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The Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide

A Complete Strategy Manual To Master Virtual Football Management.

Written by Wonderkid. Copyright FootballManagerGuide.com and the individual authors, 2010.

The Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide is an unofficial 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 affiliated with Football Manager, SEGA or Sports Interactive Games. This product was created solely to inform/educate players of the game Football Manager how to become a better player. The 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

- Chapter One -

An Introduction to The Ultimate FM Walkthrough Guide

This 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 and know more about the way the game functions. In this guide well 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. The 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. FM doesnt evolve too much, but when it does, well update the material to reflect the changes (both in e-Book format and via online blogs) - this will allow us to always provide a complete and upto-date walkthrough guide to FM. The 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 (theres no use telling you something that you need to read twelve times in order to understand it, obviously). What we'd like to convey the most is that this has been published to help expand, not only the way people approach the game, but also the mentality when playing the game. This effect 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 effective 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 benefits from understanding it, you need to grasp the real concept of football management - and this is what the e-Book aims to provide. This e-Book is not claiming to be a Cheats Guide to FM nor does it guarantee youll win every match; but it does guarantee to stimulate the way you think about this game and offer 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. With regards to reading this guide - everything that is mentioned in this guide, be it tactics or training, Personality Traits, Team Talks or Duties, et cetera has its own section. So please be aware that I will not mention anything in this guide which you cannot find information on 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. There will inevitably be similar topics which arent immediately next to each other (because theyre involved in different stages of the game), but you can always open up the menu to the left and use those links to either scan the entire contents of the guide or 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 whos 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. This gives us the ability to create a guide 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 my blog - www.footballmanagerfanboys.net or our site - www.footballmanagerguide.com Of course, we will continue to update our e-Books to reflect any major changes in the future, but by offering 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). Wed even like to go as far as extending an open offer to anyone who feels they need more information, to simply send us an e-mail or pay us a visit and submit a request. With that wed try to cover any topics in blogs or articles and then will email you to let you know the material is available to read online. What Id like to stress is that were offering 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) will take time to produce and research, so please bear in mind that this is a voluntary service and as such, something we will provide when time allows us to do so. We dont want to disappoint anyone, so its important that

you consider that even though were selling this guide, its production doesnt allow us to abandon real-life work commitments (sadly). Author Notes Firstly, I hope everything is spelled correctly! There are over 43,000 words in this guide, so bare in mind that a couple of little mistakes may be found. I shouldnt have made any epic errors though - I have gone through the guide twice so mistakes should be at a minimum. If you do find anything which is glaringly obvious, let me know and I will correct it for the next edition (contact details are in the last chapter). Secondly, I have tried to make this as interesting and concise as possible, without losing the information I wanted to convey. Ive tried to break-up the wall of text with some tables, to better explain any instructions (obviously, this isnt possible with huge amounts of text) but if you feel the guide can be improved anywhere, have any tips or suggestions for the next e-Book - then please let me know. 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, Id like to think that every element of the game is covered in detail, but 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 either blog about it or write it for the next edition.

I will be reviewing the guide for next year (I am already thinking about other ways to format the e-Book for the next edition), so any additional feedback, commentary or critique it all helps. The 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 Ive started with here.

- Chapter Two -

The Philosophy of Football Management

This game is a simulation of a sporting reality. In order to define 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 dont need to learn anything from anyone else; but even the very best managers are learning all the time. So, from here on in, well take a look at the composition of real football and the way it's played, 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 Rooney is pretty impressive at times); its 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 - or as I like to call it home! Its 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 fighting 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 what the true fundamental value of success in football is. 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 midfielder - it's the intellect of the manager - how he plays those players and how he prepares those players. Youll have seen it yourself in both the game and in reality - an underdog chopping down a giant. Its not statistically possible that a player with a 20 for Finishing and Composure will have less success in front of goal than a player with a 15 for Finishing and Composure, but just like in the game, it happens in the real world too. How is it possible that talent and skill hasnt prevailed, when statistically everything points to that outcome? The truth is, football is much like chess. The 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, its exactly the same, but with living game pieces. The 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 games are won and lost off 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 field; 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, lets take a glance at football in reality and then well 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 define 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 adept opponent. By highlighting this, I hope to show you that even those with everything at their fingertips can fail dismally with the wrong approach.

Well 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. They have one of the world's strongest midfield duos in Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, they have one of the 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. This 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 levels and yet they perform in such an abysmal manner. How is it possible that this team couldnt beat the likes of Algeria? Quite simply, Fabio Capello got it horribly wrong. Not only did his 23 man squad feature some surprising inclusions and omissions, but he was also tactically inept for the span of the tournament. Firstly, I want us to examine the team he called up and then well go into the dynamics of his tactics and the reasons why his methods managed to lose England games before they even hit the turf. Positions Goalkeepers Players Called Up Joe Hart, David James and Robert Green (allegedly the first 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.

Midfielders

Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner and Shaun WrightPhillips.

Forwards

Peter Crouch, Jermaine Defoe, Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney.

If you look at the team it's got plenty of talent, but Capello has taken big gambles on certain players. Firstly, why call up a huge fitness risk in Ledley King or the aging and out-of-form Jamie Carragher, when he had options with Phil Jagielka, Wes Brown and Joleon Lescott? Obviously, 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. He'd not even selected adequate cover for the right-back position. He could easily have called up Wes Brown or Micah Richards (who was a revelation at RB for England not so long ago); both of whom can effectively play as a RB or CB, and both of them were part of more successful teams in the Barclays Premier League that season. Then 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 Trafford and had been playing second fiddle to the likes of Paul Scholes and 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 midfield throughout the whole tournament. Now, there's no doubt that Joe Cole is the kind of player youd 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 midfield massively unbalanced with Lampard and Gerrard playing together and no holding midfield player able to cover the gaps inbetween defence and midfield. Then eventually, when Barry came into the team to add cover, he was exhausted and far too unfit to do the job asked of him; he not only ended up being hugely disappointing throughout the entirety of the tournament, but he also forced Steven Gerrard (who was outstanding in the CM position in the first group match) out of his natural position. Lastly you've got four forwards, all of whom are all completely different to each other. Now, variety is good, but it's pointless without the right system. Emile Heskey was called up and was first choice - even though he lacked pace and composure in front of goal - credit to him 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 build - which proved to be a fundamental error, because England lacked potency, not strength up front and Heskey offered 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), Capello had made at least five selection faux pas prior to the tournament. That 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.

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If you then take a look at Capello's tactical plan, you can quite clearly see that he's taking even bigger risks in playing players out of position. There is no guarantee that a world-class central midfielder will be good, decent or even effective as a winger and this is the thing you need to identify - the chain of events that occurred from Capello's first decision to play Steven Gerrard on the left wing. Deploying Gerrard out of position on the left wing nulled the team's threat on the flank. 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), Capello chose to play 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. That resulted in not only clogging up an already busy midfield, but it lead to a massive lack of service for a highly dependent and subsequently ineffective Rooney - who then responded by dropping deep to find the ball. Its these events that then caused two players to be out of position, as Rooney, who was the focal point of England's attack, was dropping out of position and ended up taking all pressure off the opposing defence (because without Rooney high up the field 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 (Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard and Barry). Its little wonder that Wayne Rooney didnt score at the World Cup, and that teams like Algeria were able to cause England so many problems, whilst England had an up-hill struggle to string three passes together. What I'm trying to convey is this - Capello's decision making cost the team a good run in the tournament. I've only identified one tactical mistake, but I have highlighted the impact that single decision to play Gerrard out of position had. If you want more examples of his ineptitude, you can look at Capello's decision to play a tired midfielder (who was only just recovering from an injury) and not only that, but playing him in one of the most important roles in the team (Gareth Barry - DMC). Alternatively, you can look at the fact that 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 to the low quality of the opposition and gambled that theyd eventually come good.

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By explaining the flaws 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 effect 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 first spell at Liverpool, where he lifted the Champions League title, with what was a very average Liverpool side). You can also look to Carlo Ancelotti's impact with the aging AC Milan or his impact with a flailing Chelsea team, which had previously failed to reproduce the remarkable form it had under the tutelage of Jos 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. Its not about downloading a tactic from another manager and grabbing yourself a lazy-mans training scheme, its 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 effort.

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- Chapter Three -

Approaching The Job

Looking at the game as a step-by-step encounter is a far easier way to immerse yourself into a new club. Its broken up into a few quick to-dos and then youre immediately setup at the club. Its 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 affect how successful your reign as manager will be. Here are a few tips and a brief walkthrough of my own routine I personally like to spend my first moments looking at the team, assessing players, seeing what Im working with and what I need to change. I then tend to look at the tactics and begin to get a feel for how the team used to play under the last manager - as well as looking at results under that formation (if those details are available). From doing that, Im able to see what worked and what didnt work, and then I have a little idea of where I can start to make adjustments. My next step is to get everyone to work, sending the scouts out on tour and getting the coaches working on training schedules. These are both vital tasks because they hold an influence over the quality of your team. If you dont setup the scouting, youre not going to gain scouting knowledge, which means youre solely reliant on your own player knowledge - and when youre scouting for new players youre not being given all the talent thats on offer. If you fail to setup the training, then youre likely to encounter injuries and experience players dipping in attributes - which is the last thing you want to happen. Once the basics are done and youve gotten accustomed to the team, its always a good idea to finish off tweaking the settings at the club. I like to go and make sure I have options with feeder clubs and parent clubs theyre good resources, so its foolish not to make use of them - they can aid scouting knowledge, as well as give you an option for shifting a player who you dont need around the team, but may want to keep (feeder club); or they can give you the ability to get a good player on loan for next-to-nothing (parent club) - which is always advisable prior to signing any players, as you might save some money by bringing in a loanee. Once Im all setup, I like to so scouting. Usually by this point I know that Ill need to replace or acquire some staff or players, so I like to go out and get them as soon as I can. Time is always of the essence and whilst I might not have full scouting knowledge at my disposal, I do usually have the ability to find better options than

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what I currently have on offer whether at my club or on the player search screen. Now, I dont encourage you to rush in and buy players in haste; I think its important to have a good look at what you have, because Ive made the mistake of buying a dud, when Ive later found someone else I wanted and couldnt bring in so Id recommend that you scout and shortlist players before confirming bids. Generally speaking, once all of that is done, youre pretty much settled in. There are a number of things you can take a look at, such as captaincy and setting up setpieces, checking out the backroom staff and getting their assessments or having a look at your competition - to see what kind of issues youre going to come up against during the season. Things such as Match Preparation will need your attention, as will the individual players. Theres certainly a lot to do, but remember, whilst it is a little time-consuming getting everything setup, once its done you dont have to change it too much until you leave the club. So get it all setup, get to know your club inside and out, make the club operate the way you feel is best and get your tenure at the club off to a good start.

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- Chapter Four -

Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer

Players in the game are created based on four key areas of their build: Visible attributes (Technical, Physical and Mental), hidden attributes (Personality and Current Ability/Potential Ability), player traits (Preferred Player Moves) and their physical structure (age, height, weight, et cetera). Its the way in which these four key components mesh together and function with each other that defines not only the player you have, but the type of player you can mould in the future. Lets 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; its this which controls the value of every other numerical attribute a player has and the ability they could have in the future. Its a very easy concept to grasp, so here it is in a bit more detail Current Ability is the measure of a players numerical abilities (Technical, Mental and Physical attributes) in the current moment, whilst Potential Ability marks the level at which a player can peak in these areas. 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. CA/PA is represented in the game with star ratings (alternatively, you could cheat and look at them in the FM editor). Still, just because you cant see it in detail doesnt mean you dont need to understand how it works, because this information is useful not only when scouting, but when training players - as it can give you a good indication of when a player has hit his peak and wont improve anymore.

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). These negative ratings assign a range which the players future PA will fit into. As a result, these players are not stactically defined with a number between 1 and 200, which makes these players much more promising prospects, as they have a less static attribute for growth.

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Heres 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 in-game Wonderkids would have a negative PA of either -9 or -10, or a fixed PA around 170-200. They wont always have big CA attributes, but thats why theyre touted as future stars, because these players are all about potential.

Please note: CA/PA can also be attributed as zero, which would make the players future CA/PA completely random.
Its important to understand that PA is not always a definitive indicator of a good player. All these players need to fulfil their potential via training, tutoring and match experience. CA can also decline as well as rise, with players who have hit their peak seeing a decline in Techincal and Physical attributes, with players who are poorly trained or are being left out of the team too often, or with players getting serious injuries and declining across the board. All of those factors can impact on a players CA, which would inevitably see them fail to reach their PA marker in the future, if theyre still at an age where theyre able to fulfil their potential, of course because as time passes, players wont improve beyond certain ages.

{All of the information relevant to this is below}.

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Understanding and Interpreting Player Statistics Attributes can be quite deceiving and understanding them comes down to three important factors: 1. Whether or not you can grasp the dynamics between the three divisions (Physical, Mental and Technical) and how they relate to each other, 2. How you are interpreting Physical, Mental and Technical attributes, and 3. Whether or not you have a good understanding of the hidden elements which factor into the numerical attributes. Dont worry if that sounds overly complex, its 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 will do something (i.e. Tackling, Heading, Marking) and Mental attributes dictate the effectiveness of the Technical attributes (i.e. poor Composure would lower the effectiveness of a striker whos oneon-one with a goalkeeper). Now, a lot of managers would consider a striker to be weak if he has an attribute of 14 in Finishing, but thats not necessarily a true factor of the strikers prowess. Finishing is factored against Mental attributes like Composure, so if that player has a 14 in Finishing and 20 in Composure, versus a player who has 20 in Finishing and 14 in Composure, you dont have as clear-cut a decision to make as youd think. Composure dictates how calm a striker will be when executing a shot, so as youd imagine, its a vital attribute to a striker. Obviously, if a player is nervous, no matter how good he is at Finishing, his chances of missing the opportunity rise so give that some added thought when looking at players who you have at your disposal. Generally speaking, most Mental attributes are more important than the Technical attributes as Mental attributes influence the Technical attributes in some way (theres much more on this later on). From a numbers perspective, each attribute is rated out of 20. These 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 Mental and Physical attributes into the equation, that chance might 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 flawless - there are mistakes and errors in every players game. The key point is, that the higher the attributes, the will lower the amount of mistakes that will be made (significantly so, at times).

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Essentially, you should remember not to judge a player solely on what you perceive to be his key attributes; he might have something more to offer. Also, when searching for players, you should lower your expectations when looking for a specific Technical attribute because you could easily gain a better player with Mental attributes which could make a massive difference to the quality of the player you obtain. Now, these are the last factors which can have a massive, yet completely overlooked effect on the abilities of a player: the players personality, their Preferred Player Moves and their physical structure (age, height, weight, et cetera). All of these things can work alongside the numerical attributes, so ponder the effect height would have in relation to a Jumping attribute or how an Ambitious personality would work in tandem with a players high Work Rate. Defining and Understanding Attributes The attributes in the game are labelled very obviously, but sometimes the interpretation of the labels is a little difficult to grasp; sometimes there are even elements which go unconsidered in certain attributes, so here well take a look at all the attributes associated with the players and define how they function both individually and in some cases with each other.

The Attribute Formula Attribute Group Technical Description and Effect

Technical attributes are the measure of a players abilities to perform a specific manoeuvre. They are often influenced by Mental attributes.

Mental

Mental attributes not only indicate the mental composition of a players personality, but they also influence the success rate of Technical attributes.

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Physical

Physical attributes pertain to areas of speed, mobility and strength. They dont hold influence over Mental attributes, but can support Technical attributes in instances.

Goalkeeping

Goalkeeping attributes are (obviously) only useful for goalkeepers; but take note, these also function alongside Physical and Mental attributes - as well as some Technical attributes (such as First Touch, Tackling, Heading, Penalty Taking and Free-Kick Taking although they wont show in the game as Goalkeeping attributes replace them in the players profile panel).

Attributes function like this: Mental attributes influence most Technical attributes, Physical attributes influence a couple of Technical attributes (full details are below). The genetic makeup of the player looks something like this: Technical + Mental + Physical + Preferred Player Moves + Personality Traits + position= quality of player. When youre in a match its the same formula, but you add another formula to the initial formula: Technical + Mental + Physical + Preferred Player Moves + Personality Traits + position + position comfort + preferred foot + morale + match motivation = effectiveness of player in match. As you can see, there are a lot of variables to attributes, but youll learn as you progress through the guide, that its not as hard as is made out. If you can learn the meanings of the attributes, learn how to read players personalities and have a good idea of how to motivate your team, youll master this in no time. Technical Attributes Attribute Corners Description and Effect This attribute indicates how well a player will execute a corner kick. Its obviously important to get the best players taking setpieces, because it can lead to a goal. Other attributes such as Composure, Technique, Decisions can influence a corner-takers crossing abilities and subsequently the outcome of the delivery.

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Crossing

This attribute indicates how well a player can cross the ball into the box. Other attributes such as Composure, Technique and Decisions can influence the delivery of a cross.

Dribbling

This attribute indicates how controlled a player will be with the ball, when he runs with the ball at his feet. Other Physical attributes such as Pace, Acceleration, Agility and Balance will work in tandem with this attribute.

Finishing

This attribute indicates how accurately a player will execute a shot on target or how well placed the shot will be. Other Mental attributes such as Decisions and Composure will work in tandem with this attribute, deciding how effective the shot is.

First-Touch

This attribute indicates the rate of speed in which a player can control the ball - and how closely the player can control the ball - when a pass is played to him.

Free-Kick Taking

This attribute indicates the prowess a player has when taking any free-kick set-piece. It denotes the level of the players ability to strike the ball. Other attributes such as Technique, Passing, Long Shots, Finishing, Decisions and Composure can affect a free-kick-takers proficiency.

Heading

This attribute indicates how productive a player will be with the ball at his head. Other Physical attributes such as Jumping and Strength will factor into the success rate of a players headers.

Long Shots

This attribute indicates how dangerous a player can be shooting from distance. Other attributes such as Finishing and Decisions can affect this attribute; so can certain PPMs.

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Long Throws

This attribute indicates how efficient a player will be when executing long throws. This attribute indicates how well players can stick to their opponents. Other attributes such as Strength, Composure, Concentration, Off The Ball, Anticipation can affect a players marking.

Marking

Passing

This attribute indicates how skilled a player will be at passing the ball. Other attributes such as Technique and Creativity can influence how effective a pass will be in tricky situations or over a large distance.

Penalty Taking

This attribute indicates how efficient a player will be when taking this set-piece. Other attributes such as Decisions, Composure and Finishing can offer support to this attribute.

Tackling

This attribute indicates how skilled a player will be at dispossessing an opponent without giving away a foul. Other attributes such as Decisions, Aggression, Composure and Concentration can influence how effective a tackle is.

Technique

This attribute indicates how refined a player will be in possession and how adept a player will be at playing difficult passes, making tough crosses or finishing tricky shots. Unlike some attributes, this affects other Technical attributes, more so than being affected by another specific attribute.

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Mental Attributes Attribute Aggression Description and Effect This attribute indicates how well tempered a player is. If this attribute is low, the player will get involved in issues in matches and can find himself in trouble. This attribute can have an effect over other attributes such as Tackling and Marking.

Anticipation

This attribute indicates how quickly a player can predict and react to a situation in the match (i.e. an interception). Other attributes such as Off The Ball work in tandem with this attribute; whilst Marking, Tackling, Rushing Out and One on Ones can benefit from it too.

Bravery

This attribute indicates how fearless a player will be during tackles, headers or blocks in the match. Other attributes such as Tackling, Heading, One on Ones and Rushing Out can benefit from this attribute.

Composure

This attribute indicates how calm and collected a player will be in pressurised situations or when hes in possession of the ball. Other attributes such as Finishing, Crossing, Passing, Tackling, Rushing Out and One on Ones can all benefit from this attribute.

Concentration This attribute indicates how long a player can stay focussed in a match. If this attribute is low it can lower the effectiveness of all the players attributes later in the match. Obviously, this is a vital attribute for defenders, as a lack of Concentration will make them even more prone to making costly errors at the back.

Creativity

This attribute indicates how gifted a player is at envisioning an opportunity. Other attributes such as Technique and Flair work alongside this attribute, with Technique controlling the ability to execute the opportunity that a players Creativity recognises.

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Decisions

This attribute indicates how astute a player will be when looking at the options around him and then making a decision. This attribute is arguably the most vital Mental attribute of them all, as incorrect decision-making will affect all of the other Technical attributes.

Determination

This attribute indicates how driven and motivated a player will be to win on the pitch. This attribute can be vital in players as they will do whatever it takes to win games. Other attributes such as Bravery and Work Rate, will work in tandem with this.

Flair

This attribute indicates how creatively proficient a player will be with opportunities and manoeuvres. With this attribute, players are able to concoct creative and often unpredictable moves to create opportunities out of nothing. Other attributes such as Creativity can benefit from it, whilst Technique can dictate the effectiveness of it.

Influence

This attribute indicates how inspiring and motivating a player can be to his team-mates and how much impact he has on match events. High Influence can signal a good leader.

Off The Ball

This attribute indicates how well a player can operate without the ball. As the play develops around him, its essential a players movements allow him to get into good positions to receive the ball or offer support this attribute measures his ability to do that. Other attributes such as Positioning and Anticipation can influence this attribute.

Positioning

This attribute indicates how good a player is at selecting an area to move into when waiting to collect possession from a teammate, when preparing to tackle an opponent or when marking an opponent. Other attributes such as Anticipation and Off The Ball are linked to the effectiveness of this attribute.

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Teamwork

This attribute indicates how able a player is to work with his team-mates and how good a player is at following instructions from his manager. This attribute is important when creating a team unit rather than a club of individuals.

Work Rate

This attribute indicates how willing a player is to work. Other attributes such as Stamina will decide how effective a hardworking player can be later on in the game.

Physical Attributes Attribute Acceleration Description and Effect This attribute indicates the rate of speed in which a player can reach move from a standing position.

Agility

This attribute indicates how much flexibility and movement a player has, both on and off the ball. Other attributes such as Balance, Pace and Acceleration impact on efficiency of this attribute.

Balance

This attribute indicates how well a player can move and stay on his feet, how mobile he is in possession and how stable he is when facing opponents or moving around the pitch. Other attributes such as Dribbling and Jumping are affected by this.

Jumping

This attribute indicates how agile a player is in the air and how high he can jump. Other attributes such as Heading are influenced by this attribute. Height does not affect the match engine, it just links to the Jumping attribute.

