Oh ok. Hold on.. seriously?

So it's mid November. I'm sitting in 5th and playing extremely well, can't stop scoring and just generally playing good football.

Then, this happens.

Now i can't score, can't defend, can't win. I haven't changed anything since ripping up the league. How ridiculous?

Happened to me too as Arsenal. Was winning league by 13pts with 10 games to go. Won 1 of my last 10 games, still won the league by 2pts but it was ridiculous how badly it all went for no reason.

Seems that your good start to the season didnt go unnoticed by other teams in the league. If your reputation in the league increases then teams will play for cautiously against you, thus your goals drying up perhaps. You need to adapt your tactics to play against these more defensive styles.

Sounds like complacency might be biting you in the butt.....hard.

story of my life

-Chelsea Fan

Happens to me as well.

I did try to change my tactics but none worked, so revert it to my old winning tactics and be hard to my players(fining, shouting, etc..). It did make my best player unhappy ( he requests tranfer the next day because I fined him 1 weeks of wage because his previous match rating was >5.0).

But my team was back winning after a while. Happens in real life as well. Some team recovers and come back stronger than before, some team never recovers..........

Fine wages for a bad performance? If thats how you manage im not suprised he wants to leave. Seriously though like the other said change mentalitys/positions/players every now and then because the ai WILL work out how you play if you play the same every single game.

I take all of your points. However, after that one loss to Blackburn it seemed that the morale shot downwards incredibly fast and so the strikers couldn't finish and all the rest of it. I did alter my tactic specifications but kept the same formation, nothing worked. I finished the season about 30 minutes ago and from the Blackburn game until the end of the season, i won two games.

If you are on a bad run don't use teamtalks. Only say well done if you got a point... Anyway I agree that the game has some weird run-effect. When you lose a game you are very likely to lose the next one as well...

I tend to get flamed when I say this but anyway:

your initial inexplicable loss of form was due to overconfidence. Then your morale collapsed, which leads to things like strikers missing open goals and defenders wandering around aimlessly. There's basically no way to fix this once it's happened.

To prevent it happening in the first place: morale needs to be balanced NOT maxed out. "Superb" morale is a warning sign. Base post-match team talks on performance, not the result, and criticise the players not pulling their weight, targeting the ones who "look complacent" before a match. Also, talk up your opponents in the press. You'll feel stupid saying that you'll probably lose to the bottom team but your overconfident team will believe you and work harder to get the win.

Mr Scolari, how have you been since you left Chelsea?

Still no plan B? So you mean one minute you were ripping the league up (in 5th?) and then you can't buy a win?

Maybe your excellent (5th place) team had become complacent?

Or maybe the game is just broken and you are the best (5th best, once, in November).

Could it be that you turned your PC off after your good run, loaded back up and you went on a bad run? Happens to me all the time...

Not bitter.

Its the moral being broken, once you lose a couple of games, the morale drops to very poor and your team plays crap.

This is why the game is unplayable and many people have stopped playing it until its fixed in the 11.2 patch.

The Emo players are broken too, you cant say anything bad to them without them requesting to leave and fining a player with a 4.x or less rating is fine, I did this in FM10 and not one player got unhappy.

your initial inexplicable loss of form was due to overconfidence. Then your morale collapsed, which leads to things like strikers missing open goals and defenders wandering around aimlessly. There's basically no way to fix this once it's happened.

This.

The complacency/morale death spiral overrides all tactics.

It will be a combination of the weather getting worse, teams treating you with more respect, over-confidence and poor management once a few bad results hit you. I'd argue that it is likely to be 100% your fault and 0% bug-related.

Although you shouldn't play every match with the same tactic, randomly switching between formations/strategies/ideas will not help. You have to have a base plan to fall back on that helps you extend streaks and break slumps. Things like playing more direct in heavy conditions, rotating players during extended periods of inclement weather, switching to more conservative strategies in a slump, being less critical if the team is struggling and more demanding when they are on a run of form, targeting opposition players who are unfit or struggling for form, or using the media to relieve/exert pressure. If you have systematically applied all the above in your slump, then you have my sympathy. If not and you are randomly trying to break the cycle, I suggest you look closely at how you are playing and try to work out what you could do better.

It will be a combination of the weather getting worse, teams treating you with more respect, over-confidence and poor management once a few bad results hit you. I'd argue that it is likely to be 100% your fault and 0% bug-related.

