Team Talks Translated

The General Discussion forum has thrown up a lot of issues about team talks. Although there are two exceptional team talk threads already available, Communication and Psychological Warfare and Woifsong's Guide to Teamtalks, theay are both quite long and were written for FM08. This thread has no intention of doing the job they did, which is far greater reaching and detailed than I could ever hope to achieve. My only intention here is to provide a quick reference guide to how I translate each team talk option, which has generally been successful in FM09.

General

To know what to say in a team talk, you have to look at the context of the match, the make up of your squad and its relationship with you, your own reputation, morale and motivation feedback and individual player performances. A raw and ungelled squad will often need different feedback than a match hardened bunch that have played together for years. Being 2-0 up at home to West Brom is far different than being 2-0 away at the Arsenal, and should be treated so. Telling a determined squad to be professional or buck their ideas up will work, whereas telling a more flaky one will backfire, with greater degrees of encouragement being required.Sometimes a 3-0 win is no more than an expected result, at other times it is exceptional. Be prepared to use different full-time talks based on your expectations of the result rather than the final result itself.

Pre-Match: Team

We can win this: This will be a tight match, but if we play to the best of our ability we can win this

Wish luck: I think we'll struggle here, but with a bit of fortune we might get something out of the game, so good luck boys

I expect a win: We are by far and away the better side so I expect us to get all three points

For the fans: A good professional job should bring us the three points, so go out, play well and give the fans their money's worth

No pressure: We have next to no chance here, so go out and do the best you can.

Result will come: We are comfortably the superior side so as long as you play in the manner you are capable, we'll win this.

Pre-Match: Individual

Faith in your ability: I know you’ve been struggling recently, but I have real faith in your ability and am sure you are going to do a good job today

No Pressure: Just go out there and do your best

Expect a Performance: I expect to see a lot of effort and focus from you today. Show me what you are capable of.

Pick Up from Last Time: You were magnificent last match and I want you to repeat it this time.

Expect Better: You had a shocker last match and I want to see the real you today.

Half Time: Team

Encourage: We've played well, but with a little more effort we can make sure of the result

Pleased: You've done far better than expected. Well done boys and keep it up.

Delighted: Unbelievable performance. Beyond my wildest dreams.

No team talk: You've done about as well as expected

For the fans: Keep it professional and get the result

Disappointed: You aren't playing well. Sort it out.

Angry: Totally unacceptable performance. Pull your fingers out or else

Don't let your performance drop: You haven't played well but are leading. Make sure they don't get back into this

These are supplemented by a few slightly different options that mean almost the same thing, but appear in different scenarios and can give you an idea as to why the team isn’t playing well (i.e. issues of complacency rather than being outplayed technically):

We can win this: With a little more effort and luck, we can grab a win here

See more from you: You are losing because you aren't putting enough effort in

Get a result: You have put next to no effort in and deserve to be losing. There is no excuse for this and I expect a big performance second half.

Unlucky not to be winning: You have played far better than I expected and should be leading. Keep it up and we can win this.

Don't get complacent: You are winning, but aren’t really putting enough effort in. I want you to work harder this half

Half Time: Individual

Declare your Anger: Given your reputation and ability, that is a totally unacceptable performance. Sort it out!

Tell of Disappointment: You are too good to be playing like this and I expect to see more second half.

Faith in your Ability: You haven’t had a good half but I’m sure you can change that around

Pleased: You’ve had a great half, son. Go out and do it again.

Delighted: You’ve pretty match won us the match by yourself. Great performance.

No Pressure: Forget this half and just go out and give your best.

You can make the difference: You’re playing well and with a little more luck and effort can win this for us.

Prove a point: Show me you are worth your place in the team.

Full Time: Team

Angry: You’ve let yourself, the club, the fans and me down with that performance.

Disappointed: I expect more than this. We didn’t deserve anything out of this match.

Sympathize: We played well and were unlucky not to get something more out of this match

No Team Talk: No better and no worse than expected

Pleased: You played very well. Well done to all of you.

Delighted: You surpassed my every expectation. Fantastic performance, boys.

Warn against Complacency: That was only just about good enough and I expect to see better next match

Perform like that every week: Great result and far, far better than recent performances. Try to keep this up.

Full Time: Individual

Angry: You haven’t played anywhere close to your ability and have let the whole team down.

Disappointed: You’ve not played well and I’m upset with your performance.

Did Well: I was pleased with your performance today. You tried hard and played well.

Delighted: You were our match winner today and deserve the highest praise possible

Never thought about some of them top post wwfan thank you

Great post.

