Player Complacency - How to stop it?

[jamez_b]

I'm currently in my 3rd season and having won the league 2 years in a row at a canter i'm naturally starting to see some complacency creep in to my side. I try all the usual things that mention complacency (team talks, press conferences etc.) but my centre back Guillermo Burdisso continues to come up with looking complacent or looking very nervous. It's leading to me conceding silly goals and throwing away leads and i need to find a way to stop it as he's easily my best defender.

He was a rock last season, was always composed and even this season morale is still on superb so i can't understand why suddenly every game its happening. The only thing I've changed is made his defensive partner Triantafyllopoulos vice captain on recommendation of my assistant.

Trianta although not showing as looking complacent or nervous has made a number of errors as well both for club and country. He's young but still i need to stamp these out now rather than risk him not meeting his potential.

Screenshots of Burdisso and Trianta:

I've had a look at my stats so far this season and in 12 games the team as a whole has made 388 mistakes. Works out at about 32 mistakes a game which for me is far too high. I've compared it to previous games I've had on FM and i've always been averaging 10-20 mistakes per match.

Any tips to get rid of the complacency and cut out the silly errors?

[Miravlix]

I don't agree with your evaluation of him being a good defender, his broken mental stats ruins all his good points.

Buy a 30+ year old has been guy with good mental stats and mentor the guy to save him.

Edit: To cover the question you asked, I have Cesc Fabregas with the same broken mental attitude, nothing you can do, except sub him when he turns bad, but since he isn't a defender it's a lot less of an issue.

[ThunderZtormDK]

I don't agree with your evaluation of him being a good defender, his broken mental stats ruins all his good points.

Buy a 30+ year old has been guy with good mental stats and mentor the guy to save him.

Edit: To cover the question you asked, I have Cesc Fabregas with the same broken mental attitude, nothing you can do, except sub him when he turns bad, but since he isn't a defender it's a lot less of an issue.

Sorry, but I don't understand how the Burdisso guy is "broken"?

[OxfordUnitedFC]

Sorry, but I don't understand how the Burdisso guy is "broken"?

I assume he means his anticipation, decisions and concentration stats aren't that good.

[jamez_b]

I don't agree with your evaluation of him being a good defender, his broken mental stats ruins all his good points.

Buy a 30+ year old has been guy with good mental stats and mentor the guy to save him.

Edit: To cover the question you asked, I have Cesc Fabregas with the same broken mental attitude, nothing you can do, except sub him when he turns bad, but since he isn't a defender it's a lot less of an issue.

I agree on paper that Burdisso's mental stats aren't fantastic but he was my stand out defender last season in a side that went unbeaten and have only conceded 32 goals in the last 50 matches. This is more about trying to understand the sudden change in attitude and what can be done to get him back to his best.

The easy option would be to buy in a replacement but I like to try and get the very best out of the players i have already and only replace if i'm forced into selling. Burdisso has served me well on every version since FM2011 and i intend to make FM 2014 no different. Just want to see if anyone has an man management skills they've used to get similar players back on track. On a side note he's just got injured for 8 weeks so wondered whether he's been having a confidence crisis behind the scenes? Or is FM not that complex

It'd be great if you could address these things with individual players to find out what is causing the lack of or over confidence and then know what you can do to fix it.

Separately the more I think about the volume of mistakes the more i look to the concentration stats of my team and i've not really got anyone over 12 or 13 for concentration.

My initial thoughts are to focus on Tactics training to try and boost the mental game further.

Has anyone had any success in curbing complacency or nervousness through intensive tactics training or are they any alternative approaches worth considering?

[HUNT3R]

Sorry, but I don't understand how the Burdisso guy is "broken"?

I wouldn't say his mental attributes are "broken", but his concentration and decision attributes are low. That will affect the number of mistakes he makes.

[jamez_b]

I assume he means his anticipation, decisions and concentration stats aren't that good.

If they were i'd have not been able to pick him up for a million and he wouldn't be playing for me

[HUNT3R]

Has anyone had any success in curbing complacency or nervousness through intensive tactics training or are they any alternative approaches worth considering?

