Football Manager 2012 team talk guide — pre-match, half-time and full-time

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.