Something like this would be a good addition to the game. Hold your mouse over one of the options and a tooltip pops up with a little description as in this thread giving the user some more information as to when it might be a good idea to use it.

I’m not sure if sympathise doesn’t have two meanings, as I’ve seen my assistant recommend it for different scenarios, one where we’ve been the better side and somehow not picked up the win (which fits your explanation) and the other where we’ve played a far superior side and got royally hammered, but don’t want to be harsh on the team.

Great breakdown.

I think it goes to prove that 'no team talk' is often a good option. I have mentioned this in the past, but got shot down a little.

I think its a bad interpretation of whats happening. I dont think it means that you go into the dressing room, stare at the players and walk out, I think it simply means that you do not pick out anything in particular to talk about.

Although its hard to test team talks, as its dependant on opposition, performances and odds, I do beleive that giving some of your players no team talk emphasises the talks for the players that do get one.

I have often told the whole team I am happy and then picked out 3 or 4 and given them the same personal speach only for it to have no effect. HOwever, when you do the same without the team ones, so you are giving just 4 individual talks, I find that it nearly always provokes a response.

LAM

At the start of a new game or when you take over a bigger club and your assistant manager is telling you that certain players are having problems motivating themselves for you. How do you deal with that?

Morale is high as we have gotten off to a good start, despite the selection screen showing otherwise. But most games I start with 'Looking complacent'. I also got this just after using the 'win we can win this' where we had played okay but were 0-0.

LAM

At the start of a new game or when you take over a bigger club and your assistant manager is telling you that certain players are having problems motivating themselves for you. How do you deal with that?

Morale is high as we have gotten off to a good start, despite the selection screen showing otherwise. But most games I start with 'Looking complacent'. I also got this just after using the 'win we can win this' where we had played okay but were 0-0.

LAM

'We can with this' seems only to work when you're underdogs according to the match odds. Even then, it seems to cause a bit of complacency in some of my players (especially if we've won the last few games) -- so I sometimes use 'expect a performance' on certain players who seem prone to it. Try that with one or two players and see if it stops them being complacent.

In your case, it's possible that you've set your manager reputation as too low for the club you're managing (did you put it as automatic?). If that's the case, then there's not that much you can do about it until either your rep goes up a bit, or the players get used to you. Signing or playing a couple of particularly professional or determined players might help, I suppose.

Before you kick off a match you should always check the assistant’s feedback, as he’ll usually give advice on how the players are looking warming up. If he says that anyone is looking complacent during the warm-up then you can give him the ‘expect a performance’ talk to nip it in the bud.

One thing I struggle with is when a player is looking complacent during the first half but his rating at half time doesn’t really warrant me giving him a hard time.

I have just about cracked team talks except the dreaded 2-0 half time lead. I am leaning more and more to nothing with a few pleased to players with a high rating, but it is unnerving how many games die after half time with the 2-0 lead.

Good post as usual wwfan.

Have been waiting for an update to the motivation posts to FM08.

Nice work

At the start of a new game or when you take over a bigger club and your assistant manager is telling you that certain players are having problems motivating themselves for you. How do you deal with that?

LAM

I don't think you can do anything except to win them over by getting wins. If you managed to do well in your 1st 10-15 games, the players will be convinced that you are the man for the club, so you need to get as many wins as possible.

Awesome post! This will help me alot since im struggling with teamtalks sometimes..

Thx alot wwfan!

Nice write-up.

Does the talk given to the entire team have any bearing on the effectiveness of the talk given to individual players? For example, if I tell the whole team that I "expect a performance" and one player that there's "no pressure", is that the same effect as giving the "for the fans!" speech and telling the same player that there's no pressure?

Very interesting reading. At the same time, good to see you again writing new thread.

You forgot "Warn against Complacency" in Pre-Match. I use this in 2nd legs, when your team has won 2 or 3-0 in the first leg in champions league or something similar.

No Pressure: Just go out there and do your best

I had to laugh at this one, because I once had a youth team manager IRL who used to say this every game without fail, regardless of the opponents. I wonder what he would have made of the FM team-talks

Nice guide wwfan and I'm sure it will help many people understand things a little bit more.

wwfan

Are you sure about "wish luck" translation? Because in my experience (Everton, 3rd season, won EPL in 2 previous, 35 games without defeat in the 3rd) "we can win this!" leads to either complacency or luck of motivation (something like "yeah, maybe we can, but nothing happen if we lose"). "Wish luck" works great in most cases, unless I play against really weak team (then "I expect a win"), and "for the fans" is usually an option to fire up players. That's how it is for me, though maybe I just mix it lucky:).

