Wolfsong's guide to team talks - Fm08

This is a guide for perfecting your team talks, in particular, 1/2 time team talks in footaball manager 08. The key idea of this guide is that successful team talks need to differentiate players who overperform/underperform and say special things to those individuals, instead of using general team talks only.

I have been following this guide in my brain whenever I play and I have won 370 games, drew 91, lost 50 till 2016 in my 8.0.1 game. The achievements include 2010 Wolrd Cup winner with Ivory Coast, 2012 African Nations winner with Ivory Coast, 3 times Italian Series A winner with Roma (2012/13-2014/15) and 2014 Euro Champions League winner with Roma since I joined Roma in 2012.

I have only ever had just two tactics and I always leave everything at normal except for individual mentalities (Rule of One) and defense line, and except when I need to counter 4-2-4. So team talks have played a big part in my career in fm08 so far

Hopefully the above raises your interest to read on, now let's get on with the team talks. There are seven main factors that affect the choice of team talks in fm08:

1- Player performance i.e. match ratings;

2- Player morale/squad morale;

3- Player personality/squad personality;

4- Home/away;

5- Linked with factor 2: Prematch odds;

6- Whether the opponent is your rival;

7- Whether the target player is a substitute brought on.

Now don't be scared by the long list, some factors will not need to be considered for some team talks, as I shall explain below:

Pre-Match:

Pre-match team talks are relatively straight forward and has less effect than 1/2 time team talks. Pre-match team talks generally only need to take into account factors 2, 4, 5 and 6. There is generally no need for individual team talks here, except a 'no pressure' may be used on young players making his debut. The new "pick up where you left from" rarely has any effect from my experience.

My suggestions for general pre-match team talks are as follows:

1- Home and you are heavily favoured by prematch odds, and when morale is above average: "I expect a win."

Likely outcome: one or two players 'Gained focus'; or no effect according to feedback screen, but your team performs well in the 1/2 half anyway.

2 -Home and odds are close or you are slightly favoured: "You can win this game!"

Likely outcome: a few players "looked delighted", somtimes "seemed motivated. looked delighted".

3- Home and your opponent is heavily favoured: "Wish Luck!"

Likely outcome: a few players "looked delighted", somtimes "seemed motivated".

4- Home and your opponent is your rival: "For the fans!"

Likely outcome: no effect based on feedback, but this always guarantess me an excellent 1/2 performance by my team.

4- Away and you are heavily favoured: "You can win this game!"

5- Away and odds are close: Either "You can win this game!" or "Wish luck."

6- Away and your opponent is favoured: "Wish luck."

7- Away and your opponent is heavily favoured: "Pressure is off!"

Likely outcome: a few players are "more relaxed".

If your are playing the World Cup or other continental cups, then the Home/away factor is taken away, simply base your pre-match team talks on odds and morale.

Half-time team talks:

This is the main part of this guide I have turned hundreds of matches around using 1/2 time team talks, not counting the differences team talks have made between a draw and a win. Half-time team talks mainly need to take into account almost all factors: 1,2,3,4,5 and 7.

1- Home and you are winning by 1 goal margin:

General team talk: "Encourage". Likely result: a few players 'looked delighted', sometimes 'seemed motivated'.

Individual team talk:

"Disapointing" on players with rating 6, careful that this does not work on new signings or young players making his debut.

Likely result: "Fired-up" or "Inspired" or "Seemed motivated" or any of the above couple with "Angered". Sometimes no effect. Likely "Lost confidence" if used on new signings or young players.

"You have faith" on players with ratings 8+ and substitutes at 1/2 time, especially effective on strikers/AMs.

Likely results: "Inspired to a great performance", "Inspired to a better performance", "Morale boost", "Seemed motivated", "Happy" or "Looked delighted". Rarely no effect. Which result depends on player personality.

Works sometimes on strikers with rating 7 too and occassionally on youngsters with rating 6.

