Erratic form...!

I don't know if anyone else has suffered from this but it is slowly beginning to do my head in.

Basically I am playing as Selby in a very low league, I started off very well and didn't lose in my first ten games. I continued this but in the next five games I had 3 draws, a loss and a win, still it was enough to keep me second.

I then went on to win another 3 in a row, great! Morale was high and my job status was untouchable (72%), bearing in mind it is my first season everything is going great.

Only thing is for then next ten games I can't win a thing! Won three in a row then I simply can't score even though I have changed nothing and I was one of the highest scoring teams in the division.

My star striker has gone over 18 hours without scoring despite him being a class above anything in this division, he has 11 for pace and 10 for finishing, his mental attributes are also great. The division's top scorers now have 1's and 2's all over the shop but my man can't score?

My morale is now suffering even though I am usually pretty good at keeping morale high and I can do NOTHING to reverse this streak where I cannot win even against terrible teams.

I am still dominating matches, absolutely killing teams with posession and the quality of play is amazing for this league, yet all they do is miss clear cut chances my mother could score or hit the woodwork five times in a game!

Is anyone else having this problem or is it just me? Surely there is something wrong here as it isn't the first time I have had this with a game in FM10. I played with Wakefield once and all season (up until 30 games in) I was flying, then for the next 12 games I can't win anything, then the last four games in a row I win.....crazy!

In before it's your tactics

Have you tried organising a couple of friendlies against even poorer opposition or telling him that there is no pressure on him?

Yea I tell him I have faith and that there is no pressure etc etc, thing is his morale is still good/okay most of the time because I treat him so well! Thats the crazy thing, most of the team are still okay/good and we still play pretty well but just can't win at all!

It's almost as if the game has decided I should start losing lol!

Edit: I have to arrange friendlies to keep my bank balance up too so doing that....I'm lost really. Still I suppose the game will decide to bring me out of this slump soon

Try tweaking your tempo a little. Normally works for me when I hit a dry spell but the CCCs and possesion are there.

Which way do you move your tempo? I play a slow tempo and both coach and Ass Man agree it suits us.

I don't have a problem either with CCC's, I must hit the woodwork 3-5 times a game and have so many chances its unreal, trouble is the opposition punt it upfield to clear wildly and funnily enough even though I have all defenders back they score off that one chance, every game lol

I had a couple of similar incidents this week playing as a div 2 Oldham. In my first season I was top of the league only to blow promotion and lose in the playoffs because I didn't win any of my last 7 games and despite playing well just got picked apart by the teams I was facing.

2nd season I went on a 27 match unbeaten run and everything, I mean, everything went my way (last minute winners, opp strikers missing chances, opp players being sent off). I was 12 points clear and then with 8 games of the season to go, I lost 4 on the bounce and struggled to adjust to what was happening. Then in one game i was 2 - 0 down, somehow I said the right thing at half time and won 4 -2 (3 goals in the last 11 minutes) and won my remaining 3 matches to romp the league - taxing but great fun

I think the point I'm trying to make is that it can happen to anyone at anytime in the season and the smallest thing (correct team talk, praising a player at the right time, grinding out a result) can make a big difference. I deduced that because my squad was so young (average age 20) that when the final run in to end the season came up, they started to lose their nerve and folded. In the past I'd tried to take the pressure of them, in the game that I came back to win, I picked a negative team talk and they rallied to win.

I know I haven't given you any pointers, just tried to show you that it can happen to others

Thanks, I do have a young squad too, not much choice really with the non existent budget I have, but maybe this is it.

Although my star striker is 27 and should know better the div, even though his experience is only for FC Belize lol (he's quality though).

I do think this is a great game though, definitely the best first release they have done for 3 years. Although I am getting frustrated I still want to carry on and turn things around, where as in FM08/09 I just wanted to feed the disks to my toilet immediately.

The really frustrating part about this situation (and you are NOT the first to come across it) is that it's damn near impossible to figure out what happened. And it's usually not a slow decline, it's like you're flying full speed ahead and crash into a wall. No indication something is going wrong, nothing, until bam, you can't score/win to save your life. And there's no feedback to tell you why, either.

I'm going through a similar thing where my Liga Adelente team which just missed promotion last year (again, last 3-4 games failed to win/draw) was the second highest scoring team in the league (I was the highest for most of the season, well clear of second highest by 15 goals for a long spell) has gone through its first 7 games only knocking in 12. My second game of the season had 22 shots, 12 on target. I scored 1 goal. I had 4 off the woodwork. No idea why my guys who were knocking them in all over the place last season all of a sudden can't hit the net AssMan is useless too

Yea thats the thing, the change is so immediate it just hits you like a sledgehammer, one minute I am thinking 'get in promotion chance', next it's 'christ I need some wins here or there could be trouble with the board'.

