Playbook Index

1  2 Te Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide A Complete Strategy Manual To Master Virtual Football Management. Written by Wonderkid. Copyright © FootballManagerGuide.com and the individual authors, 2010. Te Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide is an unofcial and unauthorised source for educational purposes only. It has been composed independently by FootballManagerGuide.com. It is not endorsed by SEGA or Sports Interactive Games in any shape or form. Football Manager™ is a registered trademark of SEGA and Sports Interactive Games. We are not afliated with Football Manager™, SEGA or Sports Interactive Games. Tis product was created solely to inform/educate players of the game “Football Manager™” how to become a better player. Te contents of this information infringe no copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Distributed in the English language by FootballManagerGuide.com. No English language version of this guide is to be made available by any other website without the expressed permission of the copyright owners. If you have received this guide from any other source than FootballManagerGuide.com, please notify the authors. No foreign language versions of this guide are not to be made available by any other website without the expressed permission of the copyright owners. Translation requests should be sent to the FootballManagerGuide.com site via support@footballmanagerguide.com  3 - Chapter One - An Introduction to “Te Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide” Tis one of a kind walkthrough guide has been written and constructed by FM beta testers with the aim to help anyone from an FM newbie to a hardcore fanboy understand the way the game functions. In this guide we’ll cover every aspect of FM and will try to examine the dynamics of the game in a way that will be very easy to interpret. Te concept behind this walkthrough is to provide a library of advice for anyone who's looking for a bit of help, some insight or even a new perspective on the game. It isn't solely for tactics and formational structures, it's an attempt to concoct a full and complete view into FM and the mechanics of the game – with the aim to create material which will not only pertain to the current version of the game, but will remain relevant to all future generations of the game as well. FM doesn’t evolve too much, but when it does, we’ll update the material to refect the changes (both in e-Book format and via online blogs) – this will allow us to always provide a complete and up-to-date walkthrough guide to FM. Te intention with this is to create an in-depth publication which will allow you to cultivate your knowledge of the game, but at the same explain the material in a relatable way – after all, there’s no use telling you something that you need to read twelve times in order to understand it. What we'd like to convey the most is that this guide has been published to help expand, not only the way people approach the game, but also the mentality when playing the game. Tis efect of this guide is subjective to how you yourself play the game; you can either take on board what is said, and adapt it to your own management style – using it as more of a 'hints and tips' guide, or you can rebuild your entire management mentality and attempt to play the game from a refreshed perspective. Either way, this guide is only efective if you realise that this is a game reaching to be as accurate a simulation as possible; it's not an arcade game anymore; you can no longer be successful under the old 'click, click, click and play a match' mentality. So, if you want to be good at this game and get the benefts from understanding it, you need to grasp the real concept of football management – and this is what the e-Book aims to provide. Tis e-Book is not claiming to be a “Cheat’s Guide to FM” nor does it guarantee you’ll win every match, but it does guarantee to stimulate the way you think about this game and ofer you ideas and means as to how to go about becoming a better manager. At the very least, it will give you reasons as to why you have failed to achieve in the past and some ideas on how to improve or adapt your current methods, in a way which will stop you making those mistakes again.  4 With regards to reading this guide – everything that is mentioned in this guide, be it tactics or training, personality tags, team talks or duties, et cetera – has it’s own section. So please be aware that I will not mention anything in this guide which you cannot fnd information about inside the guide. Everything in this e-Book has been presented in a way which should make it easy to read it as a step-by-step walkthrough of the game. Tere will inevitably be similar topics which aren’t immediately next to each other (because they’re involved in diferent stages of the game), but you can always open up the menu to the side and use those links to scan the entire contents of the guide and take you to the section you wish to read. Future Updates & Additional Reading Material As has been said, the intention with this e-Book is to provide a universal manual for every future generation of the game. In a bid to make sure anyone who’s purchased this e-Book no longer has to spend money on future titles or other e-Books, we will update and cover any new theories or explanations of the game modules online. Tis gives us the ability to create an e-Book which will give you a 100% accurate guide as of FM2011 and then a 99% accurate guide for future generations – with the 1% of information pertaining to new updates or new features (which could appear in FM2012 and beyond) being covered online: Via a blog on my preferred fansite – www.footballmanagerfanboys.net or our own site – www.footballmanagerguide.com Of course, we will continue to update our e-Books to refect any major changes in the future, but by ofering you blogs and articles to complement this e-Book, we aim to remove the issue of you having to spend any more money (unless of course, you wish to have a ‘hard copy’ of the updated e-Book). We are also (as you may already be aware), updating the e-Book whenever we can add more to it. Tere's been a lot of work already done on the book, but I've been updating and rereleasing 'fresher' versions to add more into this year's edition. Obviously, with this being the frst edition released there are a few things which can be improved, some little formatting bugs have popped up – but I plan on making it as comprehensive as possible over the course of the year – so I will be updating and adding more into the guide (with a list of changes, so you can see what's been added or removed). Once this guide has been perfected, we'll have a fantastic base for future editions – so bare in mind that this is a project which is very good at the moment, but I intend to make it far, far better for you in the future. We’d also like to extend an open ofer to anyone who feels they need more information, to simply send us an e-mail. With that we’d try to cover any topics in blogs or articles (possibly a guide update) and then e-mail you to let you know the material is available.  