some minor notes while i'm passing by:
*) This thread is to debate. not to say who you'll vote for. please keep that in mind.
*) i like the fact that their is a debate going on here, and for once, it seems a constructive one too! so gratz on that paOrt.
*) concerning the tests:
First off, thx Eminence for waiting with the updating of your squad and keeping your enthusiasm up so that we could preform the tests. i've learned a pretty large amount of things ( some still remain unclear, but many questions were answered with those scrimmages)
I saw a comment about the likely changes that are awaiting us to lower LI domination:
i'd like to point out that the USA champ beat all his opponents who were playing inside with: Motion! So if you got the right players, you could win outside. However, you'd be taking a major gamble at the NT lvl by trying to put together a inside and outside orientated team. you need extremely multiskilled players for that, and just like many nations, Englands lacks in that departement bigtime ( but considering how you've been catching up, i'm pretty sure that you'r catching up there). The draw is a harsh one, but just be on the look out. One week of bad GS for one of your opposing NT teams, could change the entire outcome! Poland is at real top team, but Italy has had a hard time qualifying for the World Cup. they used to be great because of the many farmteams they had, allowing players to be trained much futher than normally because they'd destory your economy. Thus, my advise: (and that is for the whole community) check the Italian NT roster every 2 day's. that way you are sure not to miss any of their players if they hit the TL ==> if you know the skills, you know their weaknesses and could potentially exploit them once you face them. It just makes your goal to reach the next round hard, not impossible ;) NT teams have caught up with the sub top nations, so in most groups, a team could end 2nd but could as easely end 6th! GS and Enthusiasm management will decide the outcome in most cases.
Futhermore, untill Marin releases more info about how the change to SB will influence the GE, it's hard to forsee anything. As Eminence pointed out correctly, England has a young squad and should be able to addapt pretty fast, providing the managers of teh NT players will be willing to train the skills needed for them to gain an advantage. But as it stands now, nobody knows how those changes will influence the game. Theirfor, it's hard to forsee how to react. If you have to ask the manager of a NT player to train SB on his guard, i doubt he'll be willing to accept that request ( just giving an example here). So don't ask questions none of the candidates can answer ;) cause at the moment, you can only speculate about the changes...
Now for all the candidates to answer:
*) with changes announced, would you prefer to experiment with some upcomming talents ( players who are close to the NT, but not NT players yet) to anticipate potential changes to the GE ( who would at the earliest hit us at the allstar break) and thus hope to gain an advantage over the other NTs? By doing this, you could very well ask a manager to train a wrong skill and thus he wouldn't be closer to making the NT (you could even ruin a plaer like this if salary goes up due to unwanted side ups) Or would you prefer to play it safe, and attempt to addapt once we know more about the changes ( but that means older players, slower training and maybe the managers can't accomodate your wishes on such a short notice). I'm interested to see the answer to this question. should be an interesting one :D