Major League Soccer Tips
How to be successful in Football Manager
Major League Soccer Tips
So you want to manage in Major League Soccer, eh? I’d normally try to talk you out of it. However, now that I’ve experienced a full season, I can give you some advice.
Build your team around your designated players. You’ve got 3 of these. You should purchase the best foreigners you can convince to come to your side. Chances are that your designated players will be older and not all that great when you arrive. Try to fix that if you want long term success.
Focus on youth. The MLS structure rewards teams that hire young players. Take advantage of this. Young players with American nationality are particularly helpful.
Search for players with American second nationality. It will be easy for you to find players who have American as their first nationality. The ones with dual American citizenship will require some scouting, since most of them will be playing abroad. Look for good young players who are American and who might be willing to come in for a relatively low salary.
Be willing to have mediocre players. The ridiculously strict salary cap in Major League Soccer scares off most quality players and rewards mediocrity. Don’t worry about getting superstars at every position. Players who don’t cost a lot of money and who are good enough for your position are going to wind up being the backbone of your club no matter what.
Keep extra roster spots available after registration is due. You’ll see good players come through on waivers. This is a Football Manager specialty, as the AI is completely incapable of effectively managing MLS rosters. Make sure that you have free spots so you can grab these players as they come by.
Accumulate General Allocation Money and Target Allocation Money. I didn’t use this at all in my save. However, you want to get as much of this as you can. Stockpile what you are able to get, and try to stay under the salary cap without using up too much of this money. This can be very useful when trading, as the AI seems to overvalue it.
Draft picks are worthless. There’s a debate that rages around this issue. In my opinion, because of how easy it is to find quality young players from European countries, you’re better off not worrying too much about domestic draft picks. Rely instead on getting quality foreigners for your designated player slots and on sneaking out good players on waivers. Draft picks are mostly trade bait — and any pick after the first round is useless.
Try not to put players on the injured roster. Injured players can go on a special disabled list, but they then have to miss 6 games before they can play again. 6 games is usually going to be 6 weeks, and might even be longer. The nice thing is that you can register a different player. The problem, though, is that you’ll likely have to give a senior contract to a reserve player to fill that slot, unless you haven’t hit your allocation of reserve slots yet. I put my goalkeeper on the injured list after he came down with a 6 week injury, pulled up a kid from the reserves, gave him a senior roster, and then had to let him go on waivers once the main keeper came back. Yes, the rules are that stupid.
Use an editor data file. The MLS registration rules are a headache, and the salary cap is no fun. Get a good editor data file — one that makes the league play like the rest of the world — and play that instead. It might not be a “challenge,” but it’s absolutely going to be more fun.