Correct use of 'disappointing' and 'you have faith' will 99% guarantee you a win by 90mins.

What if the player has a rating 5? Substitute him off, say 'disappointg' or 'angry' to him, and say 'you have faith' to the player coming on.

2- Home and you are winning by more than 1 goal margin:

General team talk: "Pleased" or "Thrilled" depending on the winning margin.

Likely result: No effect or 'does not seem to be listening' but it does help to avoid negative reactions by saying something else. Only for new signings or in the 1st couple of games you are in charge, you will get 'happy' 'seemed motivated' effects by these team talks.

Individual team talks same as in point 1.

3- Home and you are drawing:

General team talk: "You can win this!" if most player ratings are 7+. Likely result: Some players "Looked delighted" "Happy" "Seemed motivated". Some players no effect.

"Disappointing" if average rating is 6 and morale is good + , likely result: a few players "inspired", "fired-up","seemed motivated". Sometimes "lost confidence" "seemed confused" if the player has rating 7+ or if the player morale is low, thus you need to do individual team talks for those players: "you have faith" or "pleased".

In this scenario you have no access to "you have faith". However, there is an even better option here: "You can make the difference!" Effective only on strikers and attacking midfielders, this, coupled with 'disapponting' will often turn the draw into a win by 90mins. Very good on strikers with rating 8, sometimes rating 7, and excellent on substute strikers.

Likely effect: "Inspired to a great performance", "Inspired to a better performance", "Morale boost", "Seemed motivated", "Happy" or "Looked delighted". Rarely no effect.

Note that "you can make the difference!" does not work on players with ratings 6, therefore if you have a striker at rating 6 at 1/2 time and you have a good substitute on the bench, put the substitute on, say 'you can make the difference' to him and disppointing to the starter, and watch the substitute making the difference. Alternatively you can leave the rating 6 striker on and say 'disappointing' to him and hope that he gets inpired or motivated. If he remains at rating 6 60-70 mins into the game, you know that the team talk has not worked, substitute him off ASAP.

An example:

I was drawing 0-0 with Modena as Roma at home after the 1s 45mins (I was heavily favoured of course), 7 of the 11 players had rating 7, so I said "you can win this game" as a genearl team talk. My striker Antunes and one of my DCs Pearce were on rating 6, they are the important positions and I can't afford them to continue underperform, so I substituted another striker Nazarith on and said "you can make difference" to him, at the same time Richards was brought on for Pearce with no individual team talks on him as I know that a DC does not usually make the difference when I am looking for a win. My AML Menez and MC Hornbig were on rating 6 as well, these are not crucial positions so I could try 'disappointing'. The results:

http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=teamtalkif1.jpg

4- Home and you are losing:

General team talk: "You can win this" if most player ratings are 7+. Likely result: Some players "Looked delighted" "Happy" "Seemed motivated". Some players no effect.

"Disappointing" if average rating is 6 and morale is good + , likely result: a few players "inspired", "fired-up","seemed motivated". Sometimes "lost confidence" "seemed confused" if the player has rating 7+, thus you need to do individual team talks for those players: "you have faith" or "pleased". (Copy and paste from above ^^)

I rarely go more harsh than disappointing for general team talks, if you feel like it, go for it and give me feebacks of your results.

Individual team talks: Similar to those in point 3, again here 'you can make the difference' and 'disappoiting' are you best friends which will turn the game around. Don't be surprised if you get a news item that one of your players praises your team talk and credits you for the turnaround after the match

Away scenarios

Because my hands are getting tired typing...I will not separate all away scenarios, as they are similar to home scenarios but note the following:

Go less harsh (as suggested by the tips in the game) for both general team talks and individual teams talks. 'Disappointing' rarely works away, either as general team talk or individual team talk, unless you are heavily favoured, e.g. Chelsea away vs...hmm... Leeds...

