About 1) Breaking it up in two weeks might be kind of drastic indeed (I only pointed this out because you dont need to change the formula), but for instance having regular games on monday, wednesday and saturday would be nice as well. That way you always have at least one home game played each week, it speeds up the season and your cashflow a bit. A big plus for new managers.
About 2) I am just pointing out training isnt very transparant for new managers. If I look at new teams I can see that they don't get the fact that they need a player to play at least 48 mins on the position they want a player trained in order to receive any training. It would be nice and more transparant to be able to focus on as many trainees you want. Ofcourse, if you train 10 players they receive less attention so the effect shouldn't be as big as it would be when you'd train 1, 2 or 3 trainees. Just simplify it a bit and I'd think people will feel more attatched to thier trainees and the game.
Two of my buddies quitted the game cause it is too slow. I understand the people playing it alot are people who don't mind that, but this topic asks for possible changes, so I am just pointing out what I think would help getting some more managers (back).