How To Use FM 2015 Touchline Team Talks

Hey, todays subject is how to use FM 2015 touchline team talks. A new feature to the Football Manager series and a welcome one at that. FM 2015 touchline team talks work very much like pre-match and half-time team talks, you can bark them out to the team or individuals and you can select your tone of voice.

I personally stick to assertive, passionate and calm, they seem the safest option. But when should you use these FM 2015 touchline talks? Below we provide the description, when to use and possible negatives. This is more of a beginners guide but the advanced players may have a light bulb moment.

I have placed a gold star next to my most commonly used touchline team talks.

Tips — Always have your teams ‘body language’ display open in the match engine, this can be very handy in suggesting when a touchline team talk is necessary. For instance most of your team may show ‘nervous’ body language, in which case a ‘no pressure’ team talk may be needed. Or one of your players may be looking ‘complacent’ in which case the ‘concentrate’ team talk may work.

Encourage

FM description — Offer encouragement to your players and boost their morale.

Best to use — When on a bad run and your players could use the confidence, or the game is level and you don’t want to put too much pressure on them, just give a gentle nudge.

Negatives — No real negatives, other than providing little impact if used at the wrong time.

Calm down

FM description — Instruct your players to calm down in an effort to avoid yellow and red cards.

Best to use — When you have too many bookings already and fear the next been a red. Not to be confused with effecting the teams calmness under pressure.

Negatives — Your players could tackle too lightly offering the opposition more time on the ball and potentially more confidence on the ball.

Get creative 

FM description — Give your players more creative freedom in the hope they can fashion goalscoring opportunities.

Best to use — When the game hits a stalemate and you struggle to see where a goal will come from. This should inject something extra into the game and could get you out of the mire.

Negatives — This will literally change the creative freedom, which could lead to sloppy mistakes and poor positioning.

Concentrate 

FM description — Remind your players to stay switched on and focused on the task at hand.

Best to use — in a few scenarios. If you go a goal up this could make sure you don’t concede a quick sloppy equalizer. Also effective if you are a few goals up later in the game to keep your players switched on.

Negatives — This could put unwarranted pressure on your players, certain characters can crumble under this pressure.

Show some passion

FM description — Insist your players show some passion and put their bodies on the line for the shirt.

Best to use — If you fear an opposition goal due to lack of challenges from your players. Also appropriate if you are enduring attack after attack and have already conceded. This will make your players tackle harder, but may not effect the offensive side of your game.

Negatives — Will see your players lose stamina and fitness, could leave you more open due to fatigue late on and lead to injuries.

No pressure

FM description — Encourage your players to relax in the hope that they play without fear.

Best to use — When the task at hand is huge and you are the clear underdog. If your team keep making mistakes then this may be a better fix than putting more pressure on using ‘show some passion’ or ‘concentrate’.

Negatives — Your players may relax too much, get sloppy and make more mistakes.

Tighten up 

FM description — Shift your player focus towards defending.

Best to use — When approaching the half-time or final whistle with a narrow lead. Don’t use it too early in the half though, or you may have to endure too much pressure.

Negatives — This will drop your players back into a more compact shape, try maintaining this for too long and you could crumble under the pressure.

Push forward 

FM description — Shift your players focus towards attacking.

Best to use — When you want your side to push for the win or draw late on. Or as a final push before half-time. Note this will change your original game plan so be sure its the right time to switch.

Negatives — This will throw more bodies forward in a risky attempt to score, so will leave you open and vulnerable to the counter.

Demand more

FM description — Demand your players work harder.

Best to use — When you feel like more closing down needs to be done and the opposition need hassling. Also this could be used to fix a poor team talk, if you made the team too relaxed or complacent.

Negatives — Same as ‘show some passion’

Thats it guys, thanks for reading and if you found this useful, please share it through the social media buttons below.