How to train players in an online football manager game

How to train players in an online football manager game is one of the questions that makes the biggest difference in the long run. Buying ready-made players is expensive; developing your own is much cheaper, but you need to understand what improves whom. In ELDT, training is applied once a week and depends on several things you control: the area you choose, the intensity and who plays. We’ll break it down piece by piece.

How to train players in an online football manager game: the weekly plan

Each week you set a plan: which area the team trains and at what intensity. Training is applied only on Sundays, once a week. Everyone trains except injured players.

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There are three levels of detail:

• General plan: the area the whole team trains.
• By lines: a different focus for the goal, defence, midfield and attack in the same week.
• By player: in the "Train" column you assign an area to each one. It stays saved until you change it. Those marked "Same as the team" follow the general plan.

The order of priority is: what you assigned to the player, then what’s set for their line, and if there’s nothing there, the general plan.

If a player is very tired, you can also choose Rest: that week they do not train or improve, but they recover extra fatigue. It only lasts one week.

The 7 training areas

Each area improves a group of attributes and has more impact on some positions than others:

• Goalkeeping: reflexes, handling and positioning for the goalkeeper. It does nothing for outfield players.
• Defending: marking, tackling and positioning. It works best for defenders, and well for midfielders.
• Creativity: vision, control and decision-making. Made for midfielders.
• Passing: short and long passing. Useful for almost the whole squad.
• Wide play: pace and dribbling. For full-backs, wide midfielders and wingers.
• Finishing: shooting and finishing. For strikers and wingers.
• Set pieces: free-kicks, corners and penalties, for the whole squad.

The Training screen has a pitch map that shows you, for each area, which positions are a primary, secondary or minor focus. Training Finishing with a centre-back pays off much less than with a number 9, and Goalkeeping with a striker adds nothing. To see which attributes matter for each role, check which attributes matter by position.

Intensity: more progress, more fatigue

There are three intensity settings:

• Light: trains 30% less and recovers fatigue. Useful as a recovery week.
• Normal: the balance.
• Hard: trains 30% more, but adds fatigue to every player. And with high fatigue there is a greater chance of injury in matches.

One important detail: if a player starts the week with fatigue of 70 or more, they train at Normal even if you set Hard. The game won’t let you squeeze a player who is completely knackered.

There isn’t one right intensity forever. A week with lots of fixtures calls for something different from a quiet week.

Age: youngsters benefit far more

The biggest factor is age. Progress is multiplied like this:

• Under 19 years old: x1,0.
• 19 to 22: x0,9.
• 23 to 26: x0,75.
• 27 to 29: x0,5.
• 30 to 32: x0,25.
• 33 or more: x0,1, they hardly improve at all.

An 18-year-old gets ten times more out of training than a 34-year-old. If you want to develop players, youth is the bet. That’s why the academy and training go hand in hand: we explain that in how to bring youngsters through the academy.

Minutes played also count towards training

The game counts the minutes each player has played during the week:

• 90 minutes or more: x1,3.
• 45 to 89: x1,15.
• 1 to 44: x1,0.
• No minutes: x0,8.

A youngster who plays every match grows a lot more than one who sits on the bench with the same plan. The training preview uses the actual minutes from the week, so what you see is what will be applied on Sunday.

The backroom staff

Staff members also help:

• Head coach: speeds up the whole squad. Without one, your team trains with no bonus.
• Assistants: each one is specialised in an area, with an extra boost when the team trains that area.
• Set-piece coach: an extra boost for that area.
• Nutritionist: helps players aged 29 and over make the most of training.
• Fitness coach: speeds up fatigue recovery, which matters if you train Hard.

How improvement shows up

Improvements build up in small fractions. When they complete a full point, the attribute goes up and the OVR reflects it. That’s why sometimes it feels like nothing happened for a week and then the number jumps the next. If a player is close to levelling up, keeping the same focus for one more week is often a good idea.

Each player also has a small individual variation: two players of the same age with the same minutes do not progress exactly the same way. That variation is fixed for each player and area, so the preview shows you what will actually happen on Sunday.

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A plan, not random jumps

The most common mistake is changing area every week. If a player trains Passing, then Defending, then Finishing, no attribute really ends up standing out. It works better to decide what each player needs based on their position and stick with it for several weeks. In the History tab you can see what the squad trained each week.

It also helps to think about training alongside tactics. If you play with wide men, Wide play makes more sense; if your system depends on the middle of the pitch, Creativity and Passing do. The guide on how to choose the best formation helps you tie that idea together.

You’ll find all the details in the training help and on the training page.

Create your club and set up your first training plan →