Teamtalks - if you are clueless ...

[amazin89]

this guide has helped me turn a few away draws into wins and a few loses into draws. thankz bubba

[Big H]

I've just tried these guidelines for the first time and very impressed.

Adebayor was on 6.0 at half time and "Feeling nervous" - Gave him "No Pressure" Team talk and he finished on 8.5 and Man of The Match

several players on "Playing OK" were give "You have faith" team talk and then turned to "Having a good game"

I usually do ok withut individual Team Talks, but this is definitely a great tool if players are underperforming or if you are behinf at Half Time

Great work!

[Bubbabaytuna]

Thanks a lot guys. I'm happy it's proving useful to you.

[kslee5]

best team talk thread ever!!!! thanks!

[lfc7]

Players with looking fired up and looking motivated at HT would you just say nothing to them like you do with playing with confidence ? thanks

[PoolFan]

Am I the only one who hates all this mystic meg teamtalk stuff with FM. To me it seems none of it is intuitive it all seems to throw away common sense and rely on a series of bizarre statements that don't make sense to anyone.

[Bubbabaytuna]

Players with looking fired up and looking motivated at HT would you just say nothing to them like you do with playing with confidence ? thanks

That's what I would do indeed. There's no point in giving them a team talk because they're already in an excellent mindset. All you want is for their motivation to stay that way and by saying nothing you're letting them know. Praising them may cause them to start playing complacent. Criticizing them while they are in a great motivational mindset might cause them to start playing playing without confidence or nervously. Or they could just go to "playing okay". Which is still worse. So yes, I think saying nothing to them is the way to go.

Even if for example at HT they have a 6.3 rating, but their motivation indicates they're looking fired up or looking motivated, say nothing. They're doing their best and the reason for their low-ish rating isn't due to their motivation, it must be some other factor, perhaps tactics. Either way, with that motivation, you know they're going to go out there in the 2nd half and give it their all and that's exactly what you want.

[Bubbabaytuna]

Am I the only one who hates all this mystic meg teamtalk stuff with FM. To me it seems none of it is intuitive it all seems to throw away common sense and rely on a series of bizarre statements that don't make sense to anyone.

I must admit that in the past, I felt similar about it. It seemed very ambiguous, as if they had phrased the team talk options in such a way not to give the obvious choice away. Perhaps trying to make it a bit of a challenge? Well I definitely thought it was confusing. It's like choosing one option caused something completely different than what I thought it meant, right?

But then I started using the method I explain in my OP and it sort of clicked for me. I still think the team talk phrasing isn't exactly intuitive, but it does make a lot more sense now. I'm not sure if you've tried my approach yet, but if you haven't I'd like to encourage you to do so. Maybe it may take some of that mysticism away for you and you can start to see some sense in them, maybe even have some fun with it when you start getting the results you were aiming for.

[PoolFan]

I must admit that in the past, I felt similar about it. It seemed very ambiguous, as if they had phrased the team talk options in such a way not to give the obvious choice away. Perhaps trying to make it a bit of a challenge? Well I definitely thought it was confusing. It's like choosing one option caused something completely different than what I thought it meant, right?

But then I started using the method I explain in my OP and it sort of clicked for me. I still think the team talk phrasing isn't exactly intuitive, but it does make a lot more sense now. I'm not sure if you've tried my approach yet, but if you haven't I'd like to encourage you to do so. Maybe it may take some of that mysticism away for you and you can start to see some sense in them, maybe even have some fun with it when you start getting the results you were aiming for.

I will try the OP's method but I have to admit I find it totally insane that SI have not come out and simply stated what their 'vision' of all these press/teamtalks are supposed to be.

They need to simply come out and explain what the hell is going on rather than have the players playing mystic meg and coming up with endless 'well it might work like this' efforts.

You only have to read this thread to see that there is so much guesswork revolving around this area. People really dont seem to have a clue how this stuff is supposed to work.

I honestly thought that I must be missing some important post by a developer, I decided to do a search and found someone asking about this, only then to see one of the developers reply much state that they are NOT ever going to explain all of this and that we would be better off reading the forums. That honestly blew my mind and only furthers my belief that there is so much complete rubbish spoken on these forums regarding the ME and the teamtalks etc that in the end you may as well be using a random choice method.

