Does your tactics effectivness die out mid-season?

Im not advertising a tactic so i thought id put this here, move it if you wish.

For the last couple of Football managers i have noticed that i can play effectivly with a tactic until about January but then as soon as i start playing the same teams, they have me sussed and i need to change my tactic, does anyone else notice this? or just me?

Never happened to me. I haven't changed tactics in about 5 seasons (apart from the last 5-10 minutes of a game if I'm losing), and I'm still successful. I've heard a lot of other people have similar complaints though, so maybe it just doesn't affect me.

You answered yuor own question really:

they have me sussed and i need to change my tactic

You should also be changing your tactic if you had problems playing a certain way against a certain team

One thing to check is the match odds, before each game. They're a good guide to whether or not your club reputation has changed and how the opposition will typically tend to set-up against you.

Let's say you set up a tactic which happens to be a good counter-attacking system. Early on in the season, you might be the underdog in most games, so the odds will be against you and teams will come and try attack you. Because your tactic works quite well against attacking opponents, you might find yourself doing well and top of the league by January.

Gradually, though, your rep will increase and the match-odds will change so that you’re now favourites for most games. As a result, teams will typically set up more defensively against you. But because you’re using the same counter-attacking tactic, you could suddenly struggle.

In this scenario, the AI hasn’t “cracked” your tactic; they’ve just adjusted their setup to be more defensive, because your reputation has increased. So sometimes, you need to be prepared that you’ll have to make adjustments to your setup in the season, based on how the match-odds are changing.

#4 and #5 sum it up nicely.

Throw fatigue and complacency into the mix also, along with pressure/expectation and you have a recipe for a slump.

The trick is to keep your squad fresh and drop poor form players regardless of their rep now and then. Signing one or two new faces now and then, especially if they are big rep. can also boost form.