Guarding against complacency and nervousness

I was wondering if anyone had any tips for ridding my Tottenham (first season) team of complacency? I cant work out what combination of overall and individual team talks works best.

I also cant work out what causing some players to play nervously. For example, We had a home league match against Sunderland, our form was great as was morale yet two or three players were nervous after a team talk of 'Do it for the fans'. Why the fudge would they be nervous in a league game at home to an inferior team?

Spank you.

Have you tried: "(Assertive) If we play our game we'll win, so go out there and blah blah blah"?

I find that relaxes players pretty well.

You have to play the morale game like the mini-game that it is. Take notes about which players respond well to criticism or praise, assertiveness, calmness, or cautiousness. Complacency can creep in very easily to non-resolute teams if you're doing well. Battling it is not easy. I constantly tell my players that I'm unhappy with their performances or "you've just been unlucky" in counterintuitive ways and it seems to work for me with the squad I have. 6.6-->6.9 "I'm disappointed with your junk. Do something. (assertive or oddly, cautiously)". 5.5--> 6.1 "You've been unlucky". Lol. I think in your case you really need to stir the pot a bit and try out some more assertive team talks. IE, either make them sweat or give them confidence, then mix it up at half time. You can go back to tepid "For the Fans" once you've rid the team of nerves and hangovers.

I find that using the least praising option as the run keeps going helps to avoid complacency, using the calm tone and saying "i'm happy with what i saw out there, there were some positives for sure" or however it's worded even if you trashed someone 5-0, keep saying on the press conferences that the streak should end soon and that the next match is going to be tough and the opponent must be respected.

Probably those players can't handle pressure very well, it comes down to their personality.

My team talk tip is to talk for the performance not the result. Praising a close victory over a weaker team leads to complacency. (IMO.)

I've never been able to fix nervousness. I prefer it to complacency.

The easiest way to fix nervousness is, as said, the calm 'play your natural game and the result will come'. Complacency is fixed by expecting victory at all times, demanding the very best and not being satisfied with a 1-0 win over a bottom end team. The old 'we were lucky out there but need to perform better against better teams' talk.

Never be afraid to rule with a rod of perfection.

And 'doing it for the fans' is nearly useless. Screw the fans, do it for the points

Assertive "expect a win/for the fans" should get rid of complacency. Young players, players with low Determination, and players with Fairly Good or less morale will usually not react well to being told this. If the match is an important/big one, lack of Big Match hidden skill and/or Pressure handling (also hidden) will often manifest themselves in the form of nervousness or even worse; "looking uninterested". The last ten league matches of the season many players will lose their cool regardless of team morale and form, and you may have to become supportive and calm again. Some players "lose it" if things don't go well in this period, and morale will suddenly and with no warning drop to Abysmal (in-match).

So as long as morale is good and the team is in good form, be rough on them (Passionate, Assertive, even Aggressive). When you give them the hairdryer treatment at half-time, they actually lose morale, so I try to avoid doing that if we are a goal or more behind - it is more efficient and less risky when you play badly but isn't losing. So yes, before the match and in the break concentrate on the performance (and be sure that the AI of your players "understand" that they have been bad; i.e poor possession and shot stats. Subjective human observations of poor play are not noticed in-game and thus yelling at them for it may be a bad idea).

I always praise wins, but I use passionate praise sparingly. It is mostly calm or cautious "a god win for us" especially at home and when I am the favourite. It boosts morale and I'd rather deal with overconfidence in the next match than disappointed players.

A loss following a bad performance in an important/big match is always aggressive - unacceptable. I want the media report that I slam my team. I usually bounce straight back after that. A LOT of morale is lost, however, so I won't do it unless the bad performance was unexpected because morale is sky-high and the team is in excellent form. Slamming the team again and again is pointless. Unlucky losses I obviously say we were unlucky, but losses against inferior opposition due to a poor performance aren't unlucky - I usually tell my players calmly that they were disappointing. At home I sometimes use assertive tone instead.

... So I mostly avoid nervousness and complacency. Much of that has little to do with team talks, though - it is about team building and getting rid of players who are consistently nervous when you need them to stay focused. When I do encounter nervousness, it is usually due to the need to put pressure on the team but not everyone has so good morale. Calm - you have faith individual talk to Fairly Good or lower morale players usually fixes this problem before it occurs (and if it doesn't, I sub them in the 55th minute or so after the second failed attempt to encourage them).

In the short term team talks can do the trick but as stated above in the long term you should be looking to get rid of players who can't handle pressure.