Therefore if you have a striker at rating 6 by 1/2 time and you are drawing/losing, don't say 'disappointing' as you do at home. "You have faith" or a general "you can win!" works occassionally but the best option for me is to substitute him off and say 'you can make the difference!" to the player coming on.

Post-match team talks:

Post-match team talks is as straight-forward as pre-match. The goal here is to keep morale up, without ignoring poor performances. Here player rating is the key factor. If most players have rating 7, say pleased, even if you lost or drew. If most players have rating 6 at home, disappointing is the right one; thrilled if most of your players are on 8+. Individually, say delighted/fantastic to those with rating 8+ and don't be surprised that those players soon list you are their favoured personnel. Say disappointing to rating 6s, if other players hav e 7+. Angered to rating 5 is justified, the player may be 'angered' too as a result, but that does help keep his motivation up.

That's it for now I welcome feedbacks and comments from all of you who have tried this guide. Or if you have your own method of team talks and wish to share it here, please do so. I hope this thread will develop into a meaningful and thorough discussion of team talks in fm08 and that it will help those struggling to make use of team talks.

Cheers,

Wolfsong

Sorry I forgot the mention that the 3 team talks are linked, if you said pressure is off at the start, a disappointing does not work at 1/2 time even if the player is on rating 6, similarly even if you lose the game, you should not say disappointing. A sympathise is a good option here.

Bless you.

What a great post.

I must admit, I haven't ever really checked team talk feedback and I should - I've sort of forgotten about it. However, I have pretty much used TT like you have, only the difference I've been more strict. You don't mention 'warn against complameny' etc and when they should be used? I usually want against complamency when I win, but it's not best of the performance and mostly get average rating 7... I'll have to check the feedback about it, will report back later.

Originally posted by towerofpower:

What a great post.

I must admit, I haven't ever really checked team talk feedback and I should - I've sort of forgotten about it. However, I have pretty much used TT like you have, only the difference I've been more strict. You don't mention 'warn against complameny' etc and when they should be used? I usually want against complamency when I win, but it's not best of the performance and mostly get average rating 7... I'll have to check the feedback about it, will report back later.

Thank you.

About 'warn against complacency', I use it occassionally only as a general pre-match team talk in the Home 2nd leg of cup eliminations e.g. When I won 2-0 or more in the 1st leg away, in the 2nd leg I warn my players against complacency. Also I check if the squad morale is high, if morale is low, I fear that this will have negative effects. The feedbacks on this is usually no effect.

Just an update from me as I have just completed the 2015/16 Italian Series A season with Roma. This example shows the beauty of 'disappoiting' and "you have faith" combined with correct substitutions.

Prior to the last match of the season against Palemo at home, my Roma was 1 point behind Palemo, so obviously I needed a win to secure the title.

At 1/2 time I was losing 0-1 despite dominating possession and shots on goal. 7 players were on rating 7, but 4 of my players: AMR Nasri, DL Bale, MC Iniesta and Striker Nazarith were on rating 6; AML Ben Arfa was carrying an injury, so I substituted Menez on, here is what I said to these players and the effects:

http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image=teamtalk2halftimeay9.jpg

60 mins into the game the score was still 0-1, however I noticed that the performance of Nasri, Bale and Iniesta improved considerably and their ratings became 7 at that time. Striker Nazarith, however, continued to miss chances and his rating stayed at 6, so I knew that my team talk did not work on him and substituted him off for Carlos Vela immediately.

The ratings at the end of the match:

http://img265.imageshack.us/my.php?image=teamtalk2endresultaq8.jpg

As you can see, Nasri, Bale and Iniesta each provided an assist and their ratings all improved from 6 at 1/2 time to 8 by the end of the match.

So I got to enjoy the praise from my captain Mertesacker :

http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image=teamtalk2qk4.jpg

great guide. thanks for posting.

also, is it any good to use "don't get complacent", "don't let your performance drop"? etc?

or is it better to use something else?

oops ignore that post ^ I just read the other posts

thanks again

Wow. good job on that last match. wise decisions. you should consider a future as a football manager

Always been an ass man myself , but i shall be checking out this method very shortly.

