Guide To team Talks. FM 2008.

This is a guide for perfecting your team talks, in particular, 1/2 time team talks in footaball manager 08 written by Wolfsong from sigames forums. The key idea of this guide is that successful team talks need to differentiate players who overperform/underperform and say special things to those individuals, instead of using general team talks only.
I have been following this guide in my brain whenever I play and I have won 370 games, drew 91, lost 50 till 2016 in my 8.0.1 game. The achievements include 2010 Wolrd Cup winner with Ivory Coast, 2012 African Nations winner with Ivory Coast, 3 times Italian Series A winner with Roma (2012/13-2014/15) and 2014 Euro Champions League winner with Roma since I joined Roma in 2012.

I have only ever had just two tactics and I always leave everything at normal except for individual mentalities (Rule of One) and defense line, and except when I need to counter 4-2-4. So team talks have played a big part in my career in fm08 so far.

Hopefully the above raises your interest to read on, now let's get on with the team talks. There are seven main factors that affect the choice of team talks in fm08:

1- Player performance i.e. match ratings;
2- Player morale/squad morale;
3- Player personality/squad personality;
4- Home/away;
5- Linked with factor 2: Prematch odds;
6- Whether the opponent is your rival;
7- Whether the target player is a substitute brought on.

Now don't be scared by the long list, some factors will not need to be considered for some team talks, as I shall explain below:
Pre-Match:

Pre-match team talks are relatively straight forward and has less effect than 1/2 time team talks. Pre-match team talks generally only need to take into account factors 2, 4, 5 and 6. There is generally no need for individual team talks here, except a 'no pressure' may be used on young players making his debut. The new "pick up where you left from" rarely has any effect from my experience.

My suggestions for general pre-match team talks are as follows:

1- Home and you are heavily favoured by prematch odds, and when morale is above average: "I expect a win."

Likely outcome: one or two players 'Gained focus'; or no effect according to feedback screen, but your team performs well in the 1/2 half anyway.

2 -Home and odds are close or you are slightly favoured: "You can win this game!"

Likely outcome: a few players "looked delighted", somtimes "seemed motivated". "looked delighted"".

3- Home and your opponent is heavily favoured: "Wish Luck!"

Likely outcome: a few players "looked delighted", somtimes "seemed motivated".

4- Home and your opponent is your rival: "For the fans!"

Likely outcome: no effect based on feedback, but this always guarantess me an excellent 1/2 performance by my team.

5- Away and you are heavily favoured: "You can win this game!"

6- Away and odds are close: Either "You can win this game!" or "Wish luck."

7- Away and your opponent is favoured: "Wish luck."

8- Away and your opponent is heavily favoured: "Pressure is off!"

Likely outcome: a few players are "more relaxed".

If your are playing the World Cup or other continental cups, then the Home/away factor is taken away, simply base your pre-match team talks on odds and morale.

Half-time team talks:

This is the main part of this guide. I have turned hundreds of matches around using 1/2 time team talks, not counting the differences team talks have made between a draw and a win. Half-time team talks mainly need to take into account almost all factors: 1,2,3,4,5 and 7.

1- Home and you are winning by 1 goal margin:

General team talk: "Encourage". Likely result: a few players 'looked delighted', sometimes 'seemed motivated'.

Individual team talk:

"Disapointing" on players with rating 6, careful that this does not work on new signings or young players making his debut.
Likely result: "Fired-up" or "Inspired" or "Seemed motivated" or any of the above couple with "Angered". Sometimes no effect. Likely "Lost confidence" if used on new signings or young players.

"You have faith" on players with ratings 8+ and substitutes at 1/2 time, especially effective on strikers/AMs.
Likely results: "Inspired to a great performance", "Inspired to a better performance", "Morale boost", "Seemed motivated", "Happy" or "Looked delighted". Rarely no effect. Which result depends on player personality.
Works sometimes on strikers with rating 7 too and occassionally on youngsters with rating 6.

Correct use of 'disappointing' and 'you have faith' will 99% guarantee you a win by 90mins.

What if the player has a rating 5? Substitute him off, say 'disappointg' or 'angry' to him, and say 'you have faith' to the player coming on.

