Why the dip in form every late April?

Three seasons on the trot my side's form has turned to crud over the last three or four weeks of the season. Doesn't seem to matter how well I play, my opponents will always eek out preposterous draws and wins. Is there something obvious I'm missing? I've not changed the way I manage.

Maybe your team is tired. Have you used squad rotation and maybe decrease training?

It's your tactics obviously.

I found this happen in my first season in the beta ethniki with Diagoras. I was doing very well, but my squad out played themselves and I lost two of the last three matches 3-0 and drew the other one.

it seems to happen to a lot of people, although mine seems to be in either january or november! differs depending on which save im on... rotation should help your players, especially with it being towards the end of the season, and maybe decrease training...

this used to happen all the time on fm07 for me. last 10 games, guaranteed to drop major points. not happened at all on fm08, i scraped the title twice but at least the AI was dropping points too.

but i have been top by 10 points and finished 3rd from matchday 28 onwards.

Well, my players were poor to the leagues standards, so imagine my second team.

Rotation sounds like a great idea, but I only have 18 players good enough for my first XI. And despite finishing top 5 of the Prem for 4 seasons on the trot now, I'm losing 400k a month during the season, before the finish prize is awarded.

It's your tactics obviously.

I agree.

what type of bonuses do you offer your players? i've been offering high league every year since 08/09, and i've won every year since 08/09. form never dips once a player has a PR about bonuses for me.

I offered normal and paid 300,000 even though I only got 210,000. So I've set it to low this year and the players morale has dipped. Great when I've been promoted!

As you can see, I've been rogered yet again. This is my final 4 weeks of the season in a nutshell.

League bonus HIGH btw.

Rotation sounds like a great idea, but I only have 18 players good enough for my first XI. And despite finishing top 5 of the Prem for 4 seasons on the trot now, I'm losing 400k a month during the season, before the finish prize is awarded.

That is probably part of your problem. Also have you tried lowering your training?

That is probably part of your problem. Also have you tried lowering your training?

Nope. I set the coaches up to get 7 stars each, and then downloaded some training schedules. Although the package includes pre-seasonal training I never bother with that. Maybe I should.

Could be your players are tired, but I've always finished on great 10 game runs to end my seasons. My team likes to slump around January and February.

i would recommend lowering your training workload. you could even wait untill nearer the end of the season before you lower it

Nope. I set the coaches up to get 7 stars each, and then downloaded some training schedules. Although the package includes pre-seasonal training I never bother with that. Maybe I should.

I think its a combination of no rotation and training workloads being too high, which is to be expected really. Even if you don't touch the training much, just go into the schedules and drop the overall workload down 4 or 5 notches. Also, invest in some players to give you a bit more strenght in depth and rotate.

I always turn the training down from a high medium to virtually low training... Always seems to work for me

There's a problem with rotation. If you drop a player who is performing well then when he comes back he might not play as well. I would put it down to training completely. Your players should have an intensive training program until late October, then drop it to Medium for the rest of the season. Also, bear in mind that if you're a top club you will probably be involved in more competitions and therefore playing against better opposition towards the end of the season.

These theories are all very well, but they don't explain why I should continue playing better than my opposition, creating chance after chance, but missing the vast majority whilst my opponents score from every shot on target they have.

Quality of chances? Hitting you on the break based on the match stats you posted above?

Dumb luck?

Player morale and how you respond after the first domino falls?

The effect of your particular player personalities on the above?

AI conspiracy ?

Take your pick really. It's always just going to be theory if you're asking for an explanation from other gamers rather than the people who know exactly how the match engine works.

I find that to stop a slump you need.......new players, lots of players are just sitting doing nothing having been free transfered ALL SEASON, so I generally pick up some guys in January, then one or two in March (this is obviously dependant on the skill of the available players and the league your in {for regisering them}). I have had success doing this in Scotland (up to the SPL), England (even when I was a top 2 side), Italy (Seria B) and lastly Holland (top league which name I have forgotten).