One of the best opening posts / threads I've read in a long while

It makes me think that this sort of description should be put into the game, like in AM Feedback, he could say so and so needs encouraging / shouting at, etc

This is the most accurate interpretation I have seen for 09. I think that the talks are much more context-sensitive in this version. For example, "Sympathise" could reasonably be used when getting trounced, when you've gone a man down or when you've been all over the opposition but failed to score.

After reading this thread my range of team talks has increased significantly. I have started using 'none' a lot more often in the belief that the strength of an individual talk increases as the number of them decreases.

Anyway, using an in-game scenario as an example, my last game was away to Arsenal, as Newcastle. I have bought about 6 young prospects, but generally the team is the same as before. I have no idea what my best first XI really is, but there are a few players I persist with. Squad gelling is pretty poor at the moment and the whole squad went nuts when I selected Coloccini as captain (doesn't even speak English!), and we hadn't won in the first 5 games. Looks like I have some persuading to do!

Ordinarily, away to a top-4 team (+Citeh) I would just tell the whole squad 'No pressure'. Generally, I'd keep it tight for ~70 mins, the opposition would step up a gear, score and we'd travel home despondent. That was with my much better Zaragoza team, too. This time, I told the squad 'wish luck', asked Martins to pick up where he left off, and told Michael Owen 'No pressure' (first appearance after injury, bar reserves, 'severely lacks match practice' and Okay morale). Arsenal, to be honest, were pretty poor. They were doing everything at 100mph and neither team could really string much together. Away from home I try to make it hard for the opposition so I had all closing down within our own half, only Kevin Nolan had an attacking mentality - because of his good decisions. Anyway, Ryan Taylor manages to land a corner on Owen's head for 1v0. I really didn't know what to do, it wasn't hugely against the run of play, but it was still Arsenal. I left it as was and we went in leading at half time.

I thought for about 5 minutes what I should say to get them through this. I figured Arsenal were going to get an absolute earful cos they should be beating the likes of us. I said 'Encourage' to the team, told Martins (who had a 5.9 rating at this point) to 'prove a point', and told Beye and Taylor that I was disappointed* (6.8 and 7.0 respectively).

Arsenal certainly came out the better team, but they had a few 'Playing nervously'. Damien Duff, who has been utterly outstanding somehow, took matters into his own hands and scored to make it 2v0. Almost immediately, Martins sprung to life and added a third. I scaled back the tactic ever so slightly and we saw the game out. A 3v0 win away to Arsenal. Best result of my FM career and I truly believe it's down to the team talks as much as a half-decent tactic.

I'll post some screenshots when I get back from work.

* In hindsight, this was a mistake. I should have told them I had faith in them. Away to Arsenal, 7.0 is outstanding for an up-and-coming defender like Tayls. Beye just hates me cos I wouldn't let him leave to Blackburn for <£4.5m.

---

Update:

I played Chelsea at home the game after. Our morale was a mix of very-good to superb so I went with 'we can win this'. Chelsea don't have absolute quality in all positions. Malouda and Quaresma are pretty poor for top 4, but Drogba and Lampard are class. I brought Coloccini back into defence, pushed Bassong out to LB to man mark Quaresma. After about fifteen minutes we were two up with Coloccini scoring them both!

They threw the kitchen sink at us until half time and managed to get a goal back. At half time I noticed that they had changed formation to 442 and put Anelka on. Another switch saw Enrique come back to LB, Bassong and Tayls in CD and I put Coloccini in DM, took Owen off and played a 4141. They didn't really have a sniff in the 2nd half. I'd done the same as in the Arsenal game - 'encourage' at half time to try to squeeze some more out of the team. Coloccini got a 'pleased'. We saw out the game, with Drogba playing without confidence, Alex, Carvalho and Quaresma all playing nervously. Even managed to add a cheeky third at the death when they'd gone 424.

Fantastic OP and a really helpful insight into teamtalks.

I do have one question. I am Spurs and played Sunderland, first game of the season at home. We were favourites for the game. At the start I chose 'wish luck'. At half time I was 4-0 up. Now, I was mindful that the team had played fantastically, way above expectations. However, at the same time, i did not want them to become complacent.

I was torn between 'none' and 'pleased'. I eventually chose 'pleased' but did notice that the performance tailed off somewhat in the 2nd half. Should I have chosen 'none' in a bid to maintain their performance and congratulate them at the end of the match?

