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Am I paranoid?


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I am having one of my best FM seasons, unbeaten in the league, and then we start playing cup games, and then the league defeats begin (to be clear in the match following the cup-tie).

I have checked back on this save and previous saves, and the defeats nearly always follow a cup tie, (win, lose or draw the cup-tie). I can outplay the opposition, even score first, but for some reason don't win these games, and frequently lose. To be fair in previous saves a defeat can follow a defeat, but its usually a cup-tie that triggers the first event.

I can accept that perhaps I should have rotated the squad e.g. rested players below 95%?

Of more concern is my mental stability e.g. have I read too many conspiracy theories recently, so if someone can confirm that this happens e.g. players unable to lift themselves following a cup-tie or similar, then I would be very grateful?

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I personally think your looking into it too much, I never have this problem. Infact its quite the opposite my Nantwich team were losing a few games then we won in the league cup and after that got 3 straight wins in the league.

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OK, can see I need a bit more evidence (but I really do hope it is management/luck?coincidence).

14 league matches so far, 11 wins and 3 defeats, all three defeats following cup games. I have managed to win two games following cup games this season, both against very weak sides.

In two of the games the winning goal came very deep in injury time (90+3) and (90+5).

This is nowhere near absolute proof, but I will continue to monitor the situation.

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I have this paranoid thing where, I think if I stop the game save it and come back to it, it changes my fortunes.

Hence if I'm on a losing streak if I stop playing and save it and come back a day later, my luck seems to change. However it has worked the other way round too!!

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I do that as well :(

I think previously this used to genuinely work, but equally important is the psychological act of stepping away and looking again with new/fresh eyes. This, in the past, could have been interpreted as restart = default morale (or other) settings or some such code. Or again, I am paranoid :)

I have also noticed that the games above were away, so the formula for me at the moment, is any away league game following a cup tie, I lose.

Clearly this needs a lot more play testing, but I'll report back.

If its not in my head, perhaps this is a great chance to rest the star players e.g. we are going to lose anyway, may as well play the reserve team for experience.

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I think I have broken the rule, however I lost the cup tie, then won the league game.

I was thinking the same thing with regard to fitness, my general approach is to substitute all players less than 75% fitness. At around 70 mins, I generally change the two tiredest players on the pitch, if I have not made a substitution through the 75% rule prior to this. I generally save 1 player in case of an injury.

I have also been taking note of pre-match fitness e.g. only playing players with 95% fitness or higher, still inconclusive at this stage, but I will keep you updated.

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Managed a run of winning every game, until the FA Cup started, now have dropped two points at home in a league game following a cup-tie.

Lowest fitness level in the team was 99%.

Perhaps I was due a poor result, as its fair to say the wins were scraped, but again the proximity of the cup tie has me thinking there is something else at work here.

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You haven't indicated much about the cup ties or your approach to them.

Is it possible you're experiencing a "champagne hangover", where your team put out all-out effort against a bigger club in the Cup, and then come out a bit flat against their next League opponent?

Is it possible you're experiencing complacency, e.g., your regular first-teamers brush aside lower-league opposition without breaking a sweat and come out for the next League match thinking its going to be that easy?

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Next dropped points, a 1-0 loss to the bottom team, away from home following a cup-tie :(

Champagne hangover I like. I remember going back a bit, it was definately coded into the game, that a lesser performance will follow a cup game, its just that when you are going for the title, you cannot afford these results frequently.

Looking for a solution, assuming I am not completely barking mad, do you drop the players who excel in big games? Note that I have hopefully already addressed any fatigue issues by only selecting players with 95% fitness and above.

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I have the perfect situation to test tonight!! Was on a great winning run when I started last night. But five games later lost a couple in a row.

Stopped it and saved it. Will see how it goes tonight

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Have you looked to see if the teams you are losing against are playing cup ties midweek as well???

Playing against a fresher team will explain the last minute conceded goals.....Villa were a good example of this early in the season.

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It's definately me. This season we seem to be playing better in the game following the cup game, than in the cup game itself.

Great game, thoroughly enjoying it, as I have from CM93 :)

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Surely the solution is to track the players who do show the 'complacent' tag during the following match and give them a rocket when the situation arises again pre-match, rather than having to try and do it at half-time? That would be my cure to 'champagne hangovers'. Just wish that there was a way to check post-match motivation after the post-match teamtalk but prior to the pre-match teamtalk the next game (assistant manager seems to only spot the extremes as SFraser pointed out in one of his threads in the tactics part of the forum).

Over-praise when the player doesn't need it seems to ruin his motivation just as unjustified (by performance) and overly harsh criticism can ruin his morale. It seems some of this may relate to the 'personality' of the player, or at least a specific hidden mental attribute (judging from how similar personalities can give different responses to team talks even given as near identical circumstances as I can create).

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I think you have something there as well.

It was probably a mixture of fitness and complacency, and whilst I think I have resolved the fitness issue through squad rotation, I am not sure how to cure the motivation issue.

I generally allow the Assistant Manager to deal with team talks and press, but perhaps need to start playing closer attention. There are more factors affecting performance, that need to be managed, in this version of FM, than previously. I think it is only my idleness and inability to look in too much detail for each individual action versus reaction that stops me from truly understanding the mechanics of the game.

I am happy to have a little mystery, focus on the team performance, and only respond to individuals when they affect team performance or morale. Surely it would be too easy otherwise, and be like work as opposed to a game ;)

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