Good topic indeed, with some nice results, you have a lot of the same players i do, vela, iniesta, corluka.

I had Per Merteacker in my other game, very good player indeed, but for some reason he wasnt interested in joining Barcelona when i took them over, maybe it was because they wasnt in the champions league at the time, yes rikard ruined Barce in my game

It's realy great job

i've been looking for a guide like this from a while..

I followed your tips for one match and it did realy great for me..

thanks

Thanks for enlightening me on team talks as i've always struggled with them.

I'll be implimenting them asap.

If anything deserves to be stickied then this is it!

Excellent post. Thanks for sharing all your hard work.

Nothing but posative results so far, the players have responded really well to the instructions.

Whats really suprising for me is that if a player has an 8 rating at half time "have faith" at half time works a treat, i always thought you should have faith in a player if he is not doing as good as he should be, but this really dose work, Ronaldinho had an 8 at half time with 1 goal, so i give him have faith, by the end of the match he had a hat trick and basicly took the team to victory on his own.

Good stuff taken my AvG from 2.5 to 3 goals per game now

Did some testing and I think it really depends on the team... I almost always when at home tell my players if on lead that don't let performance drop, and a lot of players "gained focus".

Before this I played 'the nice boss', such as and while it helped on morale, especially 2nd half performance I dropped leads like 2-0 few times. I think I stay with my bit stricter approach.

THANKS VERY MUCH

Sorry for the caps ^ But I love you...

I'm Arsenal. I've played and lost against Man Utd 3 times until now.

I just played them at home - I said "for the fans" pre-match, I usually say "you can win this".

I'm up 3-0 by half-time

At half-time I say "have faith" to RVP, Matias Fernandes and Fred, and "pleased" to the rest...

Matias scores his hat-trick in the 2nd half, and Fred scores a beautiful long shot.

I beat Man Utd 5-0 They're top of the league, 3 points ahead of me now. They won 14 matches in a row this season. Their keeper lets in about 0.8 goals a game on average and I just scored 5

Thanks again for posting this

Sounds very good Wolfsong

Teamtalks are something I pay little attention to most of the time, even though I know they have a noticeable impact on results, so I suppose I should start and be like you because it clearly pays off.

Thank you very much guys for all your feedbacks!

Originally posted by towerofpower:

Did some testing and I think it really depends on the team... I almost always when at home tell my players if on lead that don't let performance drop, and a lot of players "gained focus".

Before this I played 'the nice boss', such as and while it helped on morale, especially 2nd half performance I dropped leads like 2-0 few times. I think I stay with my bit stricter approach.

I see. I rarely use the 'don't let performance drop' option as I said... I will try it more too in my game and see how I go. The 'gained focus' reaction is very effective too, I had it sometimes when I said 'expect a win" at the start.

Also just to add, for post-match team talks, after a few games, the feedback screen almost always says 'noting specific noted' or 'doesn't seem to be listening'. However, follow the guide anyway because it does strengthen your relationships with the players if you praise their exceptional performances. You sometimes get a post match news item that says something like 'xxx is delighted to be singled out in the post match team talk'

Originally posted by teeyougee:

THANKS VERY MUCH

Sorry for the caps ^ But I love you...

I'm Arsenal. I've played and lost against Man Utd 3 times until now.

I just played them at home - I said "for the fans" pre-match, I usually say "you can win this".

I'm up 3-0 by half-time

At half-time I say "have faith" to RVP, Matias Fernandes and Fred, and "pleased" to the rest...

Matias scores his hat-trick in the 2nd half, and Fred scores a beautiful long shot.

