Wolfsong's guide to team talks - Fm08

[WoIfsong]

Yes Dirty_ACE I think they have tweaked a lot of teamtalk effects in 8.02 too. The following is generally what I do now with R.Madrid:

(Note I've only played as R.Madrid in 8.02 and i am in 2013 now with 720 hall of fame points for the World ranking and ranking no.1. (includes World Cup and Confederation Cup winner with Argentina). The following may not work for weak teams, I am not sure...)

Pre-match:

Because I am R.Madrid and loses about 3 games per season, I rarely use 'we can win this' and 'wish luck' in 8.02, because it is now almost certain that when you are on a winning streak, these teamtalks demotivate players. And once they do, it is very hard to cure/overcome the bad effect at 1/2 time. I've just played an away game where my striker Tevez was the only one who had a 'seemed demotivated. looked delighted' as a result of 'we can win this!' at prematch, yet my whole team played very very bad,created 3 chances only in the 1st 1/2 instead of the usual 8+ and we were down 0-1. At 1/2 time, I had one player with 'morale boost' one with 'fired-up' and another with 'insipred to a better performance', yet I still lost that game 1-2. This is just to explain why I almost never ever use 'we can win this!' and 'wish luck' now.

What I use instead is either "expect a win" or 'for the fans' at all at prematch, both home and away. These usually have 'nothing specific noted', occassionally you get a 'gained focus' or 'seemed motivated' as a result of 'expect a win'. When I am playing against a weak team either home or away, I use 'expect a win'. When I am playing against a team on the same level of mine, I use 'for the fans'. Now I do not and can not save 'for the fans' for derby matches only, because I have not found other substitutes for 'we can win this' or 'wish luck'. Sometimes I also say nothing at pre-match when morale is superb, this has never given me any negative effects either.

I have also tried using more 'ask assistant' for pre-match teamtalk. He usually suggests a couple individual teamtalks such as 'pick up where you left from' or 'expect a performance', from my experience we should use them. I've had one player 'seemed motivated' by 'pick up from where you left from' now, but this is like one in 30 games. However, none of the players who were told these have bad performances during the first half. My assistant manager has a motivating attribute of 10 only, but his individual suggestions has never demotivated my squad. Be aware though when he suggests 'we can win this' as a general team talk, this has the same risk as I discussed above, once I thought that 'the assistant manager is usually right for pre-match, I'll just use it anyway', then I found my players demotivated of couse...

Half time

Lucky for us the half time uses of 'you have faith' and 'you can make the difference' are still as effective in 8.02 as they were in 8.01 (at least from my experience). Note that try to limit these on rating 8+ players, subsitutes and players who have scored in the 1st 1/2, even if the scored player only has a rating 7. Occassionally if you use them on players with rating 7 who haven't scored, they get 'looked delighted' but rarely 'seemed motivated' from my experience.

However, the 'disappointing' teamtalk now has less effect according to my experience. If I have a striker who has rating 6 by 1/2 time, 70% of the times it is better for me to substitute him off and say 'you have faith' to the player coming on, instead of keeping the rating 6 striker on and say disappointing to him. It still works sometimes, but I found the chance is lower than it was in 8.01.

Another point I found was if I was leading 2-0 and I say 'pleased' to all squad, then most of the times the rating 6s stay at rating 6s through out the match. If I say 'disappointed' to them, they get angry/confused or nothing but still stay at rating 6 anyway. However, if I say pleased as a general teamtalk and then go 'none' for the rating 6s at 1/2 time, then a lot of them improve their performance in the 1/2 half. I guess it makes sense when compared to real life situations...

Sometimes I also get 'seemed demotivated' when I 'encourage' - Dirty_ace's point. However, for me this does not occur anywhere near as often as it does for prematch 'we can win this' or 'wish luck'.

Sometimes I just go 'for the fans' (if available) during 1/2 time to avoid negative effects.

Again I emphasis that the exact effect of team talks varies between squads therefore some trial and errors are needed for each new team that you and I take over. Simplying following one formula is probably not a very good idea, the better approach should be constantly checking the effects, thinking about why that effect occured, on what conditions that effect occured and then improve the formula in your mind.

Post-match teamtalks seem to remain the same in 8.02 for me.

Help these help. I will update anymore findings as I play more of the game. I am quite busy studying at the moment so apologies if I don't update very often.

[Riziger]

Hey, I just read this and I must say it's class.

