The Inazuma Eleven Football Manager Simulator - Game Idea Concept

If you had to ask me one anime, I constantly watch the answer would probably be Inazuma Eleven, football has always been my favourite sport, so it hooked me in right away. However, one thing I wish the series had was some kind of football manager like simulator where you can take control of the teams and manage them how you want and sign others and play against teams doing the same. Over the course of this article I hope to put forward a concept that follows in the football manager format but also remains fun as the Inazuma Eleven series is.

A side note before we begin, I have had to change around a few things in relation to teams and how they play out to maximise options and paying experiences so please bare this in mind while reading.

Teams

I wanted to start this off by listing the teams that would be playable. Each of these teams you would be able to take over and manage. These have been compiled thanks to the Inazuma Eleven Wiki as a mixture of anime and game teams, I have tried to keep the number of teams down that have duplicate players so team that I have removed these from are listed accordingly. For teams that reappear in the Ares anime I have combined them with their original counterparts due to a lot of players appearing in both the original and Ares teams and it doesn’t make sense to me to duplicate players for the sake of duplicating them.

Football Frontier

• Raimon
• Teikoku Gakuen (Original & Ares)
• Zeus (Original & Ares)
• Mikage Sennou (Original & Ares)
• Sengoku Igajima
• Occult
• Kidokawa Seishuu (Original & Ares)
• Nose
• Shuuyou Meito
• Senbayama
• Inakuni
• Mindodouzan
• Seishou Gakuen
• Eisei Gakuen
• Outei Tsukinomiya
• Midorigaoka

Season 2

• Hakuren (Original & Ares)
• Manyuuji
• Osaka Gals
• Yokato
• SP Fixers
• Kasamino
• Shin Teikoku Gakuen
• Gemini Storm
• Epsilon
• Prominence
• Diamond Dust
• The Genesis

Football Frontier International

• Orpheus (Italy)
• Little Gigant (Cotarl)
• Knights of Queen (England)
• Unicorn (America)
• The Empire (Argentina)
• The Kingdom (Brazil)
• Red Matador (Spain)
• Rose Griffon (France)
• Brockenborg (Germany)
• Big Waves (Australia) (Original)
• Desert Lion (Qatar)
• Fire Dragon (South Korea) (Original)
• The Great Horn (South Africa)
• Team K (Italy)
• Team Garshield (Brazil)
• Barcelona Orb (Spain)
• Red Bison (South Korea)
• Shining Satans (Australia)
• Eternal Dancers (Uzbekistan)
• Arab no Hinotori Gundan (Saudi Arabia)
• Soccer Zatsugidan (China)
• Mutei no Giant (Spain)
• Perfect Spark (Russia)
• Navy Invader (America)
• Ole de Samba (Brazil)
• Guardians of Queen (Italy) 
• Shadow of Orion (Russia)
• Fire Dragon (South Korea) (GO)
• Big Waves (Australia) (GO)
• Mach Tiger (Thailand)
• Shamshir (Saudi Arabia)
• Storm Wolf (Uzbekistan)

Holy Road

• Raimon (GO)
• Teikoku Gakuen (GO)
• Kidokawa Seishuu (GO)
• Hakuren (GO)
• Arakumo Gakuen
• Dragonlink
• Seidouzan
• Kaiou Gakuen
• Aoba
• Gassan Kunimitsu
• Tengawara
• Genei Gakuen
• Mannouzaka
• Eito Gakuen

Ragnarök (Chrono Stone)

• Tenmas
• Protocol Omega (Combined team of all 3 iterations of the team)
• Zanark Domain
• Perfect Cascade
• Garu
• Giru
• Zan
• The Lagoon

Grand Celesta Galaxy

• Faram Dite
• Sazanaara Eleven
• Gurdon Eleven
• Ratoniik Eleven
• Sandorius Eleven
• Ixal Fleet