I beat Man Utd 5-0 They're top of the league, 3 points ahead of me now. They won 14 matches in a row this season. Their keeper lets in about 0.8 goals a game on average and I just scored 5

Thanks again for posting this

Thanks for your feedback and glad to know that my guide has helped

Originally posted by Beevster:

Always been an ass man myself , but i shall be checking out this method very shortly.

Good topic indeed, with some nice results, you have a lot of the same players i do, vela, iniesta, corluka.

I had Per Merteacker in my other game, very good player indeed, but for some reason he wasnt interested in joining Barcelona when i took them over, maybe it was because they wasnt in the champions league at the time, yes rikard ruined Barce in my game

Per Mertesacker is indeed one of the best DCs in my opinion because I like DCs with high acceleration and pace coupled with high jumping so they are not vulnerable to any type of strikers, be it jumpers or fast strikers. Corkula has OK speed too and his jumping is even better than Mertesacker.

And I play 4-2-3-1 with 3 AMCs, so I have gathered a lot of good AMCs in my team

Now this is off topic...sorry...

Yeah, definately not taking away anything from your guide, this is great and I learned a lot!

In my view, it's just there's not one definate way to choose when do Team talks. I think one can be 'lenient boss', 'strict boss' and 'slavedriver' or something along those lines. I'm pretty sure each of those would work, and each of every style of them have their advantages and disadvantages.

I also believe players will learn to understand you ( the manager) and your style. For example, this new defender I just bought. I told team on half time I want to see more from them - rest of the team understood me, but he got angered. I'm sure by the time goes on and he gets used to it, he will take it professionally. I just hate complamency myself, I want to do everything I can to avoid this and keep players focused...

Also I'm not sure, but I think it's possible when player 'doesn't seem to be listening', could be huge indicator of him not being focused. Also if you get big win let's say Arsenal away, most of them don't listen post match and I think for next game you, as a boss, should be on guard for complamency and let players know this before next match starts.

I like this discussion, this has been sorta grey area for me but I'd love to learn everything ther is to learn...

Originally posted by towerofpower:

Also I'm not sure, but I think it's possible when player 'doesn't seem to be listening', could be huge indicator of him not being focused. Also if you get big win let's say Arsenal away, most of them don't listen post match and I think for next game you, as a boss, should be on guard for complamency and let players know this before next match starts.

I like this discussion, this has been sorta grey area for me but I'd love to learn everything ther is to learn...

Yea I will definately try your idea...never thought of linking the team talk effect of a previous match to the next match before.

Somthing strange has cropped up in my game, one of my players is now unhappy with how i talk to my players at match time!

Ok heres what happend.

Its a League match at home vs getafe i was 2nd and they are 7th, Moral is high in my team and the odds are heavy in my favour.

So i decide to go with "I expect a win"

"Nothing specific noted" across the board, from the players.

So at half time i give the team 7 ratings a "we can win this" and i give the 2 players who are playing a 6 rating (mc and dl) A "disappointing"

Both of which "seem motivated" and s few of the guys who are on "we can win this" "looked Delighted"

Now we looked much the better team but couldnt score for **** today, so i subbed a few players, but still nothing materialised so we drew 0-0 I then went on to say "Sympathise" to the guys who played a 7 and "not good enough" to the guys who played a 6, now all the guys who i sympathised with "seem confused" and some are unhappy & the guys who i was "Disappointed" with show a "nothing specific noted"

Where did i go wrong here ?

Should i have said "have faith" to the guys playing a 6 at home, even thought they are not attacking players. or what!

This is quiet random because, its the first time the talks have failed me, 12 stright wins, and then boom two 0-0 draws and they get all upset

all the guys who i sympathised with "seem confused" and some are unhappy

I'm gussing it's because you expected to win, then you told them they can win at half time... but they didn't. So they would expect you to say you were disappointed in them.

They're probably confused because you took their failure too lightly, and kinda accepted a draw against a worse team.

Originally posted by Beevster:

Its a League match at home vs getafe i was 2nd and they are 7th, Moral is high in my team and the odds are heavy in my favour.