Tried it for the first time and beat Man Utd 2-0 with my Blackburn squad after a lacklustre 1st half.

I always though "You Have Faith" was for players with 6 rating and key=players in the squad.

Guess I was wrong. Nice one, Wolfsong.

[Riziger]

After a few games in, I think the "you have faith" has been toned down a bit in the 8.0.2 patch.

It dosn't produce the effect as dramatically as shown in your earlier screen shots. Some of my players even have "nothing specific noted"

[Joor]

Yes the 8.0.2 patch is better than 8.0.1 where you could win 9 out of 10 games with the correct teamtalk - "you have faith" or "You can make the difference" at halftime to players with a 8 rating was to powerful.

[Joor]

Now its more based on player personality.

Some players react positive(motivated/happy) to "delighed" at halftime after scoring a goal.

Others need to be encouraged..I have also seen the "disappointing" teamtalk at halftime to players with a 7 raing and a goal got "fired up" or "inspired to a great performance".

[Bavvy]

Wolfsong, you are the winner of Bavvy's best post award. Great job, bringing something seemingly small and unimportant in the game very influential!

Great job!

BTW I think in 8.0.2 team talks are tuned down, and I think they did well because it was too influential.

[Dirty_ACE]

Originally posted by Joor:

Now its more based on player personality.

Some players react positive(motivated/happy) to "delighed" at halftime after scoring a goal.

Others need to be encouraged..I have also seen the "disappointing" teamtalk at halftime to players with a 7 raing and a goal got "fired up" or "inspired to a great performance".

Did you happen to notice what type of personality that player had?

[Dirty_ACE]

In my most recent match which was away vs Liverpool, we were up 4-0 by half time. Looking at my team it was definitely my attackers that where having a field day as they all had 8 rating and one even had a 9. The rest of the team was on 7s. So I thought that perhaps it would be wise to tell the more driven and determined personalities on the team "Don't let your performance drop" and the more light-hearted ones that I was pleased. We went on to win the match 6-2.

Checking the talk feedback afterwards. The half time team talk produced the reaction of "Happy" from the players whom I told I was pleased and a couple of them actually improved to a rating of 8 by final whistle. Now, in terms of the players whom I told "Don't let your performance drop", all but one had no reaction at all, so I'm basically assuming that it was neither good nor bad. However, one player, who is actually my most driven player did not like it and was confused by it. He also happens to be my captain. I was a bit surprised by it as I thought that he off all people would gain some additional focus.

[tomricho2]

alot of the time now all i get is didnt seem to be listening at the end of the match and half time effect is nothing specific noticed

[Joor]

dirty ace, "Don't let your performance drop" works better on professional players.

Determined or driven personalities respond well to "encouraged" or "have faith".

A Resilient/Iron Willed Personality can handle alot of pressure(Inzaghi type) - expect a performance in the beginning of the match and disappointing at halftime often give a "fired up" or "seem motivated" on 6-7 's..with 8's "have faith" rarely have any negative effect.

quote:

Originally posted by Joor:

Now its more based on player personality.

Some players react positive(motivated/happy) to "delighed" at halftime after scoring a goal.

Others need to be encouraged..I have also seen the "disappointing" teamtalk at halftime to players with a 7 raing and a goal got "fired up" or "inspired to a great performance".

Did you happen to notice what type of personality that player had?

Massimo Oddo (Professional Personality)

[jdmk]

didnt work well for my wigan team, lost against villa and only managed to pull off 2 shots at goal (both in the second half).

I looked at team talk feedback and everybody for the pre match team talk had "nothing specific noted". I used "wish luck" because villa were favourites by quite a bit and i was playing away from home.

I did however put your advice into practice of "not being too harsh when away from home"at half time by saying encourage when losing 2-0. Despite there being no major improvements in performance, the teamtalk feedback read "looked delighted" for about half the team.

I think i'm going to go back to my teamtalk method. This is pretty much using "for the fans" against all teams pre match except for "expect a win" against the poor teams.

Half time i use dissapointed if i'm losing or playing badly and drawing. or i use "dont let performance drop" if i'm winning and playing well. Sometimes "encourage" if i'm drawing or winning against utd, chelski etc

[Al Bundy]

Originally posted by jdmk:

didnt work well for my wigan team, lost against villa and only managed to pull off 2 shots at goal (both in the second half).

I looked at team talk feedback and everybody for the pre match team talk had "nothing specific noted". I used "wish luck" because villa were favourites by quite a bit and i was playing away from home.

