Why do I have a discipline problem?

[Irchard]

I have just had three players sent off in one match. Even before that game I had received the most red cards in the league. My tackling is set to default, and at the start of the season my assistant told me he was concerned that we have one of the least aggresive sqauds in the league, so it can't be down to the players in that sense. Every player who has been sent off has been given at least a warning; and if it was a straight red, usually a fine, depending what the red card was for. None of them have whinged about it.

Anybody have any other suggestions about what might be causing this or how to rectify it?

[darkson01]

you need to apply heavy fines for players getting sent off and small fines or warnings for yellow cards and you need to given warnings anf ines for players playing badly. that should sort out your discipline problems as they will not think twice about doing dangerous tackles or getting too angry. but again it depends on players aggression

[Brian Shanahan]

You might also have managed to make a tactic which leaves you exposed at the back, leading to lots of professional fouls which in my opinion get a lot heavier punishments in the game than in real life (in England anyway). I feel though that the heavy punishments for these are right though so I'm not asking for this to be toned down.

[darkson01]

Well just look at the amount red cards this weekend, I think SI have it spot on!

[Irchard]

you need to apply heavy fines for players getting sent off and small fines or warnings for yellow cards and you need to given warnings anf ines for players playing badly. that should sort out your discipline problems as they will not think twice about doing dangerous tackles or getting too angry. but again it depends on players aggression

I am already doing that. The main culprit is a central midfielder who has been sent off three times this season (halfway through the Jan atm) and twice last season. He has aggression 6 and tackling 12 (which is quite good, as I'm in Scots div 1) and he usually plays with central midfielder role, occasionally as a wide midfielder, none of that would suggest to me that he should get sent off a lot, especially as there is usually a more defensive CM alongside and always an anchor behind him. Having said all that, he does apparantly like to 'dive into tackles', so I am going to assume that that is the root of his problems for now, and get him to stop.

The anchor man is the other frequent offender, he has had 2 reds this season and 2 last, but I'm gonna overlook it for now, I think it probably comes with the territory with someone who plays his type of game.

[Irchard]

Well just look at the amount red cards this weekend, I think SI have it spot on!

This wasn't a criticism of the game at all! I was just asking for advice and opinions on what to do!

[baker.simon]

Well just look at the amount red cards this weekend, I think SI have it spot on!

Yes, a record week for red cards out of 16 years of the premier league

You need a bigger reference period than 1 round of games to come to a conclusion.

Im the same as the OP, lots of reds and yellows, not an aggresive squad, light tackling. Something is up somewhere tbh.

[Irchard]

I have just had three players sent off in one match. Even before that game I had received the most red cards in the league. My tackling is set to default, and at the start of the season my assistant told me he was concerned that we have one of the least aggresive sqauds in the league, so it can't be down to the players in that sense. Every player who has been sent off has been given at least a warning; and if it was a straight red, usually a fine, depending what the red card was for. None of them have whinged about it.

Anybody have any other suggestions about what might be causing this or how to rectify it?

Also, quite fittingly, after the third guy was sent off, fireworks starting going off outside my window.

[Amaroq]

I'd look at the tactical spot first - Brian Shanahan's advice sounded spot on to me, and dovetails with a change which SI have made for this version to make a clear "last defender" much more likely to pick up a red if he fouls an attacker. So that's my first guess.

My second guess would be your Captain, because, gosh was it back in FM'05? One of my first posts on this forum was asking why I was getting so many red cards.

The advice I got was that its not just enough to have a Captain with a high Influence: you need to look at what he influences his teammates to do.

In my case, I had a high Bravery, high Aggression, high Influence player .. so he was getting in a lot of reckless challenges and picking up a lot of fouls and yellows. I suspect he also had the PPM "Likes to argue with officials" because he'd then argue the call and get another yellow and get sent off ... but worse, the rest of my squad picked up his habit of arguing with the refs, so I started getting matches where I'd have four or five yellows and a red .. most of them for dissent!

Changing my Captain (to somebody with lower Influence, but middling Aggression, who didn't argue with officials, and had high Determination, Team Work, and Work Rate) really changed the character of my squad over the next two to three seasons: we eventually became a hard-working determined side who could play full matches on "Hard" tackling and gracefully accept the extra fouls and yellows that brought about. It was a pretty stunning difference - and really helped "sell" me on how astonishingly deep the game is.

Even if its not either of those two .. rest assured, there is a good reason you're having trouble, and you will be able to find and fix it.

[darkson01]

This wasn't a criticism of the game at all! I was just asking for advice and opinions on what to do!

Oh I know mate, sorry if it felt like that.

Yes, a record week for red cards out of 16 years of the premier league

You need a bigger reference period than 1 round of games to come to a conclusion.

Im the same as the OP, lots of reds and yellows, not an aggresive squad, light tackling. Something is up somewhere tbh.

Yeah you both right, Thought it was funny though looking at the weekends game and I was wondering if SI had paid refs to act as if they were playing FM

As far as more advice goes, I have no idea mate. I'd maybe rest the guy if you can, or maybe even transfer listing him, might sort him out. Either that or finding something that may link to his sending offs in the media interaction bit.

[Irchard]

I'd look at the tactical spot first - Brian Shanahan's advice sounded spot on to me, and dovetails with a change which SI have made for this version to make a clear "last defender" much more likely to pick up a red if he fouls an attacker. So that's my first guess.

My second guess would be your Captain, because, gosh was it back in FM'05? One of my first posts on this forum was asking why I was getting so many red cards.

The advice I got was that its not just enough to have a Captain with a high Influence: you need to look at what he influences his teammates to do.

In my case, I had a high Bravery, high Aggression, high Influence player .. so he was getting in a lot of reckless challenges and picking up a lot of fouls and yellows. I suspect he also had the PPM "Likes to argue with officials" because he'd then argue the call and get another yellow and get sent off ... but worse, the rest of my squad picked up his habit of arguing with the refs, so I started getting matches where I'd have four or five yellows and a red .. most of them for dissent!

Changing my Captain (to somebody with lower Influence, but middling Aggression, who didn't argue with officials, and had high Determination, Team Work, and Work Rate) really changed the character of my squad over the next two to three seasons: we eventually became a hard-working determined side who could play full matches on "Hard" tackling and gracefully accept the extra fouls and yellows that brought about. It was a pretty stunning difference - and really helped "sell" me on how astonishingly deep the game is.

Even if its not either of those two .. rest assured, there is a good reason you're having trouble, and you will be able to find and fix it.

Wow... really helpful post. Both my captain and vice captain have high aggression and bravery, so that is possibly affecting it, although neither of them are guaranteed starters at the moment (the capt often doesnt make the bench), I don't know if club captains still have an effect when they're not on the pitch/ in the squad?

The third choice captain (and most frequent match-day captain) is actually this guy who keeps getting sent off, so maybe the captaincy coupled with the diving into tackles PPM is making him a bit over-enthusiastic? In any case, I will experiment over the remaining few months of the season, and use your input to put a bit more thought than usual into next season's captains and see what happens.