Hattrick Denominations and frequent abbreviations

A
AiM - Attack in the Middle
AoA - All out Attack
AoW - Attack on Wings

B
BP - Ball possession

C
CA - counter attack
CD - central defender

D
def - defensive
Deffor - defensive forward

E

F
FF - Firefox
FU - Financial update
FtW/FTW - Forward to wing
FW - Forward

G
GK - Goalkeeper

H
HT - Hattrick

I
IM - inner midfielder

J

K

L

M
Mid - Midfield
Mots/MOTS - Match of the season

N

O
off - offensive
oIM/oDef - offensive inner midfielder/defender etc.

P
PA - Press announcement
PM - playmaking or private message (= HT-Mail)
PIC - Play it Cool
PS - Passing

Q

R
RG - Regainer

S
SE - Special event

T
TL - Transfer list or training level
TM - Transfer market
TO - Thread opener
TS - Team spirit
TSI - Total Skill Index

U

V

W
W - Winger
WB - wing back
WO - walkover
WtM - Winger to the middle

X
XP - Experience

Y
YA - Youth Academy
YP - Youth Pull

Z


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Of course there are also other abbreviations used in Hattrick's forums, quite some of them are not specific to Hattrick, like "imho", "lol" or others. A list with some of them can be found here: (http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Inte...words).

Various stuff

1. Hattrick and random?
You have to understand that this game does not go without a certain amount of random. It's a part of the game and you need to live with it.
Don't forget that Hattrick is to be considered as game based on probabilities in many cases (especially when it comes to the match calculation).

2. I have no idea how to proceed! What should I do?
Don't hit the panic button and ask yourself calmly how you can solve the problem. If it's a game-related question that hasn't been solved by this thread, you should and have to ask! It's a pleasure for a lot of experienced managers to help you.

3. Achievements? What's that?
Achievements are not related to the core game. You get a new achievement if you do something special. For instance: a certain number of stars in a match, a certain fanclub size, a certain "average" match rating, and so on.
Don't ruin your team for this.

4. What happens if an injured player is in the lineup? Will there be a substitution or will there be one player less on the pitch?
There will be a substitution at the beginning of the match (if there is one available on the bench).

5. A piece of advice to those who want to spend much more time here:
A few of the tips given above concerning training won't work for you if you got more ambitions than a normal manager, if you want to invest more than an hour per day. For this very reason it might come in useful to ask yourself how ambitious you really are and how much time you really want to invest.
Well, if you count yourself amongst the very ambitious managers, you should start gathering information about trading, skill trading, subskills, estimating the subskills from TSI and wage and think about unconventional training types. The key to success can be found in the precise knowledge about and the constant observation of the transfer market.

Link collection

(http://wiki.hattrick.org)
Hattrick's official Wiki

(http://alltid.org/)
An endless number of statistics

(http://www.tulospalvelu.biz/calendar/index.php)
The week at Hattrick

(http://www.aldeaglobal.net/psicotsi/lang-en.htm)
Another sub skill tool, available for Firefox only

(http://mikehell.kicks-ass.net/ht-dog/index.jsp)
HT-Dog, discover the opponent's strengths and weaknesses

(http://ffa.anthes.org/tools/transfer.htm)
The FFA's transfer tool

(http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3962/perfo...1.jpg)
The influence of form on player performance

(http://coninstal.go.ro/studiu_suporteri.html)
Fanclub's growth in relation to supporter mood and division (in Romanian, but she be more or less easy to understand)

(http://home1.stofanet.dk/donkjaer/)
More info on Hattrick's economic evolution

(http://hattrick-db.ch.vu/)
Hattrick database

(http://foxtrick.px.cz/)
Foxtrick (Firefox browser is required)

(http://www.tomattrick.org/)
Online tool

(http://www.slothen.dk/ht/)
A few statistics

(http://www.manager.brygge.dk/Hattrick/experienc...)
A study about experience gains

(http://iht.smdesign.es/node/201)
A study about the stamina training share needed depending on the players' age

(http://www.databased.at/hattrick/htpe/pages/s...s.asp)
A study on the transfer activity (updated daily)

(http://www.hattrickorganizer.net/)
Probably Hattrick's most popular tool

(http://www.lokesoftware.dk/ham/index.htm)
Yet another tool, one of the oldest on the market

(http://hattrickcontrol.asconet.ro/html/englis...s.htm)
Got a need for some tool?

(http://www.esnips.com/web/matchp)
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/7351800/midfieldpredi...)
Sule_'s midfield prediction tool

(http://hem.passagen.se/hammervald/abc_of_tact...x.htm)
ABC of tactics. Good for starters, but it's not maintained anymore which means: use with a lot of caution

(http://www.arenaoptimizer.es/)
A useful tool if you want to expand your arena, using pretty new knowledge

(http://www.databased.at/hattrick/x-ray/index.asp)
The X-Files tools at databased

(http://www.databased.at/hattrick/htpe/)
A tool for transfer comparisons, with more statistics on the transfer

(http://www.maptrick.org)
Statistics about the evolution of user numbers

(http://www.hattristics.org/pub/index.php)
More statistics

(http://www.ht-league.com/)
Even more statistics

(http://www.databased.at/hattrick/search/)

Friendly pool

1. Where can I find it?
You need to click on "My Club" then go to "Senior Team" and finally to "Challenges".

2. How to become a member of it?
Follow the path described in question 1 and then click on "Add your team to pool"

3. Can I select any criteria?
Yes. "Any" is selected as a default for all criteria. You can define the following things:
- national or international friendly
- home or away (or "any")
- cup rules or normal rules

4. I'm a Hattrick Supporter. Can I search using more criteria than normal users?
Yes, as a supporter you will be able to select the country of your opponent and even his division.
You can also browse the pool.