I'm not sure what hidden attributes affect how quickly a player becomes complacent or nervous. The way I've always dealt with it, is through press conferences and team talks.

[OxfordUnitedFC]

If they were i'd have not been able to pick him up for a million and he wouldn't be playing for me

Good point, also his mental attributes may not be great but if he generally performs well then there's no problem.

[brawla123]

I've realised that the best way for me to keep a consistent team was to manage morale. I think morale decides whether the player does well in this game more than his actual attributes. This is also why I think they made morale more fragile. You said his morale is still on superb then it could possibly be his hidden attributes that is taken it's effect on him.

[jc1]

Quite possibly he's become complacent due to no one challenging him for his spot, maybe a few games on the bench will make him more determined to do well to get back in the team.

[jamez_b]

Thanks for all the responses. I think hidden attributes are definitely playing a factor and I wonder also whether he's got the hump about being captained most of the time by a 22 year old. I'll check his personality later on as well.

Plan of attack I think is get the whole team on Tactics training to get the mental side as a real focus over the next few months. I'm singling out Burdisso but a lot of the team play has been sloppy recently and no where near the high standard they have set in the last 2 seasons.

I'll keep an eye on this over the next few months of my season and whether i see any change once Burdisso returns from injury.

[HUNT3R]

Now that you mention your captain....what's his influence and determination? Also his personality and media handling style?

[jamez_b]

Captain is Kryigakos and Vice Captain is Trianta who is in the OP.

Burdisso's Personality

Trianta's Personality

Hmm Captain and Vice Captain both being volatile and confrontational....weirdly Burdisso is the seemingly level headed one of the group.

This was my vice captain last year and was often captain as Burdisso was keeping Kryigakos out of the side (Yes i know it's strange not replacing Kryigakos as captain given that he wasn't a guaranteed starter but was trying not to unsettle the team by changing captain straight away. Wanted to do it gradually by letting Trianta take over and captain on the field most of the time with Kryigakos in support.

Would you maybe change captain mid season to Karagounis instead? Or too risky?

[eple]

And out of curiosity what is Burdisso's personality and media handling style?

Are you having a blip in form for the whole team, or is it just him?

EDIT: Was a bit too late, I see you posted pics already.

[HUNT3R]

While the Media Handling Style isn't ideal, I don't think it's a massive issue for a captain. Maybe someone else with more knowledge in that area could shed some light on it. I wouldn't risk changing it, especially mid-season.

My thinking was that maybe your captain (possibly vice-captain) had a weak personality and tended to get complacent/nervous and due to "leadership" it started to influence the others on the pitch too.

Their personalities seem decent though, apart from media-handling style, but I don't know how that influences things. What was the previous vice-captain's personality and media handling style?

[Miravlix]

Sorry, but I don't understand how the Burdisso guy is "broken"?

Darn, that got misunderstood by everyone. I actually didn't address his visible stats, but his personality, that leads him to become complacent.

Take Messi, he is driven, he can be fired-up even when ahead 4-0 and due to high determination he pulls out the big guns if he gets behind.

Your guy on the other hand can't handle success and his broken/bad mental attitude can lead to you losing games you have already won, because he won't perform well after getting ahead.

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm not sure what hidden attributes affect how quickly a player becomes complacent or nervous. The way I've always dealt with it, is through press conferences and team talks.

I was just about to say the opposite actually.

Not so much relating to indivisual hidden stats, (because how can you put your finger on something that is hidden), but more in relation to personality type, (which is defined by hidden and non hidden stats), and indeed "squad personality". If you have a very professional squad, then this professionalism rubs off on the less professional within the group. I have found that the players least likely to be complacent are very much so the most professional. I have also noticed that the team as a whole is less complacent when I have my "core" of very professional players running through the team. Take my captain out for example and my left winger at the same time, (not a vice-captain), then I can expect to see some complacency. I would suggest that it's a question of balancing this squad personality and that this defender might not be very professional, but also that you might be lacking in that dept in the squad as a whole.

i would eb interested to hear what the OP thinks about this obviously as he can see the player personality descriptions.

