"I don't seem to feature in your plans."

[Ashley_Phoenix]

Okay, so one of my strikers was on a bad run of 6 games without scoring so I decided to tell him that I'm putting him in the reserves because he hadn't been playing well enough. One day later, without playing for the first or reserve team, he comes to me and says that he thinks he doesn't feature in my plans. This is total rubbish as he has scored around 30 goals in 40 appearances, does he not understand that he's getting punished?

has this happened to anyone else?

[soccer.joel]

It was a bit harsh of you to put him in the reserves. I usually just play strikers from the bench or keep the faith when they go on bad runs of form

[BiggusD]

If a first team player is put in the reserves that response is triggered. Apparently it doesn't matter why (to some players - might have something to do with Professionalism).

So no he doesn't understand that he is being punished. That response appears to be a on/off thing that is not context-sensitive. Can't you tell him that if he plays well in the reserves he will be featured in the first team again? If he is professional he might agree to that.

If a player suffers from a goal-drought or, as in your case, is on his way to, there are two things that works.

A) make him available for reserves (i.e don't relegate him) so that he scores again there, and

B) boost his morale and tell him no pressure (you can do this by telling him that he needs to pick up on his form, or telling him that he hasn't been training hard enough, or disciplining him for poor performance last game - a warning for 6.40 or lower).

Well, you can always just play him and hope that he scores in the end but unless your team is very superior so that you don't rely on him scoring the goals that might not be such a good idea.

[QWERTYOP]

Understandable reply. I think you treated him harshly. Dropping him to the bench and putting him in the reserve team are two very different things. You should have just dropped him.

[Ashley_Phoenix]

Hm, I didn't think to make him available for the reserves. I have a very strict rotation policy, so normally with any player, if they're not going to play for the next few games I put them in the reserves to keep my team screen organised, sort of an OCD thing. Thanks for the help.

[siambluebird]

Ashley, you may have been harsh, but the players response was still not suited to the situation.

He should of complained about being pushed down to the reserves (not really about featuring in your plans) and asked to be played in the first team or transferred.

Instead of dumping them, keep them in your first team, have a talk about poor performance and make them available for the reserves for a week or two

[CityAndColour]

The problem is, there's no response that says "you are in my plans, you're just out of form" or something like that. You either have to stand by your decision or apologise.

[Ashley_Phoenix]

That's the thing though, I said to him he's going to be in the reserves 'cause of his form and he accepted that and said "I'll prove my worth to you" or something like that. So to come up to me a day later and say something completely different is just stupid..

[BiggusD]

Yes as I said your logic is probably not coded into the game. The same way increasing disciplinary punishment for repeated poor discipline sounds logical to us but is not in the game either. Both player interaction options have only one function; a slight morale bump.