Stopping the rot - Returning to winning ways

[Phippsy]

Hi all,

Started unemployed, offered Hayes & Yeading job. Won the Blue Square South with them and half way through first season in Blue Square Prem I was offered mid-table Wrexham job. Took that job and ended up winning promotion to League 2. League 2 was going swimmingly, 21 games played, absolutely flying and top of the league by 7 points. Then 'the rot' kicked in, 11 games without a win and now find ourselves in 5th. Would love to get back to winning ways and hopefully finish in the top 3 for automatic promotion.

My question is, what methods do you managers use to stop the rot? From basic suggestions to more complex ideas, all are welcome. Share your stories of similar situations and how you dealt with it so I can get a few tips.

Thanks in advance

[Erimus1876]

When the rot sets in for me I go back to basics like a simple 4-4-2 with roles set to suit the players I'm picking. Keep it simple.

Also if morale is dropping try having a one-on-one talk with your key players. I think you can talk to 4 players a week (maybe 5?). If you get this right, either by praising them or having a go at them (depending on their form), their morale will improve and that could make the difference between turning a 0-1 into a 1-0. A full team meeting is also useful but if you get it wrong it can make things worse

[fireychariot]

I normally do what you do and work my way up starting unemployed. This time I wanted to start as Blackburn manager. First season I was doing everything right but then went on a bad streak and couldn't stop it and ended out of the play offs. This season though I am flying even more now. I stuck to my tactics and did not change them from the season before, just a couple of tweaks. I had a little blip where I had 4 defeats in a row in march which meant i moved from 2nd to 3rd and thought here I go again. After the 4th loss I held a team meeting to boost morale. A lot of their morlaes were on ok or good and I thought had I let that slip any furthere then would be very difficult to pick them up after that. Next game I got to half time at 0-0 and I was assertive with them and told them it was not good enough to which they all responded to "seems motivated" and went on to win 3-0 which then boosted morale again.

One or two private chats as well with senior players whose last performance was below par as well helped as these are the players you rely on. Also I dropped a key player whose morale was low and didn't pick up after the team meeting and did not respond well to private chat, and replaced them with a young player whose morale is high, and when giving team talk before the match tell them to relax and worry about nothing. They did well and senior player who got replaced then when used again played really well.

That's a couple of things I do. I'm back to 2nd reached 6th round of FA cup almost beating Spurs ina replay at theirs went right down to the wire in extra time.