BASICS: Training targets for new footballers

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This is a training target list for each position, it was used several seasons ago and it was quite useful to train new footballers. Each whole training is built upon "tiers", each tier focuses on reaching certain skills, after completing a tier the footballer will train the next tier and so on...

UPDATE 2013-03-20: @bluelightning suggested some corrections to GK´s training.

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Goalkeepers

Tier 1: Agility (to 40) - Handling - Keeper Pos - Reflexes
Tier 2: Speed - Acceleration
Tier 3: Stamina - Anticipation - Passing with Hands
Tier 4: Aerial Ability - Fearlessness - Jumping - Strength - Balance

What to train:
1: Stamina to 40, 2: Tier 1 to 71, 3: Tier 2 to 71, 4: Tier 3 to 61, 5: Tier 4 to 51, 6: Tiers 1-2 up to max.

Central Defenders

Tier 1: Stamina (to 61) - Speed - Acceleration - Jumping - Balance
Tier 2: Defensive Positioning - Fearlessness - Strength - Tackling
Tier 3: Agility - Anticipation
Tier 4: Blocking - High Passing - Low Passing - Heading

What to train
1: Tier 1 to 61, 2: Tier 2 to 51, 3: Tier 3 to 41, 4: Speed & Acceleration to 81, 5: rest of Tier 1 to 71, 6: Tier 2 to 61, 7: Tier 3 to 51, 8: Tier 4 to 41

Side Defenders

Tier 1: Stamina (to 61) - Speed - Acceleration - Jumping - Balance
Tier 2: Tackling - Defensive Positioning - Fearlessness - Strength
Tier 3: Agility - Anticipation
Tier 4:Blocking - High Passing - Low Passing - Heading

What to train
1: Tier 1 to 61, 2: Tier 2 to 51, 3: Tier 3 to 41, 4: Speed & Acceleration to 81, 5: rest of Tier 1 to 71, 6: Tier 2 to 61, 7: Tier 3 to 51, 8: Tier 4 to 41

Side Midfielder

Tier 1: Stamina (to 61) - Speed - Acceleration - Dribbling - Ball Control
Tier 2: High Pass - Curving - Strength
Tier 3: Vision - Agility - Fearlessness
Tier 4: Anticipation - One touch - Balance

What to train
1: Tier 1 to 61, 2: Tier 2 to 51, 3: Tier 3 to 41, 4: Speed & Acceleration to 81, 5: rest of Tier 1 to 71, 6: Tier 2 to 61, 7: Tier 3 to 51, 8: Tier 4 to 51

Defensive/Central midfielder

Tier 1: Stamina (to 61) - Acceleration - High Pass - Jumping - Balance - Low Pass
Tier 2: Defensive Positioning - Fearlessness - Strength - Speed - Vision
Tier 3: Agility - Anticipation - Tackling - Blocking

What to train
1: Tier 1 to 61, 2: Tier 2 to 51, 3: Tier 3 to 41, 4:Tier 1 to 71, 5: Tier 2 to 61, 6: Tier 3 to 51

Attacking central midfielder

Tier 1: Stamina (to 61) - Acceleration - High Pass - Low Pass - Vision - Curving
Tier 2: Scoring Positioning - Jumping - Balance - Speed
Tier 3: Fearlessness - Strength - Dribbling - Ball control
Tier 4: Anticipation - One Touch - Agility

What to train
1: Tier 1 to 61, 2: Tier 2 to 51, 3: Tier 3 to 41, 4: rest of Tier 1 to 71, 5: Tier 2 to 61, 6: Tier 3 to 51, 7: Tier 4 to 41

Centre/Wing forward

Tier 1: Stamina (to 61) - Acceleration - Speed - Shot Acc - Shot Str - Heading
Tier 2: Stamina - Score Pos - Jumping - Balance
Tier 3: Fearlessness - Strength - Jumping
Tier 4: Dribble - Ball control - Anticipation - Agility - One touch

What to train
1: Tier 1 to 61, 2: Tier 2 to 51, 3: Tier 3 to 41, 4: rest of Tier 1 to 71, 5: Tier 2 to 61, 6: Tier 3 to 51, 7: Tier 4 to 41

/* Here's the attributes you should increase to improve receiving the ball according to the situation */

Low ball - Free
Anticipation and ball control

Low ball - Fight
Acceleration, Anticipation, Ball control, strength, Fearlessness, Defensive/Scoring positioning

High ball - Free
Jumping, Balance, anticipation and to some extent ball control

High ball - Fight
Acceleration, Jumping, balance, anticipation, strength, ball control, Fearlessness, Defensive/Scoring positioning

Dribbling 
Dribble, strength, fearlessness & ball control (also effects how fast you move with the ball)

Shooting
Shoot accuracy, shoot strength & fearlessness (if you are "under pressure" from a defender)

Balance
Effects the accuracy of actions after a high receive

Attribute dictionary


Physical 

Acceleration
Acceleration is the attribute that decides how quickly a footballer can get reach his maximum movement speed. A high level of acceleration will also be beneficial in situations where a footballer goes head to head with an opponent.
Agility 
Agility is how fluently, quickly and how much a footballer can move his body and it's different parts (legs, arms etc.). This is a basic attribute used in many situations.
Balance 
Balance is the attribute that decides how firm a footballer can stand or land on his feet mainly while interacting with a ball that reaches him at a height that is above his waist.
Jumping Jumping is the attribute that decides how good a footballer is at getting up into the air. A good jumper of course have benefits when fighting for or interacting with a ball in the air.
Speed Speed is the most important attribute when deciding how much a footballer can move each turn.
Stamina Stamina is the attribute that decides how much condition a footballer loose when moving during a turn.
Strength 
Strength is the amount of physical strength that a footballer possess. I high level of Strength gives the footballer an advantage when facing weaker opponents in physical encounters.