I doubt its training, unles your fitness of your team is below 90% for evey game of the slump. Its most liek a problem with motivation (mixed in with a still very poor ME) especially given the small squad you have. If you keep having many chances and your main goal threats aren't scoring try bringing in/promoting replacements even if they (stats-wise) are considerably worse than your A-team.

Out of interest do you only have 18 players in your first team screen? If so have you been getting many injuries?

I commented on this quite a while ago. I personally felt it was a bit suspicious, because as you've comented the AI just seemed to get vastly more clinical.

Here's the original thread with my stats if you're curious.

*btw, i cured it by rotating tactics - i changed form a 4-5-1 to a more offensive 4-4-2 for a month and then everything was fine and dandy

Out of interest do you only have 18 players in your first team screen? If so have you been getting many injuries?

I had maybe 19 last season, but two of those had been available on frees for 18 months. A few injuries, but rarely more than a couple at a time, and no long term ones fortunately.

I had maybe 19 last season, but two of those had been available on frees for 18 months. A few injuries, but rarely more than a couple at a time, and no long term ones fortunately.

My theory is theres nothing fortunate about it, I think if you have a small squad you get less injuries than a big squad (PROPORTIONALLY).

The last time I had a small squad was my Cowdenbeath game when I never had more than 20 players in my first team screen and recived no injuries of note throughout several seasons, my current game (Cherbourg) I bought many player after gaining promotion (first team screen featuring over 35 players) and was suffering serious injury after serious injury, I then sold/released 15 players (not because of injuries because there were too many to rotate and they were getting angry) and no severe injuries at all for 2 seasons. This is not the first time I've noticed this, I'm not saying this is in any way definitve proof or even remotely close to it, but its thusfar a working theory.

Meh, I worry about more important things. Like why is it that i get better results with my old rubbish players than the ones who are world class?

Meh, I worry about more important things. Like why is it that i get better results with my old rubbish players than the ones who are world class?

Are they new players? If so did they all come at once( there is a severe penalty for this I have noticed over many games)?What sort of temperament do they have? Had the better players being playing a lot? FM is so damn complex your answer lies in these questions and about 5000 more (of which the user maybe knows 1%).

I actually think we're just stuck with FM05 with updates at the mo and maybe always will be (unless we want to buy FML - which will almost certainly be equally aggravating anyway).

This might seem painfully obvious, but in that game you show - you shots on target ratio is only about 1 in 3. Fair chance none of them were particularly good. Do you have quite a few players set to take long shots often and playing a high tempo by any chance? If so I'd adjust it down. I find tactics just stop working and need to be tweaked gradually over the season.

Makes me wonder if there is some sort of complacency drive that gradually lowers a team's efforts unless events shake things up. So while everything is going well nobody notices the slow deterioration week-to-week, but by the end of the season it can become noticeable as the scales tip for the whole team from "Cares enough to make a show of effort" to "Is looking forward to the weekend".

The reason why this would happen more drastically to a small and tightly knit team is that most players are going to go through this process at nearly the same rate. So while events spur on anti-complacency feelings ("Hot Damn, we're the best in the world!"), non-events wear away at the motivation across the whole team.

This wouldn't happen so much in a larger team because its unlikely that the central motivation/apathy axis of each player is going to be affected by the same events. Players who miss the bus to the big Euro Final won't get the boosts, while players who only play important matches may have more of a rollercoaster ride. So as the season wears on there may be drop offs in form, but they will be temporally uneven in a larger squad.

To combat this with a small squad, the suggestions already made would fit this model: Change formation, change personnel, or change training. If there is apathy with no clear source, the short road is always going to be: "Make some changes and shake things up".

On another board it was mentioned that the game models pressure, so if a team is over-achieving the players will suddenly panic and all play terrible. For me this normally shows up as them still making 20+ chances per game but only score 1, while conceding 3 goals on 4 shots at the other end. Similar to the Man Utd v Hull game above. Basically the game is normalizing to stop teams over-achieving too much, it should take seasons of building up expectations before being able to challenge with a smaller team.

