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The reason that football is such a popular game is that more times than in any other game the weaker team wins. And the reason for that is that scoring is rare in football (always compared to other games). A team can play brilliant against a bad opponent and lose. And that makes it so attractive.
Luck is a big factor in football and many times there is a fine line between a good and a bad performance. There is a fine line between loosing 0-1 and destroying your opponent.
Furthermore, in fm08, there is a completely loose factor called "team talk". There is no logic to what you should say. I mean when a full back has big stamina you know you can have him running up and down. When someone jumps high you know he can score from a corner etc. But how do you decide on team talk? There is no information on that. Tell them they can win and they flop, tell them to relax (same match, same tactics) and they score 4 goals. For a factor that has such a big impact the information you get is zero.
That is why I like to explore "what ifs" and play games again. Like I said in the past, my hat's off to the fundamentalists that don't do it but it is an excellent way to discover what would have happened if your players had actually scored instead of breaking the posts. A win can create a domino that could win the champions league and this is a parallel universe I would very much like to see.
Try fielding the same 11 players and use the exact same team talk and instructions in the same game 10 times, and you still get different results. Therefore reloading the game and play the same game more than once using different teamtalks doesnt really tell you anything.
Which ones to use depends on your team. In my Eastleigh-game, my first couple of seasons my players fell down like a house of cards when under pressure. I told them to relax and have fun and they did very well. Once I started rising in the division, and got some new players, the mentality of the players changed. All of a sudden I had a split in my players. Those that excelled when I expected a performance from them, and those who played their A-game when kept away from pressure.
Thats where individual talks come in.
You need to identify how each player react differently to the talks, and use that to your advantage. I am sure there are players in your squad that would benefit from the hairdryer-treatment, even though giving it to everyone may affect your teams performance negatively.
Originally posted by Agent Tiro:
i only ever use the encourage ones. i stopped using the "i expect a win" on first fm to have team talks! amount of easy games i lost when i said that
I agree, "expect a win" always leads me to play badly against poor opposition. Maybe it should be used against good teams? "For the fans" seems to be the safe option, never upsets anyone, never really motivates them, not sure about "relax" yet. I'm not sure about "why can't you play like this every week?" for post match, it seems to upset the players by suggesting they're crap most of the time.
you've got to get to now the personality of your players.
if they're driven and your a big team then you can say you expect a win
if they're generally a bit weak minded or even temperamental then having a go at them for a fairly poor performances isn't going to be good.
if their a strong minded player and can prove a point then they may just go out there and be brilliant.
i've expected a win on many occasions and done well after half time.
sometimes they collapse though.
i've expected better performances after halftime as well or to not loose concentration when liverpool are 1=-0 up at half time to chelsea and they have good responses. 'regained focus' etc.
In my Liverpool game, when I give the team 'For the fans!' poor old Harry Kewell gets stressed haha and the rest of them don't really care too much. *shrugs*
parallel universe 
Linear Mode
