After Communication and Psychological Warfare was released for the first time in February I was very much surprised about the overwhelming reaction of many players and other tacticians. I was hoping to give a good overview and starting point into the sometimes weird world of communication in Football Manager, but the number of players who previously neglected these issues was stunning, as well as the fantastic results they reported after making first steps into an active communication and man-management.

Since then man-management has become a vital factor in the FM-Britain tactic forums and finally led to a huge series of articles on squad management in the FM-Britain Tactical Bible. I do not think that FM-Britain did invent the terms man-management or squad-management in the game, but I think we can claim to be the first looking into these aspects in every detail and acknowledging the influence on team and player performance as almost equally important as pure tactical decisions in the game.

Some enthusiastic feedbacks went as far as to suggest communication could replace any tactical decisions, but this is far over the top in my eyes. Good man-management can support your team performance significantly, but neglecting it completely can cause severe problems. Ignoring the state of your team, the happiness, the gelling, the number of youngsters and loan players, the time new signings need to settle can cause catastrophic under-performances. Many reports about well known players as worst signings of the season or proven tactics failing to win any games should be seen in this light.

Lately I saw an interview with a coach in German third league, which still is 'officially' an amateur or part-time league. The coach interviewed was a part-timer as well and working as a lawyer, and he just said: 'as a coach you have to be a psychologist'. I do not think that the German third league is renown for being particularly progressive, but it should be more then obvious the same does apply for the English Premier and any other major league.

Finally I have to think about visiting a Swedish friend. We spent some days together co-coaching IFK Gothenburg during FM 04 or 05, and before you think we must have been totally mad, this was around new year, it was cold and ugly outside and not even snowing... He always got nervous when I went to the player interaction screen and tried to give the players some kind of feedback. And back in these days only negative feedback would finally make you become favourite personnel of a player. He simply was assuming that I would mock up his whole team and make them want to leave. After some months he finally realised that Hakan Mild would score screamers, which he never used to do really, and most of the key players had our common alias as favoured personnel. After seeing this, he finally got more relaxed about my media interactions.

Taking all these facts on board, Communication and Psychological Warfare 08 will be released as sister thread of Tactical Theorems and Frameworks 08. I should add that TT&F is the big sister, not only age wise, but also in the sense of looking first at the elementary aspects of tactic making and then perfect your management skills. As TT&F, also Communication and Psychological Warfare is now more and more influenced by the proven teamwork of the FM-Britain Tactical Think Tank, and my first credit has to go to my colleagues for their input, but last not least to all FM-Britain members who helped us developing the complete category of squad management with their enthusiastic feedback, ideas, questions and constructive criticism.

Since many new ideas came together during last months, I only can try to give a compact overview and reference on all aspects of communication, man-management, squad management and interaction, try to highlight the most important factors, since I would like to keep this article as compact as possible, which already is hard to do. This is why there will be an additional short version this year for the first time. Many topics will need much more elaboration in the FM-Britain Tactical Bible and related articles. Due to the upcoming patches and needed long-term results much will stay provisional. I hope you will enjoy reading.Matches build up interaction.

Being well prepared for an important match and having your squad at the top of their morale and form for this match can be a key in achieving your goals of the season and have massive impact on your results.

Advance planning

If you are facing key games, you should start looking at your preparation very early, at least seven days ahead if you want to achieve the best results. Of course nobody can always take everything into account for every single game, but looking at the calendar at times and setting your eyes on these dates can improve your performance massively.

If you are for instance facing a top match in seven days and know that you may need some rotation players or even key players who are currently in a bad mood, you should consider to give them a morale-boosting reserve match on Wednesday, if possible. A better morale may make up for any loss in condition, and you can rest them for a day after the match. If you are a perfectionist and very slow (or luxurious…) player, you may lead this reserve match and take your players off at a peak but early enough to recover easily. Also you should consider giving them a media interaction to increase their morale. Since it is not always possible to give them anytime, you may already have looked ahead and saved it for this occasion.

If you are playing a fierce rival, you may also make a comment on your next opponent about three days before the match. The best-proven comment is to ‘expect a good rivalry' as this will often take away pressure from your own players and occasionally build up pressure for the opposition.

