A Brief Guide to Motivation and how to exploit it

[R0ca]

Introduction

It’s been awhile since I wrote anything meaningful in regards to football manager. I think after awhile our actions become almost automatic. I’m sure we all do really intricate things without even noticing them. Well today I noticed one of mine and I thought I’d share it.

The Scenario

I’m playing as Barca it’s January and I’ve got a home game against Racing, now Racing are playing with a 4-4-2 DM. Negative we know. From the start what their objective is going to be, to harass harry close down get stuck in and hope to exploit me with a counter attack or set piece.

Preparation

I’m sure many of us have heard the term “**** poor preparation leads to poor performance”. This can be apparent in FM especially in these sorts of games if I were to lose both the mental and physical battle then this game would become an almighty struggle.

The preparation is crucial so in the pre match press conference I need to make sure my players are ready for a “battle”. So I tell the gathered press that it will be a tough game I need to make it perfectly clear what we are up against, it’s even more important as my teams morale is sky high which will lead to complacency in itself.

Pre Match Team Talk

The Majority of my players are on either very good or superb morale, My assistant reports to me that none have shown up complacent which is somewhat testament to my pre game press conference, however we still need to be wary of this players with negative motivation make bad decisions bad decisions lead to mistakes. This is something I have to do my upmost to prevent.

The Match

The game kicks off, as the motivation widget doesn’t update until about 5 mins into the game it’s A bit of an unknown how your players have reacted but my team were quite “up and at em”. We take the lead after 5 minutes of course is a positive but it can lead to complacency creeping in. Luckily it didn’t. My next course of action is to look at my opponent’s motivation:

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As you can see from the SS they have some nervous players. This is where my plan skips into action.

What I’ve done is basically commonsense; I’ve asked my players using OI’s to close down all the nervous players. I want to turn motivation on its head. Yesterday I was concerned about my own players making mistakes now I’m targeting the opposition’s weaker minded players into making errors.

The Wrap up

I’m not saying this will get you goals every game, but what it will do is put extra pressure on the opponents. Remember that 50 yard punt up field from the other teams CB that became a through ball? Well if that player was nervous in my game that defender may just boot the ball into touch instead.

*PS sorry for the poor quality of writing it’s been awhile *

[jimbobBRFC]

I find myself doing the exact same thing . Any player that is nervous/in danger of being booked I usually close down and tackle hard to force them into making mistakes or even getting sent off. A good way to use OI's and a pretty good write up considering you've been away for a while

[R0ca]

Thanks Jimbob Lost my muse for awhile.

I think sometimes we tend to look too deeply at exploiting the oppositions weakness and don't use the information at hand very well. (speaking for myself of course)

I remember Sfraser writing how he wanted to teach his strikers to dive into tackles that would go hand in hand with what I posted above, can you picture a Wayne Rooney (with dives into tackles PPM) Storming after a nervous centre half? Stuff of nightmares for the oppositions manager!

[Karnage94]

I actually forgot that I did this from time to time, especially in lower leagues where the players aren't mentally strong. Nice write up and on a personal level, thanks for the reminder

[R0ca]

I actually forgot that I did this from time to time, especially in lower leagues where the players aren't mentally strong. Nice write up and on a personal level, thanks for the reminder

I think it can work at any level to be honest! Especially against players with lower composure, decisions first touch and Creativity!

Thanks for Karnage

[Karnage94]

I would add first touch to that list as well. If they have a poor first touch and you close the player down he is likely to make a mistake unless his composure is very high

[debsicus]

what do you do when you check your motivation and a player or two are playing nervously?

[R0ca]

what do you do when you check your motivation and a player or two are playing nervously?

I'm assuming your referring to my own players? Luckily my players aren't nervous nelly's. Complacency is a bigger issue for my team than nervousness. I do feel the effect in terms of how the match engine handles them are the same.

If I do happen to have a player who's playing nervously I'll take the pressure off at half time by advising no pressure, in terms of tactical I'll try to reshuffle my team to having him playing next to people who are looking motivated.