May 4, 2008

Squad Management V: Discipline
How to avoid getting carded and having players banned for half a season

Revision 1 – February 2008

One of the most important aspects of squad control in Football Manager 2007 is the need for discipline. Over the last few releases Sports Interactive appear to have made a conscious effort to increase the personality of players to the point where unhappy players will now miss training, lash out at opponents during matches and even criticise their manager. A number of people across the FM Community have bemoaned what is, in my opinion, a significant game-play improvement. Their argument being that players do not get dismissed for throwing punches or kicking opponents as often in real life as they do in FM07. But is this a problem with the game, or a problem with how these individuals play the game and handle their players?

The most common complaint with regard to player discipline recently is in response to the aforementioned punching and kicking incidents, “My tackling is set to easy or normal” is the usual plea of innocence. However, it’s not a tackle that has resulted in the showing of the red card and as such the setting of a tackling mentality is largely irrelevant. So what did cause the moment of madness that resulted in the sending off? There are any number of answers to that question and finding the definitive answer may well prove to be impossible but it’s likely that the player has one or more of the following:

* low morale
* a high aggression attribute
* a temperamental personality
* a low handling pressure attribute (hidden)
* a high dirtiness attribute (hidden)

So, having looked at the reasons why your player may have felt the need to indulge in a little on-pitch violence, it’s time to act like a manager and make sure it doesn’t become a regular occurrence as the more often he indulges in these acts, the longer the bans will become. My personal method for ensuring my squad avoids this kind of act is to use the Discipline Player options that are available in the player profile screen. The first time a player is sent-off for striking an opponent I issue a formal warning for violent conduct (note that I’m not censuring him for the red card, but for the act that led to the card – this is important) and record the warning using the Notes option. If the player repeats the offence in another match he gets a fine of one weeks wages (again, the fine should be set against the violent conduct option, it’s important that the fine is issued for the correct offence), and a further offence will result in a two week fine. Obviously if the incidents are separated by a considerable amount of time then it’s probably prudent to revert back to a warning (hence the use of the notes to keep track of the timescales involved). Following this method I have seen just four red cards in three seasons for violent conduct, far less than the Community average judging by posts I’ve witnessed across various forums. What’s more, none of the warned/fined players has ever complained about the disciplinary stance I’ve taken, all have accepted their punishment and agreed that they need to monitor their future conduct.

There are of course other ways in which a player may be dismissed from the field of play. The most common of these is probably collecting two yellow cards which presents us with something of a dilemma when it comes to dealing with the player. It’s important to look at the reasons that the player received the bookings and evaluate whether they were warranted or not. If the player was deservedly sent off then follow the previous example of warning, 1 week fine, then 2 week fine depending on how often the problem has occurred, but again bear in mind that you must be consistent. For example, a player sent off for two fouls in one match but who’s next dismissal is for a foul and protesting at the referee should be warned for his dismissal in the first instance and warned for unprofessional behaviour in the second. Again, I can’t stress this point enough, you need to make sure that you hand out warnings and fines for the appropriate offence in order to avoid players feeling that they are being harshly treated.

Professional fouls are another common cause of sending-off and here the situation is quite clear – if the card was warranted (ie it was a professional foul and you aren’t going to appeal or you did appeal and it failed) use the warn then fine method.

Of course it’s possible that you may need to discipline players for reasons other than receiving a red card, missing training for example. Generally speaking if the offence occurs outside of the match day environment, then I would suggest using the unprofessional behaviour option while following the warn, fine model.

As I mentioned earlier in the article, I have very few disciplinary problems with my squad, something which I attribute to the method outlined above. Hopefully, you’ll experience similar results in your game.

Fines
From TND’s psychological communication and psychological warfare

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 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.

Helpful Links
Communication and psychological ‘warfare’ 08

Tactical Bible Credits
Author: JP