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George Carey Cup Winner's interview

Written by Pheosiris

Our first ever interview with Pheosiris, who is a bit of a legend in ht-England, and a master team builder to boot. Last season his team won the George Carey Cup, and we caught up with him during the off-season to find out what he's been up to.

You joined Hattrick in January 2006. You were Premiership Champions in season 45,46, 47,48 & 49, and you are currently ranked in 6th place in the English Premiership Historical Rankings. Only h00ligans, last season's #1 team in England, and matt- (2nd) have a higher pts per game average than your 1.96. You also won the English Cup in s48 and have a Masters Golden Boot in your trophy cabinet. 9 seasons on from your last Prem title, you've won the George Carey Cup. Have you now rebuilt a team capable of taking you up to the top again?

Thanks for the intro! The short answer is no, although I would hope to be able to get there with a few rearrangements and a bit of luck. The other thing is that 9.5 years is such a long time – there’s practically nothing in my life which is the same as it was back then.

In the final, you faced foscos (527186939) which looked to be a close match. What were your thoughts going into the game?

Generally, I remember being somewhat surprised that I was up against such a strong team in a mickey mouse cup! Other than that, I was fairly comfortable that he couldn’t beat me in both defence and midfield, so it was just a matter of choosing how to best set up to deal with that.

You are currently using a solid coach with solid leadership, who is a neutral. Could you please tell us the breakdown of your assistant staffing levels, and the rationale behind this?

It’s changing fairly frequently at the moment as I move from an emphasis on training to competing, so I’m mid-way through switching from having assistant coaches to a more balanced set-up.

Your squad utilises Quick players exclusively in the forward and wing positions, and you have 6 head specialists and a powerful to select in your other outfield positions, aged 25-28. Is this a deliberate strategy and what is behind your thinking?

Deliberate, yes. I’d rather change the [Powerful] to another [Head], but then I'd ideally also need to have one of my [Quick] players end up as SP taker, which they can’t do right now.

When you dropped out of the Prem, you had a fire-sale of players that had helped you fill your trophy cabinet. These were Claus (H) 15D13PM, Kienen (H)15D,6PM, Hamilton(P) 17PM,13PS, Resl (H) 18PM,8Ps,8D, Ayach 17PM,12PS,16SP, Ikomi 17PM,11Ps,6D, Schneider (Q) 13Sc,13Ps,13PM, Guterres (Q) 14Sc, 11Ps, 13PM, Trivellin 15Sc, 11Ps, 10PM. Given the expected changes to the ME in 16 weeks, what would your ideal 10 outfield players look like these days (highlighting any changes from the above players)

I’m rather impressed that you have this information! Clearly the defensive forwards would need to become better. The others don’t actually look that far off from where I would want them to be – although one of the problems I’m facing right now is in that not having used top-class players for so long I’m actually not sure exactly what I’d be looking for. Given we’re no longer limited to one match a week for two weeks a season I’d want to have at least four defenders this time. Wingers seem to have moved on as well. Myth wing /TT PM doesn’t seem unreasonable I’d have thought nowadays if you’re trying to win the Prem.

What do you think of these proposed changes, and do you think that it will lead to top teams having bigger squads for more tactical flexibility than we see today?

I’m pretty neutral on them, although as always I’m mildly concerned with the probable unintended consequences. I wouldn’t have thought there would be many people who are significantly affected by the changes (either positively or negatively), and there’s still nearly four months before they’re implemented so should be plenty of time to adjust. I expect larger squad sizes, and will probably add 1-2 to my first-team squad.

You do not pay for supporter. Please tell us your thoughts about this optional expense?

Copy-Paste fail there Bink! I do have supporter, although I also think that they’ve gone overboard with the price increases this time, which is the first time I’ve ever thought that.

Please tell us a little bit about your team name and choice of user name?

At the time I was doing probability theory and statistical analysis, mostly based on the Normal Distribution (Yawn…), so the team name (Phi) came up from that. The User-name choice is an odd one, which is far too complicated and boring to explain here!

Your team is based in Dorset. Please explain why you chose Dorset as the base for your team?)

I now live in Sydney – and moving here was part of the reason I sold-up three years ago, but I used to live in Dorset – I still think the beaches around there are pretty decent, even if the weather isn’t.

What tips would you give a rebuilding manager?

Do it how you want to do it, rather than how people say you should do it. If you try and mix your strategy with someone else’s, it’s likely to end up poorer than either of them.

What skill(s) are you currently training and what stamina percentage are you currently using and why?

I’m currently on short passing as I went shopping for the other main skills on my players with a view to training their passing. In hindsight I’m not sure this was a clever way of doing things but there we go. Stamina is also in the process of changing – it’ll move up from the current 11% very soon.

If your team had a song to run out to (maybe it does!), what would it be? And while we're on the subject of music, what album would you want on a desert island if you could only take one.

Right now I’m listening to a lot of ‘Two Steps from Hell’. Thomas Bergersen’s own stuff is superb and much less movie-based, so I’d take his/their “Sun” album with me. For a run-out song, probably “Heart of Courage” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cXmBUHZ3AQ). Very short, but very epic.

How many hours a week do you spend on Hattrick?

Much less than I used to! Actually logged on – maybe only 3-5 hours a week. Not being awake for matches in England significantly reduces the time I used to spend logged on. However, I’d imagine I spend another 5-10 hours thinking (either while eating/commuting/relaxing) about various options while I’m not logged on. I’m always amazed at how much more there is to keep thinking about.

What is your favorite RL football team, and tell us your highlights and lowlights of the past season?

I’ve basically given up on RL football since I despair of the kind of people/attitude it’s churning out.

When did you last kick a football, and what happened?

Would have been ages ago apart from a few kick-ups with mates in the backyard. I almost certainly injured myself in some way though!

What's your favourite drink? And where would be the ideal place to drink it?

A decent cider on my balcony looking out over the Pacific! (Although sadly there are quite a lot of houses between me and the ocean).

Please tell us how/where you met your other half (or last conquest), and how he/she feels about your hattrick addiction?

Last conquest was on said balcony mentioned above, drinking said quality cider. I didn’t mention Hattrick! It’s bad enough that I work in a bank and like chatting about derivatives! (The ocean view is able to offset this. Mostly. Well – sometimes anyway.)

What was the last book you read? Was it any good? (or please provide a link to your favorite work of art)

You’re going to love this Bink: “Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality” by Manjit Kumar. (https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Quantum.html?id=1u_G_QwgxUQC&source=kp_cover&hl=en) Afterwards I promptly got smashed to restore my stupidity balance. It was surprisingly interesting though!

Your home is on fire. (Don’t panic! It’s not. This is just theoretical. Unless you can smell smoke. Then I hope you’ve invested in a fire blanket.) You can save one object. What would it be?

I live with people who are highly adept at causing much smoke while “cooking”, so I can assure you we have a fire blanket! Err – wallet?

What question should I have asked you that I haven't?

Why are you answering this when you could be surfing? Answer - Because it’s bloody cold at night in Sydney in July!