5. Is it possible to remove my team from the pool?
Yes, it's possible. You just need to click on "Remove from pool". You will find the button at the same place where you added your team to the pool.

6. I'm still playing in the cup. Can I add my team to the pool nevertheless?
No, that's not possible.

7. I want to add my team to the pool, but it seems it's impossible right now. Why?
Did you already check if your team is currently playing a match? If that's the case, try again later.

8. I'm a Hattrick Supporter and I can't become a member of the pool. I can't even browse it. Why?
Did you already check if your team is currently playing a match? If that's the case, try again later.

9. I'm a Hattrick Supporter, which gives me the option "Possible to challenge", and I've added my team to the pool. Will unchecking "Possible to challenge" prevent the pool from matching me to another team?
No, it won't. Those are two different pairs of shoes. You need to remove your team from the pool.

10. I added my team to the pool and a friendly was arranged automatically. Do I need to add my team to the pool again next week in order to get an automatically arranged friendly match?
Yes, you need to. Your team has been automatically removed when the friendly match was arranged by the system.

11. I'm a Hattrick Supporter and have been browsing the friendly pool. I've clicked on the "Book" button and now I got to play against some team despite not wanting it. Can this error be reverted?
No, impossible. Watch out: there's also no confirmation box when clicking that button!

12. Is there a pool for youth academy teams as well?
Yes.

13. Are there bot teams available in the pool?
No.

14. Someone has added his team to the pool and it matches to the criteria I chose, but it also matches to another club searching with the same criteria. Who will get the friendly?
Out of a few team that entered the pool with the same criteria, the team that entered the pool first will get the friendly once another club fulfilling these criteria pops up.

Team spirit and Confidence - Part 2

5. Confidence?
Your team's confidence has an influence over your team's attack ratings in a match. Your (team's) confidence changes after a competition match in relation to the match's result.
At each economy update, the confidence drops or climbs a bit towards decent. Sport psychologists can improve confidence.

6. Help! My team underestimates the opponent. What's going on?
It could happen that your team underestimates the opponent in a league match. This is possible when your opponent is placed 5 or more positions below your team in the league table. Underestimating the opponent lowers your midfield rating by one third. Underestimating can happen when your confidence is decent or higher. The higher your team's confidence is, the more you risk that your guys underestimate the opponent.

Team spirit and confidence - Part 1

1. Team spirit? What's that?
High team spirit means higher midfield rating. Low team spirit means lower midfield rating.
The neutral value for team spirit is "composed". If your team spirit is above this value, it tends to drop back to "composed" slowly. If your team spirit is below this value, it tends to climb back to "composed" slowly.
The further away from the neutral it is, the faster the dropping back to the neutral value is.
The team spirit is reset to the neutral value before the start of a new season, no matter what the team spirit was at the end of the finished season.

2. How can I boost my team spirit?
There's only one really reasonable way for this, playing one or more competition games with the "play it cool" option.
There's also the possibility to lower the training level, but this solution leads to a few new problems. Your players will train less fast, their form can drop dramatically (the probability for this is pretty high) and naturally, when raising the training level again, the team spirit will drop.

3. Team spirit droped. What happened?
Well, there are a few possibilities why this could have happened:
- you recently played a match using "Match of the Season", this options reduces your team spirit by half
- you did one or more transfers
- you raised the training level
- team spirit encountered a normal drop as a few daily updates passed and your team spirit was above the neutral value

4. Pic? Mots? What the hell are you people speaking about!?
Both are options for competition games
"Pic" is the abbrevation for "Play it cool". Playing it cool raises your team spirit by one third. Playing it cool lowers your midfield rating for that match.
"Mots" is the abbrevation for "Match of the Season". Playing the match of the season lowers your team spirit by half. Playing match of the season boosts your midfield rating for that match.

Form

1. What's that actually?
Your player has got some skills. The form determines how good he can make use of them. If a player is in bad form, he will not be of a great help during a match.

2. My players' form is bad! What should I do?
- each player should play once a week
- raise the training level, in case it's not at 100% yet
- recruit more assistant coaches (but watch out to have not more than 10, assistant and goalkeeping coaches combined!)
- maybe you need a coach with better trainer abilities (unless he's not solid already)
- hope for better days, there's a certain random factor which you can't influence
- maybe you have set a high stamina share (above 20% for instance), if that's the case try lowering it

3. General (Form) is probably the solution to all my form problems, right?
No, it's not a solution, as it only influences form only for a short time, and it's very likely form goes down again after switching to another training type.

Arena

1. Should I expand my arena?
No, not at the beginning. This will only be required later on, once your fanclub has grown and once your club stands on solid ground economically speaking. You only need to expand your arena once it's regularly sold out.

2. I have a home match. Can I predict the number of spectators?
A precise prediction is not possible in any case, there are too many factors, for instance: your own fanclub's size, your fans' mood, weather, your opponent's fanclub size, his fanclub's mood.
If it's late in the season, there will be more spectators as well.

3. I really want to expand my arena, is there an ideal way to expand your stadium?
No, such a "key" doesn't exist (anymore).

A few seasons ago many managers used this key:
Terraces 62,5%
Basic seating 25%
Seats under roof 10%
Seats in VIP boxes 2,5%

However that key wasn't "correct" as well.

