Morale/Confidence... Too much of an impact?

Just had a season long experiment by playing the same 4-4-2 Home and Away with my West Ham side regardless of outcomes in a match. The only changes I make in match are going more attacking if I was losing, nothing more. Obviously personel change due to injuries etc.

The first half of the season was quite impressive. A 3-0 home win v Man United and an away win at Spurs were top performances and my form against the top sides (bar Arsenal who rip you apart!) was quite good, nicking a point away here and there. I seemed to struggle more against the lower half of the table teams funnily enough.

I always seemed to fluctuate around 9th, 10th, 11th though as I would win one, then lose one, then draw one so occupied a niche pretty much all on my own however I didn't lose more than one in a row until.... well more about that shortly!!

In the Cups I did pretty well getting to the League Cup Final and the Quarters of the FA Cup, but it was at the League Cup Final my problems started. Going into it in good form I found myself 3 down after 25 minutes. I made a real effort at a come back but lost 3-2 in the end. It seems though that the bottom dropped out of the squads world though after that because in my last 11 games until the end of the season I won only one, a 3-0 home win v Newcastle. The goals dried up and my reasonably tight defence leaked goals frequently. My season culminated with 5 defeats in a row which was pretty demoralising considering pre Cup Final I hadn't lost more than one in a row.

So to the original question do morale and confidence have too much of an impact or dare I say it can the AI start to get to grips with your tactic?

Well... it's a tough one. As an Evertonian, I'm acutely aware of how confidence can turn a good team into a bad one overnight.

Saying that, it is a big factor in the FM ME and has been for quite a few editions now. Whilst I wouldn't mind seeing it tweaked a bit (as I'm essentially a tactician at heart rather than a babysitter), I recognise that is relevant to football management and I wouldn't be too bothered if FM12 had the same system in place.

I think though that it certainly seems harder to get out of a losing run than a winning one! For instance that Cup Final defeat seemed to destroy confidence however the 3-0 thumping of Newcastle didn't kick start the campaign again. You see a striker not score in 8 matches and then he scores in two on the bounce but then goes back to a bad run again. I had Piquionne on a terrible run of not scoring but then in one game he got two and a rating of 8.9. The next game he doesn't score and gets a rating of 5.4. Now was that "the game" or did I say the wrong thing or not say the right thing to him for that jump from 8.9 to 5.4? Interestingly I saw Ray Wilkins on Sky earlier and he said about motivation that players at the top level (I assumed he meant Premier League) are good enough to motivate themselves. It's a difficult one.

Well... it's a tough one. As an Evertonian, I'm acutely aware of how confidence can turn a good team into a bad one overnight.

Saying that, it is a big factor in the FM ME and has been for quite a few editions now. Whilst I wouldn't mind seeing it tweaked a bit (as I'm essentially a tactician at heart rather than a babysitter), I recognise that is relevant to football management and I wouldn't be too bothered if FM12 had the same system in place.

I think the problem is more that it doesn't seem to effect your opponents anywhere near as much. Playing a similarly struggling side when you're in a bad run should mean a close, hard game but usually they suddenly gain confidence from nowhere and beat you easily.