General Observations from a long time LLM (career)

[podium86]

Hello, i would like to post in some of my experience with my experience with fm2013 to share and hopefully create some discussion which will benefit all of us here. I do take the extra effort to watch most matches in full and thus take forever to complete a season but with careful observation, certain patterns have emerged of which i shall share with you guys.

Disclaimer : PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME THAT THIS IS 100% ACCURATE, IT IS PURELY AN OBSERVATION NOT THE PROGRAMMING CODE/UNIVERSAL TRUTH

1) Team talks and body language

Generally players seem to work on 3 primary "meters", namely

|PRESSURE|

Goes from anxious(motivated but lacking in confidence?/pressure?), composed, nervous, very nervous

How well the player can handle the pressure when facing big games, demanding team talks or press conferences

Failure to handle pressure will cause nervousness(body language), which is of a similar effect to poor confidence, player will begin to misplace easy passes to open man or miss easy shots

|MOTIVATION|

Affected by work rate(lazy players will wait for the ball!), ambition(unambitious players tend to be complacent against poor teams), determination(boosts motivation when behind in goals), form and morale

Player liking the manager/team also seems to make them more motivated for each game

Goes from Fired up, motivated, complacent, looking uninterested

Motivated players will show motivated/very motivated/anxious(poor temperament/confidence??)

It strongly affects how hard your player will run into space, tackle, and fight for loose balls

Generally a good body language, but might be slightly negative in that they will lose condition a little faster due to working more

|CONFIDENCE| Affected by form, press conference, general morale level, match events(success/failure)

Generally confidence seem to affect the ability to be successful in challenges, passes, holding on to the ball while closed down, making a confident player with high match rating your "playmaker" will cause him to generate a lot of chances

This one is extremely variable due to match events! Success leads to more confidence which repeats in a positive cycle, likewise with repeated failures, causing loss of confidence and forcing the manager to tone down the creativity freedom/tackle hardness

A overzealous approach such as too much flair / creative freedom setting in the team tactics can cause overambitious passes which tends repeated failures and threfore poor confidence

(My team captain a winger with 17 flair fluctuates every game between incredibly poor match ratings and being the motm due to constantly attempting difficult through balls and dribbles! Hes just not good enough to be constantly successful)

On Tone :

Agressive tone: Generally a motivational talk(100%), increases pressure heavily (Fires people up assuming that they don't get nervous)

Assertive tone : Mix between motivation(50%) , confidence(25%) , pressure (25%)

Passionate tone: Mix between motivation(50%) and confidence(50%)

Calm tone: Tends to relax (50%) and improve their confidence (50%)

Cautious : (Uncertain, did not use it a lot.)

Reluctant tone: (zero experience with it, probably more applicable trying to transfer list a player)

Using a tone that defy match expectations(especially demanding tones) can cause players to show confusion / anger / lose focus if their morale/confidence is not good enough to handle it but they will still work hard

(might lose some confidence/become more nervous)

On Speech types: (Uncompleted)

Pick up where you left off : For those who played well last game, always pick this. Especially useful for u19 and reserve players who are in great form in their non competitive games.

You have faith : It is probably applicable to 99% of the situations, just vary the tone. (using the same speech too often will cause players not to listen)

Good luck : Might confer a small bonus(unconfirmed) to success and might be useful if you have managed to hit the sweet spot in the pressure/motivation/confidence mix, can also be useful for slight underdogs

For the fans! : Good for first games, large home games, deciding cup games and the last game of the season, works more effectively if player is a supporter of club or has stayed for a few seasons

Expect better : You shouldn't be seeing this unless the player made multiple key mistakes. In fact you shouldn't be playing him due to the terrible confidence level except in an injury crisis

On reading body language : (Unsure but body language might spread, sub away your most crappy match rating player with poor body language even at the 30 minute mark!)

