Making your mind up
More than 26 years ago, another band of plucky Brits set forth to conquer Europe. Their manifesto was straightforward: overcome the perils of conformism, and single-mindedly dedicate yourself to following the path of individuality. Above all, simply make your mind up, and stick to your decisions thereafter. As uncomplicated as it sounds, it’s one tough prescription to follow.
Faced with a campaign on three fronts – the league, the domestic cup, and garlicky old Europe – the PES Master League player is faced with a dilemma. Who to play, and in what fixtures? Even with a squad packed full of top players in peak form and condition, there will be casualties along the way.
You can field your top strikers in a big league game (and every league game is a big game, rightly considered), but if you then play them in the big Cup game afterward, they’ll likely be unavailable for the next big League game. Either their stamina or their form, or both, will be borked (as I think people still say on the internet).
One solution, if you have a big enough squad, is to make your mind up about which competition is your priority, and formally establish a Second XI of players to play in the lesser competitions. And stick to your decision.
For me, the league is the #1 priority. I doubt I’ll be able to catch Chelsea, but second spot is well within my reach. That would mean automatic qualification for the European Championships (i.e., the Champions League) next season. A top-six finish would be the next best thing. Playing a load of pre-tournament qualifiers in the first weeks of next season would be a pain, but it’d be better than finishing outside the top six and not being there at all. More games means more points for the transfer kitty. And what do points make? That’s right. Prizes.
So the First XI (plus/minus one or two players as circumstances dictate) is the one I want to play in every league game. For the Cup and the European Masters Cup, I came up with a Second XI (pictured left) who would – notionally – always play in those fixtures. In this way I hoped to preserve my good league form, and also give myself a fighting chance of progressing in the two Cups.
It’s a good plan on so many levels. You preserve your first-choice players’ fitness levels, and you give several rising stars a full game.
Bradley in particular is in need of full games right now. I’ve resisted starting with him in the First XI so far because he feels a little bit ‘unfinished’. I think that playing him regularly in Cup games will take him that extra bit further and hopefully establish him as a first-choice regular next season.
All of this is good in theory, right?
If you stick to it, yes. I didn’t stick to it. When it came to the crunch I followed the old advice to always play your best team regardless of other fixtures coming up. Thus I embarked upon my worst run of form and results all season. Things haven’t been this bad since the dark days of 2010.
Out of seven games, I lost five and drew two. Portsmouth thumped me 3-1 at home in the league. Mattsson was sent off in this game. A bad day at the office for everyone.
As for the Cups, the First XI/Second XI thing went out of the window almost straightaway. Before the D1 Cup tie against Arsenal, I saw that Schwarz had an almost-full stamina bar and a red form arrow, and selected him for the game without giving it a second thought. Always play your best team is all well and good. But I had a plan, and I should have stuck with it. I drew the Arsenal cup match and lost the second leg. I also lost the league games in between times.
Espanyol almost contemptuously disposed of me in the Masters Cup. They beat me 3-1 at home, and the fixture at their place ended 1-1. They were all over me in both games. It looks like the standard of play in Europe this year is a lot higher than the domestic game.
So much for Europe. #Don’t let your indecision take you from behind…# How I wish I’d really listened to that sound advice. Coventry City, nul points.
When I moved back to Kansas and started supporting the Wizards (Kansas...
Ugh. Tough break. However, I don’t blame you. I blame that singing group you linked to. Now that I have seen them, I am blaming them for a lot of the world’s ills.
Poverty, cancer, bad runs in PES, etc.
Damn, I always played second string in cup matches regardless of league form.
Not worth risking not being in contention for europe next season by concentrating on it for this season. I found it a nice way to bring in the new blood and get a proper feel for them.
Hows andy cole doing by the way?
He’s someone I’d like to sign when I get the oppotunity.
fernando torres just got his first double-hatrick (6goals in one game, in one half actually). I just won a few games on my first ML – 9-2, 4-0(barca), 7-2 … seriously i am finding that every shot goes in lol
gotta focus on my newer ML cos the other one is just a walk in the park!
how comes you still have bramble and the likes? Sell them and bring in new faces!! I got several youths who are brill defenders – ‘Jean’, ‘Gunther’(gunther is amazing, near-first choice selection at the tender age of 19), ‘Walton’(left back) – and a bargain ‘Tulio’ who i brought in for experienced backup(he has like 4 Defense stars, balance, defense, etc, cost 3500P i think!!)
anyway, off to play yay
ck – I’ll have you know that Bucks Fizz (the group in the photo) represent the very pinnacle of Europop. The world is a better place for their music. Konami could do a lot worse than to utilise some of their bangin’ tunes for the next PES soundtrack.
