Money

There are two forms of currency in Top11.  Cash is king, it is what is used to buy players and pay for stadium upgrades.  However there are also tokens to factor into the equation as well.

To buy a player you need to pay a token, to change things such as your club details or your logo or jersey you will also need to pay in tokens rather than cash.  What keeps Top11 fresh is that you can only (on average) gain around one token per day this means that - unlike with other games - you don't need to constantly grind your way through the game.

Squad

When you start the game you will have a squad of players at your disposal.  The formation you play will depend very much on which positions your best 11 can play in.  For example if you have just one striker in your best 11 and four defenders then you can consider playing a 4, 5, 1 or other defence-weighted formations.

By sliding right on the squad list you can select the formation for your best 11.  Each player has from 1 - 3 positions in which they can play, players can be trained to play in more than one position.  On the formations screen you can also determine whether the player prefers to move forwards, stay static or move backwards with just a tap on the player icon.

By swiping right once more you come to the orders menu.  If your best 11 is very defence heavy then this is the place to encourage them to become more attacking, counter-attacking etc.  You can also decide to play the offside trap, pass short, long, determine the marking style and set how hard you want the tackles to fly in.

There is no perfect formation and set of squad orders, what works against one team does not necessarily work against another.  It is best to pick your preferences and then build your team around them.

Buying players

There are three ways to buy players in Top11:

Transfer Market:

The transfer market displays a small selection of the players that are currently for sale around the world.  They are displayed in order of deadline but can be changed to be ordered by age, quality or price.

Age is important, the younger a player is the faster they develop, if you buy an 18 year old you will have around 14 seasons to improve the player and get them playing to your exact style, if you buy a 33 year old then the likelihood is that they will retire in the couple of seasons after you bought them and your investment will be gone.  However, young players cost a lot more than older players so it is best to have a balance in your team.

Quality is a fairly simple system that becomes very complicated the more you use it.  Players have 15 attributes:

Defence:

• Tackling
• Marking
• Positioning
• Heading
• Handling

Attack:

• Passing
• Dribbling
• Crossing
• Shooting
• Finishing

Physical and Mental:

• Fitness
• Strength
• Aggression
• Speed
• Creativity

They receive a rating in each of these 15 areas.  Each player has a position allocated to them, so an striker with a high Handling score may rank higher than an striker with a slightly lower Shooting score.  It is important to have a good look at each of their attributes to see what you are getting before you bid.

The star rating is based on the average score for all 15 attributes and the league level you are at.  A player receives an extra star for passing each multiple of 5.  So a player of quality 16 would have 3 stars (15/5).  However, each league higher that you go knocks a star off each of your players, and so at league level 2 a 16 quality player would have 2 stars (15/5 - 1).

Price is determined by averaging all the similar players sold over a set time period.  So for example, players at the start of the season have a higher price than players at the end of the season as there's more money in the system at the start of each season and managers are happy to spend more on each player.

To buy a player through the transfer market you click on the player you want to buy and then and then click the green icon in the bottom right-hand corner to enter the auction for the player.  If you are the only one the bids for the player in the 5 hours or so that they are listed then that player is yours for the cost of one token.  

If however someone else bids then you are then bidding against that manager.  At the end of the time period, the auction closes to new bidders, you and the other bidder will then go head to head, having to lodge a new bid every 20 seconds until one of you gives up or runs out of tokens.  It is very easy to lose all your tokens in this way and end up with no player so it is best to only enter an auction if you have 5 or more tokens to use.

Through your scout

Your scout will find players that usually would not appear on your transfer market as they are reserved for managers with higher ratings than you.  These players will all have in excess of 5 stars and will cost 50 tokens to buy out right, if you have the tokens this is an excellent way of strengthening your team.

Under the Bosman Ruling

The Bosman Ruling was a landmark European court victory in real-life for a football named Jean-Marc Bosman.  Essentially if a player is out of contract they should be free to move to any other club.  This real-life law is duplicated in Top11 for managers in league level 4 and above. Just simply browse other clubs squads looking for players out-of-contract.  This often happens when new youth players join without a place in the squad being available for them.

Remember that you can only ever have 22 players in your squad as a maximum and players will have to be sold or sacked to reduce your squad to buy new players.  It is worth trying to have two players for each position in your system and selling the weakest player each time you have enough money to then relegate the first team player to the bench and buy a new star.