Miscellaneous

• Keibi Machines
• Inazuma KFC
• The Card (IE3 Version)
• Unlimited Shining
• Ancient Dark
• Southern Claw
• Northern Fang
• Inazuma KFC (GO)
• Kuro no Kishidan
• Destructchers
• Vamptym
• Tsukigami no Ichizoku
• Soccer Robots
• Ogre
• Night Viper (Minus Duplicate Players) (Combined Chrono Stone & Galaxy Version)
• Gold Bear (Minus Duplicate Players) (Combined Chrono Stone & Galaxy Version)
• Aqua Hermit (Minus Duplicate Players) (Combined Chrono Stone & Galaxy Version)
• Snow Weasel (Minus Duplicate Players) (Combined Chrono Stone & Galaxy Version)
• Crim Hound (Minus Duplicate Players) (Combined Chrono Stone & Galaxy Version)
• Karakuri Heibayou
• Real Legends
• Shiroshika
• Makai Gundan Z
• Tenkuu no Shito
• Chronicles (Minus Duplicate Players) (Combined Go & Galaxy Versions)
• Owari Braves (Chrono Stone version)
• Seito Rafters (Chrono Stone version) (Minus Ryuu Gentoku)
• Evolutions
• Bakumatsu Daybreaks (Chrono Stone version)
• Big Bang
• Supernova
• Inside Silver
• Osoroshii Kage
• Planet Girls
• Jukai Team
• Zodiacs
• Inazuma Eleven
• Akizora Challengers
• Ichibangai
• PistonBerryz
• White Deer Gang
• Artist Team (Go Version)
• Hurricanes
• Shin Pirates
• Masquerade
• Pierrot Team
• Narikiri Sentai
• Speed Star
• Kage no Hero
• Ultra Animals (Minus Duplicate Players)
• Specials
• Cyber Specalists (Fusion of non-duplicate characters of Cyber Hack & Cyber Clouds)
• Tetra Colors (Minus Duplicate Players)
• Space Boys
• Insect Z

LEAGUES 

Next is to separate these teams into the separate leagues that would be in the game, each league has a separate league title to contend for. Each league will offer different teams and challenges. I have tried to keep some teams in the same competitions they were initially involved in but for other I have created new original leagues in order to add depth to the game. You would play each team twice in the league, the smaller the league the larger the gap between matches.

Football Frontier

1. Raimon
2. Teikoku Gakuen (Original & Ares)
3. Zeus (Original & Ares)
4. Mikage Sennou (Original & Ares)
5. Sengoku Igajima
6. Occult
7. Kidokawa Seishuu (Original & Ares)
8. Nose
9. Shuuyou Meito
10. Senbayama
11. Inakuni
12. Mindodouzan
13. Seishou Gakuen
14. Eisei Gakuen
15. Outei Tsukinomiya
16. Hakuren (Original & Ares)
17. Shin Teikoku Gakuen
18. Manyuuji
19. Osaka Gals
20. Yokato
21. Keibi Machines
22. Inazuma KFC
23. Kasamino

European Super League

1. Orpheus (Italy)
2. Knights of Queen (England)
3. Red Matador (Spain)
4. Rose Griffon (France)
5. Brockenborg (Germany)
6. Barcelona Orb (Spain)
7. Team K (Italy)
8. Mutei no Giant (Spain)
9. Perfect Spark (Russia)
10. Guardians of Queen (Italy) 
11. Shadow of Orion (Russia)

A League (Teams from North and South America, Africa & Australia)

1. Unicorn (America)
2. Navy Inader (America)
3. The Empire (Argentina)
4. The Kingdom (Brazil)
5. Team Garshield (Brazil)
6. Ole De Samba (Brazil) 
7. Little Gigant (Cotarl)
8. The Great Horn (South Africa)
9. Big Waves (Australia) (Original)
10. Big Waves (Australia) (GO)
11. Shining Satans (Australia)

Asian Super League

1. Desert Lion (Qatar)
2. Fire Dragon (South Korea) (Original)
3. Fire Dragon (South Korea) (GO)
4. Red Bison (South Korea)
5. Eternal Dancers (Uzbekistan)
6. Storm Wolf (Uzbekistan)
7. Mach Tiger (Thailand)
8. Shamshir (Saudi Arabia)
9. Arab no Hinotori Gundan (Saudi Arabia)
10. Soccer Zatsugidan (China)

Holy Road

1. Raimon (GO)
2. Teikoku Gakuen (GO)
3. Kidokawa Seishuu (GO)
4. Hakuren (GO)
5. Arakumo Gakuen
6. Dragonlink
7. Seidouzan
8. Kaiou Gakuen
9. Aoba
10. Gassan Kunimitsu
11. Tengawara
12. Genei Gakuen
13. Mannouzaka
14. Eito Gakuen
15. Kuro no Kishidan 
16. Destructchers
17. Unlimited Shining
18. Ancient Dark
19. Southern Claw
20. Northern Fang
21. Inazuma KFC (GO)

The League of the Future

1. Protocol Omega
2. Zanark Domain
3. Perfect Cascade
4. Garu
5. Giru
6. Zan
7. The Lagoon
8. Ogre
9. Vamptym
10. Tsukigami no Ichizoku 
11. Soccer Robots
12. Tenmas
13. Sparkle Knights
14. Night Viper
15. Gold Bear
16. Aqua Hermit
17. Snow Weasel