Paul – Andy Cole is doing great. He’s pretty much already the finished article. I’ve actually not being doing my duty properly and reporting on him here as much as I should have. He plays on the right whenever Shimizu can’t. In fact, I’ll do a player-by-player assessment of my entire squad in the next close season. That’ll pad this thing out a bit… (I’ve come to see that I’m going to need different kinds of articles regularly to keep this blog fresh. Just to break things up a bit and give us all a break from Master League after-action reports.)
david – re. Bramble & co., it’s still only just over half a season since my first relegation-haunted season in the top flight. Even in years past I’d still have a lot of dead wood in the squad right now, and it’s a helluva big squad this year. As you know, you can’t sell players unless the CPU teams come in for them, no matter how long they’re left on the list. The usual way to get rid of players is to trade them, and I traded a load of other players pre-season. Bramble just happens to be still around. The ultimate option to get rid of players is to release them – something I hate doing, as it’s a waste of points and a waste of trade-in ballast. And – Bramble is still useful enough to play when needed. I’ll be looking to assemble my usual team of Galacticos over the next 2-3 negotiation periods. And I might end up having to release players to make room for new Youths. (That’s if I play on in this ML, of course. I’m planning to quit it as soon as I get a Treble, and restart with everything on Very Hard.)
played 12
won 0
draw 2
lose 10
GD of -18 (only 3 goals)
jesus christ this is hard. There is such a fine line between battering an opponent and receiving it. Im so bored of this shitty players who cant string anything together, im playing on 5min games now to get to the transfers lol
david, you’ve got all the other ML settings on Very Hard as well, yes? If so then your team of Defaulters must be almost permanently knackered! I found it bad enough on Normal. I can’t wait to find out what it’s like for myself on Very Hard.
1 win
3 draws
12 loses
got a bit of luck there, won against rangers with a Burchet long-shot at the end of the game lol. 3 games away from the negotiations – which i guess will be very difficult to do anything in with the settings on Very hard (to answer your Q).
they arent knackered any more than they were on Normal, I find. on normal rotation was a common procedure, like now. I do find a tonne of blue and grey arrows though, seems a bit harder with those.
Its just the quality of teams im up against. every game is so hard, its like Leyton Orient playing in the Premiership!
“ck – I’ll have you know that Bucks Fizz (the group in the photo) represent the very pinnacle of Europop. ”
I shudder to imagine the nadir.
negotiations were not difficult as I imagined.
I know exactly how you feel, i have always told myself that i’ll play my 2nd XI in the cups but it never seems to happen. It’s just impossible to overlook your top striker when he has a red form arrow.
Currently just past the half way mark of my 2nd season in my ML. Surprisingly I’ve done quite well, after finishing 2nd bottom last season i am now in the top half and even have a reasonable chance at promotion if we play well.
Also i think i might go along with your idea of eventually starting a new ML with all settings to Very Hard and putting all of the top teams in the 2 divisions. It’s something I’ve always thought about but eventually not done as it does in a big way take away from the European competitions but if i can win a treble in my current ML i think i’ll be happy not to have to worry about it in a new game.
ck – there’s something we have over here called the Eurovision Song Contest. Bucks Fizz won it in 1981. The Contest is… unique. Have a look on YouTube for more treats.
david – negotiations not difficult on Very Hard, eh… thanks for the info. I was thinking about this today – about how I’d cope without that number next to players’ names that tells you the chance you have of signing them. And I thought I’ve spent so much time looking at lists of players already in this ML that I’m going to kind of remember who will and who won’t sign for me at various stages. Unless the values are more or less random in each new game?
stinger – Now you’ve said that, I’m worried about unbalancing my future ML. This needs some careful thought and research. I’m off to look for a full list of clubs in the game, to try to work out what teams could go where to maximise the experience all round.
Or here’s a thought: edit every single CPU player in the game to all 99s in their stats!
Now that would be one tough prospect. Give them all Middle Shooting etc. as well. Even the CBs. I wonder how that ML career would play out, especially starting with the Defaults
Cracking blog, Greg!
Two players you should buy (and will be able to):
Diego Buonanotte – a young midfielder from River Plate who develops into a world beater.
Halil Altintop – 22 year old striker who plays at FC Schalke 04. Holds the ball up well, tall, agile, strong, good in the air and knows where the net is.
I read, with surprise, your post about struggling to tempt Mathieu to join your squad. What level player is he on your ML game at the moment? I only ask because I could have signed him for my Level C team quite easily.
H
H Bomb – thanks for the tips. Halil Antintop gives me the shudders – it was him who scored THAT goal against me for Chelsea. The goal that poor old Kim U Don’t has never recovered from: http://peschronicles.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/kim-u-dont-chelsea-1-coventry-0/
Mathieu is turning out to be a pain in the rear end this time around. I think the problem is that I’m not prepared to offer anything more than 1500 or so in wages, which is about 500 more than he’s currently getting. His team are ‘A’ ranked – he is ‘B’ ranked. I’ve been ‘A’ ranked for a while now and he still won’t come.