"Sympathise"

When/what is the best situation to use this team talk?

I've never quite fully understood.

My best guess is when you're favourites to win, or, you should win this game, the team has played well, or very well, and you've only come away with a draw or a narrow defeat?

Thanks for your input.

Sounds about right. Also, if you loose or draw because of a bad ref desicion.

When you have been playing well, but lost to a late goal.

It depends on what type of manager you are and what type of players you have.

Personally I use 'sympathise' over 'disappointed' whenever my team lose, simply because I find it helps keep the moral balanced. Using disappointed might fire up a few determined players, but it's also likely to lower the moral of other players. So I stick with sympathise, meaning I don't really get the players fired up, but I don't get them annoyed either.

I'll only use disappointed if they've lost very badly.

When you play the best, create more chances and deserve to win, but you don't.

if you can't fault the performance of your players and it was down to bad luck or a poor ref decision or they lose by a late late goal then i sympathise. otherwise i shout at them.

Maybe have a look at the Wolfsong’s Guide to Teamtalks.

I actually do the same as Chopper99 mentioned.

There are two situations where I've found "sympathise" effective. The first is where the team has played much better than the opposition, but still lost, often to the only meaningful opposition attack of the match.

The second is where they've been completely outclassed by superior opposition (such as in a cup) and just didn't get going. If they have managed scores around 7 and made a game of it, I'll used "pleased", but if it's 5's and 6's all round, I'll "sympathise". Of course, if it's against opposition that they should have been able to put up a fight against they'll get the "disappointed" routine, while anyone looking complacent gets the hairdryer, regardless of expectation or result.