Dangerman

Finally you will receive your scout report and have the option to comment on the opposition dangerman. This was heavily bugged in FM 07 and you had to do it three days in advance to see an effect, but finally it does work now. But beware, it is a gamble, otherwise the game may get too easy. You should always watch out first at the form and personality of these players. If they are model professionals, driven or highly determined players, better stay away from commenting on them if they are not in a crisis. Players in a crisis and with less determined characters are more prone to buckle under the pressure then those who are on top of their form. I once tried it with Klose while he was playing for Man U, and he said thank you with a brace…so be warned.

Pre-match media

Finally, after so many preliminaries, the most important part: The media pre-match interaction. Now you can make up for anything you missed before or finally blow it. Choose your options wisely and remember that being over-confident rarely is rewarded in the game. To make things clear: good pre-match comments will not win a game for you. But giving the wrong comments can have catastrophic effects and giving the right comments can boost your morale strongly.

* We are in a good form and can win this. The option to go with if your team is having a good run, if your odds are looking good and if your players are determined and can handle pressure.
* They can cause us problems. If your form and odds are less brilliant, if you are additionally playing away and if your players suffer from a lack of self-believe, this option will cause less pressure and you will see your squad being more relaxed.
* Just want a good performance. If you really do not see many chances to get away with a result or a point. Takes the pressure off your players and most likely will result in a good morale despite taking a loss. Don't underestimate your team though, it may also lose motivation, if you do so.
* You can see your team winning anyway. If you are at the very top, dominating the league from first to last and you intend to play an out-of-form relegation candidate, you can make some fun out of it and raise your profile as arrogant genius. Maybe you will get an award, but as you can guess, this option is rarely of any use, if ever. A comment by crazy gra which I found too good to leave it out: This special option is great if you want everyone without a sense of humour to hate you, especially those named Rafa or Roman. ;)
* No comment. Only advisable if your morale already is superb across the board.


Check how your players react. Every one is different. The more ambitious your players are, the more you can stay on the positive side. Nice tip for cup mismatches: I often stir up my squad by being "never confident about these games”. Half of your key players will want to go out and prove you wrong. Unfortunately, our comment system is not wotrking at present.
Team talks are a key to influence your team's performance and to give you a good start into the game. The half-time team talks have even more impact on the final score and often decide whether you are giving away a comfortable lead or turning around a game if needed. Some players claim that they have fantastic assistant managers who do this perfectly, but in most cases these team talks are rather lousy if you look them up using the team talk feedback, even if the values for motivation and man handling are very high. If you do have any doubts about this, you should play some games following these recommendations and see if there will be a difference. I am totally sure that you will note the same, once you get used to this.

After all, what happens in the cabin is probably the very heart of managing and the secret of both, fantastic success and miserable failing, and I personally can hardly understand anyone having fun with a management game not having fun with using this aspect of the game. Team talks are one of the factors to add as much of a human factor to a computer simulation as possible and to make the overall game experience more sensitive and less predictable.

There is a new option available for FM 08 which will make things easier for you if you do not have much experience with giving team talks: the Ask Assistant button. This is especially helpful for selecting individual options for the new performance based talks since it will remind you to spur those individually which can be easily forgotten from match to match. However, you will still see that the AI standard choice is ‘for the fans' and picked by far too frequently at start of the game. You can do it better! So, as a tip: select ‘Ask Assistant' to single out some of the individual comments based on performance (not all are selected, again), but then select your overall team talk for the remaining squad. Please note that the quality of both individual and team recommendations given by your assistant differs strongly depending on his man management and motivating abilities.

A general hint for all team talks, individual talks and media interactions: Every player and each team is different and requires a different approach. Driven superstars require a different handling then unprofessional, low-determined part-timers. The better your squad, the more determined and professional it is, the more you can be demanding in your interactions. Until you know your team very well, you should always check your team talk feedback to find out the right way to handle them.

Pre-match team talks

After hitting the ‘Ask Assistant' button and singling out (or reverting) some of the individual team talk suggestions he made, you should now make your personal choice how you want to send your squad into the game.