5 What I’d like to stress is that we’re ofering this as an addition to our e-Book because we want people to have something with unquestionable value. As a result, further work (blogs/articles/updates) will take time to research and produce, so please bear in mind that this is a voluntary service and as such, it is something we will provide when time allows us to do so. We don’t want to disappoint anyone, so it’s important that you consider that even though we’re selling this guide, it’s production doesn’t allow us to abandon real-life work commitments (sadly). Author Notes Firstly, I want to thank you for purchasing my work. It's been a labour of love for a long time now and I hope that you're all very happy with what you have. I don't want to promote this as a fnal copy; I really want to update and expand upon this book over the course of the year and I will endeavour to improve what I've published so far – be it visually or informationally. If anyone has any further expansion ideas, please contact me (details at the end of the e-Book) and let me know your thoughts. Secondly, I have tried to make this as interesting and concise as possible, without losing the information I wanted to convey. I’ve tried to break-up the wall of text with some tables, to better explain any instructions (obviously, this isn’t possible with huge amounts of text) – but if you feel the guide can be improved anywhere, have any tips or suggestions for the next eBook - then please let me know. I have added crib sheets to the book (you can fnd them in the relevant folder) – this is to give you the easiest possible access to the information I assume you'll want the most. I've also added a crib sheet icon to the guide – so, when you see that, it will indicate that there is a crib sheet available for the area of the guide you're reading. Lastly and most importantly, I hope you enjoy reading this guide. I hope it can provide you with answers to the questions which you may have. I have gone into as much depth as I possibly could and I’d like to think that every element of the game is covered in detail, but I know you may not feel that is the case – so, if there is anything which you think has been missed out, overlooked or not covered in enough detail – let me know and I will try to improve on that area. I will be reviewing the guide for next year (I am already thinking about other ways to format the eBook for the next edition), so any additional feedback, commentary or critique – it all helps. Te aim of this guide is to produce something which can become the complete package for all FM users and with your feedback and guidance, we can improve it beyond what I’ve started here. I'd not like to think of this e-Book a basic guide, I actually believe it's got some great depth, but I also know that I can add more to what's here – which is what I will be trying to do as you're reading this!  6 - Chapter Two - Te Philosophy of Football Management Tis game is a simulation of a sporting reality. In order to defne yourself as one of the great virtual managers, you have to understand how the game functions in reality. Now, a lot of people will pick up the game with arrogance, because of course, they already know how the game works and they don’t need to learn anything from anyone else; but even the very best managers are learning all the time. So, from here on in, we’ll take a look at the composition of real football and the way it's played, in order to highlight some things you might not have considered about football management. In football there are some people who stand out from the crowd – no, not the overweight hooligans with shirts that barely cover their guts (although Wayne Rooney is pretty impressive at times) – it’s those managers who stand on the sidelines, orchestrating their pawns. Now, most people will look at football as nothing more than an athletic competition, they will watch the game and focus on the passion and desire to win. However, if you look beyond the passion and the hunger of the players, you will see that there is a greater dynamic at work. It is understanding this dynamic which opens the door to the kingdom of managerial heaven. It’s Chess Not Checkers If you look beyond the game as a spectator and look at it as a puzzle, you'll have a much better interpretation of the sport. As fans we're taught that this game is about passion, hunger and drive; it's about fghting for glory and never giving up – and I'm not saying that isn't true, but that description of the game doesn't pertain to anything other than the required mentality of those playing the sport. In order to garner the success of those few managers who have gone to the top (and stayed there), you need to understand the true fundamental value of success in football. Firstly, you have to recognise that this game is multidimensional, it's not just about the passion and talent. Almost every footballer is passionate about the game – and certainly, more often than not, the players all have enough talent to play in the roles they've been assigned to. Talent and passion are small advantages (based on the fact that everyone has both to some degree, but some people may have slightly more than others). What actually wins you games isn't just the prowess of the striker, it isn't just the raw emotion of the holding midfelder – it's the intellect of the manager; how he plays those players and how he prepares those players.  7 You’ll have seen it yourself in both the game and in reality – an underdog chopping down a giant. It’s not statistically possible that a player with a ‘20’ for both Finishing and Composure will have less success in front of goal than a player with a ‘15’ for both Finishing and Composure, but just like in the game, it happens in the real world too. How is it possible that talent and skill hasn’t prevailed, when statistically everything points to that outcome? Te truth is, football is much like chess. Te player controls the pieces, decides where they go and when they make their moves; any success is due to the mental aptitude of the player reading his opponent and using what he has on the board to defeat them. In football, it’s practically the same, but with living game pieces. Te manager has dictatorship over everything at the club – he chooses the men who will play in his team, the style of play the team will execute, who plays each match; he tells them where they play, how they should play and what they should do; he is the single catalyst which ties every element at the club together. Once you understand that, it's easy to grasp that football matches are won and lost of the pitch. You can lose a game before you've even touched the football, and like I said above, the game is multidimensional, it's not all about the players on the feld; it comes down to how you utilise those players, how they are mentally prepared before the game, how those players are positioned and instructed, how you read the opposition and how you deal with their threats. Everything in football is won and lost because of one man's decision making and his thought process. With that said, let’s take a glance at football in reality and then we’ll begin to go through the mechanics of the game... A Dose of Reality Now, I can understand that the perspective of the manager being the real football hero may be somewhat disagreed with, so I will illustrate my point with an example based around reality. What we are about to look at is a