Skills

In order to understand hattrick, you need to get a grasp of playerskills.

Skills are used to represent how good a player is, in different aspects of a match. Depending on his position on the pitch, one (or several) skills will determine how well that player is going to preform for you. So lets dig into skills first.

SKILLS

All senior players have the following set of skills / attributes:

Stamina

This skill determine how a players ability to perform well during a match. How quick the player gets tired. With a low stamina, the player will loose performance during the game. Note also that the stamina can maximum reach the level of excellent.

Keeper

This reflects the ability for a player to prevent the ball from going into your own net. This skill is only important for goalkeepers, but not the only skill a goalkeeper needs.

Defending

This skill will measure how well the player can prevent opponent attacks, anywhere on the pitch.

Playmaking

This skill is the opposite of defending, namely the players ability to create scoring opportunities.

Winger

The ability to create scoring opportunities by advancing down the wings.

Passing

This skill will more or less give you better chance of scoring once a chance has been produced, but it does not have an impact on how many chances you will create. Only the quality of the chances.

Scoring

The players ability to score goals given the oportunity.

Set pieces

This skill will have an impact on the success of a free kick, corner or penalty.

Skill levels

The scale of skills vary from 0-20, where 20 is the best attainable level. Usually the skill level are describes in words as follows:

20 – divine
19 – utopian
18 – magical
17 – mythical
16 – extra-terrestrial
15 – titanic
14 – supernatural
13 – world class
12 – magnificent
11 – brilliant
10 – outstanding
9 – formidable
8 – excellent
7 – solid
6 – passable
5 – inadequate
4 – weak
3 – poor
2 – wretched
1 – disastrous
0 – non-existent

More thoughts on skills

Ok ,so you have a few skills for each player. Which do you need to pay attention to?

1. Set Pieces: You only _need_ one player with high set pieces skill. One player with a high set pieces skill will take all your corners, free kicks and penalties. Aproximately 10% of the chances in a game are of this nature. That is 10% free goals, which is alot! Iwould reccomend the following formula: SUM(20 – division_level) = needed set pieces skill. In division 6 and 7 you can do well with a brilliant (skill level 11) and better.
2. Stamina: A player cannot reach more than excellent (skill lvl 8 ). For players in your first team, this skill should be from passable (skill lvl 6) to excellent. For other players you can ignore this value. It will increase over time, dont worry. It has other impacts like TSI, but thats another story.
3. Playmaking: In the lower leagues, this is the main skill you want to focus on. The total playmaking sum of your playing midfield (wingers count less than inner midfielders),  will determine how many of the chances will be yours. If you dominate the midfield, you will create more chances than your opponent, and on a normal day win the match. To be successful, you need a strong midfield.
4. Passing: In order to secure that you score more goals than your opponent, the passing skill of your players will determine the quality of the chances you get. So a high passing skill, give you a better chance of scoring. This should be your secondary skill to focus on.
5. Defending: If you manage to both create more chances than you opponent, and with a high defending skill also destroy the opportunities they do have, you will look at happy numbers on the scoreboard. And you are beginning to dominate your matches. Now look, a midfield with high playmaking, passing and defending is expensive. You wont get there in a while. But this should be your goal. With high playmaking and passing midfielders, and a defence with good defending skill is much cheaper. And depending on your long time strategy and training, the players you select should be carefully analyzed before you give them the chance.
6. Scoring: This is in fact not that important in the lower leagues. If your attackers/strikers have excellent (lvl 8) to outstanding (lvl 10) scoring you may be able to win games where you are the underdog (the opponent have more chances than you). But if your opponents have a good defending skill, you wont get enough chances to win anyway.
7. Keeper: Forget it in the lower leagues. Solid is good enough in division 7, excellent good enough in lvl 6, after that you should get a good goalkeeper.

Summary

Your primary target should be to win the possession each game. Possession is calculated by the playmaking skills of your midfielders, and dictates how many chances you will get. The passing skill will determine the quality of the chances you generate. I will get back to what kind of skills you need in the different divisions.