Lineups

LINEUP

A manager is required to submit a lineup for each match his team plays. A lineup consists as a minimum of a list of 11 players and a set of 5 substitutes (required). Additional instructions are described below.

All lineups are created online.

Players and Positions

Each player in a lineup must be given a position to play. A position is one of GK (goalkeeper), SW (sweeper), DF (defender), MF (midfielder), WG (winger), and FW (forward). Note that SD, DM, MA, and UT are not actual positions in a lineup.

Instructions to Individual Players

Each player in a lineup may be given an instruction regarding the aggressiveness with which to play, an instruction regarding the exact position at which to play, and also conditional instructions as a substitute (or for a repositioning or change of aggressiveness).

Instructions Regarding aggressiveness

Each player may be given one of the following instructions pertaining to aggressiveness: aggressive (a), dirty (d), normal (n), or passive (p).

Instructions Regarding Substitution

Up to three players in each lineup may be sent into the match as substitutes. Substitutes MAY be given conditional orders, however these conditions are only evaluated if the substitute has entered the match.

Team Strategies

A lineup may be ordered to use a variety of tactics. The effects of these tactics are described in the section on Match Resolution.

The choice of tactics may depend on the game situation, or the strength or weaknesses of the opponent. A longball game may be handy if you have a weak midfield and strong FW line, against an opponent with a relatively weak DF or SW area. Building the OTF bonus can also be considered a tactic, although it is more of a long-term strategy. It will cost you SLs on your older players in the short term (as you won't be coaching them), but will cost "only" 6 CPs each season to maintain it at its maximum of 10, once attained.

Lineup Creation
Orders should be created using the online Lineup, Team Tactics and Player Tactics pages and reviewed on Review Orders page.

Choose players, Players’ position and aggression for all 16 players for your match. The effective SL will be shown for each player as well as the total for each position Area Ratings. On the right it will give the GP, DEF and OFF for each tactic.

Note this does not include the 0.05 bonus per player for WGs nor any bonuses for the opposition tactic.

If a player is listed to play and has an EL of less than zero, or is suspended the program will automatically sub him before the game.
See rules on Substitutes including automatic pre-match subs and their effects.

Restrictions on lineups (READ CAREFULLY!!)

The following player restrictions apply to team lineups, both at the start of the game and then at every minute in the game after kick-off.

Restrictions on GKs

There must be exactly one GK
GKs may play passive, normal, dirty, or aggressive but always stop shots as if they are playing normal.
If a GK is sent off, and less than 3 subs have been used, then the highest SL player-as-a-GK will go in goal.
- If he is a sub then the lowest effective SL MF/WG/FW will go off.
- If the new GK is already on the pitch then he will reposition to GK.

Restrictions on SWs
There may be at most one SW.

Restrictions on DFs and MFs

You must play between 2 to 5 DF and 2 to 5 MF players at all times.
You must not play more than 6 DF's and SW combined at the same time.

Restrictions on WGs and FWs

You may play between 0 and 2 WGs in a match.
You may play between 1 and 4 FWs in a match.
You may not play more than 4 players in the attacking line of WGs and FWs

Restrictions on Substitutes

You may only send on three subs during a given match.
You may make conditional substitutes at any time if your conditions are met.
If a player is injured, a sub will come on for that player no matter what minute it is, unless your three subs have been used.

Note that if your lineup does not fall within these min/max rules, the program will adjust your lineup

Team Tactics

You set your starting tactic and home bonus here. Default tactic is N and home bonus of 8.

You may make 5 conditions based on the time and/or score differential. These are read from top to bottom each minute so a G < -1 S followed by a G < -5 P will mean you stall when 2 goals down but press when 6 goals down. If you put them the other way round then the G < -1 will counter the G < -5 if 6 goals down so you will continue to stall.

You can also put in 3 conditional comments based on the time and/or score.

Note that only T >= or T > will be read by the program. G=0 means if the scores are level

Player Tactics

Conditional changes to position, aggression and substitutions are done here. You may have up to 10 in total and can have as many as you want for a particular player.

The first column is the player affected followed by 6 columns for time and score. The 8th column has either ‚c‚ or a player name and the 9th column has positions or aggression.

"c" followed by anything else will change the player’s aggression or position (note Out of Position effects).
A player must be followed by a position and will bring that named player on as substitute at that position, with the player in column 1 being taken off. If you use player followed by an aggression then he will have no position and have no effect, but still play. Set the aggression on the lineup page.

Training
You assign CP and TP usage on this page.
Select the player you wish to train in the drop down. They need to play 45 minutes to be trained and get the SL bonus. If the player is subbed off and plays less than 45 minutes, no CP/TP is spent and no SL is gained.
OTF is also coached here.

Marking
Marking is assigned on this page. First you must use the Load Tactics button for the match in question, and can do this even if player tactics haven’t been set yet. This will load your lineup and also the opposition players. Alternatively you can Save Tactics for the match and this will load in the opposition players. '''Only''' players at DF may mark and they may be assigned 2 players to mark, the second being marked if the first isn’t playing.

Review Orders
Use the Review Orders page to check everything is OK as it’s easy to leave out a >= or put in a player who is not in the starting lineup in the conditionals.

Policy on NMR (No Moves Received)
A team that does not send in lineups by the deadline or contact the commissioner regarding their status is considered NMR.
If your team is in NMR status for a given match, a NMR program has been created to create lineups for your team.
The program balances playing good players with rested ones (hence don't expect your top 11 players to be starting).

While there is no fine for NMR, CP and TP expenditures will not be permitted while a team is under NMR.
CP and TP will accumulate for expenditure in a later session, at whatever the additional cost.
All players will play passive.

If you see a busy time period coming up, see if a friend can take your team or create lineups well in advance.
The commissioner DOES NOT WANT to ever have to declare a manager “gone” but he will if you meet the above criteria.