FM14 guide to attributes.

[Dynamo_ZahnZee]

Good evening FM-Base.


First attempt at writing a help guide so I think I'll start with something that gave me a lot of trouble but found extremely interesting: Attributes.

---

I've long been obsessed with the attributes and learning how they interact with each other and what should be paired with what, ect. Some of the information here was gotten directly form SI's FM14 user handbook but i will be expressing my opinion a lot on these.

Attributes are rated from 1-20. Most believe that 1 = worst and 20 = best and measures their ability to preform the task, but I don't see it that way.

I see the 1-20 as a measurement of their ability to do the task consistently. Attributes measure competency! Having often managed at LLM level, I've seen player with (4) passing, fire in amazing thru-balls that cut out both the midfield and defense. but being only a 4 rating, I didn't see him do it often since he lacked the execution to pull it off often.

---

But each area of attributes deals with the stats and interprets them differently.
Physical deals in absolutes: a player with 15 Pace is not able to better that speed in a match environment with out training. A 6 Strength means the player won't suddenly gain 20Kg in muscle to pull off a great harrying move on a striker.

But take Technical: A player with passing of 18 (look at % of successful passes) is more likely to produce amazing passes and but doesn't necessarily have do it every game. Whereas a team mate with only 12 passing could get a hat-trick of assist in that game, but not get an assist for the rest of the season. A player with 20 finishing means he is confident of striking the ball at goal (look at % of shots on target) but dose not guarantee a goal.



Remember, consistency is a long term idea and cannot be attributed to a short term game. Do not ***** a players consistency on a game by game bassist, ***** their consistency after 19-38 games and see how they preform in chucks of games.

---

My contribution to this post will be 4-5 post long and I shall update them as I've the articles written and polished.

Goalkeeping	Mental	Technical	Physical
Aerial Ability	Aggression	Corners	Acceleration
Command of the Area	Anticipation	Crossing	Agility
Communication	Bravery	Dribbling	Balance
Eccentricity	Composure	Finishing	Jumping Reach
First Touch	Concentration	First Touch	Natural fitness
Free Kick Taking	Creativity	Free Kick Taking	Pace
Handling	Decisions	Heading	Stamina
Kicking	Determination	Long Shots	Strength
One on Ones	Flair	Long Throws
Penalty Taking	Leadership	Marking
Reflexes	Off the ball	Passing
Rushing Out	Positioning	Penalty Taking
Tendency to Punch	Team Work	Tackling
Throwing	Work Rate	Technique

Physical
Mental
Technical
Goalkeeping

​

 

[Dynamo_ZahnZee]

Physical

Here I'll list the user manuals description and my interpretation or opinion about them beneath it in red.
Physical
First, look at what physical is. It's a measurement of his physical abilities and the extent to which he can use his body to affect the game. These stats will be unique to each player since each player's body is different.
Two wingers who share the same physical stats but do not share the same height and weight will not match each others physical ability.

