Community » Hattrick Press

Lowest Ranked Survivor

Written by Matt-

In this *new* HT-England press feature, we sent 10 questions to the lowest ranked manager left in the cup...

1 Your team, Vince Hilaire's Afro is the lowest ranked team left in the cup, facing Ville Warriors next. How does it feel?

Being the lowest ranked side or facing Ville?

Facing Ville is fairly exciting if also a little bit daunting. He has 1,700,000 more TSI in his squad than me and pays £380,000 per week more in wages than me! I also have 2 key players injured so I only have 10 players to select from. In a couple of season’s time it would be a closer match than it is now. However, Ville has built a great side and it will always be a difficult match when you play the reigning Prem and cup champion. There’s never a good time to face him. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ville win the cup again this season. I wish I didn’t have the injuries as it will even be difficult for me to make it a close game now....unless I enter the transfer market of course.

Being the lowest ranked side left in the cup is an achievement that I’m very happy with. I’ve enjoyed the run and I haven’t had to compromise training much at all. I imagine this will be my last cup game this season though. This is the furthest I’ve ever gone in the cup and I hope to go a few rounds further in the next few seasons.

2 What is the last album/track you bought, please also provide a link to vimeo/utube/soundcloud for us to listen?

Does anybody still buy music? I certainly don’t.

I’ve been listening to Jake Bugg and The Strypes recently after a couple of recommendations;

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHLN6K640gQ)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCiQXsvPr1M)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGOMirYfevA)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZb8nEemK2k)

They’re ok but I’m still listening a lot to the same stuff I was 5-10 years ago; The Strokes, The Libertines, The Arctic Monkeys, The Clash, The Jam and many others.

3 Who is your favourite ht-player and why?

Ellis Joyce (285282827)

He scored two goals in the game that led to England U20’s getting a medal when I was the U20 manager (317442565). He’s now playing for the NT side so hopefully he can bring another medal home this season.

I did have another favourite player but I stupidly sold him and someone even more stupid than me fired him. My arena is named after the legend that is Vladivoj Holčák. He scored a goal in my first season that stopped me getting relegated to VII. Hopefully the stadium will eventually be renamed with the name of whoever scores the winning goal when the Afro’s win the cup or Prem....it won’t be this season though!

4 How much is a pint of beer in your local & what's your usual tipple?

I’m just in the process of moving house so this is a surprisingly difficult question. I’m not sure how much they charge in East Finchley, probably more than they did in Holloway!

The pub I used to drink in near Holloway was about £3.20 for an ale and it’s a great pub (http://www.thesouthamptonarms.co.uk/). At least 2 former/current England managers have had a pint in this place. I normally drink ale and I’ve been drinking in Brewdog Shoreditch recently where it’s a bit more pricy but it does some good drinks. 5am Saint is probably my favourite at the minute, I think it’s about £3.50-4 a pint.

Any suggestions of good pubs in East Finchley would be very gratefully received!

5 What's been your key to success in the cup so far?

Apart from my tactical brilliance you mean?

I’ve knocked out a couple of teams ranked in the top 10-20 teams in England, one with a midfield grab and one with a counter:

(453369400)
(453529391)

Both of those games were very pleasing as my team can play a few ways already. I think the key to my (limited) success this season is a good training plan. I can get decent ratings already (I managed to get over 400 hatstats a few weeks back) and my team is 4-5 seasons away from peaking. This is the ages of my best 11;

26/11
25/76 – 24/6 - 25/54
23/87 – 21/25 – 21/40 – 22/110
22/82 – 23/85 – 24/105

So as you can see it’s a young team and it’s only going to get better, 10 of these players are still in training. I have £10m+ in the bank as well so when I change training I’ll bring some more players into the squad. I’ll be disappointed not to reach the Prem with this team.

6 What skill are you training at the moment and why?

Playmaking. I have trained GK and defence and have brought in scoring and wing, all I need to do is add playmaking and then I should be able to move back up to the top 2 leagues. From there I’ll train passing and set pieces and try and hang around for as long as possible before the inevitable drop down the leagues.

7 Who’s your most important player and why?

Kelvin Mabe (332122758)

He’s a 4 skilled winger (not including SP) so he brings a lot to my team. I can play him offensively and normal depending on the opponent and he can also fill in as a normal or offensive wing back.

8 What's your view on 2nd teams?

Love them. I wouldn’t mind having a 3rd team!

It has been interesting having a second team as I forgot just how boring the first few seasons are in HT. I don’t know why they don’t give new users much better teams, players with stamina and more money. This would probably increase the retention rate of new sign ups.

The main issue/problem with second teams are experienced managers coming into the smaller nations and making it more difficult for local managers. It also makes hoarding money a lot easier as you can play with one side and hoard with the other. I don’t like either of those consequences of the second teams but I think the money HT has generated and will generate from second teams probably means Hattrick will be able to survive as a game for at lest another 5 years (hopefully).

9 Tell us how you met your OH (or last 'conquest' if single)

I was completely out of my brain at the Nottinghill Carnival so I don’t remember much about it. I’m a classy guy. 8 years later and we’re still together so it worked out fairly well! She’s a good girl but she’s certainly not a Hattrick fan!

10 In a resource management game, some say it is unacceptable to hoard resources. Discuss?

I suppose this one comes back to my opponent. I have no real problem with people hoarding resources. What Ville, for example, has done is in the rules of the game and is probably the strongest tactic available at the moment so I have no issues with him taking that path. I often find that the managers we have in England who bang on about playing the game ‘the right way’ are our most average managers and it’s just an excuse they use. In reality they’ve never built a team capable of doing anything so they like using an excuse to hide their own shortcomings.

It is frustrating when you get someone like Ville in your league as he has so much power because of the hoarding/trading. However, I think this is a fault with HT rather than a user who is using the strongest strategy. They need to bring in a financial fair play type system and improve the tactical choices we have and it will become a much fairer fight.

I suppose some people will say I’ve hoarded resources as you don’t need to hoard money you can train a team yourself over many years and hoard team value. My team cost £19.4m to put together and it is now worth £28.7m so I suppose that is hoarding team value as I’ve been playing in the lower leagues. On the way down from II to VI I didn’t put up any effort to survive as I was on 5% stamina but since I’ve been in VI I’ve been trying to promote back up the leagues as quickly as possible with a decent stamina share but it has been difficult with limited PM in my squad. Nearly every team will have to drop down the leagues and ‘re-load’ at some point, the only teams that don’t are the teams that are happy having a very average side knocking between V and III. It’s just the way HT works. I think it’s a good thing as it allows multiple teams to play in the top 2 leagues.