Hey guys, I have a special post for you today and a first for myself. I’m going to try and create a Football Manager 2012 team talk guide, there aren’t many within the community for a reason. There are so many elements that could effect how we handle a team talk and its impossible to say do ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’ for the perfect Football Manager 2012 team talk, much like in real life it just isn’t that simple. I can’t possibly predict every single scenario you will be in, so instead will explain what I do and how I approach my FM12 team talks. Then at the end of the post we’ll take a look at some examples to cap it all off.
What is the most important ingredient for any Football Manager 2012 team talk? The Assistant Manager of course, this guy can really help you and I always take his advice into consideration before making my final decision on what to say. You need a great Assistant and one with a very high motivation attribute. The image below shows the in game area where you can see his recommended team talk, eight times out of ten I use his speech but select my own tone.
Football Manager 2012 team talk guide — Tone
A new feature to FM 2012, you can now select the tone you use while giving a team talk. This is quite important and can be the difference between inspiring your side to victory and upsetting them to defeat. We’ll start by ruling out two tones that I would never use. ‘Cautious’ and ‘Reluctant’. While I’m sure these two tones have there uses, they are just too risky. If you use them at the wrong time they could destroy morale and ruin your sides motivation, half the battle is not upsetting your players as no reaction is far better than a bad reaction. Below are the other three tones and which scenarios they are best used in.
Aggressive: If Sir Alex can throw a hair-dryer around then so can we, but be very careful when you do. This tone is best used at half-time when the side have played badly and fall behind or at full-time after a very bad performance. The operative word here is ‘performance’, a loss or draw doesn’t mean your team played badly and been aggressive when they played well but were unlucky could be fatal to morale so be very careful. Having said that, using the aggressive tone correctly can work wonders.
Assertive: When you want to install confidence and show the team you mean what you are saying be assertive. This is best used for substitution team talks and pre-match.
Passionate: My favourite tone by far, this can be used in almost any situation but is best when the scores are level at half time and you want to motivate your side to victory. I tend to use this at full-time if praising my team. I also use this a lot to inspire substitutions.
Calm: Best used when you’re up against a tough team and you don’t want too much pressure thrown into the game. I’d only use this pre-match though as it may not have much of an effect at half-time.
Football Manager 2012 team talk guide — Overall, positional or individual team talks?
I always give overall team talks pre-match, you should really address your team as a unit. However, the positional and individual team talks come in very handy during half-time and when you make a mistake. Below are when and how I’d use both these features.
Positional team talk: Best used at half or full-time when you feel like a specific set of players has let you down. E.g. You drew the game but your defence got ratings of below 6 and played awful. You don’t want to bring the team down with them so just tell the defence your disappointed after offering an overall team talk that is more positive to the midfield and strikers.
Individual team talk: I would never use this unless it was the last resort (bar substitutions of course.) However, if your team talk went well but one particular player responded badly, I’d suggest giving that player his own individual team talk as well and make it the opposite to what you told the whole squad. So if the individual player responded badly to your disappointment, tell him you were happy with his performance. This generally resolves the issue, or it has for me at least.
Football Manager 2012 team talk guide — What to say and when to say it
OK, now this is a tough category as each option is dependant on more than one element. What you actually say should be decided by the teams morale, quality of opponents and even whether you’re at home or away. Therefore I strongly recommend you sign a great Assistant and take his advice to start with. Always check what he recommends and then select that speech with whatever tone you feel is appropriate. After a little while you will see a pattern in what he does and also understand your team and individual players better. But if you want to dive straight in below is a few scenarios I’ve found myself in and how I responded.
Pre-match
Against an opponent you expect to beat with ease: I would use ‘Let’s give the fans something to cheer today!’ in a passionate or assertive voice if your team have played fairly well of late. However, if your team seem over confident or have been on a great run I’d recommend saying ‘come on lads show me what you can do’ to encourage them and this should be said in a passionate tone. Now if you have been on a bad run and morale isn’t great it may be best to boot them up the ass and say ‘I’m expecting you to win today boys!’ in an assertive tone.
Against similar opposition: If you are at home do the passionate ‘lets give the fans something to cheer about!’ But if you’re away it may be better to be a little more lenient and say this in a calm tone.
Against better opposition: If you think victory is impossible you must be lenient and not put pressure on your players. This can be done by calmly telling the players there is no pressure. You shouldn’t use this option unless the opponents are superior to you and defeat seems imminent.
During the 2nd leg of a cup: If you won the first leg tell the players to avoid complacency in an assertive tone, but if you need them to win either do it for the fans or tell them to show you what they’ve got in a passionate tone.
