Wolfsong

Hi guys,

I need a bit of help here please.

I am following the "combination of wwfan and cleon" strategy i.e. 14 mentalities and tweaking according to scout reports (thanks to the forum experts: wwfan, cleon and the author of the combination strategy) and i have had a lot of success untill this morning...

A bit of history of my 'success':
With the 14 mentalities strategy I took Burghausen - a mid tier German Second Division team (had like $300k budget at the start and a 13000 capacity stadium) to 3rd in Division 2 and thus promotion in the 1st season, 2nd season 8th in Division 1 but got into euro cup for best sporting stats and 3rd season i came 4th in division 1 and won the Euro cup. I felt bored and started a new game as an unemployed rookie manager...

I managed to grab a job in Lile in 2007 in French first league after some success in Fluminese in Brazil and Preson in Championship. I took Lile out of relegation zone and then i launched a serious title challenge the next season. I was predicted 7th by the media, but I managed to get a 13 games win streak when i reached the 19 games point (half season point) and led the table with Lyon 4 points behind me. I was named the French manager of the year at the half season point (end of 2008).
My confidence went extremely high and i had every faith in my strategy and tweaking and I thought I could easily become the French champions.

Then I started to experience problems, they are in chronological order as follows:

1. My 13 games win streak ended on the 20th game when I barely held out Rennes for a 2-2 draw home. Then I suffered a 5 games no win streak untill I beat a 20th ranked team.

2. I managed to draw with Lyon twice in the league but when I met Lyon in the league cup and French cup (during the 2nd half of the league season), I lost 0-3 and 1-3 on each occassion with generally the same mentalities and tweaking as the two league games.

3. My team started to suffer lots of injuries which seemed more than ususal. But I had good backups for each position and it should not have had this much impact on my results.

4. My last 10 games in the league yielded only 2 wins. And my final league position is a disappointing 4th (missed out on EC -.-).

Now my questions are:

1. Does this happen to someone else too? i.e 2nd half season slump.

2. Is a different way of mentality/tweaking required for the 2nd half of the season if I am the half-way league leader? If so, what changes should I make? Despite pre-match odds being a close game, should I go more offensive because I am the league leader?

3.I kept passing as global except for my AMC who's on individual short passing and through balls often, this is because I wanted to counter the opponent's passing style and it was easier to adjust the global. Most teams in French league play possession football and I have always had around global passing at 8-10
when playing against them (with tempo and width at 8-10 too), is this correct? Do tempo and width need to closely follow passing?

4. I use key-highlights for the speed but I tweak my mentality based on the match stats and the highlights in 1st 10-15 mins. I change the mentality a little if possession is 45-50%, e.g mentality 10 to 11; I change it a lot (e.g from heavily defensive to heavily offensive) if i have say 40% possession and only 1 or 2 shots in the 1st 10-15 mins. Is this correct? Should I use full match highlights instead of key? How heavily should I change the mentality?

5. My substitutes are often on "severely lacking match fitness" during the season. Does this contribute to lots of injuries? How could I fix that? I do heavy fitness training before the start of season and during the season I reduce it to around 2 clicks above medium, is this correct?

Thanks a lot for your time reading this. Any replies will be appreciated. I want to do well next season

Wolfsong

Sry i had the wrong numbers for question 3, here is the proper Q:

3.I kept passing as global except for my AMC who's on individual short passing and through balls often, this is because I wanted to counter the opponent's passing style and it was easier to adjust the global. Most teams in French league play possession football and I have always had around global passing at 11-14
when playing against them (with tempo and width at 11-14 too), is this correct? Do tempo and width need to closely follow passing?"

Kenco

This is probably due to re-ranking, where early in the season AI teams may underestimate you, but later in the season change their game plan against you. Just look at Portsmouth in the Premier League this season, same sort of thing. I would suggest reading wwfan's excellent TT&F IV thread on tactics for your first 4 questions.

5. something I do with subs to keep them match fit is to keep them in my reserve squad, this way they will play on a regular basis. This is also good for players returning from injury. I used to find my reserve team at Liverpool sometimes had 3 weeks without a game every so often, so I would set up loads of friendlies with my under 18 team or other reserves/under 18 teams to keep them playing regularly.

Wolfsong

Thanks for da helpful reply Kenco, I will try arrange friendlies for my reserve team. I am reading wwfan's artice now