Fired up/Motivated : Hardworking

Very Confident/Confident : Likely to be successful

Agressive : Jumps into challenges too often (red card risk)

Furious : Hardworking but tends to dive into challenges often

Anxious : Hardworking to win balls but tends to screw up a little more

Composed : Neutral

Complacent : Tends to be a little bit more unsucessful

Looking uninterested : Lazy and likely to screw up. Shows up often on abyssmal morale players (Use press conference to highlight dangerman/weak link to push their morale into the hole!)

On Team talk Reactions : MOUSEOVER the individual reaction, it may show multiple reactions but only the highest bonus is listed the short area

Inspired : ++ Motivation + Confidence

Fired up : ++ Motivation

Motivated : + Motivation

Looked to gain Confidence : +Confidence

Delighted : ++ Morale

Happy : + Morale

Confused : -Morale - Confidence

Angry : -- Morale - Confidence

On Player interaction : (Lots of feedback helps player to like you more, reputation dependent! poor rep manager have harder time to get high rep players to like you)

LAST GAME : Feedback for last game seems to need a week before being able to talk again

Gives a small boost to morale and probably success rate for mentioned area

Defense: Affects defensive effort

Criticism for poor defense fails often (Requires maybe 30% missed tackles / headers lost)

Praise Good defense is easy to get. Do it often as long as player completed about 80% of his tackles / headers / lots of interceptions

Passing : Affects accuracy of passes

About 70-80% success rate can be criticized. Above 80% praise works

Chances created : Affects willingness to try dribbles and through balls

Depends heavily on key passes / crosses completed (0 - 2 can be criticized), assists praised

Shooting : Affects shot accuracy

About 60% or below can be criticized (EVEN IF HE SCORES)

Recent Play : Requires about 3-5 matches played before resetting

Slight gray area dependent on player level of ambition and determination (Stronger personalities can be critiqued at higher average ratings, praise mentally fragile young players to build relations/maintain form)

Below 7.05 can be criticized (Remember to do this often to your goalie! its the only way to build relationship with them!)

Between 7-7.2 (Gray area. Look at assistant advice or player personality to make the call, if unable to decide, play one more game before talking)

Above 7.2 should be praised (Concessions can be given to goals scored. Poor average play but good goalscoring can be praised without problem)

Placing in reserves : Increases motivation but drops general happiness dependent on squad status(Do this for the worst 3 or so players sorted by form

Generally a forceful way to deal with lazy / players in poor form.

Making them unhappy will allow a chance to strike up a conversation about being unhappy to be placed in the reserves allowing a chance to change morale by challenging them to show their worth

Warning about loan/transfer list : Can help improve effort levels in affected area, might cause friction with players of poor temperament (watch the Media Handling Style tab!)

More leeway can be allowed if player likes you / the club.

Best method of getting the fringe players in the squad to fight harder to gain a first team place or recover from poor form (worst 3-5 players)

(To be continued)

[Guest Satchy]

Interesting read. You've brought a couple of things to my attention that I will try to spend more time on in my saves regarding statistical analysis. You've also raised a question for me, which is regarding the building of relationships with younger players. As I am a fan of Ajax both in the game and in real life, I have always enjoyed the youth development side of FM, but as an FM player I don't tend to manage the reserve teams or youth teams (never tried). Since you can't comment on youth player performances outside of the 1st team by managing in this way, I'm wondering if you can however private chat them should you be managing either the youth team or the reserve teams?

I really like the idea of that as it is in line with Ajax's philosophy in real life. Obviously for a team that focuses so heavily on youth development there shouldn't realistically be such a disconnect between the 1st team manager and the U-19 side, for example. This would also necessitate a lot more time commitment as far as a player's FM save goes, because of having to manage many more games, but I think that it could be worthwhile for the FM player who likes to delve into every aspect of management from the ground up.

I'm also wondering now if private chats for more 'mentally fragile' youth players as you put it, would have any affect on mental attribute increases?