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Natural Fitness

This attribute indicates how much endurance a player has over the course of a season and can give some indication as to how prone a player may be (although there is a hidden stat which dictates injury proneness). Other attributes such as Stamina will factor against this attribute. This attribute indicates how much speed a player will peak at when running. Other attributes such as Stamina, Acceleration, Balance, Dribbling are related to this attribute; although Dribbling & Balance only come into play when the player is running with the ball and Acceleration only factors at the start of a run.

Pace

Stamina

This 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. Other attributes such as Work Rate can be influenced by this attribute, whilst Natural Fitness can be related off the pitch.

Strength

This attribute indicates how adept a player is at holding off an opponent or out-muscling them in physical battles. Other attributes such as Tackling, Marking and Heading can be influenced by this attribute.

Goalkeeping Attributes Attribute Aerial Ability Description and Effect This attribute indicates how proficient a goalkeeper is at punching and catching the ball when its in the air. Other attributes such as Decisions can work in tandem with this. This attribute indicates how often the goalkeeper will instruct the players in front of him and how much he will attempt to win any crosses or passes around his area.

Command of Area

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Communication This attribute indicates how vocal a goalkeeper is around his box

and how well he organises his defence thus creating more of a defensive and organised unit at the back.

Eccentricity

This attribute indicates how outlandish the goalkeeper is. With a high Eccentricity attribute, the goalkeeper will act more like an outfield player at times, with a disregard for his duties (dwelling on the ball, dribbling out the box, rushing out to make challenges, coming for risky crosses, et cetera).

Handling

This 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 infrequently he spills the ball for rebounds.

Kicking

This attribute indicates how good a goalkeeper is at distributing the ball via a kick. This attribute measures the distance the ball will travel, whilst other attributes such as Technique and Passing will affect accuracy, consistency and distribution quality.

One on Ones

This attribute indicates how proficient a goalkeeper is at stopping an opponent clean though on goal and how confident they will be in stopping the opponent scoring. Other attributes such as Decisions will have an affect on this attribute.

Reflexes

This attribute indicates how agile, flexible and reactive a player is when making diving saves. The higher the attribute, the more likely it is that the goalkeeper will save faster and more difficult shots on goal. This attribute indicates how well a goalkeeper will come off the goal-line and claim the ball. Other attributes such as Decisions, Eccentricity, Pace and Acceleration will affect the success-rate of a goalkeepers rushes.

Rushing Out

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Tendency to Punch

This attribute indicates how frequently a goalkeeper will punch the ball, instead of catching it. Obviously, its not a clear-cut pro or con because some situations will require getting the ball out of the box by any means, whilst others will require a goalkeeper catching and holding the ball to maintain possession. Other attributes such as Decisions will affect this attribute.

Throwing

This attribute indicates how skilled the goalkeeper will be at distributing the ball via a throw. This attribute measures the accuracy of the throw, whilst other attributes such as Strength will measure the distance a throw will reach.

Attribute Logic One more thing to note about these attributes is how you can logically tie them together - for example, Throwing can also be influenced by Decisions (even though its not listed as a direct attribute), because a goalkeeper has multiple options when distributing the ball and his Decisions attribute would question which player or direction his throw should aim towards; Eccentricity could affect a goalkeeper during a set-piece, where he gets a rush of blood to the head and does something ridiculous. Basically, give some consideration to what you believe could also influence each attribute and use that theory when scouting players or selecting your team, because theres a lot more to players than meets the eye. I have to be pragmatic and not spout unproven theory, so its important for you to realise that there could be other influences to attributes but they wont all be mentioned you do have the full descriptions though, so once you know the definitions of the attributes, youll find it easy to link them all together using your own logic. My own logic works like this: There are a chain of commands, they start from Mental attributes and then trigger Technical attributes; the Physical attributes act more like a bonus (most of the time). Now, say for example, I wanted to find a clinical striker, Id reverse-engineer the process of a player scoring a goal

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The first obvious attribute of goalscoring is Finishing - however, Finishing is the last attribute to be executed in the chain of events. Before Finishing is executed, you have Composure, Decisions, Technique (and - if the ball is aerial Heading); before all of those attributes are executed you have other attributes come into play to decide positioning: First Touch, Off the Ball, Positioning, Work Rate, Stamina, Balance, Acceleration, Pace and so on Basically, to work out the match engine, you have to make a logic chain to see how the attributes trigger each other (by reversing the logic you used to understand which attributes were required, and then subsequently rearranging them to show you the chain of events between attributes and which attributes are the most vital, in any given scenario). The above attribute chain would be (Finishing + Composure + Decisions + Technique + Heading) + ( First Touch + Off the Ball + Positioning + Work Rate + Stamina + Acceleration + Pace + Balance). If you breakdown and reverse-engineer those attributes, you can make a chain of logic and youd have the ability to see how goalscoring would work in the match engine. So, the player is looking for the ball to be passed to him, Positioning and Off the Ball dictate where he moves and where he will be positioned when the ball comes to him. Work Rate decides how hard he will work to get to the ball, whilst Stamina will dictate if he has the ability to perform at full ability when trying to get to the ball. Acceleration and Pace dictate how quickly he can get to the ball; Balance and First Touch dictate how well he will control the ball when he gets to it. In this situation, Composure and Decisions will be triggered twice, as the match engine will want to know if the player is calm when under pressure and what he will do with the ball. So far, we have this logic chain to describe the events that have gotten the player to this point Positioning > Off the Ball > Work Rate > Stamina > Acceleration > Pace > Balance > First Touch > Composure > Decisions. Now, they can be moved around slightly (you could argue Off the Ball would come before Positioning, First Touch comes before Balance, et cetera), but generally thats

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the chain of triggers which calculates how a player moves into position to get the ball, receives the ball and controls the ball. Well assume the player is in the box, so wed just need to calculate a shooting logic chain and tie it to the previous build-up logic chain. With the player in a shooting position, about to take a shot, youd have the following chain of events Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing. Tie that chain to the previous and you have this chain of logic for build-up and shooting Positioning > Off the Ball > Work Rate > Stamina > Acceleration > Pace > Balance > First Touch > Composure > Decisions > Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing.

What youll notice is that some of the attributes appear twice thats because the match engine is always calculating possible outcomes and Mental attributes are always being called into question. This highlights the importance of Mental attributes, because as you can see, they are the first thing to be calculated, if they dont work out, you dont even get to use the Technical attributes.
Obviously, its important to point out that this is one chain of events and whilst youll now be tempted to find players with all of these attributes - its pointless - because every scenario will call into question attributes which arent really important to that player; for example, what if the player had to win the ball instead of getting the ball played to him? That would remove this logic Positioning > Off the Ball > Work Rate > Stamina > Acceleration > Pace > Balance > First Touch > Composure > Decisions > and replace it with this logic Positioning > Off the Ball > Work Rate > Stamina > Acceleration > Pace > Composure > Aggression > Decisions > Balance > Tackling > Positioning > Composure > Decisions >

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What you will see is that you cannot factor every single element into the game; youd never be able to predict all the variables to do so, because you dont know whats going to happen in the game or which situations a player will find himself in before his chain of events start. You can however, take the definite events that will occur and use them to put the best player in that position. So, for example, the best possible thing to do is take the very latter part of the chain in this case for a forward - and use that to get a player with the very best attributes for that situation Composure > Decisions > Technique > Finishing This will always be calculated before a shot; so make sure that whatever happens before the shot, at the very least, when the forward has the chance to get a shot on goal, he has the best ability to take that opportunity.

You can and should apply this logic to every player you review. Theres a lot of information in this e-Book which will give you attributes and their descriptions, so use those, learn them and then use their meaning to create logic chains for every position. Of course, as you read on, youll see the Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Scouting section of this book, and in there are a lot of attribute links for each position but you should still use attribute logic so you can factor in anything that I might not have included after all, Im just one man, I cannot think of everything!
Player Personalities Player personalities are often overlooked completely, with managers instead preferring to focus on the numerical attributes and solely use those as a basis for deciding how suitable a player is for their team. However, there are a couple of reasons as to why its not advisable to ignore personalities. Firstly, a Personality Trait (or tag) gives you an indication of the players hidden personality attributes. Secondly, its these hidden personality attributes that can be a decisive factor on the true value of a players visible attributes. Thirdly, theyre important factors for tutoring which is covered later on. Below Ill cover the Personality attributes and Personality Traits to give an indication as to what they mean and how they can affect the player.

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Hidden Personality Attributes Attribute Adaptability Description and Effect This is the measure of a players ability to play comfortably in different situations. It can affect the speed and ease of in playing in a new country or at a new club, and settling in.

Ambition

This is the measure of a players craving for success. It can affect his desire to remain at a club which he doesnt feel matches his ambitions.

Consistency

This is the measure of a players ability to perform well over the course of a series of games. It can affect his form rating (which can determine how consistent a player may be). This is the measure of how outspoken or frictional a player will be with the media. It can affect how troublesome a player will be for his club.

Controversy

Determination

This is the measure of a players willingness to do whatever it takes to win. It can affect his desire on the pitch and can come into play in certain matches.

Dirtiness

This is the measure of a players ethical stance on playing the game fairly. It can affect the way he handles himself on the pitch, much like Sportsmanship does.

Important Matches

This is the measure of a players ability to handle pressure and perform in the big games. It can affect matches against big teams or matches in the latter stages of competitions. This is the measure of a players ability to remain fit. It can affect the level of training he can endure before injury. It also affects how he responds from bad tackles in matches.

Injury Proneness

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Loyalty

This is the measure of a players desire to stay at his club. It can affect whether or not he remains at his club when a bigger team or more lucrative offer comes his way.

Pressure

This is the measure of a players mental ability to deal with difficult situations. It can affect his ability to perform during the big occasions on the pitch.

Professionalism

This is the measure of a players attitude to work. It can affect his career longevity and his conduct on the pitch.

Sportsmanship

This is the measure of a players mentality towards fair play. It can affect his conduct on the pitch.

Temperament

This is the measure of a players calmness. It can affect the players reaction to specific match events things such as a bad tackles or bookings.

Versatility

This is the measure of a players ability to adapt to a new position on the pitch. It can affect him when playing in a role hes not comfortable in.

Now, before we get into the definitions of the Personality Traits and look at how they link to their Personality attributes, its important to understand how they function. Its also very useful to know which traits indicate the lack of another Personality attribute. The Personality attributes work in the exact same way as the other attributes work. Theyre categorised into fields and ranked from 1-20 (imagine a fourth column next to Technical, Mental and Physical attributes). The difference is that these Personality attributes are so important that it would be unrealistic to show you them in great detail; instead, theyre displayed as labels instead of numerical values.

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Now, this is the complex issue behind the Personality Trait labels there can only be one label, so the most dominating attribute in a players personality will dictate which trait label is shown. So, for example, how would you tell if a player who is Temperamental has good Pressure attributes? Well, there is no definitive way in the game to ascertain which hidden attributes have which numerical values all you can do is exercise some logic. Obviously a player who is Temperamental, has such a poor Temperament value that his other attribute values must be less impressive. Therefore you can only really assess this player as a liability. Its not conclusive evidence that hes exceedingly poor in other areas, as he could have a 1 for Temperament and a 17 for Pressure - in this case, Temperament is a negative attribute, so the lower the value of that attribute, the stronger that trait will be. Now, because a negative attribute is the strongest Personality Trait for this player (and every player gets only one Personality Trait label), its not going to give him a different label to show his best attributes thats the overwhelming problem with players having bad traits, its impossible to tell how good their other traits are, and so, you only focus on the bad.

Fortunately, when I was looking to see if anyone had discovered any more rare Personality Traits in the game, I found some old FM10 test research at SI Games. Thanks to that, Ive been able to add some more indications as to which attributes are associated with each trait. Its not numerically specific because there wasnt any conclusive evidence on the differing values, but its definitely accurate enough to give you a clear-cut understanding of the dynamics of each trait

Personality Traits Trait Balanced Description and Effect This indicates that a player has a well-rounded personality. Its essentially someone who is not excellent in any specific personality area, but at the same time hes not inept in any area either. Its not really the most desirable trait to have in a player because the player lacks strong Determination and Ambition attributes, but at the same time, hes not going to have an adverse affect on the team.

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Born Leader

This indicates that a player is completely determined and leads by example. Its the kind of player every manager would want. Hes highly influential and has a strong effect on the players around him. Obviously its one of the best traits any player can have - especially a captain.

Leader

This indicates that a player is very similar to a Born Leader, but slightly less influential and less determined. Again, its an extremely desirable trait - certainly in a captain.

Model Citizen

This indicates that a player has an almost perfect personality, although not the best example of leadership material due to a lacking Influence attribute. This is a very determined and ambitious player who is also loyal, professional and is likely to be a very good sportsman. In my opinion, this is the most desirable trait to look for in a player. This indicates that a player is extremely pedantic with regards to Ambition, Determination and Professionalism. He is a player much like a Leader, but without the Influence. This is an extremely desirable trait to have in a player, due to their workethic, drive and professionalism. Players like this often work hard enough to hit their peak and stay at their peak for longer than the less professional players around them.

Perfectionist

Model Professional

This indicates that a player is extremely focussed and well tempered. This is someone who doesnt step out of line and instead focuses entirely on their game. Obviously a trait which is most desirable for managers who want to encourage a wellbehaved team, and whilst the player is more lacking in Ambition and Determination, these players often have the ability to have longer and better careers due to their exemplary Professionalism.

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Professional

This indicates that a player is a much like the Model Professional, but slightly less focussed on with their Professionalism. Again, not a trait that often signifies much Ambition or Determination, but it gives an indication as to how hard the player will work in trying to become a better player; its a great trait to look for in a player.

Fairly Professional

This indicates that a player is moderately focussed and well tempered. Again, its a watered-down version of the other Professional traits, but its certainly not undesirable to have players like this in the team even though they sound rather lackadaisical when compared to their counter-parts, theyre only slightly less professional than the others.

Level-Headed

This indicates that a player is quite balanced with regards to Sportsmanship and Professionalism. This player is rational and is unlikely to get into controversial situations or be overly loyal to a team based on his logical thinking; although it doesnt indicate much with regards to his temper. Its not a bad trait to have; its quite middle-of-the-road as far as traits go.

ShortTempered

This indicates that a player has a bad temper and is highly controversial. Hes going to be the worst kind of player you can look to have in your team, on and off the pitch. Its obviously a trait to avoid.

Temperamental

This indicates that a player is a lose cannon. His Temperament is extremely low and hes going to be a risk to the harmony of the team off the pitch, as well as a ticking bomb on the pitch. Obviously, its not a trait youd want in a player

Confrontational

This indicates that a player has a very low Temperament and is also a bad sportsman. On the pitch this guy is going to be a huge problem. Obviously, its not a desirable trait to have.

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Volatile

This indicates that a player is a potential risk. His Temperament is pretty low and there is every chance that he will cause trouble on and off the pitch. Obviously, its not a trait to look for.

Outspoken

This indicates that a player is controversial and is likely to speak his mind. This could unbalance the team, cause trouble in the dressing room or in the media. Its not an ideal trait to have.

Media-Friendly

This indicates that a player is the exact opposite of the Outspoken trait. Hell be quite savvy in what he says and is unlikely to cause many poor media situations. Its not the worst trait to have.

Reserved

This indicates that a player is quiet and calm. This player is very professional and not remotely controversial. Hes unlikely to do anything but focus on his game. Its a trait which would be good in any player.

Jovial

This indicates that a player is laid-back and cheerful. This player is great under pressure and has a fairly balanced Temperament. As a trait, its not the worst trait to have in a player, but its not the most sought after either. It can indicate that a player is a bit too relaxed to work hard, but it obviously has its rewards on the pitch in pressurised situations.

Light-Hearted

This indicates that a player is relaxed. This player is great under pressure, quite determined and also a good sportsman too. Its a trait which would be good in any player; its going to be a player who is good for morale.

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Spirited

This indicates that a player is upbeat. This player will be good under pressure, very professional and wont have a bad Temperament. A trait which would be good in any player.

Casual

This indicates that a player is too relaxed to get the job done. Hes not very professional and has poor Determination. Obviously its a trait to avoid.

Resolute

This indicates that a player is very determined and highly professional. This player is very focussed on the task and will be a great addition to the team.

Driven

This indicates a player who will stop at nothing to win. He lives, breathes and eats success. This player is far more determined than any other - which obviously, is a very desirable trait to have in a player.

Determined

This indicates that a player is very slightly less focussed on succeeding at the club than a Driven player. Its a good trait to have in a player because hell do what he can to win. This indicates that a player has average Determination. Not an undesirable trait to have in a player, theyre often slightly more ambitious than their other Determined counter-parts.

Fairly Determined

Low Determination

This indicates that a player is seriously lacking in Determination. Its obviously a very undesirable trait because it shows a lack of not only the will to win, but Ambition and Professionalism, amongst other things.

Easily Discouraged

This indicates that a player is completely void of Determination. Its one of the worst traits a player can have.

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Low Self-Belief

This indicates that a player has low Determination but is also very poor under pressure. Hes going to have no confidence and will undermine all his other numerical attributes as a result. Its a trait youd be looking to avoid having in the team.

Slack

This indicates that a player has low Determination and Professionalism. As a result the player will make little to no effort to train or play. Its a trait significant of a very lazy individual and would be something to avoid at all costs.

Spineless

This indicates that a player has low Determination and is poor under pressure. As a result the player will cower and crumble on the pitch. Its another undesirable trait which will undermine a players numerical attributes.

Iron Willed

This indicates that a player is extremely good with pressure. This player is also very determined and mentally strong. This is a very good trait to have in a player, if not one of the best, as hes highly unlikely to crumble on the pitch when you most need him to deliver.

Unflappable

This indicates that a player is good under pressure and has a good Temperament. Hes a mentally strong player and will be cool, calm and collected on the pitch. This is another fantastic trait to have in a player.

Evasive

This indicates that a player is very good with handling pressure and is very professional. This player will be strong and durable on the pitch. Again, another fantastic trait to have.

Very Ambitious This indicates how much a player wants to play and succeed at the highest level. Its a double-edged sword because a team with a lower reputation would struggle to hold on to this player

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- regardless of his Loyalty attribute but, the player will have a positive impact on the pitch, because hes aiming to get to the top. The desirability of this trait often hinges on whether a club can sign the player or keep the player signed to the club. Its a good trait for a manager at a top club to have, but for a manager who wants to hold on to his star player, its a curse.

Ambitious

This indicates that a player is obviously going to be slightly less ambitious than Very Ambitious players. These players are not very loyal to teams who dont match their ambitions. Obviously, its a trait which as mentioned above, has cons, but players with Ambition work hard to realise their objectives; thus meaning its a good trait for a player to have.

Fairly Ambitious

This indicates that a player is moderately ambitious, but slightly more loyal to the club. As youd expect, hes a slightly watered-down version of the Ambitious players. Again, its a trait which will signal a player will work pretty hard to achieve his goals and its an attribute which is good to have in any player.

Unambitious

This indicates a poorly motivated player. Hes not really someone you should look to buy, even if hes willing to stay at the team as a result of his lack of Ambition. This trait signifies a player who is unlikely to ever have enough gumption to reach his potential. With regards to desirability, its one of the worst to have.

Resilient

This indicates a mentally strong player who is fairly determined but very capable of handling pressure. Players like this are very strong characters and can be very effective on the pitch due to their ability to not give up and not be phased by the situations they find themselves in. A trait which very desirable in a player.

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Devoted

This indicates a player loves his club and would never wish to leave. Its as misunderstood as the other Loyalty traits, often highly valued, but when considered, its only an attribute youd want in a player who was a star. It sacrifices Ambition and Determination in favour of Loyalty and both of those traits are the driving force of the best players. Its an admirable trait, but not a trait that youd really want in a player unless you didnt wish to ever part with him.

Very Loyal

This indicates that a player is completely Loyal to his club, although not as much as the Devoted players. Its an attribute with merit when its held by a player who you absolutely need to keep at your team. If youre a big team, this attribute is relatively useless as its indicative of players with fairly low Ambition and Determination. Youd only want this trait in a player when youre at a club where the player could leave but you need to hang on to him.

Loyal

This indicates that a player is considerably loyal to his club. As above, its a good attribute for players at teams which need to keep the player. This trait has slightly less Loyalty and as a result, slightly more Ambition, which makes it more desirable than a Very Loyal trait, but still relatively useless to teams whod require a player to be ambitious and determined rather than loyal.

Fairly Loyal

This indicates that a player is moderately loyal. As above, its a good attribute for players at teams which need to keep the player. This trait has less Loyalty and slightly more Ambition than the Loyal trait, which would make it slightly more desirable than both the other Loyalty traits.

Honest

This indicates that a player epitomises what it is to be a sportsman. He has an exceptional example of Sportsmanship and as such will behave with impeccable behaviour on the

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pitch. As far as desirability goes, its nice to have an honest player but its not always the most rewarding trait.

Sporting

This indicates that a player is a fair player and will behave himself on the pitch, as do the Honest players. Again, its a nice trait to have but its not overly rewarding.

Fairly Sporting

This indicates that a player is moderately fair. He behaves himself on the pitch and is unlikely to get into trouble. As with the other Sportsmanship traits, its nice to have, but not overly rewarding.

Realist

This indicates that a player is very disregarding of Sportsmanship. Hes quite logical in the sense that Sportsmanship isnt an overly rewarding trait to have, so he doesnt opt to have it. With regards to desirability, its a trait with no benefits and an obvious con - the players lack of Sportsmanship could easily land him in trouble on the pitch.

Unsporting

This indicates that a player is completely devoid of Sportsmanship. Hes the John McEnroe of football. With regards to desirability, its obviously much like the Realist trait, but worse. Its not a trait youd want a player to have under any circumstance.

What you should consider is that these Personality Traits are indicative of the highest values of their hidden attributes; so for example, if a player is tagged as MediaFriendly it suggests hes better with Controversy than any of the other hidden personality attributes. Now, whilst Media-Friendly is a good trait, its not really beneficial to a player, because that means that Controversy the strongest aspect of his personality ahead of things such as Ambition, Determination and Professionalism as a result, we cant ascertain whether any of those personality attributes are very high in him.

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Again, remember that these traits are not completely indicative of the other attributes a player can have. Just because a player has a bad personality trait, it doesnt always mean that their other attributes are low, it just means that the bad attribute is overwhelmingly apparent and he good attributes are unknown. Now, you should also note that these traits can and do change with tutoring, so utilise tutoring to get the best out of a player who may be very promising, but is not showing suitable personality attributes.

