A lot of people trot out the old Brian Clough mantra about tactics, and try to convince us that players are the only deciding factor in football. Let us suppose, for one brief moment, that they are correct. Why, then, do clubs make such a big deal about who the head coach is, especially in the era of the “director of football” when transfer decisions are largely out of their hands?

Clearly there are areas that a head coach deals with other than tactics, and these areas must be important. One such area may be motivation. The coach is there to get the team playing well as a unit, encouraging them when they are down and ensuring they don’t get complacent when winning. In Football Manager, we might call it morale.

Morale boosting is an important and often underrated part of Football Manager. A team with superb morale can perform to a much higher standard than a disenchanted dressing room. A squad which, on the whole, sees you as one of their favoured personnel is not going to “struggle to motivate itself to play for you”. And crucially, happy players don’t tend to cause dressing room discontent by bitching about their team mates and destroying club harmony.

The best tool I’ve found for all of this is player interaction. Briefly, this week, I’ll take a look at how commenting on your players’ form can work wonders for maintaining team belief and keeping the side ready for battle.

Player Interaction – A System

We have five options for talking to our players. We can say whether we’re delighted or merely pleased with a player’s performance. We can say whether we think they are playing acceptably or below par. Or we can say how disappointed we are with their recent form. The trick to finding the right option is twofold:

• We need to tell the player what they need to hear.
• We need to tell the player what they want to hear.

Of course, these are not necessarily the same thing.

The Example

At Hinkley I worked on a basic premise. Since “7” is the baseline for a decent performance, I decided that any average rating above 6.50 would be acceptable. Therefore, if I had the chance to comment on a player’s form, I would work on a scale going up and down by 0.50 at a time. So, for example, an average of above 7.50 would delight me. An average of below 6.00 would make me angry.

Working on this basis, I commented on a player whenever I could. Usually this happens if the player has played at least 5 games for you and was selected in the previous match. This is not always the case, so you will need to check.

Then I used the notes system to take a look at the reaction of my players. If a player reacted badly to my praise or criticism, I wrote it down. For example, last week’s subject Sylvain Legwinski thought that I was wrong to suggest that his performance between 6.50 and 6.99 was “acceptable”. Being a more professional and experienced player, he expected a lot more from himself and expected me to demand the same. So, I had to modify the way I dealt with him.

I made a note to criticise him more often. I knew that in order to elicit a positive response from him (i.e. to get his morale boosted) I would have to shift my scale by as much a 0.50. So, performances in the range of 6.50 and 6.99 were now “below par”.

After about half a season, it became clear who fit into my initial scheme and who didn’t. I was commenting so much that I didn’t even need the notes in the end – I knew my players and who needed what sort of treatment. This, to me, is basic man management. And vital to building a good team atmosphere.

There are a few things to note:

• The best time to comment, in my experience, is when you get the mail about the match odds, about 24-48 hours before kickoff. Too much earlier, and the effect of your interaction might “wear off”. Any later, and the player won’t react to your words until after the game (which seems pointless).
• It isn’t always necessary to comment on a player who has “superb” morale, but if you do and you get it right time after time there is more chance that the player will see you as a “favoured personnel”.
• Professional players in higher divisions will need more criticism. At a semi-pro club (and a small one at that) I found the softly-softly approach worked best. At better clubs, the players will demand more from themselves – and more from you. Likewise, youth players may need more encouragement and fewer tongue lashings in order to build their confidence.
• Never, ever, ever be afraid to get it wrong. You will get it wrong, and occasionally will get it wrong with a player you’ve known for years. That isn’t a problem – the player won’t resent you for it long-term and without making mistakes you cannot learn what the correct response is.

A full guide on maintaining morale in your dressing room is being worked on by FM-Britain as we speak, so I will leave this pep talk here. But understanding the importance of morale was, in my opinion, the driving force behind Hinckley’s promotion to the Blue Square Premier in season two.

How do you go about talking to your squad? Do you favour a hands-off approach, or do you like to comment on anything and everything? Is morale a big deal for you, or do you spend more time on the training pitch, in the transfer market, or on a tactical master plan? I’d love to hear your thoughts from your own careers.