[podium86]

We don't need to manage the youth and reserve teams, you can still discipline players managed by your assistants via "warning or fining for poor performances". As long as their rating is poor enough

[podium86]

I think non competitive games cannot be "private chat" with. Still you can egg them onward to train harder and talk about youth development, loans and etc to build relations

[soccer.joel]

Good observations

[prince0102]

IMO, passing accuracy etc. are affected but indirectly due to your man-management. I believe the background and primary attributes get affected which then affect all the things you mention in your post. Good post though !. BiggUSD and I made similar conclusions in a different post.

Quote Originally Posted by BiggusD View Post

Ok you have entirely misunderstood what team talks in FM are and how to use them. Green responses does not mean you picked the correct team talk and red responses does not mean that you picked the wrong team talk. The fact that saying "you have faith" or "no pressure" will -always- yield a positive green response should have given this away already, but since it hasn't I'm telling you now so that this myth is busted once and for all.

I haven't had the following thoughts of mine officially confirmed but they haven't been objected to either:

.......|----------o----------|-----------o----------|

Nervous.....................Focused............... ....Complacent

1. The goal of man management including team talks is to keep your players as focused as possible.

2. From observation and experience, I can tell that players are nervous and complacent at all times, even when the team talk feedback and in-match body language tells you they are not. Just like they are fatigued/jaded at all times even though the game tells you they are superbly fit and at 100/100%, and worried about something (i.e contracts) even though morale is Superb and the game tells you they are enjoying life at the club. These aren't on/off features.

3. So on that line above, between the o's the player is labeled "composed" or other positive feedback, but he can still be rather nervous or complacent anyways.

4. The only way you can tell which side of that bar he is on, is through watching the matches. An anxious/nervous player will make poor decisions and a complacent/uninterested player won't bother with all that running.

5. There are several things influencing where any given player is on that bar: The player's Determination, Professionalism, Ambition, Pressure attributes; The player's attitude towards you and the club as well as his morale; To which degree the team are favourites or underdogs in any given match; How many matches the team has won/not lost/not won/lost in a row; The importance of the match; Media interaction leading up to the match.

6. There are two ways in which team talks can influence where any given player is on that bar: A) Putting pressure on the team will move them to the left, and B) Reducing pressure on the team will move them to the right.

Pre-match

....................No Pressure......Good Luck......You have faith/Impress me.....For the Fans.....Expect a Performance/Expect a Win

Cautious

Calm

Passionate

Assertive

Aggressive

7. The farther down and the farther to the right, the more pressure you put on your players and the farther to the left they go on the above bar. The farther down and farther to the left, the less pressure you put on your players and the farther they go to the right on the above bar.

Half-time

....................No Pressure......Delighted......Pleased......Not good enough.....Embarrasing/pride at stake

Cautious

Calm

Passionate

Assertive

Aggressive

(there are several other variations of these, but the point remains the same)

Quote Originally Posted by BiggusD View Post

Green responses are a slight morale boost and red responses are a slight morale drop.

If your player goes from Good to Fairly Good morale because of a "confused" or "angry" response you won't notice much of a difference in terms of motivation after the first 10 minutes of the half, but the Warn Against Complacency teamtalk may have taken a serious chunk out of his Complacency - and that you will notice.

I have still not lost or drawn a game in FM13 after warning against complacency because of a one/two goal lead at half time. I cannot remember losing a three-goal lead where I praise them either, but I always make changes if they get a goal; usually removing complacent or underperforming players.

What the responses actually say may have a much bigger impact than the colour coding. Angry = good because Aggression = good. Confused seems to dissipate immidiately after kickoff so i cannot say I have noticed any consequences at all. Disenchanted is bad, though - they sometimes go on to become Uninterested, which is one of the worst "motivations". Looking Very Confident is a whisker away from Complacent in my experience. Fired-Up is good but I don't think that the best performances I have seen were from Fired-Up players. They are more aggressive and work harder, perhaps, but I have the feeling they shoot earlier than they should - maybe too close to Nervous/Anxious? Composed is the standard, neutral (and thus very broad encompassing all kinds of body languages) feedback and it tells us very little. The best ones are in my opinion Looking Motivated and Looking Confident. Then they often have the right focus in addition to being confident.

