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Everyone,

I think you guys are forgetting that you are supposed to post here to comment on the NT speeches while the other thread is purely just for speeches only.

Let me quote here a post by RedDevilz in the speeches thread (I expect all but speeches will be deleted soon).

What are the things you planned to do when you first become U21 coach for Malaysia?

Plan is ready, and some preliminary activities were performed already.
1) set db. priority will be given to now 20 and 21 yrs old of potential immediate interest to set the roster. Current roster includes only 5 player, compared to 14 I left to South Africa (likely 90% of new season's roster, apart of adjustments due to managers who don't communicate skills pops). If former coach would share any information when leaving as courtesy, I will much appreciate. Otherwise, the only way is to call all one after the other. We estimated about 70 players now 20 yrs old plus 50 now 19, potential star, salary at least 3K$ last season. The number of now 21 is curiously low, but I cannot check with bb-stats as soon as bb will return to normal operation
2) call roster: the first call will include 10 to max 12 players, probably 10 only to have room for further expansion without impacting TS (to be saved as relevant on the field, and in case of saving some players before losing him as his team would become a bot). Lineup, rotations and tactics will depend on roster at first round: all teams will be branded new, and I prefer to set my team at best first instead of trying to figure out how another new coach would work on tactics. If the first opponent would be China, well, I could just call 5 players ;) why so? The rationale is that players perform on the basis of skills, but growth and gameshape depends on managers (and their reliability!)
3) start scouting on players in the roster: This is up to me. I will personally follow top players and will try to set a direct channel with their managers.
4) start scouting: it will start with older players (scout now or it will be too late!) and with younger with highest potential (at least perennial all star), than to all others.
5) match planning: as soon as scheduling will be available we will start with match planning. I will give you some details via pm, as this can be critical. The staff working on it did a wonderful job in South Africa.

All of that will be accomplished by first 10 days by the start, not necessarily finishing in this order (planning should finish before first official match!)

Last edited by GM-BlackMouse at 10/6/2010 5:10:41 PM

other question by RedDevilz

What are the key factors you think we are lacking that restricted our growth?

It is a tough question. To me, there are two things that could be done better.

One is about game planning: looking at results (it's too easy, I know!) I would have spent differently my TS. This is however a tricky point, as it depends on specific conditions and coach's attitude, so it is a bit difficult to be sure about.

The most relevant, and will be a key focus area, will be about scouting and talents growth. Each manager decides at the end on the basis of own team priorities. A good coach/scout should proactively work with the manager to find the best arrangement in common interest. If a manager has a great talent with high potential, he can either train him to unleash his value, or sell him, buy an older player of same skills, and use differently the huge difference in cash!

Let me give you some example that surprised me even including economy adjustment happened today: bin Yakub, Center, Superstar, is now just 20K$ compared to 12K$ last season (Italian centers last season were far above 100K$!); bin Ariffin, Center, all star, increased from 10K$ to just 12k$; bin Kahlan is 28K$ vs former 20K$ (a PG can almost double every season). That was becoming evident in the discussions in the forum, so I worked with my team to do some observations to verify it.

Let me be crystal clear: this is not to blame anybody about training priorities. However, with my experience, with my team experience, we can discuss about how doing the best. I did it as scout first, I did it again as coach, I had a great teacher on that that helped me to become what I am - with my wonderful Scalambrieri

As common guidelines:
- high potential players should be trained using a single spot mode, 48' minutes per week systematically
- primary skills are prioritized per role, and secondary should be carefully adjusted over time
- training programs are personalized per player. Some players could have better chance in a different role, so it will be discussed with managers if they accept to train a PG or a SG
- scouts are preferably assigned according to their skills: a guards trainer will probably be assigned to guards managers
- if a talent cannot be trained appropriately, probably it would be better for all to sell him
- salary increase will be kept in consideration, to arrange training programs to have the maximum at the mininum price to the manager. Of course, at 22 years salary will be "high" (and skills as well!), but entering 21 it should be as low as possible to be sustainable.

