Team Talk Question

Throughout my first 15 games in charge of Spurs, i've managed to generate only one single positive reaction from a player. I sacked Kevin Bond and replaced him with Terry McDermott (17 motivating), and let him do about 50% of the team talks, but he has no better luck than I do. Does motivating have to do with reputation? Mine is set to 'automatic', and McDermott has only national rep. The only other thing I can think of is that spurs are very unprofessional and thus are never motivated about anything, although my squad personality is apparently highly ambitious. Maybe the green "positive reaction" arrows just aren't showing up? Most likely is that I've just been giving sh*t team talks, so any advice is appreciated. What do I say to Modric or another key player when they're playing badly? when they're playing well? What do I say to motivate a squad player such as Livermore or Kranjar when I give them a chance to impress? How do I initiate a second half turn-around when we're losing to stoke or hull city?

I haven't really played much of FM12, but this still seems a bit odd to me. I was able to motivate with reasonable success before the most recent patch, so maybe the way players are motivated has been improved and I just haven't caught on yet. Thanks in advance

Update- after a run of only a single positive reaction through 22 matches, my assistant was just able to generate 3 in a single match! Hopefully this is a step in the right direction, not just good luck lol