[SFraser]

I will try the OP's method but I have to admit I find it totally insane that SI have not come out and simply stated what their 'vision' of all these press/teamtalks are supposed to be.

They need to simply come out and explain what the hell is going on rather than have the players playing mystic meg and coming up with endless 'well it might work like this' efforts.

You only have to read this thread to see that there is so much guesswork revolving around this area. People really dont seem to have a clue how this stuff is supposed to work.

I honestly thought that I must be missing some important post by a developer, I decided to do a search and found someone asking about this, only then to see one of the developers reply much state that they are NOT ever going to explain all of this and that we would be better off reading the forums. That honestly blew my mind and only furthers my belief that there is so much complete rubbish spoken on these forums regarding the ME and the teamtalks etc that in the end you may as well be using a random choice method.

It's pretty simple stuff really.

Manager Interaction x Player Personality x Context = Player Reaction.

The big problem comes when you have to learn how different personalities react to different situations. That's all that seperates those that "get" interaction and those that don't. Actually learning how different players react and not trying to second guess or pretend you know or imagine there should be some nice, easy, one-shoe-fits-all formula.

That's the big thing about FM. You actually have to learn how to be good at it, no matter how much advice or how many guides you read. These things only point you in the right direction. They can't give you an "I Win" button for a game with vast numbers of variables.

Either you keep playing it to keep learning it and begin to really enjoy it, or you play it demanding to know every trick in the book and are forever frustrated by it. The entire point of the game is every next decision making is an important one, a big decision, a gameplay decision, a challenge for your abilities and knowledge.

The game is designed so that choosing the right interaction can only happen when you know your players intimately, have figured out their nuances through playing them regularly, paying attention to them regularly, dealing with them regularly. It is simply not possible to sign some random new player with 10+ Hidden Personality Attributes and figure out the absolutely perfect way to manage this guy through a forum guide. That can only happen through your experience of success and failure at trying to motivate and understand the player.

[Jenko_EFC]

It's pretty simple stuff really.

Manager Interaction x Player Personality x Context = Player Reaction.

The big problem comes when you have to learn how different personalities react to different situations. That's all that seperates those that "get" interaction and those that don't. Actually learning how different players react and not trying to second guess or pretend you know or imagine there should be some nice, easy, one-shoe-fits-all formula.

That's the big thing about FM. You actually have to learn how to be good at it, no matter how much advice or how many guides you read.

Nail on the head. The main thing is trial and error. Try, try and try again and as SFraser states learn from your mistakes. As in real life every player is different and that in my opinion is what makes FM great.

[lfc7]

That's what I would do indeed. There's no point in giving them a team talk because they're already in an excellent mindset. All you want is for their motivation to stay that way and by saying nothing you're letting them know. Praising them may cause them to start playing complacent. Criticizing them while they are in a great motivational mindset might cause them to start playing playing without confidence or nervously. Or they could just go to "playing okay". Which is still worse. So yes, I think saying nothing to them is the way to go.

Even if for example at HT they have a 6.3 rating, but their motivation indicates they're looking fired up or looking motivated, say nothing. They're doing their best and the reason for their low-ish rating isn't due to their motivation, it must be some other factor, perhaps tactics. Either way, with that motivation, you know they're going to go out there in the 2nd half and give it their all and that's exactly what you want.

Thanks also do you use you have faith for subs ?

[mrdorf]

That's what I would do indeed. There's no point in giving them a team talk because they're already in an excellent mindset. All you want is for their motivation to stay that way and by saying nothing you're letting them know. Praising them may cause them to start playing complacent. Criticizing them while they are in a great motivational mindset might cause them to start playing playing without confidence or nervously. Or they could just go to "playing okay". Which is still worse. So yes, I think saying nothing to them is the way to go.

Even if for example at HT they have a 6.3 rating, but their motivation indicates they're looking fired up or looking motivated, say nothing. They're doing their best and the reason for their low-ish rating isn't due to their motivation, it must be some other factor, perhaps tactics. Either way, with that motivation, you know they're going to go out there in the 2nd half and give it their all and that's exactly what you want.

My first thought would be to encourage them to keep playing the way they are if they're playing well instead of saying nothing. If I was a player I'd be confused why my manager isn't giving me anymore motivation and just standing there. That's what saying nothing seems like to me.