So i decide to go with "I expect a win"

"Nothing specific noted" across the board, from the players.

So at half time i give the team 7 ratings a "we can win this" and i give the 2 players who are playing a 6 rating (mc and dl) A "disappointing"

Both of which "seem motivated" and s few of the guys who are on "we can win this" "looked Delighted"

Now we looked much the better team but couldnt score for **** today, so i subbed a few players, but still nothing materialised so we drew 0-0 I then went on to say "Sympathise" to the guys who played a 7 and "not good enough" to the guys who played a 6, now all the guys who i sympathised with "seem confused" and some are unhappy & the guys who i was "Disappointed" with show a "nothing specific noted"

Where did i go wrong here ?

Should i have said "have faith" to the guys playing a 6 at home, even thought they are not attacking players. or what!

This is quiet random because, its the first time the talks have failed me, 12 stright wins, and then boom two 0-0 draws and they get all upset

From what you said I think your 1/2 time team talks had no problems, but if the post-match team talk was a general 'not good enough' then it would be better. This is because of the linking of the 3 team talks as I mentioned in the 2nd post of this thread. Becaue it was an 'i expect a win' at the start, if the team eventually failed to win, then the players would expect to be criticised. If it was a 'you can win' at pre-match, then I am sure 'sympathise' will not cause confusions.

I have also occassionally had 1/2 time team talks that 'worked' according to the post match feedback, but I did not get the right result. There was one game against Fiorentina when I was winning 2-1 at 1/2 time, and yet they scored 2 goals against me by the full time. After the match I checked the feedback screen, 4 of my players 'seemed motivated'. So what went wrong? I checked the inbox and there was a news item that the Fiorentina captain praised his boss for his team talks that turned the game around for them! So yes sometimes the effect of your team talks can be outweighed by the effect of the AI manager's team talks!

Great post wolfsong. I also use pretty much the same ideologies as you and wanted to compliment you on how you explained them as they make perfect sense. You need high moral in your team to make your team's tactics work 100% effectively, as your star players will really be getting the job done in the matches. It's not make or break if you make some mistakes, but a great tool to get your team out of slumps or keeping your players on top of their game. I was wondering since you are on the topic, how about some of your ideas on pre-press talk and how/if you feel they effect your Team talk, commenting in manager-interaction and danger-man player-interaction when you have time...

pre-match press talk

Disappeared on me...

Yeah, I would be interested in what you say in the build up to a game.

I've tried to unnerve the 'Danger Men' with my comments but most of the time they back fire on me

They end up playing 'out thier skin' and destroying me, so now I generally dont bother unless it's an obvious weak minded player who can be made to play badly with comments.

I would be more interested in what you tell the press just before the game, as this can also have a possitive/negative effect on players, all dependent on there personalities though, which can make it difficult.

Hi,

If you say 8+ (for example), do you mean "an 8 or higher" or do you mean "a 9 or a 10"?

Ok, just had a very tough match.

I'm (Arsenal) playing Man Utd in the League Cup final. Pre-match talk:- "for the fans".

End of 1st half:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-m2.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-m1.jpg

Ok, just had a very tough match.

I'm (Arsenal) playing Man Utd in the League Cup final. Pre-match talk:- "for the fans".

End of 1st half:

end of 1st half

end of 1st half stats

So I'm losing 3-2.

Half-time team talk: "You can win" to everyone except:

Aguero, who's playing at a 6. Fernandez & Fred who are playing at an 8. To these three I said "I have faith".

End of the match:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-m3.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-m4.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-m5.jpg

Team Talk effects:

Pre match:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-mtt1.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-mtt2.jpg

As you can see, the most effected by the team talk was Fred, helping him scored a hat-trick in the space of 11 minutes, against a keeper who conceded 32 in 38 matches! Aguero and Fernandes were effected too, which helped them score and play a part in the goals.

