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Hairy Chinese Kids Cup Final interview

Written by rbir83

Last season's Prem runners up have made the final. rbir is once again in the hotseat to answer another set of pre-match questions.

Last time we spoke was mid-May 2015 (18962). You went on as far as R10 losing to Rockhill Rangers (526856742) two seasons back (going on to finish as runner up in the Prem in the following season s59) You also lost to Rockhill in this season's Prem mid season back to back fixtures shortly before Christmas (551644891) & (551644895) . These results must make them favourite to lift the trophy this season, please tell us a a little bit about your cup run and thoughts going into the final?

Yeah I’d say Rockphil has the stronger team right now and his consistently big midfield ratings make it really difficult for a side like mine. I think if he had a little more luck earlier in the season and had decided not to prioritise the cup, he would be challenging for the title. The reduction in the number of rounds in the cup this season has really made it tough and I was fortunate to beat jamiepic in the semi (555200690) (ed. the losers had 53-54% possession). I don’t think I’ve been able to PIC since round 4. The financial rewards for going deep in the cup are worth the risk of being dragged into a playoff battle in the league though.

After the death of David Bowie this week, is there any particular Bowie track you'd like to link for your team to run out to for the final?

I will go with Rebel Rebel! (https://vimeo.com/61185967)

Last time we spoke we were discussing the potential impact of match engine changes, and you said, " The most likely result is that normal forwards will become more powerful. It may become essential for all teams in the higher divisions to own at least one good normal forward if only for the threat of being able to put out a big central attack rating at any time." How has this impacted on the Premiership teams, where you are currently battling with Rockhill (level on points, one GD apart) together with Bedworth and Livercrewe Tigers (also on 16pts after 11 games) over 3rd to 6th spot. I suppose that a mutual PIC in the final is out of the question, in order to help you both avoid the playoffs?

I wasn’t able to follow the full story surrounding the implementation of the match engine changes because I was on holiday at the time, but I do remember the HT devs changing their minds almost weekly and so I decided to just wait until something was confirmed. Then, when the final changes were announced in the new lineup tool, it looked as if there would be almost no difference. I don’t know if they ended up scaling back the initial plans but as far as I can see the change is really negligible.

A PIC would certainly benefit both of us but I think it goes against the spirit of the game!

We talked about staff changes a bit last time, and since then we've had further changes which further polarize training strategy from match preparation strategy. Which assistants are you currently using?

Right now I have a medic, form coach, psychologist and tactical assistant all at level 5. I really don’t understand the reduction to the staff wages for long-term contracts. I can’t see any reason not to buy staff at level 5 if your team is built for optimum performance.

How was your Christmas, where was it spent, with whom and what was on the menu?

I just spent Christmas at home with the family and had the full Christmas dinner of course! Turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing, all that good stuff.

Lets talk about RL football, who do you think are going to finish top 4 in the Premiership this season, and who will be relegated, please explain your thinking here?

It’s really tough to call this year. I think Man City have the best side on paper but they don’t look comfortable away from home and Aguero and Silva are both injury prone. Arsenal have a great chance but they tend to find a way to screw things up. I’d love Leicester to finish as high as possible, they’re definitely not there as a result of luck, but at the same time they’ve been fortunate with the lack of injuries they’ve had to date and I could see them struggling towards the end. I’ll say Arsenal, City, Spurs, Man Utd, Leicester.

What tweaks does your team need in order to win the Prem next season (assuming this cup final doesn't lead to a relegation)?

It would need a lot of investment in midfield. I can probably get by on one more season with my current team (if I stay up), after that I will need 4-5 new signings. Then I will be in a much better position to challenge for the title.

Last time we talked about downloads and interesting stuff on your computer, you linked us to some images from Mars and driving a moon buggy on the moon. Have you found anything else of interest or do you use any websites that not many people might know about?

I like a lot of space related stuff and I enjoy science documentaries and podcasts, I think it’s because I can just enjoy it casually whereas academically I’ve been focused on the humanities. I’m sure some people will already know about this but I love (http://en.spaceengine.org/)

What was your favourite toy when you were young (link to an image please)?

Favourite toy was a football. (http://www.newtonnews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/junior-football-newton-news.jpg) I would spend 4-5 hours playing outside every day playing with estate signposts as the goal from about the age of 7. I can’t think of anything else I played with regularly other than lego (http://3dprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/lego-feat1.jpg).

With all the recent game changes there's not been much discussion of the impact on the use of the various team tactics. Which of AIM/AOW/CA/Press/longshot/PlayCreative would you be most likely to incorporate/utilise over coming seasons and why, and which of these tactics do you regard as 'broken' and why?

I think they’re all broken really, with the possible exception of long shots which I haven’t used before. The reason they’re broken is that they do very little to change your chances of winning or losing, and it gets worse the higher in the divisions you go. Unless you have a team capable of extremely high ratings in one area, the only tactical decision worth making right now is whether to counter attack or not and that’s usually decided by team spirit and home advantage.