Half-time
If you are winning with ease and playing well: Tell the players ‘I’m pleased with how things are going, keep it up’ in a passionate or assertive tone.
If you are winning by one goal but still playing well: Tell the team ‘you have played well so far but there is still room for improvement’ in a passionate tone if your opponents are of a less or similar standard. If you are against a better team it may be best to just say you are pleased and keep it up in an assertive tone.
If the scores are level or you’re losing and you expect to win: When the team has played badly tell them ‘I am not happy with your performance out there’ in an assertive or aggressive voice. But only do this if they have played very badly. If the game is even you’d be better off telling them to do it for the fans in a passionate tone.
Full-time
If you won and performed well: Assertively or passionately tell the team they played well and it was a good win.
If you drew and performed well: Check your assistants advice but you should either sympathise with the team or tell them they played well, only say it was a good result if you expected them to lose though.
If you drew but expected to win: Calmly tell the team you are far from pleased with the performance.
If you lost but expected more: Assertively or aggressively tell the team you’re not happy with their performance, but only do this when they played badly.
If you lost and expected to, but performed OK: Try and find a team talk that doesn’t say they played well but is more like you were unlucky today in a calm tone.
Substitutions
I always tell subs ‘I have faith in you, get out there and make a difference’ or something to that effect in a passionate or assertive tone. However, when you are desperate for victory and need an outstanding performance you could try telling them that you expect a performance today in an assertive voice. Just be careful who you say this to though as some players will crumble under the pressure.
Football Manager 2012 team talk guide — Summary
- Get a great assistant with good motivation and take note of his advice. Then select your own tone followed by the speech your assistant recommends.
- If one player responds badly to an overall team talk, give him an individual team talk saying the opposite of what was said to the entire team.
- Only use three tones, assertive, passionate and calm.
- Always be a little more lenient away from home.
- Never say nothing even if the assistant manager recommends it.
- Remember team talks are sometimes about motivation but six times out of ten its just damage limitation. Try and avoid damaging your teams morale as opposed to try and make it better. Sometimes we can make things worse by trying too hard.
In game example — Sporting vs Malaga (I’m Malaga)
Pre-match: I have a fairly strong squad and despite been away from home still expect victory. After checking my assistants advice I decide to passionately say ‘Go out there and give these fans their money’s worth.’ The players didn’t show any signs of a reaction which isn’t bad as their morale was good anyway.
Winning 0-3 at half-time: My boys were playing very well and dominating the game, after checking my assistants advice I said ‘I’m happy with your performance so far, keep it up.’ in a passionate tone.
The reaction from my players was very positive with them all looking delighted. However their second half performance was sloppy and we conceded two goals.
Full -time 2-3 victory: The game was still won but I found myself angry at how complacent my team were. I decided to ignore the assistants advice of saying nothing and went for ‘That was a real jekyll and Hyde performance from you, you were fantastic in the 1st half but that 2nd half showing was unacceptable.’ This was all said in a calm tone as to not anger the players too much but let them know the second half was really bad.
Most of the squad reacted well, seeming motivated and to gain focus. However one player was angered by my comments probably because he did OK in the second half.
I gave this player an individual team talk of ‘you did well out there’ in a calm tone.
The player reacted very well and seemed happy which made a big difference. If I’d have left him alone the player may have dropped his morale from superb to very good and this would prevent him from playing to the best of his ability during our next match.
As you can see there are so many different things to consider and I am sorry if this guide wasn’t presented in a logical way. I just tried to relay what I tend to do in game and highlight the key factors to giving successful team talks. Rule number one is to always do damage limitation as opposed to try too hard to motivate your team. No reaction is always better than a bad reaction and I’ve tried to research this all week, in fact you can see my notepad below which ended up been 5 pages long. :) Anyway that is all for today, I hope this guide has helped and look forward to your comments as always.
plobdork
29 октября, 2011 at 12:26
great guide always seemed to make the morale worse ;)
btw wat team are u now???
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 12:34
Thanks mate, I’m currently managing Malaga…just because I’m not writing a story doesn’t mean I don’t listen and follow what the readers say ;)
plobdork
29 октября, 2011 at 15:26
really….. not
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 15:30
Whats that mean? I don’t really understand what the ‘not’ is referenced to.
junior
7 ноября, 2011 at 16:56
sorry for interupting you guys but i noticed plobdork said «not»..i recall asking darren to make a team talk guide in ur previous guide and woow you actually made one…coool!!