very talented team which was completely undermined by their manager's inability to defne a tactical approach, utilise the resources he had at his disposal and his failure to adapt the team's tactical approach when facing a more astute opponent. By highlighting this, I hope to show you that even those with everything at their fngertips can fail dismally with the wrong approach. We’ll go back to the 2010 World Cup; England and Fabio Capello go into the tournament with one of the best collections of players to touchdown in South Africa. Tey have one of the world's strongest midfeld duos in Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, they have one of the  8 world's most talented and in-form strikers in Wayne Rooney, and a defence which featured the very capable John Terry, an in-from Glen Johnson and arguably the world's most revered left-back in Ashley Cole. Tis is a team with a world-class spine and plenty of talent around it; most of the players are in excellent form, the core of the team are champions at the highest European level and yet they perform in such an abysmal manner. How is it possible that this team couldn’t beat the likes of Algeria? Quite simply, Fabio Capello got it horribly wrong. Not only did his 23 man squad feature surprising inclusions and omissions, but he was also tactically inept for the entire tournament. Firstly, I want us to examine the team he called up and then we’ll go into the dynamics of his tactics and the reasons why his methods managed to lose England matches before they even hit the turf... Positions Players Called Up Goalkeepers Joe Hart, David James and Robert Green (allegedly the frst choice goalkeeper – although, only Fabio Capello knew if that was the case). Defenders Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Terry, Matthew Upson and Stephen Warnock. Midfelders Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Forwards Peter Crouch, Jermaine Defoe, Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney. If you look at the team it's got plenty of talent, but Fabio Capello has taken big gambles on certain players. Firstly, why call up a huge ftness risk in Ledley King or the ageing and outof-form Jamie Carragher, when he had options with Phil Jagielka, Wes Brown and Joleon Lescott? Obviously, Fabio Capello wasn't to know that Rio Ferdinand would get injured, but when you pick a squad you have to assume it's a possibility. Fabio Capello didn't even select adequate cover for the right-back position; he could easily have called up Wes Brown or Micah Richards (who was a revelation at right-back for England not so long ago) – both of whom can efectively play either as a right-back or centre-back, and both of whom were part of more successful teams in the Barclays Premier League that season.  9 Ten there are the likes of Michael Carrick, Gareth Barry and Joe Cole, who'd been out injured for a while or not played a lot of football. Carrick was out of favour at Old Traford and had been playing second fddle to the likes of Darren Fletcher; Gareth Barry went into the tournament carrying an injury and Joe Cole was out of form. As a result, England were completely lacking in the midfeld throughout the whole tournament. Now, there's no doubt that Joe Cole is the kind of player you’d take a risk on and Gareth Barry had added a solid core to the England team since Owen Hargreaves got injured, but this decision making left the midfeld massively unbalanced, with Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard playing together and no holding midfeld player able to cover the gaps they left in-between the defence and midfeld. Eventually, when Gareth Barry came into the team to plug the gaps, he was exhausted and far too unft to do the job asked of him – as a result, he was hugely disappointing throughout the tournament. Lastly you've got four forwards, all of whom are all completely diferent to each other. Now, variety is good, but it's pointless without the right system. Emile Heskey was called up and was frst choice – even though he lacked pace and composure in front of goal. Full credit to Emile Heskey for his work ethic, but the guy had no real place being in the team (his form was poor going into the World Cup and he rarely played for Aston Villa during the season) – his inclusion can only be down to his physical build – which proved to be a fundamental error, because England lacked potency not strength up front and Emile Heskey ofered nothing in that department. Taking all of that into consideration and not even addressing the omission of a left winger (in the form of Ashley Young or Adam Johnson), Fabio Capello had made at least fve selection faux pas prior to the tournament. Tat was something that dramatically hindered his ability to select a solid or versatile team when he was in South Africa – and that was a huge part of the team's poor performance on the pitch. If you then take a look at Fabio Capello's tactical plan, you can quite clearly see that he's taking even bigger risks in playing players out of position. Tere is no guarantee that a worldclass central midfelder will be good, decent or even efective as a winger – and this is the thing you need to recognise – the chain of events that occurred from Fabio Capello's frst decision to play Steven Gerrard on the left wing, so Gareth Barry could play as anchor man. Deploying Steven Gerrard out of position on the left wing nulled the team's threat on the fank. Instead of choosing to have a left footed winger (or even a right footed winger, who would at least run at the opposition's left back – and thus allow his own left back, in this case, Ashley Cole – to cross the ball), Fabio Capello chose to play Steven Gerrard on the wing. Steven Gerrard then (naturally) would constantly drift inside to the centre and end up out of position. When this happened a huge gap emerged on the left wing that Ashley Cole had to cover. Tat resulted in not only clogging up an already busy midfeld, but it lead to a massive  10 lack of service for a highly dependent and subsequently inefective Wayne Rooney – who was completely isolated and responded by dropping deep to fnd the ball. It’s these events that then caused two players to be out of position, as Wayne Rooney – who was the focal point of England's attack – was dropping out of position and ended up taking all pressure of the opposing defence (because without Wayne Rooney high up the feld, the opponents could push up and create even less space in the middle of the pitch for England to move into). Now, England have no left winger, have no forward and are facing an opposition defence which is compacting the space in the middle of the pitch – an area of the pitch where England have four players (Wayne Rooney, Steven Frank Lampard and Gareth Barry) occupying the space. Is it any wonder that Wayne Rooney didn’t score at the World Cup, why teams like Algeria were able to cause England so many problems or why England had an uphill struggle to get near the penalty box of teams who weren't anywhere near as good as them? What I'm trying to convey is this – Fabio Capello's decision making cost the team a good run in the tournament. I've only identifed one of his tactical mistakes, but I have highlighted the impact of the decision to play Steven Gerrard out of position. If you want