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.