Apologies to anyone who felt they were insulted as a reader, by having the first half of this article cut off before it could be properly ended. Blame the editor. I know I do.
In Hattrick, your ability to become the best soccer GM is hindered by a number of constraints. First off, your players on your new team suck. They’re weak and you’re expected to lose most of your games. You’ll probably be insultingly regulated down to a lower series until you find a league that really, really sucks, allowing your pitiable team to win a match or two. In this series, you are finally able to compete, win a few games, build up a fan base and get enough money to buy some half decent players all the while developing and executing a profitable training regimen.
Soccer players have skills that help them in the position they play. A goal keeper has what is called a Keeper skill. Forwards have Passing and Scoring. Defenders have Defending. Wingers have Winger. Midfielders have Playmaking and Stamina. For example, see below for member of my team:
TSI = 1 690 , 25 years, wretched form
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities [Quick]
Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: outstanding Passing: inadequate
Winger: wretched Defending: poor
Scoring: wretched Set pieces: passable
Now this fictional member of my team has disastrous Keeper skill. So naturally I’d avoid playing him in that position. As he has both solid stamina and outstanding Playmaking, he would benefit my team the most by being played as a Midfielder. Each player has a certain list of qualities that assist the team in winning matches. It is up to the GM to choose the best position for each player to play. Each GM has access to a screen like the one below:
In it, a GM chooses each player’s position. Above is one of the standard 4-5-1 formations (read: defenders-midfielders-forwards). You can set substitutes that ONLY play if one of your players are injured. Now I could go on and on about training regimens and the importance of this or that secondary skill (passing, stamina, set pieces) but all of that can be happily read at http://wiki.hattrick.org. Minor things like that are of little interest to those just starting out (or those not starting but wondering what is the big fuss). Like all sports, the exciting part is in the match:
