Guide for morale management

Hi..

I am growing a bit tired of "Morale Manager 2012", so i was wondering if you guys have come across some good guides for managing the morale aspects of the game (which takes up most of the game activity these days... ) so i at least can get a bit behind the curtains to understand what i must do to keep everybody happy... since winning matches apparent doesnt do the trick :-(

Cheers

What makes you think its only moral thats causing your issues?

Because the morale of my players are so fragile and definitely impacting the match performance... when less than "Good" or "Fairly Good" nothing flows and the team cant score any goals... we loose at home to bottom league teams... as soon as morale goes up a bit we beat Barcelona etc. (I'm Malaga..). I am calling it "Morale Manager 2012" because i, like many others, feel that the morale aspects has taken over the game. I know my tactics work - i ended up no. 3 in the league first season. Now SI cleverly makes sure that my 2nd season is much more difficult.. so in spite of thise imense success in the first season, the morale of the team is still average. Even after beating Barcelona the morale stays average, even though i try to praise the players both as a team and individually... still morale sucks (at least compared to what i would expect it to be after beating Barca..)

What rep did you select when you started the game? If you selected "Sunday League" it may explain the morale issue.

I really struggled to motivate my players as well in my first 2-3 seasons on my Middlesbrough save because I selected "sunday league" rep.

I have never really connected form (like lack of goals) to moral until FM12 and since I have been on here, I just used to ignore it, as long as I was winning, but there's definitely something wrong with Suarez.

He was on fire up until the Jan of my 1st season, something like 17 goals in 20 apps. But recently he hasn't scored in 9 apps, 2 as a sub. He has been pulling his face recently. Not sure why, I'm top of the league, what more do these ppl want? But Chelsea are sniffing, maybe he's gone off me.

Usually I don't interact with my players, only to big them up if they have a decent game (9/10, yeah I am fussy). But I had a couple of team meeting, and first Bellamy pulled his face, and now Suarez. I wouldn't mind, all I did was praise the team, and I didn't single anyone out. Well he ain't going anyway for less than £70mil!!

100% agree with this.

Since the January update morale has been shocking, I won the league and cup with Roma in my first season and played nearly every game with 2/3 players "playing nervously". Second season the same, so prone to poor results against lower teams and any players who start with very good/superb can easily drop to abysmal with one bad result.

Started a new game with Monaco, and morale still impossible to handle, it's becoming a real game breaker for me as I just can't fathom how to control the players in the new patch...

Are you praising good performances and critisising bad performances? Always found that a good way to get the players to like me. Some players seem to respond better than others.

Another reason could be that you bought in too many players. Happens to me a lot in the second season because of that.

I'd say so, nothing different from my team talks in the previous patch and that seemed ok. I'd say in the second season with Roma I bought 4 new players, and all 4 went into the starting line up? Also with Monaco it's basically an entirely new team,

cheers for the tip!

I meant praise them in the player interaction, Like where they come in and say "what's up boss you wanted to see me?"

You can tell if they liked what you said if they respond with "is there anything else I can do since we are getting things done" or words to that effect. Works for both praise and criticism.

Realy easy way to get on a players favoured personel quickly.

Have you tried signing a coach with high motivation, mental coaching and man management and letting him do the team talks?

I did. Made not one blind bit of difference, they are still all manic depressives 8-(

Despite having a poor assistant manager, I'd suggest taking his advice on team talks - perhaps erring on the side of being slightly more positive sometimes - as well as leaving press conferences to him and ignoring comments from other managers. It's not always logical which talk you should give after his advice, but after a little trial and error you'll get it right more often than not.

It's also worth noting that if a player reacts badly to a team talk, giving him a different individual talk after can easily rectify the problem.

I've found that these rules and some decent results usually lead to consistently better morale and, in turn, results that are as good as you can expect given your squad's ability and the strength of your tactics.

Are you praising good performances and critisising bad performances? Always found that a good way to get the players to like me. Some players seem to respond better than others.

Another reason could be that you bought in too many players. Happens to me a lot in the second season because of that.

Yes, i do try to follow that. Spend a lot of time on it. I recently read somebody saying that he ususally comments on performance in the previous match 1-2 days before the next match, as the effect of praising quickly wears off. It seems to be a good point (but SI what the **** is the idea of this, and why cant you read stuff like that in the manual?!?)

Since the January update morale has been shocking, I won the league and cup with Roma in my first season and played nearly every game with 2/3 players "playing nervously". Second season the same, so prone to poor results against lower teams and any players who start with very good/superb can easily drop to abysmal with one bad result.

Started a new game with Monaco, and morale still impossible to handle, it's becoming a real game breaker for me as I just can't fathom how to control the players in the new patch...

Completely agree!

What rep did you select when you started the game? If you selected "Sunday League" it may explain the morale issue.

I really struggled to motivate my players as well in my first 2-3 seasons on my Middlesbrough save because I selected "sunday league" rep.

International Footballer

Despite having a poor assistant manager, I'd suggest taking his advice on team talks - perhaps erring on the side of being slightly more positive sometimes - as well as leaving press conferences to him and ignoring comments from other manager's. It's not always logical which talk you should give after his advice, but after a little trial and error you'll get it right more often than not.

It's also worth noting that if a player reacts badly to a team talk, giving him a different individual talk after can easily rectify the problem.

I've found that these rules and some decent results usually lead to consistently better morale and, in turn, results that are as good as you can expect given your squad's ability and the strength of your tactics.

.. and i do exactly that. Both following assistant advise and giving indivual instructions based on the players current morale+reaction to overall team talk. But little effect does it have. I almost never get a reaction in the pre-match teamtalk. I had a case last season where i beat Barcelona in the first home leg in the Spanish Cup. Now going to play away from home in the second tie you wouldnt expect motivation to be a problem for my highly determined squad would you? They should be on fire really with the chance of getting into the final... but little reaction did i get, some of them was even looking disinterested... that is why im saying this has turned into Morale Manager... fine if it was easy to manage and transparent, however it is the opposite!

To get back to my original topic: does anybody know of good guides to morale management?

Odds for the match play a vital role. I have a set method that seems to work for me when playing as a decent team.

1. Heavy Favourites at Home (1/4 odds etc) - Assertive "Expect a Win"

2. Tight Match at Home (Non Rivals)- evens odds - Calm "Expect a Win"

When morale is very good/superb throughout team then no team talk is needed. Use this rarely and mainly in type 1. games. Stops a pattern forming so your team stays "fresh" to what your saying.

3. Favs Away - Assertive "For Fans"

4. Close Game Away - Calm "For Fans"

Never use the non team talk away from home. Iv only seen disaster from this!

5. Rival games - Passionate "For Fans"

If heavy favs at home you can say expect a win.

My half time team talks willcome later

I have noticed my two most aggressive personalities, Craig Bellamy and Luis Suarez are quite content with a kick up the backside, and it immediately improve their performances in the following games. I guess the trick is to know when to choose to interact with certain players, and maybe not do it unless you really have too.

Maybe I don't praise them enough when they play well - I have always used a rule to only praise players if the score anything above 8/10 in ratings after a game. But I dunno if I praise more regularly will have a negative effect. Certainly remaining unbeaten for the majority of the season doesn't improve moral, which is very suspect.

Im playing with Roma, mid was through second season, came so close to getting the sack in the 1st season and im pretty confident it was due to morale....setting the competition bonuses all as low didnt help mind, about 4 of my players threw a fit (is not getting an extra 40 grand for someone early 50 grand a week going to cause him to have abysmal morale all season? - seems so as this season i set them all high, and his morale is always superb!)

Anyways onto my point about player personalities.....De Rossi and Totti.....both Roma legends and described as leaders who im sure would have high hidden attributes for loyalty always react negatively when i suggest performing 'for the fans' now that is one i cannot fatham out!!??

I think it is pretty important to have an Assman with above average Man Management skills, and average Discipline ratings, and just instruct him to perform team talks and after match interviews. In fact I never talk to the post and pre-match press, that's is unless I wish to unsettle and potential signing or praise a player. It can cause more problems than it solves.

There are so many variables that it is almost impossible to create a morale management guide. I can try to put into words a general philosophy, though:

Think of morale/motivation as a rope-pulling competition between Nervousness and Complacency. There are hundreds of factors influencing each of them, so how they are introduced into a player's "mind" is too complex to pinpoint exactly; that's a matter of observing your team over time and making some (mental) notes.

|-----------------|-----------------|

Nervous******Focused*****Complacent

No Pressure/You have Faith moves the bar to the right.

For the Fans/Expect a performance/win moves the bar to the left.

Aggressive tone is the more forceful, Cautious the least forceful, and I assume the former moves the bar more in either direction. It is therefore a good idea in my opinion to praise wins in regular, non-important matches using Calm or Cautious tone without the use of superlatives.

What you should aim to do is to ease the pressure and be supportive towards nervous players, and to demand a good performance (put more pressure on) from complacent players in order to keep the players focused. Who is what boils down to, as I said above, experience. A player with Fairly Good or less morale is more likely to become nervous, and a player with Very Good or higher morale is more likely to become complacent.

An important factor that should suggest the level of Pressure to you, is the pre-match odds. The bigger the difference, the higher the "background pressure" is on your players - and this goes both ways, so if you are huge favourites, telling your players in an assertive tone that you expect a win may put too much pressure on your players (but at the same time if you don't you may experience complacency).

In my opinion, it should not be necessary to fire up your players in order to get good performances from your players. If you feel you need to, your tactic isn't solid enough or your players haven't got high enough Determination, Work Rate and Teamwork and/or may be lacking in the hidden attributes.

Interestingly, I just won the league with LFC, still with an unbeaten league record, and decided to arrange a team meeting. I told the players we've been playing great recently, and ask the room for their thoughts (I actually hoped I could officially congratulate them on winning our first title in over 20 years). (Moody) Suarez claimed we could play better, so I asked my captain, Gerrard, and he thought it was a great time to be a LFC player. I calmly said that's a great reaction.

The total squad response, 1 positive, the rest negative, and the total team moral dropped like a bag of bricks.*

*Note to self, don't ever have a team meeting again!

I have to admit that I am still trying to understand these team meetings. I am just as likely to get a positive response as negative and do not always understand why. There is nothing worse than holding a team meeting and having almost the whole squadf react negatively.

I have to admit that I am still trying to understand these team meetings. I am just as likely to get a positive response as negative and do not always understand why. There is nothing worse than holding a team meeting and having almost the whole squadf react negatively.

Amen to that. Has almost killed my season after a very bad team meeting

I am not one to complain, but I do agree that the current morale system needs some 'tweaking' (check my thread in general discussion about managing Southampton).

However, I would like to point out that the old system in which all my players were hooked on ecstacy (Superb morale) was incredibly annoying / unrealistic, in its own way.. and made the game way TOO easy!

Have you tried signing a coach with high motivation, mental coaching and man management and letting him do the team talks?

Not just for team talks, extend this to ALL your coaching staff. If you have space for 5 in the category "coach", then hire specialists with the highest star rating for each category, taking only that training, then use every other slot (1st team, Youth coaches and AssMan) purely for high Motivation, Man Management and Mental coaches, taking all training.