I did however put your advice into practice of "not being too harsh when away from home"at half time by saying encourage when losing 2-0. Despite there being no major improvements in performance, the teamtalk feedback read "looked delighted" for about half the team.

I think i'm going to go back to my teamtalk method. This is pretty much using "for the fans" against all teams pre match except for "expect a win" against the poor teams.

Half time i use dissapointed if i'm losing or playing badly and drawing. or i use "dont let performance drop" if i'm winning and playing well. Sometimes "encourage" if i'm drawing or winning against utd, chelski etc

Dont judge it by 1 game.

Do as Wolf says.

This is probably the most useful thread since 07.

[Bigwig]

I’ve been using a throwaway save game to test team talks and reactions. Basically I replay games over and over trying different talks for different scenarios to see what happens.

However, no matter what scenario I try and different variable involved, I just can’t get some of the talks to have any effect whatsoever, such as:

For the fans

Pick up where you left off last time (when a player has just had a good game)

Expect a better performance (when a player has just had a bad game)

Prove a point (when a player is underperforming at half time)

Expect a performance today

Like I said I’ve tried just about every possible combination but so far haven’t had a single response to any of these talks, either positive or negative.

I recently played Middlesbrough at home in the North East derby so said ‘for the fans’ and proceeded to rip Boro to pieces in the first half and went in 2-0 up and eventually winning 3-0. I assumed that my pre-match team talk had worked a treat because of the performance, but when I checked the feedback nothing specific was noted for every player.

This makes me wonder whether one of three things are happening:

1. The talks mentioned have no effect whatsoever. Whatever piece of programming code that links these particular talks to player reactions is flawed / missing and as a result these talks will always result in having no effect.

2. The talks mentioned do have an effect, but whatever piece of code linking their reaction to the feedback screen is flawed / missing, so while your players might have a positive / negative reaction to these talks, they don’t show up on the feedback screen.

3. The talks mentioned do have an effect, but only in rare circumstances I just haven’t uncovered yet. It’s quite possible, as up until yesterday I would have thrown ‘I expect a win’ in with these, but I’ve recently started getting reactions from this so perhaps I’m just not meeting the right criteria.

If anyone has had any reactions from these team talks I’d be grateful if they could provide a screenshot of the team talk feedback, as well as a bit info on the circumstances.

[sgwombles]

hey wolfsong

juz want to tell you your guide works, especially with that 'You can make a difference' for 2nd half sub in of striker.

i tried this for scott sinclair of chelsea and he has bagged 3 goals in 2 games, both as subs.

well done mate!

[Bonzodog]

This thread should be stickied, my game has improved immeasurably since I started using Wolfsongs tips. Although I've never had "you can make the difference!" yet.

[wrezig]

Thank you very much for this thread.

I'm playing as QPR (08 season) and have had some problems until I started to use wolfsongs team talks. Now I have scored 13 goals and conceded only 1 in the 3 last games!!! Including winning over Boro 3-1 in the league cup. 6-1 victory over Colchester away, 1-1 in halftime. My god I'm thrilled!

[wrezig]

sorry, I meant conceding 2 goals

[Bigwig]

I tend to agree with Joor that determination isn’t the main attribute needed to fire players up. I signed Henry from Barcelona and he never once got fired up when I gave him a disappointing team talk for being on a 6. I then checked his stats and his pressure rating was 10, so from then on I used have faith or no pressure and saw much better results from him.

I then bought Drogba and with him having a high pressure stat (17 or 18) I can fire him up often by telling him he’s been disappointing.

I’m still not convinced the feedback is totally honest and that sometimes the resulting feedback is a result of the player’s performance rather than the other way round. I played one game where Drogba was on a 6 at half time and I told him he was disappointing, but had no strikers on the bench so had to stick with him for the second half. During the second half he did nothing noteworthy, until we won a free kick in the 85th minute which he fired in for the winner. He finished on an 8 and the player feedback says he was fired up, but apart from the free kick I didn’t think he did anything in the second half and if it had gone wide / over etc. he would have ended the game on a 6 and possibly have nothing specific noted for his feedback.

[JUWS]

I don´t know for sure , but the the teamtalk , should´n you concern about the attitude of the players ? Like you can be harder to the guys with professional and determed attitude and smoother with other.

[Joor]

No Juws, f.eks if your player have 20 determination but only 8 professionalism - encourage him is much better at halftime .

