Tips for promoted side

Just got my Brighton team promoted to premiership at the second time of asking but after a few games my team side are struggling to find a win from anywhere!

I've signed some quality players for this level including Leigh Griffiths but it's just not coming together right now after finishing last season top, although we did have a dodgy run towards the back end of the season.

Any of you FM gurus got any tips to help me get back to winning ways?

Personally I feel that Morale plays a big role in performances. Keep it high, and you've got a chance. If its really low, you'll be more likely to get back to back losses.

Morale has to be high, I'm in my first Prem season after promotion and I never get angry at full time. Encourage after the result, even if slightly poor. Also don't be too defensive at home in particular, as if your team isn't as good as some others and defence isnt as quick, strong & able you may struggle when relying on them. Private chat with your strikers to keep them confident and happy too!

Just got my Brighton team promoted to premiership at the second time of asking but after a few games my team side are struggling to find a win from anywhere!

I've signed some quality players for this level including Leigh Griffiths but it's just not coming together right now after finishing last season top, although we did have a dodgy run towards the back end of the season.

Any of you FM gurus got any tips to help me get back to winning ways?

Get rid of Leigh Griffiths for a start, if he's half as much of a dick on the game as in real life then he will be a bad influence!

He was at a funeral i was at a couple of years ago and he was on his phone laughing for most of it, didn't have a tie on, shirt buttons were all undone so he looked "cool"....etc. Just a terrible, awful human being.

Make sure you win the relegation battles. Cautiously grind for draws everywhere else, especially away from home. Respect that the odds are against you in every game, and make sure you coddle your players accordingly. Play your happiest players (and your most determined ones), not the best ones. Put the least demoralized team on the pitch each week that you can.

You will likely need to to adapt whatever tactic you've been using, especially if it relies on possession football. There is no shame in game-killing anchor men and anti-football, especially if you have the players to do it.

Oh, and if you do go a goal up somewhere, don't immediately park the bus in the hope of clinging to the lead, because that's just asking for trouble. I often have to remind myself of that one.

look to restrict better teams from playing as you cant compete skill wise e.g 5 across midfield , press etc

Another thing I like to do is look at the league table for the last few seasons and see how many points I'll need, roughly, to stay alive, and keep that in my head as the season goes on. Sometimes you die by a thousand cuts, being mistakenly satisfied with draws when you really need three points. If you keep track of what you need to survive and see you're falling short, you can start to be more adventurous and attack better teams. I feel it's better, or at least more noble, to lose heavily pressing for the three points you desperately need than to be relegated because of an endless succession of 0-1 defeats that bore everyone involved.

My tip for a promoted side - don't get relegated.

as said above, keep your players happy.

look to find the biggest factor in your struggles and look to rectify it. late goals? ensure you make subs, keep your team fresh and fit and keep the ball better as one example

Make sure you win the relegation battles. Cautiously grind for draws everywhere else, especially away from home. Respect that the odds are against you in every game, and make sure you coddle your players accordingly. Play your happiest players (and your most determined ones), not the best ones. Put the least demoralized team on the pitch each week that you can.

You will likely need to to adapt whatever tactic you've been using, especially if it relies on possession football. There is no shame in game-killing anchor men and anti-football, especially if you have the players to do it.

Oh, and if you do go a goal up somewhere, don't immediately park the bus in the hope of clinging to the lead, because that's just asking for trouble. I often have to remind myself of that one.

While playing happy players certainly helps a lot you shouldn't always only play the happiest ones. If one of your key players is unhappy and you bench him from then on you will likely lose him for the season if you follow this rule. You certainly have to take morale into consideration and manage it well but sometimes it's better to play an unhappy key player in an effort to improve his morale than benching him and hope his morale won't go down even further.

Spend LOTSA time searching for potential wonderkids, buy them on the cheap when they are very young, play them as often as you can and hopefully, in a couple of seasons, you can sell your older high wage players for a good profit (just before they turn 30 yrs old works best for me) and play your squad of wonderkids in their place instead

You can then invest the $$ you received in more potential wonderkids and thus, the cycle continues

I'd make sure my team is defensively stable. Continuing to play a tactic which worked well while being one of the best teams in the division will very probably not work quite as well when being one of the worse teams in the new division.

E.g. I'd think of employing a rigid 4-1-2-3 with two inside forwards to find some stability, but that choice obviously depends on each single case, so this formation may be the wrong choice for you. Just an example.

It may now of course be a bit late to try and get used to a new formation.