{You can read all about Player Tutoring in the Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Training section of this guide}. As a side tip try for the sake of team harmony, to get as many of the players to have similar personalities. It can obviously, create a far better team unit and similar players will get on with each other a lot more than those with polar opposite personalities.
Preferred Player Moves As with the Personality Traits, there is another, often overlooked element to a player; in this case, its Preferred Player Moves - or PPMs, for short. These moves either indicate a players ability to exercise a certain manoeuvre or they relate to part of their on-field personality. Below you can see a description as to what each PPM label means.

Something important to note: Remember, just because a player has a PPM, it doesnt indicate he has the ability to execute the PPM; for example: Tries Long Shots is not indicating the player is good at scoring from distance - his Long Shot attribute does that; this only indicates that he attempts those shots. Also, give some thought to the PPM label a player has and then compare it to the attributes you think would pertain to the label - for example, the immediate PPM below highlights the dynamics of the Argues with officials PPM and how it would be affected by the Aggression attribute or the players Personality attributes. You do need to exercise logic when youre training PPMs or scouting players with these PPMs.

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Preferred Player Move

Description and Effect This label indicates that a player is highly likely to get involved in confrontations with match officials - which can result in being issued with a card. Couple this PPM with a poor Aggression attribute and/or a poor behavioural personality trait, and youll have a highly volatile player on your hands. Obviously, its a PPM to avoid.

Argues with officials

Arrives late in opposition area

This label indicates that a player will delay his entry into the box during an attacking move; hes going to look to hold his run and offer another option as he enters the box behind the first attacking wave of players entering the box - this can give the player more time and space on the ball in a key area. As youll be able to tell, its a big plus on some players and a con on others for example, this isnt a PPM a lone forward would benefit from having.

Attempts overhead kicks

This label indicates that a player will attempt acrobatic manoeuvres. This is only going to be effective with a good Agility attribute, a good Flair attribute and a good Finishing/Passing attribute (if shooting or passing the ball). This PPM does not suggest a player will be able to execute the move, rather than he is willing to try the overhead kick; which could easily be a con rather than a pro, if the player has a low skill ability.

Avoids using weaker foot

This label indicates that a player will only use his weak foot when he has no option but to do so. Its a PPM which has both pros and cons because the player is most likely to execute something far better with his stronger foot and therefore be more accurate and more effective, but it signifies a lower adaptability in certain situations (i.e. a striker running into the box, with a small area of space in which he can score, but only if he uses his weak foot. The chances are that hell refrain from using his weak foot and miss the opportunity).

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Comes deep to get ball

This label indicates that a player will drop deeper than his assigned position to pick-up possession. There are pros and cons because you might not want your lone striker dropping deep and taking pressure off the opposition defence, but its also very handy for players who have a great ability to utilise possession (i.e. players with good Creativity, Decisions, Technique and Passing attributes).

Curls ball

This label indicates that a player opts to curl the ball in certain situations. This can be very useful when players are taking shots, playing though-balls or taking set-pieces. Attributes which may influence this PPM would be Technique and either Finishing or Passing depending on the scenario. This label indicates that a player will act much like an Inside Forward and come into the middle of the pitch, instead of hugging the line and getting the ball to the by-line for a cross. Pros and cons with this should be rather obvious; you either want a winger to play like Messi or not. In terms of attributes, it depends on how the player is deployed. If the player is cutting inside and shooting, then obviously Long Shots, Finishing and Dribbling attributes would be more important than Crossing, Technique and Passing attributes. This label indicates that a player will control the game. PPM is most useful on players who have exceptional midfield skills (Passing, Technique, Decisions, Creativity, Off The Ball, Anticipation, Positioning). The immediate con would be that this PPM is useless, or even detrimental, in a player who does not possess the ability to execute it effectively.

Cuts inside

Dictates Tempo

Dives into tackles

This label indicates that a player has a gung-ho mentality to winning the ball. Its much like the Argues with officials PPM, with regards to it being a very negative trait on the wrong player. This player would need good Anticipation, Aggression and Tackling attributes to balance out his reckless PPM.

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Does not dive into tackles

This label indicates that a player has a more logical approach to winning the ball. Hes most likely to stand off his rival and wait for a good tackling opportunity to present itself. Its obviously a PPM with more positives than its opposite.

Dwells on ball

This label indicates that a player will be very comfortable in possession and will keep the ball for as long as he can. Its only going to be beneficial on players who have good Creativity, Composure, Decision attributes which all them to successfully hold the ball and release it without losing it. In terms of it being a con, if a player has this trait and youre playing a quick, direct tempo in your tactical instruction, its going to conflict with that mentality somewhat.

Gets crowd going This label indicates that a player has a certain influence over the crowd. This player will get the crowd pumped and will give the atmosphere a big boost in your teams favour when hes on the ball. Its obviously a big pro, if you consider the effect the crowd will have on the teams on-pitch morale.

Gets forward whenever possible

This label indicates that a player has a penchant for getting into attacking positions whenever he can. Obviously this can have a negative affect on players who are supposed to be defensively positioned at all times, but its certainly positive for players who youd want to get forward and get involved in the attacking game as often as possible.

Gets into opposition area

This label indicates that a player will endeavour to get into the oppositions box when he can. Again, like the Get forward whenever possible PPM, the merit of this hinges on the position of the player who has the trait.

Hits free-kicks with power

This label indicates that a player will strike a free-kick with power, rather than with finesse. Whether its more of a pro

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or a con is up for debate, but Id imagine power would have some influence over accuracy when striking the ball.

Hugs line

This label indicates that a player will stay out wide on the touch-line instead of coming inside with the ball. Its the exact opposite of the Cuts inside PPM.

Knocks ball past opponent

This label indicates that a player will put the ball past his opponent as he takes him on. With this PPM, its important to consider the players Dribbling and Acceleration attributes, as hes going to need good attributes to execute this PPM efficiently.

Likes ball played into feet

This label indicates a players preference to how he receives the ball. This player will obviously benefit from having the ball passed to him in a more comfortable way, thus resulting in a better outcome when hes in possession. This PPM signals that a player prefers to keep possession, rather than chase passes or deal with aerial threats around him, which can be a plus with regards to keeping the ball, but it can be a negative if this player is a key part of your team and you want to play a different style of football around him. This PPM is much more effective with players who have good First Touch attributes.

Likes to beat man repeatedly

This label indicates that a player has a penchant for taking players on when hes in possession. Again, like some other traits, its effectiveness hinges on the Technical attributes of the player, things such as Dribbling, Acceleration, Pace, Agility and Balance. Also, you should consider where this player is positioned and how he is instructed, because this PPM may not be ideal in a player youd preferred passed the ball rather than dribbled the ball.

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Likes to lob keeper

This label indicates that a player has a penchant for lifting the ball over the goalkeeper, rather than slotting it to the side of him. With this PPM, its important to have a player with good Finishing, Technique, Decisions and Composure attributes. Its not really a PPM with much sway as to whether its a pro or a con, given that its effectiveness comes down to the situation in which its implemented; although, in one-on-one situations this PPM could be very effective.

Likes to round keeper

This label indicates that a player has a penchant for going around the goalkeeper with the ball, instead of shooting first-time. Again, like the Likes to lob keeper PPM, the success rate of this trait would depend on the players Technical attributes, in this case Finishing, Composure and Dribbling. As above, its success hinges on the scenario in which the PPM is executed, but it would be most likely to increase goal-scoring efficiency in one-on-one situations.

Likes to switch ball to other flank

This label indicates that a player has a penchant for keeping possession by moving the ball across the pitch when the opposition become too tight on his side of the pitch thus attempting to get the ball into space for a team-mate to make an attacking move without the pressure of his opponents. As outlined, its a very useful PPM, but only effective when found in players with good Passing, Technique and Creativity attributes.

Likes to try to beat offside trap

This label indicates that a player has a penchant for anticipating and exploiting an attacking opportunity by timing his runs against the last defender. Its obviously a magnificent PPM to have in an attacking player, who has the ability to execute the PPM correctly. Players with this PPM would require good Anticipation, Positioning and Off The Ball attributes, whilst Physical attributes such as Acceleration and Pace would be an obvious advantage.

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Looks for pass rather than attempting to score

This label indicates that a player will opt to play the ball to another player rather than shoot. Whilst this PPM seems negative, it can have a big plus when it comes to getting the ball past the goalkeeper or last defender. Theres no obvious attribute tied to this PPM, other than Passing, but Composure, Technique, Creativity and Decisions would be beneficial in any player with this PPM.

Marks opponent tightly

This label indicates that a player stays close to his opponent when marking him. This is a much debated PPM, with regards to its status as a positive or negative trait. Ideally, players with this PPM will need good Marking, Tackling, Heading and Strength attributes; but, beware, these players can be duped by highly skilled opponents who have excellent and First Touch attribute, a good Anticipation attribute and good Acceleration.

Moves ball to left This label indicates that a player prefers to dribble on his left foot before foot. Its not an advantageous PPM, its more of a technical dribble attempt quirk - which can be exploited by the Show Player onto X foot trait.

Moves ball to right foot before dribble attempt

This label indicates that a player prefers to dribble on his right foot. As above, its not advantageous, its the mirror opposite to the Moves ball to left foot before dribble attempt PPM.

Moves into channels

This label indicates that a player likes to look for and exploit the space between the Full-back and the Central Defender. With this PPM, youre going to want players to have good Positioning, Off The Ball, Anticipation and First Touch attributes.

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Places shots

This label indicates that a player prefers to take shots in a more refined manner, than simply hitting the ball with power. With this PPM, youre likely to see an increase in accuracy, but attributes such as Finishing, Technique, Decisions and Composure will still affect the outcome of the shot.

Plays no through balls

This label indicates that a player opts not to play passes into spaces, instead preferring to play the ball directly to the player. This PPM can be both advantageous (with regards to keeping possession) but it sacrifices creative manoeuvres as a result. Its not really a PPM which would require any specific attributes to function, other than the attributes usually associated with midfield players.

Plays one twos

This label indicates that a player has a penchant for performing quick passing manoeuvres with players around him. Its a very positive PPM to have in a player, as it will be very difficult for defenders to win the ball in these situations. Attributes which would benefit this PPM would be Technique, Composure (in tight situations), Passing, Off The Ball, Anticipation and Creativity.

Plays short simple passes

This label indicates that a player has a penchant for performing simple passes to players near him. Its a highly beneficial attribute for players who are instructed to play short passes (tactically), but its obviously going to be an issue if your team plays a more direct or long passing game. With this PPM, the key attributes would be Passing and Decisions.

Plays with back to goal

This label indicates a players preference to play facing his team-mates. This PPM would suggest players would be more aware with regards to whats going on around them and would be better at receiving the ball as a result. The

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downside is that they then have to turn around with the ball (if they receive it). Attributes linked to this PPM would be First Touch and Positioning.

Runs with ball down left

This label indicates a players habitual running pattern. With this PPM, players will look to get down the flank and run at players. This PPM can define the type of player you have for example, a right-footed player who likes to run down the left, would typically prefer to come inside and shoot, rather than reach the by-line and cross the ball. Attributes which help to support this PPM would be Dribbling, Balance, Acceleration, Pace and Decisions; Shooting or Crossing and Technique attributes would need to be considered depending on the footedness of the player and the position he was occupying.

Runs with ball down right

This label indicates a players habitual running pattern. As above, it is the same style of PPM, except on the opposite side of the pitch.

Runs with ball through centre

This label indicates a players habitual running pattern. Unlike the above wider running patterns, the central pattern is slightly different. This PPM would indicate a player tries to run though the most occupied area of the pitch (the middle of the pitch); as such, this means that a player will need good Decisions, Creativity, Passing, Composure, Dribbling and Balance attributes.

Shoots with power

This label indicates that a player likes to hit the ball with pace, rather than with finesse. With this PPM a player sacrifices accuracy for power. However, with good Finishing, Decisions and Composure attributes, this PPM could offer both accuracy and power. Its particularly efficient alongside a good Long Shots attribute.

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Shoots from distance

This label indicates that a player is willing (and opts to) shoot from outside the box. This PPM can be highly effective in midfield players, certainly those with good Finishing, Long Shots, Technique and Decisions attributes.

Stays back at all times

This label indicates that a player is never going to go forward and support the attack. With this PPM, the defence remains stronger, but in instances such as corners, its often advantageous to have a big, strong aerial presence in the box which would be sacrificed with this PPM, as its mostly defensive players who have it. There are no specific attributes tied to this PPM, but Concentration, Decisions and Positioning would be good in a player whos sitting back; good Physical attributes would also be a plus.

Stops play

This label indicates that a player will hold the ball up when he needs to i.e. in situations when his opponents are massively outnumbering his team-mates. This PPM requires good Decisions, Composure, Strength and Passing attributes; as youll want the player to not only hold the ball, but also keep it and use it well.

Tries first time shots

This label indicates that a player will attempt quick shots in a bid to catch the goalkeeper off-guard. The pro to this PPM would be that players have an attacking edge, but the con would be that the shot may be rushed and ineffective as a result. Attributes that would aid this PPM would be Finishing, Decisions, Composure and Anticipation.

Tries killer balls often

This label indicates that a player will frequently attempt to catch the opposition off-guard with difficult and adventurous passes. As above with the Tries first time shots PPM, the success of this trait would hinge on the Technique, Passing, Decisions, and Creativity attributes of the player.

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Tries long range free-kicks

This label indicates that a player will attempt to score from free-kicks at distance. The pros of this PPM would depend on the ability of the set-piece takers Long Shots, Finishing, Decisions and Composure attributes. If the player has poor attributes, hed just waste the opportunity.

Tries long range passes

This label indicates that a player will attempt to pass the ball at range. As with the Tries killer balls often PPM, this trait would require exceptional skills to be successful. Attributes which would aid this PPM would be good Technique, Passing, Decisions and Creativity.

Tries tricks

This label indicates that a player is prone to using his ball skills as a vehicle to get past players. With this PPM, a player will need to be highly gifted with his Flair and Creativity attributes to successfully make use of this PPM. Other attributes such as Dribbling and Balance would be advantageous.

Tries to play way out of trouble

This label indicates that a player will attempt to get out of tricky situations using his abilities. As a result, players will need good Dribbling, Acceleration, Decisions, Balance and Composure attributes to execute the PPM successfully. If the player lacks these attributes, its very likely that hell lose the ball.

Uses outside of foot

This label indicates that a player will utilise the outside of his foot when passing or shooting. This PPM can offer the player another option when on the ball, so its obviously useful, but its effectiveness hinges on whether the player has a good Technique attribute or not.

Winds up opponents

This label indicates that a player will aggravate his opponents. This PPM can force the opposition to react

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negatively towards the player, thus resulting in them committing a foul or being carded. There are no attributes linked to this PPM.

Teaching Preferred Player Moves These PPMs can be taught and un-taught, but you dont have the ability to train your players to adopt all of them. Its very, very important to cull PPMs which arent suited to your players abilities doing this can radically change their ability to perform on the pitch. At the same time, consider teaching players with good attributes, PPMs which complement their abilities this can allow you to develop a better player - consider the combination of PPMs and how theyd work with each other (i.e. teaching a right-footed winger, with very good Physical attributes and good Finishing, the Cuts inside, Runs with ball down left and Tries first time shots PPM traits). Thats just an example of one extra dynamic you can add to a player. Think of PPMs as skill moves and begin educating your players on the art of executing them. Teaching PPMs to players is no different to working on a training schedule or the Match Preparation module, its all relative to player growth and its invaluable to you as a manager. Its also worth noting that some of these traits should only be taught to certain positions - for example, its a shocking idea to teach a Central Defender the Tries to play way out of trouble PPM - hed massively increase the risk of losing the ball in a vital area and conceding a goal although, generally speaking, if you follow the outline above, Central Defenders wouldnt have the attributes needed for that specific PPM anyway. To start teaching or un-teaching PPMs, youll simply need to engage the player in conversation.

{Theres a lot more to cover, but its not all relevant to this section of the guide, so see the Player Tutoring section to read how you can teach the unlockable PPMs and also how you can teach them without having to take up time in a players training routine}.

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- Chapter Five -

Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Tactics

With a multitude of options, the tactical creation side of the game is quite overwhelming, but once you learn the meaning behind certain settings, you can easily get to grips with creating your own effective tactics. With that in mind, we'll take a look at the fundamental elements of tactics and how you'd go about piecing your own tactic together. Tactics in FM are broken up into separate methods of instruction: Tactical Shape/Formation, Team Instructions, Player Duties, Player Roles, Player Instructions and Touchline Shouts. The immediate issues to deal with when building a tactic are your players. You need to decide how they're going to fit into your tactic or if you're going to build a tactic around what you have at the club. Sometimes, this decision is made for you, so it's best to review the squad fully and see what attributes your players have and how effective they'd be in a specific role; then begin to piece your tactical shape together and if you need to, hit the transfer market for some reinforcements. Formations The starting point of any tactic requires you to firstly assess your players and see who and what you're working with. After you've done that, you should have some idea of what kind of formation you're going to play. Most people tend to opt for the dependable 442, the more attacking 433 or the more defensive 451. These three tactics are the more popular shapes, but none of them have to dictate the way you chose to play the game. You could, for example, go with the 451 which offers strong defensive numbers and overcrowds the middle of the pitch (at the expense of attacking support for the lone striker); with that you could opt to be overly attacking and push high up the pitch - you don't necessarily need to sit back and counterattack or play defensively just because your formation suggests it should be a more defensive tactic. The overall thing to remember when selecting a formation is that you should take into account who you have in your team and the strength of those players; for example, if you don't have strong wingers, it's obviously better to deploy your team to work through the middle of the pitch, solidify the midfield and look to get the stronger players on the field - although, not at the expense of playing players out of

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position. It's highly inadvisable to play weaker players just because they fit your preferred formation - if you can't replace the weak players, look to create a shape which has balance, but also potency; dont give the weaker players a role which theyll struggle to impress in - give them minimal duties and responsibilities, and focus the tactic to get the better players more involved.
You should also remember not to be scared of getting creative or being less orthodox with your tactics - certainly if something doesn't work for you - you can always change it. Just consider that you need to create a realistic shape; it's important to ponder how easily your defence could be exploited, how well your players can get the ball from defence to attack and how effective the shape of the attacking line could be during an attack. The best formations have (and require) balance between the shape of the formation and the players in the formation. Philosophy Philosophy is a hugely important aspect of the tactical setup. It defines the behaviour of the players. Basically, a more Fluid style of play would have the players free to play the game more to their specific personalities; defenders would have more attacking freedom and attackers might come back more - much like the way Rooney plays in his free role at Manchester United - except the whole team would play in that manner. A more Rigid style of play would be the complete opposite to the Fluid style, forcing the players to do exactly what you've told them (this can have an effect on their creativity and improvisation). These settings will operate within the parameters of a player's personality though, so don't expect someone like Berbatov to start defending off the line during an opposition counter-attack, if you're set to a more Fluid setting; their Mental attributes obviously still come into play. With that said, lets take a look at the settings in more detail Balanced - This is your best option if you're looking for a middle ground between a Fluid and Rigid mentality. It gives you the ability to set your attacking and defensive duties on players without fear that they'll be too committed and will cause you problems when you're being counter-attacked or defending too deep. Utilising this setting alongside the player duties could allow you to assign a much more controlled setting to the players and the team - without the concern that players would be less effective than with a more Fluid or Rigid setting. With this setting you're able to see players effective in attack, but are still providing stability in defence.

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Fluid - This is a great setting for those teams with players who are good Off The Ball and have good Positioning. With this setting, you trust the players to play the game how they feel is correct, and you're giving them a much freer role to express themselves. They will start to play out of their position a bit more, preferring to move around rather than stay at their defined point in the formation. With this setting you're more likely to see more attacking verve and a more unified team in attack and defence, with the attacking players moving around to make space for each other and the defenders coming out of position a little more. Very Fluid - Obviously this setting is a more extreme variation of the Fluid setting with this encouraging a team to play more in a 'light framework'. They're prone to moving around a lot and staying within the parameters of their defined position, but they're pretty much playing off the back of their Off The Ball and Positional attributes. If you have players with exceptional skills in those areas, you're likely to see this setting be very effective with those players, but the big issue is that this team could fall apart if their attacking prowess is ineffective against the oppositions style of play. Rigid - This setting is a more demanding option for the manager to bestow on the player. It's basically telling them to follow the instructions rather than letting them do what they like. It's not to say that players will adopt a 'robot' mentality, they'll just be more cautious in what they do; for example, when a player attacks, another player will be more inclined to stay back and hold the space he's left unoccupied. With this setting you're more likely to see a team play a less attractive style of football, but you will find that this setting keeps players in their shape more than the less Rigid settings and that will give you more strength with a weaker or less creative team. Very Rigid - This is the Philosophy which stipulates that the players have absolutely no room to play the game any other way than they're told. You're essentially telling the players to maintain their shape at all costs, and you're drilling them to play the game your way. With this setting you're getting the benefit of the players sticking to their defined position and keeping the shape of the team. Players won't go out of their 'zone' very often and will rarely make overlapping runs or manoeuvres; which is very effective in defence, but not at all in attack (as you're going to be predictable in what you do in the build-up play). This setting is perfect for making teams harder to break down and generally offers the manager the ability to keep an 'underdog team' in a game a lot better than any other setting would.

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Strategy Strategy dictates the behaviour and mentality of the team, as well as the movement of the players and their positioning. It's not an overly complex setup procedure, so it's worth experimenting with in some friendly games, so you can see first-hand how the setting affects the team's approach to taking on the opposition. Strategy triggers the movement of the mentality and positioning sliders, which will create a different spacing system between each player for example, if the players were very defensive, they'd be much closer together - hence less gaps inbetween each player; if the players were very attacking, theyd be much further apart hence wider gaps inbetween each player. Attacking - The Attacking strategy is all about throwing yourself into the game and going for the win. It sacrifices the shape of the formation and positioning of the players, for the sake of constantly 'dogging' the opposition. It's best suited to teams who are playing a weaker opponent or when playing overtly defensive teams. This strategy aims to create as many attacking opportunities as possible by pushing the defensive line higher up and raising the creativity. It stretches the opposition wide by employing a wider width and a quicker tempo, thus creating gaps in their formation, which are exploited with direct passing and movement. Contain - The Contain strategy is effective for teams who need to throw everyone back into defence and hold on to what they have at all costs. With this setting youre revoking any attacking mentality for the sake of creating a barricade in front of your own goal. This strategy encourages the team to sit deep and cushion the blow of a heavy attack on the defence, forsaking any attacking mentality and easing the pressure on the opposition. Its ideal for teams who are under a lot of defensive pressure or just want to see out a result in the dying minutes of a game. Control - The Control strategy is the best way to keep possession and breakdown a team. It encourages a team to draw the opponent out of position by holding on to possession and frustrating them, then looking to exploit the space theyve just come out of with a pass. It's best suited to those who need to lure a team out of their defensive mindset or when you simply want to keep the ball but don't want to be overly defensive. This strategy sits the team slightly deeper, giving them more space to move the ball; it also drops the passing tempo in order to retain possession of the ball and complete less aggressive passes, as it waits to draw the opponent out of position.

