Stamping out complacency

Hi guys, I'm playing as Notts just now (I know, sell out...). Now in 21st April 2011 and fighting for promotion from L1 and generally looking quite good. I have a wealth of good players from higher leagues such as Kenny Miller, John Fleck, Walter Gaitan, Gael Kakuta, Barry Robson and Papa Bouba Diop. We beat Liverpool in the FA cup 2-1 only to go out after performing well against Spurs in a match that ended 2-1 as well. the game after that we draw 2-2 with Derby and then 2-2 with Bristol Rovers, I was in second place in L1 with 5 games to go before the playoffs before those 2 draws and now it's 3 games to go and in 4th.

According to my back room staff I'm doing great against higher rep teams but complacent against lower. Are my players just too good for the league I'm in and how can I sort out this footballing snobbery?

Cheers guys.

Could be a tactical problem

I have had this kinda problem since 08, When I have a strong team I always seem to get beat by the bottom 3/4 and some times by 3/4/5 goals too. Never realy figured it out tho lol.

This is a rather common problem when u r doing rather successfully with ur team... and has an easy solution to it. Is ur league match winning odds always in ur favour( be it home or away) ? If so i highly suggest u demand victory in every match u play and express disappointment whenever u draw. Eventually ur team will learn not to be complacent when it plays lower repu teams. Will take about 1-2 months to stamp out the complacency problem. I hope i have helped. Cheers.

I think there's a hidden stat called pressure. Check the tab 'Ass Man Feedback' prior to and during the game and watch out for players being reported as complacent. You should use the individual team talk 'expect performance' on those who look complacent. If you're leading, you should consider to 'expect a performance' from your sub-ins so that they don't get complacent. As I said, there's a stat called pressure, so not every player reacts the same way to the same talk, so you have to find out who of your players can handle pressure (likely to get complacent, you can you 'expect performance' on them with a good result') and who often gets nervous (you should 'have faith' in them). And then give them specific team talks. It seems that team talks don't have an effect every time you use them. Also check the Ass Man's feedback on team talks.