A question about morale

[CauseAndEffectIsReal]

Every so often, I get a player whose low morale is inexplicable to me. This is one such case.

I signed the player at the beginning of this year. He's 19, squad status is rotation, and he plays regularly: 20(11) appearances in 37 matches this season. He's happy with his training, has a "good relationship" with my Right Back according to the info screen. His personality is "fairly loyal," and my squads is "ambitious," so that's one possible cause, but he's pretty well blended in at this point, and his morale hasn't been above "okay" all season despite the fact that we've been playing well above expectations. His general happiness is "enthusiastic about his future," he has no short term concerns, he speaks English (this is an English league), I've never gotten a message about him struggling to settle in, never had him approach me with concerns. His average form is 6.84, which is nothing impressive, but it's not horrible either. And I'm sure it's been affected by the low morale.

My general squad morale has been great all year. I'd estimate it at fairly good to very good, while his has ranged from poor to okay.

There's one possibility I'm worried aboutne of his secondary positions is Striker. He's MC(DM,AM,S). I regularly play him as a ball-winning midfielder on support, and he hasn't scored this year. I am anxious that his morale is affected by the striker "hasn't-scored-in-X-minutes" negative affect.

It really hasn't affected my season much. The main reason I'm curious is that it'd be good to know for future signees: should we avoid signing players who CAN play striker if we're not going to play them as strikers, and therefore their morale will suffer?

Has anybody else experienced anything like this?

 

[zaid 92]

I have exprienced this too but in two saves. One save it was Kagawa the other was M'Villa. They both played regularly, team was winning, they werent played out of position either.

 

[Zaltys]

I'd say that average form of 6.84 is terrible.

I routinely criticize everyone whose form drops under 7.00. It keeps them happier and improves their performances.
Furthermore, fining anyone whose match rating is under 6.30 has a chance of instantly raising their Work Rate by one. Which in turn makes them more effective on field and in training..

 

[CauseAndEffectIsReal]

I'd say that average form of 6.84 is terrible.

I routinely criticize everyone whose form drops under 7.00. It keeps them happier and improves their performances.
Furthermore, fining anyone whose match rating is under 6.30 has a chance of instantly raising their Work Rate by one. Which in turn makes them more effective on field and in training.

This may work for your team because of the specific attributes/tactical system/ability relative to the rest of the league/personalities. But if I managed my team that way, I would be less successful. Different teams, different situations.

Just to reiterate:the squad is happy EXCEPT for him, our league performance is well above expectations. This player's performances would probably be better with higher morale, but what I'm interested in is whether or not his secondary position ability as a striker impacts his morale if he isn't scoring.

 

[KevArker]

I had a DR who also plays as a Striker as a secondary position. I've used him once or twice up front but he is useless and he is significantly better playing as DR... however his morale drops after not scoring for X-amount of minutes despite putting out great performances throughout the season. He contributes greatly especially with his long throws which leads to goals, but his Striker position is bugging me out, so I had to sell him.

 

[Teiwaz]

There's one possibility I'm worried aboutne of his secondary positions is Striker. He's MC(DM,AM,S). I regularly play him as a ball-winning midfielder on support, and he hasn't scored this year. I am anxious that his morale is affected by the striker "hasn't-scored-in-X-minutes" negative affect.

Most useful information in weeks for me! I have a player which can play anything on the right side + striker, and I normally play him as a WB/FB - experiencing the same "unexplainable" low morale as you, so I guess it has to be the "hasn't scored" effect (which would be nice to at least get some feedback on!).

Guess I've got to get rid of him.