The Control strategy is only effective when used sporadically. Its very intensive and will have an adverse affect if executed for too long.

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Counter - The Counter strategy is the best way to get the better of a team who are overly attacking. It allows the opposition to overwhelm you, whilst you wait to win the ball back and hit them with a very quick, very aggressive attack. It's best suited to those who need to defend but don't want to be over-run for the whole game or for coaxing a defending team out of their own position to come on to you, before you then counter them. This strategy keeps the team moderately defensive by dropping the defensive line and narrowing the width of the team to make the team harder to break down. This allows the team to stay solid at the back and wait for an opportunity to get in possession. Once the team has possession, the team immediately converts to a more attacking setting and a quick tempo. Defensive - The Defensive strategy does what it says. It's intended to be the best defensive instruction for holding on to a lead or for a more cautious style of play. It's more suited to teams playing away from home (against fairly strong opponents), when playing someone who's much stronger than you or when playing someone whos overly aggressive with you. This strategy keeps the team nice and compact by dropping the defensive line closer to the goal and narrowing the width to make the team harder to break down. However, the team will only attack when they have a glaring opportunity to do so, because the team will play with a much lower attacking mentality and a slower tempo. The main aim is to keep opponents under wraps and away from the goal. Overload - The Overload strategy is the exact opposite of the Contain strategy, as it looks to completely overwhelm the opposition with constant pressure and attack. This strategy encourages the team to sit higher up the pitch and disregard any defensive mentality for the sake of attacking the opposition. Its ideal for teams clamouring for a goal or against teams who are constantly defending. It's the epitome of Kevin Keegans Newcastle and their We'll score one more than you mentality - which has obvious side-effects when it goes wrong (Id love it if we beat them, Id love it! well, they didnt and he cried).

The Overload strategy is only effective when used sporadically. Its very intensive and will have an adverse affect if executed for too long.
Standard - The Standard strategy looks for balance in attack and defence. It encourages the team to maintain its shape and demands they pick their attacking moments carefully- rather than go gung-ho. It's best suited to teams who are playing against a similar opponent, or applied when going into a game you're unsure of (whilst waiting to see how things develop around you, before making a decision on how to approach the match). This strategy aims to provide defensive cover and

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attacking prowess in equal measure. As a result all the team settings are all set to the default average slider setting. Playing Style Defining the way your team plays is something you shouldnt overlook. These settings are affected by the other tactical options such as Duties, Roles, Team Instructions and so on What the Playing Style options allow managers to do is fine-tune their tactical approach and very easily correct any little issues which may be popping up in the match. Passing Style - dictates the way the team is more inclined to pass the ball. A direct passing style would give the team a more attacking, faster mode of transporting the ball, whilst a shorter pass is more advisable to keep possession. Default will allow you to have a balance between being quick to the goal and retaining control of the possession. Something to note: Passing Style and Tempo are linked together. If you play a short passing game, take your time on the ball. If you want to be direct, then play the game with some speed. Direct passing is intended for swift counter-attacking styles of play and short passing is intended for those who want to maintain possession and control the game. Creative Freedom - is much like the Strategy settings - it defines how much you trust your players on the ball. If you are concerned that they're not capable (weak attributes) of being productive without following your instructions to the letter, make them play a more disciplined game. Again, selecting the Default option will allow you to strike a balance. Closing Down - allows you to define the way the team will attempt to reclaim the ball. pressing more would bring your players out of position to go and make a tackle, whilst standing-off more would encourage the players to maintain their shape and wait for the right opportunity to win the ball back. Utilising the Default setting would allow a manager to have a varied style of closing the ball down.

Be aware, both of these settings have side-effects. If you close down, you're putting pressure on the opponent, but at the same time you're abandoning your position and creating space for another opponent to exploit. If you stand-off more, you're allowing the opponent to get closer to the goal and giving them the time to pick out a pass and retain possession, at the expense of you staying in your position.

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Tackling - allows you to dictate the manner in which the team will attempt to recover possession. Being More Aggressive breeds a player who will go for the ball as soon as he has the opportunity - he will dog the opposition. Being More Cautious will tell the players to hold their positions and not dive into a tackle this makes them tougher to break down or get past.

There are side-effect to both settings though: If you're overly aggressive (especially with players who have a low Aggression attribute), you're going to get cards in the match. If you're overly passive, you risk not committing to tackles and not getting the ball all the time. If you go with the Default setting, youll get a balance of being both aggressive and cautious, but you can still get slight side-effects of either option as a result of sitting on the fence.
Marking - defines the style in which you're going to keep the opposition under wraps. Man Marking keeps your players tracking their man, whilst Zonal Marking will have your players picking up a player who comes into their zone.

Side-effects with this setting would see Zonal markers having to mark more than one opponent - obviously resulting in players being unmarked. Whilst Man markers would get dragged out of position whilst trying to pick up their man. Again, the Default option is available which would allow you to strike a balance between both marking strategies but it will also leave you susceptible to the occasional sideeffects of both Man and Zonal marking, as a result of trying to do both at the same time.
Crossing - specifies how the man playing the ball into the box will attempt to cross the ball. Floated Crosses will be expected to arrive at the back post for a header, whilst Drilled Crosses will look for a man running to the front post. You can also select to play Default crossing, which will attempt to balance between the two options. Roaming - gives the manager the ability to tell the players to stick to their exact position or make some movements to find space around their zone. More Roaming is best suited to those teams who have good Off the Ball and have a good dose of Positioning. Stick to Position is advised for managers who want players to follow their instructions to the letter. Selecting Default will allow a manager to have players staying mostly in their positions, but sometimes venturing out to find more space.

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Specific Instructions Defensive Line - gives the manager the ability to dictate how high or deep the defence will sit when the team is in possession of the ball. The higher up the team plays, the more compacted the team will be in midfield and the less space for the opposition to operate within. The deeper the line, the less risk of being caught out with long balls over the top of the defence and thus, less chance of giving players one-on-one situations, at the same time as providing better cover for the goalkeeper. Width - allows the manager to compact the team or expand the space between players. The wider the formation - the more space for players to operate in. The more compact formations make for a tighter defence, as there is less space for players to move into near the centre of the goal. Tempo - can raise or lower the speed at which the players pass the ball. A quick tempo can force the opposition to chase the ball, thus making them tire quickly. It can also catch the opposition out, with them susceptible to being found out of position. A slower tempo can create better possession, as the team will make less mistakes by rushing and instead controlling their passing game. Time Wasting - allows the manager to set the urgency of the players decisions. The higher the slider is, the more the team tries to play down the clock; the lower the slider is, the more the team will focus on their tactical instructions. Wasting time is useful in the dying stages of the game when trying to hold on to a result. Too much Time Wasting (or triggering the setting early) will cause your team to be ineffective. Passing Focus - allows the manager to set the areas in which the ball will be played by the team. If youre particularly strong in one area or the opposition is particularly weak in one area, this setting can be very useful for exploiting the opposition. Counter-Attack - gives the manager the ability to opt to sit and soak up pressure before springing a quick attack on the opposition. The main danger is that youd be allowing your defence to be put under pressure, so youd need to be very well drilled at the back to make this an effective match strategy. Play Offside Trap - gives the manager the ability to order the defence into a uniformed line, which aims to step up and catch the opposition attackers offside.

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Player Roles Goalkeeper This role will see the goalkeeper act with the parameters of simplicity and low risk distribution of the ball. The goalkeeper will look to get possession and dispatch it away from goal to an unmarked player; but, if hes unable to dispatch possession to an unmarked player, he will simply play a long ball away from his goal. Sweeper Keeper This role will see the goalkeeper act with a dual mentality. When defending, he will aim to perform both as a Goalkeeper, but also as a Sweeper, in an attempt to offer more security to the defence, by sweeping up any loose balls in front of and around the penalty box. When attacking, he will look to trigger quick, counter-attacking moves with balls directly to players on the break. Sweeper This role will see the defender sit behind the defensive line and aim to sweep up loose balls. This role will allow more cover at the back as the Sweeper is able to pick up advanced or breaking attackers and has more time to ponder his tackles and interceptions. Libero This role is much like that of the Sweeper, but the Libero also ventures forward to support the midfield when the team is in possession of the ball. This defender has to be exceptional as hes not only the last line of defence, but hes also an extra attacking midfielder at times. Limited Defender This role will see the defender take up a very basic job. He aims to simply win the ball without committing a foul and then get the ball cleared out of danger. Central Defender This role will see the defender get more involved in keeping possession, as he not only aims to stop attacking players, but he also aims to keep the team in possession when he can; he will clear the ball up field, if hes unable to find his man. Ball-Playing Defender This role will see the defender act with a dual mentality. When defending, he will aim to perform all the tasks of the Central Defender, looking to win the ball and keep possession. When attacking, he will attempt to act like a Deep-Lying Playmaker, triggering counter-attacking moves from the heart of the defence.

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Full-back This role will see the defender get involved in both defending and also attacking moves. When defending, he will aim to cover the oppositions winger and keep the player out wide. When attacking, he will aim to perform overlapping runs and help the players in front of him overload the oppositions defence. Wing-back This role is much like that of the Full-back, but the Wing-back is also expected to play like a Winger. This defender usually plays on the flank alone, so he has to be extremely adept at not only performing as a winger, but also a defender. When defending, he will aim to close down his opponents and win back the ball- in both defence and midfield. When attacking, he will aim to get into the final third and deliver crosses. Defensive Midfielder This role will see the midfielder perform much like an advanced Central Defender. He aims to not only protect the defensive line by closing players down quickly, but he also aims to win possession and then hold it until the players around him can get into space. Deep-Lying Playmaker This role will see the midfielder act with a dual mentality. When defending, he will aim to perform similar duties as the Defensive Midfielder, looking to win the ball and regain possession. When attacking, he will aim to perform similar duties as the Advanced Playmaker, but he will instead initiate attacking moves from deep. Anchor Man This role will see the midfielder perform much like an advanced Limited Defender. He aims to sit between the defence and the midfield, making challenges and halting opposition attacks, but, he will only play simple passes to the players around him and he will rarely leave his position to either close players down or support the players in attack. Central Midfielder This role will see the midfielder in a position where hes able to get involved in attacking, defending and supporting moves - just not simultaneously, as he isnt able to perform such an enduring role. Ball-Winning Midfielder This role will see the midfielder act with a dual mentality. When defending, he will aim to perform similar duties as the Defensive Midfielder, looking to close down and win the ball. When attacking, he will aim to perform similar duties to the Advanced Playmaker, looking to keep possession and create opportunities for players in advanced roles. Box-To-Box Midfielder This role will see the midfielder act with a dual mentality. When defending, he will aim to perform similar duties as the Defensive Midfielder,

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looking to protect the defensive line, close down opponents and win the ball. When attacking, he will aim to perform similar duties to the Attacking Midfielder, looking to get up front to support the forwards with a late run into the box, and also attempt to hover deep to make room to receive the ball. Advanced Playmaker This role will see the midfielder or wide forward get into spaces between the opposition players and try to not only create space for his teammates to pass him the ball - in a bid to keep possession but, he will also fashion chances for his team-mates, as he looks to quickly exploit weaknesses in the opponents formation. Wide Midfielder This role will see the midfielder sit on the flank and aim to support everyone around him. Wide Midfielders are required to perform defensive and attacking duties out wide. Generally speaking, these players arent your archetypal Wingers, theyre more like Central Midfielders playing on the flank unlikely to be quick and dangerous, often relying on their Mental attributes to fulfil his role. Winger This role will see the midfielder hover out-wide and use blistering movement and ability to beat his opponent and to get to the by-line, in an attempt to concoct a crossing opportunity. Not to be confused with the Wide Midfielder though, they often are the Winger is much more like a wide Attacking Midfielder. Defensive Winger This role is much like that of the Winger, but this role will also see the midfielder pressuring the opposition wide defender and midfielder, with the aim to regain possession in a vital area of the pitch and then hit them on the break. Inside Forward - This role is much like that of the Winger, but this role sees the Inside Forward, drive into the box instead of to the by-line. The Inside Forward aims run directly at the centre of the oppositions defence and open up space for overlapping Full-backs who will then have space to cross; this can overload a defence, but beware, it can also end up with a player running into tight situations he cant get out of.

The Inside Forward is best playing on the opposite flank of his strongest foot, as he will shoot more often than cross the ball.
Attacking Midfielder This role will see the midfielder sitting higher up the pitch than an attacking-minded Central Midfielder. As a result, the Attacking Midfielder will not attack from deep and will require exceptional Technical and Mental skills to adapt to the lack of space around him. His job is to create chances both for himself and his

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team-mates, before the opposition close him down and remove him as a threat on the ball. Trequartista This role is much like that of the Advanced Playmaker, but this role will see the midfielder or forward operate with a complete disregard for defending. When attacking, the Trequartista will drop into holes and drift around looking for space. When defending, the rest of the team need to work harder to cover for his lack of defensive responsibility. Poacher This role will see the forward sit on the shoulder of the last defender, waiting for the opportunity to break free of the last man and get onto the end of through balls from the midfield. The Poacher generally aims to score as many goals as he can, and as a result hes rarely helpful when it comes to building attacking team moves. Defensive Forward This role will see the forward put pressure on the defensive line and chase down loose balls or defenders in possession of the ball. When defending, his aim is to stop the opposing defence having any time on the ball. When attacking, his goal is to keep things simple and to bring other players into the game, rather than create his own chances (thus, he can be very reliant on his teammates). Complete Forward This role will see the forward act in three ways: like that of a Deep-Lying Forward, a Poacher and a Target Man. The Complete Forward is technically gifted, as well as strong and powerful; which means he will not only score goals, but hes also looking to setup his team-mates and get in the right areas to finish off team moves.

The Complete Forward should not be tied down to strict instructions and would be most effective when given the Creative Freedom to play the game in his own way.
Deep-Lying Forward This role will see the forward link the midfield with the attackers. He aims to drop back into gaps in the opposition formation, collect the ball, hold up play and then supply the ball back into the midfield or wide to the flanks. Essentially, hes a hold-up man. Advanced Forward This role will see the forward as the focal point of the attack. He aims to stay high up the pitch and lead the line. When attacking, he will be required to both score and create goals. When defending, he will aim to chase clearances or loose balls, as well as win possession and keep the ball by passing to a team-mate or creating a crossing opportunity.

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Target Man This role will see the forward use his Physical attributes to gain an advantage over the opposition defenders. He aims to be a presence in the air and also on the ground, as he looks to create space and opportunities for those around him. Duties Duties set the mentality of the players and how they will behave as individuals. This allows you to not only create a completely individual tactic - avoiding or creating symmetry in the teams shape and movement - but it also aids you when it comes to exploiting a weakness or nulling a threat in an opponents tactics. Duties come in four different settings: Attack, Defend, Support (and in the wider positions, you can also select Automatic). You also have the option not to select a setting, thus keeping the player neutral.

Duty Attack

Description and Effect This will increase the amount of attacking manoeuvres a player will look to make. So expect more runs, more running with the ball and an increase of pressure on the ball from the players position.

Defend

This will minimise the amount of attacking moves a player makes; for example, players will not run with the ball and will not make so many forward runs. This encourages a player to stay back and keep in formation, making sure they focus more on defending than anything else.

Support

This will encourage players to hold their positions behind the more attacking players and offer them assistance ahead of the defensive minded players. They wont be as attacking as the Attack duty players, instead they will look to be more decisive, trying to break teams down with timed passes and through-balls.

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Automatic

This will trigger the most appropriate duty depending on the Strategy youve evoked. When the team attacks, the Automatic duty will adopt the Attack duty, when the team defends, the Automatic duty will adopt the Defend duty, et cetera.

Combining Duties and Roles This is quite a tricky department because youre mixing more elements into a players instructions, but its vital that you make these assignments, because it allows you to dictate how the players focus on their roles. Most importantly, you need to find a balance between the Role youve asked the player to undertake and the Duties you expect the player to fulfil in that role because the choices you make can have a big difference in how successful that player is in occupying that role and exacting those Duty instructions. Goalkeeper When set to a Defend duty and cautious tactical settings, the Goalkeeper will aim to clear the ball high up the pitch and out of danger. With more aggressive tactics, he will play the ball out to his nearest defender - in a bid to keep possession and work the ball forward. Sweeper Keeper When set to a Defend duty, the Sweeper Keeper will be extremely cautious and will only play counter-attacking balls when theyre possible. When set to a Support duty the Sweeper Keeper will venture just outside of his box and look to initiate counter-attacking passes more often. When set to an Attack duty the Sweeper Keeper will travel a considerable distance from his penalty box, dribbling the ball out into the defence, looking to execute that deadly pass. Sweeper When set to a Defend duty, the Sweeper will look to stay back and hold his position; secure possession and remove any danger that comes his way. Libero When set to a Support duty, the Libero will step into midfield where his team-mates have possession and will look to get the ball and then move it on to attacking team-mates. When set to an Attack duty, the Libero ventures higher up the pitch, aiming to provide a scoring threat from deep, as well as looking to create opportunities for his team-mates.

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Limited Defender/Central Defender/Ball-Playing Defender When set to a Defend duty, the defender will stay in line which his defensive partner, mark his opponent and simply look to stop the ball getting into the box. When set to a Stopper duty, the defender will break free of the defensive line and will attempt to close down players more often. When set to a Covering duty, the defender will drop a little deeper and act somewhat like a Sweeper. Full-back When set to a Defend duty, the Full-back will stay back with the rest of the defence and will make simple passes into space - rather than move with the ball down the flank. When set to a Support duty, the Full-back will support the midfield by getting more involved in the play and will look to cross or execute a through ball. When set to an Attack duty, the Full-back will be overlapping the midfielders and attempting to provide first time crosses into the box. When set to an Automatic duty, the Full-back will switch between attack, support and defence depending on the strategy employed. Wing-back When set to a Defend duty, the Wing-back will often stay in defence, but will still try to make crossing opportunities when hes not under defensive pressure. When set to a Support duty, the Wing-back aims to provide through balls from out wide, as well as provide a good crossing service. When set to an Attack duty the Wing-back aims to overlap down the flank and run create an opportunity to cross from the by-line. When set to an Automatic duty, the Wing-back will switch between attack, support and defence - depending on the strategy employed. Defensive Midfielder/Deep-Lying Playmaker/Anchor Man When set to a Defend duty, the player will look to hold his position and keep possession, although he wont attempt to get forward. When set to a Support duty, the player will then go forward and support attacking moves; he will look for both long shot and through ball situations which he can exploit as he moves the ball out of his half. Central Midfielder When set to a Defend duty, the Central Midfielder will sit in front of the defence and simply support his team from that position. When set to a Support duty the midfielder will look to sit in the middle of the pitch and get the ball to players in front of him. When set to an Attack duty, the player will get forward and into the box to support the forwards; he will also drift out wide to support the wingers and will generally look to generate opportunities for players in front of him. Ball-Winning Midfielder When set to a Defend duty, the Ball-Winning Midfielder will simply win the ball and give it to a team-mate. When set to a Support duty, the player will try to win the ball higher up the pitch and will get more involved in counter-attacking opportunities.

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Box-To-Box Midfielder When set to a Support duty, the Box-To-Box Midfielder will not only support the forwards, get into the box late in a bid to offer assistance and options to players in more advanced positions, but he will also get back to protect the defence. Advanced Playmaker When set to a Support duty, the Advanced Playmaker will look to move into the hole and support the midfielders and forwards. When set to an Attack duty, the Advanced Playmaker will run at the opposition from deeper positions, with the intention of crossing or creating a through ball situation. Wide Midfielder When set to a Defend duty, the Wide Midfielder will drop deeper and will cross from that position. When set to a Support duty, the Wide Midfielder will stay deeper and attempt to play through balls or a cross into the box from a wide position. When set to an Attack duty, the Wide Midfielder looks to play quick crosses from higher up the pitch, but not as near as the by-line. When set to an Automatic duty, the Wide Midfielder will switch between attack, support and defence depending on the strategy employed. Winger When set to a Support duty, the Winger will attempt to beat the players in front of him and get into a crossing position. When set to an Attack duty, the Winger will look to destabilise the opposition defence by running directly at them, in a bid to execute a cross, shot or a through ball. Defensive Winger When set to a Support duty, the Defensive Winger will close down the players in front of him and try to recover possession; in possession he will attempt to get past players and get in an early cross for the forwards. When set to an Attack duty, the Defensive Winger will look to destabilise the opposition defence by running directly at them, in a bid to execute a cross, shot or a through ball. Inside Forward When set to a Support duty, the Inside Forward will cut inside, behind the defence and look to create through ball opportunities or take a shot from distance. When set to an Attack duty, the Inside Forward will run far more directly at the defence looking to either shoot, cross or open up passing exploits as he moves towards the defence. Attacking Midfielder When set to a Support duty, the Attacking Midfielder will help out with defence by sitting deeper, rather than getting into the box to support the attacking players. When set to an Attack duty, the Attacking Midfielder looks to create opportunities and get in the box to bolster the attacking options.

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Trequartista When set to an Attack duty, the Trequartista is far less defensive than his team-mates and will be the focus of attacking moves. He will drop into the holes between midfield and defence, trying to find space when hes not in possession. Poacher When set to an Attack duty, the Poacher will sit on the last man, waiting for through balls to be played to him. He will always look to get into a central position for a goal-scoring opportunity, will run at defenders and will sometimes even cross the ball mostly though, hes rarely involved in the creation of attacking moves. Defensive Forward When set to a Support duty, the Defensive Forward will drop a little deeper into the midfield to put pressure on the oppositions Defensive Midfielder. When set to an Attack duty, he will press the defence instead of the DM and try to pressure the defenders into making mistakes. Complete Forward When set to a Support duty, the Complete Forward will look for space, run at the defenders, take shots from distance, drive out wide into the Wingers position and play passes through the defensive line. When set to an Attack duty, the Complete Forward will lead the line, looking to initiate attacking moves and create chances for both himself and his team-mates. Deep-Lying Forward When set to a Support duty, the Deep-Lying Forward will aim to bring team-mates into play before attacking the box from deep. When set to an Attack duty, the player will look to create chances for himself and the others around him. Advanced Forward When set to an Attack duty, the Advanced Forward will look to score and create goals, as well as chase down misplaced passes, win possession and pass or cross the ball for his team-mates. Target Man When set to a Support duty, the Target Man will look to win any flickons and will play basic passes to his team-mates to bring them into play. When set to an Attack duty, the Target Man will lead the line, draw the defenders to him and thus create space for his team-mates to exploit.

