MaccTown

And is the morale still too fragile?

Managed to get my predicted lower than mid table side into the play-offs. Under budget and doing well. In February so I've been a good side all season.

Lost one game and then dropped like a stone.

I've also had the issue of the morale dropping to poor and very poor across the board and taking a five or six game winning run to DRAG it back up. the nthe next defeat and they are all depressed again.

opul

Mine hasn't been cracked in a 7 year game

Now in season 4 with another team, also no signs of getting cracked.

Neji

In FM07, yes.

In FM08, No.

I've been using the same tactics for 5 seasons and have been successful throughout.

MaccTown

I still can't make a full season with one tactical setup.

Without fail I have to have a major shift halfway through.

chopper99

Firstly there is no such thing as the AI 'cracking' your tactics.

The AI managers constantly change how they view you depending on how you perform. When you first start a new game they'll see you as completely unproven and not someone they need to worry about. If you start doing well they'll take more notice and play more cautiously aginst you. The same thing will happen every time you over or under-achieve.

When you over-achieve mangers who didn't see you as a threat start sitting up and taking notice, thinking 'hold on, this isn't going to be as easy of a game as I thought. I'll have to approach this a little differently than I would normally'. They will therefor start playing differently against you and this is when you'll find that you need to keep an eye on your own tactics and fiddle with things if it all suddenly stops working.

The same thing will happen if you under-achieve. Teams will see easy points and play less differently against you.

This is why some people can experience a 'slump'. They over-achieve but as the AI teams start playing differently against them they continue to play in the same way. The AI's tactics then become more effective against them and they start to lose games. The human player still sticks with the same tactic and as they are now losing and seen as less of a threat the AI may revert to playing how they used to against you. Then your tactic is again effective and you start over-achieving again. And so it continues....

So there is no 'tactical cracking' by the AI and it doesn't just happen at certain times of year or after set lengths of time. The AI managers are always keeping an eye on you and will continuously adjust how they play against you depending on how successful you are.

As for moral, I've not noticed much of a problem but I learned in 07 to ignore all media comments and never get angry with my team during team talks. This works for me and helps me keep moral steady, but it does highlight obvious problems with the over-affect of media and team talks on moral.

chopper99

The above line should have read 'Teams will see easy points and play less defensively against you.

Doh!!

MaccTown

I understand the locig behind the change in reputation, but would that not be a gradual thing. Similar to the 'honeymoon' period managers often get in real life.

It's the almost instant chance from promotion form to relegation form overnight that is annoying.

And surely, if the manager of the club 22nd in the division has the tactical nouse to completely unravel my plans to the extent that I'm losing 2-0 at home to him, he wouldn't be in 22nd as he'd have done the same to everyone else?

And surely managers earlier in the season with lesser expectations than mine would have taken me more seriously in the first place?

DontCallItSoccer

Thanks, chopper99, good explanation. I'm experiencing "second season syndrome" after overachieving in season 1. Your explanation for the first time provides a serious reason why I'm suddenly struggling.

chopper99

[quote]Originally posted by MaccTown:
I understand the locig behind the change in reputation, but would that not be a gradual thing. Similar to the 'honeymoon' period managers often get in real life.[QUOTE]

In my experience this is what happens in the game. You over-achieve for a while and then the AI catches on and starts looking at you differently.

True, but I don't think it happens over night. You just don't notice it until you start losing.

Not really. If you play with the same tactic that has got your team to over-achive against teams better than you against a team worse than you then you're asking for trouble. I'm guessing you look to keep it tight and hit teams on the break who are better than you and this has worked quite nicely. However, when you play the team 22nd in the league they're not looking to attack you and therefor not giving you the option to hit them on the break, so in effect the tactic you've used successfully against better teams is completely useless against a team expecting to get be put under pressure.

Even if I've guessed wrong about the style of play you use the point's still the same. You can't always set out to play the same way against a team expected to beat you and a team you're expected to hammer. If you do then it's obvious that what worked against one will probably not be as effective against the other.

Indeed they will. Which is why, as you've pointed out above, you've struggled to beat these teams.

Tal_Hides

What it does demonstrate is perhaps how overly important tactics are. As soon as an AI team decides it's time to play defensive against you you suddenly struggle to play at all, and yet they seem to have no problem scoring with their one attack.

In reality you can manage a team in more than one way. Alex Ferguson has not built his Man Utd team around tactics, in fact, whenever he's tried to be clever with fancy 4-5-1 formations and such they've looked a bit dodgy, especially in Europe. Man Utd's success has been around training or buying quality players and then inspiring and motivating them to do their talking on the pitch. Against weaker teams Man Utd are not going to drastically alter their tactics just because the other team is playing defensively and more often than not they will still win.