Technical 

Ball Control
Ball Control is how well a footballer can handle the ball with his feet. It is a basic attribute that comes into play in many situations.
Blocking 
Blocking attribute decides how good a footballer is at “making himself as big as possible” and thereby hindering a ball from reaching it's target, when it is being passed or shot.
Curving 
Curving is an attribute that is related to how well a footballer can hit the ball (passing or shooting) “around” his opponents. A good “curver” has a bigger chance of making a pass or shot that is difficult to intercept or stop by his opponents. This attribute is especially important when performing crosses.
Dribble 
Dribbling is the main attribute that decides how well the footballer can move his body and the ball to avoid that his opponents can take the ball from him during a move
High Passing 
High Passing attribute is the main influence for how accurately a footballer can pass the ball when performing a high pass.
Low Passing
Low Passing attribute is the main influence for how accurately a footballer can pass the ball when performing a low pass.
One touch 
One touch is an attribute that increases chances of performing a good direct pass (with foot or head). A footballer that is highly skilled in the art of one touch play can perform direct passes just as good as he would have been able to do if he had received the ball first. This is a passing skill that is typical for a play-maker type of footballer where direct passes is a big advantage.
Edit: We have made a change that also includes the One Touch attribute to some extent with regards to Direct Actions for Goal.

Tackling 
Tackling is the attribute is a main decider for how well a footballer can take the ball from a footballer during a move. A good tackler also suffers a lower risk of causing a foul when trying to tackle.

Mental 

Anticipation 
Anticipation is how well a footballer can predict where a ball is going to land. It is a basic skill useful in many situations related to receiving and performing direct actions.
Defensive Positioning
Defensive Positioning skill is how well a footballer can position himself in relation to his opponents when being in a defensive situation. It increases his chances of winning physical encounters due to having positioned his body “more cleverly” than an opponent who is not a good position player.
Fearlessness
Fearlessness is the attribute that decides how much fear a footballer experience during physical encounters. If a footballer feels a high degree of fear it will hinder him from performing well in these situations.
Scoring Positioning 
Scoring Positioning skill is how well a footballer can position himself in relation to his opponents when being in an offensive situation. It increases his chances of winning physical encounters due to having positioned his body “more cleverly” than an opponent who is not a good position player.
Vision
Vision is a general skill that improves a footballers passing ability and accuracy. A high level of vision gives the footballer a bigger possibility to perform passes that is difficult for the opposition to intercept.

Finishing 

Heading 
Heading is an attribute that is related to how well a footballer can hit the ball (passing or shooting) with his head. It will have an impact on his accuracy as well as his ability to perform a pass or shot (with head) that is difficult to intercept or stop by his opponents
Shooting Accuracy 
Shooting Accuracy is the footballers ability to hit where he is aiming when taking a shot
Shooting Strength 
Shooting Strength is how hard a footballer can hit the ball when taking a shot (without loosing any accuracy). A footballer with a strong shot will be able to perform more shots that are difficult for the opposing keeper or player to stop.

Keeper 

Aerial Ability
Aerial Ability decides a goalkeepers ability to handle situations where he has to fight for and intercept a ball at position where the ball is in the air.
Handling 
Handling is the skill that decides how well a keeper handles the ball with his hands.
Keeper Positioning 
Keeper Position skill is how well a goalkeeper can position his body in order to have the most advantageous position for performing any of his keeper actions.
Passing with Hands 
Passing with hands is the attribute that decides how well a goalkeeper can pass a ball using his hands.
Reflexes 
Reflexes is the skill that decides how quickly a goalkeeper can react when trying to save a shot.

It is important to understand that many of the ”non-keeper attributes” are also used by goalkeepers in their specific actions. So becoming a good goalkeeper is not only to train your keeper attributes. The keeper attributes (just like the "outfield attributes") will almost in every action be combined with one or more of the other attributes which are not keeper specific attributes. 

To make it easier for goalkeepers to avoid training skills that are not used for keeper specific actions without knowing if the skill is useful for that or not we have now decided to list all the "outfield attributes" that are used in at least on keeper specifik action. The keeper specific actions we refer to are: Pass with hands low, pass with hands high, punch, save, tackle with hands, fight for the ball high, fight for the ball low, receive ball low and receive ball high. The attribute list below are not telling anything about how much they are used or when they are used. I only says it is used at least in one of these keeper specific actions. Here comes the attribute list, in alphabetic order, of the "outfield skills" that are used in at least one keeper specific action:

Acceleration
Agility
Anticipation
Balance
Fearlessness
Jumping
One touch
Strength
Vision