The League of the Past

1. Owari Braves
2. Seito Rafters
3. Bakumatsu Daybreaks
4. Makai Gundan Z
5. Tenkuu no Shito
6. Shiroshika
7. Karakuri Heibayou  
8. Evolutions
9. Chronicles
10. Fantasies
11. Fantasians
12. Yamatodamashii

Grand Celesta Galaxy

1. Gemini Storm
2. Epsilon
3. Prominence
4. Diamond Dust
5. The Genesis
6. Faram Dite
7. Sazanaara Eleven
8. Gurdon Eleven
9. Ratoniik Eleven
10. Sandorius Eleven
11. Ixal Fleet
12. Big Bang
13. Supernova
14. Inside Silver
15. Osoroshii Kage  
16. Planet Girls  
17. Jukai Team
18. Zodiacs
19. High Yard Tower

Scout League

1. Artist Team 
2. Hurricanes
3. Shin Pirates
4. Masquerade
5. Pierrot Team
6. Narikiri Sentai
7. Speed Star
8. Kage no Hero
9. Specials
10. Cyber Specalists 
11. Tetra Colors
12. El Machos
13. Collaborations
14. Broth Eleven
15. Zettsu Sero Shiku
16. The Card
17. Ultra Animals
18. Space Boys
19. Insect Z

Veterans League (League for adult teams where they are limited and can only sign adult players

1. Inazuma Eleven
2. Akizora Challengers
3. SP Fixers
4. Ichibangai
5. PistonBerryz
6. Inazumachou Chounaikai
7. Eden
8. Real Legends
9. Kantoku Gundan
10. White Deer Gang

I want to put a specific note here on this league. This is a part-time league the players in can also take up coach jobs, I envision the league taking place in the leagues off seasons in the summer each team would only play each team once, this allows the coaches and trainers to work with their teams and then in the off season they play as well. I am aware that some of the teams listed in this league have younger players, but they would be able to play in the summer months as well as sign players for their team, however the adult version of players such as Sakuma, Tachimukai & Kazemaru will be available for these teams to sign to replace those players when they leave. The league would serve as a good beginner’s league for players to get a hang of the mechanics of the game.

Cup Competitions

I decided to add a number of cups to the format for teams to chase as well. Many football fans will talk about 'the magic of the cup' a one of game where the winner the winner advances no matter the difference in leagues. There's been several examples of underdogs in English footballs recent history both Sutton United and Lincoln City who were in the 5th tier of English football both went on long Cup runs 2 seasons ago and as well Bradford City who were in the 4th tier of English football made it to the capital one cup final back in 2013 it allows teams perhaps not as far up the league table to actively contest for something.

I want to highlight a few cups more specifically as the majority are self-explanatory. The first is with the World Cup being every 3 years opposed to the traditional 4. This is simply because the FFI arc always comes around in the 3rd season (a technicality for Orion as it is the 3rd season of that timeline using the original first season as its first and Ares its second).

The other one is what I have tentatively called 'The Best of the Best' this would be the Champions League of sorts. With enough teams in it I have said to have the top 3 teams at the end of the year qualify for the tournament. I've always found European competition interesting the best in each league facing off the see who the best team in the continent is. This creates unique matches not normal available for example should it happen Dragonlink vs Prominence is a possible game in that tournament as these teams do not share a league or a different cup it opens the realm of endless possibilities to test your team facing teams you normally wouldn't.

1. Japan Cup: (All teams from Japan, FF, Holy Road, & Scout League)
2. Asia Cup: (All Asian teams in world league & Australia)
3. European Cup: (All European teams)
4. Ragnarök: (The League of the Past, The League of the Future & Galaxy league)
5. Best of the Best (Top three of each league bar Veterans in a Champions League format)
6. World Cup: (All International Teams) - Every 3 years
7. Super J Cup: Winners of Football Frontier vs. Winners of Holy Road. One match to open season
8. The Time Cup (Winner of the league of the past vs. Winner of the league of the future). One match to open the season 

International Teams

1. Japan
2. Italy
3. Spain
4. England
5. France
6. Russia
7. Germany
8. Argentina
9. Brazil
10. Cotarl
11. South Korea
12. Australia
13. Uzbekistan
14. America
15. Qatar
16. South Africa
17. Thailand
18. Saudi Arabia
19. China
20. Aliea
21. The Past
22. The Future
23. Kiel
24. Ixal
25. Sandorius
26. Gurdon
27. Ratoniik
28. Sazanaara
29. Faram Obius
30. Women’s
31. Greece 
32. GO Japan
33. Dupli

Internationals

Part of the Inazuma Eleven story always comes down to represent your country at world level. For this game idea I've overhauled how internationals are done to bring them more in line to real life. Not only does this bring a better sense of competition in my eyes it also allows the creation of the World League previously mentioned (it also means that there isn't two South Korea or Australian international teams to save confusion). Call ups will be decided based on form with the World Cup happening every 3 years (to symbolise the FFI happens every 3 seasons).

