A happy player is a better. How many players who are unhappy at a club in real life do you see playing their arses off? Nicholas lle Incredible Sulk" Anelka is never happy at a club and rarely looks like he's fully commited to the teams cause. Ruud van Nistelrooy is another one. He was unhappy at United and you could see it in his performances, he didn't look like he could be arsed. His penalty against Middlesbrough proves my case in point. He put the ball down, and hit it at a comfortable height and didn't look like he was bothered when the keeper saved it. Happy players are better players.

Form is form, it comes and it goes and can end abruptly. If a player is in great form and his morale plumits, he will not play anywhere near his best in the next match. Where as High morale can boost a players form, or at least keep him playing at a consistent level.

Managing Morale:

If you lose a match which you should have won, don't call them an embarrassment. It won't help really. And it's not an accurate assement. Sympathize or even say you were pleased with the performance. Damage limitation, as the loss will lower it as it is.

If you're team is low on morale, and only manages to scrape a 1-0 at home in an FA Cup game against a side a division lower than you. Get down on both knee's, kiss their arses and tell them they're better than sliced bread.

By no means does this mean you shouldn't kick them up the arse if after a pasting. They know they've not played well and it would cause confusion if you praised them.

A good way to boost morale is to praise a player, look for the player with the best form and praise him. A good tip here is to set a monthly reminder, 1st of the month or whenever, to remind you to praise a player. When comparing the form, praising the best player isn't always the best thing to do if his morale is superb. If a player who has played pretty well, but morale is low, praise him.

Critisizing a player can also boost morale strangely enough. But not with everyone, as different players react to media comments differently. A little bit of criticism can motivate a player to do better. Vidic just played god awful for me, morale very poor, told him his form was sub-par (which it was) and it jumped to 'good. But some players take it to heart and lowers morale.

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When criticizing a player to motivate, never be too harsh.

Media comments. This is a strange one, as most players react well to certain comments in the media. I had Fabrice Fernandez at Real Oviedo, star man. But EVERY time I would say "I expect us to win today" his morale dropped like a prostitutes underwear. Straight down to very poor. And this guy was one of my better players. So I had to stop saying "i expect a win" to stop his morale going down. A small, but worthwhile sacrifice.