And if he have lets say ; 12 determination 20 professionalism - a "dissapointed" a halftime is better than encourage..

Im talking about players who has been poor(6) or average(7) in the first 45 min, and you want to see more from them..

[Psychoward Outpatient]

So this is a first for me, the "for the fans" teamtalk actually had an effect on the players! Sadly it was bad all around, and I have no idea why that is?! We were even with Chelsea after the first 90 minutes of the super cup and I thought that the fan teamtalk would do the trick. We won 6-4 without having to go to penalties, but the effect of my teamtalk was kinda weird. Anyone have any idea how come my players took it so badly?

[Dirty_ACE]

So essentially you guys are using the editor to find out their professionalism stat and go by that?

[Dirty_ACE]

Sorry for the double post but is there any chance that the material in this thread could be separated into two threads, one for 8.0.1 patch the other for 8.0.2 patch because the team talks have been reworked and now it's confusing what applies to what here. Like for example, "Have faith" talk, is it still applicable for half time with players who have an 8 rating or does it now depend entirely on their personality and the rating is not as important? Stuff like that.

[oddangryshot]

Yeah I agree with Dirty_Ace...

Iam on the 8.0.2 patch and followed Wolfsongs directions... I either did it WAAAAAYYYY wrong or it doesnt suit my team. Iam playing as Wolves, I (thought) followed the directions but after 6 games I had lost all of them, with a final 6-0 loss to a team close to relegation. Iam in 3 spot...

My moral to begin with was superb/very good/good, nothing less. By the end of the 6th week moral was horrible. It seemed to have the opposite effect of what I was originally doing.. I went back to my fluffy team talks and we started winning..moral is back up to what it should be....

[WoIfsong]

Originally posted by Dirty_ACE:

Sorry for the double post but is there any chance that the material in this thread could be separated into two threads, one for 8.0.1 patch the other for 8.0.2 patch because the team talks have been reworked and now it's confusing what applies to what here. Like for example, "Have faith" talk, is it still applicable for half time with players who have an 8 rating or does it now depend entirely on their personality and the rating is not as important? Stuff like that.

According my post on this page posted 09 April 2008 15:56:

"Lucky for us the half time uses of 'you have faith' and 'you can make the difference' are still as effective in 8.02 as they were in 8.01 (at least from my experience). Note that try to limit these on rating 8+ players, subsitutes and players who have scored in the 1st 1/2, even if the scored player only has a rating 7. Occassionally if you use them on players with rating 7 who haven't scored, they get 'looked delighted' but rarely 'seemed motivated' from my experience."

And according to my recent experiences, yes it still works on rating 8s for most players

[WoIfsong]

Originally posted by Psychoward Outpatient:

So this is a first for me, the "for the fans" teamtalk actually had an effect on the players! Sadly it was bad all around, and I have no idea why that is?! We were even with Chelsea after the first 90 minutes of the super cup and I thought that the fan teamtalk would do the trick. We won 6-4 without having to go to penalties, but the effect of my teamtalk was kinda weird. Anyone have any idea how come my players took it so badly?

This is the first time I've seen these effects, could you tell us what you said at pre-match, 1/2 time as well?

[Shev7chenko..!]

Great guide Wolfsong, most people who start playing FM are careless on "team talks" but i have comprovated myself that its a heavy factor to change the transcur of a game.

[dylanismyjesus]

Brilliant. Just Brilliant.

Just played a game and followed the instructions. was 1-0 down at half time, but turned it round to 2-1. Players praised my teamtalk afterwards.

I'm converted.

[chilli_puzzle]

good advice thanks

[dalglish1]

is bumping allowed on this forum?!

[kkas]

I do not have the option to say some of things that he said I should say to my players like "we can win this" when losing at home. What can I do?

[bobani17]

Could anyone take the time to "update" the original post with the tips for 8.0.2 patch?

it sure would be nice to have all the latest tips in the same post.. so you can print it out =)

[Thedaddy]

Just wanted to add my thanks the the many already on this thread. It had pretty much saved my first season in the premiership with Crystal Palace. A truly woeful squad and i managed to finish 13th

I have noticed a couple of things - Wolfsong's method works best with a determined squad and a high morale level. It's also very good at keeping morale high (praising indivisual players for good perfromances despite the result). I also noticed towards the end of the season a lot of my players responding with "didn't seem to be listening" which doesn't sound good but didn't seem to have much impact on morale...

