A highly motivational Ass Man that doesn't talk

[Tele Santana]

Hi lads,

I am currently managing a team in Eastern Europe with a very good structure but which is a kind of a mid-level force in their league.

I was hired out of the Brazilian outfit I was managing and my first action on board was to bring a new Ass Man. Spanish guy, with very good balance of attributes for the role, and a Motivation of 18, which caught my eye since I'm not so into team talks (prefer to look at the tactics of the game).

So I always ask his opinion and it feels like he follows the same route usually. Btw, it was great to see the "Pleased" speech at half time in 2009 being less of an authorization for the team to stop playing...

However, when it comes to Euro League/Euro Cup, etc. - he followed a strange routine for many times now, and I am afraid it damages team morale on the long run.

The guy simply won't talk before the games, specially away and/or second leg when on advantage.

I let him do the interviews as well (not sure if it's a problem, since his man mgmt is pretty low, at 8), and I noticed that on one such situation the highlight of the pre-match interview was him telling the journalist that the team didn't need to be warned against complacency - what was seen as a reason for a good reaction from the team.

Well, we were up 3-1 from the first lega at home and ended up losing that game 3-0 with a string of errors.

At that time, the opponent was tough (English Prem) -and I thought, oh well, we wouldn't be able to make it anyways...

But since this situation has repeated constantly in my 2nd year and the morale is good but not terrific even though predictions put me in 7th and I'm currently 4th in the League, the problem players were gradually replaced by high determined and professional players, etc. I was wondering if this guy is actually doing his job well in terms of motivation and if and when I should step in.

Is it possible that a 18-motivation Ass Man actually damages team morale with his (lack of) talk?

In addition to that, plenty of times when he recommended a speech, some of my players were not happy with the team talks that I gave them.

Finally, we won the Cup and usually I have my share of love from players placing me in their favourite lists after winning trophies and things like that - I don't have a single player choosing me as a friend. Am I too strange?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Tele

[kristoaster]

Ass men are usually pretty awful at team talks. Mine regularly suggests to me (or if I holiday a game actually does) saying nothing to my team. I don't know what he hopes to achieve but it's never done any good. All it does is confuse and anger the players :-/

[GhostOfGarrincha]

I think the most important attribute for ass man is the Man Management. It should be 19-20 with other critical managerial attributes above 15 also. By critical attributes I mean motivating, tactical and judging player ability.

i think your major problem is the 8 man management your ass has. Fire him asap.