In relation to eligibility some character will get either a new nationality or a dual nationality. This is due to the number of characters that Japan would have in comparison to the rest of the world. For example, a player like Nishigaki Mamoru who is described as Ichinose's friend from America in his Dark Emperors form, I would make available for the American Team. This is due to all evidence in the anime pointing towards him having this nationality (and the fact I thought he should have been part of Unicorn in FFI but that's beside the point). Another example coming from the game is Rakuda, the player that you must recruit in Inazuma Eleven 3 as part of the story who says he used to live in Qatar. This player would be able to represent Qatar due to this or Japan based on the fact he can be recruited to the Japan National Team in Inazuma Eleven 3.

Another player I want to use as an example is Nishiki Ryouma, having never officially competed in an international match I feel his national team can be put for some debate. Due to his time in Italy I feel justified to make him available for selection to either Japan or Italy. This would allow both nations managers to fight for his allegiance allowing for more players to do the same if able to (the majority of these may be scout players do to the lack of history on them) .

While the majority of these teams are self-explanatory, I thought best to highlight The Past and The Future international teams listed. I originally had it planned as a 'Time' international team for both parties however I feel justified in the number of teams in the time league to have this split. The Future team has Ogre and all second stage children as well as Endou Kanon to name a few. The Past has the Owari Braves, Makai Gundan Z and Tenkuu no Shito teams here as well as Torb to name a few as well.

I have also put into play a Women’s International Team. With the sheer number of players available for national teams, especially Japan I feel it needed to create this team to allow players they might not get an international call up to get one. Now once again this depends on the player but players like Yagami Reina could still be called up to the Japan Squad and players such as Akarin can represent America (due to the Uncle Sam hat) this creates more of a demand for players to perform well to get an international call up and creates more decisions for International teams as they may not want to miss out on a player who goes to play for the women’s team or vice versa.

For the Alien sides found in Galaxy I have decided to split them into their respective planets for this. While this means some teams will have more players, I believe this best to create variety in the international selection. I have checked with Inazuma Eleven Wiki to see the number of players available per planet and I am happy with the majority of the depth bar a few in Ixal and Kiel but this is fixable with a feature I’ll speak on later. With this set there are still a few team which need confirmation as to what their international team would be as follows.

• Osoroshii Kage would be Ratoniik internationals mainly due to them appearing on this planet in the game
• Inside Silver would be Ixal internationals mainly due to being used by Ozrock to test Earth Eleven
• Space Rankers would be internationals for Faram Orbius on account of Acrous Obies being the former king of Faram Orbius
• Manuuba Gibutsu would be part of the Ixal international set up due to his work with Ozrock in Galaxy

The Aliea national set up would consist of all the teams from Aliea academy, that being Gemini Storm, Epsilon, Diamond Dust, Prominence and The Genesis. I have also opted to include the Jukai Team in this as well due to their connection to the Aliea meteorite. With a combined 66 players this allows for a good international pool of players to choose from to begin the game and I feel justified in this.

Potential International Teams

Even with the women’s international team in place still looking over the vast characters in the game Japan dominate the pool of talent and who they can select. It leads to me worrying that Japan will sweep all international tournaments bar a shock of some kind. While some teams like Korea have 3 teams at least to select characters from others like America or Cotarl with just one. It makes the scale uneven. What I am proposing is adding extra international teams not used in the games or anime but that make sense with what we have in the game.

So, with this I have one example, as you saw in the international teams Greece is listed. Not a team that appears in the series as you know I have added them on the basis of all the characters of Zeus are based on Greek Gods, bar Aphrodi (who will be set to Korean on the basis that was the first international team he is seen playing for) can play for this Greek side as well as being eligible for Japan, I have also decided to add Seidouzan to this as the teams dub names at least come from the Greek titans. Adding this nation adds more variety to the field and can also serve to take some good players out of Japan’s field for the sake of balancing the field of international games. For a full game release, I would look mote into this to see if we could add more international teams like this in order to add more depths to FFI tournaments.

I have also added a Japanese team exclusively for the GO series teams. This is as with the other potential sides to reduce the national pool for the main Japan side. This again will allow for more variation of the international teams and allow the top talent of the GO series to get international games.

