Thetownend.com

Doing OK with STFC, into the quarter finals in the cup now. And into a playoff place to the premiership  with a few games to go, but I still have a  problem which I ain't figured out yet:

Bad starts to the season....... just don't understand why it takes 6 - 10 games  at the beginning of the season for my team to start performing.

Any suggestions????

Have slightly the opposite problem where the side almost peak after pre-season then slumps badly around Xmas.

Plenty of pre-season games to raise the old fitness and confidence often helps.

Any idea as to why it's going wrong conceeding goals, fitness, not scoring, confidence...?

I put it all down to bad management...  :?

I tend to slump around after xmas, but I know why that is..... not a big enough squad to cover for injuries, suspensions and tired players (Bearing in mind the swindon boards budget for players). I have found that a top goal keeper works wonders for the defence ( I have one now bought up through my junior ranks who averages 7.8 - 8.1 each season), along with one experieced (Not necessarilly great) central defender.

Thanx for the constructive criticism there Dave!!!

Ok... when i hit a slump after a good run, i find a change of formation usually helps keep things fresh and point my team in the right direction. Try not to let in goals for a game or so, and you will turn the corner.

Dont bother resting players, it very rarely helps.

I've really not got into it :/

I find a change of formation helps, from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2, especially as I a always seem to have a strong midfield.

Not resting players can work but increases their chances of getting long term injuiries.

Also asking your assistant manage to pick your team helps sometimes....

I've found both things has happened to me - shit early season form and crap permaonces round christmas. I've changed the pre season training now and the dates on which it occurs and that seems to have worked ok.

The nov/dec shit form must be down to tiredness i think, especially when playing as Swindon with our wafer thin squad and shite wage budget.

That said i finished 4th in my first season in the championship with SSP scoring 32 from 45 8)

tweak the formation, i.e. make the defence hold a higher line against teams without electrically paced strikers and make em drop back a bit for the quickies.

 get a big man with 14+ jumping and heading (most squads have them post league 1)mine is carl cort bought for 100k. and put your width up to maximum and tell your wingers to "aim for man"

also my saving grace put your tempo at the bottom range of "mixed" so only a quarter of the way up, cunt if you wanna batter teams but keeps the goals against rather low.

set one of your central midfeilders so that everything is done rarely (forward runs,long shots etc etc) and just make him tackle hard. :twisted:

I'm Torquay and I've signed Andy Hughes on a Bosman from Reading. His position is AM/R/L/C, I'm playing him on the right wing and he's doing pretty well. Then just before my last game I noticed he was unhappy so I went and looked and it says 'Feels he isn't played in his strongest position.' So I thought 'ah he me must prefer playing in the centre then', but went and looked at his Description anyway. It says 'Defender'.

Oddness.

Me niether

Got us promoted in our first season and stopped playing since (that was in November)

I still haven't bought the game. Is it really worth it?

neither have i. last years addiction to cm persuaded me not to. would get half as much work done (as if i do much)

No! Save your money and buy your girlie lots of lavish gifts instead...

See doesn't even wear the Swindon shirt I bought her  :o
Oh well, Poundland is open tomorrow.