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Positioning Positioning is a very straight-forward area of tactics, but sometimes you need to put a player in a position that he is uncomfortable playing in. So, here are a few quick indications as to what the positioning indicators mean and how they will affect the player in each role Comfort Natural Description and Effect This indicator represents the players best position on the field. Any player occupying his natural role will be able to perform at his very best each time he plays in this role.

Accomplished

This tag represents the players second best position on the field. Any player occupying this role will be able to perform in a strong manner and will generally put in very good performances.

Competent This indicator represents the players most average position on the field. Any player occupying this role will be able to perform moderately well in this area, but its not suited to any player whod need to occupy this role long-term.

Unconvincing

This indicator represents a player out of his position. Any player occupying this role will be able to perform quite well, but only for a very short period of time.

Awkward

This indicator represents a player out of his comfort zone. Any player occupying this role will be able to cover in desperate circumstances, but will be struggling to perform anywhere near his abilities.

This indicator represents a player completely out of his depth. Any Ineffectual player occupying this role will be unable to perform and wont have anything but a negative effect on the team whilst in this role.

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Set-Pieces When you find that youre struggling to be clinical in front of goal, the importance of set-pieces becomes blindingly apparent. Dont waste opportunities by ignoring the setup of what could be a breakthrough moment in a match. Now, the set-piece module is not a radical way to improve set-piece situations, but its a good way to get an overview of how the set-piece is executed and where everyone will be positioned. Its not very fluid when it comes to positioning players, in fact its nothing more than a visual representation of the old set-piece setup, but you should still use it to get a good mental picture of how your set-pieces are being executed in the game. The first objective is to identify the best players at taking each set-piece: corners, throw-ins, penalties and free-kicks A good corner taker will obviously require good Crossing ability, as would a good free-kick taker (in-direct free-kicks). You need to consider which side a specifically footed player would be taking the corner or free-kick from, as it would impact on the trajectory of the cross. If you are looking for a free-kick taker who would be taking direct free-kicks, hed require good Long Shots and Technique, as well as Composure and Concentration. Throw-in takers should have a good Long Throws attribute, as well as Strength and Balance, to execute with precision. Long Throws are most effective in and around the penalty area. Penalty takers should have a high Penalty Taking attribute, good Finishing, and most importantly: Composure and Concentration. The latter attributes are very important to consider in situations when you dont appear to have a good technically gifted penalty taker.

Something to note with regards to set-pieces: Good execution is not only reliant on the Technical attributes of players. Mental attributes such as Decisions, Concentration and Composure will play a part in all set-pieces to some degree. After all, its useless a player being able to hit the ball well, if he opts to hit it in the wrong direction.

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Captaincy Selecting the right captain for your team can be the difference between having a strong team unit or not. Whilst youre the leader off the pitch, the captain is the leader on the pitch. As such, youre going to need the right representative to delegate instruction and responsibility to when youre not in full control of whats happening out on the field. When considering your captain, the main thing to look for is a high Influence attribute. Anyone with 17 or above here should be short-listed as a candidate. Your captain should be mentally strong enough to influence his team-mates. You can narrow down your candidates by viewing a players personality. A Born Leader is obviously the kind of man youre looking for, whilst Determined and Model Professional are also solid choices (depending on their influence attributes).

{If you refer to the Player Personalities section of this guide, you will be able to see how each personality would affect captaincy and which attributes would be best avoided (even with a high Influence attribute) when selecting a captain}.
Your choice of captain will not just affect the team in terms of them having a leader on the pitch, but it can also affect their morale, their motivation and can trigger psychological effects in players. Some players will not enjoy playing for a particular player, so its important that you ascertain which personalities you have in you team and how the captain will function alongside those personalities. The best idea would be to workout which is the most frequent Personality Trait and try to find a captain to match this way youve got a better chance of creating a team unit. Other important considerations could be how the players at the club view the captain, is your choice of captain popular amongst his team-mates? Would you be upsetting the team by removing the current captain or vice-captain? How long has a potential captain been at the club? Will your captain have a long future in the team? Dont forget to consider the players age and experience, it can make all the difference to install a seasoned captain rather than a rookie captain.

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- Chapter Six -

Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Scouting

Scouting is a relatively simple process - if you know what youre looking for, of course. You have a number of avenues to venture down, so dont forget to utilise all of the resources you have, its the only way to get the best possible squad. Its imperative that you assign your scouts to scour talent in other regions, as this will boost your Scouting Knowledge and give you a far bigger pool of players to scout or review in the transfer market or player search areas. Scouting Tips Firstly, you have a scouting section which allows you to assign your scouts to do some research in different areas of the world. This gives you a fantastically easy way to gather information on players and to possibly stumble upon a star, without having to do anything, but set the area in which you want the scout to search. This is something you have got to do in order to boost your global scouting knowledge, which is vital to the amount of player data you will be given in areas such as the transfer market. With this you could scout your entire home nation by assigning multiple scouts to look for players at specific ages groups and competitions in that region - or you could look for global stars by searching for age groups on different continents. Its always advisable to have as many scouts as youre allowed to employ and then have all but one of them working on scouting, whilst the spare scout checks out your next opponent. Secondly, you have the ability to look at any club and assign one of your scouts to review the player. This is a less effective way of finding talent initially because it takes time to go through the whole process (and of course, youre finding the talent yourself, the scout is just assessing the level of the player), but it allows you to determine more about a player before you make an approach which is something you should absolutely do there is nothing worse than investing in a player who is going to let you down. Thirdly, you have a player comparison feature which allows you to view the attributes of two players and see the contrast between them. This is something you should look to utilise frequently, as it gives you a better idea of which player will

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make the bigger impact on your team and it will also take emphasis off the attribute digits which can deceive anyone into thinking the player is better than he actually is. Fourthly, you have the transfer market. This is probably the easiest way to find players who are suitable for your team. Not only can you filter the players, but theyre listed in a way which makes it very easy for a manager to compare the players general details. Lastly, you also have the ability to filter the transfer market via positional attributes and roles (not the same as the option immediately above slightly different, but importantly so). This is the best way to detect talent any club has all at once and find a player to fill a specific role you might be looking for. If you combine the key attribute data for a specific position and filter it via the transfer market, you have a very easy way to dig out the best players in each role. If you couple the player search filtering with the tick-box showing your own team in the search results, youll get a good idea of how the listed players compare to those at your club. Building a Squad People often struggle to know who to buy and what positions to cater for. Its more confusing for people since the introduction of the new tactics creator and the more detailed positions/roles, but its a pretty simple process if you give it some thought. What youre looking to buy is variety. You want to buy a mixture of players who can offer you something different in each position this gives you adaptability theres nothing worse than the transfer window closing and you suddenly find that your formation isnt working very well and you dont have the right players for the new roles you want to employ. So, give it some serious thought as to what kind of roles youre looking for in each position and try to create a diverse team with players who offer you different options. If you need to, train a player in a new position this can also add versatility to the ranks. Also, dont forget to consider the three attribute categories in each position: Mental, Technical and Physical. Players who look weak in one of those departments could be strong in another this often gives that player something totally different to offer you. This also extends to Preferred Player Moves, although they can sometimes be adjusted with Tutoring (if the player is younger than 26 years old). Below is a brief outline of what you should be looking for

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Goalkeeper you're going to want at least three Goalkeepers in your team. You should look to have players who are capable of offering you versatility in their positions and this position is no different; so try to look for a general Goalkeeper or two, and someone who can play as a Sweeper Keeper or vice-versa, whatever you prefer to do. Defenders (centre) you're going to need at least five Central Defenders. Obviously there are different kinds of centrally placed defenders available: Sweepers, Ball-Playing Defenders, Central Defenders, Limited Defenders and the Libero. So remember to mix things up and buy players who will give you options at the back. You dont need to radically change your shape to alter the effectiveness of a specific position; just ponder what kind of versatility youre looking for. Defenders (wide) you're going to want to pick up four players who can play in these areas. Ideally, you will want two Wing-backs for each flank and two Full-backs for each side as well. If you opt for backup wide defenders you should try and get a versatile player for each flank (i.e. a player who can play both as a Wing-back and as a Full-back). Defensive Midfielders you're going to need at least two Defensive Midfielders or three, depending on the number of players youre looking at playing in this position. Defensive Midfielders, Deep-Lying Playmakers, and Anchor Men are the kind of players you might want to vary between but you may feel youd rather have an extra back-up Deep-Lying Playmaker, rather than an Anchor Man which is perfectly fine, if thats what works best for your team. Just consider the importance of variety in this pivotal position. Midfielders (centre) youre going to need four Central Midfield players, if you play with two in the middle - or three, if you play with one in the middle. If youre playing more than two, obviously youll need more cover so look for around five or six players. The roles you will want to consider are the Central Midfielder, the BallWinning Midfielder, the Box-To-Box Midfielder and the Advanced Playmaker. Most people look for Technical attributes in this area of the field, but remember, the Mental attributes are vital as well. Depending on your tactical shape, give some thought to how you want these players to move around the park and the impact you want from them - then factor that into the type of midfielder youre looking for. Midfielders (wide) youre probably going to need around four Wide Midfielders, depending on whether you use them in your team or if you prefer to play with a Winger, Defensive Winger or an Inside Forward. As with the Wide Defenders, you

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will want to factor in the versatility of the player and how flexible they are to that position. Attacking Midfielders again, the required number depends on how many youre playing in your tactic. You have two options in this position: the Attacking Midfielder or the Trequartista. The benefits of the latter is that a Trequartista can generally play up front too, so you have some extra cover for that position; but remember that these roles offer different things, so check to see what each role would offer to your tactic. Wingers just as stated with the Wide Midfielders, you'll want four wide men in total; either two Wingers, Defensive Wingers, Inside Forwards or two Wide midfielders, for each flank depending on your tactics. As with the other wide positions, try and find versatility where you can (i.e. a player who can play in both wide positions, and players who are comfortable on either flank). Forwards again, its a flexible position, so youll want to consider which variation of forward you need. You have several options: Target Man, Trequartista, Poacher, Defensive Forward, Complete Forward, Deep-Lying Forward and Advanced Forward. Youre only going to need around four forwards, depending on your tactical shape three up front would require around five or six forwards; one up front would require only three. Before settling on a player, consider their different roles and how they would work alongside another forward, as well as what each forward role can offer you in your tactic. If you follow those numbers, youll end up with a 26 man squad. Obviously, the extra goalkeeper should be relegated to the reserve team and loaned out to get some first-team action. Make sure you can call him back though - you dont want to be lacking options if one of the other two goalkeepers gets injured.

Something very important to consider is the art of developing players. This is described in detail in the Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Training section below, but to basically surmise the point you dont need to buy players for each position. You have the ability to train your players and make them learn new positions, new Preferred Player Moves and you can develop their attributes so consider that when youre looking at buying variety for your team you may not have to, if you have potential in your side.

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Discovering the Right Talent Not every player who plays in a specific position can carry out the same roles in that position. Some roles require players with more Technical ability, some require players with a stronger Mental ability, some require players with Physical ability. As you look for players or look to select a players role, pay close attention to the kind of player he is. Is he more technical or more physical; is he mentally strong enough to do an effective job in a specific role? As mentioned previously, finding talent is pretty simple, if you know what youre looking for. In the filter options of the transfer market you have the ability to search via position, role and individual attributes. What most people fail to recognise is that some roles are more advanced versions of another role within a specific position (in some cases, even altering the duty of a role can demand the need for a stronger attribute in another field) - as you can see below

{Make sure youve read the Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer section of this e-Book first}.
Position and Duty Goalkeeper (Defend) Description and Relative Attributes This is the basic goalkeeping role, with this role the player will perform only the basic goalie tasks. Players in this role will need solid Aerial Ability, Command of Area, Handling, One on Ones, Reflexes, Composure, Concentration, Decisions, Positioning and Agility.

Sweeper Keeper (Defend/Support/Attack)

This is the more advanced goalkeeping role, with this player looking to get involved in the game a lot more. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Goalkeeper (Defend) plus solid Communication, Eccentricity, Rushing Out, Creativity, Acceleration and Pace. With this role the One on One attribute would not be absolutely required.

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Sweeper (Defend)

This is the basic sweeping role, with this player looking to simply defend. Players in this role will need solid Heading, Marking, Passing, Tackling, Anticipation, Composure, Concentration, Decisions, Positioning, Acceleration, Balance and Jumping.

Libero (Support)

This is a more advanced sweeping role, with this player looking to get more involved with supporting duties, as well as maintain his defensive responsibilities. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Sweeper (Defend) plus solid Dribbling, Creativity and Team Work.

Libero (Attack)

This is a more advanced sweeping role, with this player looking to get more involved with attacking duties, as well as maintain his defensive responsibilities. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Libero (Support) plus: solid Long Shots.

Limited Defender (Defend)

This is the basic limited defending role, with this player looking to perform limited tasks. Players in this role will need solid Marking, Tackling, Determination, Positioning, Jumping and Strength.

Limited Defender (Stopper)

This is a more advanced limited defending role, with this player looking to perform limited tasks but also break down attacking moves. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Limited Defender (Defend) plus solid Bravery and Aggression.

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Limited Defender (Cover)

This is a more advanced limited defending role, with this player looking to perform limited tasks but also cover his defensive partner. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Limited Defender (Defend) plus solid Acceleration and Anticipation.

Central Defender (Defend)

This is the basic central defender role, with this player looking to perform the basic defensive tasks. Players in this role will need solid Heading, Marking, Tackling, Composure, Concentration, Decisions, Determination, Positioning, Jumping and Strength.

Central Defender (Stopper) This is a more advanced central defender role, with this player looking to perform the basic defensive tasks but also break down attacking moves. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Central Defender (Defend) plus solid Bravery and Aggression.

Central Defender (Cover)

This is a more advanced central defender role, with this player looking to perform the basic defensive tasks but also cover his defensive partner. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Central Defender (Defend) plus solid Anticipation and Acceleration.

Ball-Playing Defender (Defend)

This is the basic supporting defender role, with this player looking to get involved more in the game, as well as maintain his defensive responsibilities. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Central Defender (Defend) plus solid Creativity, Passing and Technique.

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Ball-Playing Defender (Stopper)

This is a more advanced supporting defender role, with this player looking to get involved more in the game, as well as maintain his defensive responsibilities and attempt to also break down attacking moves. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Ball-Playing Defender (Defend) plus solid Bravery and Aggression.

Ball-Playing Defender (Cover)

This is a more advanced supporting defender role, with this player looking to get involved more in the game, as well as maintain his defensive responsibilities and attempt to also break down attacking moves. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Ball-Playing Defender (Defend) plus solid Bravery and Aggression.

Full-back This is the basic Full-back role, with this player (Defend/Support/Attack/A looking to simply get up and down the flanks. utomatic) Players in this role will need solid Crossing, Marking, Tackling, Anticipation, Concentration, Positioning, Teamwork, Work Rate, Acceleration and Stamina. The different duties do not affect the attributes required.

Wing-back This is the basic Wing-back role, with this player (Defend/Support/Attack/A looking to simply get up and down the flanks. utomatic) Players in this role will need solid Crossing, Dribbling, Marking, Tackling, Decisions, Positioning, Teamwork, Work Rate, Acceleration and Stamina. The different duties do not affect the attributes required.

Defensive Midfielder (Defend)

This is the basic Defensive Midfielder role, with this player looking to simply defend and cover the defence from midfield. Players in this role will

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need solid Marking, Tackling, Concentration, Decisions, Positioning, Teamwork, Work Rate, Acceleration, Stamina and Strength.

Defensive Midfielder (Support)

This a more advanced Defensive Midfielder role, with this player looking to not only defend and cover the defence from midfield, but also support the players around him. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Defensive Midfielder (Defend) plus solid Passing.

Anchor Man (Defend)

This is the most focussed Defensive Midfielder role, with this player looking to sit deep and solely focus on stopping all that comes his way. Players in this role will need the all the main attributes of the Defensive Midfielder (Defend) plus solid Heading, Anticipation, Determination. With this role the Teamwork, Stamina and Acceleration attributes would not be absolutely required.

Deep-Lying Playmaker (Defend)

This is the basic Deep-Laying Playmaker role, with this player looking to hold the midfield but get involved in the passing game from a distance. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Defensive Midfielder (Defend) plus Passing, Technique, Composure and Creativity. With this role the Concentration, Stamina, and Acceleration attributes would not be absolutely required.

Deep-Lying Playmaker (Support)

This is a more advanced Deep-Laying Playmaker role, with this player looking to hold the midfield but get much more involved with the passing game. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Deep-Lying Playmaker (Defend)

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plus solid First Touch and Off The Ball. With this role the Strength attribute would not be absolutely required.

Central Midfielder (Defend/Support/Attack)

This is a more generic midfielder role, with this player looking to get involved in most of the play, but not get over involved with more than one aspect of the play at the same time. Players in this role will need solid First Touch, Marking, Passing, Tackling, Decisions, Determination, Off The Ball, Positioning, Teamwork and Work Rate. The different duties do not affect the attributes required

Ball-Winning Midfielder (Defend)

This is a more defensive minded supporting midfielder role, with this player looking to steal possession in the middle the pitch and create opportunities when they win the ball. Players in this role will need solid Marking, Tackling, Aggression, Bravery, Determination, Positioning, Teamwork, Work Rate, Stamina and Strength.

Ball-Winning Midfielder (Support)

This is a more defensive minded attacking midfielder role, with this player looking to steal possession higher up the pitch and create opportunities when they win the ball. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Ball-Winning Midfielder (Defend) plus solid and Passing. With this role the Positioning attribute would not be absolutely required. This is the most demanding of the midfield roles, with this player looking to run the whole of the midfield in attack and defence. Players in this role will need solid Dribbling, Finishing, First Touch, Heading, Long Shots, Marking, Passing, Technique, Anticipation, Bravery, Decisions,

Box-To-Box Midfielder (Support)

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Determination, Off The Ball, Positioning, Work Rate, Acceleration, Stamina and Strength.

Advanced Playmaker (Support)

This is a more supporting creative midfielder role, with this player constantly searching for space to pick up possession and create a decisive pass. Players in this role will need solid Long Shots, First Touch, Passing, Technique, Creativity, Decisions, Flair, Teamwork, Work Rate and Stamina.

Advanced Playmaker (Attack)

This is a more attacking creative midfielder role, with this player constantly searching for space to pick up possession, run at the defence and despatch a cross or through ball. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Advanced Playmaker (Support) plus solid Dribbling, Anticipation and Off The Ball. With this role the Long Shots, Work Rate and Stamina attributes would not be absolutely required.

Wide Midfielder This is a more passing minded wide midfielder (Defend/Support/Attack/A role, with this player is looking to sit on the flank utomatic) and generally help out with the attack and defence by better utilising his Mental attributes to cover for his lack of Physical prowess. Players in this role will need solid Crossing, Passing, Tackling, Anticipation, Decisions, Determination, Off The Ball, Teamwork, Work Rate and Stamina. The different duties do not affect the attributes required.

Winger This is a more attacking wide midfielder role, with (Defend/Support/Attack/A this player running at the defence and putting utomatic) pressure on the opposition with his movement. Players in this role will need solid Crossing,

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Dribbling, Technique, Decisions, Flair, Off The Ball, Acceleration, Agility, Balance and Pace. The different duties do not affect the attributes required.

Defensive Winger This is a role much like a wide Ball-Winning (Defend/Support/Attack/A Midfielder, with this player looking to pressure utomatic) defenders high up the pitch and steal the ball for a cross. Players in this role will need solid Crossing, Dribbling, Marking, Tackling, Technique, Decisions, Teamwork, Work Rate, Pace and Stamina. The different duties do not affect the attributes required.

Inside Forward (Support)

This is a role which is much like a Winger playing on his wrong foot. This player looks to cut inside from the flanks and run directly at the defence to play a through ball or shoot from distance. Players in this role will need solid Dribbling, Long Shots, Passing, Technique, Decisions, Flair, Off The Ball, Teamwork, Acceleration and Pace.

Inside Forward (Attack)

This is a role which is much like a Winger playing on his wrong foot. This player looks to cut inside from the flanks and run directly at the goal and play much like a wide striker. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Inside Forward (Attack) plus solid Crossing and Finishing. With this role the Long Shots and Technique attributes would not be absolutely required.

Attacking Midfielder (Support)

This is a more creative midfield role, with this player looking to fashion chances in the tight space higher up the pitch for himself and teammates, as well as be a danger at the edge of the

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box. Players in this role will need solid First Touch, Long Shots, Passing, Technique, Creativity, Decisions, Flair, Teamwork, Work Rate and Balance.

Attacking Midfielder (Attack)

This is a more creative midfield role, with this player looking to dribble with the ball and utilise good movement to fashion chances in tight spaces for himself and team-mates higher up the pitch. Players in this role will need the main attributes of the Attacking Midfielder (Support) plus Dribbling, Off The Ball and Acceleration. With this role the Long Shots, Teamwork and Balance attributes would not be absolutely required.

Trequartista (Attack)

This is a more attacking version of the Advanced Playmaker, with this player doing far less defensively and simply exercising good movement and positioning to gain an advantage when he picks up the ball. Players in this role will need solid Finishing, First Touch, Passing, Technique, Anticipation, Composure, Creativity, Flair, Off The Ball and Agility.

Poacher (Attack)

This is the more direct forward, with this player looking to sit on the last defender and utilise his impressive Physical attributes get on the end of any opportunities. Players in this role will need solid Dribbling, Finishing, First Touch, Anticipation, Composure, Off The Ball, Acceleration, Agility, Balance and Pace.

Defensive Forward (Support)

This is a more attacking version of the BallWinning Midfielder, with this player looking to put pressure on the players around him and to close

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down the man on the ball. Players in this role will need solid First Touch, Long Shots, Marking, Tackling, Teamwork, Work Rate, Pace, Stamina and Strength.

Defensive Forward (Attack)

This is a more attacking version of the BallWinning Midfielder, with this player looking to put pressure on the defensive line and to close down the man on the defence. Players in this role will need all the main attributes of the Defensive Forward (Support) plus Finishing, Composure and Anticipation. With this role the First Touch, Long Shots and Pace attributes are not absolutely required.