I have also started to look at other players using their dub names and other international teams they can play for. Some of these players will not be selected for Inazuma Japan due to the sheer number of players available. These are a few examples based on the origins of their dub names or accents. The following are some example mainly based off characters from the Go series.

Original Name	Dub Name	The Other Eligible National Team Available For
Kirino Ranmaru	Gabriel ‘Gabi’ Garcia	Spain
Amagi Daichi	Wanli Changcheng	China
Hamano Kaiji	Adé Kébé	England
Kurama Norihito	‘Kaiser’ Michael Ballzack	Germany
Kariya Masaki	Aitor Cazador	Spain
Hyoudou Tsukasa	Alessandro il Grande	Italy
Nishizono Shinsuke	‘J.P’ Jean-Pierre Lapin	France
Tsurugi Yuuichi	Vladimir Blade	Russia

These are the only examples I can find at this moment. However, even in this small pool of players it adds more players to international teams that wouldn’t have the depth that Japan would, spreading out the players for internationals allows more fun.

While these concepts are fine in practice you would still have to convince the players who can play for more than one international team to join yours. I would set this up to have you be able to open dialogue with these players to convince you are the best nation for them, this could be for playing time or how you would play them. Each player has different wants and needs to play at international level so it is important to realise that as a coach and if you can get the extra players you can. 

Hissatsu Tactics

One of the main aspects I had difficulty adapting to a Football Manager styled game on Inazuma Eleven was the Hissatsu Tactics (such as Route of the Sky). These tactics used on a whim normally change style from what a team is normally portrayed as.

I decided to look at them as base tactics. So, for example your team can play 'Route of the Sky' football or 'Box Lock Defence' football. For Route of the Sky it takes into account how the tactic is used, to use the air to move higher up the pitch. For this I took inspiration partially from 'Route 1 Football' this tactic would place emphasis on long balls to forwards and cross field balls to widen and change play. It's important to remember the team won't 100% of the time play the long ball but look at it as a way to go but still play out from the back or on the ground when needed. Box Lock defence focuses on pressure put on forwards in the final third looking at locking them out the game when the ball is in their position.

Other tactics can however focus on one main player. Take for example Kami no Takuto (and it's FI counterpart) focus on the playmaker and how they can dictate passes and plays to other players. This tactics efficiency is dependent on how the player assigned to it would work as your playmaker.

Each tactic has pros and cons as well as players that work better with some tactics more than others.

Duplicate Players

For any players that appear twice I group these into two categories. The first is the players reintroduced in Ares, with these players (and teams) I have decided it best to merge the two together to create a bigger team, I feel this to be better than having two of the same team as it lessens confusion. For Inakui Raimon I have decided the take the Raimon off their name to revert them to Inakui for the same reason.

The other category is those who played for Aliea Gauken throughout the Aliea Arc of the original anime. If you notice all Aliea teams are in the Galaxy League with Eisei Gakuen in the football Frontier. However, some players miss out in their human form. Take for example Izuno Yuu (Alien name Wheeze) the number 9 and forward of Genesis. While represented in Genesis in alien form his human form (which formed part of Neo Japan in the FFI arc) does not get represented. This allows any Aliea players human form not on a team I have opted to move into a free agency pool for any team to sign (see more below for free agency).

With this in mind there are a few players that I will make specific reference to and what their team would be at the start of the game.

• The Raimon team will be that of Season 1 so no reinforcement members on other teams
• Genda & Sakuma will be part of Teikoku and not Shin Teikoku Gakuen
• Domon & Ichinose will be part of Raimon and not Unicorn 
• Aphrodi, Nagumo & Suzuno will be part of Zeus and Eisei Gakuen respectively and not Fire Dragon but however all three will be declared for the Korean national football set up
• Zanark does not form part of the Zan team and will be part of Zanark Domain
• Tsurugi does not form part of Kuro no Kishidan and will be part of Raimon (GO)
• Fei does not form part of Tenmas and will be part of Garu
• Meia and Giris do not form part of The Lagoon and will be part of Giru
• All players who debuted with Barcelona Orb will be with that team and not Mutei no Giant

Scouting Players

When it comes to scouting players, I have changed up what the traditional format for football clubs scouting players is. Simply put, there is not enough NPC’s to justify having a scouting job. While custom staff members could be created (more on something like this later) I have opted against this. Scouts will be replaced with a universal database. Through this database all characters will have some basic information available. To access all the information on them you will need to order a report. This can be to a single player or a team. The reports will take between 3-5 days depending on the depth of the report and if it is for a player or team it will give you the stats that you can run a comparison to your current team members. As well as this will show you the potential of the player or players in question.

