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TRAINING A U20 CANDIDATE

Written by 807BDF16-B389-45FE-8D4C-024B754C6ACB

From the desk of a (former) U20 Manager:

Training a U20 player for the national team is easy IF you know what you are doing. With the right training set-up i.e. coach and regime, you only need to shop for a good, young talent to kick off this adventure.

Here's some basics.

Main considerations when training a U20 player.

1. Age is IMPORTANT. Your player should be 19years old or in their early 20s (no more than 30 days) at the beginning of the Qualifier season – otherwise the player will likely be over-age or simply not good enough. Use http://hattrickportal.pro/Tracker/U20/U20WC.aspx to gauge how many games in the qualifiers your player is likely to play in. This will influence the selection decision of the U20 manager because removing a player will reflect in a loss of Team Spirit (TS).

So, supposing this is the beginning of the season when a U20 qualifier happens, your candidate should be 19 years old or up to a maximum of 20 years and 30 days. Correspondingly, for younger talents, the player should be 17 years old up to a maximum of 18 years and 30 days.

2. As far as possible U20 & NT candidates shouldn’t be in the same team. Unless the trainer is willing to disregard his team position, NT candidates are usually active in cup competitions as well as competitive leagues which mean higher stamina training. It is not unusual for U20 trainers to “metamorphose” into NT trainers as their trainees age.

3. Stamina Training. During non-competitive periods, stamina should be restricted to 5 – 7%. This accelerates skill training – but keep intensity at 100%!. At this level, it is unlikely that the player will be useful for your club team. As a result the competitiveness of your overall team will be a concern. For this reason, the U20 trainees should ideally be trained in a lower division team whose cup run will be short and league competition weak to begin with. NOTE: 5-6 weeks before the end of the season preceding a qualifier, you should start increasing the % of stamina training to ensure that your player is at least minimum rated before being drafted into the U20 squad. I cannot stress enough the importance of stamina in a game – just look at the minute-by-minute ratings to understand why!

4. Skill Training – Race to the Top. Quite simply, most of the candidates will be mono-skilled rather than multi-skilled. In most cases there’s simply not enough time to train proper uberwingers, TDFs or even goalkeepers with decent defence. To me, the decision threshold is when the player hits world class in his primary skill. If his secondary is already passable and there is time to beef that to excellent, only then should a trainer consider a training regime change. And this almost always means having an excellent trainer with 100% intensity at low stamina %. As a rule, I have up to 4 slots initially reserved for multiskilled players, one of whom is usually a 3rd choice keeper.

5. Skill Training – In the Image of the Manager. Quite simply, the manager knows the type of players in the pool and will decide how he prefers the composition of the team. Keep in constant contact with the U20 Manager/scouts and remember to update your talents in the tracker website http://hattrickportal.pro/Tracker. Do remember to login and click “yes” on the radio button where it says “Tracking your players” – which enables the U20 team to track the progress of your player. Make sure the U20 Manager knows your commitment to training – especially if you are a foreign owner. It makes a lot of difference in building a player custom to the needs of the U20. Once you’ve adopted a plan, stick to it. There is no time for detours when it comes to training a U20 player.

6. Specialty is SPECIAL Only make sure you choose (when you are able to) the best complementary specialty for the position of the player. For forwards, the best is to have Quick and Unpredictable, as these will generate Goal Special Events (SE) best. Technical Defensive forwards are ONLY important if they are trained exactly like midfielders, having stacks of PM and passing to make use of the increased midfield control and contribution to Wing Attacks; his scoring is very secondary. Head can generate goal SEs, but is pretty redundant on a striker, as the rules state the following:

Wingers with sufficient winger skill can create chances that will have to be finished off by another winger or a forward. If that other player is a head specialist OR has sufficient scoring skill, he will be more likely to score.

Note that "OR" means if a recipient has good scoring, he will score, if he doesn't but has head, he will also score. This makes Head very useful for wingers instead, as they usually do not come with much scoring.

Powerful forwards have no SE, and just contribute via weather gains/losses.

For Wingers, Quick ad Unpred also has no negative SE, so they are ideal.

For IMs, they can be pretty much anything. Head is useful for this position to stack up on Corner chances. Quick IMs can also stop opponent quick players, but aside from that has no other benefit. Unpredictable IM is a double-edged sword, as they can cause negative SE (empirical studies show a 50% goal event, and 50% no goal event). Tech and Powerful can contribute via weather.

For Def, it is pretty much the same as IMs. Unpredictable is probably useless for U20s as most Defs at this age do not have enough passing skill to take advantage of the Long Pass Event.
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[Note: this portion has been edited with input from @bsehben who is the current U20 manager]

7. Set Piece OPPORTUNITY. Most squads will need 2-3 designated SP takers. This is the alternative to secondary training that makes sense to me.

8. The MORE (trainees) the MERRIER (the manager will be). By all means have more than 1 trainee. This gives you a better chance of getting a player in the U20 or better, more than 1 player. It also increases the options for the U20 to account for loss of form, injuries etc.

9. Training During Qualifiers or Beyond Round 1. It is important to retain training during the competition stage. This should focus on retaining key skills, maintaining stamina and making small adjustments to the player’s skills. Getting into the U20 is only the 2nd step. There is life after the U20 in the form of the NT.

I hope this article sheds some light to would-be U20 trainers. In the end, MAJULAH SUKAN UNTUK NEGARA.