Player not finding the motivation to play for me

Has anyone seen this problem? I am Juventus. And somehow, quite alot of my players like Diego and Felipe Melo were spotted by my assistant manager during a match where they could not find the motivation to play for me as their manager.

I was doing well, winning the league and the champion's league during my 1st season. Giving them due praise. Then suddenly, even sissoko started not to feel motivated to play for me. Even Cannavaro.

Whats going on man? I did not even criticize a single one of them. So far, thankfully no other players feel like that. I'm starting to sell these players 1 by 1 now, no point in keeping an unmotivated player.

Did you sell a player that they were particularly friendly with?

Maybe its the way you speak to them at half time etc. My Staines players got funny with me one game when I didnt praise them enough and it took a few weeks to win them around again

You could always bench them and see what that does to their motivation :-)

I put some players on tutoring and it didn't work. Now they aren't motivated to play for me, which is rather odd I'd say.

nah, you need to get results plus praise them more

Many manager's face the same - success is the answer

Well, it was only my 1st season. So no signings or sellings. So that cant be it. I did bench them to see how they would react after awhile. They did play properly for 1 or two games, but then soon they just could not find the motivation to play for me again. Their morale and form were all excellent. Even under "personal" there was nothing against me. Its only during matches that I see my assistant manager stating that these few players cannot find the motivation to play for me.

Well, I just put them in the reserves, and now my youngsters are getting their chance to shine. Oh well, this is an interesting, thought weird new feature though.

Wouldn't be because of praising them too often, would it? They may feel they don't have to play good in order to get praise, so they don't feel motivated.

I put some players on tutoring and it didn't work. Now they aren't motivated to play for me, which is rather odd I'd say.

Having tested this with FMRTE, it seems that a failed tutoring experience will result in the players involved getting about 10-15 pts of dislike towards the manager. The more you insist on the tutoring, the more dislike you risk getting. Therefore it's not a good idea to suggest "ideal rolemodel" unless you're confident of success.

As a general rule I never try to tutor anyone who has "outspoken" in their personality profile, as this means they have a high controversy hidden stat and are less likely to be a good student.

The 10-15 pts you risk losing from a failed tutoring experiment is no big deal though, as you can easily get this back by praising the player's form, bringing in players/staff he recommends, or just having him play so well in your system that he wins a few player awards. In my game Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard both have me in their favorite personnel list (meaning their like for me is at least 50 out of 100). Using these two as tutors then becomes a no-brainer, as even if the tutoring experiment fails, they still have enough goodwill towards me that they won't start to hate me.

As for the OP, the most common reason is that your manager rep is "national" which could be viewed as "not good enough" for a top club like Juventus. However, seeing that you've already won trophies you should have at least a continental rep.

This means the remaining possible culprits are:

1. Wrong teamtalks. Hire an assistant with good man management and motivating skills and let him do them.

2. Low win-bonuses. Players with a loyalty rating of 11 or more will not let you know that they are demotivated about the low bonuses, but instead they'll stay "silently disgruntled". You will spot this through the morale info in the teamtalk feedback, and in the pre-game assistant feedback.

3. Transfer listing or trying to offer out players who have been at the club for less than 12 months. This is viewed as unprofessional and impatient behavior by your players.

4. Transfer listing or trying to offer out players who are on the favorite personnel list of some players or considered "vital" to the team's success. No one likes to see a close friend go, and selling some of your best players can be viewed as a "lack of ambition".

5. Bad run of form. Even if you've been successful, 5 games is all it takes to ruin morale and make your players forget about everything you've done for the club.

6. Declaring interest or applying for other management jobs.

7. Ignoring pleas for improved contracts.