II - Match Day Interaction - Team Talks

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.