Using a universal database will also allowed to specify positions to look into. You can filter to a defender that can also play defensive midfielder as an example. Or you can filer on a specific role for example defence or attack and could even go into certain team roles like playmaker or sweeper. The database can be allowed to filer all through players to find those who meet what you want and then scout them to see if they meet what you want from the team.

Free Agency

Part of the Inazuma Eleven games are the ability to scout new players out for your team to add and play the way you want. What I propose is to add this feature. The free agency would allow anyone who starts with a team with less members (take for example Shin Teikou Gakuen who do not have Genda or Sakuma) to fill the holes without spending any of their transfer budget. This will allow previously mentioned characters as well as scour characters to be part of the game and signed. Take for example Nakatani Masahashi 'Nara City's Living Legend' would be a scout character from the game would form part of this free agency. This would allow players to scout their favourite players not attached to a club to sign. For example, the free agency would include characters as well such as Endou Kanon, Gouenji Masato, Teruyami Mu, Mach, Fuuretsu Hayami, Miyasaka Ryou, Tsurugi Yuuichi, Doudou and Gousetsuji to name a few more.

I have also opted to include Ichihoshi Hikaru and Ichihoshi Mitsuru as separate characters both in the free agency. Both players are shown in the Orion series (although Mitsuru passed away before the series). I want the use these as separate players as they have differing personalities and strengths as they both have character arcs and are good players team would want to use. I would also have Mitsuru be eligible for Russia due to him playing football in Russia before joining Inazuma Japan and his real identity as Hikaru is resolved.

Stats

Player Stats

While having all the ideas for how the game plays is good the game would still need a way of looking into the stats of a player. The statistics of a player help decide the good players from the great players and from the true world class levels. I will list the stats below and what they would be far. Each stat would be ranked from 1 to 30 with 1 being the lowest and 30 being the highest. Every stat can be trained (more on that later) but there will be caps not every striker will be the best so not everyone can reach 30 on the stats. The stat I will use are as follows.

• Kick – This will assess striking ability better the stat better the chance of scoring
• Dribble – This assess your players dribbling ability how good they are on the ball
• Technique- Measures if a player should be taking free kicks and penalties
• Block – How good and accurate a player’s tackles, and defending is
• Speed – How quick a player can run
• Stamina – The conditioning of a player, how long they can go before tiring out
• Vision – The ability to pick out a pass
• Catch – Measures how good your keeper is as catching the ball          
• Guts – Higher the stat more likely to put body on the line for team defence wise
• Guard – The Marking stat, judges how good your players are at marking the opposition
• Leadership – What it takes to be a captain, have a command over the team
• Aggression – How likely a play is to go in for a tackle
• Anticipation – The higher the rating the more technical a player is at reading the game when It comes to commanding a team’s style of play

Obviously if a striker has 30 out of 30 in kicking, they still won’t score every time they shoot. As with football the best strikers in the world don’t score 100% of the time the better the stat the better the chance they have in being successful where that stat is regarded.

Manager Stats

As with any football club managers are needed to well manage the team, I'm disregarding the modern football approach of a head coach with a director of football and a head of transfers etc.

Now some clubs listed will be without a manager for one reason or another, with this I propose the following solution.

Any of the original cast that appeared in GO I have decided to add in as managers to add to the talent pool there if a team should part ways with their manager.

As well as this I have limited the amount of off field roles you can hire people for. Head Coach and Trainer will be the only 2 roles. Any of the managers (plus NPCs for example the likes of Kanda Satoko, Kanda Satoko, Elzes Killard, Ruza Donolzen, Miyano Akane, Goujin Masatatsu and Kousaka Yukie) will be made available to boost the numbers in the free agency pool meaning there’s plenty of character to choose when picking your trainer or when teams pick their managers and trainers.

I have decided to measure a manager’s and a coach’s stats based on the following criteria, as with the players these stats will be given a number between 1 and 30.Adaptability - (how quickly and effectively they can change when a situation arises)

• Motivating - (self-explanatory how well they can motivate players)
• Attack Coaching - (how good they are at coaching attack minded players and tactics)
• Defence Coaching - (how good they are at coaching Defence minded players and tactics)
• Knowledge - (How well they know their team and how to get the best out of their players)
• Approachability - (How likely players are to talk to the coach and respect them)

As well as the stats I feel it necessary to add a significant number of original characters as Managers and Coaches. Simply put, there’s not enough managers and coaches currently on the game for all the club and international teams. I feel it is justified to do as opposed to creating an entirely new role in scouts which would just be original characters. It’d start with enough to fill every team without a manger and/or a coach out and then some extra to fill out the demand should any team look to change manager or coach.