* Tell the players they can win this game. Probably a good choice for most home games in which you are favourite, also if odds are in your favour for away games and you feel this is a realistic view of your team in contrast to over-hyped odds due to a good run.
* You will soon see that this can become your standard team talk easily once you managed to assemble a combination of solid tactics, a gelled squad and consistent performances. In fact, despite the advice to vary team-talks given by the in-game hints, there is not too much room for variations if you have reached this state of stable performance. Don't hesitate to use it then and vary on rare occasions plus vary individual talks in this situation. Wish the team luck for the match ahead. This should be your choice for away games or home games where odds are clearly against you. The message is simple: you do not have to win today, I already would be happy with one point. So you should not be too angry if you will not get more, but your team may be much more relaxed and eventually get a result.
* Tell the players you expect them to win the match. A clear and simple statement, and it will be understood as is. However, this can make your players buckle and succumb to the pressure. It can be helpful under these circumstances: you are clear favourite for the match and you do have a very determined, ambitious and professional squad. You will see that these kinds of squads often will react very positive and delighted if you put things clear. If you are lacking these kinds of players and a clear situation for the match, you should stay off from this choice.
* Tell the players to do this for the supporters. For some strange reason the default assistant choice. But this should be reserved for the rather few games (depending on your league) against fierce rivals and occasionally for cup finals (get the trophy for the fans!). Always add individual talks.
* Tell the players there is no pressure on them today. An option if wish luck seems to be too much. In other words, if you expect your team to lose anyway or to face one of the hardest games of the season, no matter if you manage a top team or a relegation candidate. Combine this with encouraging individual talks to all key players. Also, this is the most valuable team talk if your team is in a crisis and lost its winning form for several games and now will play a seemingly small opponent at home. More then once I have seen a team recovering using this route. It seems to work equally well for highly determined squads, which have started to dominate a league at will and have several leading members with high influence and determination on the field.



Half-time team talks

The most important part of it since you now have the chance to keep your team on its toes if they are already winning, spur them up if they are behind and need to turn around the game or make them more focussed if they are playing well but cannot score. Wasting your half-time team talks can mean throwing away games and points and will definitely come back to hurt you.

* Show your anger at the team/I expect nothing else then a win. You are behind or drawing a game which you should clearly win without any doubt. Change formations, bring on a new player and combine with individual talks and you should see a different second half. Most likely you will be hailed by your players for turning around this game if you should succeed.
* Disappointed/I want to see more from you. You are behind away, but you do not clearly see that a win is a must, you are draw against a quite good team at home or you are leading with a big team but only by one goal and the game is far away from being safe for you side, and the number of chances created is too low. Demand more any you may get it.
* You can win today. Encourage your players in a positive way. Use this route if Angry/Disappointed may be too harsh since you are playing strong teams, if you still surprisingly hold a draw away without being favourite and think you have potential to win. Also, this is the way to go if you would have preferred angry/disappointed but your team has low morale
* Sympathize. The way to go if you unlucky behind or drawing, but see a good performance.
* Pleased. For sustaining a good, at least two goals lead against a good opponent.
* Show encouragement to the team (if available). If you are leading closely against strong opponents but your team is playing well and should maintain the performance to win.
* Don't let your performance drop (if available). If you are leading closely and feel your team is in control and dominating but has to stay focused to keep the lead.
* Pleased at the performance (if available). Shows this: your are outplaying them everywhere! If you dominate from first to last, but missed to score yet, just scored once and all you need is more luck with finishing.
* Thrilled. For a clear cut lead of three goals at half time, or a good lead away, or leading against a very strong opponent. Whenever your teams performs above themselves (even if they do it every week).
* For the fans. See pre-match. Only for fierce rivals or cup finals.
* Go out and enjoy the rest of the game/The pressure is off! For friendlies, if there is not much left to win, if you are already clearly behind and playing a team which is also clearly better then your own team and expecting to turn around will be asking for too much.



Post-Match Team Talks

The shortest and least important part of all, since most time your players don't listen anyway! The only bad mistake is not to give enough praise after good performances, and your players will let you know if this happens. If you are up to, you can acknowledge key performances and single out bad performances. Youngsters and new players tend to listen more often and will be happy if you praise them. Have a look at individual morale and praise those who are still in bad mood after a win.

Generally, be positive post-match. If your team has lost away but played well, be pleased. If they have drawn at home but should have won, be pleased. Only lay into the players if they have performed way below expectations or if you are running a top quality side. You will know if you have judged the mood correctly if morale stays high. After very narrow wins, warn against complacency. If you are able to praise individual players or even the whole team with a 'fantastic' feedback, you should not be too reserved with your post match comments. These options are only available if the engine has clearly seen you outplaying your opponents, and your players will expect an according feedback.

