My assistant manager is better than me

E

EnemaOfTheState

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The title says it all really.

I'm in November 2011 and I'm managing Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. My 4-2-3-1 saw Forest shoot up the Championship table to finish third (Billy Davies was sacked in December with Forest in 9th) and I snuck into the Premier League by virtue of the play-offs, beating Bristol City 2-0 in the final.

For some reason, I decided to sign Dwight Yorke as my assistant manager, but he riled up the players completely so I sacked him after two games. I called in the Huddersfield assistant manager to replace him, and he's a good assistant.

Enough of the background story. I lost a few games with my 4-2-3-1, so I switched to a 4-3-1-2 and I was still getting no luck. I went on holiday in frustration and when I got back, I found to my surprise that we'd won several games. I played another game, lost, went on holiday, and came back the day after we beat Arsenal 4-0...

What the **** is going on? The tactic seems to be alright as its enabling the assistant to win, but whenever I'm in charge, the lads put their feet up and concede goal after goal. Any ideas on why this is?

Results with me in charge:

1-5 vs Sunderland (Away)
1-2 vs Tottenham (Away)
0-1 vs West Brom (Home)
0-1 vs Fulham (Home)
1-3 vs Man City (Away)
0-2 vs Liverpool (Home)
1-0 vs Hull (Away)
0-1 vs Sheffield United (Home)
0-2 vs Aston Villa (Away)

Results with Assistant in charge:

2-0 vs Swindon (Away) [Carling Cup]
2-1 vs Wolves (Away) [Carling Cup]
2-1 vs Swansea (Home) [Carling Cup]
5-0 vs Bolton (Home)
4-0 vs Arsenal (Away)

Admittedly, its still early-ish days (November 11th) but its still quite frustrating, knowing that I'm more likely to get a win if I go on holiday.
 
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EnemaOfTheState said:
What the **** is going on?

The title says it all really.
Click to expand...

Answered your own question holmes. Try looking at what he does differently - tactics/ selection/ subs, perhaps its the way he goes about his teamtalks - do you try to lift mood or are you more disciplined? Whichever perhaps he does the opposite and gets a better reaction from the players
 
or...

take a long break in a really hot place and put your feet up, your are what's called an awesome delegator, you may not be the hands on perfect professional but boy you can influence success in those below you.

stick to your strengths and your team will thrive ;)
 
mfage1 said:
or...

take a long break in a really hot place and put your feet up, your are what's called an awesome delegator, you may not be the hands on perfect professional but boy you can influence success in those below you.

stick to your strengths and your team will thrive ;)
Click to expand...

As much as I love how you've phrased that, all the plaudits go to Terry McDermott. Plus, whilst a 'long break in a really hot place' sounds great, in actuality I'm sat shivering my balls off in my heating-free flat wondering why the **** won't my players do as they're told.
 
Haha, why don't just holiday until your *** man retires?
Holiday All THE WAY~~
 
tubby said:
Answered your own question holmes. Try looking at what he does differently - tactics/ selection/ subs, perhaps its the way he goes about his teamtalks - do you try to lift mood or are you more disciplined? Whichever perhaps he does the opposite and gets a better reaction from the players
Click to expand...

Yeah, this seems like the best way to sort it out. Although I didn't know I could check what he says for his team talks and what his selections are. Any ideas?
 
my guess is maybe he changes your instructions maybe they roughed up arsenal and played more direct do you have a big target man??? i dunno that is real bizzare
 
It depends. When playing 4-3-1-2, I have a combination of either Romelu Lukaku (on loan from United), Wesley Sonck, Daniel Pacheco (on loan from Liverpool) or Mohammed Zidan. When playing one up front, its usually either Lukaku or Sonck, and sometimes I use Sonck as a Target Man.

However, we don't play direct - or at least not when I'm overseeing the team. Managers often comment after matches against Forest that if we stopped trying to walk it into the net, we'd have more success - but I don't want to just lump it up field!
 
When I create a new tactic I watch both the youth and reserve teams as often as possible because regardless of the tactic the reserve/youth managers will still make adjustments to tempo, closing down, mentalities, etc It's how I iron out the faults in the tactic (and there invariably are some).

In 09 and 10 I had Nigel Gibbs as my assistant, he's awesome! By getting him as assistant in 09 I learnt a **** of a lot about motivating and man-management within the game which resulted in improved performances, improved morale, and made the whole squad fall in love with me :D

rant/
I wish mac would do the same in RL, he's garbage as an ***-man and only at Huddersfield on mates rates, maybe Lee Clark should go on holiday and leave him in charge? we 'might' then realise the potential of the ******* squad!
/rant

Managers often comment after matches against Forest that if we stopped trying to walk it into the net, we'd have more success - but I don't want to just lump it up field!
Click to expand...

Do you look at their profiles/relationship with you? I find that those who have 'a fairly poor opinion of you' will criticise whilst those who 'feel the two of you can become friends' will praise the passing game... Change their opinions of you and they'll praise your style instead ;)
 
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Haha, you snuck that rant in there! Didn't see it coming...

The thing is, its getting beyond stupid now. Check these results when I was on holiday:

1-0 vs Wolves (Home)
7-0 vs Chelsea (Home)
3-1 vs Chelsea (Away) [Carling Cup]

(Meanwhile, I lost 1-0 to Newcastle and 4-0 to United)

But come on! Seven-nil?! This guy is a ****** magician. I checked the formations, and I didn't recognise one name in the Chelsea starting line-up save for Cech and Terry. It happened again the next game in the Carling Cup too, which I thought was weird, although I'm getting used to the bugs in FM11.