A recent study: (http://brun.dk/hattrick/index.php?content=15&...glish) lead to some interesting conclusion about possible seat distributions

	Rain	Overcast	Partially Cloudy	Sunny
Terraces	53,397	58,7545	61,4506	62,5511
Basic seating	19,1039	23,3825	25,5859	26,5347
Seats under roof	24,8879	15,5593	10,6448	8,6345
Seats in VIP boxes	2,6112	2,3036	2,3187	2,2796

As you can see the distribution is strongly related to the weather. You will need to find out by yourself which distribution suits the most for your club.
There's no best stadium size per fan. In most cases the expansion aims to have a total number of seats between 10 and 22 times the team's fanclub. A lot depends on the success you're aiming for and there's no patent remedy.

More information about the stadium expansion can be found here as well: (http://wiki.hattrick.org/Arena#Stadium_Expans...ories).
You will find an interesting tool here also: (http://www.arenaoptimizer.es/).

4. How long does it take to expand my stadium?
The more seats you build, the longer it takes. Roughly said/seen:
up to 5.000.000 rial: 7 daily updates
up to 15.000.000 rial: 8 updates
up to 25.000.000 rial: 9 updates
etc.
Also, before doing any expansion you can also request a (free) proposal telling you how many days the expansion could take.

5. When will an expansion start to be profitable?
Some time ago people said on this subject: "On average within 2 seasons, after 14 home matches sold out".
But of course, this largely depends on how many and which seatings you build.

With the new costs/prices, an expansion is profitable much earlier.
Let's pick an example. 10,000 additional seats using the key provided in question number 3: 6,250 terraces, 2,500 basic seating, 1,000 seats under roof and 250 seats in VIP boxes. Such an expansion would cost 643,750 US$.
The construction of each of this seats cost 63.375 US$ on average. Maintenance costs per week are 0.65 US$ and the average entry fee is 8.55 US$ - both are average values. You'd make profits after 9 home matches were sold out (one complete season + at least 2 additional weeks), taking construction and maintenance costs under consideration. Cup matches at home shorten this time span of course.

Finances

1. Are there some basic principles?
There's not one way to go, but there are for sure a lot of things you have to consider.
- try to break even on the two weeks balance (one week with a home and one week with an away match in your league) pretty quickly. It's not possible right from the start, but the figures will get better soon.
- avoid debt, interest on debt can kill your team
- avoid wasting money on useless stuff
- maybe you're terrified enough to buy a player right before a match without thinking much at it and maybe it will even help you winning, but it can leave a big dent in your budget and it's even likely it's not a reinforcement on the long run - thinking a lot before doing a transfer is the better idea
- don't recruit more staff than you really need
- expanding your arena is not required right from the start (see also (14104108.18) on this matter)
- use your common sense a lot!

2. I'm in debt. Help!
You need at least a break even on the two weeks balance (one week with a home and one week with an away match in your league) as soon as possible. This can be reached by reducing your spendings and expenses at the most. Some hints:
- sell players, even top players, when it can help you to get rid of your debt
- recruit accountants if the debt is too high (you will find more on the number of accountants that should be recruited in the "Staff" chapter of this guide)
- stop investing in any kind of youth programme (in case you haven't done it yet)
- fire staff (on the accountants: see two hints above), maybe even all of them, don't forget it will cost you 180.000 rial to fire one of them, which means you will stop paying their week until one week after having fired them
- reduce your squad to a minimum of players. Buying new players is always possible later again. Don't hesitate to fire your golfers (the players that will cost you more to transferlist them than the money you would get from the transfer itself, if the player would ever be bought).
- You don't need a substitute goalkeeper. You can for example put your coach as a substitute or as a regular goalkeeper during the friendly matches. Remember that goalkeepers have higher wages than normal field players
- don't play friendlies in foreign countries. Invite foreign teams playing since a long time (and possibly playing in higher divisions as well) to your arena, use cup rules.
- If you already have trainees that received quite some training before check the transfer compare to see what they are worth (don't ask in the forum, it's forbidden!). Maybe there's some hidden value there (remark: the transfer compare is not always correct, having a look at (http://www.databased.at/hattrick/htpe/) as well is never a bad idea)

Always watch your money and try to break even in the two weeks balance mentioned above.

You should also think at an economic plan. It would be time to make one, if you've not done so yet. Don't forget: Never spend money until you have it!

Transfers

1. Should I quickly buy some players now?
No! That's probably one of the worst things a new manager could make. You should think at other possible acquisitions only when you've already worked out a training concept, changed your coach and finally you should already have bought your trainees. Don't buy players just because you want to have them.

2. Should I pay attention at the players' wage?
Oh yes! Many new managers did already buy a player for (much) less than 20.000.000 rial who then popped out to have an enormous primary skill and made their team go bankrupt very quickly as such players have very high wages.

3. Does it cost something to transferlist a player?
Yes, 100.000 rial

4. Where can I put my transfer ads?
Transfer ads are forbidden by the forum rules (which you can find here:(/Help/Rules/HRForum.aspx).

5. I'm buying my own player right now. Will it cost me something?
Yes, you will have to pay the usual fees (which you won't get back), you will also pay the player an additional salary when buying him.

Stars

1. Stars? Are they important?
Not primarily. Stars tell you something about the individual performance of a player and they allow you to draw comparisons between players playing on the same position. They don't allow you to compare a central midfielder with a defensive forward for example.
Skills matter much more important for your players.

2. I lost my last match, but my team's total number of stars was higher. What happened?
The match ratings are important. You can find them at the bottom of a match report. The number of stars isn't used for the calculation of the matches.
It's not always the best team that will win a match. That would be boring, wouldn't it?
Hattrick has no ambition to reproduce real life football 1:1. You should be aware that some things in Hattrick are completely different from what you happen to know from real life. A 28 year old player might be at the top in real life, but this can be seen as old in Hattrick. A player of that age won't learn much anymore from training.

