challenge like this is Portugal. Portugal might seem like an odd choice but it makes perfect sense due to one thing, the saves start date (If you highlight any of the four leagues so they are yellow you can use that leagues start date, a great tip for adding more time to a save or loading Brazil and playing in Europe!) Portugal is the earliest starting date out of all the normal running European leagues, granted it's only by a couple of days but in a window where you're looking to make fifty to sixty odd transfers (in and out) every second counts. 

 

Formations And Role Knowledge

 

This normally applies to all saves but in the case of rebuilding a squad you best have a formation in mind while understanding the roles within it. Due to the nature of this challenge and having to rebuild a squad within one season you will have somewhat limited funds and any that are wasted on a player you don't intend to use can soon become a burden on the save. If you know the formation you are going to use you can use this information to select the right players for it but to do this you need to understand the roles and their needs. 

 

As i said at one point or another funds will get tight so in an ideal world you'll have covered the important aspects of your formation with quality signings but when it comes to picking up the bargains to add depth and cover to the squad you'll be looking to pick up cheap players who have the stats needed for the roles, for more information on what roles do and need i'd suggest reading this article by Dec.

 

The Test Save

 

The next stage requires starting a test save, while this is optional and you could do it on your main save i've always found better results following the points i'll mention below. 

 

Now everything is in place you should have a complete understanding of what you're aiming to achieve at this point which means it's time to identify targets who you intend to sign. Before i start any save like this i like to draft an ideal starting eleven which i'll aim to build while i'll also make a note of any other players which catch my eye while looking around. The main points of this test save are blow

 

  • Who can we keep and who must we sell from the starting club
  • Draft ideal XI
  • Can we attract said XI?
  • How much do we have to spend including sales and starting budgets
  • How much will our ideal XI cost? Does it need editing to allow funds for a squad?

 

The first thing to do once you're in the test save is to look at the original squad of the club in question and work out whose sell able and who we should keep, the amount of work here depends completely on the theme but everyone who doesn't fit the theme should be transfer listed and demoted. It takes time to sell the players you've demoted and transfer listed but it's worth doing as this process will reveal to you how much you have to play with which can help you build or alter your ideal eleven as needed, remember to keep in mind that you might not get the exact same figure from save to save. 

 

When building your draft eleven it's always important to stay realistic and not to get greedy, your funds will likely not stretch to being able to bring in twenty five odd footballing gods so it's important to focus on the key areas of the formation, obviously this varies from formation to formation but i always like to focus on the core of my team (GK,DC,DMC,MC,ST). 

 

Example

 

 

When i played my Pride Of The African Continent challenge earlier in the year i did these notes, these are slightly different but it gets the point across. The list below shows the entire squad i intended to build or different priced options for each of the positions, something like this built from in game can be a great reference point for any theme based challenge.

 

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sorry about the images, just photo's from my notebook but i hope they get the point across.

 

 

Once you have an eleven in mind it's worth double checking you are able to attract the players in question, as this is a test save i wouldn't bother signing the players properly but instead just tease them. The process i normally do is bid until it's accepted at a decent price and offer them a contract, once the contract has been agreed take notes and cancel the deal, doing it this way means you won't be waiting around for the money to come in from the sales and you can test everyone in one go. 

 

Around now you should have a good idea of how much the players you want to use will cost while also having a rough idea of how much you will have to spend, at this point it's worth checking everything over and deciding if you really need that high profile signing as remember you still need to be able to bring in squad players. If you're happy with the eleven you believe you can build while also having the funds remaining to add decent additions to the squad it's time to move on, however at this point you could also fish around for the squad players if you wished. 

 

Building A Squad

 

This can come at this moment in time or after you've pieced together your ideal XI but building the rest of the squad is a very important part of the challenge. When it comes to building a squad you really need to keep these things in mind

 

1. How many players do i need?

2. Age and experience

3. Players to function in team roles

 

Some people will say numbers are important but i've always preferred small squads with most the players being of a decent level, i'd say i normally aim for between 21-25 players but that will include multiple players who can play in a number of positions, basically this part comes down to personal preference and how you want to play the save.

Age is another really important thing to consider, especially in this type of challenge as experience can be key. The squad will need time to gel which will likely make people unhappy so having an experienced head around the place can really help. Another thing to keep in mind is these squad players don't need to last forever, in most cases they will only be needed to get you through the first season then you can replace them when you have more money in the next summer, this is important to remember as older players are generally cheaper so you can get more for your money. This doesn't mean you should ignore kids though as kids are the future of the game, from my experience it's best to save the kids for if you have any spare money after you're happy with your squad than investing heavily in them early on as you can always start developing some sort of youth system in the second season. 

The roles within a team such as captain and set piece takers will likely be covered within your ideal eleven but it never hurts to have other players within the squad who can perform such duties, especial team leaders! As i've touched upon already the team will likely suffer bad spells due to being thrown together in a short amount of time so having a few captains around the place can really boost moral and keep everyone fighting on together!

