Selecting a match team

Purpose

First select the complete team for one match. Choose starters, substitutes, stand-ins and absent players, then continue to substitutions.

Want to understand pitch coverage and responsibilities first? See Hockey formations for outdoor and indoor for interactive pitch drawings and practical coaching tips.

Features

Visual pitch: Drag and drop players into pitch positions.
Attendance: Regular players, stand-ins added for this match only and the regular stand-in pool appear in separate groups on the same Team screen. Regular stand-ins are visible but initially disabled until you make them available for the match.
Match-specific positions: Click the position text with the pencil beside a regular player or stand-in. Choose possible positions from the formation; this does not change the general player profile. Changed positions receive an orange accent. Use default positions restores the original choices. Choices survive marking a player absent or clearing the lineup. Saving clears a starting position that no longer fits and removes the substitution schedule: create it again. You can edit these settings before the match starts, including in the portal on your phone.
Maximum playing time: Choose 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% before the attendance switch. This applies only to this match and saves immediately. 50% means at most half the match duration; 100% means fully available. Hover for an explanation in minutes. The setting survives marking someone absent. The outdoor planner respects the limit and retains your current starting lineup. If the available time or lineup does not fit, a message appears. Indoor planning does not support these limits yet.
Formation selection: Automatically adapts to the selected indoor or outdoor formation.
Player information: Position preferences and fitness help you select the lineup.
Import: Previous matches for the same team with a saved lineup appear newest first, so you can copy a suitable lineup.
Substitutes: Manage bench players.
Stand-ins: Under Attendance, Add stand-in adds an active club player directly to this match, with or without a registered team for this season. Players without a current team show No team registered for this season; others show their team name. A player may in practice play for a team whose coach does not use doHockey. Use that player’s existing profile as a stand-in to retain history. For players without a current team, the last known team and season also appear where known. The list indicates whether a stand-in appearance has already been recorded this season. This is based on stand-in registration in a completed match, excluding absences; future selections do not count. Unavailable history is shown as unknown. Regular stand-ins appear first with (i) after their name. Added stand-ins keep this marker throughout attendance, lineup, schedule, live controls, match statistics and the match PDF. You can distinguish Liz from Liz (i), for example. The stored player name does not change. Use the pencil beside positions (or Choose positions when none are set) to adjust existing positions or add suitable ones from the selected formation. These choices apply only to this match and do not change the general player profile. If the player is not in the club yet, choose Create new stand-in and enter only a name, optional shirt number and position preferences. The player becomes present and a substitute for this match, without joining the permanent team squad. Optionally choose Also save as a regular stand-in to find the player more easily later.

Preparation has three recognisable stages: Team, Substitutions and Match. Technical settings stay outside the main flow and appear only when you deliberately adjust a plan.

Changing attendance, possible positions, starting lineup or basic settings before the match removes an existing substitution schedule. A notice explains this; create a new schedule afterwards. Saving again without changes does not remove it.

Attendance and match squad

Open a player’s status menu and choose Selected, Absent or Spectator (present, outside the squad). Present players outside the squad are excluded from the lineup and bench.

Status colours support scanning: green for selected, grey for absent and orange for spectator. Each status also retains its text label.

For every status, the same menu includes Max. playing time: fully available, maximum 75%, 50% or 25%. Only a restriction appears in the player row, with minutes calculated from match duration. Fully available means no personal restriction; the substitution schedule determines actual minutes. Absence and non-selection preserve the stored limit. Choosing a percentage also selects the player and marks them present in the same save.

Fill for me

Fill for me automatically fills remaining empty places. Players already assigned stay in place. Allocation considers attendance, goalkeepers, position preferences, configured team rules and maximum playing time. In Basic, places within an allowed line are equivalent.

For similarly suitable positions, any team priority rules apply first. With Include historical participation, players with a lower played share then take priority, followed by fewer matches played relative to their available matches for this team in the current season. Only completed matches before this match count. Goals and performance figures do not determine selection. Missing history is treated as unknown; after calculation, you see how many players have history available.

The whole lineup is considered together. If no suitable lineup exists, a message asks you to check goalkeeper availability, fixed assignments, bench rules or playing-time limits, for example. Your existing lineup stays in place. You also see when someone is placed outside their preferred positions.

A successful lineup is saved and can then be adjusted manually. Calculate the substitution schedule next: it also checks allocation and rest over the entire match. A suitable starting lineup does not guarantee all rules can be satisfied together throughout the match.

Distribution & preferences

Under Basics, in Playing time, choose how automatic allocation works. The same choices can be saved as defaults in team match settings. New matches inherit them. Saving different preferences in a match also makes them the team defaults for future matches. The last saved choice applies until changed in the team or a match. Existing matches keep their own settings.

Include historical participation is enabled by default. The schedule tries to reduce differences in played share across the season. Absence does not count as missed playing time. Missing data is unknown and does not automatically grant extra minutes. Disable this to allocate only within this match.
Stability on the pitch is the default and limits position changes for players staying on the pitch within the same quarter. Quarter breaks allow reallocation.
Best position per player prioritises position preferences over stability. Players may change position more often within a quarter.

The historical choice also applies to Fill for me. Stability versus position suitability applies to the substitution schedule; a starting lineup has no substitution moments yet. Hard team rules, goalkeepers and playing-time limits still apply, and playing-time allocation takes precedence over position preferences. Basic keeps fixed places within a line. Recalculate the schedule after changing match settings.

The saved schedule status shows the planner used (Positions, Basic or Advanced), optimisation (stability or best position) and whether historical participation was included. Older schedules without this information show Not recorded.

Editing the Metro chart yourself

Choose Edit Metro in the schedule toolbar. In edit mode, an orange dot appears when you move over a possible substitution moment on a line. Click a playing block to open the popup and choose an available bench player under Swap with. The list is sorted by P1, P2 and P3; players without position preferences appear last. Each change affects only the clicked block.

Clear place puts the current player on the bench for that block. You can then use that player elsewhere. Fill every empty place before saving.

The chart immediately shows an orange preview. The swap panel shows playing time before and after the change and the selected player’s position preference. Apply swap keeps the change in your draft and closes the popup. The cross, Escape or clicking outside closes it without applying the proposed swap. You can make several swaps, Undo or Cancel to return. Only Save stores your draft with the match.

Without an existing schedule, the draft starts from your starting lineup. The first lineup and locked places remain protected; change them in Team first. Editing is available only before the match. Messages flag attendance, goalkeeper roles, bench rules and playing-time limits. Basic and Advanced also retain line rules. Resolve messages before saving. A saving error retains your draft for correction.

Gender in attendance

Attendance shows a small male or female icon beside the name when gender is entered in the player profile, including stand-ins. Not specified shows no icon. Change the choice through the player profile.