[Daniel Alves]

Benoit2 I agree with your method, except that in case of complacency or mistakes I will try to avoid using disappointed if possible. I always start a game with the idea that any player on the pitch will try his best. So especially when a player makes a mistake it may harm his self confidence. That's why I prefer to use "you have faith".

Isn't possible that "disappointed" applies to complacent mature players that are low on work rate or composure?

[ArdaTuran68]

just say always: you have faith to everybody..

they play deadly..

I always do and now I have won 5 times CL in a row

[Smeg_ED]

This has helped alot , Thanks !

[Grokaer]

Bubbabaytuna,

Just wanted to say I have tried this for the last 5/6 games of my season and not only has it played a role in my improved performances, I am finding player's motivation much improved by the end of a game, player match performances much improved and player morale is going through the roof with my whole first team squad.

Thanks very much, excellent thread, excellent read and good on you for all the follow up support you have provided people on this particular forum with.

[triple-j]

On previous versions of FM I was warned off from giving too many players individual team talks as it was deemed to be "confusing" and therefore had a negative impact on the resulting performance. Would you say this is no longer relevant?

[evu]

I think that both this guide and wolfsongs guide work well it just depends on what type of manager you want to be. This one is more about encouragement and giving players belief such as mourinho would do, whereas wolfsongs is more about creating fear of failure and perfectionism such as ferguson or capello

Both strategies work but i think you have to stick with one method or the other or else risk confusion in the squad

[stinger061]

I think you've done a fantastic job of getting your ideas out there. To those that have suggested match ratings and morale are far more important factors are compeltely wrong in my eyes. As you and others have said the match ratings are heavily impacted by some key things that happen during games, errors, goals, assists etc. A player can be having a good solid game without starring and then one mistake that leads to an opponents goal can send there rating down into the 5's which isn't a fair reflection of their overall performance during the match.

I study Sports Psychology as part of my degree at university and I've got a bit of an opinion on the whole Morale vs Motivation discussion also. Sure it's up for debate whether FM is quite as in depth as this, after all it's simply a series of calculations being performed by a computer but I think it's worth putting out there. One of the key elements we talk about is 'State Anxiety' versus 'Trait Anxitey', for the sake of this discussion 'State Anxiety' refers to a players Motivation with 'Trait Anxiety' refering to morale. Essentially the two are heavily related, I see morale as the players 'long term' happiness with his situation, how the club is performing etc where are motivation is the players feelings about the current match situation. A player with high morale is more likely to have high motivation at the start and during the match.

When you are giving a team talk the thing you are most looking to improve is a players motivation for that particular match, on that day. Consistently high motivation during matches will translate into high morale. Obviously at the beginning of the game a players morale will influence how they react to a particular type of team talk, if a player has low morale it is going to be much harder to motivate them to play that day. So rather than being two separate ways of working out what team talk you should give I see them as being strongly related and both equally important in deciding your team talk.

The other factor that comes into the discussion is the fact that not just one style of managing players is effective. Some coaches get the best out of their players by being positive regardless of the situation while others prefer to be more hard-line with their approach, being heavily critical of their players when they make mistakes. This occurs in real life and both methods can be effective just as they can in FM, there is no 'one size fits all' for success in FM just like in real life and if there was we'd all be winning everything season after season with any club we choose.

It's this variety that makes FM such a fantastic game. There are so many different ways to success and anyone that comes on here expecting to find the golden answer to all their problems will probably be disappointed. There are so many tips and guides out there which often have conflicting views but can have equal levels of success. I think the one thing that is true about all of them is it boils down to having a way of doing things and sticking to it, varying only when you have a specific reason to. If you go into every match with a different team talk or tactic you are probably going to fail, whereas if you are consistent with your approach success is far more likely.

[Cityull]

Does the team talks change at all if your playing in a play off match or a latter stage of a competition?

[john1]

Thanks for this So useful. Did it with Spurs and players who got under 7 I always say disappointment in him and if player over 8 i use delighted with him or no pressure. worked so well for me. Lennon was on 6.5 and said i'm disappointed with him and 2nd half he ripped the opposition and got a 9

[Analapfelstrudel]

Thanks for this So useful. Did it with Spurs and players who got under 7 I always say disappointment in him and if player over 8 i use delighted with him or no pressure. worked so well for me. Lennon was on 6.5 and said i'm disappointed with him and 2nd half he ripped the opposition and got a 9

Errr... seems not to be what I read on the guide.^^

I thought I have to use "have faith" for those players?

