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It is tough to avoid second season syndrome: at one point another it hits the best goalscorers, the most surprising youngsters, promotion-winning managers and gritty overachievers, and if it doesn’t, the media will excruciatingly and gleefully analyse the stats to show that yes, __ is suffering from a dip compared to last season. Success is always a little tainted by the worry about the next season – will it look like a fluke?
What is second season syndrome?
In the footballing world, second season syndrome is most often shown by newly promoted Premier League teams who perform surprisingly well in their first season after promotion, before suffering relegation – or at the least, a comparatively unsuccessful campaign – in the season after. Typically it is used to suggest that a team is bottling it, after a good season previously.
Sports Interactive, the creators of the Football Manager series, have done an excellent job in incorporating this now-famous “syndrome” in FM13. In most countries, it is relatively easy to get an initial promotion under your belt, and then stay up comfortably, but it is considerably more difficult to improve on that first season in the top flight.
Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of mystery surrounding second season syndrome, and depending on the circles you move in, some may put it down to FM “learning” your tactic or the game being broken. Luckily we are going through something of an enlightenment in the FM community and thus the balance of sanity is changing.
But second season syndrome still needs to be explored far more.
How second season syndrome strikes
In real football, second season syndrome stems from complacency, better tactical preparation from opposition managers and often times, the team suffering from the dreaded SSS, did get lucky in their first season up. The second season separates the wheat from the chaff in this respect, as those teams that don’t deserve to be in the Premier League eventually fall out of the top tier.
In FM, what happens is that when a team overachieves in their first season, their reputation rockets up, thus making them a bigger club in the eyes of other teams, players and managers. The way teams play against you is heavily influenced by your reputation – opposition managers base their strategy (as you should!) against your team on how much of a threat you are perceived to be.
The influence of reputation on strategy is shown in the Champions League and in important title-contender matches: these are cagey affairs in which neither team is overtly aggressive in its attacking – counter-attacking is favoured, leading to the most tactically disciplined side usually winning.
Compare this to the strategy that teams adopt in cup matches against lower-league teams or in the league against small clubs: big teams will focus on lots of movement and creativity so that they can unlock their opponents’ defence. They expect small teams to sit back, compress the space behind the defence and between the lines, so they tailor their approach to combat this.
Approaching matches like this is logical and indeed, we have spoken about the importance preparing for your opponent in our match analysis series but if a newly promoted team does not play according to its reputation, they can overachieve fantastically – as Blackpool’s attractive, attacking football in the 2010-11 season gained them victories against Tottenham, Liverpool and Sunderland. The bigger teams pile players forward and pack their midfield with creativity rather than grit, and so new teams can exploit gaps if they are intelligent about it.
Second season syndrome strikes when your reputation rises. You don’t start struggling because the game has learnt your tactic; you start struggling because you haven’t learnt your tactic. The very thing that made you successful – attacking when your club’s reputation suggested you would defend – does not last forever. In your second season, it is important to adapt to your changing reputation, because your opponents will. It’s all about reinvention.
Reinvention
If tactical surprises are what makes for a good first season, what can we do to ensure a successful second season?
Your reputation has rose, so now your team is much more of a threat in the eyes of your opponents. You’ve gone from being seen as a second-tier team that’s got lucky, to being a bonafide top-tier team, and thus the teams around you will treat you far differently than they used to. What does this mean?
Teams will often be happier to take a draw against you; in your first season your reputation was likely so low that most teams in the division saw a draw as two points dropped. Now they will be more cautious.
Deeper defensive lines; that space behind the lines that you were exploiting will get smaller and smaller.
Man-marking of star players more common
For the most part, you will notice that more teams try and keep things tight against you because they are happier to take a draw if they have to; after all, you’re considered a decent side now!
I don’t want to be too specific about any recommended tactical changes because, as always, it is essential that you consider what will work best for the players at your disposal, but I tend to tailor my recruitment strategy towards players with better mental attributes, especially Creativity, Determination, Off The Ball and Anticipation, as these are the types of player who will help you to stay in games, break down narrow defences and keep the ball well. Whereas many newly promoted sides focus themselves on lightning quick attacking – even Swansea, who played a possession game in their first season in the Premier League, played with Wayne Routledge and Nathan Dyer most games – so that they can exploit the space left behind, when this space is compressed by cautious opponents, the tactical approach needs a little tweaking.