A thrilling game, and a great comeback I went from 3-2 down at half-time to 6-3 up 20mins into the 2nd half

Thank you so very much for this guide

Oh, and that makes 11 goals against Man Utd in my last 2 games

Fred = 5

Matias Fernandez = 4

Aguero, van Persie = 1

And I'm starting to spam this thread I know.

The point I'm trying to get across is, I never knew how important team talks actually were until you posted this

Cheers Wolfsong! Will try this out when I get home from work!

Awesome stuff.

Think I will use this guide for every single team talk I do from now on, thanks.

cheers wolf awesome thread gonna pu it on favorites for easy access

Originally posted by Loversleaper:

Great post wolfsong. I also use pretty much the same ideologies as you and wanted to compliment you on how you explained them as they make perfect sense. You need high moral in your team to make your team's tactics work 100% effectively, as your star players will really be getting the job done in the matches. It's not make or break if you make some mistakes, but a great tool to get your team out of slumps or keeping your players on top of their game. I was wondering since you are on the topic, how about some of your ideas on pre-press talk and how/if you feel they effect your Team talk, commenting in manager-interaction and danger-man player-interaction when you have time...

Thanks!

About pre-press talk and manager interaction, unfortunately I am not making use of them that much, so I am not as confident talking about them as I am for team talks. When my squad morale is superb,which is very often if the good team talks are done consistently, I decline to comment on anything because a random negative reaction may be detrimental. However, there is a general guide posted by wwfan a while ago for fm07 that applies to fm08 pre-press talk as well, I couldn't find the originaly post so I rewrite them here briefly (Note this is a general guide, although it tries to minimises negative effects of pre-press talks, one or two players may react still badly because the exactly effect depends on player personality. When morale is average - low, use of this may help boost the morale of a few players.):

1. Home and odds are heavily favoured to you - here heavily means really heavily - e.g. Serie A top team vs Serie B Bottom team: "xxx is a team that I really expect to beat" or any other variations of wording of this.

2. Home and odds are favoured to you- e.g. Serie A top team vs Serie A mid - bottom team: "we can beat xxx if my players play to their best" or any other variations of wording of this.

4. Home and odds are in opponent's favour - hard one to do here, can try either "we can beat xxx if my players play to their best" or "xxx will cause us problems". Effect is rather random.

3. Home or Away and odds are close - Decline to comment.

4. Away and you are very heavily favoured - "we can beat xxx if my players play to their best"

5. Away and you are favoured- again hard one to do, I prefer "xxx will cause us problems", or you can try "we can beat xxx if my players play to their best" .

6. Away and your opponent is favoured - "xxx will cause us problems"

7. Away and your opponent is heavily favoured - The option that says you can't win...

I will write a bit more on other stuff like mind game etc when I get back from work But as I said, I rarely use them now because of how good team talks can be.

Originally posted by WoIfsong:

About pre-press talk and manager interaction, unfortunately I am not making use of them that much, so I am not as confident talking about them as I am for team talks. When my squad morale is superb,which is very often if good team talks are done consistently, I decline to comment on anything because a random negative reaction may be detrimental. However, there is a general guide posted by wwfan a while ago for fm07 that applies to fm08 pre-press talk as well, I couldn't find the original post so I rewrite them here briefly (Note this is a general guide, although it tries to minimises negative effects of pre-press talks, one or two players may still react badly because the exactly effect depends on player personality. When morale is average - low, use of this may help boost the morale of a few players.):

Sorry about the spelling and grammer in the 1st paragraph in the last post.. corrected here...

Originally posted by teeyougee:

Ok, just had a very tough match.

I'm (Arsenal) playing Man Utd in the League Cup final. Pre-match talk:- "for the fans".

End of 1st half:

end of 1st half

end of 1st half stats

So I'm losing 3-2.