As years progress more original managers and coaches would be available for hiring. This would be in order to keep the hiring market fresh; it would also allow clubs even more options to who they want to hire to fit their preferred style of play and team ethos.

Coaching players

When it comes to coaching players it is always important in order to work with the players in order to fulfil their potential. If you have a trainer hired this will automatically be taken care of by them. However, if not the player can assign training to the team. Whether specific to player and what to improve or to position and what to work on depends on the player. Each player will have a different play style either training for their next opponent or improving individual stats of players there’s a freedom of choice in this element.

If a player decides they do not wish to fully process and plan this part of the game that is fine, what I am looking to do here is implement an option which I will call 'captains’ choice'. This option allows the manager to delegate training to the captain, they would say what they wanted to train style wise so for example to play quick passing movements or to work on a tighter defence as basic examples and the captain will organise that and follow how that works. How that works with your team and how they respond in matches will come down to the overall quality of the team themselves.

Rivalries

If you ask most football fans the matches, they look forward to the most in a football calendar it is normally Derby games pitting 2 rivals against each other for bragging right. Most rivalries fall into one of two categories either being historic or due to how local in terms of geographical location. To use a real-world example, I feel it best to use my favourite football team in Arsenal. Our rivalry with Manchester United is seen as a historic clash based on the two teams battle to be Premier League champions in years gone by whereas the rivalry with Tottenham Hotspur is to do with the clubs’ local proximity to each other the match is often referred to as 'the North London Derby' because of this'.

Bearing these two different types of rivalries I have compiled a list of a few of the rivalries I would feature. Those with names are more likely to be the local rivalries

• Raimon vs. Zeus
• Raimon vs. Teikou Gakuen
• Teikou Gakuen vs. Zeus
• Raimon vs. Gemini Storm
• Raimon vs. Epsilon
• Raimon vs. Genesis
• Raimon vs. Ogre
• Teikou Gakuen vs. Shin Teikou Gakuen
• Inakui vs. Seishou Gakuen
• Inakui vs. Outei Tsukinomiya
• Seishou Gakuen vs. Outei Tsukinomiya
• Match of Chaos: Diamond Dust vs. Prominence
• Genesis vs. Diamond Dust
• Genesis vs. Prominence
• Angles vs Demons: Tenkuu no Shito vs. Makai Gundan Z
• Raimon Go vs. Kuro no Kishidan
• Raimon Go vs. Dragonlink
• Raimon Go vs. Protocol Omega
• Protocol Omega vs. The Lagoon
• Southern Claw vs. Northern Fang
• Excellar Derby: Tsukigami no Ichizoku vs. Vamptym
• Dances with Wolves Derby: Eternal Dancers vs. Storm Wolf
• Korean Clash: Red Bison vs. Fire Dragon
• El Classico: Red Matador vs. Barcelona Orb
• Orpheus vs. Team K
• The RH Derby: The Kingdom vs. Team Garshield
• The Kingdom vs. The Empire
• The Zero Derby: Light vs. Dark
• Space Ranker Derby: Big Bang vs. SuperNova
• Kaiou Gakuen vs. Shin Pirates
• Nose vs. Ultra Animals
• Chronicles vs. Fantasies
• Fantasians vs. Fantasies
• Zeus vs. Seidouzan
• Arab no Hinotori Gundan vs. Shamshir
• Mach Tiger vs. Desert Lion
• Clash of Raimon: Raimon vs. Raimon GO
• Raimon GO vs. Arakumo Gakuen
• Ixal Fleet vs. Faram Dite
• Unicorn vs. Navy Invader 
• The Kingdom vs. Ole de Samba 
• The Derby d'Italia: Orpheus vs. Guardians of Queen
• Artemis Derby: Perfect Spark vs. Shadow of Orion
• Insect Z vs. Ultra Animals