An example of this can be found in my recent adventure in Malaysia with Sarawak, where I was promoted at the first attempt. I then stayed up by a couple of places, before quickly realising that I was very tactically naive in the second season in the top tier. I was still relying on sending it long to my only two good players – my strikers – whose ability to score goals was being squeezed by increasingly deep defences.
I was still relying on a strategy that had worked when teams pressed me high and that was the wrong thing to do. I needed better midfielders so I could play a more relaxed and balanced game, I needed a defence that was solid enough to keep out the opposition without requiring help from two defensive midfielders, and most of all I needed a pair of wingers that could link both ends of the 3-5-2 together. (As it turned out, I had neither the money nor the pulling power to get any top-tier quality players in, but I did stay up that season.)
In real life, we saw Swansea beat second season syndrome this season under the new management of Michael Laudrup. The Swans have kept a similar style to last season, but it has been noted how the speed of their attacks has changed since the Dane came in, and as a team they are more balanced. The signings of Michu and Pablo Hernandez are an indicator of the move towards a more intelligent attacking style; Michu is far more tactically aware than Danny Graham (who has since been offloaded) and is able to find space between midfield and defence as well as get in the box for headers, while Pablo Hernandez’s technical ability exceeds that of the man he replaced, Scott Sinclair. Laudrup, with only a few signings, transformed the electric-fast Swansea into a cleverer, more rounded team. In 2012-13, they improved 2 places to 9th, and won the League Cup.
Granted, it is not necessarily a matter of needing to play more like Barcelona, but it is important to play according to your reputation to an extent. Once you understand that your reputation has changed, and how this will affect your opponents’ view of you, it is a lot simpler to beat second season syndrome.
Other causes of second season syndrome
I firmly believe that tactical adaptation by the opposition is the biggest contributor to second season syndrome but the mystery surrounding this dreaded disease exists because there are so many different influences in play.
Getting too excited in the transfer window
It is only natural to want to build on your squad after the first season in the top tier (or, after a season of success) but being too busy will damage your team more than improve it. For the most part, I would recommend making clever, considered signings that you feel will fill gaps that desperately need filling.
As mentioned previously in this post, I like to focus my recruitment on buying cleverer players than I’ve already got, but by no means do I start flogging all players with poor values for certain mental attributes. There is a time and a place for every player, and it is always important to have pacey players around because some clubs will continue to play high against you. A gradual and general shift towards a more balanced team is the way to go, in my opinion. If in doubt, follow the Michael Laudrup blueprint!
Another thing to look out for in the transfer window is avoiding “bad apples” for the sake of getting a coup for the club. You don’t need to go out and buy a Nicolas Anelka just because he is a big name and he is interested in your club. Signing too many players will hurt team spirit and cohesion and signing players with bad personalities will make the second season even tougher.
Nurture a team that is similarly minded, gradually improved and suited to your tactics.
Complacency/nervousness
If you find that players who previously played tremendously now look lazy, demotivated or off-the-pace, you probably have a motivation problem on your hands. Watch the games closely – who is misplacing passes that they should be making, who is getting caught on the ball, who is skying shots from 6 yards?
It is impossible to predict whether motivation problems will stem from complacency or nervousness as the balance is dictated by the way you approach press conferences, team talks, private chats and media comments so it is up to you as the manager to monitor morale. Are you giving them too much confidence after their success last season? Or are you expecting too much from a team that is achieving above its ability? Motivation is as important as ever on the modern FM games; if you don’t keep a control on it, it will spell a season of disaster.
Happy second season!
Hopefully that dispels some myths around second season syndrome, and suggests some decent courses of action to make the second season a very happy one. Remember – if you don’t understand why you won last season, you won’t understand when you lose this season.
Quelle: http://www.pushthemwide.co.uk/second-season-syndrome/#utm_content=buffere1c82&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer
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Thema: [FM2013] 2nd Season Syndrome (Gelesen 2545 mal)