Why has my second season been a disaster with a better team?

I have just finished my 2nd season with Chelsea, in my first season I won the league and the fa cup just signing Hulk and Rosicky. I done a season and sold Drogba, Rosicky, Hilario and Benayoun and Malouda. I signed Ganso, Willian, Doumbia, Bocchetti, Douglas Costa. I finished my second season and came 5th!!!! I just could not buy a win going to away places like Norwich and Wolves and Cardiff and just losing games I would win two and then not win for 5. I used the same tactics for the first season, my team was younger, fresher and better but just couldnt win? My bro had a similar situation too. Why is this happening and what could we be doing wrong???

Maybe the new players do not fit the roles in your formation as well as the previous players did?

teams are getting used to your tactics change it around

I have just finished my 2nd season with Chelsea, in my first season I won the league and the fa cup just signing Hulk and Rosicky. I done a season and sold Drogba, Rosicky, Hilario and Benayoun and Malouda. I signed Ganso, Willian, Doumbia, Bocchetti, Douglas Costa. I finished my second season and came 5th!!!! I just could not buy a win going to away places like Norwich and Wolves and Cardiff and just losing games I would win two and then not win for 5. I used the same tactics for the first season, my team was younger, fresher and better but just couldnt win? My bro had a similar situation too. Why is this happening and what could we be doing wrong???

There could be a lot of reasons, why your further season were not like your first

1. You're using just one tactic, from what Ive read. Should not mean, that playing with just one tactic can't bring you success for a longer term, but you need to find the right tactic, which is so much "well balanced" that the AI can't really stop it by just doing some tweaks! As you might know, since the latest patches, the AI is using the "shouts" much more wisely and they will adapt their game plan to your tactic. If youre using a tactic, which has its weaknes, no matter whether defensively or offensively, they will try to make advantage of it.

So, you better either change your tactic, or try to tweak it...!

2. Looks like you have changed your team a lot... like irl, it takes a lot of time, until several player adapt to the team, country, league, tactic etc... So make sure, that you don't change the team a lot within a season and also try to sign players, who are already playing in the same league and are adapted to the country, its culture, language etc... signing 5-6 South Americans and wondering why you dont have success immediately, is not really a suprise...

3. It also looks like, that with Drogba, Malouda, Rosicky and other older "deadwood" youve sold players, which might have been some kind of legends, fans' popular player, aswell as players with high influence, who might have lots of friends in the team and those might be unhappy about their departure.

4. Also did you change your team captain? Sometimes after having a great season and signing some wonderkids or world class players with very high reputation and high influence, can disturb the team's atmosphere, as some of those new "high influential" signings might not respect a 32+ lampard or terry, who are losing more and more reputation and are not respected as much as they were a few years ago.

So, as you can see, it isnt always the tactic, which might be the reason for underachievement.

You need to be an intelligent manager and try to experiment a bit and see, where the reason is and how you can find solutions for it

2. Looks like you have changed your team a lot... like irl, it takes a lot of time, until several player adapt to the team, country, league, tactic etc... So make sure, that you don't change the team a lot within a season and also try to sign players, who are already playing in the same league and are adapted to the country, its culture, language etc... signing 5-6 South Americans and wondering why you dont have success immediately, is not really a suprise...

For some reason I've always found South American players take the longest time out of all nationalities to pick up even basic English. Dida for example I had in my Celtic team on FM11 and he still hadn't learned a word of English after an entire season.

If your players are unable to communicate effectively on the pitch it's definitely going to have an adverse effect on their performances.

i'm having a similar problem, fielded a weakned side due to olympics taking half my players, won 6-1 against city, rest of the games, have been crazy open with practially full strength, last season i just walked over everyone

i'm having a similar problem, fielded a weakned side due to olympics taking half my players, won 6-1 against city, rest of the games, have been crazy open with practially full strength, last season i just walked over everyone

who is doing your team talks mate?

Ive given up on it and since Ive signed a very superb assistant manager with 17+ in man management, discipline, determination and motivation, I am having superb results with the same tactic, which I used in FM11.

I think, you should do the same and sign a good coach or assistant manager and trust him in terms of team talks!

Second season i always get better results, i think its because i prefer a dominant, patient probing approach, and teams defend deeper against you and allow this.

OP, you may be playing the same way, but teams arent playing the same way against you. Also 3 of your signings are players who take a bit of time to settle, one in particular can be a bit troublesome to bed in.

Use the match analysis tool to compare where your issues are now, to how you were doing in the first season.

Uptonpark covers a lot of places where you should look with the first post.

It's down to how the team "gels". You should go the tactics screen and set them to TeamWork for a while.