Lack of Discipline

Hey everyone,

Just looking for a bit of advice in FM11 at sorting out a lack of discipline in my team. It is a problem I have never had in any of the previous games, but it's becoming a ridiculous problem in my current game. I'm in season 3, and I basically overhaul my team each year(so it can't be attributed to simply having indisciplined players), and although I've had consecutive promotions and managed to deal with playing with 10 men a lot of games, this season it is really hindering me. I had around 100 yellow cards in the league last season, and well into the teens on reds. I get players coming to me saying they are concerned about the lack of discipline, the press bring it up all the time, and generally it is an obvious issue. But what do I do about it? I warn, then fine a week's wages and then fine 2 weeks wages when a player is sent off, they accept it but it doesn't change them. I've tried asking them to stop diving into tackles, they sometimes say they'll try, sometimes say they won't, either way it doesn't seem to help. My tactics just had tackling at 'default', have tried changing it to 'cautious' but still the red cards come. I don't think the fact I've got them to 'press more' in terms of closing down should affect anything should it? Anyway it's getting so frustrating and I really want to find a solution. The actual offences are more often than not ridiculous too. I watch the games, and most of the cards come from two yellows, and the tackles are pointless ones out at the touchline or in their end of the field. I also notice some of them barely even look like a tackle, and get straight reds, and the players are furious about it, but when I appeal or mention it to the press I get informed every time that the ref was right!

Any advice is MUCH appreciated,

Thanks,

Laurie

By the sound of it your team are closing down all over the pitch and if there tackling/decisions/concentration aren't up to the job they could be making rash challenges (mistakes) which leave the ref with no choice but to book them. Try toning down 'closing down'.

I've not seen many double yellow red cards for my team, which leads me to think it's related to either the players or the tactics. Do any of the culprits have 'dives into challenges' as a PPM?

I have seen plenty of straight reds for my team, almost all from really ridiculous challenges where they just fly through the AI player like they didn't know he was there.

when i had this problem i took a large look into it to see what was wrong. what i found was i had been given the same ref for 28 of my 36 league games, and he was a card happy chap who gave out an average of 7 yellows a game. he was by far the strictest ref in the league. i picked up 106 yellows in 36 games of which around 90 came from that bloke!

Maybe you employ 'Hard tackling' tactics and have pressing set as 'Always'.

Also, maybe someof your players are overly aggressive...check their attributes to see if thats the case. If you have a aggressive midfielder with hard tackling then maybe you should consider the effects of your tactical commands?

ive found that some of my teams are just dirtier than others...which can be frustrating!

when i had this problem i took a large look into it to see what was wrong. what i found was i had been given the same ref for 28 of my 36 league games, and he was a card happy chap who gave out an average of 7 yellows a game. he was by far the strictest ref in the league. i picked up 106 yellows in 36 games of which around 90 came from that bloke!

Haha! That made me chuckle.

For those people suggesting he might be tackling hard or pressing too much, the OP does say he's got tackling to default, but he is pressing.

Personally I suspect it's down to a combination of the pressing being high and the decisions/concentration/other relevant stats of players involved. The last time I found I was having a big problem I started setting to stand off more and it cleared it up quite a bit. Also meant I started winning the ball more often through interceptions.