Players Body Language

I'm struggling here & it's becoming a problem

I'm playing at level 9 in England, last season we were at level 10, 16th favorite for the title (this was purely alphabetical) & went into every match at fairly even odds, the players' body language was always positive apart from the last games of the season were we'd clinched the league & a few players got complacent

I used the Touchline Team Talk shouts & quite often that would sort the player out

Pre match & at half time I let the Ass man do the team talks, he hardly ever gets a negative reaction from the players, quite often he'll get a positive reaction from 3-6 of them.

From what the Ass Man tells me, we have a professional squad & if any player I'm scouting is regarding as unprofessional or will struggle to fit in with the professional squad, I won't sign him. I didn't make wholesale changes pre season, it's mainly the same squad as last season

Now this season, we're 2nd favorites for the league, after 12 games we're just about top. We're going into games as favorites or slight underdogs away from home.

Within 15 minutes of the match players are looking uninterested or complacent & one player gets frustrated or furious if we're not winning at this point. If we're losing it's bedlam

Sideline Team Teams are no longer helping anything, apart from one player I can always switch on, but even then there's still 3 or 4 players with negative body language

Obviously I could just sub them but some of these looking negative are my best players & I'd be subbing them off at half time every match

Looking at the opposition team's body language, they don't seem to struggle with it too much, sometimes they'll just look frustrated if they're a couple of goals down

Is it that much of a concern?

Should I start taking the team team talks? (I have no clue here when it comes to them)

Are my players too high profile for the level I'm at? Though at the lower level they were fine

Have my team become too big headed & need grounding?

Should I hold a team meeting or talk to my captain? Even then, I wouldn't have a clue what to tell them

Is there anything else I could do to help the problem?

Bare in mind, I'm at level 9, my manager attributes are set to this level & the players available aren't going to be brilliant, but then again it's the same for others teams in this league :confused:

Wrong section? Noob question? Nowt to worry about?

First off, I do the talks myself, but I don't trust the AI to make good decisions about my team in any aspect . If you have been winning a lot, this can become an issue, and it isn't linked to professionalism that I can; I have yet to figure out which personality trait governs this behavior because I see with it with all types of players. I have yet to do a "scientific" study of who gets afflicted with complacency/disinterest. Is it a big problem? I don't know. If a players starts playing badly I sub them, but otherwise I just let them get on with it. It irritates me, but as long as they aren't getting sloppy and negligent, then I don't worry. One thing that may help is to vary your team talks a bit. Sometimes I don't even give one, or just use"nothing specific to say" but I do believe not being repetitive can help this.

Don't know if this has been at all helpful, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Cheers Doc, appreciate the reply

I think I'll take the team talks from now, I'll have to go & have a read up

I think if your players struggle when they go or goal down or are not winning by the end of the first half, they could not be determined enough as a group?

If you go a goal or two down and your team don't respond well to your half time talk then maybe they just aren't mentally strong enough to cope with situations like this. Just my opinion though.

I found this guide to be useful for team talks.

http://www.guidetofootballmanager.com/match-day/team-talks/team-talk-guidelines

Pre match & at half time I let the Ass man do the team talks, he hardly ever gets a negative reaction from the players, quite often he'll get a positive reaction from 3-6 of them.

Do you mean negative = red & positive = green?

Thats not really the way to look at it and could be partly the cause of your issue. A green reaction can increase the risk of complacency appearing when you are on a good run.

Its important to keep your players focused and demand results from them, especially if they have positive personalities. Some even appreciate being challenged.

Cheers Brawla, I'll have a read of that

Do you mean negative = red & positive = green?

Thats not really the way to look at it and could be partly the cause of your issue. A green reaction can increase the risk of complacency appearing when you are on a good run.

Its important to keep your players focused and demand results from them, especially if they have positive personalities. Some even appreciate being challenged.

Yes! That's how I thought of it then over the weekend I often found the green responders became complacent so was thinking green wasn't such a great thing after all

I've found if we're not leading at half time or even 1-0 to the good against a team we expect to thrash an Aggressive- That wasn't good enough! Will get a whole team of "Looked Fired Up!" then 9 times out of 10 they'll go out & perform better & look "Focused"

If we're leading at half time "Keep it up!" doesn't get any sort of response & any greeners will go on & get complacent. Anything along the line of "Don't get Complacent!" will get a lot of redders, but is that much a bad thing if they don't get complacent?

This is another one that is a bit grey and vague and could do with some clarification from SI- the green is intended to be "good" as evidenced by the way the colors are used elsewhere in the game, attribute increase arrows, for example, morale reactions to team meetings is another. I would prefer to just have a player reaction without the color characterization, though in this case the green indicates an increase to player morale in the match (have a look at the morale screen for the team and it fluctuates). That can only be a good thing. The complacency is a separate issue, though. It is a personality issue, and is more likely when you are over performing, or on a winning streak. I use the don't get complacent at appropriate times, and it will give a lot of green reactions (gained focus or whatever it said) which is good. With the team talks, it is all contextual as to the reactions you get, and it is not always clear what are appropriate given the selections you have at your disposal. I guess it needs more nuanced choices.

If we're leading at half time "Keep it up!" doesn't get any sort of response & any greeners will go on & get complacent. Anything along the line of "Don't get Complacent!" will get a lot of redders, but is that much a bad thing if they don't get complacent?

Its a question of balance, ideally you want better morale and lower chance of complacency but thats not always possible is a given situation.

Personally its not something where you can say X+Y=Z its just a case of using your experience to judge which you prefer in a given match.