Team plays badly...Is this typical at end of season?

[talino7]

I wondering if this is typical in FM. I had a very successful 2^nd season with Roma in Serie A. Won the League title with 5 games to spare, semi final loss to Man U in Champions League and lost to Juve in Coppa Italia Final. I was on a winning streak of 17 games but then it seemed the team started playing crap. I let in more goals than typical and wasn’t able to score any more. I wasn’t even playing top four teams in the league… seems like my players went on vacation before the end of the season. My only changes were allowing some of the less used players to play. I rotated my squad heavily during the season. The most games any player played was 34 games. I did have some injuries and some of my better players weren’t in top match sharpness but the difference was very noticeable in the team’s play. I just couldn’t score any more, XG typically 2.5-3, and my defense got leaky. Have you had the same experience if so what can be done to avoid this?

[Brasilia88]

Everyone has had this and it usually occurs around November-December. 

Your opponent usually digs in and counters you, whereas before they´d attack openly. Therefore, your tactic doesn´t work as much. Your team also gets complacent for thinking they are OP. What you can do is: hold a team meeting, talk to players individually, adapt your tactics, switch players for a bit and yell at your screen.

If your moral is really down the drain, plan a friendly against a weaker team to get the moral boost.   

[2feet]

Something to do with pressure.

If your players have a low rating for handling pressure, they will be affected more. Work out which ones they are and play them less in the final games.

Give shouts during games to ease the pressure too.

Edited September 1, 2022 by 2feet

[wolbeas]

That happens pretty much every save at different stages. The AI teams start to figure out your tactic and plays with a specific counter tactic for you. You can see that once the trends settles in, most of teams will be playing with similar formations and that works against you. I always have a back up tactics that approach the game differently than my original tactic to shake things up and that works most of the time. Sometimes, losing a game can cause snowball effect on players morale and we all know that morale is one of the most influential factors for players to perform on the pitch.

 

Example: Currently I use a tactic with no AMLR but WBs, 1st season everything was perfect but from the end of the season (still won games but was harder with less margin), Things started to go down hill, and when I checked most of the teams switch their formation into AMRL and FBRL combinations overwhelm sides of the pitch and it worked against me. So from that point, when I see that tactic or similar to abuse my wings, I switched to the cliche 4-3-3 with DM to counter back. It works like a charm.

[HUNT3R]

5 hours ago, wolbeas said:

The AI teams start to figure out your tactic and plays with a specific counter tactic for you.

This doesn't happen.

Teams do adjust and they adjust against every team, not just yours, but it's based on things like club rep, player rep, league position and form. Then the adjustments made would be to line up more attacking or defensive. They cannot look at your specific tactic and set up a counter specifically against that tactic.

[HUNT3R]

To answer the OP, in the league, after you've won the league your players could be less motivated in those matches as you've already won. You should make sure they don't forget that the season isn't over yet.

It might have a knock on effect, doing poorly in those league matches could affect their morale and confidence going into important knock out matches. There are many other factors too, of course, like your players' Pressure, Important Matches and Consistency attributes.

On the other hand, there's nothing out of the ordinary to lose against Juve or even Man Utd who are both strong teams in the game.