What is important to notice is that most players will be "Composed" at 0-0 and as the result changes and stats build up, they respond to that. A bad referee decision can make the entire team Anxious or Furious or both, and a player having a bad day can become unsettled by that for the rest of the match. You can in other words tell if each player experiences a normal day at work, a good day or a bad day by the "permanent" body language that is there if you pay attention and ignore the minor fluctuations. I normally just sub those who can't shake off the doubt, unless I can spot a clear reason for his poor performance (for instance my central defender in the defending trio being too small to handle a big single striker) and make tactical changes accordingly.

Quote Originally Posted by prince0102 View Post

I started jotting down a few things after biggus post and have a theory. I have no proof but if nothing else it will spur some discussion. There are 3 questions to this morale module

a) What are all the different states (body language) in a scale which can be changed using man-management ?

b) How do you change the state of your players ?

c) how does the ME code and use it ?

BigUS, I think, very elegantly answered question b). I.e. how your team talks (and press conferences etc. ) are ways to change the mental state of player. A good way to think about it like the sliders in the tactics module. The answers change every player's mental state along a slider (plus or minus). The player's hidden attributes such as professionalism, pressure, age etc. all play into how much you affect it.

Now question a) was also partly answered by BigUS. A confidence scale [nervous--> focused --> complacent]. However, if there was only 1 scale this would be easy. SFraser in my favorite thread on this forum talks about a few other scales. I believe you simultaneously change all of them by responses you give in answer b) above. Sfraser talks about 4 scales. Comfort, Happiness, Motivation, Morale. So lets put these in slider form because that is how a game will really use it. As a series of numbers.

1. Comfort/ Confidence [nervous-->focused-->complacent]

2. Happiness [ angry--> frustrated-->composed-->happy-->delighted]

3. Motivation [Disenchanted--> indifferent-->motivated--> fired up--> Convinced]

4. Morale [ very poor --> poor --> okay --> good --> superb.]

Obviously we only see the 4th slider which is a longer term effect. i.e. carries from match to match. But you can have a player who is superb, complacent, happy and indifferent at the same time in a match.

Ok finally the most important, question c) how does it really affect your game calculations or match engine. I don't think it can affect passing or pace like attributes since suddenly a player cannot become a better passer or runner. But we see a huge difference in passing accuracy and when they run. Why ? I think the answer is background and primary attributes. These are the attributes that are used as a first check for everything, passing, shot hits the target or not. (http://www.mantralux.com/2010/11/pla...tes-explained/). Here's an example from the website

short pass by the player in ME is (Background attributes > Creativity (prime) > Decisions (prime) > Passing (secondary).)

In short, I think these attributes are affected.

1. background attributes - determination, concentration, teamwork, work rate

2. primary attributes - decisions, technique, anticipation, creativity

Now its easy to see how you convert the 4 mental scales from above into these attribute changes.

1. nervous = -concentration, -decisions, -work rate

2. complacent = -concentration, -determination, -work rate, -decisions

3. angry = +determination, +work rate, -concentration,

4. delighted = +creativity, +anticipation, +teamwork, -determination, -workrate

5. Not motivated = all background attributes -ve

6. Fired up = all background attributes +ve

7. poor morale = all primary attribute -ve

8. superb morale = all primary attributes +ve

I think a theory like this explains a lot. Why the mental state affects everything that players do. Why you can have a superb morale squad so they are creative and have great technique but also complacent so they have lower determination and work rate.

It explains why Man Utd with great players are easier for morale mini game while a bunch of young, low mental attributes players are very susceptible. It explains why if players are angry it still has a positive effect on field.

I have no proof but maybe others can build on this or disprove it.

[BiggusD]

Yeah you are all probably quite right about your observations. I have made most of them myself, and recognize much of what you write.

