How to solve bad morale?

[BLD14]

In the last 2 days I've abandoned 2 saves with 2 different teams. The first one in my second season, and the 2nd one in my 1st season very early on. 

In both cases, I dropped points, and wasnt harsh on my team at all in the team talk. But the morale dropped significantly.

As we all know, morale can have a huge effect on performance. But it becomes almost impossible to resolve the situation and it becomes too frustrating for me and I end up abandoning my saves because nothing I do works. My team score no goals because they create barely any chances. And when they do get chances, they squander them when a 2 year could score them. Also it seems that every goal I concede is down to individual errors. 

 

My point is, when morale is at rock bottom, nothing goes right and everything goes wrong. How do you resolve this.

 

Also, when this happens to me, I'm normally a 'bottom half of the table' team. So I can't just expect to grind my way through and pick up results. Grinding my way through would literally be picking up 0-0 draws in between getting beat 5-0 by teams below me.

[wazza]

Perseverance the way to resolve it and not throw in the towel on your saves.  Prasie training performances, conduct, recent and last match performances the day of matchdays and also dont be afraid be harsh with them and criticise the players for poor performances / training etc.  this can also raise morale  Look at  also holding a team meeting which helps raise team morale.  Be careful what to pick though to speak to your team and your tone of voice.  The squad overall personality will determine the tone you should use so not to upset your players.  If you do all the praising / criticising the day before or on the day of the match, the morale boost is evident in the match which could inspire your team to victory.  I find it very rewarding when my teams go on a bad run of form and I turn it around. Look at also posting your tactics on the tactic forum for advice on why you are not creating chances and look at changing things ie tweak player roles and duties etc.... Before the match look at the match odds and determine if you are favourites to win, lose or draw  - change your team style to suit and also you tone of voice and what you say in the team talks.

 Also give your team time to gell this can take half a season or more depending upon how many players you have bought in the transfer market. Make sure you are training them correctly and analyse the opposition to look for weaknesses, adjust your training to exploit them ie they concede alot of corners , so train attacking corners.  

Been in the similar ruts a few times with my teams who have been bottom of the league before in the lowest of the lowest leagues but always saw the bad runs through to the end and turned the situation around, I find these situations the most rewarding part of the game and l like to take over a team close to or in the releagation zone, save them and then build them up

You could also investigate  'team talk and player personality guides' to help advise you to turn the run around if you search google there are a few I have read in the past

Also grinding out  results and a few draws may help raise morale - if your team is poor especially at the back if you are getting beat 5-0. Look at a more defensive style - stop the goals first then work on your attack.  

Edited May 11, 2020 by wazza

[GianniM]

Imagine what it would be like if you're a professional player and you're constantly losing and then your coach says 'oh well doesn't matter lads it's just a game'. If even the coach doesn't believe in you and doesn't want you to do better, I bet your morale will be low too next game. 

Be hard on them sometimes, especially if you have professional/ambitious/determined etc. personalities. 

And perhaps posy your tactic for advice, because there's probably something wrong with it if you're not creating any chances. 

[99]

13 horas atrás, wazza disse:

Perseverance the way to resolve it and not throw in the towel on your saves.  Prasie training performances, conduct, recent and last match performances the day of matchdays and also dont be afraid be harsh with them and criticise the players for poor performances / training etc.  this can also raise morale  Look at  also holding a team meeting which helps raise team morale.  Be careful what to pick though to speak to your team and your tone of voice.  The squad overall personality will determine the tone you should use so not to upset your players.  If you do all the praising / criticising the day before or on the day of the match, the morale boost is evident in the match which could inspire your team to victory.  I find it very rewarding when my teams go on a bad run of form and I turn it around. Look at also posting your tactics on the tactic forum for advice on why you are not creating chances and look at changing things ie tweak player roles and duties etc.... Before the match look at the match odds and determine if you are favourites to win, lose or draw  - change your team style to suit and also you tone of voice and what you say in the team talks.

 Also give your team time to gell this can take half a season or more depending upon how many players you have bought in the transfer market. Make sure you are training them correctly and analyse the opposition to look for weaknesses, adjust your training to exploit them ie they concede alot of corners , so train attacking corners.  