3. What about stars in the old engine?
The old match engine (abolished since global season 34 for official matches, since global season 35 for all matches) only knew yellow stars. They were an indication for the players' performance at the end of a match (or at the moment of his substitution).

4. How do they work nowadays?
The yellow stars still give you an indication about the player's performance at the end of the match. However, stamina has a higher value these days (for positions on the pitch). This is reflected by the brown stars. Yellow and brown stars give you the average value of the player's performance (for the total time he stood on the pitch).

5. What exactly are stars telling about a player's exhaustion?
Excellent stamina isn't enough to play a match without losing performance.
A linear loss of performance starts at a certain moment, the exact moment is determined through the player's stamina level.

6. Can players recover during a match?
It happens during halftime and right before overtime (which can happen in cup matches and friendlies with cup rules). However, they recover just a tiny little bit. The effect of the rest is therefore soon consumed.

7. Why are there sometimes red and not brown stars?
In some really rare occasions a player's performance at the end of the match is better than his average performance through the match. A positive weather special event can help him compensate his fatigue. You will see red stars in such cases. The average performance is just the amount of yellow stars (unlike the normal case!), whilst the sum of yellow and red stars is the performance at the end of the match.

There is a short overview on the stars' functioning here: (http://digilander.libero.it/arosati76/stars.gif).

Orders

1. What's the relation between the lineup and training?
The lineup should be made in accordance to the training type you chose.
If you chose scoring, then you will probably rather play with 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 in order to train a maximum of 6 forwards per week, which you couldn't with a 4-5-1 for instance.
If you chose playmaking as a training type, then you will rather rely on 3-5-2 and 4-5-1 than on 5-3-2 or something else.
Someone choosing defending will rather play with a 5-3-2 or a 5-4-1 or some other (legal) formation with 5 defenders. He will probably not play 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 (although he might choose 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 occasionally for league matches).

2. I'm sure there is a line-up superior to all others, right?
No, such a line-up does not exist.

3. When do tactics make sense?
It depends on your opponents. Tactics only make sense as well if your team is more or less optimised for them, for example concerning passing and special abilities. You can find more on tactics here: (/Help/Rules/Tactics.aspx)

4. Let's talk about the orders page: "offensive", "defensive" and plenty of other funny things are displayed there. What's that?
An offensive player contributes more to the offense, to the attack and the midfield that is. A defensive player will contribute more to the midfield or to the defence. A player playing towards the middle will contribute more to the central positions (inner defence for a wing back playing towards the middle and inner midfield for a winger playing towards the middle). A player playing towards wing will contribute to the outer areas. If a player has a certain individual order, the match ratings will change in favour of the areas he should pay more attention to. Example: An offensive inner midfield will contribute less to the defence and the inner midfield but more to the attack. See also the table "Individual orders" (/Help/Rules/IndividualOrders.aspx) which you can access through the chapter "Lineup: The basics" (/Help/Rules/LineupBasics.aspx)
You can also assign a player to another position, depending on his current position.

5. What about the opponent?
It's very likely your opponent is asking the same question. You have to learn to observe your opponent and to try to unveil his true intentions. For example you should check for the lineups played in the recent matches, for his overall lineup preferences. Maybe you can also guess what he's training, if ever he does. What sort of coach does he have and what are the coach's leadership abilities? Is the guy even logging in regularly? In short: you need to observe your opponent and you need to guess what will be his lineup against your team. The more you know, the better for you.

6. There is no way I'm going to win, what should I do?
Not having a chance at all happens very rarely, but nevertheless it happens from time to time that it's highly unlikely you will succeed. In such cases it can be very appropriate to use "Play it cool" in case the own coach's leadership abilities are high enough or in case the team spirit has been badly hurt recently.

7. Are there helpful tools for the lineup?
There are tools. Some even give you a rating prediction for your team, maybe they will even indicate you the chances of success. But, try to remember this sentence: "Never trust a tool!". Tools will never be using the Hattrick engine and they can only be seen as (good or bad) oracles after all.

8. Is it important to win my friendlies?
Except for bragging maybe? No. Results in friendlies don't matter. Note that red or yellow cards from friendlies don't matter as well.

Stamina

1. Something important to read on this subject?
Yes. This editorial gives you a lot of details on stamina: (/MyHattrick/Editorials/default.aspx?EditorialID...) There is also a chapter worth to be read in this editorial: (/MyHattrick/Editorials/default.aspx?EditorialID...) .

2. Is there an ideal stamina training share
No such thing exists. Each squad has a different age structure and therefore other needs. You need to find out by yourself what the ideal stamina training share for your team. You need to play around a bit for this.
To sum it up: the stamina training share can be too high, but it can also be too low. Avoid both cases.

3. Are there some general guidelines then?
The stamina training share should be high enough to make sure your squad doesn't lose stamina constantly.
You need to find out by yourself how much of your total training should be dedicated to stamina training.
You will find a pretty developed (and lengthy) study on this matter here: (http://iht.smdesign.es/node/201).

4. What is influenced by stamina?
Stamina has an influence on a lot of areas.
a) Influences on matches
- Less stamina makes players getting tired faster
- A defender lacking stamina meeting a forward with lots of stamina could trigger a special event in favour of the forward.

b) Influences on training
- Each week you will dedicate a certain percentage of your total training to stamina training. (Skill) training will take longer when the share is higher.
- Age is important for stamina gains. Young players gain stamina without much trouble, but old guys take somewhat longer.
- Very low stamina values rise faster than high stamina values (supposing all other conditions are identical). However, this has low importance, as all youth players have at least weak stamina.