Central to the understanding of the "team talk module" which I like to call it, is the observation that there are "scripted" fluctuations in Pressure in different parts of the season. The most recognizable one is the nervousness setting in when the season draws to a close; the last 10 league games or so, when you're fighting for the title, tend to showcase some strange player behaviour.

There is also a side-effect to the way I deal with team talks and morale. By supporting, comforting and boosting the players when the context indicates a likelyhood of Nervousness, and demanding blood and tears when the context indicates a likelyhood of Complacency, and always (cautiously) praise wins, I try to keep the players properly focused at all times. However, when the winning streak continues for a prolonged period of time, I will steadily increase the pressure and be more and more demanding until it is too much for them to handle, and then they become nervous and play badly. I have also seen, with lesser teams, that even Aggressive Expect a Win and a hairdryer in the break failed to motivate the players to actually give a damn. Usually tactical changes and substitutions save the day, but at that point it is time to reassess the situation and maybe be more forgiving going into the next match, starting the cycle again. With non-superb teams keeping the focus does require some work.

On the other hand, putting that much pressure on the players tend to "eat" Morale, so I think it is necessary to constantly praise wins in order to keep it high. Also, be prepared to experience some tantrums because of that hardline man management approach - I have sold numerous excellent players because they objected to my rule. In the end I always get a 25-man squad of ambitious professionals with brains, though, so I think it is worth it in the long term.

In other words, I create my own fluctuations, but knowing that they come I am prepared for them - so that is also an advantage.

[podium86]

We are not really far apart there really

I still believe that in a match only pressure level, confidence and motivation are the only "factors" in play on the match itself

IMO before going into the match itself

initial |pressure|

1) team form (league results vs expectations) and match odds will affect

(winning streak creates complacency, losing streak will often have assistants asking you to use the no pressure talk, too much pressure leads to team wide nervousness which is pretty bad, causes a lot of misplaced passes)

2) debutants

(quite obvious here, first few matches tends to cause nervousness)

Sidenote : Big games might and crowds might affect pressure levels but i still important matches seem to be a greater factor here, to me i generally don't seem to see any pattern for the "end of season slump", might be a human observation bias due to wanting to keep up in the race for the cups/title. You will of course still win everything if your players are of a much higher level than the opposition attribute wise(easy for a human manager long term wise), but trying to sustain constant over achievements with a mid table squad is the real challenge. (trick here is squad harmony and full tactical familiarity leading to a dominating season opening start)

initial |confidence| levels are decided by

1) personal form and morale level will affect

(good form can be easily seen by player always shooting well and passing well, that's very easy to observe)

initial |motivation| levels are decided by

1) reputation of player vs manager and probably the captain's influence

(easily seen by assistant advice stating that he does not wish to play for a poor rep manager like you or the captain when you are of poor repute)

2) the level of |pressure| set

(You can push resilient and iron willed players really hard and they won't get nervous yet work hard)

3) how much player likes you and or club

(manager name in favored personnel list tends to lead to player starting match as "motivated")

4) his work rate stat

(self explanatory)

Of course, that is all before the actual team talk, which will allow you to adjust the level of pressure and confidence (from team talks!) based on how you feel necessary to get the best out of your players

therefore the purpose of pre-match team talks is to either

1) push your players to the limit of their ability before they "crack", pressure wise (in this case they will work very hard) and hopefully score a goal

pros : cause them to work hard, they will shoot much more accurately ,pass a lot better and generally dive into 50-50 challenges more

(a good first half match stats relative to match odds can be useful in the half time team talk)

cons :

1) causes frustration if they fail to break the opposition down (as the bigger team)

2) causes nervousness when they fail to handle the pressure

3) cause a whole lot of **** when you STILL get outplayed despite putting in a shift this half

or

2) relax the players against bigger opposition

pros : cause them to pass around better and probably improve composure and concentration, lessens impact of losing

cons :

1) they will not run into space as much as the demanding talks

(can be useful for possession play against formations that do not cancel each other out, or by overloading a certain midfield area to allow for easy options without having to move too much)

2) can lead to being massively overrun this half by a better yet hardworking team with high morale (failure to compete)

(try not to use an attacking approach with relaxed team talks, better to counter in transition)

I feel that the deciding factor here is probably the maturity of your team and how much they will listen to you.

