Understanding attributes

Every outfield player has 36 individual attributes that make up their player profile. That's a lot of data. They also have a number of hidden attributes that we can't see including dirtiness, consistency, important match temperament, injury proneness, sportsmanship, ability to handle pressure, loyalty and ambition to name a few.

Each player is practically unique, far more complicated an individual than any NPC from any RPG game. They are also constantly changing. Young players go through growth spurts; veteran players decline. They also have Player Preferred Moves (PPMs) which provide yet another level of sophistication to their unique identity.

So why do you let in so many late goals? Why is your shots to goals ratio so bad? Why does your star striker sulk on the half way line every other match? Why don't your players follow your instructions? Why does the atmosphere in your dressing room stink? The answers to all those questions and more can be revealed by examining a player's attributes.

Attributes are grouped by the game into Technical, Mental and Physical sections. There are 14 Technical attributes (including 3 set piece attributes), 14 Mental attributes and 8 Physical ones. The way they actually interact within the match engine is more complicated than those groupings and different groups of attributes overlap. Let's start by examining speed.

The speed of a player is directly influenced by pace (top speed), acceleration (rate of change of speed), agility (rate of change of direction) and stamina (ability to maintain high speed). It's also indirectly influenced by anticipation (off the mark speed), balance , strength and determination - without these a player can be stopped from fulfilling their top speed. I guess the point is, you can't just look at pace to determine how fast a player is around the park.

A player with great pace but low stamina will fade during a game and should be best used as an impact substitute. After 60-70 minutes of a game their speed will diminish. Henri Saivet, the much admired French youngster has 18 pace and 8 stamina in GW15. This explains why currently he averages 6.6 in senior football and is probably best used as a sub until his stamina improves. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake has pace 17 and agility 10 in GW15 - which maybe suggests that his running is a bit one dimensional and why he plays for Wolves and why Manchester Utd let him go. Even Gabriel Agbonlahor who has pace 20, has anticipation of 9 - which again suggests he doesn't always skin every defense he plays against. And spare a thought for the dribbler who doesn't possess these attributes.

What makes David Villa, Andrey Arshavin and even Andy Johnson deadly in FML is that they score consistently high across the majority of speed factors.

Anticipation, off the ball and positioning are the next three attributes that together form a compelling factor in a player's character. Maxi Rodriguez and Christian Poulsen are great examples of constructive players who are excellent at finding space - infuriatingly so. And it's interesting to talk about Poulsen in the week when Claudio Ranieri suggested that he preferred to buy Poulsen in the summer because Xabi Alsonso's movement was surprisingly slow. As a creative player Alsonso is one of the best pure MCs in the game - yet his low acceleration, off the ball and dribbling make him quite a static target.

The star factor that separates the good from the great playmakers are a combination of passing, technique, creativity and first touch. Having these four attributes in abundence (16+) means you are sharing company with Kaka, Pirlo, Ronaldinho, Sneijder, Robben, Totti, Iniesta, Modric, van der Vaart and Montolivo - the best playmakers in the game. Only veterans like Kanu, Di Michele and Blanco possess these skills at the bargain end of the market (ok there are more but I won't list them all).

In terms of winning headers, jumping, heading, strength, determination, positioning and balance all come into the equation. I've talked about heading before and I think it's a straightforward area so I am going to pass on it for now.

But why do you let in all those late goals? Does one of your defenders have low concentration and low stamina? Well concentration is the attribute that plays a role in determining mistakes. Low stamina means concentration is further diminished late in a game. Bendtner, dos Santos (Gio) and Jair Baylon are all strikers who you may find under performing in the last 15 minutes of a match. At the other end of the pitch two low concentration Belgian stars, Vincent Kompany and Antony Vanden Borre both averaged 2.5 mistakes per game in season one of GW15.

What's the difference between John Utaka (75 goals in 275 games) and Fernando Torres (316 goals in 392 games? Is it something to do with the fact that Torres' workrate is 18 and Utaka 8? Do you ever notice that your strikers hardly ever touch the ball? Other high profile strikers with low workrate include Krisztian Nemeth and Daniel Carvalho. Workrate tells us how much work a player puts into a performance. But workrate also requires the necessary stamina to run around the pitch effectively. Ever Guzman is a good example of a bright young striker who's workrate is writing cheques his stamina can't cash. Workrate is almost a super attribute, if you are a great player with a great workrate you are probably a superstar. If you are a great player with a low workrate you are probably a luxury. All the technique in the world won't help you if you are stuck on the half way line staring at your new boots.

Another super attribute is teamwork. Get a unit of your team all with high teamwork (right side, left side or midfield for example) and watch them click. Teamwork also tells something about how likely the player is to follow your instructions. Quaresma is a fantastic player in FML, but don't ask him to play a specific role in your team with plenty of instructions. You are better off giving him a free role and letting him do whatever takes his fancy. Same goes for Giovinco, Vukcevic, dos Santos (Gio), Capel, Trezeguet and Menez. These guys don't need your managerial interference getting in the way of how they play. If you consider yourself something of a tactical genius you might want to consider how many low teamwork players you have, and how little they seem to care about your carefully laid out tactic.

I used to love high influence players, but then I realised making them unhappy makes the rest of the team unhappy. Be wary of buying high influence players unless you are going to keep them happy and play them in your team. Unhappy or sold high influence plays can destroy a dressing room.

Players in FML are fully formed NPCs with their own characters, idiosyncracies, likes, hates and bad habits like the rest of us. Spend some time getting to know your players. Go through all their attributes and see if you can understand the type of persona they are. What makes them good? What are their weaknesses? How do they complement their teammates? And is it worth persisting with that flawed genius of a goalscorer when every other game he is averaging 6.3?