Team talks are used to manage the mental state of your players before, during and after each match and they therefore have a significant effect on your team’s match performances. Although your tactics are the most important factor in determining match performances, good team talks can often make a crucial difference to a match result.
You can give a team talk before the match, at half-time and at full-time. As well as giving an overall team talk to your team as a whole, you can also give individual talks to particular players if you wish.
The pre-match team talk affects whether your players start the game with the right attitude and therefore influences their first half performances. The half-time team talk affects whether your players continue or improve upon their performances in the second half and so can be greatly effective in helping your team to turn a match around or hold on to a lead. The full-time team talk can be used to praise your players or remind them that they need to stay focused after a good performance, or to let them know that they have failed to meet expectations after a poor performance.
You should try not to use the same team talks constantly, but instead adapt your talks to the scenario by considering various influencing factors. This way the effect of your team talks will be less likely to diminish later in the season. The various factors that you should consider when choosing team talks are discussed below.
Using the Team Talk Interface
You will be taken to the Team Talk screen automatically before each kick-off and after the match, while you can also access it from the match day Tactics tab if you have not yet given your team talk.
You can then select your overall team talk using the Give Overall Team Talk drop-down.
After the overall team talk has been given you can select an individual talk for any players you choose using the drop-downs in the Make a Comment column. There are also drop-downs for Defenders, Midfielders and Strikers that allow you to give positional talks. These effectively give all players in the relevant area of the pitch the same individual talk. If you want to exclude a player from a positional talk then you can give him his own individual talk first.
Using Your Coaches
If you wish then you can view team talk advice from any one of your coaches using the Advice From drop-down, and even ask that coach to give the team talk himself if you prefer by using the button on the right.
A coach’s Motivating attribute determines the quality of his team talks and team talk advice. Therefore, if you wish to use a coach to advise on or give team talks then you should check which coach has the highest rating in this attribute.
Alternatively, you can instruct your assistant manager to give team talks automatically for each match, as explained in the Staff Roles guide.
Choosing Tones
When giving a team talk you will need to first select the tone of voice you wish to use.
Your chosen tone should be appropriate for the effect you want your talk to have. For example, you can use a calm tone if you want to relax players, a passionate tone if you want to increase morale or inspire players, an assertive tone if you want to demand a good performance or that your players sustain their performance level, and an aggressive tone if you want to convey your anger at a poor performance and fire your players up.
A calm tone can also be useful if you want your talk to be more understated. For example, if your team has won a match but only played relatively ok then you may want to praise them calmly.
As with the actual talks that you choose, you should ensure that you vary your choice of tone so that your team talks do not lose their effect. However, again this should come naturally if you adapt your talks to the scenarios that you face.
