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.