Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

[Sean of the Shed]

What kind of manager are you? Can you take a team that was piss poor last season to the top with little alteration despite nobody expecting you to? can you take a team that was piss poor last season, fill it full of vastly overpriced and overrated egos even bigger than your own and make them look even worst than last year? Can you look like the perfect fit after a couple of games with a neglected club who aren't really that arsed to look for a manager anyway only to find that you really are as shit as everyone first imagined and drop like a stone? Are you the man to finally take a consistently failing club by the scruff of the neck and drag it forcibly to where it really belongs, i.e. the division below?
Well if you think you've got what it take to manage in the toughest league in the world then you need to be joining Xpert Eleven.
Want to know more? Xpert Eleven is an online football manager game. You are given a team with a squad of players and you compete in a league with other OTFers, some are hardcore regulars, and some are occasional posters and some are just lurkers who don't really post on here at all and just enjoy the game. We don't mind really.
Just like in real football, you try to pick a team to beat your opponent whilst trying to nurture young talent and, with some training, squad alterations and accumulation of wealth, grow your squad of players into a successful winning team. You play in a league twice a week, and you get to choose the formation and style of play that you think best suits your team, and can buy and sell players in the transfer market and bring in new youth prospects.
It doesn't take a lot of time either. A couple of minutes a day will usually do just to check updates and set you team, though you may spend a bit more than that on the site if you want to find a new player or write a press release (which can earn you extra cash).
The game is easy to play, and the site is very simple to navigate. Also we are a welcoming bunch and are happy to help with any questions that might arise as you get used to the game play. Just try it for a season and see how you go, we won't mind if you decide that it isn't for you, though you might find it hopelessly addictive and end up running a massive private league like I and others have.
It doesn't have to cost you anything. The game is free to join, but you have the option of purchasing VIP membership if you want to take advantage of extra gizmos or increase your team portfolio.
And joining is easy too. This is the league invite link. Just click on it, enter your details and the OTF League admin Etienne will set you up.

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Bump.

We welcome back anyone who has tried it before and had to give up for any reason.

[Various Artist]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

It's great fun, and all the established managers are very open with advice, tips and hints here on the regular Xpert Eleven thread. Come and give it a go, chaps and chapesses.

[Gerontophile]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

I signed up, but found that I had already signed up.

What next?

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

If you could get in to your old account then click link : http://www.xperteleven.com/?lid=108391
if not create a new account then click link.

I don't think you ever played a game last time, so hope for a longer stay this time.

[Gerontophile]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

OK. Have sent an entry to OTF league.

Apparently I am in the Golden League, but don't want to be.

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Welcome. I've accepted your application. We've got I think 3 more matches left of the current season still to go.

I would give the Golden League a go as well. It's nice to run two teams I think, it means that when one team goes on a losing streak then you can focus on the other one. And there are quite a few OTFers in the Golden League.

[Sits]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Excellent news Ger, I remember the Pet Shop Bhoys from first time.

[Gerontophile]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Now "Grandads Army".

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Anyone else fancy some escapism from the horror of real life?

[NickSTFU]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Etienne wrote: Anyone else fancy some escapism from the horror of real life?

Is that an invitation to the pub?

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Haha, yes, we still need to do that. I'm not sure I've been in a pub in the fourteen months our daughter has been alive.

[Gerontophile]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

If a player has "DIV 2" alongside their name, what does that mean?

[Janik]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

You mean DV 2, Geron? If so that is a player's Development Value. It is basically a measure of whether a player is going to get better or worse when the end-of-season update (called the Change Report) happens.

Players gain DV over the course of a season. They will generally start with low scores, such as the DV 2 player you were looking at. They can add to this initial value by playing; DV is earned incrementally per minute on the pitch. However not all minutes of play are equal. For example younger players will gain more DV than older ones for the same amount of playing time, it can be earned by all players in friendlies but at a much slower rate than league games, and even during a league campaign early fixtures (where everyone is still seeking to establish where in the league their team will end up) give higher DV returns than later ones (which might be dead rubbers where defeat doesn't really matter).

