I always have a 'fury-inducing' start to the season.

[SMV90]

As the title reads, and it's occured for the past 4, 5, maybe even 6 seasons. I am 20+ seasons in with Shrewsbury and we have been (foolishly) predicted for a top-half finish for the past 4-6 years.

It doesn't matter what team I face - even if it is a 'relegation favourite' at my ground - it is inevitable we will just not perform for the first month or two.

It probably doesn't help that I get so angry that I rip into my players and obliterate morale, but they have to know their (lack of) performances are completely unacceptable. What makes it more infuriating is that we always seem to have a very good second-half of the season, yet we miss out on a top-half or better finish because the players play like f***ing d***heads early on.

Does anyone else have slow starts or is it just me? And, can anyone suggest what I can do to remedy this?

P.S: I know trying to be more understanding towards my players and keeping morale high would be a good start, but after consecutive seasons of such BS, it's very hard to resist crucifying my players.

[scott MUFC]

I had a very poor preseason performance wise, but team clicked come game 1 and just smashed all comers.

[podunkboy]

I'm certainly not one to scream "It's your tactics, report to the Tactics Subforum - STAT!", but it's POSSIBLE that your problem is you have a very nominal tactical set-up that early in the season the players have problems with but after acquiring a certain level of fluidity they adapt enough to make a half-hearted run at the finish of the season. And since you quit yelling at them, they DO play better. How's your pre-season training go re: number of friendlies, training concentration, etc.?

[eple]

Might be a fairly easy thing to correct

As I see it there's a few separate issue that can cause this, or a combination of them.

1) Team reputation + media prediction vs tactical set up and/or team talks

To elaborate, teams will approach a game against you based on a number of things. If you look at a game on even extended highlights you will quickly be able to gauge whether they are sitting back and just attacking with a few players (maybe due to your team expected to finish high) or attacking (maybe due to your poor form). You should do this at the start of every season. Once you've figured out how teams are lining up against you, try to select a style to exploit that. If they are pushing up, counter them, if they are sitting back, hold on to the ball and draw them out by by slowing down play, etc.

As you are able to clue in on how teams perceive you, adjust your team talks accordingly but realize the balancing act of team talks and how it effects your team performance is constantly ever-changing depending on moral, pressure, complacency so you need to re-adjust that as the season and your form develops. If you're on a good run, moral will rise but so too will complacency so you need to yell at them to keep it up. As you do though pressure rises, and when you get that one goal out of nothing against you, they crumble. If you are on a bad run, moral drops, so you will have to use every tool you have to get their confidence back and you should change your approach to grind out that one win that changes everything. Yelling at them and going all out attack won't do you any good in a bad run.

Sometimes a complete switch in your team talk can be good. Imagine a pressure and a complacency balloon that get's filled with air depending on your results and your team talks. If you're on a good run, that complacency balloon fills up, so you are doing you best to control it by being demanding. Eventually it's gonna burst, so pick a good time to burst it yourself and then act accordingly in the following team talk to re-establish the demanding demeanor. I.e. say you've won 4 in a row and the last one was a good win against a good side. Tell them passionately that they were great. If the next game is against a poor side at home they are bound to act like primadonnas due to the form, previous talk and match predictio. That is, until they concede, which will happen! So rather tell them assertively that you expect a win before the game to get them back to earth. And so forth. Threre's not really a right way do it, I think, but I think it's vitally important to understand that the effect carries over from previous games.

2) Tactical fluidity, as podunkboy suggested.

How is your pre-season plan? My set up is 8-10 friendlies, 40 % tactics only, sometimes I chose no rest before/after games to increase training days, and then fitness on high. And I try to make most of my signing come before pre-season starts. Not saying that is the correct way, but it has worked for me. Fluidity is usually very high the first week already and you end up steamrolling teams, wheres if you leave it at default and only play the 5-6 games the assistant arranges you might be stuck playing with a disadvantage for months, which leaves you with the inevitable moral problems, strikers goal droughts and whatnot.

[SMV90]

I usually only have around 5-6 pre-season friendlies by default, but I always add in another 4-5 to make sure I have around 10. I do allow rest before and after a match, but only because I do not want to risk losing players to injury due to being 'over-played'. What can you recommend as a good pre-season length? I usually only allow four weeks, in which my players will play against 'very small reputation' teams. I feel this will give them a very good work-out and allow for handsome wins.

As for the tactical side, I think my team had about 2/3 full on each tactic I have. I keep forgetting how you increase it at a faster rate - I think it's either less/more match preparation or focusing on tactics.

As for the season itself, do any of you allow rest before and after a match or would you not recommend this? I don't mean doing it manually, I mean the option on the team training screen which says 'Allow rest before and after a match'.

[eple]

I usually go for 5 weeks. For removing resting I meant only during pre-season.

Basically if you play 2-3 matches in a week and you rest your players before and after you are not gonna give them many training days, at a time when they really need training days alongside tactical training. Also tactical training seems to to lessen the workload, so i.e. if you have 40-50% at match training tactics only, then you can safely increase the general traing workload without risk of injuries or upsetting the less professional players. (although individual training comes on top of that, so if someone is already at high that might be bad)

Anyways, sounds like you have set up decent enough, so perhaps the problem lies elsewhere.

[SMV90]

I can post an update of better news. After my first 10 games this season, I was nicely within the top 6, as opposed to the bottom 6.

I removed the option to allow rest before and after matches. Maybe it was something as small as that which has made the difference.