Player Fatigue is a joke.

[Os]

My player 25 year old Bastoni who plays as a BPD in a low block back 3, in October (2 months into the season) I got a message about him being tired. I relented and sent him on the physio recommended 1 week holiday.

 

Fast forward 5/6 weeks I get the same message about his fatigue and the physio again recommended 1 week holiday on Dec 1st, he has a natural fitness attribute of 17 and has been rotated out of the team at least twice.

This for me is ridiculous.

 

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Os

[starbugg]

I agree, it doesn't matter what I do, low pressing etc. My game had almost become a non-contact sport. Some of my poor darlings can't seem to play 2 games a week without needing a rest for a month, they come back and are knackered again a week later and need another month off, wouldn't it be great if you could get away with that at work in real life )))

One of the reasons I brought the in game editor, so I could rectify these things happening and make my game a little bit more realistic.

[Sunstrikuuu]

This has to be training-related.  In semi-pro, I play two games a week every now and then, and always on max pressing (admittedly, not as often as a team in European competition plus cups would), and I have no fatigue and no injury issues, to the point where it's almost pointless carrying more than 16 players.  I don't even know that I had an injury in my current season just ended.

[SOULjah]

One way for the last few FMs I have rectified this is on days I have no training I put all players on a rest day for as long as they do not have training for, you can highlight every player in 'Squad' screen and do it in a single click.

This also helps with not getting those mysterious injuries on non-training days.

Edited February 5, 2023 by SOULjah

[jcp1417]

The real joke is how little information you've provided. 

- How many matches has he played recently?
- What is his training intensity?
- What is the team training schedule looking like?
- What is his individual training?

It is not as simple as "he has a high natural fitness so he should be fine"

[bielsadidnothingwrong]

Rotate your squad. If his NF is that high and yet your physio is telling you he’s exhausted, it’s your fault. 

[mcgaffer]

Just click on 2 days rest for below 50% after every game and 1 day for anyone about 75% - Problem solved

 

[MBarbaric]

according to that screenshot, by the 1st of December guy started 19 games.... Since the season started first week of August, that is about 15 weeks... That is quite a lot but not excessive so there has to be something wrong with training.. Probably too high intensity?

[HurkaDurk69]

6 hours ago, MBarbaric said:

according to that screenshot, by the 1st of December guy started 19 games

And that is not including international games,  so probably 4 more starts from that

Edited February 6, 2023 by HurkaDurk69

[timothyburger]

I don't think this is a problem in game, but you do have to rotate a lot, especially when you are playing in multiple competitions and basically playing two games every week for the whole season.

Only frustration is that players for other teams seem to have unlimited fitness, you can pretty much count on facing your opponents full A squad 95% of the time, even when they are also playing multiple games per week.

[beachbod]

The only issue with squad rotation is that the star players would complain about their agreed playing time. Smh

[Mst82]

It really is easy to manage with training schedules, resting players (training) and rotation. Respectfully, try harder. 

Recovery = reduces risk of injury

Rest = improves player condition 

Apply them as required.

Edited February 12, 2023 by Mst82

[Mst82]

16 hours ago, timothyburger said:

I don't think this is a problem in game, but you do have to rotate a lot, especially when you are playing in multiple competitions and basically playing two games every week for the whole season.

Only frustration is that players for other teams seem to have unlimited fitness, you can pretty much count on facing your opponents full A squad 95% of the time, even when they are also playing multiple games per week.

This really isn’t true. I’m playing in the championship with Sunderland where the fixture list is relentless - the oppo regularly start with players who are absolutely knackered from their last game. 

[mdaw1985]

I find similar in FM22, the opposition do seem to have their regular 11 fit for multiple games but yes, sometimes they do field some tired looking players. Not as often as it would happen to my own team if I didn't effectively have two starting 11's that I rotate each game. As someone above said the problem is they then whining about playing time even on regular starter. To me starting every other game would be regular when you have 50+ game seasons and at times only having 2 days between a set of four fixtures in a row. This often happens to me in the Spanish league with champions league.

[Johnny Ace]

Nice little trick I do every year when in multiple cups, put out my second string/kids in the league cup 

Even when lower down the leagues, pizza cup, just don't play the favored starting XI

Gives the starting XI a break, plays some fringe players and cuts down on the total games, just bomb out of a cup the board aren't too bothered about 

[Neil Brock]

Could well be the pre-season didn't concentrate enough on physical training meaning they're more likely to suffer as the season goes on.

In my save I've played nine seasons and only once have I needed to send a player on any kind of holiday. Definitely can be managed through training, short term resting and rotation. 

[psucolonel]

I am currently using very heavy physical (endurance) training in pre-season for exactly this reason.  I believe it's important to focus heavily on physical training during this part of the year.  Also...be weary of how often you schedule quickness training, as it seems to make players' unhappy for some reason.  I wouldn't totally avoid it either though.