There are more fine details involved, like playing in a win/good performance offering more DV than appearing in a hammering, but the above is the main thrust, I think.

At the end of the season the par DV score is 10. A player who finishes on that should neither improve or regress (just simply age!). Anything above 10 will add to the players skill level, but it will probably take a DV of 15+ for a player up to 25 to add a full skill bar, and more than that for older players to make a noticeable jump. If a player ends the season with a DV of 7 or less, particularly if the are in their 30s, they are likely to lose a skill bar.

Maximising your team's DV whilst still putting out strong enough teams to win games is the central balancing act of the game. Simply playing your strongest possible team all the time will stunt the growth of your young players, who you will need in future seasons. Focus entirely on youth in an attempt to get the kids up to very high scores, and they will take regular hammerings which will slow their DV gains and mean your 'golden generation' goes the way of all these things, petering out disappointingly.

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

The link again. www.xperteleven.com/?lid=108391

Come on, come all.

[Kevin S]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Yeah, come on in. The 'scribble' message board in the league is quite easy on the eye, if you like that sort of thing.

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Welcome to Guy Profumo and Forge Albion.

New teams please note you will get a 'boost' to your squads before the season starts which will (marginally) improve some players.

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Deadline for any new entries is the end of the day Monday. After that I will boost the new teams and create a new season.

Still not too late to join: just click here: www.xperteleven.com/?lid=108391

[Gerontophile]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Thanks Janik. It's a lot more in-depth than I realised.

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Last chance to join is the next couple of hours.

Guy, I don't think you have logged in since joining. Any problems?

[Gerontophile]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Substitutes.

I just played a friendly, and noticed in the post-match report, that my opponent had made a couple of substitutions.

Do you have to be there physically logged in, watching the game to do that?

[Etienne]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

No.

You have two options. On your tactics screen you can either click "automatic subs" and your assistant manager will make subs for you - but you may not agree with them. Or you can programme substitutions to happen at a certain time or a certain situation. So if you wanted to bring on Sub A for Player B at half time in all circumstances you'd choose always. If you only wanted it to happen if you weren't already winning you'd choose "drawing or worse".

There is nothing that you can change by being online when a match is being played.

Good start by the way Gero, in each game you get a managerial rating out of 5 stars - and you got 5!

[Gerontophile]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Yeah, that'll last.

[Various Artist]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Welcome to the new arrivals, hope you're looking forward to the new season kicking off at last on Thursday. (Or Friday, if you're around 10 hours ahead like Sits, say.) Any other queries, do ask the hive mind here.

Further to what Etienne was saying about subs before, I'll just note that you have to set them for each game individually. Substitutions are the one thing that can't be saved as a default, unlike your lineup, formation, aggression, free-kick/penalty takers, use of offside traps, long-balls etc.

You can have Automatic Substitutions toggled on or off as a default, however, thus leaving it if you so choose to your "assistant manager" – an otherwise nebulous figure who doesn't actually play any other real part in the game, and whose sub choices generally leave something to be desired. Bringing them on in the 89th minute might seem realistic, but is of negligible value for best development of players – see what Janik wrote above.

You're better off subbing in players for 20-45 minutes at a time, because helpfully there's more total 'match experience' on offer the more evenly you share it out. That is, the combined benefit to two players, one subbing in for the other, is worth rather more than 100% of what one player playing the full 90 mins would get. This maxes out when the split is somewhere in the range of 45m-45m to 60m-30m.

[Various Artist]

Moyes? Phelan? Mour? Like a Conte?

Gerontophile wrote: Do you have to be there physically logged in, watching the game to do that?

Also to add to Etienne's reply before, the results are all fully simulated inside a few seconds at the stroke of the appointed match time, based entirely on your saved tactics/lineup and subs – you can't actually watch a game play out live, therefore there is no opportunity to influence one in progress.

That is, if you choose to "watch The Game" (their name for their little Flash-powered match 'viewer') you get a thrilling blow-by-blow text account 'as live', but it will always wind up the exact same result as you get by clicking straight through to the Match Report stats five seconds after 5 o'clock, say.