One way that shows up is that if you play a team that's expected to win you wont see a form crash like you will with a smaller team. I played 4 seasons with Real Madrid winning the league by a mile every year. Moved onto Getafe and the moment they went 10 points clear in the league, they collapsed.

It all seems a bit unrealistic to me.

I think the single major factor here is training intensity. In the Xmas schedule and at the end of the season (especially for a successful team with many cup ties) it is normal to have a heavy playing schedule or fixture pile-up. With so many games, the players need a break from training. Also, in the last few weeks there is no real point in continuing training other than to maintain fitness - after the season they go off on hols and lose the benefits anyway.

So, either reduce training to lower medium, or ever give some players a few days/week break altogether. That will keep them fresher for those crucial last few games.

I have found in my saves that every year there is a bad patch of sorts when my team just does not perform to the expected level. I do not have an explanation for that. However if it occurs regularly at the end of the season then there can be some explanations..

If you are a big club and the players have performed consistently well over the season then they start underforming at the end. Just play your second choice.

If you are a small team then it may be either due to fatigue or lack of motivation. Team talks then become important.

I generally have a 'winter-dip'. Has been there since 96-97 and still continuing on as I play FM08 by now. Generally after the Dutch winter-break, my squad seems to have absolutely no clue about how they used to play (which is good, if I played badly before that; they generally start gaining form by then). With that break gone, there's still not much of a difference. I guess it has something to do with the transfer/loan window, which simply (de)motivates my team.

Nowadays it happens a lot less, but near the end of the season, it tends to show a drop of form as well. Sometimes I get out, sometimes I don't, but even with half (or whole) my squad rotated, it doesn't really help. I guess my training tires them out, but I'm not sure it would do the same for the players who only play an occasional game in my first team.

*btw, i cured it by rotating tactics - i changed form a 4-5-1 to a more offensive 4-4-2 for a month and then everything was fine and dandy

This usually helps me too. Although I prefer my good ol' 4-4-2 tactics, my team generally forces me to apply a different tactic every now and then in order to play well again. Even though they're all still the same players who won the league with that same tactic last year, it doesn't mean the same tactics will be a success 3 months later with the same squad.

Never change a winning tactic doesn't seem to apply here ;-)

My teams are ALWAYS horrible around january. I guess they don't really like to play football when it's cold outside…

i might have solved this problem by accident a long time ago. i suppose the game plays very different for everyone, i've won 5 titles on the trot using the same formation (my own recipie), very heavy training throughout the season, anyone with 95% or less fitness gets rested but i try to use the same lineup concecutively, i always "expect a win" and never over praise a victory less than 4-0, i only buy players with the same squad personality, which started off as determined and changed to highly ambitious after my second title... i can't remember the last time i either had a low shots/goal ratio or a massive dip in form towards the end of the season. i am arsenal btw, which helps.

the only mistake i made was going on holiday with 3 league games to go in preparation for the CL final. my assman ruined my morale and we lost our trophy. what have you assigned your assman to train? what are his motivating and man handling stats? do you let him do team talks?

My teams are ALWAYS horrible around january. I guess they don't really like to play football when it's cold outside…

Sounds like you have a team playing in The Netherlands ;-)

Or perhaps they all have kids on winter-break and don't get any rest late at night. Perhaps convince them to sleep over at the dugout instead? I'm sure there's that option somewhere ... :-P

This happens to me every season, usually mid february and goes on until april. Every game, every season... still havent found a cure!

Same happens to me, but I think it's because by that time I'm not too bothered. I've usually either won the league or out of the race, so I'm really just looking forward to pre-season again (or FA Cup/Champions League final).

only happens to my strikers, i always play with 2, they will act like stupid through all january so i just bring the other 2 to main team, works nice and they will score many goals but when february starts they will go dumb too but guess what, my 2 usual strikers now are smart again and start scoring again... happens every season and this is getting boring...