[iAlwaysWin]

General fitness is important but match fitness is more important, dont get to hung up on general fitness, the ai consistently play a strong a team under 90% and doesnt effect them to much.

[phd_angel]

Make him take a blood test. He's probably anemic. 

Edited February 11, 2023 by phd_angel

[turnip]

If you've got 3 games in a week that your player needs to start in, just give him a week off training. It won't harm his development and unless he gets injured, he'll be more then fine to play each game.

[woolymuffler]

I was having the same issue in my current save (Paraguay, 44 league matches plus cup and continental matches in about nine months) and based on responses here I started easing up my in-season training. I wasn't doing high intensity physical training after pre-season, but I was filling almost every slot with match prep or set piece training to maximize bonuses in the next match. And the few weeks I had without any matches, I packed with skills and GK training to make up for basically not doing anything but match prep and set pieces most weeks.

I started making sure to add rest periods between every match (even at the cost of not having some of the match bonuses) and having a rest period on most days during match-free weeks to reduce fatigue build up.

The difference was dramatic. Suddenly my best players could play twice a week for several weeks straight without getting fatigued or being marked as tired on match day. It does just delay the effect, but it went from having to leave out my best players every other match and never having my best eleven playing together (with constant complaints about number of matches played ) to only having to occasionally rotate a player in less important matches. I now largely have my best eleven fit and ready for most matches and have seen a reduction in injuries as well.

So for me at least, it really was as simple as I was training too much in-season without allowing my players to rest. Even if the training itself isn't that intense and isn't adding to fatigue per se, if you fill every slot, you don't get the reduction of accumulated match fatigue that rest sessions provide. Just having a recovery session after each match isn't enough (and recovery is really more for injury prevention than fatigue reduction).

Edited February 12, 2023 by woolymuffler
Clarifying that I do physical training in pre-season

[CARRERA]

Sounds like wrong training schedule in pre-season. 

[psucolonel]

From what I can gather so far, it seems to be a good idea to train heavy physically in the pre-season.  Lots of endurance, physical, resistance, and quickness training.  I think it's important to start easing off little by little as the season approaches.  This doesn't mean you should ever totally abandon this type of training however.  I still think I should be dedicating 1-2 sessions a week to physical training.  This of course depends on your match schedule, but if you can get in three sessions because you only have one match in any given week, I say go for it as long as you don't have other dire or pressing areas you need to address.  

[DarJ]

8 hours ago, CARRERA said:

Sounds like wrong training schedule in pre-season. 

During pre-season I don’t play any games during the first week, I just go very heavy on endurance resistance with some quickness. If the pre-season is long then I’ll do that for 2 weeks before I start playing friendly games 

[woolymuffler]

I do about 6 weeks of heavy training (with some modifications); 2 weeks each of Heavy-Early, Heavy-Mid and Heavy-Late. Which might be too much heavy training in pre-season, not sure. I do start mixing in friendlies after the first two weeks of heavy training. But the Paraguay league has a pretty long pre-season, almost 3 months in its second division, so I have time for that long a pre-season.

If i have the option of a heavy schedule week during the season I have preferred to go with 3 skills training sessions per day or match practices but maybe I should mix in more physical during the season. I always worried about increasing fatigue and injury risk with those.

[starbugg]

On 06/02/2023 at 09:18, mcgaffer said:

Just click on 2 days rest for below 50% after every game and 1 day for anyone about 75% - Problem solved

 

This works for me (I already rotate, have 2 11's etc) I don't know what effect it will have on player development but it is working at the moment. 

[jcafcwbb]

One thing I have noticed is that the tactics you play affects player fatigue. I was seeing my central defenders got tired a lot and quicker than the other players during the match.

I did some experiments using the preset tactics the game gives us. Using a defensive tactic like the Fluid Counter Attack makes your central defenders get tired where they need replacing but Gegenpress left them with enough stamina to see out the game. 

This may not be news to some but it does have some logic to it.

[woolymuffler]

5 hours ago, jcafcwbb said:

One thing I have noticed is that the tactics you play affects player fatigue. I was seeing my central defenders got tired a lot and quicker than the other players during the match.

I did some experiments using the preset tactics the game gives us. Using a defensive tactic like the Fluid Counter Attack makes your central defenders get tired where they need replacing but Gegenpress left them with enough stamina to see out the game. 

This may not be news to some but it does have some logic to it.

I'm noticing this right now; my team in Paraguay played a deep counter-attacking style and it was a nightmare keeping my CBs fit. I just moved to Argentina and the board/fans require high pressing so I've abruply started using full Gegenpress. Now it's not the CBs that are getting the most tired on the team, but the CMs and Forwards.