Half-time team talk: "You can win" to everyone except:

Aguero, who's playing at a 6. Fernandez & Fred who are playing at an 8. To these three I said "I have faith".

End of the match:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-m3.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-m4.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-m5.jpg

Team Talk effects:

Pre match:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-mtt1.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj200/teeyougee/a-mtt2.jpg

As you can see, the most effected by the team talk was Fred, helping him scored a hat-trick in the space of 11 minutes, against a keeper who conceded 32 in 38 matches! Aguero and Fernandes were effected too, which helped them score and play a part in the goals.

A thrilling game, and a great comeback I went from 3-2 down at half-time to 6-3 up 20mins into the 2nd half

Thank you so very much for this guide

Thanks for the detailed feedbacks! Enjoyed looking at your screenshots ^^

Originally posted by Saqum:

Hi,

If you say 8+ (for example), do you mean "an 8 or higher" or do you mean "a 9 or a 10"?

Hi, sorry I wasn't clear, I mean an 8 or higher.

excellent paper!!!

it give me a clear idea in 08's teamtalk.

a tiny advice, why not try leave players along or a harsh teamtalk after a very disappoint half-time?

this works in 07 too

This may be a stupid question but how do I view the effects of post match and half time team talks? Whenever I ask my assistant to give me feedback he always gives me the pre match ones.

Sorry, never mind, found it.

Thanks for the advice, makes sence now.

ty for the advice bud, after using these as guidlines i have noticed that the is a much higher % of my players that receive higher ratings which in turn gives me better results

Originally posted by Dirty_ACE:

This may be a stupid question but how do I view the effects of post match and half time team talks? Whenever I ask my assistant to give me feedback he always gives me the pre match ones.

Have a look in the little drop down menu on the team talk feed back screen from your Assistant Man.

From it you can select Pre Match, Half Time, and Post Mast Team talk reactions.

Wolfsong, great thread it has really helped but if you wouldnt mind, it would really help if you could put together a guide for neutral matches. KUTGW

I think THIS performance from Owen is directly related to my taking more time setting up these teamtalks (I singled him out for praise) so credit again for this guide, it's given me a bit of kickstart back into FM again.

I tried this approach with Liverpool; it was an unmitigated disaster. I don't know whether this was because of inaccurate pre-match odds, or whether highly professional squads require more harsh treatment.

Originally posted by This field intentionally left blank:

I tried this approach with Liverpool; it was an unmitigated disaster. I don't know whether this was because of inaccurate pre-match odds, or whether highly professional squads require more harsh treatment.

I also think that perhaps squad general personality should be taken into consideration when giving team talks. You can see there are "Determined", "Very ambitious" etc squad generalizations...maybe depending on that, squad should be treat accordingly as well. I really, really doubt there's one definate way how to give team talks, but you can have harsh or nice style, and it can work either way. I myself like giving kick on the butt at the times.

If I'm drawing 0-0 at home when I'm heavy favourite to win, and even if most of the squad is getting 7 although not making many dangerous scoring opportunities...I'm disappointed then without a doubt, sometimes even angry if it's 6 mostly and it seems to do the work for my ambitious squad.

Once again this guide has been great help

I started a new game with Valencia. My 1st league match is against Espanyol away. They were favourites to win. Silva is out injured for a month.

The 1st half was under Espanyol's control and they went 1-0 up. At half time I encouraged the 7s, my 3 attacking players; Fernandes, Mata and Villa were playing on a 6. I told them that I have faith.

Joaquin score 5mins into the 2nd half, assisted by Fernandes. I was now in control of the game with Villa getting close several times. 79mins passed and Mata was still on a 6 so I assumed the team talk didn't affect him, so on came Zigic for his debut, and what a debut it was. He scored on the 86th and the 90th minute. So I won 3-1 away

I just checked my half-time team talk effects and I was right:

Villa: Happy

Fernandes: Morale boost, happy

Mata: Nothing specific noted

A great start to the season, thanks to you