Complacency against weaker sides

antomorro-sei

Any tips on how to avoid this?

The staff keep telling me this in my Backroom Advice Meetings.

Cheers,
Anto

SantryRed

All out attack!!

antomorro-sei

SantryRed wrote: »

All out attack!!

Didn't work too well. Drew again

IvySlayer

antomorro-sei wrote: »

Didn't work too well. Drew again

Sack the manager

Give your players a bollocking then.

Blowfish

It'll always happen to some extent, especially if your team is somewhat overachieving, but there are a couple of things I usually do:

Probably one of the most important aspects of the game is squad rotation. You will always have some players that will play well every game and some who will be more 'up and down'. If you rotate your 'up and down' players a decent amount, they'll fight that bit more for their place. Shake it up a bit when your results start to slip by adding either younger players (who'll want to impress) or experienced players with high determination, concentration, work rate and influence (to graft out results). Rotating also has the side benefit of improving squad morale, lowering jadedness and keeping up match fitness for when you inevitably get injuries.

In the pre-match press conference, start talking up your opposition a bit more. Make the games seem tougher than they actually are. Post-match, don't be afraid to start giving out if you played poorly. Be very careful with this though as players reaction will often depend on their morale. If morale is high (which it should be if you are playing well enough for your players to start getting complacent), they'll react positively to it and play better. If morale is low and you start saying how crap they are, you'll just piss them off.

In the pre match team talk, tell your team you expect to win. At half time, tell them draws aren't good enough. During the match itself, have your teams motivation showing at all times. Sub disinterested/complacent players, even if they are playing 'ok' and aren't tired. You should also use it to work out what type of personalities your players have by seeing how they react to the team talks. Some will be confidence players who react better if you mollycoddle them by telling them you have faith in them etc. while others will react better to being told you expect a performance or expect them to pick up where they left off.

antomorro-sei

Cheers Blowfish.

The form has certainly been going much better, but out of nowhere, on a decent unbeaten run, I'd go away to the team bottom of the league and get beat.

Can't really complain though, top of the league, won another Setanta Cup and got an international job with Australia :pac:

Dempsey

Blowfish wrote: »

It'll always happen to some extent, especially if your team is somewhat overachieving, but there are a couple of things I usually do:

Probably one of the most important aspects of the game is squad rotation. You will always have some players that will play well every game and some who will be more 'up and down'. If you rotate your 'up and down' players a decent amount, they'll fight that bit more for their place. Shake it up a bit when your results start to slip by adding either younger players (who'll want to impress) or experienced players with high determination, concentration, work rate and influence (to graft out results). Rotating also has the side benefit of improving squad morale, lowering jadedness and keeping up match fitness for when you inevitably get injuries.

In the pre-match press conference, start talking up your opposition a bit more. Make the games seem tougher than they actually are. Post-match, don't be afraid to start giving out if you played poorly. Be very careful with this though as players reaction will often depend on their morale. If morale is high (which it should be if you are playing well enough for your players to start getting complacent), they'll react positively to it and play better. If morale is low and you start saying how crap they are, you'll just piss them off.

In the pre match team talk, tell your team you expect to win. At half time, tell them draws aren't good enough. During the match itself, have your teams motivation showing at all times. Sub disinterested/complacent players, even if they are playing 'ok' and aren't tired. You should also use it to work out what type of personalities your players have by seeing how they react to the team talks. Some will be confidence players who react better if you mollycoddle them by telling them you have faith in them etc. while others will react better to being told you expect a performance or expect them to pick up where they left off.

Pretty much it, if you dismiss the opposition in interviews and teamtalks then so will your players. You have to keep your players grounded for every match regardless of their quality. Slating opposition gives them motivation to embarrass you and your players