cooknaris

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Hi people,

I'm confused/frustrated. Please stay with me as its a long post but hopefully someone can help me...

In my first season with AFC Wimbledon, I finished 8th (2 points off 7th which is play-off's in League 2). I had a healthy goal difference of +14 which made it even worse that I finished 8th, as Exeter who finished 7th had +5...

Anyway, after the 46 games, I had won 19, drawn 15 and lost 12. I was quite happy with this as I was predicted to finish much lower in the table, and the players who I bought in seemed to be doing the business (Vincent Pericard, Emmanuel Mendy, Don Cowan & Eric Addo).

Just started my 2nd season, and I have improved the squad vastly. I had to get rid of quite a lot of players as they were out of contract and refused to re-sign, plus I had no money... But that was a blessing in disguise as it enabled me to sign much better players on slightly higher wages. Plus, most of the players I let go didn't get many games other than Vincent Pericard who got quiet towards the end of this season anyway...

So this season I have kept my best players, and have signed Vladimir Milotik, Emile Mpenza, Jason Talbot, Mark Millar and Evan Horwood. I have also managed to loan James Tavernier and Martyn Waghorn. If you check these players out, you will see that they are all very good signings and loans for a League 2 team, and certainly improvements to the AFC Wimbledon squad of my first season.

HOWEVER. My second season isn't going well at all. After 13 games, I have won 5, drawn 3 and lost 5. This might not seem too bad, but when you consider that I won my first 4 games, its worrying. My form this season reads W,W,W,W,D,W,L,D,D,L,L,L,L. This leaves me in 11th place with 18 points and a very flattering +7 goal difference (only because I destroyed my first 3 opponents).

This is still decent for AFC Wimbledon (no offence intended), but considering I think I now have the best team in the league, I don't understand why I haven't won in 7 games. I haven't played well either, and have been lucky to avoid some heavy defeats. When playing teams, I only seem to get 1 or 2 good chances which I miss, whilst my opponents are battering my goal and luckily only scoring a few.

I try to tweak my tactics for different teams, which worked last season, although it was hard as there's only so much you can do differently from match to match considering you dont REALLY know anything about your opponent other than their league position and form, you do not know the way they play... And now nothing I do seems to work at all! My best players are receiving terrible match ratings and the game is beginning to become less fun. I know I won't win every game and I shall certainly keep playing, but I've been getting very frustrated watching my team of League 2 all-stars draw or lose 7 times in a row to struggling teams who haven't won a game! Especially when were not even creating chances really...

Team talks dont make a difference, no one reacts to anything I say and even when they do, there is no improvement in the 2nd half.

Pleaseeee can anyone give me any ideas about what could be going wrong? Maybe suggest some tactics that I can try using?

Many thanks in advance,

Chris
 
Not going to claim to have all the answers...but a few things I've picked up from differing threads on here seem to have helped out when taking my Boreham Wood side from BSS into (currently) League 1...and sitting in 7th first year there coming into Christmas 2017 :)

Firstly - when you play badly and lose (say against someone you're expected to beat) do you ever use the Aggresive "Not good enough" response? That tends to help as long as morale is still okay...and I also tend to use it at half-time a lot when losing along with the "I expect something else in second half"

Secondly - you say you brought in a few players over the summer...have you been using the Teamwork option on the tactics screen to help the new players blend in better? You might be getting a Chelsea-like run of form from new players hitting the ground running and playing well, but not knowing each other well enough when things go wrong?

Finally - one thing I try to do when I get into poor runs is play my best players in their best positions and favoured roles. Sounds pretty simple but if you go for a "back to basics" approach sometimes shuffling the team to ensure say 3 top players are doing what they do best and then build the team/tactics to support them can help - especially if they have good teamwork & determination ratings! Maybe try then giving these players the 'You can make the difference' talk and the whole team an assertive "I have faith in you"

I tend not to tweak my main formation too much (4-4-2 with advanced wingers) but do have a 4-3-2-1 to switch too if I think i'll struggle in midfield and will swap the roles to suit the players playing when I need/want to make a change...
 
Thanks for your reply and well done with Boreham Wood! You've clearly grasped the tactics side of things quicker/better than I have...

1) I do use the "Not good enough" response sometimes, I basically say whatever my assistant advises me too as nothing I say seems to have an effect anyway! If I'm playing a team that I should be beating, he usually advises me to say "Not good enough" or something along those lines... They usually all respond in a positive way, "Looking fired-up" or "Looking motivated", however there is no improvement in the second half. In a nut shell, nothing I say before kick-off or at half time seems to make a difference, whether the players react or not. I accidently selected something negative last season when we were winning 2-0 at half time and my players were all confused or angered, yet we played as well in the second half as we did in the first half and won 4-1! I'm convinced team talks don't work!!

2) I didn't know there was a teamwork option to be honest, I'm going to have a look into that straight away! I did think my poor form might be something to do with too many new faces but I didn't think I would be doing this badly because of it as my team is now quite good for League 2...

3) I agree, I'd say my 3 best players are currently in their best position though, in fact there is only one player who is not in his best position, and I plan to change that soon... I do rotate often due to the poor fitness levels of the players, so most players don't get more than 2 or 3 games in a row, which again I thought could be contributing to the bad results...

Speaking of fitness, the other thing I don't quite understand about the game yet is the training. My players are rarely above 95% for matches, and are quite frequently at 80%-85% (which is when I change them). I don't know whether this is anything to do with the training and if so, how do I fix it? They are all currently doing a medium workload.

I'm going to have a look at the teamwork option and see what happens, right now I'm scared to play my next game in case I get hammered but I'll be brave I guess... Thanks a lot for your advice, I'll let you know how I get on!
 
Sorry for not replying sooner, I've been busy with a few things...

I've had some success but I'm still losing games I should be winning easily. Just now I was beating Burton 2-0 in the 69th min after dominating the game, and I somehow managed to lose 3-2. Pathetic, I was the favorites to win before the game..

I think I'm just gonna give the game a rest for a while, it's all too stressful for me!

Gutted that AFC Wimbledon just lost to MK Dons as well! (Even though I'm a baggies fan, I now have a soft spot for AFC due to FM13).
 
Just lost 2-1 to Cheltenham at home, and they had 10 men from the 31st min.. I really do give up now.
 
I'd suggest trying out a new tactic and pre-match team talk should always be go out there and enjoy yourselves and half time (if losing) should be "i'm far from pleased" post match (if lost) "far from pleased"
 
Thanks, I will give it a try... Anything is worth a try right now! Having said that, I've just changed things round a tiny bit and beat Rotherham 4-1. What pleased me more than the result is that we played well and Martyn Waghorn scored all 4 goals. They only scored through a penalty as well... MAYBE things are on the up..?!
 
I'm playing as AFC Wimbledon at the moment. There were a few things I found, am in my 5th season just got promoted to league 1. I play a 4-5-1 at home with inside forwards (kiernan after a few seasons plays well as an attacking inside forward). Full back left and right, two central defenders quite defensive but they attack the posts on corners, all the central mids are on support. Middle of the 3 is a ball winner so on this I use Sammy Moore then two other central mids on support- Long's usually one. Then one target man up front. I play short passing at home and standard mentality- always balanced on both tactics.

Away I changed tactic completely and play a direct 4-1-3-2 on counter mentality, anchor in front of 2 central defenders, all mids are on support, play an advanced playmaker on left of the centre, ball winner middle and deep lying playmaker on right. My forwards are a poacher on left centre and target man on right both attack.

It gets points away from home for me whilst still gaining wins at home. Found possession was key to AFC Wimbledon as tended to get over run first season a lot.
 
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