You say you learnt about motivating and man-management from Gibbs, but how? Is there any way to see what your assistant manager says or something? I've just recently changed tactics to try and combat the lacklustre effort when I'm in charge, so I'll see how McDermott gets on with that bad boy.
 
Do everything your way until the match starts then go on holiday - most likely he'll change it up, for example it might be 0-0 at half-time, his teamtalk might be the key to the win, subs maybe etc
you'll figure it out eventually :)
 
EnemaOfTheState said:
Haha, you snuck that rant in there! Didn't see it coming...

The thing is, its getting beyond stupid now. Check these results when I was on holiday:

1-0 vs Wolves (Home)
7-0 vs Chelsea (Home)
3-1 vs Chelsea (Away) [Carling Cup]

(Meanwhile, I lost 1-0 to Newcastle and 4-0 to United)

But come on! Seven-nil?! This guy is a ****** magician. I checked the formations, and I didn't recognise one name in the Chelsea starting line-up save for Cech and Terry. It happened again the next game in the Carling Cup too, which I thought was weird, although I'm getting used to the bugs in FM11.

You say you learnt about motivating and man-management from Gibbs, but how? Is there any way to see what your assistant manager says or something? I've just recently changed tactics to try and combat the lacklustre effort when I'm in charge, so I'll see how McDermott gets on with that bad boy.
Click to expand...

yeah, sorry bout the rant but you should come watch the **** we have to put up with some weeks,,, *shudders*

Basically, to learn from Gibbs I let him do the teamtalks and was surprised at what he chose sometimes... for example, I've only ever used 'wish luck' once in a game that we were reasonably big underdogs for... I wasn't prepared for the mauling we received it was painful, so when Gibbsy (heh) used it in a semi-final we were slight favourites for I was going to change it but didnt.... and we were ******* awesome!

I'd go on holiday and let him take charge and then look at his teamtalk feedback. now... yes, it doesn't show you what he said BUT you can see that he said 'something' and not always just '(team)' so then I'd watch the game to try figure out what he might have said to each player who didn't get the '(team)' talk. I already knew to single players out but he took it to a grander scale, sometimes singling out the whole team for a personal teamtalk and sometimes just giving them 'none'.

The bigger AI clubs will often field weakened teams in the carling cup (its a mickey mouse comp to them) and also against teams that they're 'expected' to beat, it's about rotation, fitness and morale in the main but it's also a chance to develop some younger talent. Those are the games that YOU should be managing, because then you get to win a game against a bigger club :p
 
I have this EXACT same issue.
It's so odd, only I have an AMAZING squad, and my assman wins games 6-0 while I scrape bore wins or score draws.
When im managing I have it set so he does OI and Team talks anyways, and tick same formation/selection when I holiday, so Idon't see how he has the freedom to be SO much better than me :-(

***/man holiday option really is too easy/broke.
Though I'd prefer it that there was a bug causing me to perform worse that negates said bug.
 
I have to say, Neil, I think it's a bug of some sort. I have started and re-started a number of saves on FM11, all LLM-type stuff (BSP, League 2) and I have the assman handle friendlies up until two weeks before the season starts. **** on my current save with Oxford, I organized a league (ok I kinda sorta cheat at LLM but no editors) w/ Villa, City and Spurs. I lose 0-1 for both Spurs and Villa and beat City by 1-0 (all matches handled by assman). I started the season w/ 3 wins and 1 loss and then went entirely to ****. It's now end of Nov and I'm 20th, I decided to holiday past a match away at Port Vale who lie 7th to test this "bug" and sure enough, we win EASILY 3 - 0 w/ one of my midfielders hitting a scorcher from 30yds who I've never seen take a shot on target let alone get a sniff of goal.

Before anyone comes in and says "you just suck as a mgr" I was able to dominate FM10 in LLM and win promotions within a season or two up until Championship and Prem. I create my own tactics and my assman uses them in-game. I ask him for opposition advice, pre- half- and post- pep talks and I send him to press conferences. I even use his starting selections most of the time! Honestly the only difference that could be is in-game tactic changes, sideline shouts, etc. I can't see how that would take my team from 0-1 losses at home to relegation-zone teams all the way to 3-0 wins away against promotion contenders.

It's gotta be a bug . . . fingers crossed for Patch 2 early this month.
 
Hmm doing dome testing.
When YOU are managing, not holidaying, take your *** man OFF of auto opposition instructions, I found i got WAY netter results playing with no OI's at all... not quite up there with my *** man, but an improvement big enough to warrant me suggesting it to you.
 
neiljwd said:
Hmm doing dome testing.
When YOU are managing, not holidaying, take your *** man OFF of auto opposition instructions, I found i got WAY netter results playing with no OI's at all... not quite up there with my *** man, but an improvement big enough to warrant me suggesting it to you.
Click to expand...

Yeah I wondered about that since I used to just use the opposition scouting reports to assign OI until I hired a new assman with higher Mot and Tactical Knowledge. I'll give that a go, thanks for the tip.
 
I know this is a 4wk old thread, but I noticed when you've been in charge you've played 4 home games and not scored in any? Maybe you need to be more attacking? Or expect more from your players in teamtalk? See what your assistant is saying in team talks maybe another option?
 
How do you view the tactics your assistant manager used whilst on holiday ?
 
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