Darren Smith
7 ноября, 2011 at 18:40
Hope it helps mate.
Johnny Karp
29 октября, 2011 at 12:48
Great work Darren! By the way, the passionate tone is my favourite too :)
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 12:52
Thanks Johnny, you can’t beat a bit of passion.
nielsneutron
29 октября, 2011 at 12:53
Great guide. I don’t agree on all the things there. First of all I do use the aggresive tone if I loose against a lower rep team (in my welsh game it is not many).
Also you should be careful with using Overall, defence and individual. It just leaves the players confused.
In the last example aren’t you a little too demanding on your defence. The all had around 7 and you motivate the player with the worst performance (6,9)
Also it does not need to be your assistent manager, you can select a coach to advise you.
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 13:00
The only reason I say not to use aggressive is because if you don’t know what you’re doing then it can backfire with really bad effects. As I said its all about damage limitation.
I know that you can confuse the team but I was saying you should use that only now and then when needed and make sure to sort the one position as opposed to telling each position a different thing. The individual team talk is just to correct the bad reaction from a player. I was talking to the entire team because the entire team conceded two goals in the second half…the defence conceded the two goals so its irrelevant what their rating says. The only reason I gave that individual player a boost is because he reacted badly to the original talk…everyones morale and reaction was great so it definitely worked. I also know it doesn’t have to be your assistant manager but he should have the best motivation attribute if you have signed correctly.
nielsneutron
30 октября, 2011 at 18:51
I agree.and that is why I find the tone system so much fun. There are a lot of ways to solve your problems. Conceding two goals is awful so you are right to disciplin them.
The thing about the assitent manager is only because I have been unable to get a good motivating assistent manger to wales in other games.
Darren Smith
30 октября, 2011 at 19:11
Yeah I must admit the tones really do spice things up. :) Its just nice to decide what you say as last year was a little restrictive. To be fair my assistant manager just retired and I have also struggled to find someone with motivation of higher than 16….can see where your coming from now.
Dan
29 октября, 2011 at 13:13
Hey Darren,
Great guide, I’ve already made a couple of pre-season team talk mistakes with Celtic although a couple of times I’ve been accidentally clicked the wrong thing because of speed reading. I’ll be taking everything you said into account and hopefully it’ll help me cut down on the mistakes :)
p.s. My team started scoring from your set piece setup even without me changing my cross aim to far post, Rogne has bagged a couple now :)
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 13:23
Thanks Dan, like I said there is a reason no one out there writes these guides and thats because there is no easy answer and all you can do is explain best you what you do. Hopefully some readers can take something away from it. Glad the set pieces are starting work, maybe they just needed to learn the tactics better.
Kevin
29 октября, 2011 at 13:52
Hi Darren
Great little guide — really useful as I did one team talk and everything turned bright red which I thought wasn’t a good sign!
Love the spiral bound notebook which reminds me of when use to go to paper shop and get one in my old Subbuteo days 1969 to 1984.Can’t beat «em!
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 14:37
Thanks Kevin, hopefully it will help a little. The notepad has been with me since FM 2011 and I write my player lists in there also….not quite like recording Subbuteo :)
Sears
29 октября, 2011 at 14:21
Thanks mate, will jot down a few notes whenever I get the game (ordered it a week ago \o/)
Cheers!!
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 14:38
That sucks mate, hope you get the game soon and this can help.
Laxeyman
29 октября, 2011 at 14:49
Excellent guide Darren, I agree with you in that I never use the ‘cautious’ or ‘reluctant’ tones as I think it would make the team think that you aren’t sure of yourself, and they’d lose confidence. I like the ‘passionate’ tone the best because it usually gets the players quite motivated :)
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 14:53
Yeah the passionate tone is a no brainer! I think I might use it a little too much to be honest but as you say ‘reluctant’ and ‘cautious’ just don’t seem like a good idea. Unless of course you want the team to have a ‘we’ll prove you wrong’ mentality but trying for that is very risky.
TheZiggy
29 октября, 2011 at 15:04
Very interesting stuff, and some interesting insights. Passionate is definitely my favourite tone as well. A lot of the decisions come down to gut feeling at the time, and definitely take the advice into account.
During the demo I did a lot of playing about in this area, and if the team have played really badly against an opponent who shouldn’t thrash you, then being aggressive can work.
Praising the players after a poor performance, but you won, can also be dangerous, as it can confuse the players. Lately the advice I’ve been getting is at the end of a match is to say nothing, and don’t complicate things. That is never a good thing, as there will usually be someone who gets upset, so I tend to try and be fairly neutral in those cases.