International Rivalries

• Japan: Cotarl, Italy, South Korea, America, Spain, Russia, China, Aliea, GO Japan
• Cotarl: Japan, Italy, South Africa
• Italy: Cotarl, Japan, Spain, France
• Spain: Japan, Italy, France, Russia
• Russia: Japan, Spain, America
• England: Germany, Argentina, France, Australia, America
• France: England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Greece
• Germany: England, France, Italy, Greece
• Greece: Germany, France
• Argentina: Brazil, England, America
• Brazil: Argentina, America
• South Korea: Japan, Australia, Thailand 
• Uzbekistan: Saudi Arabia, GO Japan
• America: England, Argentina, Japan, Brazil, Russia
• Qatar: Saudi Arabia
• South Africa: Cotarl
• Thailand: South Korea
• Saudi Arabia: Qatar
• The Past: Future, Galaxy
• The Future: Past, Galaxy
• Women’s: N/A
• Aliea: Japan
• Kiel: Ixal, Faram Obius
• Ixal: Kiel, Faram Obius, GO Japan
• Sandorius: Gurdon
• Gurdon: Sandorius
• Ratoniik: Sazanaara
• Sazanaara: Ratoniik
• Faram Obius: Kiel, Ixal, GO Japan
• GO Japan: Japan, Uzbekistan, Ixal, Faram Obius

Youth Academy

One part of football manager I would unashamedly rip off would be the youth academy intake. For those unaware towards the end of each season on football manager teams will take in a collection of young players (also known as Regans) into the youth academy in the hopes of signing up the best ones and developing them to first team material over the years. Everyone loves seeing a player come through the academy and become a star in the team.

This would be relatively simple to add as we have seen it in Inazuma Eleven before. Toramaru (spell check) joined Raimon at the end of the FFI Arc as Endou and co were graduating. And in Ares as well we saw players leave with new ones joining. What would happen is near the end of the season a host of youth players would be available to sign, they would vary in nationality but would be mostly dominated in the country you are in (for example Japanese clubs would have more Japanese youth hopefuls, Spanish clubs would have more Spanish players etc). If the club doesn't sign them, they will go into the free agency pool for others to sign, different clubs with different goals will see lower levelled players as better. While a youth players may not work out for a top-level team a team in the lower or mid table of a league may see them as a started compared to who they currently have.

Player Awards

While football at a base level is a team sport, individual awards are still a large part of the sport itself. Most leagues will have player and manager of the month awards and of the year awards as well. For each league I will introduce these, awards that will be based on performances in the league and the match results on a monthly basis. For the player of the season the managers in charges of the clubs in the league will all vote on this whereas for the manager one would be more automatically generated based on the stats (wins, losses, goals scored and conceded) to determine the manager of the year, club expectations and predicted finishes for the season would also come into play here. While you cannot vote for it each league would have a Football Association (FA) attached to it that would do the manager of the year vote (in order to give a face to the voting body).

I would also include player of the tournament award for the various cup competitions mentioned previously in which the Football Association (or Associations) the teams in the cup are governed by would vote on who was the best player in that tournament. I have opted against a manager of the tournament as I feel this is would be unnecessary, if there were more teams per tournament overall, I would consider it but for the moment it is not something I think is needed.

There are two final awards involving the entire roster of players. At the end of every year a team of the year would be decided referred to as the ‘Inazuma Eleven’. This eleven would be in a 4-3-3 formation and would be the result of the voting of all the currently employed managers at the end of November each calendar year.

The voting process will be as follows. Each manager will vote for their top three players in each position (goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward). The votes would then be collected, and awards given in the middle of December, the highest voted goalkeeper, 4 highest rated defenders, 3 highest rated midfielders and 3 highest rated attackers would then be announced as that years Inazuma Eleven. With the player voted highest in each position being named the strongest receiving an individual award. The next seven highest voted players (a maximum of 1 goalkeeper as part of the seven) would make up an honourable mentions bench as well to wrap up the full team.

Combined with this the player overall with the most votes would also be awarded the Saikyou Player award (or strongest player award). This award would act as the games counterpart to the Ballon D’or award, an award itself described as the award that ‘honours the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year’. So, for example Edgar Valtinas could end up having the most votes in a year, it would mean he would win the Saikyou Forward award (strongest forward) as well as the Saikyou Player award. These awards are set out with the purpose of showcasing the best players in the game. If any player was looking at building a dynasty or a Galácticos team could use these awards as the basis of who the best players in the world to buy are.

Conclusion

This brings us to an end here, all concepts on the table and all teams listed (as per Inazuma Eleven Wiki) into leagues and international teams decided this encompasses all ideas and set up for how I’d turn the Inazuma Eleven series into a football manager like simulator. While some stuff cannot be used to its max potential such as Hissatsu Techniques just because of the game idea but I’ve tried to use as much as possible. Moving a series to a different game format then normal allows me to lay out different things for the series in this sort of game format. 

Most importantly I hope you had fun reading through and attempting to understand my ramblings on the subject. This has gone through a lot of rewrites to put as many teams in a possible for complete enjoyment and variety if it was a full game release. Let me know, would this be something you’d be interested in seeing?

Thanks for reading