Young teams have to be relaxed more due to poor pressure handling (rather have them pass well)

Older teams should be pushed to run into open space (if they're open you can't miss that pass except for complete nervous breakdown)

i have yet to really get a grasp on the actual penalty for players having to adapt to a different league (eg. brazilians playing in Holland or England) and not yet gelling with the team,

(they might have separate penalties for teamwork or some other negative, might not be included in the 3 sliding bar factors)

Basically the key point here is that "morale" does not impact the match engine itself, you can start with very low morale and still play well (high match rating) if events turn out well (passing well, defying match odds by getting more shots and tackles against bigger opposition.) which will allow you to simply issue a keep up what you're doing team talk in half time even at 0-0 and lead to a win in the second half by having everyone delighted

[BiggusD]

Not only Work Rate but also Aggression, Bravery and Team Work. I see those four as the "Team Work Quartet", which are all very important to ensure that the players really bleed for the club when it is called for.

[podium86]

yes, those intangibles ^_^

imo teamwork seems to only cover passes to open man and covering players out of position (eg. cb with 15+ teamwork running out of position to cover the wingback that just failed a byline cross |too far to recover back| in a counter attack situation)

i have to say that my best defender in LLM is a 15 anticipation and 19 teamwork guy with below average positioning, marking and strength and tackling though. He's always intercepting them balls

bravery affects dangerous challenges that tends to lead to minor knocks in game. (those pussy wingers always stay out of dangerous headers, not even attempting to challenge)

aggression affects diving tackles heavily, 15+ seems to lead to too many cards.....getting carded within 20 minutes of a game ruins all his future challenges allowing space for the opposition. although it tends to be that the straight red for violent conduct seems to be borne out of dirty players too (can't tell when buying a player)

Theoretically sounds like a good idea to stick such guys on a low bravery opposition. Each challenge attempted on them might reduce their confidence, unsure of this though

Work rate is the key point for me here. I have seen an average AMC (for english league 1 levels) with 15 work rate constantly running into space even against a good dm marking him down. I can accept balanced personality but not under 8 work rate in LLM. Good personalities are great, but they have high valuations and contractual wages (picking some up on a free release from higher level teams works) compared to someone who's fairly loyal. (these guys are like 50% cheaper in wages! They just take a lot longer to develop unless u push them heavily in training)

[podium86]

On watching a match and some formation tips (this applies for only LLM, higher tier players are generally more well rounded)

Playing with target men

Why play with target men : CA costs for pace, acceleration, off the ball, composure, finishing are high for strikers. With the same CA u can have a target man with off the charts Jumping and Strength relative to your level

Defenders lose confidence after losing a lot of key headers leading them to play much poorer over time

Important Attributes relative to the league's level : Great Strength, Jumping and header ratings, decent First touch, Teamwork and finishing

Not so important attributes : pace, off the ball, acceleration, finishing crossing dribbling

Key notes :

Target men are people you build a team around, not a supporting piece, if playing with one make sure hes almost always your best and most consistent player.

Don't use young target men that are inconsistent. All your attacks will break down.

Drop their creative freedom to around the 1/3 mark unless hes an all rounded target man. Ambitious passes and silly movement will screw up your tactical plan often and drop his confidence due to failures

Expect performances from these guys often, by doing so they will be willing to dive into all the heading challenges and score "sliding tackle" shots from crosses

Always train plays with back to goal ppm, forward facing target men have no players to aim their headers at except to the keeper

Likewise, target men CAN be your play makers too and yet not the "target man", this will encourage long ball clearances to go toward him but not crosses and through passes that require him to over stretch

1) Big strikers best play on defensive minded tactics is support duty target man, their job is to win that initial header backward or sidewards from the goal kick or long direct ball from a defender to release pressure and hopefully land it to a pacy counter attacker to just dribble in straight lines for an easy chance. (support them with technically limited but extreme pace inside forward guys.)