Excellent work!

wwfan

Are you sure about "wish luck" translation? Because in my experience (Everton, 3rd season, won EPL in 2 previous, 35 games without defeat in the 3rd) "we can win this!" leads to either complacency or luck of motivation (something like "yeah, maybe we can, but nothing happen if we lose"). "Wish luck" works great in most cases, unless I play against really weak team (then "I expect a win"), and "for the fans" is usually an option to fire up players. That's how it is for me, though maybe I just mix it lucky:).

Yea, i share a similar view on this as i think "You can win this game" does not match what is read. Instead, it is a NO-NO team talk in whatever situation which will demotivate your players.

Although, i think on the word itself, it sounds the perfect teamtalk in most situation.

You forgot "Warn against Complacency" in Pre-Match. I use this in 2nd legs, when your team has won 2 or 3-0 in the first leg in champions league or something similar.

I believe any second leg match can treat as "half time" in terms of team talk.

You can see and use all the "half time" team talk for pre match team talk in second leg match.

Do you guys say that you are dissappointed even when you are playing away, if your down in the first half?

Yea, i share a similar view on this as i think "You can win this game" does not match what is read. Instead, it is a NO-NO team talk in whatever situation which will demotivate your players.

Although, i think on the word itself, it sounds the perfect teamtalk in most situation.

To me it's supposed to be a good teamtalk when you are underdog. It's like "Everybody says we are going down, but we can win! It's your chance to prove them wrong". Basically, an attempt to boost players' confidence. Unfortunately, in many cases has the opposite effect, like "everybody says we are going down, so there won't be any problem if we lose".

wwfan

Are you sure about "wish luck" translation? Because in my experience (Everton, 3rd season, won EPL in 2 previous, 35 games without defeat in the 3rd) "we can win this!" leads to either complacency or luck of motivation (something like "yeah, maybe we can, but nothing happen if we lose"). "Wish luck" works great in most cases, unless I play against really weak team (then "I expect a win"), and "for the fans" is usually an option to fire up players. That's how it is for me, though maybe I just mix it lucky:).

It seems to relate how gelled and high in morale your team is. For an ungelled or lower morale side, 'We can win this' is the best option. However, for a well-gelled, high morale and high determination squad, the 'For the fans' option seems to bring the most success. 'Wish luck' could work if it either relaxes the team or gets a highly determined squad trying to prove a point i.e. he thinks we need luck to win this!!!! Let's go out and show him how good we are!!!

I only illustrated how I would translate each one. How you want to use them relates to your own reading of your squad. If telling them it will be a tough game and they need a bit of luck to win always gets them playing good football, then you have reached a conclusion about how your squad reacts to certain situations and motivational statements. That doesn't mean that the transation is flawed, although it might well be It's only my own opinion after all.

I’m not sure if sympathise doesn’t have two meanings, as I’ve seen my assistant recommend it for different scenarios, one where we’ve been the better side and somehow not picked up the win (which fits your explanation) and the other where we’ve played a far superior side and got royally hammered, but don’t want to be harsh on the team.

It would depend on how well you played in the latter case. If you had actually competed by got stuffed due to the superior quality of players playing at the top of their game, then Sympathise would be fine. However, if your team rolled over and died, then it would be a bad choice. Knowing which of these happened when relying on the 2/3d is tough, but possible, to ascertain.

I do have one question. I am Spurs and played Sunderland, first game of the season at home. We were favourites for the game. At the start I chose 'wish luck'. At half time I was 4-0 up. Now, I was mindful that the team had played fantastically, way above expectations. However, at the same time, i did not want them to become complacent.

I was torn between 'none' and 'pleased'. I eventually chose 'pleased' but did notice that the performance tailed off somewhat in the 2nd half. Should I have chosen 'none' in a bid to maintain their performance and congratulate them at the end of the match?

In such a scenarion, 9 times out of 10 the performance will tail off no matter what you say. It is rare to see a side scoring more than 4 or 5 goals in a match, so if you are four to the good at half time, the likelihood will be that is roughly how it finishes. On the odd occasion, you might inspire your team to keep on playign their hearts out, but in general it is enough to stop the opposition from having any chance of getting back into the game. If the second half was a borefest with hardly any chances at either end, then the teamtalk did its job. If, however, Sunderland came out looking like world beaters, you probably made the wrong choice.

In your situation, because of your opening teamtalk being 'Wish Luck' you'd have to reward them, so either the 'Pleased' or 'Thrilled/Delighted' talk would have been OK. However, if you had said, 'I expect a win' to a top quality, well-gelled, highly motivated and determined squad, then perhaps 'None' would have been more suitable.

wwfan, if you are 0-1 or 0-2 down in halftime and you are a favorite do you allways say 'Dissappointed', even if you playing away? Or do you have a better solution?

pilsken - I think the generalrule of thumb is that it depends on who you are, who your playing and the situation. Forf example, if I was Arsenal, losing away to West Brom, then a dissapointed half time team talk would suffice to try and get an able and determined squad playing better.