Been in the similar ruts a few times with my teams who have been bottom of the league before in the lowest of the lowest leagues but always saw the bad runs through to the end and turned the situation around, I find these situations the most rewarding part of the game and l like to take over a team close to or in the releagation zone, save them and then build them up

You could also investigate  'team talk and player personality guides' to help advise you to turn the run around if you search google there are a few I have read in the past

Also grinding out  results and a few draws may help raise morale - if your team is poor especially at the back if you are getting beat 5-0. Look at a more defensive style - stop the goals first then work on your attack.  

To these really good tips I would just add some "Team Cohesion" units on training. One every week for the first couple months. Everything together has to start having some positive effect, and from the first one, two wins you can turn the page.

[AytchMan]

Another tip:  if you can fit them in, schedule one or two friendlies against absolute potato teams.  Winning a couple of these games 4-0 can sometimes work wonders.

[Gunnersmoke]

Honestly this kinda annoys me too, the only way I’ve found around it is to praise every players conduct, then ask them to suggest a signing as that boosts their happiness, then praise training if possible, then tell them they need to try better if their form is bad....

this is a whole lot of clicking and feels really game-y to me but it’s the only way around it I’ve found 

[Gunnersmoke]

14 hours ago, AytchMan said:

Another tip:  if you can fit them in, schedule one or two friendlies against absolute potato teams.  Winning a couple of these games 4-0 can sometimes work wonders.

To add to this always play a potato team as your last preaseason game so you can get everyone’s confidence up going into the season

[99]

20 horas atrás, Gunnersmoke disse:

Honestly this kinda annoys me too, the only way I’ve found around it is to praise every players conduct, then ask them to suggest a signing as that boosts their happiness, then praise training if possible, then tell them they need to try better if their form is bad....

this is a whole lot of clicking and feels really game-y to me but it’s the only way around it I’ve found 

In real life is much more complex, as you can't just click with a mouse to make someone feel happy and motivated.

Maybe try FM Touch if you don't like clicking too much around.

[YouReds]

On 12/05/2020 at 04:37, AytchMan said:

Another tip:  if you can fit them in, schedule one or two friendlies against absolute potato teams.  Winning a couple of these games 4-0 can sometimes work wonders.

100% agree on this, I have saved so many seasons by smashing a local team in midweek

[Gunnersmoke]

6 hours ago, 99 said:

In real life is much more complex, as you can't just click with a mouse to make someone feel happy and motivated.

Maybe try FM Touch if you don't like clicking too much around.

I know you can’t do that in real life but I’m saying the only way to do it in game is to do 100 conversations slowly boosting morale of players which imo is super boring

[Cmdr Christoff]

Bringing this thread back to life as I've just experienced similar with a save that I have started on FM24.

Before the season really got underway, I upset one of the players, it all escalated resulting in an "abysmal" dressing room and 10 straight defeats, some of them heavy. Being a new ME I thought that maybe my tactics were off, but I literally tried everything, to no avail. I had tried using the advice given, and did start to make improvements in their morale, but I don't think I will save my job. Never had the sack.

I think it might also be worth noting, that when you are starting a new save, especially as an inexperienced manager which I did, you have to walk on eggshells until you get the players confidence. Lesson learned.

[phnompenhandy]

2 minutes ago, Cmdr Christoff said:

Bringing this thread back to life as I've just experienced similar with a save that I have started on FM24.

Before the season really got underway, I upset one of the players, it all escalated resulting in an "abysmal" dressing room and 10 straight defeats, some of them heavy. Being a new ME I thought that maybe my tactics were off, but I literally tried everything, to no avail. I had tried using the advice given, and did start to make improvements in their morale, but I don't think I will save my job. Never had the sack.

I think it might also be worth noting, that when you are starting a new save, especially as an inexperienced manager which I did, you have to walk on eggshells until you get the players confidence. Lesson learned.

That's very true. I always start off unqualified and with no reputation. Have to be careful, only criticising with the old arm around the shoulders and suchlike.

But if morale does crash for any reason, the best way to claw it back is to win games. If league games are beyond your grasp, schedule friendlies with neighbouring minnows to bag some easy wins.

[Cmdr Christoff]

46 minutes ago, phnompenhandy said:

But if morale does crash for any reason, the best way to claw it back is to win games. If league games are beyond your grasp, schedule friendlies with neighbouring minnows to bag some easy wins.

Yes, really good advice there.  Wish I'd thought of that sooner.  Nearly 3 days solid playing, and thinking my tactic's were way off, only to be faced with a likely visit to the Job Centre! 

 

My Son who was playing the exact same Save on his machine did struggle at first (he hasn't played since FM18), but is now shooting up the table, so looks like I have lost my bet as well!