Second Year Difficulty in fm 2011

FM 2011

I started my career as a manager of swiss' second division Schaffhausen.

First year: I cleared the whole staff and players and brought on new people, some contract free players and completely new staff. I was a lot over the wage budged but the team played well and I finished 4th. Then i changed some players and brought new ones.

Second year: a disaster, only 2 wins and a lot of draws. Players didn't score and the team was playing horrible. Then I finally got sacked lying in 14th position out of 16.

Few weeks after i got signed by Notts County as a manager. The team was lying in 18th position in npower1 league when the first half of the season was over. I picked it, brought one or 2 players and finished 6th that year making the playoffs but losing to southampton in the first round (won 3-1 at home but lost 4-1 away with 2 penalties against ). After the season finished i brought 12 new players and sold a lot of the old ones but i kept like 9 of the starting eleven. My new players were all young (avarage team age 24). And again...

Second year: a disaster. 2 wins, lots of games lost, team playing bad and not scoring although i had good strikers. I tried to change tactics a few times but nothing changed. I lost games even against by far weaker teams than mine. Then finally I got sacked 23rd out of 24. After that the team started scoring. The same strikers that missed incredible goals with me now have like 11 or 12 goals each and cost 500k.

What the hell is wrong ? Why are my second years always disastrous? It's not like I change the whole team, i bring in some players like all the other teams to make the team better and... oh.. losing losing losing, not scoring, defense and keeper making incredible mistakes and.. oh...sacked.. what the f*ck?!

Your set up works well against teams that underestimate you and come out to attack.

When faced by teams that see you as a threat and defend, your team falls apart. This creates a bad run of form, making it worse...

The reputation boost your first season causes is why your second seasons are poor.

Second seasons are usually tricky, more often than not I find myself underperforming, too. r0x0r might have a point in what he says about reputation, though I'm relatively sure the oppoisition mainly base their approach based on what's on the table - players, formation, ect.

Ah, yes, Second Season Syndrome. Caused by an increase in reputation between seasons, leading to less aggressive tactics from the opposition. (IMO)

The better you do in season 1, the worse it hits you in season 2.

I got promoted in season two by switching from a containing 4-1-4-1 to a cautiously aggressive 4-4-2.

Funny, I've never had Second Season Syndrome in any save I've played with FM09, FM10 or FM11. Guess I'm lucky that way. <knock on wood>

I think a lot depends on who you manage.

If you massively over-achieve, you'll get a big rep increase but it's impossible for Barcelona to over-achieve so their rep stays at super-super massive and everyone except Real plays defensively against them. Again.

I used to suffer from SSS but then i changed my management style and it seems you've got the same thing wrong as i used to. your signing too many players, the first season team came together and succeeded together they went out for drinks together and had sleepovers and all but second season half of those guys are gone so some people have lost their wingmen and not mixing well with the new young blood it takes too long for them to blend again, so long that when they do you have already been pink slipped

i know its hard cos you want your own team working for you but the players need more friends even if they are poor players sometimes the poor players are the key to success