I also once decided to click on the ask the assistant to give the team talk, and everything lit up red. I wish I’d noted down the exact situation that occurred, but I wanted to give my assistant a might kick up the arse for that one.:D Just glad that was when I was messing about with the demo.
I try not to use the other individual talks unless really needed. The strikers are the ones I use it the most on though, as their morale is probably the most important, as they should be providing most goals.
So far using my gut feeling with my Torquay story worked well, sometimes ignoring the advice. It’s great when you see a whole load of «Looks Motivated» appear.
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 15:19
Yeah I agree mate, your gut instinct should be the main decider and that is usually the case with me. I always check what sort of direction my assistant wants to take the team talk but I never let him take the team talk as I’ve experienced a few screw ups too.
vaibhavc
29 октября, 2011 at 16:07
Hey Darren
Amazing guide. I think I am going to get a big notebook and paste all these guides into them so I can use them while playing. Team talks are so important, and this is going to help me.
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 16:14
I do hope this helps mate, team talks are like tactics in that they won’t work unless you get everything else right but they are very important.
benevo146
29 октября, 2011 at 17:13
Hey Mate,
i might have missed this, but are you not doing a story this year??
Thanks, Ben
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 17:24
I’m afraid not mate, going to spend more time on the scouting network and doing posts like these…but mainly so I can have a little more time to myself as last year was spent with my head buried in the laptop.
malhar
29 октября, 2011 at 22:50
Hey Darren,
Great guide! It’s really useful to know what you could say when you’re a goal down or its level pegging at half time. I tend to lose close games against the real top teams so hopefully this helps. Anyway, could you tell me how you’re going with Malaga? Just your league position…and which season you’re on..DYING to know.
Darren Smith
29 октября, 2011 at 22:55
I’ll probably do a special post later this week with my end of first season report. Just a little treat :) But if I decide against it I’ll be sure to tell you all. I hope this will help although one word of advice…the difference against quality opposition comes in substations, I can’t say how many times a quality, well timed sub has saved my side.
Malhar Bhadbhade
30 октября, 2011 at 10:27
hey Darren,
yeah, i completely agree with you about the substitutions. unfortunately its for my opponents that it works out. I’m playing with Everton and was leading 1-0 at Old Trafford till the 76th minute…until Fergie put Hernandez on…and he scored two :( i need more strength in depth to use the subs..i dont have that much quality on my bench…though i have to thank you very much for the Scouting Network, it’s been a great help. and please dont decide against doing the special end of season post!! i’m sure everybody would love to see it. and as u said, if u do decide against it, please let me know how you’re doing :)
cheers!
Darren Smith
30 октября, 2011 at 12:53
Yeah quality off the bench can be the difference between top half and a top four challenge or CL qualification and a title challenge. Anyway, I will be doing an end of season report mate, nothing fancy and fairly short but you’ll see what I’ve been upto.
CsAtlantis
30 октября, 2011 at 03:56
Man, team talks are more complicated this year, this guide will be useful to get to grips with it
What about team meetings Darren, are you making a guide on that? Very big effect on morale when it is successful
Darren Smith
30 октября, 2011 at 10:33
I agree mate, last year it was like ‘do it for the fans’ when you expect to win, ‘you can win this’ away from home and against tough opposition and ‘the pressures off’ during those impossible matches. Now there’s all sorts of options and tones of voice to make it complicated. I’m sure we’ll get there though :)
I think team meetings are useful but they WILL backfire at some point…there is always a handful of players that don’t respond well….to be honest I won’t be doing a guide as I think they are a little risky and I don’t fully understand when to use them myself. I held two so far, the first was a massive success and they second wound up with the players asking me what the point of the meeting was :(
celticman
30 октября, 2011 at 08:27
I wondered about the players who react badly. For example if you give your team a negative team talk and one player reacts badly you suggest giving him a more positive individual team talk. So far, so good.
Now consider that player played poorly too — would you still give him a positive team talk? Would this not make him believe that his poor performance was good enough. My concern is that he would not be motivated to play better in future and expect a poor performance is good enough. There may also be a question over his personality — is he a «winner» or a sulk?