2) On offensive and possession tactics, their best play is mainly to receive the ball with their back to goal, hold up the defender facing their backs with their strength, pivot then play a through pass to the onrushing partner exploiting a gap. Don't turn off their through passes ala target man attack duty. Target men don't score much due to low pace (forever being covered thus forcing difficult shots), if they don't attempt through balls and quick first touch releases they are of no good to a team

(incomplete)

General tips :

Form is critical in this game, a crappy looking player with superb morale and above 7.5 recent form should be given priority over the first team regular with 6.8-7 recent form. They will work much harder and pass better.

Play maker setting is generally who your team tries to look for a pass on to if hes available

Target man setting is who they try to pass to only to "finish off moves"

Take a rough look at your next opposition team's form, morale and key injuries before playing the match, if you think you have a decent chance of winning due to opposition low morale and form despite having higher attributes, push your team despite the odds. They might look confused during the pre match team talk due to poor match odds, but it is very likely that they will overrun the opposition anyways.

Set the play maker in your team during the 20 minute mark after watching an outstanding performer so that your team tries to get the ball to him as much as possible

eg. Team average rating is 6.8 and one player is emerging as 6.9 and is looking motivated in the body language.

Players left out of games for a long time become more unhappy yet more motivated, so keep playing players in form and switch them for the hungry but angry rotation players. I think the higher the squad status the faster it happens.

Adopt an SAF approach (Strict and demanding -> better work ethic -> better performances -> great training and improvement -> better performances)

10 simple tips for the micromanagement obsessed manager to get the best out of your fringe players and youngsters

1. Review your squad performance approximate once every month or two INCLUDING LOANEES!!

2. Warn loan and warn transfer list those that underperform (avg rating 5-7)

3. Even loanees can be warned (click on their names and private chat, the option is not given on the squad screen)

4. Recall those that are not playing well despite being being warned, and send them to a lower level of challenge

5. Keep youngsters that available to play youth matches in their youth teams rather than loaning them out, they tend to improve better here

6. Discipline Poor performances in reserve and youth team games, for those under 6.2 rating generally (Just get the match report, you don't have to manage the teams)

7. Give comments every 5 games about their recent performances.

8. Be assertive on your tone when demanding increased effort in training and performances toward younger players or those with relatively lower reputation to yours

9. Give youngsters that are in incredible recent form (7.5 and above) the second half or the last 20-30 minutes in a first team game till it drops back while using the calm & no pressure chat, he will usually do fine

10. Drop 2 or 3 players into the reserves for not turning up when you substitute them for dips in form in the main team in via private chat by saying you're dropped for being not good enough (challenge them when they complain)

Formation Tips:

Against 4-2CM-3AMC-1

Use a quick forward line, the idea is to give them possession and catch them on the break, bypassing the entire midfield to your amc or deeper forward

Try to compress the play and go on the counter. Tight marking and deeper philosophy

Play with Work ball into box and Get ball forward to generate multiple 1on1s in a counter where you are given a lot of space

Try not to always close down their midfield, they will pass around your outnumbered midfield, tight marking is ok.

If too heavily outplayed on possession, set one of your forwards/amc with good pace to specific marking on their least creative central midfielder, he will still be able to motor past the midfielder on offense

(to be continued)

Defensive philosophy

Playing with a spare man at the back allows a more aggressive tackling eg. DM anchor man and 2 CB vs 2 strikers. You can put one CB stopper duty and harder tackling and more offensive minded to win interceptions knowing that they have cover even if they failed

Playing with a flat line defense provides the best defense against direct through balls but concedes more long shots and gives amc more space, best for defensive tactics

Playing with cover stopper makes for a big gap that a good off the ball striker will exploit by moving diagonally behind the stopper. Make sure the covering player or goalkeeper has great acceleration and anticipation. This strategy is mostly used to quickly recycle possession on an attacking philosophy