more examples of Fabio Capello's ineptitude, you can look at the decision to play a tired midfelder (who was only just recovering from an injury) and not only that, but play him in one of the most important roles in the team (Gareth Barry, as the anchor man). Alternatively, you can look at the fact that Fabio Capello refused to adapt his tactics based on the way the game was being played out. He was completely ignorant to the other team's tactics; instead deciding that his own tactics and team were superior enough to thwart the ‘low quality’ of the opposition. By explaining the faws in England's game plan I hope what you can ascertain is that these decisions undermined a team featuring a number of the world's foremost players – and that is the measure of the efect that a manager can have on a game. On the other side you can example the likes of Valencia under the guidance of Rafael Benitez (or his frst season at Liverpool, where he won the Champions League, with a very average Liverpool side). You can also look to Carlo Ancelotti's impact with the ageing AC Milan or his impact with a failing Chelsea team – which had previously failed to reproduce the magic it had under the tutelage of José Mourinho. Speaking of Mourinho, look at his achievements with FC Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan – he's achieved three titles in separate leagues and Champions League victories with two of those clubs. As I've said previously – managers win games – and if you can understand that, you can start to look at how you can have an impact on the game. It’s not about downloading a tactic from another manager and grabbing yourself a lazy-man’s training scheme, it’s about taking some time to impact your own game – and the rewards for doing that far outweigh the time it takes to express a little efort.  11 - Chapter Tree - Approaching “Te Job” When you frst take over a new team it's often very overwhelming, unless you know the team inside out already. Tere's always a lot to get done and you nearly always forget something, so it's best to start looking at the new job as a step-by-step encounter. Take a step back from the workload and break things down into a few quick to-dos. It’s very important to take a few moments to get these things done, because believe it or not, things as basic as setting up training or scouting can afect how successful your reign as manager will be – after all, that's the job you're doing – leading, directing and training the players to work in the way you believe will reap rewards for the club. Here are a few tips and a brief walkthrough of my own 'new club' routine… I personally like to spend my frst moments looking at the team, assessing players, seeing who the best players are and how they would ft into a tactic. I like to spend thirty or forty minutes, simply trying players out in diferent roles and duties, getting a formation created and trying to fnd balance with the players I have at my disposal. From there I make a call as to who I can and cannot use in my team, then begin to move them out of the club and scout for replacements. I also use this time to setup set-pieces and get a basic framework in place for dead-ball situations – often this needs adjusting later on, but it's good to get the foundations in place whilst you're already working on your tactical approach. If I'm taking over a club who have just sacked a manager, I think it's important to look at how the team played before I arrived, view their prior results and the way their formation was set out. I use that as an indication as to not only why they failed, but as a way I can avoid the same pitfalls. My next step is to get the staf to work – sending the scouts out on tour and getting the coaches working on training schedules; making sure my staf team is of a high standard and making sure my training is at a high level. Tese are vital tasks because they hold an infuence over the quality of your team. If you fail to setup the training, then you’re likely to encounter injuries, players being trained in general areas (which means they'll improve attributes which can be useless to them) and even worse, you'll experience players dipping in attributes – which is the last thing you want to happen as a coach. If you don’t setup the scouting, you’re not going to gain scouting knowledge – which means you’re going to be solely reliant on your own player knowledge – and when you’re scouting for new players and you’re not being shown all the talent that’s on ofer, it's going to be a huge problem. Tese are two tasks which seem complex and tedious, but they don't take long to setup and if you take the time to get it right immediately, you'll not have to constantly adjust them later on.  12 Once the basic tactic, training and scouting tasks are done and you’ve gotten accustomed to the team, it’s always a good idea to fnish of tweaking the dynamic settings at the club. I like to go and make sure I have options with feeder clubs and parent clubs – they’re good resources, as they can aid scouting knowledge, give you an option for shifting a player who you want to keep (but won't be playing); you can also get good loan deals from parent clubs (which is always advisable prior to signing any players, as you might save some money by bringing in a loanee) and you have a number of scouting and recruitment benefts such as, getting around work permits, getting your youngsters experience and also getting coveted youngsters from linked clubs into your team; there's a lot of options and benefts to working closely with other clubs. Not only can you create ties with diferent clubs, but you can also setup a Youth Recruitment Network, which will really give you an edge when it comes to procuring fresh young talent – it takes a bit of time to get setup, but you only have to click one button and the rest is done for you. By this point, I'm usually ready to start playing matches and so I begin to work on the Match Preparation module. I fnd it best to have one formation and work with the “Team Blend” Special Focus Area, as it has the most beneft for learning. Once I've setup Match Preparation, I'll make sure the workload is nicely balanced with the scheduled training workload (see the “Understanding the Fundamentals of Training” section of the guide for complete details) and then I'll be ready to jump into the fxtures. Te most important thing to convey about this procedure is that it's all about how much efort you are willing to put into playing the game. Setting up at a new club takes around an hour to do; if you can't be bothered to spend the time doing that and would prefer to play the fxtures – that's perfectly okay, but don't expect the good results to come your way. As has been said, this isn't an arcade game; you are actually expected to manage the club, the team and the players – which unfortunately requires some efort on your part.  13 - Chapter Four - Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer Understanding players is actually very simple, but a lot of people take the wrong approach to scouting and player assessment, which is a critical mistake because the players are the key to you winning anything as a manager. Once you understand how players work inside the match engine, you'll master this game, because once you know how to read a