Darren Smith
30 октября, 2011 at 10:28
While I can’t see a player reacting badly to criticism if he played that bad it does happen now and then. Unfortunately there isn’t much you could do in that scenario as the player would probably have a personality problem and anything you say to a player like that is a potential bombshell. That is probably why not many people talk about this subject. You managed to write a paragraph on one tiny detail so its clear to see how much goes into this area of the game, its all down to common sense really and even then you can go wrong. I think whoever masters team talks will be the best FM player of all time… :)
Calin
31 октября, 2011 at 07:16
Great guide, Darren! I have often used the Aggressive tone with good results, but nothing can beat the Passionate and Calm tones :)
Darren Smith
31 октября, 2011 at 09:00
Thanks Calin, I think we all use the passionate tone most and the calm tone comes in handy to avoid putting too much pressure on the team…I just love the new team talks and think they add so much realism.
tom
31 октября, 2011 at 08:46
hey darren,
reading this makes me want to hear from your saved game as malaga…:)
agree 100% with the reluctant tone aswell as cautious…ive never used them and fail to see a situation when they would benefit the players to a high enough degree…i see that they could be useful, but i feel the postives are not great enough to use them….
I have used agressive from time to time…especially when my team are really struggling…found a well placed ‘fergie haridryer’ can work wonders, not just for that match, but a few games in advance aswell…but again, as i have found it can be very disruptive…
Great guide…this post must have taken ages!!!!
Darren Smith
31 октября, 2011 at 09:04
Hey Tom,
I have actually just finished writing up my first Malaga post from season one, so check the site in the next few hours as it’ll be published soon :)
This community is priceless in my opinion, we all have an opinion and even though I take days to write and research these guides I can read four or five comments and change my opinion from what I originally wrote. I have mentioned not using the aggressive tone due to risk, but on reflection the benefits are probably enough to warrant that risk…I used it in my Malaga save to good effect but still have the bitter taste in my mouth of a time when it went wrong ;) The guide did take a while to write but I enjoy doing them :)
craig
2 ноября, 2011 at 20:41
good guide but iv found by usinf the aggresive tone at half time if your drawing or looseing works really well
Darren Smith
2 ноября, 2011 at 20:44
Yeah I agree after further testing it seems that the aggressive tone is very handy and can be used without too many issues, so I will be changing the guide appropriately soon.
Marcelo
4 ноября, 2011 at 14:34
Nice guide, but its also important to check the overall team personality, I’m managing a Highly Ambitious team, and I found out that Passionate tone doesn’t work well most of the times, Only Agreessive and Assertive, most players consider a 7.0 bad performance, so they respond well to Aggressive «Not Happy», even when winning.
Darren Smith
4 ноября, 2011 at 18:17
While I see what you mean and agree, I just couldn’t go into that much detail of explaining different team talks for every single scenario so I just tried to suggest what I have found best in game. I think you need to be very careful when been so harsh in victory though, it probably fails for me more than it succeeds and I have a very ambitious squad…but certainly see where you’re coming from, the better your common sense the better the team talk will go :)
Pingback: Team Talks.
FmMagican
15 ноября, 2011 at 00:42
Hi!
Great guide but i must disagree with you on some points. When the team is on a winning streak u shouldnt say «come on lads show me what you can do» You should instead say I expect you to win in a passionate or assertive tone depending on performance. Cheering the players up is only neccessary if the morale level is low. Now this team talk thing seem to variate of which team you pick. But atleast with barcelona when i say i expect a win i never encountered a bad result. If u for example leading at half time with 1-0 and you expect to win and is i a winning streak you should say dont be complacent or something dont know the english version of it coz i am swedish! agree or disagree?
Darren Smith
15 ноября, 2011 at 13:32
Thanks for the comment mate, I actually am stuck in the middle with your comment. I agree that for a team like Barcelona you should be expecting the win when your are favourites because of their quality. But for smaller rep clubs that can backfire even if you are in a great vein of form, it can make them complacent….at least thats what I found….telling them to do it for the fans seems to work best for me but then again I haven’t managed as the overwhelming favourites yet.
Rich
27 ноября, 2011 at 19:59
Hi Darren,
This is a really good guide to the basic of team talks. I think you’ve done a great job and we can all learn much from reading it.
Someone has already mentioned player personalities, and I think that’s a big consideration. If you get a player who consistently gives a negative response to your overall team talk, that’s a good clue that he doesn’t really fit into your squad. I’ve also found that the stronger personality types give a better response to the aggressive/assertive team talks, whereas a balanced/loyal team definitely need a cooler head.
As a LLM it’s also worth pointing out that your assistant manager isn’t always right. At lower levels there’s always a trade-off (at Andorra I preferred mine to be hotter on player potential and fitness coaching so he had a motivation of 6) and my current Recreativo assistant only has a motivation of 13. To put that into perspective, he’s wrong 1/3 of the time.
