Players suffering from overconfidence?

Hi All,

I am playing Liverpool, in the middle of Jan and doing pretty well at the moment for the most part. However, I have noticed recently that my team plays well against "large" and mid table teams but seems to struggle against lower teams.

Case in point, my first FA Cup game was at home to Derby (CH) and we almost lost, final score 3-2 even though playing pretty much my best team with the exception of Gerrard. Then the next game was Carling Cup Semi Final First Leg away to Portsmouth (CH) and we stuggled to Draw 1-1 and this was playing my best team, the team (and tactics) that spanked Chelsea 3-0 and Man City 4-1. Also in the prem I struggle against teams like Wolves, Wigan, Blackpool, especially now in mid season.

My coaches have said the team seems to suffer from overconfidence against lower ranked opposition.

So, has anybody else noticed this, and if so, any suggestions on how to fight the affects?

Alex

Try 'expect a win' as team talk when you are clear favourites and your players can handle the pressure.

My method for tackling overconfidence is to team talk the performance not the result and make negative comments to the press. The aim is to have players on good morale, not superb.

Does it work? Well... maybe.

Check what your assistant feedback says before the match, if he says so and so are suffering from over confidence there is usually an individual team talk option of 'expect a performance' - that usually works for me!

I almost always use "Expect Performance" from my team, home and away and especially against smaller teams.

When I get the assistance feedback I didn't see a link to a team-talk, just "Tactics", will have another look though.

Makes the game interesting though, constantly got to be on the look out and non-complacent, although the press where not happy about a 1-1 draw with Portsmouth!

My method for tackling overconfidence is to team talk the performance not the result and make negative comments to the press. The aim is to have players on good morale, not superb.

Does it work? Well... maybe.

I will give that a try, I usually take a confident (not over confident) approach to my press conferences. Maybe try a negative one next, see what happens.