player, you'll make the best tactics, you'll make the best judgement calls at half-time and you'll be laughing at how easy it was to do. Very simply, players in the game are created based on the following key areas: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Technical, Physical and Mental attributes. Hidden personality attributes. Current Ability/Potential Ability attributes. Preferred Player Moves. Position. Structure (age, height, weight, et cetera). It’s the way in which these key components mesh together and function with each other that defnes not only the player you have, but the type of player you can mould in the future. Let’s break the core of the footballer open and take a look at what makes them tick… Current Ability & Potential Ability Firstly, we need to quickly look at CA/PA, as it’s this which controls the value of every visable attribute a player has (and the ability they could have in the future). It’s a very easy concept to grasp, so here it is in a bit more detail… Current Ability is the measure of a player’s Technical, Mental and Physical attributes in the current moment, whilst Potential Ability marks the level at which a player can reach in those areas, as the player grows. Now, CA/PA is hidden from the attributes screen and the only way to get a good measure of it is to obtain scout reports on players (which is why it's important to get exceptional scouts). Tis information is useful, not only when scouting for fresh talent or deciding if a player has a future at your club, but it's also useful when training players, as it can give you a good indication of when a player has hit his peak and won’t improve anymore – thus making him potentially useless to you in the near future.  14 Understanding the CA/PA Attributes Current Ability and Potential Ability are both rated out of 200 (with 200 being the highest possible rating a player can have). Some youngsters are rated with negative PA attributes which range from -1 to -10 (-10 being the highest possible rating). Tese negative ratings assign a range which the player’s future PA will ft into. As a result, these players are not statically defned with a number between 1 and 200 – this makes these players much more promising prospects – as they have a wider span for growth. Here’s a quick look at how the ratings measure up… Negative Potential Ability -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 Expected Future PA (min) 170 150 130 110 90 70 50 30 10 0 Expected Future PA (max) 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 30 As you can see from the above table, not all negative PA is good. An excellent player ebbs above the 170 CA mark and good players ebb around the 140 CA mark, so the future ingame “Wonderkids” would have a negative PA of either -9 or -10 (or a fxed PA around 170200). Tey won’t always have big CA attributes, but that’s why they’re touted as future stars, because these players are all about potential, even if they're not displaying talent currently. Please note: CA/PA can also be attributed as '0', which would make the player’s CA/PA completely random. It’s important to understand that PA is not always a defnitive indicator of a good player. All these players need to fulfl their potential via training, tutoring and match experience. Players need good, benefcial training schedules, they need match practice and they need nurturing. If you fail to deliver a good standard of coaching to players with great PA, they'll not reach their potential and will ultimately be disappointing.  15 Please note: CA can also decline as well as rise. Once players have hit their peak, you'll start seeing a gradual decline in some of their Techincal and Physical attributes – although their Mental attributes do often rise as a result of their expereince. Also note: CA will decline if players are poorly trained, are being left out of the team for long periods of time, or with players getting serious injuries (thus getting no match practice). Whilst ageing players cannot recover their lost attributes, you can improve players who've lost their 'edge' because of injuries or a lack of practice, but be aware that, as time passes, players won’t improve beyond certain ages. Understanding and Interpreting Player Attributes From a numbers perspective, each attribute is rated out of 20. Tese attributes calculate into percentages, so for example: if we remove all of the Mental and Physical attributes from the equation, someone with a ‘10’ for Heading has a 50% chance of getting the header right. However, when we factor the Physical attributes into the equation, that chance will increase with someone who has excellent Jumping. Something very important to consider is that no player is perfect. A player with ‘20’ for everything will not be fawless – there are mistakes and errors in every player’s game. Te key point is this – the higher the attributes, the will lower the amount of mistakes that will be made. Attributes can be quite deceiving and understanding them comes down to three important factors: 1. Understanding each of the Physical, Mental and Technical attributes. 2. Understanding how attributes relate to each other. 3. Understanding the less obvious elements which function alongside those attributes. Don’t worry if that sounds overly complex, it’s very, very easy to understand. Basically, the way it works is like this: Physical attributes dictate the players mould (i.e. whether the player is a strong player, a quick player or an agile player), Technical attributes dictate how well a player  16 will do something (i.e. tackling, heading, marking) and Mental attributes dictate both the efectiveness of the other attributes (i.e. poor Composure would lower the efectiveness of a striker's Finishing) and they also control elements of the player's mentality. Let's take a look at point one – understanding each of the attributes, then we'll look at how they relate to each other and then fnally, we'll look at the less obvious elements which function with attributes. Defning and Understanding Attributes Te attributes in the game are labelled very obviously, but sometimes the interpretation is a little difcult to grasp; sometimes there are even elements which go unconsidered in certain attributes; so here we’ll take a look at all the attributes associated with the players, we'll defne how they function and we'll look at the way they theoretically infuence each other. Technical Attributes Attribute Corners Description and Efect Tis attribute indicates how well a player will execute a corner kick. It’s obviously important to get the best players taking set-pieces, because it can lead to a goal. Infuencing attributes: Composure, Technique, Decisions, Crossing. Crossing Tis attribute indicates how well a player can cross the ball into the box. Infuencing attributes: Composure, Decisions, Technique. Dribbling Tis attribute indicates how controlled a player will be with the ball, when he runs with the ball at his feet. Infuencing attributes: Balance, Agility, Acceleration, Pace. Finishing Tis attribute indicates how accurately a player will get a shot on target or how well placed that shot will be. Infuencing attributes: Decisions, Composure, Technique.  