Individual player talks can be the dot on the 'I'. Use them wisely and check the assistant feedback to find out how your players react. It depends on their individual personality again. As mentioned earlier, you can use the ‘Ask Assistant' button to select comfortably some individual talks, which is especially helpful regarding a new feature in FM 08: the individual talks to players based on their previous performances.

Pre-match talks

* Having faith. Still the most useful option at start of a match, since most players will act very favourable, especially if they have been on low morale or if you apply this to your key players before a very important match. I often had the impression that it works like adding some extra composure points to your attacking players.
* No pressure. It may help your youngsters through their first senior team performances, but also and especially new players who still have to link up with their squad, additionally it can be helpful for players during their first games if they are returning from a long injury. There are some signs it can help for players with low morale, but there are more test feedbacks needed.
* Expect a performance. Formerly a useful option for players after a series of bad performances, best combined with according media feedbacks, but now it does look rather obsolete since you will be able to give performance based feedbacks. Maybe it still can be applied for key players who did not achieve anything better then something like a 7-7-6-7-7 form. Will also need some testing.



Performance-based player talks

* Expect better. Only available after a performance below 6 in his last match, and it will be most likely only helpful if morale is not too low now. Further long-term results needed to judge how efficient this talk is.
* Pick up where you left off! This option is only available after a performance above 7 in the last match. Should be applied if the player has a good morale or better.



Most likely you should only give these performance-based talks to players with at least good morale to apply them efficiently. If possible, you should make sure that your players would go into these matches having good morale. If not, you should better stick to the ‘have faith' talk which has proven its worth as something like a ‘killer' talk due to the enormous morale boost it can give.

This complete area of performance-based talks needs more evaluation and long-term results, as well as observation regarding the patches; any feedback on this is especially welcome.

Half-time talks

Similar to overall team talks, take your time on these since these are the talks that can change things and make the difference.

* Angry. This will only be helpful if the player is under-performing but still has a very good morale.
* Disappointed. As above, but less harsh and again rarely morale boosting. Use both talks only for very professional, determined key players if they have good morale and are clearly performing below their standards.
* Having Faith. Just the same as in pre-match talks, this is usually the best morale boosting talk. Especially watch out for players who are behind the team morale when already winning. It can help to increase confidence and performance for the second half.
* Pleased. Can result in sustaining an already good, but not brilliant performance. Most players will react favourable.
* Delighted. The same as please for a brilliant performance. Often will result in a morale boost
* No pressure. As in pre-match, a good option if you sub in the same kind of players, be it youngsters, new players or players coming back from an injury. You can additionally confirm this during half-time, if performance during the first half was not brilliant.
* Prove a point. Only available if you are behind at half time. Similar to a killer talk for players who are far away from their standard.
* You can make the difference! The ‘Have Faith' talk for a team being behind at half-time. Very often the best option in combination with ‘Prove a point' and a good team talk.



Post-match talks

As for team-talks, probably the least important part and you can give some individual feedbacks, if you are up to. Look for new players and youngsters first, additionally for those with bad morale despite winning or those who played well despite losing. Check your team talk feedback frequently to find out how your players react since everyone is different and needs and individual handling.
Media Interaction - Giving feedbacks to players.

Player Interaction

Unfortunately FM 08 did not introduce a feature many players have been hoping for: internal talks which are not linked to the media. It still seems to be quite strange that you need media to talk to your players, however these talks via the media may explain why they have so much influence on players. Just imagine you would read your boss' statements about you in the morning paper. It does happen in this business, of course, but there should be other steps first and in fact I think most coaches are very cautious regarding explicit comments to media. It is remarkable that SI did not attempt to close this gap so far.

When interacting with your players, you should always think about how you would want to be treated as a player. You can build up and you can destroy players, and a large number of player under-performances must be related with the way some managers treat their players If you use your options wisely, you will gain more consistent performances and less cards and errors. Related to different characters acting different on team and individual talks, there are also differences in reacting to media feedbacks, which will be explained later.

Media feedbacks

Regarding FM 08, even superstars are more favourable acting towards praise then in FM 07. An additional help in FM 08 is the fan opinion about your players. If you are not sure where to start with praises or criticism, you may get an idea from the fans spokesperson.

When to praise for good performances. Especially after a win, you should single out your most valuable players. But keep in mind if you are praising a key player or a rotation or backup player. Be more generous with unexpected performances. Some key players will even get annoyed for too much praise or too gentle criticism, while youngsters will feel let down if you demand too much.