Although you shouldn't play every match with the same tactic, randomly switching between formations/strategies/ideas will not help. You have to have a base plan to fall back on that helps you extend streaks and break slumps. Things like playing more direct in heavy conditions, rotating players during extended periods of inclement weather, switching to more conservative strategies in a slump, being less critical if the team is struggling and more demanding when they are on a run of form, targeting opposition players who are unfit or struggling for form, or using the media to relieve/exert pressure. If you have systematically applied all the above in your slump, then you have my sympathy. If not and you are randomly trying to break the cycle, I suggest you look closely at how you are playing and try to work out what you could do better.

This is where I hope the Backroom would be more helpful. If your coaches could say things like, "the pitch is looking a bit icy, we might want to play more in the middle of the park" or "the players are looking a bit dejected, try to be a bit more sympathetic." It would help break those seemingly unexplained slumps.

story of my life

-Chelsea Fan

Ditto (well, i'm a part-time Chelski fan)

I tend to get flamed when I say this but anyway:

your initial inexplicable loss of form was due to overconfidence. Then your morale collapsed, which leads to things like strikers missing open goals and defenders wandering around aimlessly. There's basically no way to fix this once it's happened.

To prevent it happening in the first place: morale needs to be balanced NOT maxed out. "Superb" morale is a warning sign. Base post-match team talks on performance, not the result, and criticise the players not pulling their weight, targeting the ones who "look complacent" before a match. Also, talk up your opponents in the press. You'll feel stupid saying that you'll probably lose to the bottom team but your overconfident team will believe you and work harder to get the win.

Good reply.

I also base my halftime and full time team talks on performance. I dont care if they scored or if we won 7-0. If they have a rating below 7 they get a dissapointed from me, if its below 6 then I get angry and turn into the incredible hulk.

I am also a prolific user of the private chat when commenting on their performances..

I often find the best way to deal with motivation and press talks is to be honest. If you feel you were outright favourites and you win by 1-0 then let everyone know you are not happy. If you are underdogs and you win by 1-0 but squandered lots of other opportunities, dont accept from the press that it was a great result... be pi$$ed at the team as you were capable of much much more........

I can be very easy to look for errors in the game for big slumps in form, but look no further than Chelsea at the moment..........

LAM

To prevent it happening in the first place: morale needs to be balanced NOT maxed out. "Superb" morale is a warning sign. Base post-match team talks on performance, not the result, and criticise the players not pulling their weight, targeting the ones who "look complacent" before a match. Also, talk up your opponents in the press. You'll feel stupid saying that you'll probably lose to the bottom team but your overconfident team will believe you and work harder to get the win.

I just did a search on "overconfidence" and found this. Great advice.

Complacency really can be a killer, especially if you don't keep your eyes open for the signs. When it leads to a defeat and poor performances, then you've got to pick the team back up again.

Having already won league Two at a canter, with twelve games still to play, after having clinched the title my players have been performing poorly and also with complacency. You know what? It's my own fault for not nipping it in the bud sooner.

Although I'm using more of my fringe players, in an effort to decide who's good enough to keep next season, instead of being more reserved I kept trying to pump up their confidence. It's already as high as can be, so what I have to do is keep their feet on the ground and their focus on getting results, meaningless as they might seem.

Since clinching the title, I had two drawn matches and poor performances, followed by a convincing win. That made them complacent again and the next match, we were mauled by Hartlepool. I had three players rate 5.5 or lower and I fined them all a weeks wages. Anyone below 6.5 I criticised their performances as "unacceptable" in private chats. Only one player felt I was harsh, so I've transfer listed him. He was actually the worst performer in that match and wouldn't back down when he demanded a meeting after concern at his fine. Simply put, I no longer want him at the club, when everyone else has taken the criticism on the chin.

Since then and with less confident seeming press conferences, my team has been excellent. I've tackled the complacency head on and the team has reacted well.

Just one question to RyanD...

I'm curious, what teamtalk did you use in your first two lost games, against Blackburn and Bolton? What did you say to your players before and after the game?

Anyone below 6.5 I criticised their performances as "unacceptable" in private chats. Only one player felt I was harsh, so I've transfer listed him. He was actually the worst performer in that match and wouldn't back down when he demanded a meeting after concern at his fine. Simply put, I no longer want him at the club, when everyone else has taken the criticism on the chin.

Personality has such a big role now and the only way we can guess most of these hidden attributes is through player interactions. I think you did the right thing letting him go because he clearly has some negative hidden traits that will have consequences sooner or later, whether it's on the pitch, in training or just general drama.

