Does squad depth improve / affect form?

Something I've thought about before but never really known.

Noticed a few in previous saves but just got thinking about it in my Spurs save, where Naughton & Soldado seem to have been affected a lot by the availability of replacements.

I've stuck with almost the same tactic all season so far - 4-1-2-3wide - Only changing my AMR between W(a) & RDM depending on Lennon / Lamela playing. Or switching to 5-3-2 mid game if it's not working. So formation shouldn't be taken into account for the following...

Naughton played a lot better when my other 2 first team RBs were available, and pretty woeful for the few games where both of the others were injured.

Soldado seems to have been the main one affected. First half of the season he was sharing the lone Advanced Forward position with Kane and both were lukewarm, but especially Soldado. He either scored one and had a ok/decent rating, or finished somewhere between 5.8 & 6.3. Brought Ings in January for £1.5m and he played brilliantly in his first 2 games before being rested. Soldado came in and became undroppable. In the 3 games since he's scored 7 and assisted 4.

I think it'd be good if this is a part of the game, sure psychologically it matters in real life but not fussed either way. It'd just be good to know so I can think about it when building a squad in future.

I've had players unhappy with "lack of competition for places" so there must be something in it.

There can be too much squad depth. Like if u play one striker in a 4-3-3 formation and u have 2 or more strikers in the squad that are just as good as your main striker. I've got that problem now. I've just signed a regen wonderkid who's now my best striker. I have Munir and Jovic as my other options. Both Jovic and Munir are worth £30m ill probably have to sell one.

Just been brought back to earth by Soldado getting a 6.2 & a 5.9 in his last two games against Stoke & Palace so maybe it was just a timely run, or maybe after playing 5 in a row he thought of himself as first choice again.

I've had too much depth before, even if all are good and deserving it's impossible to keep them all match fit so they're not gonna perform if needed. But mentality wise I never knew if it mattered either way.

If say, Soldado expresses a concern about competing players then he will mention it to you and his morale will be affected regardless of whether the other players are injured/available or not.

What you might have been experiencing is opposition's setting themselves up to play against Spurs with Ings as the frontman, only for you to select Soldado up front who has different attributes etc. In addition Soldado was probably fully fit after the rest?

I don't think the game is quite clever enough for players to improve in form after being dropped - unless you specifically tell them you're resting them via conversations. Would love to be proved wrong though!

I don't think the game is quite clever enough for players to improve in form after being dropped - unless you specifically tell them you're resting them via conversations. Would love to be proved wrong though!

I kind of hoped so too. The fitness part might be true, especially since he dropped back to his normal form after 3 games.

I thought the opposition instructions part might have been asking a bit too much of the AI. Especially since your Ass Man only gives advice on opposition playing players, not the usual/recently used ones.