 

As these players will be squad players and your budgets will have likely already taken a hit it's a good idea to try and find cheap players to add depth to your squad, thankfully there are a number of ways to do this. The first thing i do before i bid on any player is send an inquiry, i do this as you never know what the club will say and if they give you a buying price it's normally lower than the asking one which means you can jump straight in and get the deal done instead of wasting time trying to see what happens. This works well with another area of transfers i like to abuse which is the transfer listed players, generally in the first season the list isn't all that good but there could be one or two cheap additions you could bring in to boost numbers within the team. The free agent list works in the same way, again it can be somewhat bare if your theme is rather out there but it's always worth a look, as is the loan lists. Loans are short term solutions for depth which can work brilliantly within the first season as it's a position taken which has cost you next to nothing, be warned about bringing in young players you have no intention of using yet though, if you bring them in now and don't play them they won't improve so if it's a player you think you'd like to use in the future i'd suggest buying him or waiting until the next window where you can buy him and send him on loan.

 

Starting The Save

 

Now everything is in place it's time to start the save, your journey has been planned out and as long as everything goes to plan you should be well on your way to a successful themed career. The first thing to do is the same as on the test save which is to organize your starting squad by demoting and transfer listing whoever you can't use. 

 

A Good Way To Get Interest

 

1. Transfer list

2. Offer for zero

3. When the bids start flying in i do this

A) If the value is under £5m i like to offer the player for half a million less than his value

B) If the value is between £5m and £10m i like to offer him for around one million less

C) When you get to the big figures it can get hard to judge but the systems above seem to work well, for the really big values (30+) i normally offer around £2-5m less than the value, i am missing out on some money but i'm getting the money in and the players big wages off the books.

4. Keep repeating steps one and two every few days, it's time consuming but it works. If that's too much work for you at least do it to players with no interest on their contract screen.

 

How To Make Bids

 

You have the players you want to sign in mind with their buying costs known so this stage is rather straight forward, however you do need to keep an eye on players in case they move before you get to them. With this in mind it's always a good idea to prioritize how you go about your business. You have two options as you can either go mass market and bring in as many of the cheap players as you can or you can go for your marquee signings first, it does depend on the health of your finances but if there is that one player who will make or break the career i'd suggest getting him first.

While it's tempting to throw around the money and bid for every player at once this method isn't ideal, the main reason for this is because if your news feed gets clogged up deals will take longer to go through and in turn so will the offers for your players. My normal process is to go for a couple of first team additions and a handful of squad players at the same time, this way you are working through both lists without cluttering everything up too much. Trying to do all this in one window is hard work and i'd suggest you try not to stress but especially don't panic buy (reason for all this set up), the window is short but i've managed to get through it plenty of times with a decently built squad, it's just important that you remember this about the squad so build it first, don't go out and sign all the strikers you want day one, build at least one starting XI before you start splashing the cash everywhere. 

Your wage budget is something you'll also need to keep a close eye on and i'd suggest being careful with editing it, if selling players becomes slow your wage budget will basically be supporting two first teams which isn't ideal and it'll add pressure onto you to have a good start to the save to keep your job, hopefully this isn't too much of an issue though as selling your starting squad is an important part of this challenge. 

 

Play The Save

 

By this point you have a starting eleven you're happy with, a decently built squad to last you the first season, a formation and style you're happy with and a theme team to entertain Vibe with, i think that means you're set! As i've mentioned plenty of times during this guide the start of this type of challenge can be tough due to the amount of transfers and team changes but it's totally worth sticking with as this is a fantastic aspect of the game i think more of you should enjoy. 

 

An Example Save

 

In the link below you'll find an example theme team save i just quickly threw together, the save will consist of you being in charge of Real Madrid on the 1st of September with a squad filled with Argentinians! You'll be able to see the transfers i did and the positions i covered (as i said it was quickly done). Hopefully this save will offer you an insight to use as inspiration or even a fun career to play, either way i decided to share it.

 

Download Here

 

As always thank you for reading, hopefully your enjoyed your time in this thread and feel inspired and motivated, please remember to leave a comment. 

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Fantastic work Ash,I always look forward to your work as in some instances it has inspired me personally. Top work once again Ash :)

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Currently working on a Belgium players theme save... Wow just assembling the team is hard! But I'm halfway through so I might make it available once it's completed.

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Ok I am happy to inform that I managed to assemble a team in the BPL using only Belgian players! Took me about 4 hours to do cause I needed to scout players and do some financial maneuvers jaja. You guys think I should start a sa career post with this? Not sure what my goal would be..perhaps win the CL?

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Bloody great work here, you need to put this stuff on your CV, an employer would snap you up knowing how much effort you put into your hobbies shows great promise for your work ethics.

The idea of themed teams is something that always worms it's way into my saves without even havin to think about it, but now you've detailed the most efficient ways of managing it I can see it becoming a huge deal.

+1

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Cheers lads, I have and always will love theme teams, I just wish there were more challenges based around them. My problem is every now and then I'll build a theme team but never actually play with it lol.

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