RDF Development Guide & Training Schedules for FM20

First of all, one very important thing: This is a guide and a suggestion, not an exploit.

• Should you really be training players in the roles/position they're playing in?
  
• How many coaches do you need for best results?
  
• Is there a better way, or another way of doing things than the normal role focus in individual training?
  

We had a go to find out. And the results made us change our way of doing things totally.

Credit to Rober82 & Cadoni for their advice. The results we've managed to get together have been superb, and finally gathered about as much information as we could.

I, just like many of us here, followed the same advice in training. And that's to train players in the roles/position they're playing in. We got the impression that made them understand the tactic more and automatically become adaptable to it.

Well, we recently figured out that there might be more than one way to do things.
We then had to question, is there a better way to have more control over a players development in training?

For example, Mason Greenwood is a special player. He has great physical attributes and height but his heading was on 7 and bravery was on 10. If I then train him as an AF because that’s what my tactic uses, I could be missing out on exploiting his physical attributes. So I then gave him the training focus “Aerial” to improve his heading and bravery. After 4 seasons, the result was incredible…

Our aim soon became to focus a player's yearly development on a certain attribute, or two, for a player to improve on to make him a better player. The game is filled with players who are insane finishers, but lack composure, or great at everything but make the wrong decisions.

What if we could give them what they lack, instead of adding +1 to things we are already happy with?

We tried double intensity on a focus, along with fitness coaches and some schedules built to expand and contribute to the double intensity focus. Boy did it work!

When a focus area improves to the level we are satisfied with, then naturally, we can change our focus into another area. We also see other attributes increasing at the time we are focusing on a few, they may be linked to the increase but we do not know.

Some probably come from normal training, and some improve naturally as a player develops. Our focus is still to give a player what he is missing, and make him a better player.

As you can see below, Ruocco has no position / role / duty in training. I set him to focus on his attacking movement. In a 6 month period, he has had a rapid increase in the area this focuses on, along with this increase, and again; he has other increases as well.

Rober:

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That is an amazing find! This means we can now develop our young players much better, and give some players who are lacking a certain aspect of the game to reach a new level, exactly what they need.

Coaches.

Do we need 12 world class coaches? Does it make a difference? No one knows.

Picture your team training right now, the team is split into 3 sections. GK unit. DEF unit and ATT unit. Can you picture 5 ATT coaches coaching the ATT unit? Probably not, because it shouldn't happen. I did wonder what the fascination was in signing 12 coaches. I personally believe you don't need many coaches, but you can still do that as well if you want to.

However we recommend fitness first if you need to choose because of coaching limits.

I was fooled into believe achieving 5* training was the best thing out there. That just looks good.

But what if you signed plenty of fitness coaches? Fitness coaches are important when it comes to physical attributes and mental attributes. I was led to believe that Physical is most important, then Mental and last Technical. Again, so then why stock up on coaches that mainly coach technical stuff?

All we use is 1 or 2 GK to coach 2 or 3 GKs. Maximum of three coaches, this includes yourself, your assistant and just 1 general coach. Rest if your spots, you can fill with fitness coaches; assuming you're a good enough club to have a few coaches.

As you can see, I've hired many fitness coaches.




This screenshot is to show you my team's training performance. As a team, especially Brescia, this a very high. Also, generally my players are happy with training, no real concerns there either. You may have a one or two people upset, but take into consideration how much they're playing (international football too) and their personality.

Results from training.

I will let these screenshots speak. This is all in a one season period. so not even 12 months of training.

Schedules!

Credit to Cadoni & Rober82 for co-creating and testing!

These schedules are tied with this training. We wanted to find a schedule that suits the method. So double intensity is advised as this was created around double intensity. We wanted to find the best combination and this is what we came up with.

1 Match Week - The double intensity training

Use this when you only have 1 match a week.



2 Match Week - The double intensity training

Use this when you have 2 matches during the week.



0 Match Week - The double intensity training

Use this when you have 0 matches a week.
Pro Tip: During international breaks, you can use this the week of no match, then use the set piece preset on week returning from international break.



Finally, results of training rating after first month with this in use.




And some developments during the pre-season and 1st month of schedule used.
This schedule was used in Pre-Season but currently not advised... yet.

Rober's remarks

1. Get a lot of great fitness coaches, I have six. Three on each category. Put yourself and ass man at normal training categories, add 2 GK coaches for GK. If there's still room, find some normal coaches with model citizen personality.


2. Instead of training in position, add double intensity on individual training. Then select area which is lacking, e.g. final third, that trains decisions and composure. These will increase very much. I think Almada started with 10 and 13, so +2 and still only 7 months of season played. They will get positional familiarity by playing in their position anyways. And they are still training in playing position.


3. If coaches have Model citizen, Model pro, or Pro personalities, you might also have an increase in determination for many players. But not always so easy to find so determined and fairly determined also work.


4. Select automation on all in individual, and go to the “rest” page to automate double intensity over 80 and 90%. They then change according to his fitness levels, to protect from training to hard when low fitness after matches, and get injuries.

Cadoni 's Coaching recommendation

Let's give you an example: You are a real manager. Style: Gegenpress. You hire a new coach and tell you I like tiki-taka. Should you trust that guy?

Of course you can have results with not the "right" ones, but I don't like my coaching team to have different philosophy from mine.

The ultimate training staff lineup for me is:

3 GK Coaches

- 1 General (the best one)
- 1 Shot Stopping
- 1 Handling

7 Coaches

- 1 General (the best one)
- 1 Defending Tactical
- 1 Defending Technical
- 1 Attacking Tactical
- 1 Attacking Technical
- 1 Possession Technical
- 1 Possession Technical

All of them must have same style & preferred formation as you.

3 Fitness Coaches

- 1 General
- 1 Strength
- 1 Quickness

Recommended traits
- Personalities: Model Citizen, Model Professional, Professional or at least Fairly Professional & Perfectionist
- Determination
- Level of Displine
- Motivating
- Working with Youngsters
- Tactical Knowledge (for coaches in general)
- Man Management (For AM, U18 Manager, U21 Manager, HoYD*)


For the Assistant Manager (AM) I recommend the following:

- Personality
- Level of Discipline
- Determination
- Motivation
- JPA & JPP
- Tactical Knowledge

Since AM will take care of training:

- Attacking
- Defending
- Mental
- Technical
- Tactical

This also applies to U21 & U18 Staff.

Since it's really hard to have the ultimate training staff, that's why I don't have coaches. If I found one, then will be part.

Training & Youth Facilities:
If you are OK with finances, ask the board to upgrade. This is really important.