This constant nervousness is getting annoying..

[krujap777]

I finally have to break my silence and rant on this. I am in my 4th season with A.C. Milan and won the league last year. I have pretty much wrapped up the league this year as well but with seemingly no pattern droves of my players get nervous, very nervous, or anxious no matter what the situation - this has been ongoing as long as I can remember.

I've been letting it slide as something I can fix or eventually figure out but the more I play the game the more I have to ask myself.. is this me? Or the game?

You might say if I've won the league then I should be satisfied but my Champions League runs have been abysmal and affected by this epidemic and my general team play is never reliable. I've managed to have good enough runs to keep the league but my personal opinion on the team's play - poor.

I can't help but feel the developers were heavy handed with the team talks and 'mood swings' concerning the squad. I've never had the feeling while playing '13 that there was some kind of middle ground and team performance and attitude have always swung from extreme left to extreme right and back again. I have tried the spectrum of team talks, individual talks, praise and criticism, no team talk, and seemingly-good team talks where everyone lights up green, yet the feeling of influence I have - none. It does not matter if my team talks look to relax or motivate or anything - performance and attitude seem to have almost no connection to my actions. I feel like a conductor of a train that has remained on course for now, but is teetering on the tracks.

I am gladly hoping an individual can correct me.

 

[drhay53]

My strategy is to take the assistant on the list for who can take team talks with the highest determination, motivating, and discipline combined, and use his advice pretty much at all times.

BUT. The tone that the assistant prefers to use is VERY, VERY important. The best results I've had from teamtalks is with my current coach who uses "cautiously" for most half time and full time talks. The coach before him used "calm". The ones who use assertive are a no go. And I don't ever, ever go aggressive.

Another important things is that the players get used to your teamtalks; so if you're trying all kinds of different teamtalk strategies, you're actually going to confuse them. Recently I did this; I started trying to get rid of the bad spell of results in mid-season by throwing in some aggressive teamtalks at half time while losing or drawing; and the players started getting concerned and requesting to talk to me about how horrible my teamtalks were.

If you get aggressive with them one game at halftime, the next game, as it gets closer and closer to halftime while still drawing, they will get more and more nervous, fearing your wrath at halftime. That's how it looks to me anyway.

Find one of your coaches who is good at DDM and gives calm or cautious teamtalks. Follow their advice, or let them do the talks.

 

[drhay53]

Also, some players just don't handle pressure well, and some are not good in important matches; this will show up as nervousness. Check your coach report on some of the players who constantly get nervous and see if important matches is a weakness. But your best bet I think is my advice above.

 

[Shyftyy]

Have a look at Raikan's teamtalk guide. It's really good and helped clarify some issues for me. Hopefully it can help you out as well.

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...amtalk-guide-fm13-how-get-right-reaction.html

 

[SS19]

My strategy is to take the assistant on the list for who can take team talks with the highest determination, motivating, and discipline combined, and use his advice pretty much at all times.

BUT. The tone that the assistant prefers to use is VERY, VERY important. The best results I've had from teamtalks is with my current coach who uses "cautiously" for most half time and full time talks. The coach before him used "calm". The ones who use assertive are a no go. And I don't ever, ever go aggressive.

Another important things is that the players get used to your teamtalks; so if you're trying all kinds of different teamtalk strategies, you're actually going to confuse them. Recently I did this; I started trying to get rid of the bad spell of results in mid-season by throwing in some aggressive teamtalks at half time while losing or drawing; and the players started getting concerned and requesting to talk to me about how horrible my teamtalks were.

If you get aggressive with them one game at halftime, the next game, as it gets closer and closer to halftime while still drawing, they will get more and more nervous, fearing your wrath at halftime. That's how it looks to me anyway.

Find one of your coaches who is good at DDM and gives calm or cautious teamtalks. Follow their advice, or let them do the talks.

I'd say man management is an important attribute for team talks. I use DDM to find good coaches for training.

And I have successfully used aggressive tone several times. It works if you are in a good run and you are losing at HT or lose a game against a weaker opponent. But you have to be careful, it doesn't work if your pre-match team talk has been very cautious. After aggressive tone I usually get "looks motivated" or "looks fired up" for almost the entire squad. But you need to be careful when to be aggressive because, as you said, your players might get angry and question your team talks if not done correctly.

 

[TheBetterHalf]

One thing we need to remember is that when looking at the body language during the match ( not pre. half time or fulltime) and seing a player that actually is highly determined and with a high stat for handling pressure being " nervous", its sometimes a normal reaction. If he handles the pressure well and he is a real winner and you are facing a team that you should beat, this players often gets nervous when you loos out in possession as its something that indicates that something is going wrong. You can be 2-0 and being in control of the game when the opponents suddenly - and as a reaction to what happends on the field - starts trying to retain possession. Here, your players feels that they are no longer in control of the events as they see too little of the ball and then they can start looking nervous but as soon as you create a good chance and regain possession for a 5 minutes period, they look their normal again.

Another example is when you are starting a match you should have a really good chance of winning and the results is still 0-0 after 30 minutes. Then, the same player as above will look anxious or frustrated as things is not going his way and this is also a normal reaction and does not mean that they will crumple under pressure. Its just a way of the game telling you that the players had expected to be in control of the events/ having scored.

With this said, I would not look at their body language too much

 

[krujap777]

Thanks guys, all great perspectives I will be experimenting with on the remainder of my season.

BetterHalf's comments seem spot on where many times in my game the team starts a match composed but then fall into the nervous range after some minutes. The problem is some players never seem to recover once they hit that low.

Also considering the importance of body language - I agree and I only put importance on it now because I have nothing else to complain about - this is the only thing driving me up the wall.

 

[drhay53]

I'd say man management is an important attribute for team talks. I use DDM to find good coaches for training.

And I have successfully used aggressive tone several times. It works if you are in a good run and you are losing at HT or lose a game against a weaker opponent. But you have to be careful, it doesn't work if your pre-match team talk has been very cautious. After aggressive tone I usually get "looks motivated" or "looks fired up" for almost the entire squad. But you need to be careful when to be aggressive because, as you said, your players might get angry and question your team talks if not done correctly.

I also take man management into account as a modifier of the total DDM. I forgot to mention that, but yes I think it's important too!

I've studied the heck out of the coaches attributes, including their hidden ones, and can't seem to figure out what controls the tone they prefer.

Aggressive talks are only for when I really feel the team is being lazy and complacent. Other than that, I don't use it.

On top of what TBH said, there are also times in the match where a call goes against you, a foul or a card or a missed penalty, and your team will get nervous and/or anxious for a while. After 5-10 minutes it usually goes away though. You definitely need to take match context into account too.

 

[drhay53]

Thanks guys, all great perspectives I will be experimenting with on the remainder of my season.

BetterHalf's comments seem spot on where many times in my game the team starts a match composed but then fall into the nervous range after some minutes. The problem is some players never seem to recover once they hit that low.

Also considering the importance of body language - I agree and I only put importance on it now because I have nothing else to complain about - this is the only thing driving me up the wall.

How good is your captain? This could be a reason your team doesn't recover very well.