Now before you write off this post as making no sense, you gotta hear me out first…..
I’m assuming you read my previous post (you’re missing out if you haven’t) and have made a mental note or, like a true professional manager, wrote down the positions in your team that need strengthening.
Once you do this, there is really just one secret sauce to getting the right players in a lower league team and it’s not transfers……
Wait for it………….
It’s LOANS.
In lower leagues, loaning is the key to success and that’s truly where the art is needed.
Here are a few reasons why:
- You likely don’t have the financial muscle to sign all the players you need. When you loan, you really only have to worry about the contract negotiations. This leaves you with enough money to get multiple players.
- Like any ambitious player, your goal is to move up divisions. Any player that is willing to join you at your current division will probably not be good enough to play for you when you move up divisions. If you sign full time, you might find it difficult to sell the players when you eventually try to upgrade your team for a higher division.
- You can get higher quality players who aren’t interested in joining your club on a permanent basis but are willing to get playing time in your current division.
Clearly, there are positives all round.
With that being said, the goal of this post is to help you cultivate the art of loaning players in 4 main steps.
Let’s get into it, shall we?
1. Get A Senior Affiliate Club
The first and foremost step to begin your loaning tactic is to request a senior affiliate club from which you can loan players without paying a dime. In fact, they pay you to send you their players (????).
I know right? It doesn’t get much better than that!
The hope is your board does present you with good senior affiliate options which you can then evaluate by taking a look at their youth (U23 or U18) team (this is likely the bunch you’ll be able to loan).
It’s definitely worth a shot.
I personally haven’t had a bad senior affiliate. I once got Tottenham as an affiliate when I was in Skybet League One and was able to loan one of their youth strikers. He ended up being the top goalscorer in the league by a mile (27 goals in 33 league appearances) and an integral part of my promotion that season.
It is important to note, however, that your ability to get a good affiliate will strongly depend on the league. You’re more likely to find affiliates in England than say a small Eastern European team.
For other benefits of affiliates, check out this video by Zealand.
2. Prioritize Your Defence
After requesting an affiliate, I think it is important to know what positions to prioritize.
In the lower leagues, the defending is shambolic and silly mistakes by defenders are the easiest way to lose matches (as you’ve probably experienced). Hence, I suggest you focus on building a reasonably solid backline (keeper included) as a first step.
I would concentrate my effort on getting a good CB pairing and then a goalkeeper.
Of course, it would be great if you could rebuild the entire backline but that might not always be possible.
Bonus: Stick till the end of this post to find a list of the attributes I think are most important for different positions. This can guide you in your loaning/signing!
3. Browse the Transfer Market
Okay, now you know what positions need strengthening and which you should prioritize. A great next step is to browse the transfer market for any potentially great additions to your team. You need to do this quickly because your opponents will also be looking in the transfer market as well.
Filter for players interested in a loan first (hehe as you can tell I’m a strong advocate for loaning) and then look at players available on a free transfer (Quick search > Contract Expired or Contract Expiring).
For players available on a free transfer, give them a one or two week trial to get an idea of their ability, potential and wage demands.
You could also look at players interested in a transfer and especially take note of their asking price. If it’s reasonably low compared to their market value, you might find it reasonable to snatch the player up real quickly.
4. Browse the Squads in Higher Leagues
Another way to identify good players for loaning is to go through the teams in higher leagues (e.g. the Premier league, Skybet Championship, etc.) and look at their youth teams. Don’t rely on your scouts to find these players (they are probably whack at finding good players as we both know). Instead, do the search yourself and use the player value as an indicator of quality. You can also look into the players’ performances. If you have limited information on a players’ attributes, you could assign a scout to the player for a few weeks.
Other Considerations
- Match, Transfer & Squad Registration Rules: Make sure you are aware of your league’s squad registration rules and match day rules. These will also dictate how many players you should loan e.g. you might only be able to field 5 loaned players in a single game.
- Option for Loan Termination: When you loan players, always try to include an option to terminate the loan before the end of the duration. This way you can potentially save money if you no longer need a player you loaned by terminating the loan contract.
- Versatile Players: Look for versatile players. This way you can save on signing players for multiple positions. Versatility could also increase your flexibility with formations.
- Cut Youth Spending: Your youth academy is probably not good enough to justify investing in it. You’re not gonna produce the next Messi or something. My advice? Cut youth spending. You can look more into youth development as you move up the leagues.
- Short Term Contracts: If you do sign players, try to offer short term contracts. Again this is because you might not want to have such a player playing for you if you move up to a higher division.
Bonus Section
As promised, here is a list of what I consider to be the most important attributes for various positions in the lower leagues.
As you might notice, a lot of these are physical and mental attributes. I’ve found these to be very important in the lower league and an especially physically-good team gives you an edge over most opponents.
- GK: Concentration, anticipation, positioning, decisions, one on ones, and handling.
- LB/RB, LWB/RWB: Concentration, positioning, anticipation, tackling, stamina, work rate and preferably pace, acceleration, and crossing.
- CB: Concentration, anticipation, positioning, decisions, marking, tackling, strength and heading.
- DM: Work rate, decisions, composure, concentration, anticipation, first touch and passing. For a More defensive-minded DM: + Marking, tackling and strength
- CM: Work rate, composure, decisions, first touch, passing, vision, off the ball, and stamina
- LM/LW, RM/RW: Pace, acceleration, crossing, dribbling, and stamina
I would go for a really pacy striker because defenders are typically very slow and make a lot of mistakes. A faster player can pounce on mistakes more effectively, so:
- ST: Pace, acceleration, composure, off the ball, anticipation, finishing
Well, that’s it from me!
I hope I’ve been able to convince you that transfers in lower leagues are overrated.
If not,
I however hope you gained some knowledge on how to leverage loans to drive your team to success. Loaning is undoubtedly a powerful tool to have in your FM arsenal.
Also, stay tuned for my future post on how to setup your team tactically. I provide at least 3 tactics that are guaranteed to bring you some success.
Till then Champs ✌️
