Friday 11 February 2011

Morale Moaners

Lots of moans on various forums about how morale dictates too much in the game and how you cannot do much about it. A common complaint is 'I do not have the tools to do anything about it!'. The truth is course you have almost as much as a real life manager, others will argue that a a real life manager can talk to the players and I have to smirk, come on do you really think that part of the game is ever going to be simulated.

I also have a chuckle when I listen to some of the posts that seem to know exactly what Ferguson did wrong or why results have gone wrong in real life, honestly surprised they are not doing the Liverpool job they seem so certain.

However I do sympathise, I myself have whined about it a lot using terms like 'loaded dice' etc however, now I am at one with it all.

I have no doubt written this before but this is my perception of morale based on an hypothetical example.

Neutral - Neither good or bad you could flop either way, you lose a game to a late unlucky goal and the bad run starts.
Bad Run Part 1 - You can see the confidence is gone in the players as they cannot do the most basic of things (anyone remember Torres in the World Cup?) You have to play cautious here, you are going to need players that will grind out a result, a good captain can make this run end much faster.
Bad Run Part 2 - Players are playing better but the results just do not seem to come, a brave sub might turn the tide here.
Bad Run Part 3 - This is bizarre world, the loaded dice zone players play great but you get unlucky, what can a manager do, the answer, nothing! How many times in real life do you hear a manager say 'if we keep playing like that results will come' and this is a horrible time but patience and results will come.
Good Run - Finally you get the break and have turned the corner how long you can keep this going will depend on the players, the tactics, how you rotate your team and who you play. It seems to build up, win, win, win, overconfidence, go back to Bad Run Part 1.

No comments: