end of season

Is it me or do players always find it hard to play well at the end of the season?

This is really annoying especially if your in a title challenge or coming up to a cup final. The players just seem less motivated than they were at the start of the season. However when I leave fixtures to my ass man, they seem to thrash the oppopstion.

Any help? Cheers.

I find that the players condition is always lesser at the end of the season. One of the reasons to have a reasonable squad size.

That is true, but it doesn't explain why the standards of other teams players stays the same, whereas all of my players standards are going down, because every players condition should naturally decrease at the end of the season.

Perhaps your not keeping the team on their toes? Try being a bit more demanding of them, or rotate and blood some young players.

I could do that, but then if there are cup finals to play, playing youngsters and constantly rotating the squad isn't good for the team and can damage morale

The only players you don't have to rotate are the players that are assigned as Key Players.

If they're down as Squad Rotation players then the morale will be unaffected.

However, if you have Squad Rotation players and you're not playing them in rotation that will damage morale.

The only time I play my full strength team is against the top 4. For every other match I rotate the Squad Rotation player, and I give a young player a start every 3 or 4 matches in favour of a key player, as long as the match is against a lesser opposition.

Last season I had to send Davide Santon on holiday for 3 weeks so he could rest. He came back for the last month of the season and played a stormer right to the end of the season.

If players are getting tired you can suggest they take a break for while, or give them prolonged rests.

That boosts morale when you get it right.

maybe they become jaded becasue of playing too many games... I agree that opposition players play normally even if they are jaded or have low conditioning

Luckily for me, I've just this minute won the league after even after a dip in form. Went unbeaten for first 26 games, but lost it towards the end.

Hopefully the trophy will give the players the morale and the momentum to win the FA Cup and the Champions League Final.