Individual Player Coaching/Interaction (Suggestion...)

There has been a lot of talk recently with regards to tactics, and in a way I feel this is linked to how manager/player interaction should be considered for future versions of Football Manager.

The theory behind this would be to interact more with your players based on their performances and their development, rather than just 'match talk' and setting up training schedules.

If you pay attention to each match, you will notice certain players tend to have flaws, or tendencies, and in essence there is no way to influence these over time. I've just had a game with Sao Paulo, and I've noticed Dagoberto has a tendency to get caught offside often. Now I can express my frustration by yelling at the screen, but there is no way I can communicate this to the player in the game.

But how would this be resolved? My idea would be an extra (and optional) layer in match talks, more specifically related to an individual player's performance, e.g.

"Well Done" could present the following options:

1. But I would like you to work on your positioning and timing of forward runs (or other tactical input)

2. That was a good performance and your place is secure if you maintain that level

3. You have impressed me but will need to work hard to secure a first team slot

"Disappointed" could present the following options:

1. You wasted possession too often, and I will be expecting you to improve on this in the next match.

2. You failed to deliver but you worked hard and I'm confident you will turn it around

3. That performance was poor and your complacency will see you on the bench next time out

You get the idea...

Now the way I envision this working is the various comments being related to workrate, determination, adaptability and ambition. Telling Ronaldo to work on his game might not generate a response, or a negative response, whereas telling someone like Tevez could deliver a positive response in on-field performance and in training.

Of course I wouldn't want it to stop there, I'd also like to see an 'appraisal' system, where rather than just setting a player contract status to rotation or hot prospect, maybe once or twice a season you get to review their situation and give feedback, e.g.

To a "Key Player": 'I have been happy with your performances and I see you as an integral part of this club's future'; or 'I feel your performances have been sub-par and unless I see a significant improvement early next season your position at the club may come under threat'.

To a "Squad Rotation": 'You'll be competing with Player X for the position and it is up to you to prove you're worthy of a more important role' or 'I want you to be an impact player and provide a valuable role in supporting our first choice strikers/midfielders/defenders'; or 'You're not guaranteed minutes because of your drop in performance/poor attitude'.

To a "Hot Prospect": 'I feel you can have a big future at this club and want you to learn from your teammates and gain first team experience in cup games'; or 'I want you to learn the basics at a different club on loan, and if you impress I will give you plenty of opportunities next season', or 'I can see potential in you but at the moment you are not developing at an acceptable rate'.

Well, that's the idea anyway.

Thoughts, suggestions, opinions, moans?

What a brilliant sugegstion. I really wish this can be implmented in future versions.

There is so much potential in player interaction which hasnt even been near its best,

nice ideas but what happens if the option is not available ie the game not picked up on the fault.

We could expand this I did look at a demo of cm although the match engine and feel of the game is rubbish. I just prefer SI version but I just had to look at what they are doing.

One thing they got is absolute asstounding idea called I think Pro-star.

It analyses the performance and you can watch see these errors and basically interact to teach players were they are going wrong.

Obviously SI cant copy but with the old with/without ball we could have input on performance after a game by drag and drop on positioning give commands such as you should passed to X or kicked ball here. Ran to here. Now obviously this could be tedious for some and ramp up the hours big time. But if your satisfied you could simply say NO to after match analysis specially once players have learned your tactic or even get your assistant and coaches to do it.

This means you would have direct control of how a player evolves and develops and depending how good/poor he listens the feedback could be X feels manager improved his game no end. X thinks his manager should go to hell if he thinks I should change my ways.

I think Si have identified micro learning should be in the game to teach players to do moves hence we now can tell players to try to say hog the wing. So at some point I think something very similar to CM my idea might hit fm10-fm11. Its seems a natural progression would make the game so rewarding.

The idea from CM, by the sounds of it, is what I'm thinking of.

There just has to be some way to interact with players more than we currently do, as being a football manager is more about people management than anything else.

As for the suggestion of the game not picking up on what you can see on the pitch, I suppose this is down to SI and how well they program it. If it doesn't pick up on a player being caught offside, then you could either not have the option, or be presented with a range of options (some of which the player may disagree with).

There has been a lot of talk recently with regards to tactics, and in a way I feel this is linked to how manager/player interaction should be considered for future versions of Football Manager.

The theory behind this would be to interact more with your players based on their performances and their development, rather than just 'match talk' and setting up training schedules.

If you pay attention to each match, you will notice certain players tend to have flaws, or tendencies, and in essence there is no way to influence these over time. I've just had a game with Sao Paulo, and I've noticed Dagoberto has a tendency to get caught offside often. Now I can express my frustration by yelling at the screen, but there is no way I can communicate this to the player in the game.

But how would this be resolved? My idea would be an extra (and optional) layer in match talks, more specifically related to an individual player's performance, e.g.

"Well Done" could present the following options:

1. But I would like you to work on your positioning and timing of forward runs (or other tactical input)

2. That was a good performance and your place is secure if you maintain that level

3. You have impressed me but will need to work hard to secure a first team slot

"Disappointed" could present the following options:

1. You wasted possession too often, and I will be expecting you to improve on this in the next match.

2. You failed to deliver but you worked hard and I'm confident you will turn it around

3. That performance was poor and your complacency will see you on the bench next time out

You get the idea...

Now the way I envision this working is the various comments being related to workrate, determination, adaptability and ambition. Telling Ronaldo to work on his game might not generate a response, or a negative response, whereas telling someone like Tevez could deliver a positive response in on-field performance and in training.

Of course I wouldn't want it to stop there, I'd also like to see an 'appraisal' system, where rather than just setting a player contract status to rotation or hot prospect, maybe once or twice a season you get to review their situation and give feedback, e.g.

To a "Key Player": 'I have been happy with your performances and I see you as an integral part of this club's future'; or 'I feel your performances have been sub-par and unless I see a significant improvement early next season your position at the club may come under threat'.

To a "Squad Rotation": 'You'll be competing with Player X for the position and it is up to you to prove you're worthy of a more important role' or 'I want you to be an impact player and provide a valuable role in supporting our first choice strikers/midfielders/defenders'; or 'You're not guaranteed minutes because of your drop in performance/poor attitude'.

To a "Hot Prospect": 'I feel you can have a big future at this club and want you to learn from your teammates and gain first team experience in cup games'; or 'I want you to learn the basics at a different club on loan, and if you impress I will give you plenty of opportunities next season', or 'I can see potential in you but at the moment you are not developing at an acceptable rate'.

Well, that's the idea anyway.

Thoughts, suggestions, opinions, moans?

200% agree!!! That's a really good suggestion! I would like something like that in future FM09 patches or if not possible in future FMs!

Team Talks have become boring in FM09 because they weren't improved from FM08 and there isn't much from where to choose!!!

Man management is an extremely important aspect in today's football & the suggestion above will reflect 'reality' in FM09 more.

Well done luke ... a really well-thought & good thread.

Good suggestion. Sometimes you have a defender who works 89 minutes really hard against superior side that attacks your goal continuously and he makes one mistake and concedes a goal, then match engine gives him rating around 5.0 and i don't like to say "i'm disappointed" as the game predicts at the moment. I'd like to say: "you made a mistake, but otherwise great performance, head up!"

Also when my striker is wasteful whole match (offsides, missed shots) and finally he scores from penalty spot, the game still gives him reasonably good rating because of that penalty, but scoring from the spot doesn't mean good performanc, does it?

I think that's fair to connect manager's feedback with player role, as the expected performance of key player should be a lot higher standard than performance of hot prospect.