However the point I think you’ve missed altogether is that there is more than one positive reaction, and your example really highlights this. Your players ‘looked delighted’ and at 3-0 up this will win them games 9 times out of 10 if you’re the superior team — but if you want to shade closer games you sould be looking to get a reaction that says ‘gained focus’ or ‘seemed motivated’. In the game you played, you went into your dressing room and praised your lads while the Sporting manager gave his boys a rocket: they came out on fire while your lads felt satisfied that the job was done and suffered as a result. So the two goals against you in the second half weren’t the players’ fault — they were yours for letting them become sloppy. Don’t let them become complacent.
What I’m trying to say is that a green positive reaction isn’t always the right response. You may have to upset and anger (and eventually move on) players that don’t fit in to your vision for the team. You may accidentally send out players looking relaxed when they should be motivated or focussed. And if you can’t motivate them when you need to — move them on!
I think it will take us all a long time to get to grips with the intricacies of this, but I think you’ve covered the basics really well. Good job.
Darren Smith
27 ноября, 2011 at 20:28
You raise some excellent points Rich and I agree with you on the match in question. However, that was the only game all season where my team talk led to the team becoming complacent. For my team I have noticed that praising them when they do well works best, whereas telling them to avoid being complacent at half-time back fires (bar that one example.) The reason I showed that specific match is because of the end result and team talk….telling them that the second half performance was awful worked wonders and repaired any damage they had done with the complacency and refocussed them for our next fixture….it was more about how to handle a bad performance really. But you are right in what you say because some teams don’t work that way and need focussing through team talks often.
Rich
27 ноября, 2011 at 21:12
Yeah, absolutely. Just to reiterate — it’s a great article and I think it’s hugely helpful guidance (I found you by Googling ‘Team Talk Advice Football Manager 2012’ so I’m not immune to looking for help myself!) And I have huge respect to anyone who screenshots their tactical decisions and puts them online to be ripped apart. I certainly wouldn’t be that confident, so huge kudos to you for a great article and an awesome effort.
Like anything in FM though, the better you know your squad and the more you shape them — around personalities as much as abilities — the more you can fine tune it. I staved off relegation with Andorra for two long seasons largely by picking my moments to tell them to hang on to a half-time lead at all costs (with such a fragile squad I didn’t get to be ‘aggressive’ once), with Recreativo I have at least a chance of winning a few games so being ‘pleased’ at half time isn’t a rarity so often any more. So I totally hear what you’re saying.
The key point I was trying to make though is that a ‘good’ reaction isn’t necessarily the right one. If your team have scrapped hard for a 1-0 lead at half time against superior opposition they’re gonna get ripped apart if you send them back out again ‘relaxed’. You might only get 10% more points a season by *really* paying attention to the detail, but that’s enough to turn a mid-table team into play-off contenders.
Darren Smith
27 ноября, 2011 at 21:36
I agree, the match where we were 3-0 up was one of those weird matches where the team were amazing and then just let it slip, but when you have a narrower lead its all about making sure the team conserve it and been positive or even getting a positive reaction can backfire. I see what you’re saying now and the last thing you want when 1-0 up is to have a team of relaxed players. FM is great because everyone could write a guide yet there would always be someone who plays the game differently…whether it’s down to the team you’re managing, your players or just your personal style it varies for everyone.
P.S. Wow, Andorra and Recreativo….those must have been long seasons :)
James
29 ноября, 2011 at 05:59
What should I say if I won the match, expected to win with ease, but won narrowly and not performing well?
Darren Smith
29 ноября, 2011 at 11:47
It depends on your squads mentality….if they are determined and you were at home they should be told the performance wasn’t good enough or don’t get complacent away from home (all in an assertive voice) But if they are not determined you should be less harsh.
James
29 ноября, 2011 at 22:44
Thanks!!
Tim
4 декабря, 2011 at 15:15
the caution tone seems good at full time when you’re clear favourites but only scrape the win by one goal. you’re telling them you’re pleased with the result but not 100% convinced with their performance. this may keep the players on their toes and stop complacency and i seem to get more ‘looked delighted’s’ than when i say it assertively or passionately.
the reluctant tone and a teamtalk of ‘none’ works positively on some players individually if you experiment. i found it worked on a player who had a rating of around 6.7 when the rest of the team had seven or eights. i cant remember if i used it at half-time or full-time but it must leave them to stew over their performance.
not sure if this has already been said but ‘you have faith/you can make a difference’ is great at half-time for SOME players that have either scored or played well. i think it says to them «i always knew you were capable» and then they go on and play even better in the second half.
