Team meetings not working?

[BLD14]

Playing as Derby County in my first season and top of the league, have been for 95% of the season, but with about 10 games to go I'm struggling to get a string of wins together with 5 points out of my last 15 available. After getting dominated by automatic promotion hunting Blackburn I drew 1-1 at home to Bolton, bottom of the league with 5 prior losses, I save the game to see if a team meeting will up morale a bit as its not good at the moment. I criticise them slightly by saying we need to get over this blip to ensure promotion, but every single player reacts negatively and I get told not to criticise them when they're playing well. So I go back and load up just before the meeting. I change and say we need a few more points to ensure promotion (not criticising them, just urging them on a bit) but they all react negatively and get told that that isn't what they need when they aren't playing well. So I load it up again and say the classic "things haven't been going our way but......." and again, all negative reactions. 

 

If I'm getting negative reactions whatever I say then what is the point?

I do understand that you have to pick and choose when to do team meetings but is this not the perfect time to do one? When morale is low and the season is drawing to a close and the players need a little bit of encouragement to do better and not let the other teams catch us? If I'm wrong in all this then I'm sorry, but in previous games in this situation, its worked a charm.

[The Dude]

13 hours ago, BLD14 said:

If I'm getting negative reactions whatever I say then what is the point?

Yeah, I had the same problem with an interaction with one player, Callum Gribbin, who thought I had signed a player to replace him, and he was unhappy as a result.  I knew before instigating the private chat that I was on a hiding to nothing - I've seen it go wrong too many times.  So, like you, I decided to save the game, and then try every single possible response to see if I could get a positive reaction.  Nope.  Everything I tried resulted in a negative. 

Now the people at SI are likely to say that this is how it's meant to work; that sometimes in real life you can't get a good outcome no matter how hard you try.  But then, in real life, you wouldn't be restricted to multiple-choice inadequate replies from a spreadsheet menu.  So the question is, how far should the game go to reflect real life if it means doing so at the cost of making aspects of the game unplayable?  Because, if all responses in a given scenario are negative, then it's not *really* playable.

Interactions with players on FM19 are so poor, I consider this aspect of the game broken. 

Here's another example.  I signed Angus Gunn on a five-year contract, with good wages, and he was first choice keeper.  Nine months into his contract, I get a heads-up that he's unhappy because he wants a new contract.  I open a private chat with him, and suddenly he doesn't want a new contract any more; he's just happy I spoke to him about it.  WHAT?  I mean... WHAT? 

This is one of the many reasons I've actually binned FM19, and I've gone back to the smooth playing experience that was FM17.   

[BLD14]

I completely agree. On a previous save I signed Willian Jose for Wolves and one of the promises I made him upon signing him was to appoint him free kick and penalty taker. I did so straight away so that I didn't forget. I made him first choice for penalties and for every type of free kick. But come the end of the season he wanted a transfer because he was angry I hadn't kept my promise, despite me doing absolutely nothing wrong and keeping my promise. The only thing I can think of causing this is that there were some types of free kicks that he wasn't able to take having not been given the opportunity through not being on the pitch at the time or injury.

But for sure, player interactions definitely need work on.