Maybe stars have to get a disappointment-message so they do their best

[Nellie]

Hi folks, could use a little noobie advice (no stranger to CM/FM but took a break for a couple of versions after FM06).

Still on my first FM10 game and into season three. First couple of seasons I appeared to do ok with regards to motivation, mainly by accident and not actually knowing about motivation at all. Since starting to look into it a bit more and finding this excellent thread I seem to be having a lot more trouble getting my team motivated during matches and might also have a couple of other related issues.

Despite being far from all conquering (won the PL in season 1, the FA cup in season 2), I have picked a decent tactic and my players to fit that tactic but struggled to get decent performances from my team. They're not playing especially badly but I'm suffering from the age old CM/FM problem of battering the opposition goal and losing by the one/two shots on target that the opposition have. Regardless of my pre match team talk the majority of my team will spend the entire first half "playing OK" at best and it's touch and go/pot luck whether I can get them to improve on that in the second half on a regular basis. I think my one exception to this was, having stuttered against what should have been easy opponents in the previous couple of games, I demanded that they go out and win and they duly went out and pummelled the opposition. Generally though, unless someone scores, the whole team just plays OK or worse look complacent.

Am I just being too nice? Should I be looking for the Peter Reid "Chuck the tea cups and call them a bunch of effing lazing effing effers?" and is there a way other than trial and error that I can determine which personalities might respond better to a good kick up the backside rather than a friendly arm around the shoulder? I tend to be neutral in press talks, neither playing up nor downplaying our chances and only praise players getting an 8 or higher.

On a possibly related note, I've a couple of senior players (Kuyt and Maxi R) concerned about lack of Managerial discipline in the side which seems to stem from Macherano's tendency to get himself booked every game that he isn't banned for. I've toned down hard tackling on opposition player instructions which has helped a little and now warn/fine players getting sent off depending on circumstance but was wondering if there is anything else I should be doing to help convince them that it's not butlins at Anfield?

[dainbramaged]

Ok, so you say give 'you have faith' to anyone who is not quite performing up to scratch but who isn't having a bad game and by the sounds of it it is your most used team talk. The only thing is, you don't always get the choice of having faith in someone..Tried these techniques and beat wigan 2-1 and drew 0-0 with wolves, I am managing a top 4 everton team. I'll keep going because the motivation is positively influenced, but the performances are yet to be.

[dainbramaged]

In 3 games running now I have not had the option of telling players I have faith in them, and I have played my next game (after the above post) - I lost to preston. Goodbye bubbabaytunas team talks technique, hello tried and trusted personal judgement. I was never having problems with teamtalks or motivation anyway, and according to steam I'm 564 hrs into my FM10 career.

[Bubbabaytuna]

I'm really happy you've found your own way which works for you. However, I did not make this thread to tell people "my way is the best way". My aim with this thread was to show people how much use there is for tracking in-match player motivation. Judging by your first post, and allow me to quote,

I'll keep going because the motivation is positively influenced, but the performances are yet to be.

, it seems that your team talks are in fact working. Their motivation is being positively influenced!

However, I find your reasoning a little short sighted. Basically you're saying, if I'm getting this right of course, you manage to improve your players motivation but you still lost. So that makes the team talks bad? Because they improved what they're supposed to improve but did not give you an automatic win?

This is football manager after all, not just team talk manager. There are a lot of variables which determine the outcome of a match. One of which is team talks, but just as important are tactics, reacting to the AI, whether your players fitness is 95% or above, whether their pre-match morale is top notch, whether squad harmony is great (very important in my experience), are there a lot of new players and have they developed a good understanding yet, is there a healthy balance of youthful passion and experience in the team? etc etc These all and many more contribute.

But to get back at the "you have faith" option not being available. That's quite possible, it's been discussed throughout the thread I believe. If you don't have "you have faith", there's probably something like "you can make the difference" in the individual team talk or in the general team talk there's "Show encouragement" or something like that, I don't know all the option by heart. You can use either of those, all of those basically come down to "I've faith you can do what is expected of you, I believe in you".