Complete Forward (Support/Attack)

This is a role which requires a player to be almost untouchable; with this player looking to be technically gifted, powerful and clinical enough to score goals and create them for others. Players in this role will need solid Dribbling, Finishing, First Touch, Heading, Long Shots, Passing, Technique, Anticipation, Composure, Creativity, Decisions, Determination, Off The Ball, Teamwork, Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Jumping, Pace and Strength. The different duties do not affect the attributes required.

Deep-Lying Forward (Support)

This is a more creative attacking role, with this player looking to create more goals for his teammates by dropping into the midfield and sparking an attacking move. Players in this role will need solid Dribbling, First Touch, Long Shots, Passing, Technique, Creativity, Decisions, Off The Ball, Teamwork and Strength.

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Deep-Lying Forward (Attack)

This is a more creative attacking role, with this player looking to create more goals for himself by dropping into the midfield and sparking an attacking move. Players in this role will need solid all the main attributes of the Deep-Lying Forward (Support) plus solid Finishing, Anticipation, Composure and Balance. With this role the Long Shots and Aggression attributes are not absolutely required.

Advanced Forward (Attack) This is a more leading attacking role, with this player looking to spearhead the attack, be the focal point of any attacking moves, pressurise the opposition by closing down and chasing possession, as well as score goals and create goals for team-mates. Players in this role will need solid Crossing, Dribbling, Finishing, Heading, Anticipation, Composure, Flair, Off The Ball, Work Rate and Pace.

Target Man (Support)

This is a role suited to a bullying forward, with this player looking to create chances for surrounding midfield players and forwards by disrupting the oppositions defence and bully them with strength and power. Players in this role will need solid First Touch, Heading, Long Shots, Aggression, Bravery, Determination, Teamwork, Work Rate, Jumping and Strength. This is a role suited to a bullying forward, with this player looking to create chances for surrounding players and himself, by disrupting the oppositions defence and bully them with strength and power. Players in this role will need solid all the main attributes of the Target Man (Support) plus Finishing and Anticipation. With this role the Long Shots and Aggression attributes are not absolutely required.

Target Man (Attack)

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- Chapter Seven -

The Dynamics of the Backroom Staff

Every great manager is surrounded by a team of staff who will compensate for what he cannot do - ideally, with the same ability he possesses in his areas of expertise. There will come a point when you must delegate responsibilities and youll want to trust that your staff will do a good job with something you cannot do yourself. This is why your Backroom Staff team is so vital to your success and this is why you must take care when you start recruiting your assistants. Firstly, we will take a look at the staff attributes and ascertain which attribute will be important to each staff role, then well go though some quick tips to getting the best out of the Backroom Staff

Staff Attributes Attribute Attacking Description and Effect This indicates how skilled a staff member is at coaching attacking football, not how attacking their training methods or style of play may be.

Coaching Goalkeepers

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at coaching goalkeeping attributes.

Defending

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at coaching defensive football, not how defensive their training methods or style of play may be.

Fitness

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at coaching a players fitness levels.

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Man Management

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at coordinating the team around him and keeping them not only on their best behaviour, but also keeping their morale high.

Mental

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at understanding a players mental state of mind, not how well they can train a players mental attributes.

Tactical

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at understanding tactics, formations and strategies.

Technical

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at coaching technical football.

Working with Youngsters

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at coaching and developing young players.

Adaptability

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at settling into his new role and also settling in at a new club in a different country. Its an indication to how fast they will pick up their new job and perform it at the standard you expect.

Determination

This indicates how driven a staff member is to succeed in his role. This is an indication of how well the staff member will perform his duties and how hard he will try do a good job.

Judging Player Ability

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at scouting a player and then drawing a conclusion on his overall abilities as a player. Its also very important when scouting opponents as it will provide a more accurate assessment of their team and their threats.

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Judging Player Potential

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at scouting a player and then drawing a conclusion on their future abilities as a player.

Level of Discipline

This indicates how strict a staff member is at coaching the team

Motivating

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at encouraging the players to perform well and to keep their focus on their goals.

Physiotherapy

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at rehabilitating injuries and also keeping squad injuries at a low rate.

Tactical Knowledge

This indicates how skilled a staff member is at grasping and employing tactical concepts. It indicates an ability to concoct different tactical ideas which other staff members may not be able to think of.

Tips for Composing the Perfect Backroom Staff Team Obviously, its a great advantage to have coaches who are skilled in specific areas of coaching - and creating a well-rounded staff team is vital to any club - but you should consider hiring coaches who may not be as well-rounded, but are instead exceedingly good in one particular area. By selecting highly proficient coaches then assigning them to coach a specific set of players, youre far more likely to compose a more impressive staff team - because you only need coaches to work well in their particular fields, not areas which they wont be operating in or areas where other coaches are better skilled - for example, you dont need a coach whos good at everything, but instead a coach whos exceptional at Tactical coaching (regardless of other attributes); having this coach solely focus on the tactical side of training will reap big rewards compared to having

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a more well-rounded coach occupy that role. If you use that theory across the entire staff team, youll have a panel of experts and the best possible staff team you could have. Not only is it important to create a solid Backroom Staff team, but its also very important to use their services. The Backroom Staff not only give you information on formations, set-pieces, staffing and youth development, but you also get a huge insight to the club around you. Ignoring this area of the game can place you out of sync with the club around you and can easily put you at a disadvantage. Now, I know a lot of people are cynical as to the effect of their Backroom Staff, but if you take the time to create your own staff Dream Team, then youre going to give yourself a hugely important tool to analyse, not only your own club, but the teams and players around you as well as improve the level of feedback you get in different areas of the game. Id like to highlight the importance of your Assistant Manager. You really, really need to make sure that you have the best man for the job. As you read though this guide (or may have already discovered previously) this staff member has a huge influence on the information that you receive from your team you want to make sure that the information you receive is as good as it can possibly be, both in terms of accuracy and also in terms of depth. Areas of this guide such as Match Day Preparation, Information and Analysis and in particular, Team Talks will serve up some idea of the importance of the Assistant Manager. If youre getting bad information or youre not getting enough information, youre at a big disadvantage compared to position youd be in with exceptional staff.

Just as the importance of scouting was highlighted earlier, its something which will require you taking some time to efficiently setup, but its absolutely worth the effort in the long term. After all, why spend hours examining where everything is going wrong, when you can spend ten minutes recruiting a Backroom Staff Team whod tell you in an instant?

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- Chapter Eight -

Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Training

Training is one of those things that most people dismiss as unimportant; after all, you can just download a training schedule, right? Well to be frank, downloading a training schedule is like downloading a tactic it might promise the world; it might even have been superb for its creator, but its not tailor-made to your team and thats why its always best to spend a few moments working on your own thing that way, at least you know exactly whats going on and can sort any problems with ease, rather than go to a forum and wait for replies. Training is not simply assigning players to different schedules and then going to play a match. It comes down to a number of elements which tie player development together; first of which is Current Ability & Potential Ability this is the measure of how good a player is and how good the player can become (covered in the Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer section); secondly, there are the training regimes, the staff and coach scouting, followed by tutoring, PPM training, Individual Training Focus, positional training and Match Preparation. Then finally, there is youth development which orbits around training regimes, CA/PA, tutoring, PPM training, Individual Training Focus and positional training. All of these segments of the game tie together to create the training module; so lets take a look at it all Coaching Staff Much like recruiting and employing players, staff and coaches require the same attention to detail. As was said previously - its vital that you invest some time into building your staff team and bringing the right help on board, because these staff members will control and affect elements of the club that you have little to no influence over; all you can do is hire and fire the people who do these jobs for you. Remember, training is vital to your success. You should be looking to not only improve what you have at the club, but also to maintain the levels of your players and try to keep all the players match fit. In order to do this youre going to need to have the best possible coaching team at your disposal. Below you can see an outline of the different coaching positions at your club, where these coaches can be assigned and the scope of their abilities

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Coaching Assignments Position Coach Training Category Assigment You can assign Coaches to both the First-Team and Youth team. Coaches can also be assigned to work on all the other areas of training: Strength, Aerobic, Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping, Goalkeeper Handling, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending, Attacking and Shooting.

First-Team Coach

You can assign First-Team coaches to only the First-Team; these coaches cannot train the Youth team. First-Team coaches can also be assigned to work on all the other areas of training: Strength, Aerobic, Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping, Goalkeeper Handling, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending, Attacking and Shooting.

Youth Coach

You can assign Youth coaches to only the Youth team; these coaches cannot train the First-Team. Youth coaches can also be assigned to work on all the other areas of training: Strength, Aerobic, Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping, Goalkeeper Handling, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending, Attacking and Shooting.

Goalkeeping Coach

You can assign Goalkeeping Coaches to both the First-Team and the Youth team. Goalkeeping Coaches can also be assigned to work on both Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping and Goalkeeper Handling training.

Fitness Coach

You can assign Fitness Coaches to both the First-Team and the Youth team. Fitness Coaches can also be assigned to work on both Strength and Aerobic training.

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Assistant Manager

You can assign Assistant Managers to both the First-Team and Youth team. Assistant Managers can also be assigned to work on all the other areas of training: Strength, Aerobic, Goalkeeper Shot-Stopping, Goalkeeper Handling, Tactics, Ball Control, Defending, Attacking and Shooting.

Something worth noting is that coaches with good Determination, Level of Discipline and Motivating attributes will help improve a coachs star rating in all training categories.
Dont spread the coaching staff thin; you want to keep the training ratings as high as possible and having coaches occupy too many roles or take on too many responsibilities can make their input on training ineffective this will make their star rating fall. Ideally, you want to keep the star rating as high as possible, yet at the same time make sure youre not putting all the workload on one coach. The ideal setup would be to have a minimum of two or three coaches per training category. Now, its not always possible to have so many coaches at your club. You may not have the wages or the board may not allow it so its important to find a balance between a star rating and a coachs workload. Its better for small clubs to only recruit staff theyd desperately need; for example: dont hire coaches who are only able to work with the first-team or youth team; get coaches who can cover the span of the training group. Youre not going to get close to having maximum star ratings at most clubs, so its best to try and work with what you have, try to get their coaching to a decent standard and then speak to the board on a semi-regular basis to see if you can get more staff into your team.

Training Attributes & Coach Requirements Training as a module can be quite vague, its not always obvious which training area affects which attribtues, or which coaches are best suited to coaching those areas of training. Below you can find a table of the training areas and their dynamics

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Area Strength

Description and Effect This area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Natural Fitness, Stamina, Strength and Work Rate attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with a high Fitness attribute to handle the training.

Aerobic

This area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Acceleration, Agility, Balance, Jumping and Pace attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with a high Fitness attribute to handle the training.

Goalkeeping

This area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Goalkeeping attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with a high Coaching Goalkeepers attribute to handle the training.

Tactics

This area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Anticipation, Decisions, Off The Ball, Positioning and Team Work attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with a high Tactical attribute to handle the training.

Defending

This area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Dribbling, First Touch, Flair, Heading and Technique attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with high Coaching Defending and Tactical attributes to handle the training.

Ball Control

This area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Concentration, Marking and Tackling attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with high Mental and Technical attributes to handle the training.

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Attacking

This area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Passing and Creativity attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with high Attacking and Tactical attributes to handle the training.

Shooting

This area of training will focus on coaching players to improve their Composure, Finishing and Long Shots attributes. For the best impact on these attributes, you will want coaches with high Attacking and Technical attributes to handle the training.

Training Schedules At the start of your tenure at the club your players will be assigned to the default training schedule. Many managers leave training as it is or they make small adjustments to the sliders and never touch them again. Its important that you spend some time working on the training regime, so that you can not only improve your players, but can also easily understand the dynamics of your own system and how your players are being trained. With each schedule you have a variation of workload settings which range from Light Training to Intensive. These workloads are adjusted by nine sliders, which span from 1 to 26 notches. Its recommended that you look to find balance in the training schedules, as you can easily overwork and injure your players if youre too gung-ho with your training mentality. Ideally, youre looking to set the sliders around the Medium workload. Anyone who sets the sliders as high as 23+ notches (Intensive) would have a far less effective workload, just as you would by setting schedules below 8 notches (Light Training). As a result, youre highly unlikely to see results at the 1-8 or 23-26 notches, so keep your slider settings within that range, making sure youre not overwhelming the workload in the process. Now heres a quick tip, as sometimes you will get players who are unhappy with the training schedule (youll see this in either the Backroom Staff meetings or via their profiles under the Training tab). In order to resolve this you can chat to him and ask him to try harder in training. They will react according to their Personality type, so beware that you can upset some players, but its certainly worth attempting to rectify as the result in training will be very positive, if the player agrees to work harder for you.

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Some final points to note with regards to Training Schedules: Intense training is going to tire and damage your players during the season, but physical training can carried out in pre-season, before the domestic season has kicked off . A player's attributes will naturally decline when the season is over, as theyre not training, so use the pre-season to increase the intensity of the training schedules and then lower them before the season starts. This can be a great way to get the team back on form for the season ahead. Also, remember that your youth players are still developing and will tire at a much faster rate than the more experienced squad members. Its best to keep the schdules for the Youth team quite light and not over intensive, as theyll only get injured and stutter in their development. Lastly, when training players for lower league clubs, its not important to focus on things which are more technical. Those leagues require brute strength, blistering pace and endurance, for players to have a big impact. Its far better to focus more on training the players Physical attributes rather than their Technical attribtues.

Individual Training Focus Individual Training Focus allows you to work with a player and focus directly on certain attributes. This is a fantastic way to encourage growth in specific areas especially if the player is held back because of a lacking in an attribute. When youre looking to improve players in particular areas, you should note where theyre playing and the role you want them to play in your formation. Assess which attributes youll need to improve, as with more demanding duties, the attributes for that role can change. So, try to pick a role for the player and then improve the most important attributes for that role, so that he can play in that position with some conviction. If you combine ITF with player tutoring and positional training, you can really raise the quality of a player. However, you should remember to consider the players Current and Potential Ability levels. If the player has little room to improve or is touted as having a lack of growth ability, then it wont matter how much you focus on improving the specifics, the player will not radically change and youll be wasting your time. Get a scout report and then assess if the player is worth the individual training.

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{Refer to the Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer and Discovering the Right Talent sections of this guide and youll see a complete list of attributes which you should be focussing on improving in training.}
Positional Training Positional training is a brilliant way to train a player in another position, which will add versatility to your team and can give you additional cover without having to spend money on bringing in a new signing.

{You can see the effect that playing in the wrong position can have on a player by reading the Positioning section of the Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Tactics area of this guide.}
The main concept behind positional training is to give you more resources within the club, or to adapt a player who is not very good in one position to another position where you feel he might be better deployed. You can use PT when looking to adapt a Winger into an Inside Forward, or take a Defensive Midfielder and cultivate him into a Central Defender. You really do have a number of useful options and reasons to utilise this module. When developing players via positional training, their Versatility attribute will be the basis for the training being either a success or a failure. Now, Versatility is a hidden attribute, so youll never know (without cheating) whether a player will respond well to the training or not. Still, thats not to say you shouldnt attempt to do this (as you may feel its a waste of time), its just an explanation as to why this type of training wont always work on players. More often that not though, players will learn their new position (theyll vary in speed depending on their Versatility attribute), but that comes down to how often youre going to play them in their new position because players with low Versatility will lose their new position if theyre not playing in it regularly. Now, Versatility plays its part on the field, where a player will be measured to see how well he can play in his new role (if hes not fully competent in that role). Obviously when youre training a new position you need to have the player in his new role - but he mightnt be very good in that role immediately, so Versatility will measure how well he will play out of position whilst he learns the ropes.

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There are a few little tips to make the transition of Positional Training a little bit easier: Firstly, only train one new position at a time. As has been said, youll need to play that player out of position whilst he learns the role, but he will take time to adjust to that role and could have a negative impact on the team. You dont want that to be happening with more than one player at one time. Secondly, its a far better idea to train someone who has experience in the role you want them to adopt. Its going to be a very arduous task trying to convert someone to a new position that is completely different to their natural position. Lastly, try to make sure the new position and role you want the player to adopt is best suited to his attributes and PPMs. You may have to re-train or train PPMs on some players after theyve been re-positioned, but its completely impossible to re-train attributes to a competent degree in a player who is not at all suited to his new role. Impacting Factors Its important to get these few considerations noted, this way youll be fully aware of how training will affect certain players Age can have a big impact on a players growth with players hitting their peaks at specific points in time. Typically, once a player has hit the age of 26 youre not likely to see a big increase in his abilities. Things like tutoring and training will help maintain and improve whats already there, but youre not going to see a decent 26 year-old turn into a world-class player. Generally speaking, when a player has past their peak youll start to notice a decline in their Physical attributes, but with age comes experience, so their Mental attributes could rise to balance the loss of movement. Also, worth noting are the age ranges when a player will hit his peak. Goalkeepers hit their peak between 31 and 34 years old; Defenders and Midfielders both hit their peaks between 27 and 32 years old; whilst Forwards hit their peak between 26 and 31 years old. This is a great bit of information for consideration when scouting or pondering who to play; after all, if your star goalkeeper is about to finish his career, it might be worth trying to get your future number one between the sticks for some practice. Something else to consider would be the quality of your coaching staff and the standard of your facilities. Its vitally important that you provide the best resources to your players - without them you wont get the level of training that you could get via a strong facility and a superb coaching team. Try and work on these areas; try

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and save transfer money for investment into these things and youll soon be producing talent instead of buying it. Player Tutoring Player tutoring is a fantastic way to fast-track a players training and abilities. With this feature, youre able to introduce two players and get the more experienced player to teach his young protg what he knows. The youngster not only increases his numerical attributes, but hes also often able to pick up Preferred Player Moves and also Personality Traits as a result of the interaction. Tutoring lasts around 180 days to complete, but the great thing about it is that you can have your players tutored and get them learning some of their tutors Preferred Player Moves, Personality Traits and attributes, without affecting their training regime. Normally when you want to teach a player a specific PPM, youd have to define it in his training schedule, this way you do not affect his normal routine. There is also another benefit of tutoring - PPMs. Training players to learn PPMs gives you access to a fixed list (more about this covered in the Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer section) of PPMs to learn, whilst Tutoring allows tutees to inherit unteachable PPMs from their tutors.

Please note that, most players who are over the age of 26 cannot be tutored (28 years old for goalkeepers), whilst tutors must be over the age of 22.
When assigning youngsters to their tutors, its not always clear on who you should pair together. Often people assign a youngster to a player they want them to emulate, but there are personality clashes and the tutoring breaks down. You will need to consider a number of things when looking to pair players together - Firstly, youre going to need to find players who have similar personalities (you can find information pertaining to this in the Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer section). Secondly, youre going to need to consider that the tutor has to be better than the tutee otherwise, its an exercise in futility. The tutor must hold an attribute advantage over his protg, must be older than the tutee and must hold a higher ranking within the club (club status Key Player, First-Team player, etc players holding captaincy will hold the best status in the squad and would be better tutors as a result). Thirdly, youre going to want to have players paired by their positions (i.e. both players being natural AMCs). If you fail to follow these guidelines, youre likely to cause the tutoring to fail or possibly upset one of the players, but, be aware that there are a number of variables which determine the success of tutoring...

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The Dynamics of Tutoring You have three options when setting up a tutoring relationship between two players: Ideal Role Model, Benefit from adopting <player>s approach to the game and See what he can learn from <player>. There is absolutely no difference in the outcome when selecting any of the options. The only reason you have multiple options is to deal with the varying elements of the player for example: Ideal Role Model is best used with very young players, who would have a tutor who has a great reputation and holds a key position within the club. Both players would need to be extremely similar in terms of both personality and also which position they naturally play in. Benefit from adopting <player>s approach to the game - is best used with fairly young players, who would have a tutor who has a good reputation and holds a first-team position within the club. Both players would need to be pretty similar in terms of both personality and also which position they naturally play in. See what he can learn from <player> - is best used with the slightly older players, who would have a tutor who has a decent reputation and holds a decent position within the club (Rotation or Backup players). Both players would need to be fairly similar in terms of both personality and also which position they naturally play in.

The Additional Variables & Elements of Tutoring Something very important to highlight is that players can also decrease their abilities when undergoing tutoring. That comes down to the ability of the tutor and what kind of effect hell have on his protg. If the player is a bad influence or has attributes which are lower than the tutee, then hell lower those attributes and also negatively affect the players personality - as the youngster copies the tutors approach to the game. Also, be wary of PPMs in tutors which you dont want the tutee to pick up. If your tutor has traits you dont want the protg to have, youll have to un-teach them via training later on. Sometimes you will find that even following the guidelines aforementioned yield negative results, its impossible to accurately predict how players will interact because their hidden personality attribtues can be vastly different - even if the player

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shares the same Personality Trait label as another. Whilst its not always an option, you may find a way around this with other influences such tutoring players who are friends or suggesting tutoring to players who have you listed as their favourite staff. This can have enough influence over that player to pursuade him that the tutoring is the right thing for him, regardless of his Personality Traits. Also, consider a players Current and Potential Ability levels. Now, you cannot see these attributes in-game (although speaking to a scout or coach to give a vague idea of the players level of ability), bare in mind that tutoring does not affect a players Potential Ability, therefore, you cannot tutor a player beyond a certain point. You may be able to add PPMs to a players repetoire but youll not be able to incur attribute increases. CA/PA is also linked to a players reputation, so consider that well known players may refuse to be tutored, as theyll believe theyre unable to learn from someone else. Remember, tutoring begins affecting the players immediately; therefore, if the tutoring stops, the players will keep their gains that they made in that period. You also have to realise that selling or loaning a tutee will terminate their bond with their tutor and the tutoring will cease. After the 180 days of tutoring, you will get one of the following messages: <player> benefited from tutoring, <player> appreciates influence, <player> gained little, <player> gained nothing. Now the results are a little tricky to interpret, but generally speaking, a player who benefits from the tutoring will gain a few PPMs, traits and attributes; a player who appreicates the influence will gain one PPM, some traits and attributes; a player who gains little will not gain any PPMs, but may have traits and attributes; whilst a player who gained nothing will not gain any PPMs, traits or attributes. You should be aware that the tutoring feedback is mostly based around what are considered significant gains for example, if the tutee is learning PPMs or getting huge increases in one or two attribtues, hed most likely get a successful message; but your player could make significant gains (in terms of more attributes being risen by a few points, instead of a few attributes being risen by a lot of points) and get a negative message. Essentially, gains arent always reflected in the tutoring feedback so dont get too discourged, unless the player completely fails; he might have gained more than the feedback suggests. The final point to make would be that you can - and should - repeatedly tutor your young players. Consider yourself on the clock, with only enough time to improve the player before he hits 26 years old (28 for goalkeepers). If you work on nurturing the Wonderkids and the rising stars with big potential, you can certainly help them reach their Potential Ability attribute level.