However, If I was Spurs, losing away to Everton (an equal and able team) then a more encouraging team talk to raise the belief and spirits of the team would probably be more beneficial.

Here's a scenario, wonder if anyone agrees with my reading of this. Away to Arsenal I said 'wish luck' and won. At home to Chelsea I said 'we can win this' and won. I'm now about to go away to Bolton who are in 16th. Surely, with morale 'superb' across the board, having beaten two top-four teams in a row and Bolton being poor and relying on counter, 'expect a win' is not unreasonable?

Ordinarily, I wouldn't even consider putting that much pressure on my squad away from home, but we seem to be hitting a purple patch, so why not, eh?

pilsken - I think the generalrule of thumb is that it depends on who you are, who your playing and the situation. Forf example, if I was Arsenal, losing away to West Brom, then a dissapointed half time team talk would suffice to try and get an able and determined squad playing better.

However, If I was Spurs, losing away to Everton (an equal and able team) then a more encouraging team talk to raise the belief and spirits of the team would probably be more beneficial.

Thanks for the answer. My only problem is that i can't seem to choose 'Encourage' in halftime when im loosing. Should 'We Can Win This' suffice or maybe 'I have faith in you' on every single player?

Here's a scenario, wonder if anyone agrees with my reading of this. Away to Arsenal I said 'wish luck' and won. At home to Chelsea I said 'we can win this' and won. I'm now about to go away to Bolton who are in 16th. Surely, with morale 'superb' across the board, having beaten two top-four teams in a row and Bolton being poor and relying on counter, 'expect a win' is not unreasonable?

Ordinarily, I wouldn't even consider putting that much pressure on my squad away from home, but we seem to be hitting a purple patch, so why not, eh?

Absolutely, if you're match-odds favourite, unless you have a team full of bottlers (or team full of 'pressure < 10' in FMspeak!). With two good wins and morale high, there's always a chance of complacency otherwise. You could also try 'for the fans' and a couple of 'expect a performances' for anyone who the ass-man highlights as looking complacent before kick off.

It seems to relate how gelled and high in morale your team is. For an ungelled or lower morale side, 'We can win this' is the best option. However, for a well-gelled, high morale and high determination squad, the 'For the fans' option seems to bring the most success. 'Wish luck' could work if it either relaxes the team or gets a highly determined squad trying to prove a point i.e. he thinks we need luck to win this!!!! Let's go out and show him how good we are!!!

I only illustrated how I would translate each one. How you want to use them relates to your own reading of your squad. If telling them it will be a tough game and they need a bit of luck to win always gets them playing good football, then you have reached a conclusion about how your squad reacts to certain situations and motivational statements. That doesn't mean that the transation is flawed, although it might well be It's only my own opinion after all.

Maybe your right as my players are willing to die for each other. Though, I would interpret 'wish luck' as "I have no doubt you know what to do so no extra words needed. Go ahead and Good luck." Anyway, it's how I would react on such words. Maybe I have different personality

Nice guide. Thanks.

One thing I've never fully been sure about is the "Do it for the Fans". Most say it's good to use in matches against rivals but what about a home/season opener against a lower non-rival side. This is also the first time I hear it translated to "Let's do a nice professional job.." where did you get this idea of a 'professional job' from, I'm curious.

It's not rocket science.

This makes so much sense in real life but how does it translate to fm? as in real life things seem quite different to fm in alot of cases

You are a superb person wwfan. I can't thank you enough for removing the ambiguity.

Here's a dilemma:

Team playing well, winning most games- Home game against a weaker team

Asst report pre game picks out a player who is stuggling to cope with the pressure- I would normally tell him the pressure is off him today

Next line of the Asst report tells me that the same player is exhibiting over confidence and complacency in the warm up- normally I would expect a performance from this player with this report

So which report do I listen to and which player talk is the correct one?

Great thread and learnt something, No team talk: You've done about as well as expected. Thank you.

Here's a dilemma:

Team playing well, winning most games- Home game against a weaker team

Asst report pre game picks out a player who is stuggling to cope with the pressure- I would normally tell him the pressure is off him today

Next line of the Asst report tells me that the same player is exhibiting over confidence and complacency in the warm up- normally I would expect a performance from this player with this report

So which report do I listen to and which player talk is the correct one?

I don't know the "right" answer, but I'd always tell that player that I expect a performance.