Attribute	Description (taken from FM14 user manual)
Acceleration	Acceleration is how quickly a player can reach top speed (pace) from a standing start. It therefore ties in very closely with the Pace attribute.
	Acceleration is how long it teaks him to reach full speed. How efficiently he dose this will be affected by things like his weight, the playing and pitch conditions, and his Stamina.
Agility	Agility reflects how well a player can start, stop, and move in different directions at varying levels of speed (pace). It ties in with the Pace, Acceleration and Balance attributes as they work together in the match engine, especially when a player is running with the ball.
	Literally, being agile is how flexible your muscles are. Agile players can bend and contort their bodies into doing things you'd normal think impossible. How well you can stretch your body to reach the limits of your ability. In fitness terms, high agility also means more resistant to injury.
Balance	Balance reflects simply how well a player can keep his balance in situations both with and without the ball. With the ball, it refers to how balanced he is running with it and evading opponents, without it, it refers to his balance when facing a player running at him, or his stability when turning/jumping.
	In one phrase, balance is how likely you are to fall over as you exert yourself to the limit of your physical ability. When you loose your balance, all your technical skill is gone and you're fighting to regain control of the ball. Very fast wingers with poor balance will give the ball away a lot.
Jumping Reach	Jumping Reach reflects how good a player is at reaching the ball in the air. It indicates the highest point an outfield player can reach with his head. It is not necessarily reflective of how tall a player is, but when considering his jumping ability, it makes sense to take into account the player's height. For example, a player of 200+cm will still possess a high reach even if he is a poor jumper, and a player who measures in at 170cm will struggle to compete at the same height due to the 30cm difference in height between the two.
	Exactly what it says on the tin.
Natural Fitness	How high the player's natural fitness is. How well he stays fit when injured or not training. This will help to determine how quickly players recover from injury, how well they retain their physical attributes as they go past their peak, and how fast they recover between matches.
	I imagine that Natural Fitness is the Player's Lifestyle. How well he exercises outside of training, dose he eat healthy, dose he go clubbing or jumping off bridges for fun on his holidays. Players who look after themselves outside of the clubs eyes have high natural fitness.
Pace	Pace is a player's top speed. Whereas Acceleration reflects how quickly a player can attain their top speed, pace is that top speed and together with Stamina and Natural Fitness, is how long they are able to maintain that pace in both short bursts and over the course of a match. A player will naturally be a shade quicker without the ball than with it.
	Once the acceleration phase is over, pace takes over: the maximum speed the player can run at. This is a deceptive stat since it is only one part of a complicated series of stats that co-exist. If you have a winger who has 20/20 acceleration/pace but has 5 dribbling, balance, he'll never be able to utilize his pace and will not feel confident on the ball. Also look at his speed stats in a defensive manner, how quickly can he chase an attacking full back?
Stamina	Stamina is a player's ability to endure high-level physical activity for a long period of time. With the demands placed on a player over a nine month season, players with high attribute ratings for Stamina will be able to perform at their top levels for longer. It ties in directly with Natural Fitness.
	Stamina, for me is the mother of all Physical stats and the most important. I view stamina as like a tank of gas: full = 100% of ability available; Empty = too tired to express his ability. Players with low stamina + high technical stats will fade away during the game. While he may have the ability to pull off a 50yrd pass to the striker in acres of space. . . .dose he have the energy to?
Strength	A player's strength is his ability to exert his physical force on an opponent to his benefit. A player with a high strength rating will be able to use it to his advantage against weaker opponents.
	His ability to exert himself on the game. Can avaoid conceding a free kick or unsettle an opponent into giving the ball away. It's one of the individual battles (your strength vs their strength) that decides one-on-one battles eg. striker vs defender. Anyone who's played football can tell you just how uncomfortable it is to be marked by someone who's physical stronger than you. For me, the counter to Strength is Flair. It does not matter if you're stronger than me if you don't know where I'll be.

 

[Dynamo_ZahnZee]

Mental

Mental
Metal Attributes comes down to how the player thinks, their resolve and how they approach football.
A mental attributes is a fair reflection on how they will attempt to impose themselves on the game and how effectively they will use their physical and technical attributes.