But again, if you use motivation to track how your players respond to your team talks, you should choose whichever option you have learned works best for a particular player under which circumstances. Even if that is "disappointed". I'm sure there's a use for it, otherwise it wouldn't be there. I tend to stay away from that though. Any player I need to use "disappointed" with consistently, doesn't fit in my team and is out in the next transfer window. I like to have a team of highly determined, consistent players. If you don't fit in, you're out. I want all noses in the same direction, so to speak.

I did not say "give this team talk then and this team talk then". What I'm saying is, use the player motivation indicated during the match to guide which team talks you will use. And to me, then, it seems logical for example, that if a player is "playing nervously", you use the "no pressure" option. Then, if he keeps playing nervously over the course of several games, you need to look into it. Is he too young? Or maybe he's got a weak character, can't deal with the pressure at the level you're playing? And so forth.

[elland road boo boys]

Just a quick question on Ass Man Feedback regarding complacency.

Does the Ass Man actually say player is looking complacent or are there any other words he may use?

[Nellie]

Could do with some general advice combatting complacency, it's really starting to become an issue with some players and I'm not having a great deal of joy trying to combat it through team talks alone, in fact I'm just annoying the whole squad at the moment who don't feel I give the team enough credit but If I don't play Barca or the Mancs every week a significant number of the squad are just coasting.

[Bubbabaytuna]

When a player is looking complacent, what I'll do is I'll go to the general team talk option and hit "warn against complacency" if this option is available. Now every player is set to this team talk. Then I'll give all the players who are not looking complacent a different individual team talk.

Sometimes the option of "warn against complacency" isn't available and then you need to figure out which one is most likely to work on someone who's complacent. In my view, someone who's complacent is someone who's not pressured enough so "I expect more from you" or "Prove a point" are good options as they do put more pressure on the player.

If you've done this and the player keeps playing complacently game after game then that means he's probably got a personality problem. Maybe you need to sell him off, or perhaps this is a young player that needs to be tutored?

[elland road boo boys]

When a player is looking complacent, what I'll do is I'll go to the general team talk option and hit "warn against complacency" if this option is available. Now every player is set to this team talk. Then I'll give all the players who are not looking complacent a different individual team talk.

Sometimes the option of "warn against complacency" isn't available and then you need to figure out which one is most likely to work on someone who's complacent. In my view, someone who's complacent is someone who's not pressured enough so "I expect more from you" or "Prove a point" are good options as they do put more pressure on the player.

If you've done this and the player keeps playing complacently game after game then that means he's probably got a personality problem. Maybe you need to sell him off, or perhaps this is a young player that needs to be tutored?

Hi mate.

Any thoughts on my post two up.

Thanks in advance

[Bubbabaytuna]

Hey Elland

sorry I didn't respond to your post. I'm not quite sure if the assman does. Although I do know he indicates stuff like players not blending well together, not sure if he tells you if a player looks complacent or not. But depending on how good or how bad your assman is, he will tell you and not tell you stuff. Or maybe even give you wrong information? I'm not sure how complex the assman feature is though, but unless I have a topnotch one, I don't trust him 100%. That's why I wouldn't trust my assman with team talks unless he had 20 motivation and 20 man management just to be sure.

I know in his Feedback he does say stuff like "so and so look like they're still blending in" and stuff like that, so maybe he does share information on motivation. I'll keep an eye on it in the next few games I'll play.

Thing is though, you don't really need the assman Feedback for motivation. Just go to the motivation tab and it's right there for you. Plus, you can check out the opposition motivation as well, which I know the assman says nothing about in his feedback. Say for instance that the opposing team's CB is "playing nervously", that's a golden tip the game is giving you right there. Put the pressure on that CB and watch him make mistakes. But that's a bit off topic regarding your post.

[elland road boo boys]

Thanks Bubbabaytuna.

I wasn't sure Pre Match whether there was anyway to check players complacency. If your side carry on winning there will be some Pre Match. One that springs to mind is "X is looking like he can just turn up & team will win match"

Wondering if you can stop that Pre Match?

