Pre-Match & Post-Match Team Meetings (+ other small ideas)

[JoeyBaldwin]

This has probably been brought up before, but I think it's unrealistic that managers can only hold productive team meetings every five matches. I once had an instance, managing in the Italian Serie C, which has a three week winter break, that I tried to hold a team meeting only to be told that "we seem to be having team meetings all the time" - it had been a month and a half since the previous meeting!

In real life, managers hold pre-match meetings in the hotel the evening before a game, and post-match de-briefings at the training ground the day after. My main proposal involves integrating these pre and post-match meetings into the game. In each pre-match meeting, the manager would: 

• Name his starting eleven (+ system) to the players. This could be changed before the team sheet is submitted, affecting morale - players' morale could be boosted/reduced slightly by knowing they're in/out the team, and if the manager changes their mind and doesn't pick a player he said he would, that player could get angry and kick up a fuss.
• Decide the set piece takers for the match - this would, of course, have a default setting, as all aspects here would do.
• Set the team instructions - this would be based on the current team instructions board (e.g. Get Stuck In etc.), but given in the form of verbal instructions in a meeting setting. This might not need to be any more than just the manager saying "Lads, I want you to get stuck in to the opposition tomorrow" if he clicks on the Get Stuck In button.
• Give individual players specific instructions - this would replace the rather obsolete Opposition Instructions page that appears before every match currently. In a meeting setting, this could sound like "Granit Xhaka, I want you to man mark Paul Pogba tomorrow". "Understood boss!". This could be taken further: you could tell a player to get booked today because their suspension will then be for a Carabao Cup match and not the big local derby in two weeks time.

In the post-match de-briefing, the manager could:

• Praise/chastise the team/individuals for specific aspects of their play - this could reference and make relevant the wide range of sparsely used Opta stats available (E.G. "Aaron Ramsey, you ran 17km during the last match, which shows excellent work rate. Olivier Giroud, only 10% of your shots were on target, that's not good enough, you need to work on your shooting this week".
• Set the training for the next week and match preparation for the next match - this would prevent managers forgetting to change the focus of training each week and leaving it on Balanced for three weeks in a row.
• Change season expectations at player level - this would appear every ten league games. If you're a team supposed to be fighting relegation, but halfway through the season you're in the Europa League places, you could tell the players that the aim now is to secure a top half finish. If you're still in the Europa League places after 30 games, you could then suggest that finishing there is the aim, while reinforcing how brilliantly they've done so far. This would have no impact on the Board Expectations.

This idea essentially takes aspects of the current game and reproduces them into a more realistic format, bringing greater player interaction into the game. The ideas could separately be delegated to the assistant manager in the meetings themselves, or responsibility for the meetings could be delegated to the assistant manager full stop in Staff Responsibilities. 

Other Smaller Ideas:

• Before Remembrance Weekend fixtures (country specific), there should be a clip of the players on the edge of the centre circle doing a minute's silence (instead of a clip of them warming up). This could be extended to club-specific disasters such as Munich, Heysel, Hillsborough etc. 
• Potential for players to be injured during the warm-up and needing to be replaced at the last minute (managers would have to name two players to be on a standby list for each match in case of this eventuality). 
• In real life, if there's been a penalty or an offside goal during a game, the media ALWAYS ask the managers for their opinion on the incidents. Sometimes I don't get the chance to slate the referee for giving the opposition a penalty when I really want to - the media would never turn down the chance for that to happen, even if the referee was right. There should be a 100% chance of those questions coming up if a penalty/disallowed goal occurred.
• Robert Green-esque goalkeeping howlers.
• Trophy-lifting animations! In my current game, Ukraine won the 2018 World Cup against all the odds. I watched the Final and they 'celebrated' by just walking slowly towards the tunnel. The animations after a penalty shoot-out are good, but could be used for every semi-final and final, and there could also then be a short animation of the players on a podium in the middle of the pitch lifting the trophy.

I accept that some are easier than others, but of course they're just ideas. When the game is broken down into its parts, some areas are great and others are irrelevant. I'm the kind of person who likes to immerse myself in the game and the role, and there isn't anywhere near enough realistic player interaction in my opinion.

[Bannside of Killowen]

7 hours ago, JoeyBaldwin said:

Before Remembrance Weekend fixtures (country specific), there should be a clip of the players on the edge of the centre circle doing a minute's silence (instead of a clip of them warming up). This could be extended to club-specific disasters such as Munich, Heysel, Hillsborough etc

The Remembrance Weekend (11/11) or Armistice Day would be a great aspect to cover but not all clubs/players/fans mark as per real life. As for International games it would be great but could never happened Re: The home nations last year.

If those fixtures are covered The Easter Rising would have to be covered in the Republic of Ireland 

[Powermonger]

Agree with all of these pre/post match suggestions.

I posted up a suggestion late last year about a mid-week team talk as way to prepare and instruct the team prior to the coming match. I want to see a tighter relationship between training, match preparation, team talks and player psychology. At the moment they all feel like separate entities devoid of any relationship between each other, there is no linkage between the previous match, the match and the next match. I think this can be improved upon.

 

[Preveza]

Very good ideas, interesting.

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.