17 First-Touch Tis attribute indicates the rate of speed in which a player can control the ball and how closely a player can control the ball, when he receives possession. Infuencing attributes: Composure. Free-Kick Taking Tis attribute indicates the level of the player’s ability to take a freekick, be it a shot or an assist. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Passing, Long Shots, Finishing, Decisions and Composure. Heading Tis attribute indicates how clinical a player will be with the ball in the air. Infuencing attributes: Jumping, Strength. Long Shots Tis attribute indicates how dangerous a player can be shooting from distance. Infuencing attributes: Finishing, Decisions, Technique. Long Trows Tis attribute indicates how efcient a player will be when executing long throws. Infuencing attributes: Strength, Decisions. Marking Tis attribute indicates how well players can cover and null the threat of their opponents. Infuencing attributes: Strength, Composure, Concentration, Of Te Ball, Positioning, Anticipation. Passing Tis attribute indicates how skilled a player will be at passing the ball. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Creativity, Flair, Composure, Decisions. Penalty Taking Tis attribute indicates how efcient a player will be when taking this set-piece.  18 Infuencing attributes: Decisions, Composure, Finishing. Tackling Tis attribute indicates how skilled a player will be at dispossessing an opponent of the ball, without giving away a foul. Infuencing attributes: Aggression, Decisions, Composure. Technique Tis attribute indicates how refned a player will be in possession and how adept a player will be at playing difcult passes, making tough crosses or playing long balls. Infuencing attributes: Decisions, Composure. Mental Attributes Attribute Aggression Description and Efect Tis attribute indicates how aggressively a player will tackle an opponent and how frequently he will get involved in match events. Tis does not indicate how physically aggressive a player may be. Infuencing attributes: – none. Anticipation Tis attribute indicates how quickly a player can predict an event and react to a situation in the match (i.e. an interception, getting on the end of a through-ball, et cetera). Infuencing attributes: Of Te Ball, Positioning. Bravery Tis attribute indicates how fearless a player will be during tackles, headers or blocks in the match. Infuencing attributes: Decisions, Aggression. Composure Tis attribute indicates how calm and collected a player will be in pressurised situations or when he’s in possession of the ball. Infuencing attributes: – none.  19 Concentration Tis attribute indicates how long a player can stay focussed in a match. If this attribute is low it will lower the efectiveness of the player later in the match and will increase the chances of him making errors. Infuencing attributes: – none. Creativity Tis attribute indicates how gifted a player is at seeing an opportunity a less creative player would not see. It doesn't stipulate how efective a player is at exploiting the vision he has. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Flair, Passing, Crossing, Finishing. Decisions Tis attribute indicates how astute a player is at reading a situation and then making the correct decision. Infuencing attributes: – none. Determination Tis attribute indicates how driven and motivated a player will be to win on the pitch. Infuencing attributes: Work Rate, Aggression, Bravery. Flair Tis attribute indicates how skilled a player is at concocting creative and unpredictable manoeuvres to make opportunities out of nothing. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Creativity, Passing, Crossing, Finishing, Decisions. Infuence Tis attribute indicates how inspiring and motivating a player can be to his team-mates and how much impact he has on match events. Infuencing attributes: – none. Of Te Ball Tis attribute indicates how clever a player is at reading the game and then fnding space which allows him to receive the ball and exploit a gap in the opposition's formation. Infuencing attributes: Anticipation, Decisions. Positioning Tis attribute indicates how good a player is at reading a defensive  20 situation and moving into the best position to deal with that situation. Infuencing attributes: Anticipation, Decisions. Teamwork Tis attribute indicates how good a player is at working as part of a team and how good a player is at following instruction. Infuencing attributes: – none. Work Rate Tis attribute indicates how willing a player is to work and how much efort he displays whilst playing. Infuencing attributes: Stamina, Determination. Physical Attributes Attribute Acceleration Description and Efect Tis attribute indicates the rate of speed in which a player can instantly move from a standing position and reach his top speed (Pace). Infuencing attributes: – Agility, Balance. Agility Tis attribute indicates how much fexibility and range of movement a player has when moving, both with and without the ball. Infuencing attributes: Balance, Pace, Acceleration. Balance Tis attribute indicates how well a player can move and stay on his feet, how mobile he is in possession and how stable he remains when facing opponents or moving quickly in various directions. Infuencing attributes: Agility. Jumping Tis attribute indicates the distance in which a player can rise of the ground when leaping. A player's height, does not give the Jumping attribute a boost. Infuencing attributes: Agility, Balance.  21 Natural Fitness Tis attribute indicates a player's starting level of ftness, how much endurance a player will have over the course of a season and it can give some indication as to how susceptible a player may be to fatigue and injury when over-trained or over-played. Infuencing attributes: Work Rate, Stamina. Pace Tis attribute indicates the top speed a player will peak at when running. Infuencing attributes: Stamina, Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Dribbling. Stamina Tis attribute indicates how much endurance a player has in the match and how long the player can perform at his peak level throughout the game before tiring and becoming inefective. Infuencing attributes: Work Rate, Determination, Aggression, Natural Fitness. Strength Tis attribute indicates how adept a player is at holding of an opponent or ‘out-muscling’ them in physical battles. Infuencing attributes: - none. Goalkeeping Attributes Attribute Aerial Ability Description and Efect Tis attribute indicates how profcient a goalkeeper is at punching and catching the ball when it’s in the air. Infuencing attributes: Handling, Jumping, Agility. Command of Area Tis attribute indicates how often the goalkeeper will instruct the players in front of him and how often he will attempt to claim any crosses or passes in the box. Infuencing attributes: Aerial Ability, Handling, Communication, Jumping, Decisions, Anticipation, Positioning, Agility, Refexes.  