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With 5 new players in the team, it might take a while for them to settle in and gel together. Foreign players rarely have a good first season in the Premiership.
There certainly is a "it takes time to gel" factor, if you make too many changes to a side from year to year. It could just be that, plus a spot of bad luck and poor morale; if you think the side look good but have gotten unlucky, then stay the course.
The next thing I'd look at is giving them a bit of a kick - criticizing a player to the media, and/or giving a more negative team talk than you're used to while succeeding. Both of those work best with your most professional players; others need more encouragement but may "get the message" if they're dropped from the starting XI for a game.
The other thing to look at is, are your new signings perfectly suited to the individual instructions you're giving them? For example, if you've signed a brilliant Creativity/Passing/Decisions midfielder but you still have him on the lower-Creative-Freedom / higher-Long-Shots instructions your starter last year needed, you may be shooting yourself in the foot without realizing it or meaning to.
Other mistakes are less obvious - see T&TT forum for more detail on individual instructions, etc - but I'd say its worth going through all ten outfield players and making sure you're asking them to do what they're best at, or that they're best at what you're asking them to do.
Thanks very much for that! appreciated! i'll have another crack at it on sunday. May have to tweak the individual instructions and maybe only start a couple of the new signing rather than all 5 of them! im playing the same back four but seem to be shipping a few in, where as it was a tight back 5 last season (its the same GK i had him on loan last season)
totally agree with amaroq about time to gel
my advice is instead of signing loads of good players, sing only a couple of the best ones...5 being too many, 3 would be better
When I was playing FM06 or FM07 I noticed that there was second season syndrome in the game. When I got my Gillingham side promoted to the Premiership after many seasons, I expected a very, very difficult time - my squad wasn't particularly good in the Championship and I think I'd lost about 12 games. However, I managed to finish 8th which was incredible. However, I think this was because as Gillingham had a low reputation, many teams played a weakened side against me, allowing me to beat them. In the second season I had a higher reputation and they played full strength teams and it was much harder - I think I scraped avoiding relegation.
It may also be that my expectation are now to high at West Brom. After finishing in 6th and qualifying for europe i may expect more of the same and it just isnt realistic! i think if i aim to avoid relegation and finish in mid table it would be more realistic! also give the players time to gel? anything think a change of tactic would be worthwhile as ive been using the same one now for 3 season!? maybe other teams have found me out?
I think part of it might be that the opponents are playing differently against you as your club status increases. Perhaps previously you would get plenty more counter-attack based goals, while now the AI is a bit more careful when playing against you, which makes it a bit harder. I have at least noticed this for sure in previous versions.
Tactically, I don't think its so much "other teams have found you out" as they're treating you more cautiously, and less likely to get sucked in for you to hit them on the counter.
When that happens - and you're the only one that can judge - you've got to react by slowing it down, and spreading it around with shorter passing. There's plenty of "How to play when you're expected to win" articles in the Tactics & Training Tips forum.
Second Season Syndrome 
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