Stumped

Well I am stumped in me FM11 game, I am only in me first season and I am currently managing Reading, and the team are just loosing, all the time.

I was flying high in my first say 18 games, I was 2nd in the Championship at one point and was always the favourite in a match. I play a 4-4-2 system, two fast wingers, one decent striker and a complete forward that offers support.

I signed about 3 players in pre-season, 2 of which for high work rates and determination, one a loanee from Spurs to play right or left back (he is doing quite well actually).

But I have hit rock bottom now, me team are at an all time low, I have lost all me last 7 games, plus I have been knocked out of both cups by Premier League clubs.

I am in the January transfer window, but I cant sign anyone decent as I have not got a high wage structure, and very little in the way of money to spend. I cant loan anyone decent and Premier League clubs expect me to pay the wages in full, I mean what the hell? I am trying to load Lua Lua from Newcastle and they want me to pay his wages in full? I simply cant afford anything. So I cant change anything.

I dont know what to do, I have gone from potential Championship promotion to slumping down to 13th in the league. I am not complaining that this is unrealistic, I just dont know why the club can go from everything going smoothly to this hitting a brick wall.

Any ideas?

How's your morale in the team? I would imagine pretty low.

Morale tends to make a huuuuuge difference.

So first step is to improve it!!

Got a Wednesday evening free? Create a home friendly against an awful team. Play your first-team. Make sure they win. But don't tire them out (select "control" and "take a breather" in your shouts).

Hopefully a 5 or 6 goal win will give your team a little boost.

I agree with Swarfega about the morale issue but I personally always feel it is cheating doing something like that, wouldn't happen in real life in a hard season and is simply a way to get around the system.

However the morale is probably for me too big a weighting on performances. Yes it should make a difference but not the dramatic affect you get in the game.

My advice when I have been in this situation is:

1. Try to get new blood in if you can but not a huge inlay of players (I know you are having difficulties with this but see if there are any options available).

2. Maybe talk to key players like your captain to try to raise morale.

3. Tweak your tactics, I always find that good runs can come to a crashing end when the AI figures out the tactics you play and changes accordingly. You don't need to change them much but consider tweaks here and there to try to disrupt the AI's tactics and to get that much needed win.

You can go some way towards avoiding, or lessening the impact of, a January slump by attempting different things during pre-season.

It could be that they're tiring too quickly as a result of a too intense pre-season, for example.

I will attempt to tweak me tactics a bit and I will talk to the captain, I fergot to mention, I did bring in Chris Riggot during the window, but not played him yet as he is unregistered, but ill try the above, thanks guys.

It's worth checking the analysis of your team post-match. What is your pass completion % like? How many shots are you having? How many of those shots are long range shots?

If your pass % is any lower than 70% then you have serious problems that need to be solved. Look for those individual players that are misplacing the most passes. If they are connecting with short passes, but not long passes, encourage them to play shorter passes. If they are rushing and just trying to hoof it forward rather than taking the easy option, encourage them to be a bit less direct, and not so attack minded.

One thing you will notice, is if you are winning regularly, teams will tend to become more cautious and more difficult to break down and score against. This means you can't just go gung-ho at them all the time. You need to come up with a solution to get around that.

If your players morale is low, just tell them "No Pressure" for a few games. Lift their morale by getting rid of harsh team talks. You should soon see an improvement.

It's worth checking the analysis of your team post-match. What is your pass completion % like? How many shots are you having? How many of those shots are long range shots?

If your pass % is any lower than 70% then you have serious problems that need to be solved. Look for those individual players that are misplacing the most passes. If they are connecting with short passes, but not long passes, encourage them to play shorter passes. If they are rushing and just trying to hoof it forward rather than taking the easy option, encourage them to be a bit less direct, and not so attack minded.

One thing you will notice, is if you are winning regularly, teams will tend to become more cautious and more difficult to break down and score against. This means you can't just go gung-ho at them all the time. You need to come up with a solution to get around that.

If your players morale is low, just tell them "No Pressure" for a few games. Lift their morale by getting rid of harsh team talks. You should soon see an improvement.

Well this is interesting I never really checked the post-match anaysis, however I do have the assitant manager anaylsis during the match switched on and he often reports we are misplacing many of our passes and I do play a direct style of play also. So you may have come up with one of the major reasons why.

Thanks for the advice guys, its much appreciated, sometimes I just wanna throw the bleedin game across the room out of frustration lol, but something is telling me to persist and learn the game.

I think promotion prospects are gone now, but I still have Feb, March, April and start of May to turn it around.

With regards to signings, try looking for talented youngsters, and use Payment in Installments to get over cashflow issues.

Also, use press conferences and team talks to take pressure off, talking your team down, etc. Also, with team talks it works if you're harsher on older players and easygoing on younger ones, can make a difference.

Finally, use match preparation and set it to defence, set yourself up with a defensive mentality, and long balls to striker(s), as a way of getting some results in without going down guns blazing.

Also, speak to your players who got 6.3 or lower and tell them to improve their game (last game). Be tough and don't back off. If a player hates you because of this, he is not worthwhile to keep in the team so no loss, really. Post-match team talk: disappointing. You may tell them sympathise if the media thought you would lose for sure.

Give players playing 7.0 or better (note: only when you're really really down, otherwise set the bar at 7.5, 8.0 or even 8.5) a Did Well in post-match team talk. Praise 7.5+ performances in personal chat. Note that very ambitious players may not accept your praise and this may make matters even worse.

If your assistant is not catious or very catious in his playing mentality, he may say the wrong things in any press conferences before the match (like telling them that they are sure to win and such, which will make matters only worse). I have never taken over the team talks but this is something you may have to do in order to turn things around.