Darren Smith
4 декабря, 2011 at 15:49
Unfortunately I don’t like to risk doing the cautious tone as its very risky and obviously I don’t reload a game to start again so thats why I’ll always go with the safer options as its better to have less effect than it turn negative. I mentioned the having faith in a player for subs but not individual talks at half-time, certainly makes sense.
Oliaal
27 декабря, 2011 at 15:57
What should the individual teamtalk be when the players respond with «looks unconcentrated»?
Darren Smith
27 декабря, 2011 at 17:51
By that time it’s too late I’m afraid. I have tried different stuff but it ends up more negative sometimes. You’re best to leave it and learn how to avoid striking that action next time. Problem is it depends on what your previous team talk was to whole squad too.
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Vei
13 февраля, 2012 at 21:24
It’s a wonderful guide, works most of the time.
5 stars from me to Darren for making this guide :)
*waiting for more stories… xD
Darren Smith
13 февраля, 2012 at 21:38
Thanks mate.
Mike Carter
10 марта, 2012 at 11:27
Darren, I am in my second season with Arsenal and I bought Carlos Tevez for 30 mil… thinking he would be a good investment, however, he is not performing half as good as a player of his stature should and EVERY SINGLE GAME his status at half time comes up «Looking uninterested». Is there anything I can do before the match to get him to actually give his all?
Great site btw!
Darren Smith
10 марта, 2012 at 11:39
I think Tevez is a very difficult character to control in game but you could try encouraging him maybe by passionately saying ‘go out there and impress me’. Its all about experimenting. But I find that when someone consistently under performs for months on end even though they look the real deal they are trouble…maybe give it till the seasons end and if nothing changes sell him.
Mike Carter
10 марта, 2012 at 14:41
Thanks mate, will do. Oh well I have Leandro Damiao coming along nicely whom I got after seeing your wonderkids thread! RVP + Damiao for season 2014 methinks!
Tony
15 апреля, 2012 at 08:33
What a great guide! I’ve been looking around for something like this for a while and mostly what I’ve found has been only slightly useful or not at all.
I do have one question though. I didn’t see anything regarding a situation where by half-time your team is playing well in general, but you have one player that is under-performing (like getting a 6.2 rating). What would you usually say to this player on individual basis?
Darren Smith
15 апреля, 2012 at 18:28
Thanks Tony, the individual team talks can be tough. I personally don’t single anyone out during half-time, I just do a general team talk and if the individual doesn’t improve for the second half I sub him. The problem is you can do more damage than good.
Tony
15 апреля, 2012 at 22:30
That’s interesting and quite a change from previous FMs. You see, I’ve been playing FM10 up until getting FM12, skipping FM11 entirely. In FM10 it was good practice to give individual criticisms during half-time and there was usually a good chance that you could get a player motivated or fired-up. Now it seems that we’re put into an opposite situation where you’re saying something to prevent the player from being worse as opposed to getting them to being better. I wonder what prompted this change from SI?
Well anyway, I started applying your guide and the results have been pleasing for the most part. I definitely get more positive replies now from players, however, there are still too many that simply don’t give any kind of indication to whether the team talks have worked or not.
I also noticed that my squads overall personality is «highly ambitious». To me it seems to indicate that I can probably be more demanding with them, even when the odds are not completely in our favor. I actually did try this in the last couple of matches. One was at home and the other away. The home match we were slight favorites but I gave an assertive talk and told them I expected to win. By half time we were up 3-0. So I said in assertive or passionate (don’t remember which) that I was pleased and for them to keep it up. We ended up winning 7-2.
In the away match we were underdogs but only by a slight margin. Again, I went with an assertive tone instead of calm, seeing as to the team being so ambitious. Told the players to do it for the fans, or whatever the equivalent is. At half-time we were up 1-0. I told them assertively that I was pleased and to keep it up. Ended up winning 4-1. After the match I went to look at the team talk feedback from the previous match and saw that 6 players were motivated or inspired from the half-time team talk. No wonder we scored 3 more goals in the second half. The weird thing though is that during the actual half-time team talk, I didn’t see that much feedback at all from players that they were motivated/inspired. Just a couple that were delighted but that’s it. But I guess a lot more were pleased by it according to my assistant.
Darren Smith
16 апреля, 2012 at 21:38
Yeah I think team talks is an area that SI constantly change and try to make more realistic. Being a little more expectant when a team is highly ambitious makes sense, it all comes down to your style though I guess. As for the reaction thing at half-time, I guess your assistant couldn’t read the players reaction until he saw them back on the pitch which would be realistic I suppose.