5. Who needs stamina the most?
All players need stamina as they would get tired during the course of a match otherwise. Especially midfielders and all other players contributing to the midfield (offensive defenders, defensive forwards and all kinds of wingers with playmaking, the latter ones especially when playing towards the middle) need stamina. On the other hand a goalkeeper needs less stamina.

Training types - Part 2

7. Passing
Advantages:
- well-paid on the transfer market
- training is fast

Disadvantages:
- you need a lot of money to buy suitable trainees
- 16 players can be trained, but they need to be bought and their wages are not exactly low
- 2-5-3 is the only way to max out profit from training
- not suitable for newbies

8. Set pieces:
Advantages:
- total tactical freedom
- all field players are trained, there's a bonus of 25% for the set pieces taker and the goalkeeper (which means up to four players can get this bonus)

Disadvantages:
- you need to have quite some cash for this as you will need to buy 22 trainees (leave alone the eventual substitutes); all of them should have pretty high skills already
- team spirit and formation experience suffer a lot from the transfers
- not suitable for new managers

9. Stamina
Stamina used to be a training type on its own, but nowadays you can only dedicate a certain part of your training to stamina training.
More information on stamina training can be found here: (14104108.13).

10. Are there other training types?
Yes, but those are not suitable for new managers and in general only a few managers use them, as they are pretty complex or take a lot of time.

Training types - Part 1

1. Goalkeeping:
Advantages:
- only two trainees. You will have more spare money to buy other players in order to reinforce your team
- absolute tactical freedom, you can play with any formation (but of course you should avoid the "weird" formations)
- fast money: within a season you'll be able to get money. You can use that money to immediately change towards another training type and buy the required trainees
- fair transfers: a goalkeeper's skill can always be checked via a suitable goalkeeping tool, knowing the exact skill sub-level is a good thing, as it can make kind of a difference on the transfer market
- fast skill ups

Disadvantages:
- less profit on the long run
- the team improves pretty slowly
- no really important part of the team is trained and the keeper doesn't even help your defence that much

2. Defending:
Advantages:
- cheap trainees
- from time to time you will be able to bring down a much stronger team (needs some tactical skill, though)
- Central defenders and wing backs get 100% of the training effect; this enables you to train up to 5 player per match and up to 10 per week

Disadvantages:
- Buying 10 good trainees can prove to be expensive
- Not much freedom on formations. If you want to take a maximum profit from training, you have to play 5-4-1 or 5-3-2. 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 are also possible for league matches, in which case you will only train 9 players.
- The slowest training type around
- Victories are more difficult to achieve. If you want to see many goals, you might end up bored.

3. Playmaking:
Advantages:
- reasonable profit
- reasonable training speed
- It's easier to win matches as your midfield is improved by this training type.
- 3-5-2 is the main formation for playmaking training and is also considered to be the best formation for most matches

Disadvantages:
- other secondary skills (Defending, passing or winger) are required to max out the profits
- trainees with secondary skills are expensive, especially since you need to buy 6 inner midfielders and 4 wingers. The first will get 100% of the training effect, the latter only about half as much as the first.

4. Scoring:
Advantages:
- only 6 trainees to care about
- pretty quick training
- improves your attack ratings

Disadvantages:
- little tactical flexibility: only 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 are available (otherwise at least one trainee out of six won't be trained), 5-2-3 only in very rare cases.
- serious trainees are expensive
- secondary skills are required (passing or winger) to max out the profit
- you will need to amass a serious midfield power by buying those players, which quite difficult for new teams.

5. Crossing (Winger)
Advantages:
- training is fast
- trainees are generally cheap (however, high profit is only possible if serious secondary skills are available, which makes buying trainees an expensive trip)
- high tactical flexibility (all formations can be used without killing a training spot)

Disadvantages:
- 4 Trainees (the wing backs) will only get about half of the effect of the training
- pretty complex training type: You won't be able to max out profits and to use tactical flexibility without sufficient experience as a manager

6. Wing attacks
Advantages:
- allows you to train more players than for crossing

Disadvantages:
- 10 trainees (which could cost you a bit)
- no tactical flexibility in case you want to max out training profits, you are "condemned" to play 3-4-3 (4-3-3 is also a vague possibility)
- takes more time than crossing

Training - Part 2

8. Which players get skill training?
A player gets some training if he has played a match during the week preceding the training update. It does matter where the player played (it must have been on a position relevant for the training type), the number of minutes does matter as well. The full training effect is granted to the player if he has absolved 90 minutes on a relevant position.

9. My player received a red card/My player had to leave the pitch after receiving the second yellow card. Will he get trained nevertheless?
Yes, but only for the minutes he stood on the pitch, and naturally he must have played on a position relevant for the training type.

10. A player needed to be substituted due to an injury. Will he get his share of the training?
Yes, but only for the minutes he stood on the pitch, and naturally he must have played on a position relevant for the training type.

11. A player needed to be substituted due to an injury. Will the substitute get his share of the training?
Yes, but only for the minutes he stood on the pitch, and naturally he must have played on a position relevant for the training type.

12. My player had to leave the pitch due to a second yellow/a red card during the last league match. He played on a position relevant for the training. Does it make sense to make him play again on the same position during the upcoming friendly?
Yes, the minutes are added up. A total of 90 minutes can be accumulated. Example: you are training playmaking. The player had played 50 minutes as a central midfielder in the league match when he received a red card. Make him play at 40 minutes on the same position in the friendly right after this match and he'll be granted playmaking training for these 90 minutes, the maximum he could get that week.

13. General (Form). Does it make sense?
No, it doesn't improve your players' skills at all, except for the goalkeeper who gets a very tiny amount of goalkeeping training. It even likely it doesn't work wonders for the form (on the long run respectively when changing to another training type).
But, and there is always a but, general training can make sense when you are facing a really crucial match (don't worry yet, you won't have one very soon).

