Bad form linked to signing a new contract?

I'm at a bit of a loss to how my Catania team has suddenly gone on an absolutely horrific run of form in the last few months after a massively successful start to the season.

I was originally promoted from Serie B to A after taking over in March 2014. First season (2015/2016) in Serie A I did fantastic, somehow finishing level on points with eventual winners Roma, coming 2nd due to them beating me 3-1 while I could only beat them 1-0.

Season 3 (2016/2017) starts in much the same way, after 16/17 games I am 1 point behind league leaders Sampdoria and Juventus with 36 points. Then I sign a new contract on 9th December 2016. I beat Siena away from home 1-0 (as expected), but after that match I've gone on to lose 10/14 games, scoring only 5 goals (2 against Serie B Pescara in the cup), only winning 2 games; against Pescara and away to Udinese in the cup.

I kept my formation the same for the first 6-ish games, (4-2-3-1) then changed to a 4-4-2 to see if that helped... emmm, nope. I'm now back at 4-2-3-1 but that doesn't seem to be working. I've got a few home games against the bottom 2 clubs coming up so I'll see what happens there.

I was scoring goals flat out in my 1st Serie A season, a little less in the first half of the 2nd but still a decent amount. And now 5 in 14 games. I'm not lacking good players or anything: midfield is Nasri, Van der Vaart, a German wonderkid and my striker is a Brazillian wonderkid.

Anyone got any suggestions for what to do?

Good Start

New contract signed until 2020 on 9th, bad form begins.

P.S, why are the images a full page? I cut and pasted out the section I wanted, why has it still gone full page?

Maybe it's the increased rep which has led to more games you expected to win and thus overconfidence...might need to adjust your team talks.

And also teams playing more defensively against you so may need change of tactics. (Atalanta-------Udinese)

Also it seems you had a very unlucky draw in terms of having a lot of hard games together without a chance to regain morale once it dropped (Sampdoria-----Man U).

Same thing happened to me. Cruising at the top of the league, then go on a 10 game run without a win. Got my teamtalks wrong. Very irratating.

Happens quite often, your team talk gets stale so you have to mix it up for a couple of games then its back to winning ways.

SI 2012 no teamtalks please. Let my tactics lose the game not my teamtalk.

Same thing happened to me. Cruising at the top of the league, then go on a 10 game run without a win. Got my teamtalks wrong. Very irratating.

Happens quite often, your team talk gets stale so you have to mix it up for a couple of games then its back to winning ways.

SI 2012 no teamtalks please. Let my tactics lose the game not my teamtalk.

You've just arbitrarily decided that teamtalks are to blame. Sometimes people just lose.

Steve Bruce's teams always look good until a little past Christmas, when survival looks secure, then they get crap. (see Sunderland this season)

Curbishley's Charlton often used to surge into the top half until January, and then they'd end up lower mid-tale by the end

Hull in their first prem season were mixing it up at the top of the table for months, and then they ended up just about scraping through a relegation battle

Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa would look like they were going to finally make the Champion's League right up until February, when they would precede to throw it all away (I think it's fact that, ridiculous as it sounds, Martin O'Neill never won a match in March as an Aston Villa manager).

Chelsea this season were beating teams 8-0 for a few games, and the press were certain they were going to be champions, then they were awful for about ten games in a row, then they were decent again.

So why do you act like it's only in FM that previously solid tactical set-ups can start to underperform?

When you were cruising at the top of the league, you weren't upset that your team were overperforming, but when your luck balances out, you blame a broken teamtalks module.

What youre doing there is confusing real life with the game.

I knew the teamtalks were to blame so I did whatever I normally do when form starts to dip and change my teamtalk because it only has so many times before its effectiveness runs out. Changed it twice, (I should have done it 3 times maybe and earlier looking back) and it instantly repairs bad form. I do it everytime and it works everytime.

I'm pretty sure Steve bruce doesnt go into the dressing room and say good luck by mistake and it causes the team to get beat when if he'd have picked we can win, they would have won. Thats is of course he hadnt used 'we can win' for the last 10 matches and its power had run out. But thats the difference between real life and the game.