[Nellie]

Aha, Swapping my assistant manager has greatly improved the feedback I'm getting now. Feedback for my first round league cup match now includes:

"The Team, especially aguero and veloso, looked a bit overconfident and cocky during the warm up"

Getting an Assistant with high man management (and motivation) certainly looks to be a worthwhile excercise.

[Bubbabaytuna]

Thanks Bubbabaytuna.

I wasn't sure Pre Match whether there was anyway to check players complacency. If your side carry on winning there will be some Pre Match. One that springs to mind is "X is looking like he can just turn up & team will win match"

Wondering if you can stop that Pre Match?

If a player is like that before the match, it means he's too confident. Perhaps it would be a good idea to use "Expect a performance" on a player like that, put on the pressure a little bit.

Aha, Swapping my assistant manager has greatly improved the feedback I'm getting now. Feedback for my first round league cup match now includes:

"The Team, especially aguero and veloso, looked a bit overconfident and cocky during the warm up"

Getting an Assistant with high man management (and motivation) certainly looks to be a worthwhile excercise.

Indeed this is one of the first things I take care of when starting with a team. Get the best assman you can possibly get. Very important. They also need time to get used to the team. For instance before a match, in the Feedback tab, one of your coaches will give you a hint about how to approach the opposition, like how the opposition tends to play worse against teams that play narrow. Now if you look in the right side it'll say something like "[your assman] (or whoever) agrees/disagrees with this advice".

However, if you have a new(ish) assman, it'll list "hasn't been long enough at the club to make a judgement" or something like that. So even how long the staff have been at the club matters. Maybe it even affects how much info he gives in the pre-match advice. It keeps amazing me just how "deep" FM really is!

Thanks for contributing you guys!

[elland road boo boys]

Ah Tehnelle. Thats what I always look for in Ass Man (i saw it somewhere ages ago). When you get that message Pre-Match do you use Expect a Performance on those two players?

[elland road boo boys]

Bubbabaytuna.

One thing I have noticed is at Half Time if you are drawing 0-0 is that "You Have Faith" is not available in these situations.

So if a player is showing as playing okay the best individual talk I have found is None. This then improves at Full Time to at least "Had A Good Game" or better...

HTH

[Bubbabaytuna]

I do believe I have mentioned this earlier in the thread. A player playing "okay" is having a normal game. Under most circumstances it's good enough. So choosing the option to give no team talk is indeed a viable option. I usually do go with "you have faith" (or whichever alternative is available) as I like to try to get the best possible performances from my players. It adds to a players confidence and adds a little pressure, without overdoing either, and so I feel it's a relatively safe option.

Once again though, even if "you have faith" is not available, there are usually other options available that with some logical thinking basically come down to the same thing, it's just different wording. I'd like to refer to my post #227, 4th paragraph actually, in response to dainbramaged's exact same issue, where I literally share with you what other options you have in case "you have faith" is not available.

[elland road boo boys]

I do believe I have mentioned this earlier in the thread. A player playing "okay" is having a normal game. Under most circumstances it's good enough. So choosing the option to give no team talk is indeed a viable option. I usually do go with "you have faith" (or whichever alternative is available) as I like to try to get the best possible performances from my players. It adds to a players confidence and adds a little pressure, without overdoing either, and so I feel it's a relatively safe option.

Once again though, even if "you have faith" is not available, there are usually other options available that with some logical thinking basically come down to the same thing, it's just different wording. I'd like to refer to my post #227, 4th paragraph actually, in response to dainbramaged's exact same issue, where I literally share with you what other options you have in case "you have faith" is not available.

Sorry I didn't see that thread (I Should have gone to SpecSavers!!!)

Will look into it more closely.

[Bubbabaytuna]

Had to google SpecSavers to get that one. Their prices are pretty great compared to the shops around here! hehe Sorry if I came across a little passive agressive mate. Didn't have the best of days yesterday so if I did, I apologize!

[elland road boo boys]

Had to google SpecSavers to get that one. Their prices are pretty great compared to the shops around here! hehe Sorry if I came across a little passive agressive mate. Didn't have the best of days yesterday so if I did, I apologize!

No sweat!!

Will teach me to read ALL posts

[Trents]

Wow, didn't realise how much of an effect team talks had on the match.

