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Firstly I'm not sure if this post is in the right section or not, so apologies to anyone if it's in the wrong place. I believe it has some relevence to tactics so I posted it here. When approached by the media before a game I always used to say the same comments. If playing against a side I expected to beat, I would say that I really expect to beat the opposition. If playing against a team who I thought would be tricky opposition, I would say that team x is a good team but if we play to our potential I believe we can win. I was doing ok in my Norwich saved game. I'd worked my way up to 8th in the league with only 3 signings. Then I made what I thought was a mistake. Before my next game, I clicked on no comment instead of my usual media comment. I went on to win the game 2-1 (Coventry away). I decided to make this comment every time and these were my results for the rest of the season. 0-0 (Southend away), 3-1 (Barnsley home), 0-2 (Chelsea home, fa cup), 3-2 (Plymouth away), 1-0 (Leeds home), 2-2 (W.B.A away, 93rd min goal for W.B.A), 3-0 ( Derby home), 2-0 (Birmingham away), 1-0 (Q.P.R home), 5-1 (Luton away), 3-0 (Hull home) and 4-2 (Preston away) I managed to finish 2nd in the league and win promotion after pulling back a 15 point deficit with only 12 games remaining. As you can see by the results I got, I scored plenty whilst conceding few, only losing 1 game at home to Chelsea in the cup. I fielded all the same players as I had been doing previosly and didn't change any of my tactics. I think that either my players finally got used to my tactics or that making no media comment before each match made a big difference. Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
i'd be intersted to hear other peoples opinions on this also. From my own experience i never comment before a match, and i've always been relatively successful with my leeds team
Yep i agree, i got fed up with saying "yeh we should easly win" Arsenal vs watford then losing 2-0.
Its true to real life because managers always try to hide away from the media before a match and even if they do talk they normaly scamper around the who will win question with a political type answer.
Ive been using No comment for loads of seasons now and found its by far the most effective.
Also i found that no comment on an injury helps, i always found that if i say "yeh we got backup" then i will get another injury, maybe its just me getting funny ideas in my head.
But if they ask how well do i think a player is doing i always reply with a good comment.
So in my opinion, No comment for bad/negative type media questions, And a moral boosting comment for a positive type media questions
I dont agree yet i do....
Personally 80% of the time i dont comment, but only because teams are pretty much playing attacking football against me all the time. my tactics are counter attack so that suits me. But if i think someone is coming with defense in mind or a strange tactic i will say that i expect to win no problem, so they change tactics. Not a 100% on best situations to use what but it definetly changes their tactics.
I just recently had a really interesting experience with this. I have always been telling the press that we have the ability to win the matches we are up to and when Arsenal came to visit Villa Park I told the press that I honestly belived that we could beat Arsenal. We did, 3-0 wich I belive is a good result even if they were the better team. I have no idea if my pre-match comments did something to their morale(I did´nt check for it) but my team certainly performed very well.
I will try to be a little more "aggresive" in media in the future to see if this episode was just a slump or if the comments really is a potential weapon of mass opposition-destruction.
Generally I use it only before important matches AND when my team is going through a bad patch. I often use the "I'll be happy as long as my players stick to my tactics" option.
If morale is good going into a match and you're not familiar with your players' personalities then "no comment" is certainly the safest option.
However, it's worth experimenting with as once you know how players will react it can be a useful motivational tool. I now say "x are a good team but we're in good form and I think we can win" because I know this will fire my players up. It can backfire and make players nervous though- you need to find the balance for your team.
Experiment, gauge the response and reap the rewards. You can relax, fire up or increase nervousness within players, it's up to you to analyse the personality of your squad.
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