Morale.. hmmmmm

Now a few days into playing and my players, bless 'em, have all been sectioned for the goodness of their own health. I'm not saying they are manic depressives, just that they appear to have a wild penchant for inserting solid metal projectiles into their cerebral cortex via a hand held device.

I'm not going to moan about having 7 CCC's this morning in a Prem league game against the bottom team, and losing 4-0 (the other team had 4 shots on target, though), that can happen and I wouldn't get too het up over it.

I do struggle, though, when I am seeing amazing chances with swathes of the goal practically begging for a ball to be nudged into it... and then its hit wide... by a few players. If this is the moral/form factor, then it just seemed a little extreme at the time.

That aside, I have a my keeper of many years with a seasons average of 6.89- he is a bright red arrow down. I have no great idea why, apart from the fact I am likely to get relegated if i don't win a few games soon- but he is playing okay, apart from being bloody nervous during games all the time... he is 33 and has played hundreds od Major games... get over it.

I just feel that the morale is too intense. I like the idea of having it, but why have the team talks when you can't see what impact they had on players- like in FMxxxx. And to have T/Talks as the only option to judge/affect morale (apart from winning or, more likely in my case, losing) is starting to feel like it was just thrown in without all the aspects that made it even vaguely useful in FM (although I hated them then as well!)

Going to keep trying to get a formation that suits the players.... but it does seem like a bit of a vicious circle. If you lose, you get bad results. You tweek the formation, lose again, worse morale, tweek again, lose again as the formation is unbalanced now, and lose again..... wash repeat until the players are all wearing straightjackets and singing 'I'm a Barbie Girl'.

Hmmmmm...