When to criticise bad performances. Especially after a loss and after draws, already after a win if you feel a player is playing below his standard or has been e.g. send off or came back with a lousy rating for a poor match, be it because of errors or anything else. If you do this pro-actively you can stop many collective and drastic drops in form before they have begun. Be harsher to your key players and less demanding to youngsters, backup and rotation players.

Feedback options

* Delighted with recent form. Generally only for a run of extremely good performances. If you have been spot on, the fans will support this praise. If you are talking about superstars, it should be something like a 9-9-10 performance to praise them so highly. For a part-timer is may already be a string of 8 performances with maybe one 9.
* Pleased with recent form. For a very solid to brilliant run, most players will be encouraged and stirred up to go on, looking for more praise.
* Recent form is acceptable. Just like the word says. Not really brilliant, but the player may feel your support and perform much better soon.
* Recent form is below par. For most normal players, anything below 7 can be singled out for criticism, especially after losses. Tell them and watch the next games. In FM 07, 7-7-7-7-7 for most superstars already was notable, however this may have changed for FM 08, many of them will see this as harsh, but also react more favourable to praise.
* Disappointed with recent form. Usually most performance around a 6-6-6-6-6 should be ranked here, except for extremely unambitious players.
* Deeply upset with recent form. The ultimate measure for a series of under-performances and losses, most time those players will have made errors as well and need the hairdryer treatment.



If you are using media feedbacks for a while, you will notice that they have a huge influence on your players, often reflected in the game's comments. You can help your players to maintain good form, stir them up to improve even further but also shorten individual dips of form. Another benefit: if your praise or criticism is spot on at several occasions, the players will be grateful and show you as favoured personnel. If you have enough players having you as a favoured personnel performance is likely to remain high. If you need to get a key player back on his feet, you should also think about letting him play a number of reserve matches. This often works real wonders.

How to adjust to different player characters

Credits to Millie for these tips.

After five games I take a look at my squad and see how things are going. Usually there'll be some stand out performers and some players who haven't quite played the way I'd like. For those that are under performing I want to refocus their minds, and probably give them a morale boost. For those who are playing well, I want to give them some confidence and encourage them to keep up their good form.

It's not an exact science - however, using 7-7-7-7-7 as the base, you can judge the personality of your squad pretty well.

You will make mistakes, and continue to make them. Once you know how the game works and how your players usually react, however, those mistakes will occur less frequently and you'll be able to sustain a level of morale in your squad higher than you would get from performances and team talks alone. The odd player will act adversely, but for the five others that week who responded positively you should be able to field a very confident side for the next match.

As a final word, it's best to do such interaction at least a couple of days before a game, but not too early. You need the comments to land and for the players to respond (with their little PR box) but you don't want to leave it so long that the effects wear off. Try not to make the comments any more than 3 or 4 days before a game.

Different adjustment in FM 08

I have been using a similar line as Millie in FM 07, criticizing superstars for a constant 7 form but already praising usual, less determined players. For FM 08 things now seem to look different, but the 7-7-7-7-7 line still should be the measure. Most players including superstars will not refuse an acceptable praise for this. The personality now is more reflected in how harsh you can be with dropping below this line or how much praise you have to give if performances are above.

This is slightly subtler and it takes more efforts to separate the fractions, however you may call them, be it praise vs. criticism, sissies vs. tough guys or whatever you are up to. It is slightly more realistic since there always have been more then just those two groups and many players in between, so these categories are only very rough approaches to the multitude of player characters. But you should keep the 7-line in mind as basic adjustment.

How often should I use media-interaction?

Simply said, as often as possible. It is not available after every game, and sometimes you may keep it for a key game, which is coming soon, but usually you should always have an eye on your players and their performances. This can be a key in maintaining your players' and your team form and interfering early into anything that is not going right. During a long season it is important to stay focussed and keep your players on their toes. Additionally it will be helpful during the start of your career to have as many players as possible showing you as your favoured personnel, especially the key players of course. Media Interaction - Media Questions and Post Match interaction.

Media Questions

Based on events in the game like new signings, title wins or outstanding player performances, you will be asked by the media to comment on players, debuts, titles and other events. This does more or less cause similar effects as your own statements. Since it is all but impossible to cover every question ever posted in the game, there is one simple rule of thumb, which is valid for almost every aspect of interaction: Stay positive, but also remain moderate in your response, and things rarely will go wrong. Of course there are always examples proving the opposite, and sometimes an injured player will feel inspired to prove you wrong after you told the media you would not miss him much or a new player did not convince you with his debut, but this should be an exception.

Since there is such a sheer amount of questions, here just some examples.

If you are asked about a player's performance, you can select one of these options, and you should choose your reply based on your knowledge of his personality.

* Don't get carried away. Especially for youngsters and at start of the season, also for key players who definitely can do better. Usually results in a very high motivation.
* Pleased and hope to maintain his form. Most likely this will spur the player on to perform much better in future.
* First name on my team sheet. Only use it if you run out of words and it hardly can come any better. Some players will feel pressured.



These questions may be asked in a similar way regarding player debuts, your personal expectations regarding the league performance, after a key player gets injured, after winning titles, if you are playing in a small league and the big clubs start looking at your players and many more examples. Use this to your advantage, and if you have to stand your ground, e.g. regarding transfer rumours, you should do this. The results may surprise you. In most cases, the effects will be only temporarily anyway, so it will not hurt you too much if you pick a wrong choice.

Post-match Media Interaction

This is not a must and rather should be seen as build up for your next match, especially if you are playing in English leagues or several competitions so you will have a game every three or four days. For the rare occasions of international breaks you may save some media interactions until your players return.

However, there are some games where direct interaction makes sense, e.g after a clash with a fierce rival or a strong competitor for the title, European competition or in a relegation fight. Especially against rivals you sometimes have the option to accuse your opponent manager of using negative tactics or of grabbing a lucky win. This is especially sweet after you have seen him parking the proverbial team bus in front of his goal at home. You will not make friends this way, but for sure your team and fans will like you for this, and maybe he can be forced to come at you more often next time.

Also sometimes you can tell the press that you did not win the title yet after a big match, declare you intend to dominate the league or give yourself optimistic about your title chances. As always, you shold stay reasonable with your predictions, but there is a good chance it will spur your key players and put pressure on your opposition. Don't overdo it, or your players will sit back and lose sharpness.

Sometimes if I feel the opposition made a good game because of one singular player, I do take time to praise him. No need to do this, it can be a nice amusement and only may be of any importance if this player is a hot spot on your short-list. As said before, this is more a private pleasure then essentially needed to succeed in the game. VI - Squad factors.

Team gelling

The current level of understanding is more than a neat little feature you can see when looking at your assistant's team talk feedbacks, this can be crucial regarding two key issues, which do determine your tactical success in the long run: quality of performance and consistency of performance. Both of these factors, combined with the quality of your tactical approach, will decide whether you will succeed or fail at your current club.

This may look a little bit keen at first sight, but let me try to give an admittedly very drastic example: you start a game as a quite unknown manager, take over a squad and instantly bring in a good number of new players (be it because you need them objectively or just suppose so) by spending the largest part of your budget, and finally you are trying your own tactics that may not have been fully finished or you are downloading one or several sets in order to find the best suited for your squad. If you look at it closely, this seems exactly to be the scenario of many new games, regardless of playing in lower leagues or at top clubs.

You now have a reduced morale throughout the squad because of an inexperienced manager, you have simultaneously reduced the team cohesion - if it comes worst significantly - and you intend to make tactical tests with this team, which may lead to a long period of tinkering if things go wrong. In other words, you have changed so much at one time that it is next to impossible to find out where it does go wrong. You may see a different team in half a year, once the morale is up and the understanding strong, your tactics may be great but simply will not work or perform consistently because these are mental issues and morale issues the team does have.

The only advice that does make sense: avoid this situation at any costs. If it is already too late, stick to your tactics unless you definitely know they are flawed fundamentally, get the morale up by applying team talks and media feedbacks as presented in this article, try to grab a win and to survive this period. Apply all of the given tips and try to maximise your efforts in man management to keep morale high at any cost, and eventually you will get through this without ending in a catastrophe. This may be a situation where man-management can save your job more then any tactical skill.

New players, loan players and youngsters

If you need to make major changes in your squad, you should always try to do this when you are tactically settled, but you also should never expect to get results within no time, except for some lucky signings. Many players will need six months or longer to adapt to a new country, if you are having bad luck and playing in a country with a difficult language, even longer.