[HUNT3R]

I have also noticed that the team as a whole is less complacent when I have my "core" of very professional players running through the team. Take my captain out for example and my left winger at the same time, (not a vice-captain), then I can expect to see some complacency. I would suggest that it's a question of balancing this squad personality and that this defender might not be very professional, but also that you might be lacking in that dept in the squad as a whole.

I agree that this has an effect, which is why I asked him about his captain. My captain tends to be the player with the highest "leadership" and "determination". I've noticed games where my captain gets nervous first and after a while players around him start to get nervous too. Leadership is obviously how much influence a player has over other players. Combine that with a weak personality and it could be detrimental to your squad's mental state. I'm just not sure if the OP's captain has a Media Handling Style that would affect that. Hopefully someone else might know.

[jamez_b]

So was having a look last night actually and both my Captain and Vice captain are Resolute, as is Burdisso. My squad personality is Determined. I'm unfortuantely at work so can't get all of their personalities but my first team squad's key mental stats i regard as directly relating to complacency and nervousness are as follows:

Looking at the stats i think with the players I've got more focus is needed on the mental side of the game to boost the concentration levels.

I played another game last night against AEK which was a much better performance and i won 3-0. The only change i made was to really up the tempo during my match which seemed to remove any time for players to be complacent. The one thing i did notice though was that Tasos Lagos, my ball winning midfielder spent the whole game looking very nervous from the 1st minute. He was the only player that had a poor game and so was subbed off after 60 minutes. Have no idea why and similar to Burdisso I've never seen him with this problem before and he's in his 3rd season at the club.

Another big derby tonight with Olympiakos away in my first match when i get in tonight, i guess that'll be a real test of character.

[jamez_b]

So I've spent the last 3 months training tactics to boost the mental side of my teams game and remove some of the complacency and nerves being shown at the start of the season. The defense has very much stabilised and looks solid as a rock however now my attacking players are getting nervous and very nervous after about 5 minutes every game. Even my mental rock, Karagounis, has caught the bug and it's leading to hitting the woodwork a lot and missing easy chances.

Any ideas?

[tat501]

Burdisso's not "broken". Every player is slightly different and you need to find different way of motivating him. Try different team talks and see what effects they have on him. I'd imagine he's got low ambition/professionalism which makes him nervous or complacent. Try either telling him there's no pressure or that you expect a good performance from him - the two ends of the spectrum, and see what effect they have on him. In training - keep on at him regarding his effort - make sure you're constantly mentioning you expect more in press conferences, and that you're aware that complacency is something to watch out for etc - then do some media comments before matches talking about how tough the opposition are going to be to let your players know they have to take it seriously.

[jamez_b]

Burdisso's not "broken". Every player is slightly different and you need to find different way of motivating him. Try different team talks and see what effects they have on him. I'd imagine he's got low ambition/professionalism which makes him nervous or complacent. Try either telling him there's no pressure or that you expect a good performance from him - the two ends of the spectrum, and see what effect they have on him. In training - keep on at him regarding his effort - make sure you're constantly mentioning you expect more in press conferences, and that you're aware that complacency is something to watch out for etc - then do some media comments before matches talking about how tough the opposition are going to be to let your players know they have to take it seriously.

Think it was another guy who said Burdisso was "broken", not me. You can see Burdisso's personality and ability further up in the thread. He's actually sorted is act out and not seen him nervous or complacent in ages. More that what i was seeing now was a very nervous attack and not really understanding why. They are playing some excellent football right up until the point where there is a chance to score and then they bottle it.

I agree with what you are saying with the media and my approach has always been to talk about avoiding complacency, saying when it is going to be a tough game vs we should really be beating this team etc.

I'm just confused as to what is causing it because results wise we're flying in what is arguably a very easy Greek Super League. Complacency i can understand and i think I've curbed that through tactics training and dropping players etc. Nervousness though is a new one i'm struggling with and then comes to the fore front in my Champions League campaign.

Set the record this season for the most games without winning (12), 9 of those games have been draws where i have been leading only to throw it away, normally through a corner, so in the interest of always looking to improve i'm trying to address the chinks in my teams armour.