February Sucks...

So, this may just happen to me, but it seems that every time I reach February in the game, I suffer a dip in form.

For example, I'm currently nearing the end of my season as Tottenham, and I've been in 2nd place (Liverpool already clinched the title and have been nearly unbeatable all season) for most of the season. Going into February, I was in second place by a fairly large margin. Artem Milevskyi was banging goals in for fun starting in about mid to late September all the way through January. Luka Modric looked good, and overall my team was performing well. However, when February came around, of my 4 league matches, I lost three and barely beat Burnley for my only League win. Milevskyi didn't necessarily stop scoring, but his goal output diminished greatly. Luka Modric earned himself a red card in a game and was suspended, and both Milevskyi and Salvador Cabanas picked up injuries. For a time, I dropped to 4th or 5th place, and now I am only one point ahead of Arsenal for second. Before February, I was about 4-6 points ahead of whoever was in 3rd. Oh, and it's also important to note that February was the first month since August that Gareth Bale was not in the running for Young Player of the Month.

This is one example, but as I said, this seems to happen all the time. No matter what team I am, no matter where I stand in the table, my team always suffers a February form dip. I hate February.

Same thing happen to Arsenal, Liverpoo, Spursl and Man United.

Not really a bug but more to do with the amount of games during December right to Feb.

I never really thought it was a bug- more of an annoyance.

How many of those games where away?

Christmas hangover. All the games over the festive period, injuries, suspensions, the introduction of European competitions again, it all mounts up.

Same thing happened to me. It's not a bug. I think it's a result of overconfidence that builds up if you're having a good 1st half of the season. This last season I seemed to lessen its impact with the following steps:

1) I stopped letting my assistant do pre-game press conferences. He was always saying he was confident of a win.

2) In the press conferences, I stopped saying I was confident. Instead, I chose the "don't needlessly discuss/focus on the game" option except for the biggest matches.

3) If you're winning a lot, save the "Well Done"s for cases were they did really well. If they're winning the games they're supposed to win, you don't need to say anything unless you fell like morale is dropping.

That seemed to help, but I've only taken that approach for one season. It could also be the game engine increasing difficulty to make it harder to steamroll, but I think it's a confidence issue because I also notice an increase in "Playing Nervously" when my team isn't scoring against lesser opponents (I also have a young team, so it could be that, too). Curious if anyone has tried anything similar.

How many of those games where away?

3/4 were away, but one was at Bolton and another was at Portsmouth...

Did you make much changes during the transfer window? I usually find my players morale dips around the window when they have been linked with other clubs causing a dip in form.

I've had the dreaded dip also, after a frustating loss in the FA cup to a league 1 team (I was in the premiership) I decided I didn't want any of the space wasters near the club so sent the whole team to rest for 3 days. They weren't tired/low morale etc but this perked them up and came out of my dip.

Now every month I send them away atleast once, quite frequently after every win. Haven't had the dip nearly as bad since.

3/4 were away, but one was at Bolton and another was at Portsmouth...

Home and Away does have an effect but you should really be beating those two teams.