Thanks for all this juicey info

[Powermonger]

Great work here Bubbabaytuna, very intuitive way of dealing with team talks and getting positive results. However my team is now having the dreaded 'over-confident' and complacency problem, every pre-match my AssMan is saying the team is very cocky and over-confident. I've tried 'Expect A Win' and picking on players named by my AssMan with individual talks but end up getting a hit with a combination of 'playing nervously' or 'looking complacent'. Not sure how I can get them motivated

[elland road boo boys]

Hi Bubbabaytuna.

I have a situation for you if you are drawing 0-0 at half time & a player is shown as complacent.

Disappointing on "team" performance, but what about the player(s)

I thought about this & this is my conclusion but would like your opinion.

If rating below 6.7 use disappointing

If rating 6.7 or above use you have faith.

I have noticed that this method improves both of these.

[SFraser]

I was going to put this in a thread of it's own, but this one is excellent and covers all the relevant bases so I thought I would put it up here.

These are the results of my last three half-time teamtalks, in each match I had atleast 3 goals before half-time.

My method of operating here was simple.

If a player had a rating above 8.0 it was "Pleased"

If a player had a rating between 7.5 and 8.0 it was "Don't let your Performance Drop"

Between 7.0 and 7.5 it was "You have Faith"

Between 6.5 and 7.0 it was "Disappointing"

The important thing to understand is the match context. In each match I had a healthy half-time lead. If that context was different I would have needed a different approach.

Several things stand out here.

1: My players respond to this kind of overall approach in this context. They respond to a fair judgement of their performances in the context of the match and the current result. Ratings of 6.9 when I am winning 3-0 at half-time is a disappointing performance, so I tell my players this and they respond to it.

2: My players do not respond exactly the same. There are a couple of examples of similar responses to similar teamtalks but overall you can see that different players are going to respond in slightly different ways to the same circumstances, even if they respond in the same general fashion. This is down to their individual personalities. Slight differences in personality produce slight differences in response.

3: Individual players do not always respond exactly the same to the same teamtalk over three matches. While I followed my "basic plan" I did get different responses from players that fell into that "plan". Carrick for example must have come in at half time with ratings between 7.5 and 8.0 and so received the same teamtalk three times, but he only responded the same way twice. The third time he did not respond. What this means is that players themselves have their own "views" on what sort of ratings deserve what sort of response, so Carrick isn't thinking "7.5 to 8.0 means Don't Let Your Performance Drop" he is thinking maybe 7.3 to 7.8 is a "good performance" or even 7.8 to 8.3. In other words his "personal bar" is set at a different level to mine, but not by much.

So while I have the right idea for how to deal with my players at half-time in these match contexts, while I have figured out the rough "bar height" to work with and the right responses to give to my squad in these match contexts, to get it absolutely spot on I now need to understand each individual players "personal bar level" in detail.

Just like one player might think that 7.5 for his last 5 games is "playing well" while another might think he "needs to improve" and a third might think he is "on top form" so the same applies to teamtalks. I know how to give great half-time teamtalks based on how I think players have played but now I need to take it even further and figure out how each player thinks he has played himself.

[Powermonger]

Nice write-up SFraser on your approach, I'm amazed at the amount of reactions you get, I don't get nearly as many recorded however the players motivation still seems to improve despite no remarks made. Maybe this is because of my AssMan.

I really wish SI would include the HT & FT player ratings and motivation in the Assistant Manager Team Talk Feedback screen, it would make tracking players reactions better.

[elland road boo boys]

Nice Post SFraser. One thing strikes me straight away is that each situation requires a different approach.

It is impossible to have a "One size fits all" teamtalk, it depends on Personalities, Motivation & how they are playing in-game.

A useful insight. Well Done.

[Los_Culés]

I´m really struggling with the pre-match team-talks. I´m completely clueless what to say to my players. I´ve tried everything and nothing works for me. My players react so randomly. Maybe it´s because I have so many different personalities in my team. But I´m managing in Brasil and can´t afford to buy players with the "right" personalities. I´m really sad, losing or drawing matches which I should win easily.

[sparkysrovers]

Bubbabaytuna, I have worked out how to turn the player having a poor game comment, i used the "(team)I want to see more from you" command and the effect was "seemed motivated" and we drew the match and i said pleased and his team talk effect was "Looked delighted"

[matthew56]

any suggestions about pre match team talk i struggle about them