I wouldn't criticise players unless they were under 6.0, and they were well off the squad performance average. Sometimes you have to accept that you got the tactics wrong and the ratings are your own fault, at which point I'd sympathise with them for having such a crap manager at the helm

Then after what I posted earlier, my team is performing crap again.

Mainly individually poor performances, but enough to see us lose a couple of games, whilst also winning a couple convincingly. Inconsistency and a good slab of complacency methinks, given the title is won and the matches in the league are now meaningless for our team. Obviously I want the team to win these games and show the same sort of consistency and form that won the title so convincingly, before the recent inconsistency.

Part of me is thinking though, that I might just rest all the key players, saving them for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final we've reached, whilst blooding some youngsters and giving fringe players an opportunity. Not really bothered about the league results so much then, so long as I see decent performances from my fringe players, whilst keeping the key players fresh for the final.

Then after what I posted earlier, my team is performing crap again.

Mainly individually poor performances, but enough to see us lose a couple of games, whilst also winning a couple convincingly. Inconsistency and a good slab of complacency methinks, given the title is won and the matches in the league are now meaningless for our team. Obviously I want the team to win these games and show the same sort of consistency and form that won the title so convincingly, before the recent inconsistency.

Part of me is thinking though, that I might just rest all the key players, saving them for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final we've reached, whilst blooding some youngsters and giving fringe players an opportunity. Not really bothered about the league results so much then, so long as I see decent performances from my fringe players, whilst keeping the key players fresh for the final.

I've found that the poor league form means that you would also likely struggle in the Cup final, even if you make wholesale changes to the starting 11. So beware

I wouldn't criticise players unless they were under 6.0, and they were well off the squad performance average. Sometimes you have to accept that you got the tactics wrong and the ratings are your own fault, at which point I'd sympathise with them for having such a crap manager at the helm

I agree but if I'm losing/drawing at home in a match where I'm a comfortable favourite, I tell anyone under 7 that I'm disappointed at HT and at FT.

Totally, but I meant criticism through interaction afterwards... warnings/fines etc.

If we aren't doing as expected at half time everyone needs a rocket up their back passage, regardless.

Complacency really can be a killer, especially if you don't keep your eyes open for the signs. When it leads to a defeat and poor performances, then you've got to pick the team back up again.

Having already won league Two at a canter, with twelve games still to play, after having clinched the title my players have been performing poorly and also with complacency. You know what? It's my own fault for not nipping it in the bud sooner.

Although I'm using more of my fringe players, in an effort to decide who's good enough to keep next season, instead of being more reserved I kept trying to pump up their confidence. It's already as high as can be, so what I have to do is keep their feet on the ground and their focus on getting results, meaningless as they might seem.

Since clinching the title, I had two drawn matches and poor performances, followed by a convincing win. That made them complacent again and the next match, we were mauled by Hartlepool. I had three players rate 5.5 or lower and I fined them all a weeks wages. Anyone below 6.5 I criticised their performances as "unacceptable" in private chats. Only one player felt I was harsh, so I've transfer listed him. He was actually the worst performer in that match and wouldn't back down when he demanded a meeting after concern at his fine. Simply put, I no longer want him at the club, when everyone else has taken the criticism on the chin.

Since then and with less confident seeming press conferences, my team has been excellent. I've tackled the complacency head on and the team has reacted well.

Do you really not see it as an issue that despite winning the league in obviously dominant fashion, you've still had to fine players for performance and even transfer list someone just to get them to keep working hard? If I was a player who had worked his backside off for 35 games, resulting in a title, and I was then fined after a couple of below par performances (and 6 - 6.4 is just that, average, not awful), I'd be pretty dirty too.

That is a very extreme solution which is probably reflective of how sensitive and over the top the game is when it comes to morale/form/complacency.

Sounds like my last two seasons in Serie B

Step 1: Turn off FM

Step 2: Wait 1-2 Hours

Step 3: Turn on FM

If you are still losing, repeat steps 1-3.

If you are still losing......its your tactics.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but Hull were about 7th in November then almost got relegated a couple of years ago.

It does happen in real life.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but Hull were about 7th in November then almost got relegated a couple of years ago.

It does happen in real life.

Yup, that was the year Liverpool came 2nd with only 1 or 2 losses wasn't it?

p.s. No matter what happens during a season, nothing is more frustrating then a referee that just hates your team down to the bones. Just played Bayern in Champions League, and every single call went against me. Then one of my players scored and 5 minutes later he gets sent off.. OH I WISH i could tell him what I thought of his performance... luckily it ended 1-1, away goal advantage me.