Subject: I.1

Congrats to Atlantic on qualifying for next season's Superleague Cup with a convincing 4-0 win over FC Kangaroo in the 7th place playoff.

Oh, and congrats to Trubelue for their 3 millionth title. Actually, I just counted. It's their 30th

Hi guys! Just made it into I.1 and wanted to say hello.

Welcome!

You did a great job in II.1 last season, climbing your way up throughout the season to take out the title in the last couple of weeks. If you keep doing what you're doing, investing in facilities, maybe a couple more prudent signings, you'll do alright this season.

You have a clear advantage over four of the other newly promoted clubs. St Spyridon will probably become managerless in the near future. Saad1195 and Portahouse won't be too far behind while Tekkers are active but so new it will take them a little while to become competitive with the other newbies.

The other two newly promoted clubs, Bulldog Academy and Maggots, have bought well so will be competitive with you on the park but haven't invested as well in facilities so your players should train faster than theirs and you will be more competitive at the back end of the season.

You should also be competitive against a number of existing Div.I clubs although the reality is you'll get hammered by a few. But stick with it, you'll improve dramatically over the next season or two. Look at clubs like Highland Terriers and FC Atlantic Sydney to see examples of clubs who have been promoted and become competitive after just a couple of seasons in Div.I.

Best wishes for the season!

Yeah, once I looked at the make-up of the league, I figured I would get hammered more than a few times! A few of you have been around more than 10 seasons!

To be honest, I am not particularly worried. At the moment, my team is good enough to avoid relegation, but not progress very far in the league. So unless the bottom end of the league becomes super-competitive, I plan to spend quite some time building up my facilities and learning what works for my team.

With the exception of my goalie (which I needed to clinch the top spot in Div II), I pretty much have a youth team. So I plan to practise developing them and see how they grow. By the time they get old, my facilities and finances should be enough to give you guys a challenge! At least that's the plan.

There will be some mid-league tussles so you'll end up a few rivalries.

Highlanders rivalry with FC Kangaroo is legendary .... Started when he won every match in league 2, then got spanked in the League Cup final by Highlanders!

I might try a few new tactics this season so opportunities there fore to stuff up!

Good luck!

Howdy mate and WELCOME in top league.

It takes skills to become a part and guts to stay alive here. The first goal of yours is clear and most crucial (not to relegate for a few next seasons) which I can see u will do just fine

However, it could become difficult to bear that u cannot peak into the top 7 teams and they just keep beating ya every single time, every single game. Look at BF - Highlanders bout 7-8 seasons back they were just like u, new and got beaten every now and then... and tday, they fight equal matches with every single team except our 'Master' Trueblue (o= just teasing him.. still, he is the one who helped us mostly to be able to compete with him. So searching advices of those top players might help u big time!

Truth is, if u find someone to have rivalry with, it is much easier to keep going...

GL mate!

Hahaha! I'll have to find a suitable rival. Thanks for the welcome everyone. And I'll definitely be getting advice from you top players!

Welcome Any questions definitely please ask. We've got a small but solid group here and would love to have more people around. I'll apologise in advance if my lads cause some problems for you, I usually play youth lines when playing newer teams.

There's something you don't see often. Prestige plays very low against Trueblue with lower team strength and possession yet walks away 3-0 victors.

Wow, I just looked at the results. A goal in the first minute!! :o

And a question for Trueblue: I notice that a lot of the top teams make several positional changes throughout the match. What benefits does this give, and what when is it best to do this?

I think TrueBlue was tactically beat actually - well done Prestige!

12-0 was a new club record for Highland Terriers tonight!

I agree that game belonged to Prestige!

My question was just as a newbie, I am trying to find out more about things that aren't explained clearly in the guide.

Some benefits of substitutions
- save player energy for later in season
- subs seem to have an effect when they come on (I think players tire in the match)
- change of tactics/position based on scoreline
- accumulate experience & chemistry to a wider group of players

I can understand substitutions, and I can see that Trueblue changed some positions in that last game to accomodate the new subs. But I was wondering about the value of pure positional changes, such as the European Cup Finals and other top level matches:

http://soccer.powerplaymanager.com/en/match-report.html?data=nt-17889

I thought it was used to keep the opponent guessing (i.e not have a particular weak point), but I was wondering if there was a deeper strategy that I am missing.

Well, this used to work that if u take strong player into weak position, the total OR was lower..
Generally, u sometimes bring players to support defense (or offense) and change style (e.g. 4-4-2 into 5-3-2 and then he swapped back into original) there might be more which I haven't seen as I just looked in a hurry...

btw: Well done, Prestige