How do you deal with the game?

[EricPye28]

Just wondering how everyone handles the normal problems of form/tactics/morale in their game? I'm playing as Liverpool right now. My first season, we primarily played Steaton's 4-2-3-1 tactic and a bit of the strikerless tactic at this website http://strikerless.wordpress.com/. This lead to a 8-0 start and a pretty easy run to a title.

This year, I dropped the strikerless tactic for Mr U Rosler's Rainmaker and Silk & Steel combo to mix with Steaton's tactic, although this was done a quarter into the season as I felt the strikerless tactic was faltering. Since January, we have plummeted. Suarez and Johnson have been out since Christmas and the rest of the team has either struggled to reach last season's form or shown flashes of good play with dumb decisions. I can list off numerous guys who haven't earned a dime on the pitch this year: Sakho, Agger, Enrique, Gerrard, Aspas, Sturridge, and Mignolet have been dreadful at times. Signings Viktor Fischer, Fabian Schar, Morgan Schneiderlin haven't really made me happy in terms of their transfer fees to performance as well. Somehow we're 4th in the League but only by a single point. We have three wins since January, lost 6-4 in Dortmund in the first leg of the Champions League, and have just lost 4-1 and 4-0 to Tottenham and Stoke (albeit on the road). I have pretty much assertively told each of them my disappointment over the past few weeks, but they don't seem to improve no matter what I do to punish them; benching, private chats, transfer warnings. I'm pretty sure we're going to lose the home leg to Dortmund and slip from 4th. I might make it to next season. So how does everyone deal with these issues? How do you stop the funk that sometimes happens to your team?

My other problem is that I'm not great at tactical adjustments in game. I would like to know how you decide how to change tactics, field instructions, or player instructions, if you decide to do that at all.

Thanks for the help guys.

[Cougar2010]

Stop using other peoples tactics would be a start

If you build your own tactics from scratch they develop over time as you tinker with them. Start with something basic then adjust as you feel is needed from watching the games.

[EricPye28]

Thanks Cougar2010 for the advice. The reason I adopted their tactics is because I was struggling running my own ideas when I first bought the game. I thought I could learn from taking other people tactics and see how the game works and build from there. I'm sort of there, but it's still an issue.

Do you have any other advice for in-game management and form/morale concerns?

[Cougar2010]

Tactics are definitely the starting point IMO.

Keep it simple to start with, look at the players in your squad and decide on an initial shape. For me this tends to be broken down into questions/stages:

A) How many in defence 3, 4 or 5?

B) What about strikers 1 or 2?

C) Then its a case of balancing the midfield/wings with what you have left.

Once you have your basic shape you can start adding roles & duties, if you are unsure the tactics forum is the place to visit. Read some of the stickies and maybe start a thread of your own, post up a pic of what you have so far in terms of formation/roles/duties and explain what you are aiming for and you'll get some ideas.

Next job is to get to know your squad, I do this by watching the games on comprehensive highlights with widgets for body language etc open. Have a look at their personalities and over a few matches you should be able to identify the players that react well to encouragement and those you need to be more demanding with. An AM with good attributes in man management & motivation is a way to go, take note what he advising for the team talks and gradually as you get used to your squad you can take over.

Its also important to understand that matches aren't black & white, every match is different and all you can do is set your team up to give them the best chance of winning. You can make good decisions, your team can deserve to win a match but they can still lose.