opposition managers fearing random players from my team before games.

im getting fed up with opposition managers saying just before a game against them, "(insert random players name here) must be stopped" and "manager fears (insert random players name here) threat". its just silly and unecessary. ive played a full season as ipswich and just about every player including defenders and fringe players have been quoted as 'threats' to the opposing teams. the AI seems to just pick a players name at random from my team for the manager to fear or stop. its surely a bug and a very irritating one. anyone else noticed this?

Not really, then again, I don't have fringe players.

Before the patch there was a problem in that all managers would always single out the same player, which ended up with this guy's morale being shot to pieces before every match because he is a sulky bottler. Now at least they spread it around the team, many of which can cope with the pressure and many others who aren't even playing the next game.

It's a handy thing to use yourself, if you know a player on their team whose morale will drop if you praise them, make sure to do it just before the game.

i find it one of those media comments i just pass by and never pay any attention to, and it never seems to effect my players that much, the odd game where they dont perform but thats it.

Very rarely causes me an issue either, but to keep it from happening, you have to build a squad of a certain personality that handles pressure. Players with low pressure ratings get bugged out by this. Had a DM, great player, but was getting targeted constantly, so his morael stayed at Okay nearly all season. Sold him off next window

That's right, opposition manager randomly picks my left back as the dangerman and his morale goes to very poor. Not that it matters because he's my second choice and injured.

Meanwhile, I target their highest striker, turning him into a jellyfish.

It's a very poor feature but you can use it as an exploit, since your choices won't be completely random.

Its more annoying that it happens every game, rather than the actual player it picks out though. How many times irl do you get the opposition managers contacting the press to announce they fear player X before a match? Don't see why it needs to be part of every single pre match process.

managers comment on opposition players most games, maybe just not as direct as the game makes out.

Agree that it's somewhat random, e.g. players that haven't played much, and very often players that are nowhere near your top players. I have a few star players in my team, but they're as likely to get picked for comments as some bloke I signed two weeks ago and has only ever played as a sub.

Agree that it's not necessary each game either. It's not like I feel compelled to comment on the danger man each match either. Maybe once or twice a season.

does making a comment on the opposing teams 'danger man' affect him? never really considered it.

Comments (including in pre-match press conferences) can shift a player's morale up or down 1 notch (e.g. from OK to poor/good). Better morale = better performance.

It can make a difference, but there's no guarantee that it will work. It's best to check the player's personality on their profile and their morale before doing anything (e.g. if they're reserved say they're the big threat as they are unlikely to be able to handle the pressure; if they're volatile, say they're vastly overrated or whatever).

it wouldnt be so bad if the opposing managers were consistantly picking a creative midfielder or a free scoring striker, but they are picking a medoicre full back or an ageing centre back sometimes that hasnt played for the last 6 games. really bad AI.

i THINK there was a big issue with this feature at the start, as someone said people were finding their top players being targeted every game which was destroying their moral so SI changed it so it wouldnt affect just one player all the time, i would imagine this will be a feature updated in the next patch and you will see it acting a bit more normally.

I think that this feature makes sense on the top-flight and on high-pressure games.. i just don't really see the need for this on lower leagues.

like i said, after completing a full season as ipswich, i can recall at least 15 players being the subject of this which is just ridiculous really. espescially seeing as some of them were none scoring defenders that hardly ever got off my bench. it got laughable after a while.

does making a comment on the opposing teams 'danger man' affect him? never really considered it.

It certainly can, as long as he has the right (ie wrong) personality you can completely destroy his confidence by announcing that he's the main threat.

This is really making me mad now too. Its affecting players on my team, their morale drops and they play crap and it happens before every match. Please fix it in the next patch

The opposition managers were constantly afraid of Joe Cole, in my most recent season. He played five times all year...

Yeah, I get this a lot too. Recently a manager commented saying that one of my players had to be stopped in order for them to get a result against us. Was it my striker (And leading scorer) with 3 goals and 2 assists in 5 games? No. Was it my winger who scored a wicked direct free kick and has 8 assists already this season and is one of my most consistent performers? No.

It was my 33 year old transfer listed central midfielder who's made a couple of appearances due to injuries elsewhere and hasn't scored a goal since we were promoted. Brilliant.

Started to try this for myself and the media criticise me for not concentrating on my own team, as much as I want to keep playing, stuff like this makes me want to stop. SI if you are listening. try and moderate this action

i was told to watch out for titus bramble once, enough said

Having played a couple of seasons it's nice that they don't single out the same player every week but it does need to be looked out as quite a few times they fear someone in my squad who's not playing or just a sub. Tis weird.