You can help your new players adapting by trying to make it as easy as possible using your man management skills. Give them good feedbacks, take off the pressure in early games, give them positive feedbacks after the first games, and help them if they play below expectations with giving media feedbacks. This can shorten the period extremely. Especially with keeper debuts in foreign countries you should be very careful. This seems to be one of the most difficult adaptations in the game, even more so if the keeper did not have time to learn the language.

What has been said about new players is equally important for loan players. Why ever the designers thought that you could not give media feedbacks to players on loan contracts, this does affect your players' morale and there is no way to work around this. Always give them good team talks before most matches. You will also note soon that these players are more vulnerable to losing their good morale between the matches, so you will have to spend much more efforts on keeping them on their toes compared to your own players. This can be an annoyance and cost you a lot of time, but it definitely can be worth the effort, even more so if you do not pay their wages.

To a certain degree the same has to said about youngsters. They may still be missing consistency, but in combination with tutoring, sensitive team talks and media interaction, you may help them to perform much more consistently. Whenever your squad is relying on a number of these players, new signing, loanees and youngsters, you should try to take maximal advantage of your man management skills to avoid those problems. Once a team has matured and settled, you may become a little bit more lenient with this.

Captaincy

Choosing the right team captains always was an important point, but in the past players could fiddle around with this important factor indefinitely without seeing too many negative results, maybe except for choosing the wrong guys for one or two games. Now finally the situation is closer to real life: there is a captain already, there will be a recommendation by your assistant usually recommending this captain and a vice captain, and you will need to decide if you want to take this advice or not. And even better, the decision will not come for free. If you want to change things, you should have a good reason and you should be willing to take the consequences as well.

I do not have any tentative results, but in two of four cases so far the previous captain was not the best choice. I am simply looking at these attributes first: Influence plus determination. If they make the player a candidate, I also look for decisions, work rate and finally bravery. He should have a certain age and last not least have been at the club for a while and he should be highly respected by his team mates, you will see this in their good relationship screens. But, and this is a big but, sometimes older ‘natural leader' have just joined the club (only if settled in the same country!) or the ‘real life' manager has a strange way to find captains. Then it is time to verify the choice, which I did twice so far. In both cases this was very well received, even though it does come at a cost and some candidates will feel left behind.

I reckon it could be an important measure to look at this if you ever should take over a team in a crisis: verify if the captaincy choice has been right. This may also be a measure to be applied if your own team is deep down. But take into account that it will be a gamble and you should have a good reason to make such a switch.

Bonuses

At start of the season, you can determine the sum that will be paid out at the end of the season, based on the success in several competitions. I think that there is not much of a choice here. Even if you are running a cash-strapped club, select the highest available option. First off all, this sum is included in your budget anyway, but also important: it is based on your success, which does mean you will have to pay less if the team fails to reach the season's goals. As always, achieving something will generate more income for your team, so do not try to be miserly with bonuses. I never knew whether contracts have an influence or not, but I always tried to offer low wages, but high bonuses in contract talks.

Good bonuses do have an effect like a permanent media feedback at start of the season, I did not try to do the opposite, but most likely it has to result in a reversed effect. So, even if you are cash-strapped, give your guys the best bonuses. Morale and motivation will always pay off; a lack of it will cost you much more.

Pre-season
With credits to Abramovic
Several observations suggest that having a good start into the season is pure gold and having a good team morale cannot be underrated in FM 08 at this point of time. You can try to support this with a careful pre-season fixture list and try to arrange difficult games at start while finishing your friendlies with some easy, probably morale-boosting ‘shootouts'. This could be especially helpful for all those players who manage the likes of Man U, Barca and Milan as Sunday league footballers. Squad conflicts, fines, youth development.

Squad conflicts

There can be many reasons for conflicts in your squad, and you should take them all very seriously. Looking for a speedy resolution can be more then rewarding, especially since these problems can start to affect other squad members as well. If you are having wantaway players conflicts with the more loyal personnel are guaranteed, so it will take some well thought consideration which actions to take. Other conflicts can be easier to solve. Some examples:

Tutorship conflicts. Tutoring is an essential tool to achieve or sustain the desired squad personality and to raise quality youngsters. However, occasionally it does not work as you have hoped since tutor and pupil may clash. If this results in a mutual or one-sided disliking, there are several quick solutions. If money does not matter, offer a new contract to the tutor. If the transfer period isn’t over yet, farm out the pupil on loan to another team. If it all went wrong and you cannot afford one of these solutions, think about releasing the pupil, unless you are very sure that he may be highly talented. Tutorship is essential in developing quality players, and the chances to get something out of those who reject to learn are rather slim then brilliant.