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Cultivating a Youth Team Okay, so this can be a burden - especially when you can just poach talent from other clubs - but its far more rewarding mentally (and the bank balance) to create your own stars. Not only that, its always useful later in the game when regenerated players begin to show their faces, that you have good talent from your own nation in your team as sometimes regenerated players from your own nation are pretty shocking later on in the game so its good to create young talent and build the team a future. So, where to start? Well firstly you need to decide whether or not you want to create a melting-pot of international superstars or team of home-grown gems. Once youve opted for the route you want to take, youre going to need to do some scouting. Thats all outlined in the Understanding the Fundamentals of Scouting section, but a quick tip would be to search for young players in the nations youve selected for example, if you want only English players, youd have all your scouts assigned to looking for English players at different age brackets (e.g. under 16, under 17, under 18, under 19, under 20, under 21, et cetera) this will allow you to get a far wider span of useful and relevant player reviews, as each scout is focussing on a specific age bracket and one nationality. If you wanted to go international, then youd do the same as above, but youd search via age (e.g. under 21) and then nationality or continent brackets (e.g. England, Spain, Argentina, Brasil or Asia, Europe, Americas, Africa, et cetera). Utilising this strategy can open up a big pool of talent and give you the ability to import young stars to your team at an early age, then cultivate them into your own home-grown players. Next up, its important to pay some attention to the setup of the club and youth system (if you havent done so already). Check your Youth team coaches - are they good enough? Check the facilities - can you upgrade them? Its a tad timeconsuming, but it can make a big difference to the quality of the player youre getting though the youth system. As covered previously, your coaching staff are going to require good Working with youngsters attributes and anyone reviewing the youngsters abilities are going to need to have good Judging Player Potential and Judging Player Ability attributes. Once youve done the basic ground work, its important to work through what you have already. Remove any of the players you dont believe will make the cut sell them if you can, if not, just release them. If there is anyone whos promising, but not great grab a scout report and loan the kid out. If they return from loan unimproved, then sell them.

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Essentially, you need to consider how a promising player will improve. Are you willing to oversee the youth team games or would you rather assemble a youth team and then loan all the players out to clubs that will give them match experience? The most important thing is that the players are given the opportunity to play; you can have the best training scheme in the world, you can have exceptional coaches, but without match experience the players wont develop. Tips for Youth Development Your youth team should ideally be playing the same tactics as the first-team (this helps them know the formation and settle into the team, for when you actually want them to play in a first-team game). Also worth noting is that loaned out players wont train with you, so if youre working on a Youth Team training regimen then its going to be useless unless the players are in your team and working under your training conditions. Something else to consider (this is covered above), is tutoring. Its massively benefitial for young players to have a good tutor and to be picking up and learning traits (PPMs). Find the most gifted players in your team and spend some time working on them, it can - and will, with some effort - reap rewards. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, you should know that each team in the game has unique settings. Some teams have exceptional youth facilities (Barcelona, Ajax, Arsenal, et cetera) but your team may not. This means that you will have to work to improve your facilities and your setup, because youre very likely to be at a disadvantage compared to the more skilled youth production lines. Whats good about this is that you can keep an eye on clubs who have a real-life reputation for producing talent and then you can maybe find yourself a young Fbregas to import into your own academy. Match Preparation Match Preparation allows you to not only work on your pre-match setup but it gives you the ability to train your team with regards to their tactical proficiency. Its not an obvious training module, but it should be looked at as if it was part of the training system. Training covers only Technical, Mental and Physical attributes, whilst its Match Preparation which trains a players tactical abilities as a team.

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In order to create a rewarding training routine via MP, you have to repeatedly work on the same tactical setup. If you work on improving one formation you will see the familiarity bar rise as a result of the team becoming more comfortable with that system. This is why its important not to chop and change your tactics too radically when theyre not working very well for you. Aside from the training aspect of MP, you should note that the Special Focus Areas setting is excellent for exploiting the oppositions formation or setup. You should look to do your pre-match scouting (more below) and then utilise this module to make your team focus on one method of exploiting the oppositions weaknesses. Its important to remember that selecting an SFA will distract the team from other areas of their game, but if you get the SFA setup to correctly exploit an opponent who are for example weak at corners, then you might find the result is far more positive than simply opting to operate within your own style of play. Remember, setting the MP workload will have an effect on the training workload, so try to find a balance for your team. Its all about considering if you want to work on the team as a unit or on players as individuals then make setting the sliders to the levels you want. Id personally work on the team more than the players, then when the team is at a good level, lower the SFA workload and focus on improving the individuals. Obviously, finding a balance is still vital, so dont be extremely biased to one focus area.

Focus Area Team Blend

Description and Effect This allows you to focus your players on better understanding how their team-mates work with the ball. By using this SFA, youre able to build a team unit, rather than have 11 strangers playing in your side.

Defensive Positioning

This allows you to drill your team in the art of defence. The best teams are the hardest to exploit in defence, and by focussing on this area, youre able to lower the risk of players being in the wrong position when under pressure at the back and give them direction on how to function as a defensive unit, rather than relying on the defenders to do all the defensive work.

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Attacking Positioning

This allows you to run plays with the team. With this SFA, youre able to influence the players into attacking in numbers, rather than attacking as individuals. This allows you to have players in better attacking positions when crosses enter the box, or when counter-attacks are being executed. With this, youre able to have your team working in tune when theyre attacking.

Defending SetPieces

This allows you to train the team to be more proficient when defending corners or free-kicks. Having a team who know exactly what needs to be done and how the players around them will be reacting when the ball comes at them, is something you will really benefit from when theyve mastered this Special Focus Area.

Attacking SetPieces

This allows you to train the team to be more clinical when attacking corners or taking free-kicks. Having a team who know where players are going to run or where the ball is going to be placed, can make the difference when it comes to taking advantage of an attacking set-piece.

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- Chapter Nine -

Match Day Preparation, Information and Analysis

The first thing you should look to do is examine the oppositions formation. If you really want to be pedantic, have a look at their previous opponents and look at which formations have been successful against them, then check to see which formations have worked best on the pitch youre playing on. Next, take a look the weather reports for that day and see if you can grab any information about the match officials temperament. After all the scouting is done, youre going to need to decide on your tactics and players, as well as do your pre-match team talk. This is why Im not really a fan of downloadable tactics or Home and Away tactics theyre always going to based on luck, because theyre not tailor-made to your players abilities, your opposition or any of the match day factors. So, lets go through the whole process piece by piece and see what makes Match day preparation so vital

Pre-Match Scouting Analysis & Interpretation When considering your Match Preparation, its very important to look at different variables which will impact on the match; things such as pitch size, weather, the mentality of the referee, et cetera. As far as pitch types go, they can make a big difference to the success of your tactics. Below are a few key notes to get you thinking about the ways to adjust your tactical approach with regards to pitch sizes. Still, you have to consider that the pitch size hints will need to be factored against the oppositions tactical shape too, because as you can imagine, the oppositions formation and the pitch width/length will dictate what kind of formation youll be able to effectively play. I dont recommend radical changes to the formation, but your strategy is the only thing you can adjust to affect the game, so try to find a balance between making necessary changes and keeping continuity in your formation. So, youve examined the oppositions shape and have an idea of how they like to play. You then need to assess the type of pitch youll be playing on and decide how to setup the team to be effective within the parameters of both the opposition formation and the dimensions of the pitch.

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Shorter pitches - obviously lack length, so certain types of passing, such as the long ball would be ineffective. If you imagine the goalkeeper or a defender hitting a long ball on a short pitch, its going to go deep into the heart of the defence and youre highly unlikely to benefit from it (long balls are only ever effective when youve got an incredible Target Man and enough players around him to capitalise on any lose balls). From a positional stance, you have to consider that a short pitch will also mean there is less space for midfielders to play in, so your midfield shape should be positioned in a manner which would space them out a little more (but not overly spaced so that the midfield is taken over by the opposition). Lastly, there is the defensive angle, which would indicate that you could play slightly higher up than normal, because there is less space for the defence to cover. Longer pitches - obviously provide you with more space to run into, but also more space for you to cover before you can reach the goal. Depending on your oppositions formation, there isnt really any set passing stipulations with regards to the pitch. As the exact opposite of the shorter pitch, the long ball will be more effective, but that hinges on how high the defence play and how fast your attacking players may be. From a defensive perspective, youll have to play deeper to cover yourself from fast players or long balls; You can play high up to pressure a team, but on a long pitch youre easily exploited with a long ball, if youre not cautious. Obviously, a long pitch gives you more space to position the team, youd be foolish not to try and exploit that. Wider pitches - again, offer more space except this time its across the width of the pitch. The same elements with regards to positioning apply utilise the flanks and make use of the extra space. If you cant play with wingers, be extremely cautious with your full-backs and recognise that youll be attacked in those areas more often than not. Narrower pitches - obviously provide the exact opposite issues as the wider pitches. Youre going to have less width and space to play a wing-game, and its going to be difficult to stretch a team out, so youll have to factor that in when you look at the tactics. The obvious plus to this pitch is that its also providing you with the defensive benefits the opposition have, such as less space for you to cover defensively.

Something very important to highlight with this and the Match Preparation module is that you do not have to radically change your formational shape for each pitch type. You can operate on a narrow or wide pitch by changing the teams width under Specific Instructions and you can alter the way the team plays via Touchline Shouts. You can, of course, alter the shape, if you feel it would be best to stop an

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opponent dominating a game, but dont feel you should need to change the shape for each pitch type as you can see, there are little ways around doing that without disrupting your Match Preparation training.
A lot of this is obvious stuff, but hardly anyone takes the time to actually look at the conditions in which their team is playing. Even if you disregard everything up until this point, the most important thing to consider about being tactically superior is that you absolutely have to factor all the elements and conditions of the match against your own tactical approach. Its all well and good playing 451 with superbly gifted midfielders, but its not going to be effective on a pitch where they have no space to operate in - is it? Then of course, comes the weather. Its not the most complex of conditions to consider, but it should be integrated into your tactical approach nonetheless. Take for example, a lot of virtual rain falls upon your virtual pitch and youre opting to play a short, slow passing game; what transpires is not an Arsenal style of play, but a superb plot line for a Snickers advert, with passes not reaching their recipients, defenders sliding past their opponents and Mr. T rolling up in a tank, throwing chocolate bars at you, demanding you get some nuts and play the game like real men. Give some thought to how extreme weather conditions can affect your players and your tactics. A quick tip would be to play a more direct game on a wet pitch or in bad weather conditions (as the ball can get stuck in wet grass). Obviously dont play long aerial balls in extremely windy conditions, et cetera. Its nothing more than logical thinking really. All of the above is my thought process to the match day. Its impossible for me to sit here and direct you step-by-step on how to win on a wide pitch or what to do when it rains, because there are no static conditions - everything from the tactics to the weather changes and these elements all affect each other in some way. As a result you have to tailor-make your tactics for each game - considering the variables (which you now know). Basically, all you need to do is think about how these little pieces work in tandem and make little tweaks as to how you approach the game.

This is the moment that now defines who you are as a manager. Youre either thinking that you cant be bothered to do that each game, thus condemning yourself to a life of downloading tactics or youre thinking: Hmm, Ive not really focussed on that before; maybe if I take two extra minutes before hitting Continue on match day, Ill not have to go on to the forums and complain about the new patch being rigged to death. Okay, that was a very long and specific sentence; chances are, youve not said anything remotely close to that, but you get the drift.

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Opposition Instructions Whether its setting specific marking instructions or directing players away from goal, Opposition Instructions are a key part of your tactical setup - yet theyre arguably one of the most skimmed over elements in the game. Why bother to take five minutes out from your busy schedule of button clicking and beer sipping, to finalise your approach to stopping the effect of the opponent?

Yeah, I couldnt come up with a good reason either.

This is the last and final part of your pre-match tactical setup. At this juncture youve gathered all the information youre going to need to know about the opposition and you should be looking to null their best players and their way of playing the game. If you can successfully stop your opponents, then youre going to have a huge advantage when it comes to kick-off. Theres not really a huge amount to detail with regards to Opposition Instructions, given that the tactical instructions and formation of your team are the main ways to null the effect of your opponent. Opposition Instructions are just a way to fine-tune specific instructions for your players in relation to the opposition players. You basically have four options: Tackling, Show onto Foot, Marking, Closing Down. Each of these options pretty much explain themselves, so if you utilise the Assistant Managers information, with the information you can read on the opposition players profile screen (how many goals theyve scored, how many assists theyve made, et cetera) you will have a good way of ascertaining who is going to be a key threat. Its also a good way to stop specific team manoeuvres; for example, if the team like to attack down the flanks, you should show their wingers onto their opposite foot this forces them inside and out of their comfort zone. If a player has a penchant for cutting inside (check their PPMs), then show him onto the flank. Unfortunately theres not enough to guide you on how to cope with every situation in detail, but the purpose of this section is to draw attention to the fact that this module allows you to tamper with the oppositions style of play and affect their players. If you utilise this alongside your other match day preparations, you will have more control over the opposition than you have had before. Give some thought as to how youre setting these instructions up though, because the same standards as mentioned in the Understanding the Fundamentals of Tactics section still apply to the settings here i.e. the references to Tight Marking and radical Closing Down instructions.

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Ideally youll want to be very limited when assigning Opposition Instructions to your players, because they will affect your tactical settings (depending on the changes you make), so changes to multiple players will inevitably have an effect on your entire tactical approach and could end up changing the way in which the team is being asked to play. Its important to raise that point, because if youre assigning new instructions to all your players, you could be completely voiding all the instructions the team have been ordered to carry out in the tactical setup areas. Team Talks Team Talks are part of the FM trifecta of man management, tactics and training. Team Talks are a vital part of man management and as such they require some thought and logic in order to fully utilise their power - because when theyre used accurately they have the ability to unhinge even the best of teams. Its a pretty simple science: Players react to what you say based on their Personalities, their Morale and their Motivation. During the match there are other small factors such as the pre-match odds, the strength of the opponent, whether youre playing away from home or not, the scoreline and of course, what youve said in the pre-match press conference. Still, when making a comment to a player remember, its mostly about judging the player, their personality and the situation at hand - rather than overcomplicating the moment by trying to factor every possible variable against each other. Obviously, as a result of their impact on the game, its important to know what to tell players, so lets take a look at Team Talks...

The Basic Elements of Team Talks Generally speaking the strongest players in the team (personality-wise) will react more to challenges, whilst the weaker minds will need nurturing (refer to the Personality Traits section of the guide to better understand this dynamic). Youre looking to encourage players with good morale, and looking to give those with a strong mentality (and good morale) some level of expectancy. You will want to go about removing pressure from those who have low morale or those who are concerned about the match. There is a simple rule of thumb which I follow when giving talks: If the player is looking Nervous pre-match youre looking at a predicted final match performance of around 5.5 to 6.5; if the player is looking Okay pre-match, you can expect a

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6.5 to a 7; whilst Confident players will normally achieve a 7 or above. Now, the great thing about Team Talks is that you can influence the outcome of the match rating before youve even kicked off - for example, giving a Confident player a little boost by suggesting you have confidence or faith in him can elevate his match rating into something around an 8 or a 9.5.

Pre-Match Team Talks So, how do we approach pre-match Team Talks? Well, we need to remember that the success of the talk and the nature of the pre-match talks hinge on morale, prior match ratings, match mentalities and also player personalities (a quick tip would be to split Personality Traits into positive and negative mentalities, this would make it easier to ascertain which personality types will react to the different Team Talk options). By this point you should have already taken a look at all the Backroom Advice, setup your tactical strategy and checked your Assistant Managers pre-match feedback to see how mentally prepared your team appear to be. Its important that you ascertain the players moods before you give a talk, because its obviously going to have an impact on what you say to them and also what you should say to them. Pre-match you want to encourage (i.e. I have faith) the players who have good morale and confidence; offering more responsibility (i.e. I expect a performance) to the stronger personalities in the team (who have good morale and confidence), but youll want to try to remove pressure from those with low morale or those who are nervous. Players who are new to the team or are very young may also respond better to lesser pressure (and praise, if warranted - post-match). If you have players who are Complacent you will want to get them focussed - I expect a win or I expect a performance can bring some gravitas to the pre-match situation and get them focussed on the game. Sometimes this may cause problems with players, so its best to check their Personality Trait and see what kind of personality they have if theyre quite weak, you may want to sway more towards I expect a performance (rather than a win) and see if that holds more merit with them. .

Its important to note that morale is the measure of a players inner happiness (based on performances and team positioning in the league, et cetera), whilst motivation is the measure of their state of mind, (based on their mental approach to the match ahead). Dont confuse these elements when following the advice here!

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In-Match Team Talks The half-time is a more complex Team Talk because not only do you have the original factors (personalities, morale and motivation) to contemplate, but you now have to add the scoreline and match ratings into the equation. Its best to set an overall team talk based on team performance and then highlight individuals who are either excelling or failing. Before we jump into specific advice, there are a few things to make note of with inmatch talks: Firstly, check the Assistant Managers feedback. Its vital to both Team Talks and also tactics. Secondly, its important to note that match ratings constantly change, especially when there is a key moment in the game, such as a goal scored or a booking, so try to keep an eye on the match ratings as the game is played out, this way youll constantly know how the players are performing, rather than being solely reliant on the Assistant Managers feedback which can be a little inaccurate as a result of rapidly escalating or declining ratings. (Its a good idea to view matches in split view with player ratings shown on one side and the match statistics on the other side). Thirdly, those who excel and get praised can often end up having more respect for you as a manager - but remember, if you give inaccurate or unwarranted feedback, you risk annoying or confusing the players and this will disrupt the effect you have on the them - especially at half-time, as players who get demoralised can have a poor game and end up having a negative effect on the whole team. Ideally, half-time talks should be encouraging to the players, especially when theyre having a tough time or have poor morale. You only need not be encouraging when the team is in the lead and you dont want complacency to set in. Lastly, if you find that a player is player exceptionally poor, dont try to fix him, just bring him off and put on a substitute who you can motivate to have a better game (generally telling substitutes that you have confidence in them but remember to factor in their Personality Traits as the amount of pressure placed on them can affect their impact as a sub). So, lets take a look at the specifics of the in-match Team Talks

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Firstly, you need to look at the scoreline and compare it to the match odds. Should you be winning when youre losing? Should you have a stronger lead? Are you doing better than expected? You then need to select a global Team Talk based on that information. Secondly, you need to break your talk into four segments (most people do it in this order): 1. 2. 3. 4. What What What What would would would would you you you you say say say say to to to to the the the the player player player player based based based based on on on on the the the the players match performance? scoreline? players mentality? players personality?

You need to take the answers to those four questions, rearrange them and then merge them into one final individual team talk which sounds complex, but its actually very simple! What would you say to the player based on the players personality? Youd immediately have to examine the players personality are they strong or are they weak? Based on that you have three potential options - expectation, praise or encouragement? The stronger players, as mentioned previously, can handle expectations, but they dislike encouragement (i.e. We can win this). The weaker players prefer to have less pressure, so youd either want to remove pressure or say absolutely nothing to them. Now, the next thing to consider is their match performance What would you say to the player based on the players match performance? Generally speaking, any player performing under a 6 would be told he was Disappointing, any player above a 7 would be told you were Pleased, whilst players with anything above an 8 would be told you were Delighted, Unfortunately, its not as simple as a personality review and a performance related team talk. You have to not only consider personality and match ratings, but you also have to consider their mentality

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What would you say to the player based on the players mentality? Are they more Complacent or more Nervous? Based on that you have to either focus them or inspire them. Like the personality outline, you have to treat Nervous players like babies and give them very light talks - trying to remove their fear or give them some confidence by utilising I have faith, we can win this or no pressure. With players who are Complacent needing to hear that you Expect a win or Expect a performance - making sure that they Dont get complacent (you can utilise that final option, if it is available).

Very simply, you need to focus the Complacent players and make sure you dont encourage them, then do the opposite with the Nervous players.
The last thing to factor in is the scoreline. Now this opens up far more avenues because you get different talk options in different scenarios What would you say to the player based on the scoreline? If youre winning a game that youre expected to win, you will want to make sure you keep the lead. First and foremost you want to tell the team not to get complacent; Secondly, you will want to pick out and highlight the noticeable performances - those whove played well will need to be told that youre Pleased, whilst those whove been poor will need to be told they were Disappointing or (depending on how badly they were playing) substituted and replaced by substitutes who would be either encouraged or challenged taking into account their Personality Traits. You should increase the severity of the Team Talks depending on how big the lead is. If players arent Complacent and are performing really well, dont be afraid to let them know that youre pleased just remember to use it sporadically so that the team doesnt slacken off in the second-half. If youre winning against a team who should be beating you, youd want to give the team encouragement - players performing well would be told to do it for the fans, whilst players who arent would be told no pressure.

Dont be afraid to praise the big performances, but remember to keep the team focussed on the fact they could still lose the game.

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If youre losing against a team who you should be beating, youd want to let the team know they were disappointing. Players performing well would be told You can make the difference whilst players who arent would be either told they were Disappointing or substituted (depending on how bad they were playing) and replaced by substitutes who would be told You can make the difference or I have faith. If you were suffering a heavy loss, youd want to question players motivation and passion to get the win or youd inspire them with You can make the difference or be demanding with I want to see more from you again, this hinges on their Personality Traits. If youre losing against a team who should be beating you, youd want to offer some hope to the team. Ask better performing players to Do it for the fans or tell them They can make a difference; those who arent performing well may be out of their depth and might have a better impact on the bench. If so, when bringing a substitute on let them know that you have faith in them or expect them to perform depending on their Personality Trait. Also look to the strong players (personalities) who you can be more demanding of - they might be able to work some magic in the second-half if you inspire them. If youre in a deadlock with a team, your talk could win or lose you the game. Youd want to be expectant against the teams youre favourites to beat (pre-match odds) and youd want to be inspirational against those who you had no chance of beating pre-match. If youre expecting to win and youre drawing, let the team know youre Disappointed and try to inspire good individual performances with You can make a difference and condemn poor individual performances with Disappointed. If youre expecting to lose the match and youre drawing, ask the players to win the match For the fans, still highlighting the great performances in an encouraging way (i.e. Pleased). Anyone whos not playing well would be told they were Disappointing or substituted off. Substitutes coming on would receive the same talk as everyone else motivation.