Dryhtscipe
10 мая, 2012 at 00:16
Odd.
I always make sure to say something to every single player who doesn’t have the «motivated» status, every single team talk, unless (and this is rare) the overall teamtalk really does cover it well (this is usually only if we’ve been absolutely awful or if we’ve been absolutely brilliant).
For pre-match, I usually ask more than expected of my players. If we’re barely credible to win, I might expect them to win, but calmly. This seems to reassure them, as if my confidence in them makes them more confident. Any younger players are then told that I have faith in them.
At half-time, I go to full aggression if we’re not meeting my expectations and have conceded more than one goal. If we’ve only conceded one, I’m assertive, but clearly dissatisfied. Any poor reactions are reassured (calm, «I believe in you», type stuff) or told they did well (but only if they have a rating above 7.1).
Full time I tend to just go for full team praise unless I’m in the midst of a really tough stretch of fixtures; then I assertively tell them they did well if they met expectations, and passionately inform those who performed best (>7.5) that they were very good. This seems to cause them to be fired-up.
However, all of this is with a quite determined squad of relatively young players (average age is 21), and all of them have basically gotten their break in football in my side, with a few exceptions… so admittedly, this is from a position of «He is God to us!», pretty much.
Dryhtscipe
10 мая, 2012 at 00:18
Oh, and I should note: using this system and my own special tactics invention, I took Wolves to eighth in the Premier League in my first season, then with only a small amount of investment won the league by two points in my second, and went on a 68 game undefeated stretch between 2013 and 2015.
We went 2-0 down on at least 10 occasions in that run, all by half-time, and all resulted in wins.
In the first season we drew with pretty much all the top sides — again, going 2 (and in one case, 3) goals down by half time… but pulling it back with a passionate second-half performance on the back of some half-time fury.
Just having the expectation of success, seems, realistically enough, to spur players on.
Darren Smith
10 мая, 2012 at 11:47
Yeah I think every single gamer could have a different approach to tactics and team talks that work for them…just depends on your style and how you learned the game.
xico1997
16 июня, 2012 at 22:08
Hey Darren, i don´t do same way as you but i think it result
In pre-match, i use to say in agressive i´m expecting you win tonight, boys»
it sometimes work, but not always
in half time when i´m losing i said in agressive , «im far from pleased with what i just saw with tis team»
if i am winning by difference of one i say in assertive «don´t get complecent out there»
if i am winning for 2 or more i say «im happy with your performance, keep it there»
when the game finish and i win, i said in assertive «well done lads that was a good victory for us»
if i´ve lost i say agressive » im far from pleased with what i just saw with tis team»
if i´ve win with by short diferrence against a bas team i say that was a bit of a let off… better opposition»
Darren Smith
16 июня, 2012 at 23:01
Every team talk will vary on your tactic, the opponents and style of play. But I prefer to be more positive than negative as being negative at the wrong time can result in a massive dip of form whereas being positive at the wrong time doesn’t have such a bad effect.
xico1997
22 июня, 2012 at 22:14
but isn´t better when they got mitivated, than happy?
Darren Smith
23 июня, 2012 at 07:59
It is better when they get motivated but that rarely happens, what does happen more often is they get happy and the players getting happy is better than no reaction at all.
Dryhtscipe
23 июня, 2012 at 13:05
Actually, the «happy» thing is worse.
If they’re happy, they are many more times likely to become complacent.
Or, to put it more carefully: it’s OK for players to be happy at the start of a match, IE at kick-off, but if they’re happy at half-time, you need to motivate them or even possibly annoy them. If they’re the wrong sort of happy (IE, because of their personality), you can’t fix it before the match ends without subbing them.
Darren Smith
23 июня, 2012 at 13:12
I was talking generally over the whole match and half-time is just 1 third of that.
I know how players get complacent, but I know for a fact that upsetting the players continuously through overly harsh team talks can be more detrimental. I’ve used this philosophy for ages and its never let me down, seeing a player happy at half-time may be worse than motivated but its not as bad as you make out, certainly not on the whole in my saves anyway. That all comes down to the players and their personalities though.
Herry
24 июня, 2012 at 11:16
Great post Darren, always nice to read and implementing them in my FM game…
special credit to your writing skill that make easy for your reader from Asia
Darren Smith
24 июня, 2012 at 13:26
Thanks mate, glad you find these helpful.