Training - Part 1

1. Why is it so important to have some serious training ongoing?
Training your players has multiple advantages. For one it will strengthen the part of the team that is trained and for two the revenue after selling trained players will help you buy better players for your team. But most importantly it's your economic life insurance in Hattrick.

2. I'm a new user, are the training types that are particularly easy/useful for me?
Hattrick offers a large number of training types. The most suitable for new users are most likely: Scoring, Playmaking, Defending and, perhaps, Goalkeeping. Crossing is pretty complicated and permanent set pieces training needs founds that you, as new user, just don't have.

3. Who should be trained?
You will buy young players, your trainees, when they're between 17 and 19 years old and you will sell them after some seasons of permanent training. To be trained adequately they need to play on positions that are relevant for the kind of the training they should get.
Nothing prevents you from keeping those players, or some of them at the least, once you think their training is finished, and to train another part of your team.

4. Are friendly matches really important?
Oh yes, they are. They allow you to train more players per week, twice as many actually, and maybe even to gain a little extra money as well.

5. Which training level do I have to set?
Nobody forces you to set a certain level, but setting a level of 100% ensures that your players' form doesn't meet the freezing point and that you get a maximum of training out of your players.

6. Is there an ideal stamina training share?
Nope, such a thing doesn't exist. Each squad consists of other players and thus has other requirements than others, due to a different age structure in the team. You can read more on stamina here: (14104108.13).

7. Training speed depends on what?
- Trainer abilities
- Number of assistant/goalkeeper coaches
- Training level
- The age of the concerned player
- Current skill level
- Training type
- Number of minutes played on a training position during the week of the training
- The higher the stamina share, the lower the normal training

Staff - Part 2

5. When is it useful to employ accountants?
Accountants can help you getting rid of your debt.
If your debt is worse than 20.000.000 rial (and won't go away quickly), you should think on recruiting one accountant. A second accountant can be recruited when you're more than 30.000.000 rial in the red.
Also, if you're very wealthy and lucky enough to possess more than 500.000.000 rial for some time, you can even get some interest out of it. Please note that it makes no sense to employ accountants for a very short time. By the way: if you employ more than 10 accountants, you will lose 10% of your current cash funds.

6. Assistant coaches and goalkeeper coaches, can you tell me more about those?
They increase the training speed and improve the team's average form. As you can only have 10 in total, you should, as soon as you can afford it, aim at a ratio between 8-2 and 10-0. Things are of course inverted for people choosing to train goalkeepers.
If the total of assistant and goalkeeper coaches exceeds 10, you risk losing your training and some team spirit. As a new user you will most likely have to settle down with a reduced number of assistant and goalkeeper coaches.

7. Got any use for physiotherapists?
They diminish the risk for injuries. Unluckily their real effects are unknown. This is why you should only employ 1 or 2 at the beginning. The others will have to wait until you finances allow you to pay their weekly wages. Having more than 10 physiotherapists will ruin your youth (youth academy not affected).

8. There are sport psychologists available. Are my players that unstable?
Well, psychologists affect your team's self-confidence. According to the manual they have a certain effect on the team spirit as well, but to which amount remains unknown.
Psychologists' effect can only be seen right after competitive games and during the weekly economy update. You can find more information about confidence here: (14104108.20).

9. Now, let's talk about doctors. How can they help my players?
Employing doctors will increase the healing rate of injured players. If you have more than 10 doctors, you will most likely see the supporter's mood fall down.
There are numerous healing calculators, not all are really accurate (some use older formulas). Here is one you can use: (http://www.ht-box.ru/healing.php?age=22&inj=5...13610).

Staff - Part 1

1. What's the use of staff?
Each staff member has a certain effect on some part of your team. If you recruit more staff members of a certain type, their total effect will increase, but every additional staff member's effect is lower than the effect of the one recruited previously.

2. How much will they cost me?
Each staff member earns 180.000 rial a week. Firing one will cost you an additional 180.000 rial, recruiting a staff member is free of costs. One hint: when firing a staff member, you should do it right before that week's economy update, to savour his effects for a maximum of time.

3. How many staff members should I recruit?
In theory you can hire as many of them as your finances allow, but either way it's pretty nonsense (in most cases) to have more than ten staff members of a certain type.
Note that assistant and goalkeeper coaches are added up, so don't employ more than a total of 10 there (8 assistant coaches and two goalkeeper coaches for instance), otherwise you will risk losing that week's training.
As you might be guessing, it can be very harmful for your team if you recruit more than ten staff members of a certain type.

4. What are these spokespersons good for?
They have a positive effect on your sponsors and your fan's mood. Your sponsors' payments depend on the size of your fanclub and on the sponsors' mood. If you have more than 10 spokespersons, your sponsors' mood can drop.
More information on sponsors can be found here: (http://wiki.hattrick.org/Sponsors) and here: (http://wiki.hattrick.org/Spokesperson).

Coach

1. What is the use of the trainer abilities?
The trainer abilities are the most important training parameter. Higher trainer's abilities lead to a much faster training. Also the squad's average form is depending a lot on the trainer abilities.

2. Are the leadership abilities of any use?
They determine how fast the team spirit converges back to the neutral value (composed, 4.5). If the team spirit lies below the neutral value, higher leadership abilities will lead to a faster increase of the team spirit. If the team spirit lies above the neutral value, high leadership abilities prevents the team spirit from falling down too fast.

3. A coach needs some experience, right?
No, the experience doesn't matter for a coach. It's only important when you appoint one of your players as your new coach.