I think there's no definitive team talk method suitable for all teams. However - this is about as good as you can get and a strong platform to develope a team talk style best suited to your team. I had almost given up on the game before this (an example - i played Arsenal away and got spanked 8-0 yet, using this, managed a 2-1 win at home later in the season!)

2 games into my second season and, with the help of some shrewd signings (including Nene - look this guy up he's class and only cost £12m) two games in and i beat Villa away 4-0 and Chelsea at home 3-0! anyway - enough about my beloved Palace...

Well done Wolfsong!

[Psychoward Outpatient]

Originally posted by WoIfsong:

This is the first time I've seen these effects, could you tell us what you said at pre-match, 1/2 time as well?

It's been a while now, but I believe that it was "wish luck" and "we can win this".

[pynghsbnd]

WoIfsong, is it possible for you to type up your guide for half-time team talks for away because I'm not having much luck away from home at the moment.

cheers

[kennec]

Originally posted by oddangryshot:

Yeah I agree with Dirty_Ace...

Iam on the 8.0.2 patch and followed Wolfsongs directions... I either did it WAAAAAYYYY wrong or it doesnt suit my team. Iam playing as Wolves, I (thought) followed the directions but after 6 games I had lost all of them, with a final 6-0 loss to a team close to relegation. Iam in 3 spot...

My moral to begin with was superb/very good/good, nothing less. By the end of the 6th week moral was horrible. It seemed to have the opposite effect of what I was originally doing.. I went back to my fluffy team talks and we started winning..moral is back up to what it should be....

wolfes and real madrid are differnt teams.

[Rio_V]

8.0.2 patch. You are 3-1 or less dog Away.

You go up 2-0. Stats are pretty close.

What do you say at halftime?

I ask b/c I keep having this happen: I usually say "pleased" with the appropriate "have faiths" and invariably they draw level. Sometimes, they win. Getting maddening.

[Dexter St Jock]

Originally posted by Rio_V:

8.0.2 patch. You are 3-1 or less dog Away.

You go up 2-0. Stats are pretty close.

What do you say at halftime?

I ask b/c I keep having this happen: I usually say "pleased" with the appropriate "have faiths" and invariably they draw level. Sometimes, they win. Getting maddening.

If you are underdog I would say "Pleased" and "You have faith" to 8's and 6's. Change the 6's at the 65th minute mark if they haven't turned into 7's or higher. Usually works for me.

[Rio_V]

Originally posted by Dexter St Jock:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Rio_V:

8.0.2 patch. You are 3-1 or less dog Away.

You go up 2-0. Stats are pretty close.

What do you say at halftime?

I ask b/c I keep having this happen: I usually say "pleased" with the appropriate "have faiths" and invariably they draw level. Sometimes, they win. Getting maddening.

If you are underdog I would say "Pleased" and "You have faith" to 8's and 6's. Change the 6's at the 65th minute mark if they haven't turned into 7's or higher. Usually works for me. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is what I have been doing. Usually, they score b/f the 50th then draw level late.

Ug.

[Dexter St Jock]

maybe your players are not determined enough, have you checked the feedback? if players are demotivated you have to chose another team talk.

[genz1000]

yo everyone ive got the 8.0.2 patch and i cant seem to find the team talk feedback where is it ???

[MixitupMixitdictator]

lets say your team talk should be "you can win today" but a player is on very poor morale

and poster above me read the thread and you will find you answer it is on your main team screen

[kvj]

What a great post Wolfsong, thx

[fbg11]

Great post Wolfsong

very useful,thank you

[ShinNatsume]

this is great !!! thanks for sharing it !!!!

[UNITED!!!!!]

This guide is the Bee's Knees.

[Guest wwhirlwind]

thanks for guide

[gandycoleuk]

Been dying for a thread like this, used for the first time with Blackburn and got me 6th place in the league which included a home unbeaten record against the big four (wins against Arsenal and Liverpool). Also got me to the quarter-finals of both the UEFA Cup and FA Cup and the League Cup semi-finals. Thank you very much Wolfsong.

[Cush]

Do individual team talks override the general one?

IE if you set disappointed as an overall team talk, but individually set pleased on each player (for some reason!), what does that mean?

[gandycoleuk]

Hey guys, was wondering what kind of team talk you would give here? I've already qualified for the knockout stages in Champions League with Man Utd and I'm playing Kobenhavn at home with odds heavily in my favour.

Would you say 'I expect a win' or 'Pressure is off?'