Good to know it isn't just me though, I wonder if it is a problem, maybe the game is hypersensitive to team talks etc, I do think morale is a slight issue with the game as it seems to be more important than tactics at times :/

The game is BEYOND hypersensitive to team talks. FM 09 was the same. I mean, everyone knows you can't tell your team you're pleased at half-time or you'll lose. How silly is that for common sense? Usually "I'm pleased" means "Awesome, keep it up, you're doing things right!" not "hey I'm happy, you can slack off now."

As much as I love the game, there are parts that really remind you it's a piece of software and not a 100% simulation.

I'm on the same page as you two without a doubt but have to disagree about not saying certain teamtalks. I've used "pleased" and "thrilled" when winning at half time and had excellent 2nd half performances off the back of them. I think there is something else that you can attribute this rapid loss of form to but I have no idea what it is. The right team talks at the right time do help, of course but I haven't experienced hardly any negative things because of them.

I'm on the same page as you two without a doubt but have to disagree about not saying certain teamtalks. I've used "pleased" and "thrilled" when winning at half time and had excellent 2nd half performances off the back of them. I think there is something else that you can attribute this rapid loss of form to but I have no idea what it is. The right team talks at the right time do help, of course but I haven't experienced hardly any negative things because of them.

Strange. I avoid "pleased" at half-time like it's the plague. Never had a single good thing come from it

Out of interest how are you distinguishing between the effect of tactics and the effect of the team talk, effect of line up, opposition's line up & tactics etc etc?

Yeah it is a bit strange especially when I read that so many people have trouble when saying "pleased" at half time. I guess when you're winning well and morale is excellent, team talks become less significant than actually picking the right team and the right match strategy. Perhaps they come to the fore more when a bad run hits or morale needs to be managed and boosted. Wish I knew, I'd be a great manager then.........

"Out of interest how are you distinguishing between the effect of tactics and the effect of the team talk, effect of line up, opposition's line up & tactics etc etc? "

Very good question. One way to judge would be to keep the tactics the same in the 2nd half as in the 1st despite playing poorly and seeing what sort of response you get to a team talk alone. Even then it's not fully conclusive because you never really know (to a great degree) how the AI manager has altered their tactics from half to half, if at all. I have sent my team out in the second half without tweaking any tactics and with a "pleased" team talk (if they have played well) and scored more goals and generally played just as well as the first half.

There are so many variables that the possibilities are endless so there isn't really anyway you can distinguish comprehensively imo

I agree, I don't think anyone can distinguish much from this game as there are just too many possibilities.

All I know is it is very annoying and as another user said, it comes so quickly it is like someone has chloroformed and kidnapped your players and replaced them with lookalikes!

Hopefully it will be looked at and I am sure SI are aware of it, I'm sure by the time all the patches are out this game will be very good.

I don't know if anyone else has suffered from this but it is slowly beginning to do my head in.

Basically I am playing as Selby in a very low league, I started off very well and didn't lose in my first ten games. I continued this but in the next five games I had 3 draws, a loss and a win, still it was enough to keep me second.

I then went on to win another 3 in a row, great! Morale was high and my job status was untouchable (72%), bearing in mind it is my first season everything is going great.

Only thing is for then next ten games I can't win a thing! Won three in a row then I simply can't score even though I have changed nothing and I was one of the highest scoring teams in the division.

My star striker has gone over 18 hours without scoring despite him being a class above anything in this division, he has 11 for pace and 10 for finishing, his mental attributes are also great. The division's top scorers now have 1's and 2's all over the shop but my man can't score?

My morale is now suffering even though I am usually pretty good at keeping morale high and I can do NOTHING to reverse this streak where I cannot win even against terrible teams.

I am still dominating matches, absolutely killing teams with posession and the quality of play is amazing for this league, yet all they do is miss clear cut chances my mother could score or hit the woodwork five times in a game!

Is anyone else having this problem or is it just me? Surely there is something wrong here as it isn't the first time I have had this with a game in FM10. I played with Wakefield once and all season (up until 30 games in) I was flying, then for the next 12 games I can't win anything, then the last four games in a row I win.....crazy!

try slowing your tempo down a notch or two - i was also having problems converting chances and then i lowered my tempo - hey presto i'm back on track!

Another post similar to mine.

Ill wait for the hoard of fabois to come to SI's rescue.

Agree. My team (and players) perform erratic aswell. It's extremely frustrating as you seem to have no control. Tweaking tactics, when every match seems to give random results (possession/chances/shots etc), is pretty damn hard.

Here's my two cents on team talks - for both FM2010 and for FM2009.

If my team was under-performing in the first half - then it's either 'i want to see more of you' or the anger option.

I'd say, this provided me with a decent response 90% of the time.

At the start of the game, it's mostly always 'I expect a win'. Otherwise the option 'for the fans'.

That's it. I hardly ever change these instructions and they seem to always have a positive effect for me.

I think maybe SI programmed in random and severe drops in form just to make sure we don't find it too easy. The drops are sudden, unexplained and don't seemingly have and cause or solution. They seem random. Never heard a decent explanation for them from anyone, SI or otherwise.