Wantaway players. Certainly the most difficult conflicts to solve, since most of those players will refuse to enter any contract talks or demand wages that are far above any reasons or wage limits. Moreover it is very likely your loyal players will clash with them and force you to offer more and more new contracts to appease all parties, which can cost you a lot of money. But the major problem is that those wanting away are rarely the worst players of your team, so you will have to make a very difficult decision at this point. Sometimes it does help to reassure those with media feedbacks stating that you want the club to progress and need those players to build something, if things get too annoying you may use sparingly the option to fine them for unprofessional behaviour. They also will suffer in morale and keep you busy with giving feedbacks and team talks to keep their form.

At most occasions I decided to keep those players at any costs, but in fact there are several serious arguments speaking against this. They may not perform again at the same level you have seen before – while there may be very good offers at the same time which will not come back if their performance starts to suffer from bad morale. At several occasions I finally managed to transform the club into something they considered to be a good place, sometimes after several years, but until then I also have been able to attract players, which have been in fact far better. So it may be worth taking the cash at many occasions and eventually reach your goals easier with a close-nit squad.

Problems to settle in the area or country. It does not really hurt too much if this happens to a squad player, but you may get concerned if this is your new young ‘next Rooney’ (or worse, after several years the first player to have higher potential then Rooney…) and a raw diamond for the future of a whole club: send him on holiday and hope it does help in the long run, give him a tutor from his country, and if nothing else helps, send him on loan. If you have scouted him well and you are sure about his potential, it should be worth the effort all the time.

Competition worries. If you do not care much about keeping those who are worrying, you can give them harsh feedbacks. If you want to keep them nevertheless, try to reassure them giving mellow feedbacks. Some say that this is stupid and players are appeased far too easy, but looking at real life clubs, it is often not that far away from reality.

Personal problems. For some reasons you hardly can ease those in the long run and the player should be allowed to move. If you have found a way how to solve these problems, please let me know.

Fines

SI introduced a new feature to handle fines easier: there is a kind of hidden advisor system only allowing you to fine a player if something has occurred that justifies handing out a fine. Additionally you are restricted to the related kind of fine, which is certainly a very good improvement and can prevent many wrong choices or accidental fines, which can seriously harm your relationship to a player. To my own surprise I noticed this way that you can fine players for flirting with other clubs in public, but I yet do have to find out if this does make any sense in the long run. I hardly can imagine it does have a good effect in the long run, at least you should restrict the penalty to one week. I was even more surprised that this fine has been accepted as well.

There have been some comments stating that you only could use a certain ‘number’ of fines before getting the sack at a club. I seriously think this is completely irrelevant for FM 07 and 08, simply because of two reasons: according to my knowledge, this only occurred in previous instalments, and even there only after a massive use (or better abuse) of fines. Additionally, I have always been using fines as described here for FM 07, and I really never had to fine frequently if following this method.

There is a reason why you can fine players. It is amazing to read all the posts “player x got five red cards a season and is banned for most of my games”.Of course it is good to have some players with aggression in your squad, but you have to keep them at bay. Usually in every season you will reach a point where the big sending off starts, and if you don’t react, it will develop into a flood. If you react, it is over before it has begun.I simply follow this route:

* 2 weeks fine for one red
* 2 weeks additional (after the player reacted) if it was violent behaviour
* 2 weeks for missing training
* 1 week if for yellow/red if I was too stupid to substitute or set down on easy tacking ;-)
* 1 week for a 5 performance of key players
* 2 weeks for a 4 performance of key players



You will notice that most professional players will accept their fines and try to improve in future. Occasionally and if you are lucky, you will receive a message from your assistant manager letting you know that your fine has led to a major improvement in your player’s attitude.
There will be some testing needed, but I am confident this approach of handing out fines will significantly reduce any trouble and hold water for FM 2008.

Youth development

It is impossible to elaborate this in detail, and this will be done in the squad management articles of the FM-Britain Tactical Bible when they are updated for FM 2008, but the old rule still is valid: tutoring comes first, mental tutoring is more important then acquiring player preferred moves, first team experience should come if they have learned enough from your available tutors. The new feature is that good youth coachs and assistants can suggest a possible tutor now, depending on their competence regarding judgement and youngsters. However, you still should verify if this is the best choice, both regarding PPMs and mentality.