4. Does the coach need any other skills?
No, not really. The other skills don't matter at all for the training.

5. Is there any kind of special wage for the coach?
No, just as any other player he will be paid for his skills. However, coaches normally have a low wage because in most cases the coaches have low or non existent skills.

6. How can I get a new coach?
There are two possibilities for this. You can buy an external coach or appoint one of your players as a new coach. If you appoint one of your own players, he needs to fulfill certain requirements, as explained below.

7. Should my coach be defence-minded, fond of attacking or neither attack nor defence-minded?It depends on the training concept you choose (an offensive coach is perhaps more suitable for a team training defending, since the defence is strengthened due to training, and the other way round) and on your personal preferences. There's no patent remedy for this issue.

[Required here: statistical data in English showing the effects of the different training types, I've got only one in German on some external site...]

8. I want to appoint one of my players as a new coach. How can I do that?
First of all, this way to recruit a coach should only interest once you're required to rely on team spirit management in a more regular manner. It's also of no use to appoint one of your players as a coach when the player's leadership abilities are weak or even lower. You will only start saving lots of money from passable leadership on (but there can already be a small benefit for inadequate leadership, yet it's not much).
Experience matters when you appoint a player as your coach. A higher experience results in a cheaper conversion (leadership abilities don't matter for the price of this). The trainer abilities can't be higher than the player's experience at the moment of the conversion. A player with passable experience can be converted to a player with passable trainer abilities, not to one with solid trainer abilities, though.
Please notice that the player must have been a member of your squad for 16 weeks (112 days) previously.

9. Is it possible to improve the coaches or one of the player's leadership abilities?
No, that's impossible.

10. My coach is out of commission due to an injury. Will it hurt my training?
No, it has no consequences for the training.

Manager Licence Challenge - Part 2

Challenge 9: "Joining a forum" - 1.000.000 rial
You have finished that challenge if you can read this sentence.

Challenge 10: "Bid on a player" - 1.500.000 rial
It doesn't matter if you buy the player or not (you shouldn't before you've not established a plan, see the earlier messages in this thread). It's enough to just bid on a player once and you will have passed the challenge.

Challenge 11: "Checking match results" - 1.000.000 rial
It might seem strange to you, but you don't have to wait until the match is finished. Just go to "My Club" and click on your last match on the "Matches" page.

Challenge 12: "Transfer listing a player" - 1.500.000 rial
Try selling a player (try avoiding to transfer list a high profile player, though). It doesn't matter if someone buys him or not.

Challenge 13: "Choosing training type" - 1.000.000 rial
Go to the "Training" page and choose another training type.

Challenge 14: "Placing a new match order" (4-4-2) - 1.000.000 rial
Change the line-up for your next match. You can't use the same match than the one you used for challenge 8 and other players must be used as well.

Challenge 15: "Fill in your details" - 2.000.000 rial
You need to fill in some personal data which will then be checked by the GameMasters (GM). It can take up to a few days until the GMs have checked them. Once the check has been successfully passed, you can do more stuff on the matches page (you will be able to change the tactics and the players' individual orders).

Challenge 16: "Read about Hattrick Supporter" - 1.000.000 rial
Click on "Help", then on "About Hattrick".

Challenge 17: "Getting Hattrick Credits" - 1.000.000 rial
You need to visit the Shop and "buy" three Hattrick Credits. You can "buy" them for yourself or for another manager. It won't cost you anything.

Challenge 18: "Changing formation" - 1.000.000 rial
To be successful at this challenge, you need to set a formation that differs from the default 4-4-2 formation. After accomplishing challenge 15, you can set individual orders for any player (except the goalkeeper of course). To change the formation, you need to give at least one of your players the individual order to play as an extra central defender or central midfielder or forward. Don't forget to save the line-up! You can't use one of the matches you used to accomplish challenges 8 and 14.

Challenge 19: Quiz - 650.000 rial

Challenge 20: Quiz - 650.000 rial

Challenge 21: Quiz - 650.000 rial

Challenge 22: Quiz - 650.000 rial

Challenge 23: Quiz - 700.000 rial

Challenge 24: Quiz - 700.000 rial

Manager Licence Challenge - Part 1

1. Manager Licence Challenge - what's that supposed to be?
You get a certain amount of money for each finished challenge. After finishing all the challenges, your initial budget will have grown to 30.000.000 rial.

2. Do I really have to finish that boring Manager Licence Challenge?
You won't be able to enjoy Hattrick to the full extent without the completion of the Manager Licence Challenge. Completing the licence challenges will also help you to get a better game knowledge. The following paragraphs and the next message will present you an overview of the challenges. They will also show you how much money you will get by completing the challenge successfully.

Challenges:

Challenge 1: "Naming your arena" - 500.000 rial
Easy one. Go to the "Arena" page via the "My Club" menu and change the name of your arena.

Challenge 2: "Promoting a youth player" - 500.000 rial
Easy one as well. Go to your team via the "My Club" menu and pull a youth player.

Challenge 3: "Checking finances" - 1.000.000 rial
Just check the "Finances" page and you're done with this one as well.

Challenge 4: "Checking your players" - 1.000.000 rial
Just visit the "Players" page.

Challenge 5: "Hire a staff member" - 1.000.000 rial
Go to the "Staff" page via the "My Club" and hire one new staff member (Perhaps an assistant coach?).

Challenge 6: "Searching for other users, teams, etc." - 1.000.000 rial
Click on "World", then on "Search" and search for a team, a league, a manager, etc.

Challenge 7: "Booking a friendly" - 1.500.000 rial
You have to accept a challenge (you can do that by clicking on "My Club" and then by checking for challenges on the "Challenges" page) or to challenge someone for a friendly match. In the second case you need to wait until of the people you challenged accepts your challenge.

