How I Rebuilt Our Squad
The Strategy
How I Rebuilt Our Squad
Honestly, it wasn’t that hard to rebuild this squad.
I went through the squad position by position, noting the areas in which we desperately need players who are not inconsistent and who do not have a paralyzing fear of playing in big matches. That was almost every position; however, it turns out that we were doing better than I first feared.
I then went through the painstaking process of bringing players onto our team that could play in those positions. That was the hard part.
A Trick
If you manage an amateur team in a league like American Samoa, there’s actually a trick that allows you to bypass scouting players and get straight to the point.
No, it’s not bringing in players on trial — although that trick does work, you’re going to need a pretty high level of club reputation to convince them to pay you a visit.
All you need to do is to be willing to sign players for free, sight unseen, and to then release them once you realize they’re not what you’re looking for.
And, well, that’s what I did. I know about the player’s we’ve scouted already, obviously. I don’t care about the young players who aren’t interested in coming to our club yet. That left a pool of around 100 players or so, players I had no idea about who might be helpful.
I brought them in, sorted through them, got rid of the ones who showed up as inconsistent, injury prone, or with a hatred of big matches, and accomplished in a few in-game days more than my scouts could in months.
Results
The results look pretty good on paper, I suppose.
We’ve completely wiped out our midfield and our goalkeepers. Maselino Ikuvalu, who is only 18 years old, is now our starting goalkeeper. Our midfield will likely be anchored by the likes of Rock Kaleopa and Afa Isu, two talented young players who I probably would never have found without my trick.
Some familiar names will stay on board, of course. Palauni Vaiali’i and Peyton Malani will continue to anchor our offense in the attacking central midfielder role. I decided to move away from the two striker system after seeing it not work so well last season. Besides, Malani looks really good, despite his young age.
Toa Maile remains our star striker, despite the quiet season he had last time around.
There are some familiar names in the back, too. Ioane Palepua, who is probably the best center back in the country, isn’t going anywhere. Nor is Ueli Tualaulelei, who became a huge part of our defense last season.
We’ll see if this works. Replacing the entire team after finishing second is a huge risk.