Questions by Vicelious.

1) One of the key problems is the lack of participation from our managers. How do you intend to fix this?

A good question without a simple answer. You know I am leaving South Africa, were community is minimal (6th smaller in the world) and participation is almost null. I noticed that about forums only BB-Malaysia and the external site has some posts, all the others per series are almost dead.

There few facets to me:
1) "participation" in the sense of writing tons of posts etc does not work. It is usual in social networks, it is usual in BB (in Italy we are 5K, but few participate to forums). People cannot be forced to do so, and even a more "where is the party" approach work for not much time
2) "participation" can be dramatically shifted to individuals when they are directly contacted, pushed, involved by scouts. Knowing that somebody cares of you, unlock training secrets, helps you to build a more competitive team, typically stimulates people. That is a key point in my scouting strategy
3) finally, "participation" in the sense of bringing value to NT/U21 can be dramatically improved: I had people chatting during U21 matches from all over the world, as THEIR talents were there. People posting on forums or on my press releases. And there were just 10 managers, half of them entering the game and leaving it on periodical basis.

I am sorry not having any "magic" to increase that, but this is a simple matter of fact. But if country will grow there will be a good momentum.

How much it can be increased, will depend on how capillar we will be, and how many local managers will join my team (I am open to many).

What I will bring will be communicates, reports, open and frank discussions (apart of "secrets"), and passion. Plus, as stated, capillar scouting, in English and local language wherever possible.

2) Another problem is the fact many managers (I've seen about 10 managers come and go in my division alone) play a while... but lose interest. Do you have any suggestions to help keep more active malaysian managers?

I think that turnover is physiological. However, nothing is better to have the opportunity to have fast development of the team and/or see, today or in the future or maybe never, a first class talent. If you are not intrigued by that, you'll leave.

What we can do, me and all of you, is to expand a consolidated basis of managers that play regularly, so turnover will not turn into flat or decreasing number of managers, but increasing.

I wanto to be very frank on these points: nobody has magic on this, because it is a social phenomenon + interest in the game. I discussed it with many managers and coaches in other countries, and this is what you can do.

About me, what I can bring is my enthousiasm and some attractiveness to a more open, international team than any time in the past, where you (any manager) can interact with people from all over the world, enriching own experience - this is may be the funniest thing of these games, and it is why I am running here.

About salaries, it is announced a reduction for TOP salaries of about 12% (as reported in the news). I noticed it in my team, for not trained players, for salaries above 50K$. But in my own team I had +18K$ for my top players, or +20% increase (98K$ vs projected 105K$), and also relevant increases for younger trainees.

I don't have access to current skills, of course, neither to previous. The only thing that I can see is the salary increase, and compare it with my South African guys, were best trainees increased their salaries 60% to 100%. Salary is just an external indicator as DMI at gameshape 9, but can give you a good understanding on how primaries grew.

answer in the right thread

(158829.5)

Thanks for the reminder. Nice to see someone else keeping the forums in order ^^V

My pleasure.

It would not be very nice if a GM would delete all but speeches, loosing valuable questions.

My pleasure.

It would not be very nice if a GM would delete all but speeches, loosing valuable questions.

They usually don't delete them I think, since it has happened before. But if there are too many post Joose will step in...

Ah, election times are always for misplaced posts. You should have seen the time when we had candidates posting their speech in other threads

Every election shows nice misplacements.

In Italy there are many speeches and debates and questions on the wrong threads: we have now about 15 candidates, were only few have experience, others are newbies with a lot of enthousiasm and less understanding of the game

yesterday I notice GM's entering in many countries' debates and deleting misplaced messages. I am looking/contributing to discussions in other African and Asian countries where, for one reason or the others, I spend some time in the forums, and it happened suddenly yesterday as here. It is as usual, as mentioned.

at the end, the answers in the right thread saved the questions