22 Communication Tis attribute indicates how well a goalkeeper directs those around his box and how well he organises his defence. Infuencing attributes: Command Of Area. Eccentricity Tis attribute indicates how outlandish the goalkeeper is. With a high Eccentricity attribute, the goalkeeper will act more like an outfeld player and operate with a disregard for his duties (dwelling on the ball, dribbling out the box, rushing out to make challenges, et cetera). Infuencing attributes: – none. Handling Tis attribute indicates how good a goalkeeper is when in possession of the ball, how good the keeper is at catching the ball or holding onto it after a shot, and how frequently he spills the ball for rebounds. Infuencing attributes: – none. Kicking Tis attribute indicates the distance a goalkeeper can propel the ball with a kick. Infuencing attributes: Technique, Passing, Decisions. One On Ones Tis attribute indicates how profcient a goalkeeper is at stopping an opponent clean though on goal and how confdent they will be in stopping the opponent scoring a goal. Infuencing attributes: Acceleration, Agility, Rushing Out, Balance, Refexes, Anticipation, Decisions, Pace. Refexes Tis attribute indicates how agile, fexible and reactive a goalkeeper is when making diving saves. Te higher the attribute, the more likely it is that the goalkeeper will save faster and more difcult shots on goal. Infuencing attributes: Agility, Balance, Anticipation. Rushing Out Tis attribute indicates how well a goalkeeper will come of the goalline and claim the ball. Infuencing attributes: Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Refexes, Anticipation,  23 Pace. Tendency to Punch Tis attribute indicates how frequently a goalkeeper will punch the ball, instead of catching it – even when he can easily catch the ball. Infuencing attributes: – none. Trowing Tis attribute indicates how accurately the goalkeeper will be able to distribute the ball via a throw. Infuencing attributes: Strength, Decisions. Te Attribute Formula Te genetic makeup of the player looks like this: Technical attributes + Mental attributes + Physical attributes + Preferred Player Moves + personality attributes = the current ability of the player. When you’re in a match it’s a similar equation, but you add another formula to the initial formula: (Technical attributes + Mental attributes + Physical attributes + Preferred Player Moves + personality attributes) + position + role + duty + position comfort + preferred foot + morale + match motivation = efectiveness of player's abilities in the match engine. As you can see, there are a lot of variables to attributes, but you’ll learn as you read through the guide, that it’s not as hard as it seems to be. If you can learn the meanings of the attributes, learn which attributes work together and understand how to read a player's personality, then you'll fnd this game incredibly easy.  24 Attribute Logic So, you know what makes a player function, you understand the genetics of a player and you can see that a player is far more complex than a few obvious attributes. Now, you need to grasp how these attributes are linked and how you can logically tie them together yourself. Take for example: Trowing; this can be infuenced by Decisions because a player such as a goalkeeper has multiple options when distributing the ball and his Decisions attribute would question which player or direction his throw should aim towards. It's going to be a factor when it comes to a player throwing the ball because you want the goalkeeper to distribute the ball to the player in the best possible position to keep the ball or counter-attack. Tis is what I refer to as Attribute Logic – the understanding that one attribute is preceded and infuenced by another attribute in the match engine. Te match engine executes the player's attributes in sequences. It's basically, one big chain of events which calculate the Mental, Technical and Physical attributes. It is these reoccurring sequences in the match engine which decide how successful a player will be in diferent aspects of the game. To make it very simple, this is how it works for a striker who is getting ready to shoot... Te match engine calculates the attributes in this order: Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing. 1. 2. 3. 4. Te player's Composure attribute is calculated to see how calm he is in the situation. Te player's Decision attribute is calculated to see where he should put the ball. Te player's Technique attribute is calculated to see how the player executes the shot. Te player's Finishing attribute is calculated to see how accurately he'd take the shot. Tat's the very basic sequence before a player takes a shot. Tis should highlight the importance of the other attributes to a striker – because as you can see, if the Composure is low, he'll lower the chances of making the right decision. If the Decision is low, he might aim at the wrong spot or take the shot too early. If the Technique is low, he might not be able to execute the correct fnish (a chip shot – for example). Now, if the Finishing is low, he might hit the ball right at the keeper, but if the attributes which precede Finishing are poor, he might not even get the chance to execute the Finishing attribute at all.  25 So, how do we – (a) fnd a quality player based on the match engine sequencing formula? (b) calculate all the attributes in each sequence? Well, to use this formula for scouting and recognising quality players, you need to reverseengineer the attributes of (in this case) the striker. Te frst obvious attribute of a striker is Finishing - however, we now know that Finishing is the last attribute to be executed in the chain of events. Before Finishing is executed, you'd have Technique, Decisions and Composure. However, before all of those attributes are executed you have other attributes come into play frst. It can be very useful to be able to calculate a logic chain of attribute execution, as you'd have a much better understanding of the attributes which your players will need in their positions – this can make all the diference when it comes to role and duty assignment, scouting and training. To work out the match engine sequence, you have to make a logic chain to calculate which attribute would precede the attributes you know are important to the striker. If you've read the descriptions of the attributes above, you'll know that, First Touch, Of Te Ball, Work Rate, Stamina, Acceleration and Pace will all have a role to play because the striker will be moving around and looking for the ball (or running with the ball) before he gets into a shooting position. So, what you do is get an idea of which attributes will be involved in the sequence and then rearrange them to make the sequence (and thus understand which are the most important attributes for that player)... Te above attribute chain would be: (Finishing + Composure + Technique + Decisions) + First Touch + Of Te Ball + Work Rate + Stamina + Acceleration + Pace. If you breakdown and rearrange those attributes, you can make a chain of logic and you’d have the ability to see how goalscoring would work in the match engine. So, initially the player is looking for the ball to be passed to him... 1. Of Te Ball dictates where he moves and where he will be positioned when the ball comes to him. 2. Work Rate decides how hard he will endeavour to get to the ball. 3. Acceleration and Pace dictate how quickly he can get to the ball. 4. Stamina will dictate if he has enough energy to get to the ball as quickly as the Acceleration and Pace attributes will allow him to.  26 5. First Touch decides how well he will control the ball when he gets to it. Tis is that sequence of events: Of Te Ball > Work Rate > Acceleration > Pace > Stamina > First Touch. Say at this point, the player has the ball. Next you'd need to calculate the attributes which would decide how he used the ball, after collecting and controlling it. Tis would see you add Composure and Decisions to the sequence. Of Te Ball > Work Rate > Acceleration > Pace > Stamina > First Touch > Composure > Decisions. In this situation, Composure and Decisions will be triggered as the match engine will want to know how calm the player is when he has the ball and what he will do with the ball next. After the match engine has calculated the Decisions attribute, it will want to know if the player has the ability to run with the ball, pass the ball, play a complex pass with the ball, et cetera... Obviously, the amount of possible calculations are far too big to cover here – not that you could predict what a player would or would not do with the ball after receiving it anyway, there are too many variables. Still, it's irrelevant; at this stage you already know the beginning and ending of the sequence, which is all you'll need to ascertain which attributes are vital. So, let's presume the player has been passed the ball and controlled it when he's in the box; that would mean he's got the opportunity to shoot. Now, we've already worked out the shooting sequence, so we'll attach that to the build-up sequence and fll in any gaps so that it makes sense. Shooting sequence: Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing. Build-up sequence: Of Te Ball > Work Rate > Acceleration > Pace > Stamina > First Touch > Composure > Decisions. As you can see, the sequences slot together nicely... Of Te Ball > Work Rate > Acceleration > Pace > Stamina > First Touch > Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing. Now, some important points to note – 1. You only really need to know the last four or fve attributes in each sequence for every  27 position. Tere is no way that you're going to be able to calculate all the possible outcomes, because you don't know what's going to happen in the match and you're not going to be calculating just attributes, you'd have Preferred Player Moves to take into consideration, as well as morale, the difculty of the opponent, et cetera. Work out the latter attributes and look for them in players, this will give you a far greater chance of (a) fnding the best possible players (b) creating a team which is far more clinical. 2. Tis is my own Attribute Logic. I may not have added attributes into equations that you would; I may be adding attributes which I think are important and you do not. Te beauty of this is that it's your own logic. I'm just showing you how it works. You have all the attribute descriptions to help you understand the way attributes function, you also have a solid example of how the match engine sequencing works and you know you only need to calculate the last 4-5 attributes in the sequence to fnd the best players for each position – with all of that information, it will be very easy for you to reverse-engineer the sequences and put your plans for world domination into efect. 3. If you read the “Combining Duties and Roles” crib sheet or the attribute list above, you'll see that there are a lot of attribute links for each position – use those as a base, but still use your own Attribute Logic so you can factor your own theories against those suggestions. Also, pay attention to the in-game attribute hints because using those alongside Attribute Logic, makes this concept easy to implement into your game. 4. Tis is covered in more detail later, but remember to factor in how Preferred Player Moves will afect players. Tose PPM's can easily change the impact of a player's attributes in a match (imagine a left-footed winger, on the left wing, who has excellent crossing, yet has PPM's which dictate he cuts inside and shoots on his right foot). Player Personalities Player personalities are often completely overlooked, with managers instead preferring to focus on a player's numerical attributes, believing they're the only basis for deciding how suitable a player is for their team. However, there are a couple of reasons as to why it’s not advisable to ignore personalities. Firstly, a personality tag gives you an indication of the player’s hidden personality attributes. Secondly, it’s these hidden personality attributes which can be a decisive factor on the true value of a player’s visible attributes. Tirdly, they’re important factors for tutoring. Below I’ll cover the personality attributes and personality tags to give an indication as to what they mean and how they can afect a player.  28 Hidden Personality Attributes Attribute Description and Efect Adaptability Tis is the measure of a player’s ability to adapt to playing in a new country or their ability to learn and maintain a new position. It can afect the speed and ease of them settling into a new role. Ambition Tis is the measure of a player’s craving for success. It can afect his desire to remain at a club, which he doesn’t feel matches his ambitions. Consistency Tis is the measure of a player’s ability to perform well over the course of a series of games. You will usually see how consistent a player is via his form rating (if it's erratic, then his Consistency is low). Controversy Tis is the measure of how outspoken a player will be with the media. Determination Tis is the measure of a player’s willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed, on and of the pitch. Dirtiness Tis is the measure of a player’s stance on playing the game fairly. It highlights whether or not a player will break the rules to win games. Important Matches Tis is the measure of a player’s ability to handle pressure and perform in the big games. It can afect matches against big teams or matches in the latter stages of competitions. Injury Proneness Tis is the measure of a player’s ability to remain free of injury. It can afect the level of training he can endure before injury; it also afects how he responds to and recovers from bad tackles in matches. Loyalty Tis is the measure of a player’s desire to stay at his club. It can afect  29 whether or not he remains at his club when a bigger team or a more lucrative ofer comes his way. Pressure Tis is the measure of a player’s mental ability to deal with difcult situations. It can afect his ability to perform during the big occasions on the pitch. Professionalism Tis is the measure of a player’s attitude to work. It can afect his career longevity, his approach to training and his conduct on the pitch. Sportsmanship Tis is the measure of a player’s mentality towards fair play. It highlights how ethical a player will be on the pitch. Temperament Tis is the measure of a player’s calmness when involved in specifc match events – things such as tackles, fouls and bookings. Versatility Tis is the measure of a player’s ability to perform well in a role he's not comfortable playing in. Now, before we get into the defnitions of the personality tags and look at how they link to their personality attributes, it’s important to understand how they function. It’s also very useful to know which personality tags indicate the lack of another personality attribute. Te personality attributes work in the exact same way as the other attributes work. Tey’re categorised i ...