Dual-squad player allocation simulator
Problem
A club running two squads off one player pool, first team and academy or reserves, finds out who is short only when the team sheets are being written the night before both fixtures. The depth chart lives in a slide deck built for one squad at a time, so nobody sees the two team sheets side by side until an assistant coach texts the group asking whether a given player is needed upstairs on Saturday. Dual-registered players get pencilled into both squads by different people working from different versions of the same list. The shortfall, usually in one position group, surfaces after minutes have already been promised elsewhere, and the fix becomes an evening of calls asking who else is free.
Product idea
A scenario screen that holds one player pool against two fixture dates and lets the team operations manager move players between the first-team and academy or reserve columns to see the consequence immediately: each squad's projected numbers by position group, flagged red where a squad would fall below its minimum viable count. Levers are the allocation itself and each player's eligibility (which squads they may play for, any rest requirement in force). It does not submit anything and does not touch the official squad sheet; it is a rehearsal space for the allocation decision, cleared before anyone commits it to the matchday process. Multiple scenarios can be built and compared before one is chosen.
Who it is for
Team operations managers deciding how to split a shared player pool across simultaneous fixtures, and assistant coaches for the second squad who need to know their numbers before finalising a session plan.
Possible first version
A single screen with a manually entered player list, two fixture slots, and a drag or dropdown allocation per player. Each squad shows a running count by position group against a minimum viable number set per squad. Multiple named scenarios can be saved and compared side by side. Out of scope for version one: any link to the registration or eligibility system, automatic import from a roster tool, and rest-day tracking beyond a manual flag per player. Allocation still has to be typed into the matchday squad sheet separately.
- Build classification
- Micro-tool
- Rough effort
- 1-2 week prototype
- Roles involved
- Team operations manager, Assistant coach, Team administrator
- Relevant to
- Professional club, Academy & youth, Collegiate athletics
- Systems in play
- Spreadsheets and slide decks, Squad and roster management tools, Messaging groups
- Product framing
- Test or simulate
Questions we get asked
What do we need to load before this is useful?
A list of the players eligible for each squad, which squads each dual-registered player may appear for, and the minimum viable number your team operations manager already works to informally for each position group. None of that lives in one place today, so the first real value is often just writing that minimum number down for the first time. The tool works from a manually entered or uploaded list; it does not need a live feed from a roster system to be useful.
Does this replace the squad sheet or the roster system we already use?
No. It sits before both. The official team sheet is still built and submitted the same way it is now; this is a rehearsal space for the allocation decision that currently happens by phone call the night before. Nothing here is authoritative, and nothing writes back to a roster or registration system in this version.
Our coaches already juggle this in a shared spreadsheet. Why would they open a separate tool?
A spreadsheet can hold the list, but it does not flag a shortfall as soon as an allocation is changed, and it is rarely open on both the first-team and academy side at once. If your current spreadsheet already does both of those things for your setup, this will not add much. Where it earns its place is the club running two squads off different laptops with no shared view of the consequence.
Does it account for travel time or which venue each fixture is at?
No. It works from the player pool and the two fixture dates only. It has no view of venues, travel distance, or whether a player can physically be at both places. That judgement stays with the coaching staff; the tool only shows the numeric consequence of an allocation choice on paper.
Is this your workflow?
Tell us one sports workflow that still runs on paper, spreadsheets, WhatsApp or an outdated system. We will map it and show you what a simpler product looks like.
Tell us about itMore in Team & roster operations
- Fixture congestion squad depth simulatorA scenario tool that projects squad depth across a congested run of fixtures against rest rules, showing where a position group would fall short before the block starts.
- Kit and equipment issue-and-return workflowA workflow that replaces the kit manager's notebook with a request-issue-return ledger, flagging outstanding items automatically before travel dates and season-end stocktakes.
- Late-availability squad change cascadeA workflow that updates the travel manifest, kit list and matchday squad sheet the moment a player's availability changes, and tells only the people who need to act.