Challenge 8: "Placing orders for a match" (4-4-2) - 2.500.000 rial
You can only pass this challenge once challenge 7 has been completed. If a friendly match has been arranged, you need to set a line-up on the "Matches" page and, most importantly, you shouldn't forget to save that line-up.

Mistakes to avoid

1. Should I do some random transfers?
No, you should better not do that. Doing transfers without thinking much is a good way to get your team into debts and to leave the game by going bankrupt. You probably don't want to risk that.
Better get a training concept first and only buy players after that (you still shouldn't waste for any kind of player that crosses your mind).
If you're club's in debt, you might find some tips here: (14104108.17).

2. I'm playing with 4 central midfielders/central defenders/forwards. It's probably a good idea, isn't it?
No, it's not. Of course on a pure technical way it's possible and it might make you win, but you should be aware that the training for that week is wasted. Why? You mustn't have more than 3 players on a central position at the same time. You're allowed to have maximum of 3 central defenders at the same time on the pitch (the same goes for central midfielders and for forwards).

3. I didn't set a line-up in my last match/I put less than 9 players on the pitch for the last match. I lost 0:5. Will it have bad consequences for me?
Yes. The training for that week is wasted.

4. I'm spending money for the youth scouting/youth academy. I'm sure it's good thing, because the future belongs to the youth, right?The basic idea isn't that bad, since you're going to give training to young players in your senior squad. But, when investing money in any kind of youth system, you should think on the fact that this is an investment you'll have to do every week in order to get some benefit (and even then it's not granted for sure). It's a lot of money for a new team. It's money that should rather be invested into training or player material for the senior team, or money that should be kept as a reserve until your team gets the first revenues from training.
A youth academy will cost you 1.000.000 rial on a weekly basis and you'll have to keep your youth academy open for six week before you can close (and you can only close it when you're not in a youth league, otherwise you got to wait even longer).

5. Forum behaviour, what's that?
This thread, in case you've not noticed, has been placed into the Questions (English) forum. It's a public forum, just as all national forums for instance. There are rules for all those and you should abide by them. The general forum rules can be found here: (/Help/Rules/HRForum.aspx) (public forums can have specific rules, so watch out for the forum stickies if there are).

As said, there are rules and you should respect that. If you do it, you won't get bad surprises. If you open a thread in the questions forum, you should do it in a polite and respectful manner. The people answering you are players just like you and they're spending some of their time on a volunteer basis, just to help you.

6. Are standard setups important?
If you don't have a standard line-up, you're risking to play a match with less than 9 players. That shouldn't happen without having a standard setup naturally, since a good manager is logging in regularly and knows what's going on in his team, but sometimes real life can upset your plans and it could happen that you can't access Hattrick before the match starts (perhaps Hattrick is down? Or your phone line has been cut all of a sudden by that gang digging a hole in front of your window?)
Tip: Each time you save your line-up, check the box next to "Make this the standard setup". That way your last working line-up is also your default setup.

First steps

1. I've received my team just a few moments ago. What should I do now?
You should make yourself a plan on how to proceed in Hattrick. It's not a good idea to throw all your money on the transfer market and to spend it all on players. Hattrick is a marathon and not a sprint. Learn from other managers and use the questions forum.

2. I need to complete the manager licence, but I don't really get it. Can you tell me more on this?
More information: (14104108.4) + (14104108.5).

3. I want to do some first reasonable steps now. Tell me more!
You should and have to take a deep look at your team. Which players do you have? In what part of your team are there young? Is there a part of your team that has got strong players? Which part of the initial team was served the worst players? What's the general stamina of your boys?

Once you've done that, you should think on what kind of training type you want to go for (you can find an overview on the most common training types and general remarks on training a bit later in this thread).
This is perhaps also the moment where you might want to look out for a CHPP tool to help you a little bit (but that's not a must, it's possible to play Hattrick without one!). You can find some here: (14104108.23).

4. My coach... should I sack him and get a new one?
Your first coach is normally not even worth being called a coach. This is why you should spend money for the first time on something, you should actually buy a new coach. Most managers start with buying an external coach, with passable as a trainer skill and poor leadership abilities. The leadership abilities of this guy don't matter yet, as they're only important when you start using Match of the season (mots) and play it cool (pic) more often and in a more strategic way. So, reasonable leadership abilities would just be a waste of money right now. Both, passable trainer skill and poor leadership abilities, are not a must, but as written, most people start with this combination.
Some people also think that one should first finish the Manager Licence Challenge and then buy a coach with solid coach abilities and poor leadership. It's a matter of taste and a possibility as well. If you do this and if you're playing in a low division: watch your money afterwards.

5. What now?
At this point you will normally have found a training type for your team. You should have gone through the questions you can read in point 3 of this message as well. Now it's time to get some suitable trainees (young players that can be trained). You can find them on the transfer market. But be careful and don't buy everything that crosses your way!
More details about the trainees can be found in this message: [message=].

6. Stamina?
The normal initial squad is suffering from bad stamina values. Once you've picked a training type and bought the trainees, you should think on a strategy to get all those players (the old ones that you haven't sacked or sold and the new ones that you've bought) reasonable stamina values. It's most likely a good idea to set a high stamina training share for the first couple of training updates and then lower it after those are through. You have to find out yourself what's the best percentage for that. This is because it's different for each team, just as for the "final" stamina value.

7. Are there other (really important!) things that I should read as soon as possible?
Yes. You should absolutely read the manual (/Help/Rules/). Not everything can be found there and you need to read between the lines in many cases, but reading is absolutely essential.
If you're up to read more than the normal newbie, then you'll find some interesting stuff here: (14104108.27). Be sure to have read everything else before.