My players are always knackered!

I find that when playing on the Saturday my players are all still tired for a midweek match with fitness ratings in the 80 percents. This is despite resting the players on the Sunday.

Would this have any reason to do with me having only one coach and the players not getting good enough fitness training? I haven’t played the game since FM08 and don’t remember having this problem before.

What do you guys do when a player is tired with low fitness rating? Do you still play them or rest them?

I’m managing Lincoln and recently played a game on the Saturday and found myself having to change virtually the whole team for a game on Tuesday!

Make sure you're training level is fairly low as at that level your players are not brilliant physically and so take longer to recover than top players, so a more relaxed training schedule will help speed things up.

Also, take a look at your tactics, maybe you could modify them to become a bit less tiring for the players, like I always used to find that my central midfield pairing spent the whole match running around like headless chickens and were always down in the low 60s at the end of a game, so I kept tweaking till they can do the same job but without covering 11+km per match.

Make sure you're training level is fairly low as at that level your players are not brilliant physically and so take longer to recover than top players, so a more relaxed training schedule will help speed things up.

Also, take a look at your tactics, maybe you could modify them to become a bit less tiring for the players, like I always used to find that my central midfield pairing spent the whole match running around like headless chickens and were always down in the low 60s at the end of a game, so I kept tweaking till they can do the same job but without covering 11+km per match.

My training level isn’t too high and in the medium area but I’ll take another look tonight. It’s a very young team with the majority under 21 years of age apart from a couple of old veterans. I do play a high pressing game so you could be right with having to modify my tactics? I’d be interested to hear how you modified yours as you obviously played a high pressing game too?

My training level isn’t too high and in the medium area but I’ll take another look tonight. It’s a very young team with the majority under 21 years of age apart from a couple of old veterans. I do play a high pressing game so you could be right with having to modify my tactics? I’d be interested to hear how you modified yours as you obviously played a high pressing game too?

It was only really my central midfielders that were pressing too much. All I did was reduce that down to a level where they would still chase down players in the middle of the park but leave the defending to those who are actually meant to do it! At a low level this can be tricky as you've got to trust your defenders which can be difficult when they're crap!

I had a similar problem and realised that I had my Strength and Aerobics sliders too high. After a little experimentation I realised that they only need to be that high during the pre season and first few games stage. After that you can reduce Strength and Aerobics and increase the other categories keeping the master slider at last medium. On the basis of this I developed a pre season training program for all players based on high Strength and Aerobics settings and found that I get my players match fit much quicker now.

I had a similar problem and realised that I had my Strength and Aerobics sliders too high. After a little experimentation I realised that they only need to be that high during the pre season and first few games stage. After that you can reduce Strength and Aerobics and increase the other categories keeping the master slider at last medium. On the basis of this I developed a pre season training program for all players based on high Strength and Aerobics settings and found that I get my players match fit much quicker now.

This sounds like good advice too and I’ll check it tonight.

In my recent midweek match I had to change both full backs, a centre back, the entire midfield and a striker because my first choices were all tired from the game on the Saturday. Had to bring to 17 year olds into the squad from the Youth team (which isn’t too hot!) and lost the match 1-0 to a dubious penalty!

what is your player's natural fitness? this determines how quickly they recover from one game to the next, high natural fitness means you can run them into the 50%'s and they'll still be fit 4 days later... players with low natural fitness will take longer to recover.

I tend to sub off those of my players who have lower natural fitness, especially if they are likely to start the next match..

what is your player's natural fitness? this determines how quickly they recover from one game to the next, high natural fitness means you can run them into the 50%'s and they'll still be fit 4 days later... players with low natural fitness will take longer to recover.

I tend to sub off those of my players who have lower natural fitness, especially if they are likely to start the next match..

I’m not sure and I’ll take a look tonight but surely their not low stats for all the players? Maybe they are?

Thanks for giving me another thing to check.

I always give my players a 1 day rest on the day after a game. It makes a huge difference to my team, players who would normally be around 90-92% now are 98-100% by the time the midweek game comes along.

I always give my players a 1 day rest on the day after a game. It makes a huge difference to my team, players who would normally be around 90-92% now are 98-100% by the time the midweek game comes along.

This is the best advice for tired players. I started doing it after reading on here and the results of this where great. sometimes you may need to give them 2 days rest but this works a treat.

Having the strength and aerobics slider low during the season helps. The only time I have it on high is during the pre-season and the first couple of games in. When I get the monthly report from my assistant, I switch back to their normal schedules.

High pressing games take a huge toll on players especially if they have low stamina and I think natural fitness. I also tend to sub players when their condition reaches 73% before the 65th to 70th minute.

I only rest players towards the end of the season as that's when my fixtures are heavily congested with like two days in-between matches and most of my players' conditions are between 88-93%.

This is the best advice for tired players. I started doing it after reading on here and the results of this where great. sometimes you may need to give them 2 days rest but this works a treat.

This is what I done after the game on Saturday but the players were still only low 80% for the match on Tuesday night.

I think I'll have a look to see if I've got the strength and aerobic sliders too high.

May also be becuase of poor fitness coaches. Obviously if you are playing in the lower levels it's harder to get good staff, but you should aim to get the best possible rather than stick with the one at the club when you joined.

The resting for a day idea I mentioned earlier works well for my team in the Premier League, but I also have 2 very good fitness coaches. I used to have to rotate my squad all the time, now I have outfield players who can start every game of the season (if they avoid injury). I only read about it on here a few weeks back, and it's turned me from a team that finishes 4th into a team who wins the league comfortably, sometimes without losing a game (lost just one league game in my last 85 matches).

Once you get 5-star fitness coaches, excellent or better training facilities and have set the workload to almost heavy (or even heavy), your players should be the most fit in the league quite soon. This is the best way of avoiding tiredness. My team rarely end a game with lower than 80% (in the post-match screen) now, some of this because they always start at 96% or better since I rotate heavily, but mostly because they are training hard every day.

The tactic, if you lie deep and send the players forwards quickly the whole match, can be quite draining too. How many kilometers are they running during a match? If you fire them up or go one goal down early in the match, they often get more tired. Wet grass or poor pitch conditions may also tire your players more.

May also be becuase of poor fitness coaches. Obviously if you are playing in the lower levels it's harder to get good staff, but you should aim to get the best possible rather than stick with the one at the club when you joined.

The resting for a day idea I mentioned earlier works well for my team in the Premier League, but I also have 2 very good fitness coaches. I used to have to rotate my squad all the time, now I have outfield players who can start every game of the season (if they avoid injury). I only read about it on here a few weeks back, and it's turned me from a team that finishes 4th into a team who wins the league comfortably, sometimes without losing a game (lost just one league game in my last 85 matches).

I think this is the main problem as I only have one coach, a goalkeeping coach and my assistant manager taking the training so there are only 2 stars in each category. I’m looking to get more coaches in but don’t have the funds available. My training facilities are only adequate as well so the combination of this means my payers not being able to play three games in a week and often tired.

I’ll just have to wait until the start of next season and then get more coaches in and try to improve the training facilities.

Thanks for the advice.