This is the most important part of Team Talks. Everything above is nothing more than general guidelines on dealing with certain situations; whats most useful is this: the Team Talk formula.

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Personality Trait (strong/weak) + match rating (less than 6/more than 7) + player mentality (positive/negative) + scoreline (level of opposition vs. score) = Team Talk. If you look at the brackets you see the variable. Now, the first three segments of the Team Talk have two variables, but the last segment has a variable for strong and weak teams versus winning/losing/drawing. So, in Lehmans terms what you say regarding the team talk has to be in-sync with the other elements. For example, we know that suggesting responsibility in mentally weak players can make them crumble, but there are times when were losing and need players to step-up and win the match, how is that done? Well, very simply, you either have to inspire those players without pressurising them or substitute them off - all whilst hoping that the stronger players in the team can put in a good performance for you. What Im hoping you notice at this point is that Team Talks arent as repetitive or as unimportant as you may have thought. Every team talk is going to be different because the variables arent static (scoreline, morale, mentality etc.). Some players are too mentally tough for certain talks and some are too weak. A very important player could be mentally weak and may have a terrible game, if you cant inspire your key man, would you have ever thought to have subbed him off for the good of the team? Probably not. Who would? Give some thought to your talks using that formula as your thought process. If you need to, experiment a little and take notes of how players are responding to your methods eventually youll have enough data on each player to give you a definitive answer for each situation. Although it might take you until FM2020 to compile.

Post-Match Team Talks Post-Match talks are the easiest to do because at this point the game is over and your only aim is to address the players. Ideally youd want to keep morale as high as you can - so do not be overly critical of players. At the same time, you need to make sure you stop any poor form by giving the poor performers some hair-dryer treatment. Dont be afraid to let your best players know how happy you are with them after theyve put in a good performance. As I said above, players will begin to form a bond with managers who are supportive of them. At the same time, dont be unjust with your comments. Players wont respond well to any comments about them (good

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or bad) if they dont feel that theyre true. As with the other Team Talks, set a general talk for the team based on their performance and then highlight any specific players for praise or critique. Anyone above a 7.5 would warrant a Pleased talk, whilst exceptional performances (8.5 or over) would warrant a Delighted talk. Anyone extremely poor (below 6) should get a Disappointed talk. Also, considering the impact of scorelines, youd want to let anyone below a 7 after a bad result know they were Disappointing and anyone above an 8 know that you Sympathise with their performance. Anyone with 6 or below after a poor result should be given an Angered talk this is suggested for anyone receiving red cards too - just to knock their bad behaviour on the head. The Importance of Utilising the Assistant Manager This isnt such an in-depth issue that Id need a whole section to discuss it, its actually only being covered separately so its not overlooked thats how important it is. The best thing I can advise you to do when it comes to watching the match is, to repeatedly check the Assistant Managers feedback. All throughout the game youll get an indication as to how the formation is working, which players are doing a good job and which are not. Youll also get feedback on where the team instructions are working or failing, recommendations as to what to do and what to change and a lot more. Basically, its so helpful to you that it feels like youre cheating. Also, make use of this not only when watching the game, but also at half-time before your Team Talks, or pre-match before the Team Talks. There are a lot of helpful observations made by the Assistant Manager that will help you best handle the players an give you priceless hints and tips on what to do in the majority of the match situations you find yourself in. Touchline Instructions As you will know, during the match you have the ability to shout instructions to your players. Well take a quick look at the instructions now, just to ascertain what they do exactly. Some of these instructions are only unlockable on specific mentality settings, which means youll only be able to access instructions relevant to the style of mentality youre currently employing.

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Instruction Retain Possession

Description and Effect This instruction tells the team to keep a hold of the ball at all costs. This looks to lower the amount of long balls, which often result in wasted possession. This instruction tells the team to get the ball into the oppositions half and to focus on attacking, rather than defending. It puts pressure on the opposition and attempts to find players with longer passing. This instruction tells the team to pass the ball into vacant space, rather than directly to the players feet. This is an attempt to create opportunities by exploiting gaps in the oppositions formation, rather than being obvious with your passing. This instruction tells the team to pass the ball directly to a players feet. This is an attempt to keep possession, rather than try risky loose balls into space. This instruction tells the team to get the ball into the oppositions box via long, high passes. Its a rather desperate attempt to overload the opposition, but can work if your forwards are strong players. This instruction tells the team to aim their clearances out wide, so that the wingers or wide players can try to maintain possession, rather than clear the ball directly to the opposition via the middle of the pitch. This allows the wingers to take hold of the ball and execute a counter-attack. This instruction tells the team to shoot whenever the chance arises (usually outside the box), rather than wait for a good or clear opportunity to present itself (usually in the box).

Get Ball Forward

Pass Into Space

Pass Into Feet

Pump Ball Into Box

Clear Ball To Flanks

Shoot On Sight

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Often, this is a rather desperate instruction, but it can be useful when your opponents are under a lot of pressure and are pinned back in their own area. Work Ball Into Box This instruction tells the team to keep possession of the ball for as long as possible, rather than take shots from outside the area. Its useful if your team is wasting chances or are taking too many long shots. This instruction tells the team to try and exploit the wider areas of the pitch. This is only really useful if youre playing against weak wingers/Full-backs, if the opposition is playing without wide players, if youre playing on a wide pitch, or if you spot a weakness in the oppositions formation. This instruction tells the team to try and exploit the middle of the pitch. This is only really useful if youre playing against teams without a Defensive Midfielder or lots of midfielders, teams with weak players in the centre, if youre playing on a narrow pitch, or if you spot a weakness in the oppositions formation. This instruction tells the team to try and hold onto the ball whilst waiting for a player to perform an overlapping run. More often than not, this is a wide players instruction, with the overlapping wide player taking possession and attempting to get more crosses into the box. This instruction tells the team to slow the pace, relax and hold onto possession whilst they compose themselves. Its useful if the team is tiring, or playing in tough conditions and need to rest briefly, before quickly turning up the pace to catch the opposition off guard.

Exploit The Flanks

Exploit The Middle

Look For Overlap

Take A Breather

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Play Wider

This instruction tells the team to widen the spacing between them and expand their formation shape. This would give them more width and more space to pass the ball across the pitch and would help to quell any threat on the wings; although it will create gaps in-between players which could be exploited, its useful on narrow pitches as it can give you more room to operate in. This instruction tells the team to narrow the space between them and compact their formation shape. This would make the team harder to break down and present less opportunities for midfield penetration; although it would leave the team more susceptible to attacks on the flank, it is useful on wide pitches as it forces the opposition to work out wide. This instruction tells the team to push the defensive line higher up the pitch, this resulting in creating less space for the opposition to play in and more pressure on the opposition too. The biggest issue with this instruction is that the team can be exploited by a long ball over the top of the defence or quick opponents getting past the defence and ending up with a one-on-one opportunity. This instruction tells the team to sit deeper in their own half, this resulting in a tougher defence. The biggest issue with this instruction is that the team is likely to invite pressure on itself and have more space to cover to get to the oppositions goal, but it does allow you to absorb a lot of pressure from teams playing higher up the pitch and work against quick forwards who can exploit a high defensive line. This instruction tells the team to constantly close-down, tightly mark and pressure the opposition into giving the ball away or into making a mistake. The biggest issue with this instruction is that it can be tiring and will draw players out of position.

Play Narrower

Push Higher Up

Drop Deeper

Hassle Opponents

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Stand-Off Opponents

This instruction tells the team to give the opponent space and to conform to their own tactical shape. Its intended to allow underdogs the ability to hold their ground against stronger, more technical opposition and try to shut them out instead of taking the game to the opponent. This instruction tells the team to be extra aggressive with regards to tackling. Its likely to scare the opposition into passing the ball to each other (instead of inviting tackles on themselves) and thus making mistakes by playing in a disrupted manner. The biggest issue with this instruction is that players will most likely get carded certainly if theyre not well controlled individuals. This instruction tells the team to stay on their feet at all costs and not dive into tackles. This will make it tougher for the opposition to get around players and it will stop the team giving away fouls, but it also means that the opponents are allowed more time on the ball. This instruction tells the team to play without risk. Its designed to hold on to a lead and encourage a team to contain the opposition. The side-effect to this shout is that it can have an adverse effect if used for too long.

Get Stuck In

Stay On Feet

Play Even Safer

Take More Risks This instruction tells the team to play for the win, regardless of their defensive duties. Its designed for those desperate to get a goal, create opportunities or for those wanting to go all out in a game. As above, playing this instruction for too long will have an adverse effect.

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Match Reviewing This is actually the key to understanding your tactics. Its one thing creating tactics and studying the dynamics of the formation, but when it all goes wrong, youre always left playing a guessing game. Was it the tactics, the pitch, the teams morale or was it the team talks which cost you this game today? Well, there is a very conclusive tool which allows you to see a number of in-depth statistics about the way your team approached and played their fixture. They are FMs equivalent to the OPTA stats: the Match Stats and Analysis pages. These tools allow you to view an intimate match report, with details of how each player has played, successful runs, shots and crosses as well as all the failed opportunities too. Its a brilliant tool to assess the flaws in not only your tactic, but also your approach to the game youve been playing. It could be this which helps you better use a winger in future or even help you understand how to be more effective on a different pitch type. Lets spend a few moments looking through the options available for assessment and how they function in a way that will allow you to use them to improve your setup

Analysing the Match Statistics Shots/On Target/Off Target These stats are all pretty similar with their effects. If youre seeing lots of shots and a low goal ratio, or lots of shots Off Target, you might want to adjust the amount of long range shots the players are taking and try to get them to pass the ball into the box more often. You might also want to consider looking at the roles in which your forward players are being deployed. If youre seeing few Shots or few shots On Target, youre going to need to look at whether the team is attacking enough to get into good shooting positions, or if theyre trying to pass the ball into the goal instead of taking shots when they have the time to do so. Blocked Shots If youre getting a high Blocked Shots figure, then its because youre being crowded out when shooting in the box or youre shooting from long range and the defenders are getting enough time to move in front of the ball and deflect it. To counter this problem youre going to want to check your Assistant Managers feedback and/or look to the highlights for a reason as to why youre not getting your shots past the defending players. You will either want to try to work the ball into the box instead of taking long shots or youll want to draw the opposition out of the box (tips on this can be found under the Touchline Shouts section).

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Woodwork/Clear-cut Chances Obviously these stats are indicative of the prowess of the forwards and midfielders respectively. If youre hitting the woodwork a lot, youre going to need to view the forwards PPMs and see how he likes to shoot (tips for PPMs can be found under the Understanding the Genetics of a Footballer section). If youre not getting enough Clear-cut Chances then youre going to need to look at how the midfielders are creating opportunities. It might be a good idea to increase through balls, alter your crossing technique or give the midfield more creative freedom. You may find your midfield is inadequate and might want to look at their abilities to create opportunities for the forwards (you should review their Technical stats and PPMs to see if they could be problematic.). Long Shots This is only going to need addressing if youre failing to convert opportunities or are getting lots of shots Off Target. Its very easy to restrict long shots, but you may want to increase them - if youre not using them and have nothing to show for playing a more controlled shooting game. Possession/Passes Completed If youre not keeping the ball, you will need to look at how youre passing it. You may be too direct, you may be passing the ball too long or you could be playing with too much distance between the players and their passes are being intercepted or youre not actually pressurising the opposition enough to win the ball from them - in which case Philosophy and Strategy settings would need adjusting (more information about both can be found under the Understanding the Fundamentals of Tactics section). You may as a last resort need to alter your tactical shape, with the idea of better aligning players in the formation to keep the ball. Naturally, this element of the game could be affected by a players ability to pass and stay calm under pressure when they have possession. Corners/Free-Kicks/Throw-ins If youre getting a lot of set-pieces and youre not noticing many goals/opportunities from them, youre going to want to address your routines. Start looking at whos taking the set-piece (and if they have adequate ability to execute a successful corner/free-kick/throw-in), where the ball is being delivered to, whos in the box attacking the corner or free-kick and how the players are setup to attack the corner or free-kick. Set-pieces can be vital, so remember to work on them in training and remember to make some effort with the set-piece creator pre-match. Fouls/Yellow Cards/Red Cards if youre giving away a lot of fouls and conceding set-pieces as a result, its obviously going to be highly problematic. If youre getting booked or sent off, its definitely going to need to be addressed. The

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obvious things to do would be to firstly lower your tackling aggression. If that isnt an effective solution, youre going to need to look at the players giving away fouls and either work on their PPMs or even look to move them out of the team (the latter, certainly, if theyre being sent off or being repeatedly suspended). Offsides this indicates whether or not your attacking strategy is flawed. Obviously if this is high, youre going to need to build up play away from the player being caught offside, or try to develop the player to time his runs better (PPMs). Offsides arent generally thought of as something which is a terrible flaw, but every time youre caught offside you give possession away and remove pressure from your opponents, so it is something to address. Crosses Completed if youre not successfully completing crosses, its important to assess where things are going wrong. Youre most likely going to need to either adjust the way youre crossing the ball or whos crossing the ball. You might also want to look at who the ball is being crossed to as a good ball may come into the box and the forwards may be failing to get on the end of it. You can watch the highlights to see how your crossing is failing, but also check the Assistant Managers feedback for clues. Tackles Won/Headers Won if youre not doing particularly well with either of these stats, youre going to want to look at the players you have in roles where their objective is to tackle and head the ball. Identify whether or not the tackling is too weak (therefore the players arent committed enough to actually winning the ball) or if the players assigned to tackle have poor attributes. If its a heading issue, check to see if the players are marking their opponents well enough (you may want to setup specific marking pre-match), check to see the height and Jumping statistics of those who you have heading the ball they may not be good in the air; but remember, forwards also head the ball, so it could be an issue with your crossing.

If youre struggling to solve the issue, you should review the highlight footage for a better indication or even watch full length games in the next few matches to fully assess where the problem lies.
Kilometres Run/Average Rating these arent the most important of statistics if youre winning, but they could be highlighting a problem if youre not winning. The best way to boost the amount of running your team can do is by working on their fitness in training and the best way to boost Average Rating is via good Team Talks and a good pre-match setup.

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All of that concludes the intricacies of the post-match stats, but dont forget that you can assess these things at half-time and make changes before the game is over. This in itself could better the statistics at the end of the game. You should also utilise the Analysis tool as well. Its a fantastic way to understand the inner-workings of the way your tactic functions and its a good idea to review the analysis after the match to see where things worked and failed. It can give you a solid indication as to who is effective for you or not, who needs to work on certain elements of their game and how you can fine-tune the way your tactic is functioning. Dont be lazy and overlook it, see where you could be going wrong and make those changes!

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- Chapter Ten -

Random Thoughts
Below you can find some random hints and tips which Ive picked up from the game. Theyre just things which span from little ideas on scouting players to some pretty useful tactical advice. This is my best scouting tip - a Wonderkid tip to find you a Wonderkid! Manually search the best teams in the World via the team filter. I tend to start scouting the more talented national teams, by simply clicking on their team and then scanning through their young and highly valued players or by checking out their U21 squads. I cant begin to tell you how many gems Ive found by doing this and its prefect for finding regenerated players later in the game. Its important to maintain a good rapport with journalists. If youre in their good books it can stop you from getting criticism. This can ease the amount of pressure you are under from the media. When instructing the grounds man on pitch dimensions, its important to consider how your formation and tactical instructions will work on both a wider and narrower pitch. Look at your tactic and then tailor-make the pitch to best suit the style of play you want to use at home. If youre afraid of losing your star players due to bigger clubs coming in and poaching them, its best to avoid commenting on transfer speculation in the press. Make sure that youre interacting with them - praising them when they play well and letting them know (on occasion) that your club matches their ambitions. Also, try to tie down the players to contracts with long durations and insert an extortionate minimum release clause. At least that way, if the player goes, youll get some cash for him. When you need to keep morale in the team high, keep praising your better performing players and theres every chance that theyll respond by playing well in the next game. If you have a problem with low morale, make sure youre not overly critical, it wont help the situation.

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When scouting players, lower your expectations of a specific Technical attribute and see if you can gain a player who has better Mental attributes. It could make a massive difference to the quality of the player you obtain, as Mental attributes have a big effect on how well a Technical attribute is executed. During the game, if you are ahead, but are only just holding on - wait until the match reaches the 75th minute and then increase the Time Wasting tactical setting, or trigger the Retain Possession shout. Its not advised to waste time before the dying embers of the game, as youll become sloppy and give the opponents time to come back from the brink of defeat, but if you trigger it at the right time, you have every chance of holding on to the result you want. Don't forget to keep an eye on the game during the match. If you spent time watching how your team play you can pinpoint anything thats going wrong. You can also pick up ideas about the way you and the opposition are playing. It can help stop them exploiting holes or it can help you to exploit them yourself.

To evade man-marking, its advisable to have your players swap their positions. This will make them far tougher to mark and can drag defenders out of position, creating holes for unmarked players to exploit. Remember that there is no universal tactic for success. Create and save a few various versions; for example, create a tactic for long pitches, one for wide pitches, one for short pitches and one for narrow pitches. That way you can easily rotate the tactical settings to the pitch size and not have to make changes every game. You have seen home and away tactics before, but what people don't realise is that your home tactic doesn't fail away from home because the opponent is better at their home ground, its because you're playing on different types of pitches. You can eventually get a tactic where you will perfect it at home - but that's only because your home pitch wont change (unless you alter the dimensions every season). Ideally, stick to the same shape and only alter the instructions. It can be a great time saver!

Try mixing up the passing in your team. Having a team build up play at the back with short and slow passing, then up front make it quick and direct. Often, the opposition wont know what's hit them.

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Don't be afraid to lose. If you're losing or about to play a tough game - just go for it. Attack them and go out with a bang. Its only one game and if you take the shackles off, your team might surprise you. Constantly changing your tactic or making radical changes to the style of play will remove all comfort and rhythm the team had with the prior tactic. You should look to find a tactic and settle on it (as best you can), certainly during a match, otherwise youll unsettle the whole team and see even worse results. When playing a match, not only is it important to consider how the weather will affect your passing movements, but give some thought to goalkeepers too. Whilst your goalkeeper may be at risk from a wet surface, the opposition goalkeeper will be prone to the same risks why not try some quick, long, frequent shots on goal and see if you can catch him out? Pre-match, when discussing your teams chances in the game ahead, it is sometimes possible to make your team more determined to win the game and prove you wrong if youve suggested that theyre not likely to win the game. Give some thought to the match referees mentality. If youre playing alongside a strict referee you might want to play without strong tackling, after all, youre more likely to be sent off or booked, if the referee has a penchant for flashing cards. When contemplating not signing a player due to his weak Jumping attribute, look at his height; theres every possibility that hes tall enough to get away with a lesser Jumping attribute.

If you have any good tips that youd like to get included in the next edition of the guide, check out the Contact and Support Information section of this guide and let us know!

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- Chapter Eleven -

Credits & Acknowledgements

This guide might be my body of work, but I have to thank a few people for the research and testing which theyve carried out and also for publishing their findings. This allowed me to not only validate a couple of my own theories, but it also gave me the ability to be a little more specific with a couple of subjects which I didnt have a lot of research to support the theory behind the words. With that said, thanks to WoIfsong, Pompey_Dan, Crouchaldinho, Bubbabaytuna, StormenDK and Lyssien all of whom have carried out a lot of research in different areas of the game and have documented their results over the last couple of years. Im sure there are a lot more people I should be thanking as Ive read SI Games forum religiously for the past four or five years, but looking back at the experiment/research threads that I can remember reading most recently, those are the guys I was able to track down to thank. Then of course, there has to be a nod to FM-Britain, Richard Claydon (wwfan) and Gareth Millward (Millie), who inspired me to begin this project a couple of years ago (Im only two years late in producing it!). Their work with tactics has been exceptional for as long as I can remember; in fact to the point where I can recall being completely overwhelmed when I first read their work in the Tactical Theorems & Frameworks 08 e-Book. It was an exceptional piece of literature and so in-depth that I struggled read it all. It was in that moment that I decided that I wanted to write something which could stand proudly next to their work, but something which was easier to pick up and read. I can say without a doubt, without FM-Britains contributions to this area of the game, that this guide Ive produced wouldnt be as big or as in-depth as Ive tried to make it. Lastly, a big thank you to Jordan Cooper (JordanC), whos put in a huge amount of time to help me get this e-Book distributed. He might be a terrible comedian, but hes a good e-Book distributor ;)

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I think thats everyone, but there are a lot of people who Ive spoken to and read comments/posts/blogs from over the years Ive been around, so a thank you to all of you guys who have debated and argued your points with me, its only served to produce a more thought-out guide. I was actually going to try and list people, but I cant be bothered; Id be here longer than it took me to write the guide. You guys know who you are anyway (even if youre lying to yourselves!). A quick thank you to Dennis as well. Some of his e-Book feedback from the first version has led me to simplify a few things for the readers and look at the way some information was being interpreted.

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- Chapter Twelve -

Contact & Support Information

Should you need to contact anyone regarding this e-Book wed like to make it very easy. You can find myself (Wonderkid) at www.footballmanagerfanboys.net you can usually find me lurking the forums. I am also available on Twitter (@dontfollowsheep). I have no Facebook or Bebo or any of that stuff, so unfortunately I cannot be poked. As always, feel free to e-mail me anytime at mail@footballmanagerguide.com You can find JordanC (the man behind the scenes) at www.fm-britain.co.uk. You can grab Jordan on Twitter (@getsacked). He probably has Facebook and Bebo, and probably MySpace too (hes very lonely and never gets out, poor guy) so definitely track him down and be his virtual friend. I also believe you can email the site at: support@footballmanagerguide.com Id imagine thats for more technical issues, but Im not the one dealing with it, so again, feel free to email about anything you like Jordan would really love the conversation. Important Notice

One last thing I should clarify www.footballmanagerfanboys.net is not affiliated with this guide. FM Fanboys is a site which I created and occasionally blog or post at. I no longer administrate the site and need to clarify for SI/SEGA purposes that FMFb has no ties with the production or distribution of this e-Book. This e-Book is completely independent of both FM Fanboys and FM-Britain (www.fmbritain.co.uk). I do however recommend both sites - if youre looking for more information, people to talk with or even things such as graphics, downloads, et cetera... FM-Britain will still be occasionally producing their high quality reading material and FM Fanboys is probably the best all-in-one fansite for producing blogs and articles, as well as graphics, databases and all those kinds of add-ons so check them both out, theyre two of the most high quality fansites around [sales pitch] :)