2- Home and you are winning by more than 1 goal margin:

General team talk: "Pleased" or "Thrilled" depending on the winning margin.
Likely result: No effect or 'does not seem to be listening' but it does help to avoid negative reactions by saying something else. Only for new signings or in the 1st couple of games you are in charge, you will get 'happy' 'seemed motivated' effects by these team talks.

Individual team talks same as in point 1.

3- Home and you are drawing:

General team talk: "You can win this!" if most player ratings are 7+. Likely result: Some players "Looked delighted" "Happy" "Seemed motivated". Some players no effect.

"Disappointing" if average rating is 6 and morale is good + , likely result: a few players "inspired", "fired-up","seemed motivated". Sometimes "lost confidence" "seemed confused" if the player has rating 7+ or if the player morale is low, thus you need to do individual team talks for those players: "you have faith" or "pleased".

In this scenario you have no access to "you have faith". However, there is an even better option here: "You can make the difference!" Effective only on strikers and attacking midfielders, this, coupled with 'disapponting' will often turn the draw into a win by 90mins. Very good on strikers with rating 8, sometimes rating 7, and excellent on substute strikers.
Likely effect: "Inspired to a great performance", "Inspired to a better performance", "Morale boost", "Seemed motivated", "Happy" or "Looked delighted". Rarely no effect.

Note that "you can make the difference!" does not work on players with ratings 6, therefore if you have a striker at rating 6 at 1/2 time and you have a good substitute on the bench, put the substitute on, say 'you can make the difference' to him and disppointing to the starter, and watch the substitute making the difference. Alternatively you can leave the rating 6 striker on and say 'disappointing' to him and hope that he gets inpired or motivated. If he remains at rating 6 60-70 mins into the game, you know that the team talk has not worked, substitute him off ASAP.

An example:

I was drawing 0-0 with Modena as Roma at home after the 1s 45mins (I was heavily favoured of course), 7 of the 11 players had rating 7, so I said "you can win this game" as a genearl team talk. My striker Antunes and one of my DCs Pearce were on rating 6, they are the important positions and I can't afford them to continue underperform, so I substituted another striker Nazarith on and said "you can make difference" to him, at the same time Richards was brought on for Pearce with no individual team talks on him as I know that a DC does not usually make the difference when I am looking for a win. My AML Menez and MC Hornbig were on rating 6 as well, these are not crucial positions so I could try 'disappointing'. The results:
Click For Screen Shot.

4- Home and you are losing:

General team talk: "You can win this" if most player ratings are 7+. Likely result: Some players "Looked delighted" "Happy" "Seemed motivated". Some players no effect.

"Disappointing" if average rating is 6 and morale is good + , likely result: a few players "inspired", "fired-up","seemed motivated". Sometimes "lost confidence" "seemed confused" if the player has rating 7+, thus you need to do individual team talks for those players: "you have faith" or "pleased". (Copy and paste from above ^^)

I rarely go more harsh than disappointing for general team talks, if you feel like it, go for it and give me feebacks of your results.

Individual team talks: Similar to those in point 3, again here 'you can make the difference' and 'disappoiting' are you best friends which will turn the game around. Don't be surprised if you get a news item that one of your players praises your team talk and credits you for the turnaround after the match.

Away scenarios

Because my hands are getting tired typing...I will not separate all away scenarios, as they are similar to home scenarios but note the following:

Go less harsh (as suggested by the tips in the game) for both general team talks and individual teams talks. 'Disappointing' rarely works away, either as general team talk or individual team talk, unless you are heavily favoured, e.g. Chelsea away vs...hmm... Leeds...
Therefore if you have a striker at rating 6 by 1/2 time and you are drawing/losing, don't say 'disappointing' as you do at home. "You have faith" or a general "you can win!" works occassionally but the best option for me is to substitute him off and say 'you can make the difference!" to the player coming on.

Post-match team talks:

Post-match team talks is as straight-forward as pre-match. The goal here is to keep morale up, without ignoring poor performances. Here player rating is the key factor. If most players have rating 7, say pleased, even if you lost or drew. If most players have rating 6 at home, disappointing is the right one; thrilled if most of your players are on 8+. Individually, say delighted/fantastic to those with rating 8+ and don't be surprised that those players soon list you are their favoured personnel. Say disappointing to rating 6s, if other players hav e 7+. Angered to rating 5 is justified, the player may be 'angered' too as a result, but that does help keep his motivation up.

The 3 team talks are linked, if you said pressure is off at the start, a disappointing does not work at 1/2 time even if the player is on rating 6, similarly even if you lose the game, you should not say disappointing. A sympathise is a good option here.


****Update ***

'warn against complacency', I use it occassionally only as a general pre-match team talk in the Home 2nd leg of cup eliminations e.g. When I won 2-0 or more in the 1st leg away, in the 2nd leg I warn my players against complacency. Also I check if the squad morale is high, if morale is low, I fear that this will have negative effects. The feedbacks on this is usually no effect.

I have just completed the 2015/16 Italian Series A season with Roma. This example shows the beauty of 'disappoiting' and "you have faith" combined with correct substitutions.

Prior to the last match of the season against Palemo at home, my Roma was 1 point behind Palemo, so obviously I needed a win to secure the title.

At 1/2 time I was losing 0-1 despite dominating possession and shots on goal. 7 players were on rating 7, but 4 of my players: AMR Nasri, DL Bale, MC Iniesta and Striker Nazarith were on rating 6; AML Ben Arfa was carrying an injury, so I substituted Menez on, here is what I said to these players and the effects:

Click For Screen Shot.

60 mins into the game the score was still 0-1, however I noticed that the performance of Nasri, Bale and Iniesta improved considerably and their ratings became 7 at that time. Striker Nazarith, however, continued to miss chances and his rating stayed at 6, so I knew that my team talk did not work on him and substituted him off for Carlos Vela immediately.

The ratings at the end of the match:

Click For Screen Shot.

As you can see, Nasri, Bale and Iniesta each provided an assist and their ratings all improved from 6 at 1/2 time to 8 by the end of the match.

So I got to enjoy the praise from my captain Mertesacker

Click Here For Screen Shot.

Also just to add, for post-match team talks, after a few games, the feedback screen almost always says 'noting specific noted' or 'doesn't seem to be listening'. However, follow the guide anyway because it does strengthen your relationships with the players if you praise their exceptional performances. You sometimes get a post match news item that says something like 'xxx is delighted to be singled out in the post match team talk'

About pre-press talk and manager interaction, unfortunately I am not making use of them that much, so I am not as confident talking about them as I am for team talks. When my squad morale is superb,which is very often if good team talks are done consistently, I decline to comment on anything because a random negative reaction may be detrimental. However, there is a general guide posted by wwfan a while ago for fm07 that applies to fm08 pre-press talk as well, I couldn't find the original post so I rewrite them here briefly (Note this is a general guide, although it tries to minimises negative effects of pre-press talks, one or two players may still react badly because the exactly effect depends on player personality. When morale is average - low, use of this may help boost the morale of a few players.

1. Home and odds are heavily favoured to you - here heavily means really heavily - e.g. Serie A top team vs Serie B Bottom team: "xxx is a team that I really expect to beat" or any other variations of wording of this.

2. Home and odds are favoured to you- e.g. Serie A top team vs Serie A mid - bottom team: "we can beat xxx if my players play to their best" or any other variations of wording of this.

4. Home and odds are in opponent's favour - hard one to do here, can try either "we can beat xxx if my players play to their best" or "xxx will cause us problems". Effect is rather random.

3. Home or Away and odds are close - Decline to comment.

4. Away and you are very heavily favoured - "we can beat xxx if my players play to their best"

5. Away and you are favoured- again hard one to do, I prefer "xxx will cause us problems", or you can try "we can beat xxx if my players play to their best" .

6. Away and your opponent is favoured - "xxx will cause us problems"

7. Away and your opponent is heavily favoured - The option that says you can't win...

I will write a bit more on other stuff like mind game etc when I get back from work. But as I said, I rarely use them now because of how good team talks can be.

That's it for now. I welcome feedbacks and comments from all of you who have tried this guide. Or if you have your own method of team talks and wish to share it At sigames, Or in the FMGlive forums please do so. I hope this guide will be useful to everyone who reads it and plays fm08 to help enhance your team talks.

Cheers,

Wolfsong.