Asunto: US Senior National Team

We seem to have wwaaayyy too many managers around here who think they are chiefs and don't realize that they are barely functioning indians.
If there was a world championship for dysfunction, the US National Team and many of our managers would take the gold.

Can we get a "like" button already?

To be clear, the purpose of my last post was to try to deflect discussion to more productive ends. It's not a bad thing to have many interested managers as long as they collaborate in the right way instead of grinding an axe. In particular, it can help to collaborate to train players to fill the needs for the national team. It is possible to help with scouting, to suggest players that may be or soon become of interest, suggest tactics change, etc. if done in the right way. The current national team manager won't necessarily agree with everything, but the discussion could still at least sometimes be helpful. It will be easier once bulls4ever posts the full depth chart of potential players to add he said he would post, though that will obviously take a while to finalize since there are a lot of players to look through and possibly managers to convince to upload their players before that becomes possible to do effectively.

It seems that bulls4ever prefers to put the best possible team out this year and to work the other players in over time (when there is an opportunity to do so) and as they come close to surpassing the starters (taking all current modifiers into consideration). If the only difference between the current starters and potential future stars is chemistry, then some managers might consider making the team a bit weaker for a season (versus slowly building up the chemistry of newer players), though if bulls4ever were to do that, it is likely that a lot of managers would complain about the team in the short run. This will all be much easier when the other national teams exist to build up chemistry for the younger players. Of course, I can't speak for bulls4ever, but this is how I believe he wants to proceed.

I think it was mentioned Caps that this year is to build chemistry. .. EDIT FOUND IT.

Here is the depth chart

As stands the roster depth is
Goalies: William Jack , Pascale Baumgartner

Def Back: U Don Womack , U Bryan Weber , L Kevin Hall , L Joshua Chase , R Sylvan Phelan

Off Back: R Stacey Wells , L Mario Tubbs , U Jay Woodall is a winger with great passing, U Marty Kemp

Wing: L Frederick Schneider , U Troy Snodgrass , L Logan Mallory , R Carl Minton

Def Pivot: Ronald Thomas , Darron Marrero

Off Pivot: Jeff Rice , Hugh Draper

Needs:
1. More offensive Backs
2. All wingers but Minton are more offensive. More defensive oriented wingers
3. 3rd goalie
4. if available, upgrade players.

I think a key move this year would be to snag a good 3rd and possible 4th goalie who will take over Baumgartner's minutes and gain chemistry this year so Baumgartner can be dropped next year or the year after.

Some short term pain for long term gain. The thing I do not like about Fugate is that I have to face him at least 4 times this year. I have him scouted

I don't think there is need for Pascale Baumgartner. We have 2 young goalie studs in Lloyd Russ and Dominic Fugate. Both of them 2 years younger than Pascale, and OR is very similar. They should be # 2 and 3.

Pascale OR-400.
Fugate OR-393.
Can't find Russ, but i'm pretty sure he is over 375.

I saw that depth chart, but I think he was going to expand it the players that have the potential of making the team at some point soon. It would be great to build chemistry as much as feasible this season.

I'm in agreement about goaltending being one of the key moves and to handle it in that fashion.

The problem with making Fugate the backup right away is that Baumgartner likely has better chemistry and experience, which will most likely (though I can't say this for sure) make him the better player for a while. It's not unreasonable to make Fugate the full time backup right away depending on the strategy of the national team manager, but it would make the team weaker in the short run. Fugate (if he is the best option) can still start for all of the exhibition games. It also depends on how you handle the goaltenders. If Jack is going to get most of the playing time, then Baumgartner wouldn't be needed, but it seems to be especially important to have the best possible backup in handball. bulls4ever is still working on the final lineup, so it's not impossible that he may like Fugate as the backup this season. In any case, I don't think that you have to worry about Fugate eventually playing an important role on the national team (unless the other 2 have much better qualities or someone else pulls another good goaltender soon), even if it is not right away.

The other 2 good 16 year old goalies are on the Doppelgangers (II.1) and the Psychos (II.3). Both have level 10 training facilities, though the one on the Doppelgangers has seemingly better CL (which is weighed heavily to calculate EQ on the website).

He did say that he didn't see Pascale as the 2nd but more as insurance.

I would personally want to use Jack and 2 of Fugate/Russ/Martinez (and probably begin to phase out Jack as well at some point in a future season), but there is a good argument to keep Pascale Baumgartner as #2 or #3 for now if he remains on the team this season.

Pascalle will bethe 2nd goalie. I can say that. His goalie rate is better than any other goalie, his EQ is better than any other goalie other than Lloyd so he wont get any worse and his manager has the best training facilities. Pascalle will remain as 2nd goalie this season.

Your best 16 year old goalie is probably Kaleb Leavitt in III.1 (Rub and Tuggers), EQ of 79, best out of every US goalie. Short term he wouldn't work, but down the road he will probably be better than most.

bpal, yes .. he and Lloyd are very likely the future USA goalies. But neither are ready to take over Pascalle. either would have a better shot at 2nd spot next season.

All ...
I am almost done with the Depth Chart. I probably made my last cut although one or two players can still be cut this week.

I called in Mitch Hilton as offensive central back position is "open", is behind Tubbs in the depth chart and with his very high EQ he will be ready soon.


My goal is to play the current best (and ones that have good chemistry) while slowly introducing players who have greater EQ into the team.

The 4 layers called but not to play should be players with high EQ but not ready yet to start.

While I will publish the depth chart soon, I wont be adding any players instantly. The process will be slow.

I will also continue with my process of avoiding managers to have more than 2 players in the roster. There are lots of players very similar quality and OR.

All managers should have an opportunity to have players at national level. Having multiple managers with players in the national team will encourage then to play and not to quit the game and will greatly benefit USA. It will also add extra joy to many.

This statement does not mean a crap player will be added just because I don't want a team with 3, but when players are close and should the opportunity arise, this statement will be considered.

I will be scouting. myself. all players I have not yet scouted that are in the depth chart. There are very few of them that I have not scouted yet.

I will also continue to look for players to add to the depth chart.

Chart will include players that are "ready" but not necessarily the best EQ and players with great EQ but not "ready".

Just started level 11 TF. In 3 days, I blew through $110M. So sad...

But I dont imagine the training will be an issue with Russ. I'm doing pretty well with keeping my TF in line with the league averages for the top tier divisions.

Anyways... If we only chose players based on training facilities, we'd probably only have players from 6 different teams. Its a factor sure... but probably not the primary one.

Bulls and I have been doing an in-depth analysis for each slot on the team. One of the most paramount being goalie. We're looking at eQ and eOR ... AS WELL AS HOW THOSE RELATE TO ANTICIPATED ROLES.

The top 2 goalies are good. Really good. And they have very good training facilities. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes another 1-2 seasons (or longer) for Russ and Fugate to just catch them. So rather than sacrificing wins in the meantime, I think it makes sense to run with them and carry prospects in the 3rd or 4th slots. No prospect is good enough now to be the backup.

So whatever other goalies are on the team will be there for long term growth (impact 2+ seasons out). so whatever goalie(s) is/are picked will have to make sense for that.