Attribute	Description (taken from FM14 user manual)
Aggression	This reflects a player's attitude in terms of playing mentality but is not necessarily a dirtiness indicator. A more aggressive player will look to involve himself in every incident and get stuck in, perhaps at the expense of a yellow card or two. A less aggressive player may shy away from situations and merely drop into his comfort zone, waiting for the play to find him.
	I choose to rename this attribute as Assertiveness. Dose he have the mental confidence to carry out his tasks and how aggressively dose he work to achieve them? A player with high Aggressiveness will look to work in his role and not be beaten, putting in his challenges with all of his ability and never giving up if beaten. Not to be confused with Determination. Aggressiveness only focuses on his role in the team, Determination focuses on his resolve to win games for his team.
Anticipation	How well a player can predict and react to an event. If a player has a high attribute here he can read the game well and react to situations quicker than others. This attribute works well with 'Off the Ball'.
	This is his "footballing intelligence." How well dose he understand the game, dose he see things happening or dose the game pass him by? A player's ability to be in the right place at the right time begins in his anticipation. he needs to see it before he can act on it.
Bravery	How committed and indeed, brave, a player is. Braver players will risk injury more in situations a lesser-minded player may shy away from. They'll go in where it hurts and lay it on the line for the team.
	This for me comes down to a players choice: my career of my clubs success. A player with high bravery will trust you to not put him in harms way and will fight tooth and nail, putting 110% into every challenge, every touch, every pass. He will not relent on his instructions even if it may risk him injury. Make sure you have good physios for players high in bravery.
Composure	The player's steadiness of mind and ability, particularly with the ball. When faced with a big goalscoring chance or heavy pressure defensively, a player with high composure will be able to keep his head and more often than not make an intelligent decision which is beneficial to the team.
	Composure is one of the most important attributes in the game. This governs how all other attributes are utilized in pressure situations. 1-0 down in the champions league final, a player with 20 dribbling, determination, pace, off the ball, ect. relies on his composure to be able to sink that shot, pass or tackle when it matters most.
Concentration	This reflects a player's concentration on an event-by-event basis. A high rating here will mean the player can concentrate harder for longer and be able to respond to incidents late in the game just as well as he did early on. Lower concentration will see players lose focus and perhaps become liable to mistakes at crucial times in the match.
	For me, this is the mental equivalence of Stamina. Having concentration will allow you to channel your ability and impose it on the game, but if it's low, the game will pass him by and he will miss the opportunity to use his ability.
Creativity	This refers to a player's vision and ability to see a potential opening, not necessarily exploit it. A player might be able to see something to take advantage of but also requires the technical proficiency to pull it off.
	This attribute on it's own is useless, it needs to be paired with other attributes to be effective. Creativity is 'outside the box thinking', can he spot the pass, move into a great position off the ball or try a cross field pass to set up a marauding inside forward? Anticipation is the ability to see the chance, creativity is the ability to see the move that can exploit that chance.
Decisions	The ability of a player to make a correct decision a majority of the time. This attribute is important in every position but perhaps more so for central defenders and midfielders, who will see a lot of the ball and have a number of options when in possession.
	Another one of the most important attributes in the game. Once the player has spotted the chance, though of a way to exploit the chance, dose he do it? And if he dose, dose he exploit is correctly or dose he make the wrong decision.
Determination	A commitment to succeed. A determined player will give everything in order to win. This ties in with Bravery; players with a high attribute in one of these attributes may also be high in the other as the traits necessary are similar.
	The players Drive, how hard is he going to work to do the things he decides to do on the football pitch (or training). This is the level of commitment, how much belief he has in his ability and the overwhelming urge to keep going. Players with high determination are less likely to give up and relent to bigger opposition. They will ignore common sense and go for it! throwing themselves into the action to try influence the result. Be careful of these players as high determination + low stamina will result in 45minute player who cannot keep up with the game.
Flair	A natural talent for the creative and occasional unpredictability. A player with a lot of flair will be one of the key attacking components in any team but at the same time may need tactical restraint to get the best out of him. Flair and Creativity work well together.
	Flair to me is the "what if I do this" choice. It is the split-second decision that has very little thought put into it and this makes it very hard to defend against. Creativity and decisions are very important here because once his flair brings him over the game line and beating the opponent, he now needs to see how to use the position he's not found himself in and exploit the advantages.
Leadership	Leadership is the player's ability to affect events or other players without any intentional effort. Players with high leadership will be influential on the pitch and team-mates will tend to rally around these players.
	This is often overlooked but can turn an average side into a great side. Leadership is a players ability to inspire those around him. Light Leadership + Determination can lead to huge moral boosts for his team mates as he puts his heart and soul into the game, inspiring his teammates to do like-wise.
Off the Ball	A player's movement without the ball. Similar to Anticipation, this is how well a player, particularly attacking ones, can assess a situation and then move off the ball, making themselves available to receive a pass in a dangerous position.
	You'll probably have started to notice that most of these overlap . . . .it's because they do. Most of these skills are transferable but they are very good in certain situations. While anticipation is a players ability to see where he needs to be, "off the ball" is how effectively he moves to that position, choosing what route to make and what angle to position himself at. Which foot dose he need to leave open to control the ball and is there space to play with. All of these things are processed by the player's "Off the ball" attribute.
Positioning	Positioning is the ability of a player to read a situation and position himself in the best possible position to deal with the unfolding events. Anticipation will help him in the first stage but in terms of his actual positioning, it comes down to this attribute. A higher rating will ensure the player takes up a better position.
	Positioning is mainly viewed as an defensive trait but it's universal, this governs exactly where a players is at any point in time. It is more important for a defender but a striker with good position could effectively cut off the right side channel if he positions himself between the CB and the RB/RWB It works with anticipation and off the ball but each focuses on the fine details of the overall movement.
Teamwork	How well the player follows tactical instructions and works for and alongside his team-mates. A team full of players with a high rating here will work better as a unit. Players with lower ratings will slack off and not 'buy in' to the team ethos.
	This is how well your players will work with each other! CB's with no teamwork will cause more problems than they will stop. Teamwork is their overall vision of how they will play the game: will they look over their shoulder and involve others, or use the movement of other players, or will the seek to influence the game on their own.
Work Rate	This reflects the player's mental drive to work hard. A high rating will ensure a player wants to work his socks off from start to finish, but he will need the necessary physical attributes to actually be able to pull it off. Nonetheless, it is an admirable trait to have in your team.

_____________

Work rate determines how hard they push themselves. Similar to Determination, this attribute focuses solely on their performance. and how effectively they use what energy they have left int he tank. Watch closely for their physical stats as if they dose not have high stamina, they may burn themselves out over the course of the season.

 

[Dynamo_ZahnZee]

Technical

Not finished

 

[Dynamo_ZahnZee]

Goalkeeping

Not finished

 

[MillerJA9]

Whilst I agree with your ideas on what the attributes SHOULD represent, I've found it to not be the case. Eg players with lower crossing, creativity and decisions etc, with the highest cross completion rates in the league, compared to other players. I feel there are many inconsistencies in the game regarding attributes and they often aren't a true representation of ability and results. Too often do I see quality players performing much worse over the course of a season to inferior players due to what I can only assume are hidden attributes such as consistency. SI need to work on such flaws as better players with better stats SHOULD perform (on average) better than inferior players of the same position.