【翻译团】开贴招募翻译团，官方大作“The Project 2012”

shawnyong

题外音：原本打算想在FM12正式版出来之前，把这个翻译出来供国内FMers们共享。但本人也要工作，没有时间，再担心英文水平会给大家带来理解上面的困扰。所以在此开贴招募英文水平高，同时喜爱FM这款游戏的FMers。     我不是什么斑竹，也没有什么头衔，更不是什么大师，本人纯属对FM这款游戏的爱好。玩FM从02至今，自愧于实至今日也未曾搞明白FM的游戏引擎。所以此次FM12一出，也想学习论坛”古人“，搞个什么精华，弄个什么战士之类的。奈何，才疏学浅，怕给各位FMers带来错误的理论与经验。从官网论坛看到此贴，也是官网高人开贴征求论坛上面的FMers的意见，才有这篇对于FM2012的解释，有些类似前两年的TT&F系列。
      作者为”Cleon“，官网大师（可能海大师比较熟悉），有兴趣的FMers可以在此贴申请翻译。考虑到大家现在也都是上班族，或者学习任务也重，不希望打扰到大家太多的业余时间。所以翻译的FMer只翻译一部分就可以了，然后贴在下面。最后我会收集大家的翻译成果，然后做成合集，与大家共享成果。在此先谢谢各位了。
      申请翻译的FMer在下回帖格式如下：
      账号
      翻译：X楼
      这样方便我统计，避免有人翻译重复了。若是翻译中，有理解冲突的问题，我也会贴出供大家商量讨论。总之，目的是遵循官网的意思，又能让国人FMer看懂。


PS： 1、此次活动纯属于个人的喜好，本人在论坛中只是个无名小辈，所以没有什么奖励的措施给大家。在此只能再三言谢了。              2、请翻译的朋友尽量按照作者的原文进行。这为了以后方便整合起来。（虽然可能有的话是闲话，但也请按照原文翻译，拜托）
     3、由于SI论坛打不开图片，因此无法给大家呈现出图片出来。


原文地址：http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/238682-The-Project-2012-(Updated-for-FM12)


欢迎广大的英文水平好的爱好FM游戏的FMers参与此次活动。
      

shawnyong

THIS THREAD ALSO INCLUDES THE SHEFFIELD UNITED PROJECT, THE FM12 STUFF WILL BE FURTHER DOWN THE PAGE



PLEASE USE THIS LINK TO DISCUSS THIS THREAD

http://community.sigames.com/showthr...30#post7141830


I've updated this with a few new bits and decided I'll have a seperate discussion thread. That way I can post all the info in here and people will be able to read it much better. I will be adding a lot more to this over the next month, I've done a lot more than I've posted already. It's just a case of finding the time to post it all up, it takes quite a while with all the images etc


I’ve not seen a thread like this on the forums ever. So I will try and explain how player attributes are used in game and show what attributes are used. By the end of this when it is all finished I should have highlighted how each attribute work in a game scenario just to give you a general idea. This will be a lot to read and take in, but for anyone wanting to learn how the game works then it is important you understand how the attributes work and what they do.

To start off I will just highlight a goal scored in my Aston Villa game. I will add other explanations for other areas of the pitch at some point but for now this should give you a general idea on how they work as a whole. Before I start I would also like to thank Sfraser as he had a massive amount of input into this threadJ. Also because of how the new forums don’t show pictures properly in threads I’ll just post links to the pictures until SI (hopefully) wider the forum.

While most people have a general idea of what each player attribute does it seems many users still have confusion over what stats and attributes are used during a move. Hopefully this will go a long way to clearing a lot of things up and it might make you think about tactics in a different light. It’s not easy trying to figure out which attributes are used at times as some are similar to each other. But hopefully you’ll understand what I’ve written and be able to see in the screenshots and explanations.

I’ll break the move down into three stages so it doesn’t become too confusing.

Shawnyong翻译

  本主题也包括了谢菲尔联队的计划，FM12的内容将进一步在本页中解释。

  请使用这个链接来讨论本主题。

  http://community.sigames.com/showthr...30#post7141830

  我已经更新上面的主题，决定将开个单独的讨论主题。那样我能在这里贴出所有的信息，大家将会看到更多的信息。接下来一个月中，我将张贴更多。比已经张贴出来的，我贴了更多。只是时间的问题。要所有的图片出来还要一段时间。

  我从来没有在SI论坛中看到过这样的主题。所以我会尽量解释如何在游戏中使用球员属性和显示被使用的属性是什么。到这个主题全部结束，所有都完成时，为了给你一个总体思路，我会加亮突出每个属性在游戏场景中是如何工作的。有很多内容要读和理解，但是对于想要学习游戏如何运作的人来说，重要的是理解属性如何工作和做了什么。

  为了开始，我将会只在我阿斯顿维拉的游戏中强调一个目标。在某一时刻我会增加对场地其它区域的解释。但现在这只是带给你一个总体思路，关于它们作为一个整体如何工作的思路。在我开始之前我也想要感谢Sfraser（译者注：此人是SI的仙人，创造出无数的战术理论和解释，可惜在前段时间车祸已死，可惜哉），他对这篇主题做了大量的贡献。也因为新论坛在主题中不能正确显示图片，因此我只是贴出图片的链接，直到SI加宽论坛。

  当大多数人有了对于每个球员属性的总体思路时，似乎很多玩家在游戏过程中对什么样的统计与属性而困惑。我希望这将会是很长的路去澄清很多的事情。也许会使你有不同的领悟去思考战术。因为彼此都类似，要指出有时被使用的是什么属性不是容易的事情。但是我希望你会理解我写的，能看懂截图和解释。

我将在下面分解三段，因此不会太混乱。

shawnyong

Stephen Ireland the player circled in blue has attempted to do a cross field pass to Shaun Wright Phillips. This was to exploit the space down my right side due to my formation as I lack width on this side. It looks like Stephen Warnock (the yellow arrow) will struggle to get across to cover. But that isn’t strictly true as Warnock is in a good starting position to make an interception. So before anything happened the defenders positioning attribute was already working. Let’s remind ourselves what positioning actually means;

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.

Anticipation also plays a part due to the player needing to anticipate how Shaun Wright Phillips makes his movement. Because anticipation also plays a part here is how that works;

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’.

Now we have a general idea of what the first 2 attributes used do we need to look at the move a little closer. I won’t mention off the ball just yet as that is mainly an attacking attribute only as defensive players need positioning instead. They are the only 2 attributes (apart from goalkeeping attributes) that are specific to defensive or attacking players. Off the ball is for attacking players and positioning for defenders.

我们开始吧。

（贴图，官网论坛的图打不开）

（分析截图的信息）Stephen Ireland 在蓝色圈内一直试图斜传给Shaun Wright Philips.由于我阵型在右侧缺乏宽度，因此被利用这侧的空间。看起来Stephen Warnock（黄色箭头）将难以覆盖。但那不是糟糕的事情，因为Warncok在好的起始位置上进行拦截。因此，在任何事情发生之前，后卫的位置感属性已经在工作了。让我们提醒自己位置感实际上是什么意思。

位置感是球员阅读场上情况和在最好的可能的位置上安排他自己以便应付发生的事情。预判将会在第一时间帮助他。但是就他的实际位置而言，可归结于位置感这个属性。更高的数值会保证球员占据更好的位置。

预判也是一部分，因为球员需要预判Shaun Wright Phillips如何跑位。因为预判在这里对如何跑位的也起到一定的作用。

球员能预测和对事情做出反应是多么出色。如果一个球员在这有个高属性，他能很好地阅读比赛和比别人更快地对情况做出反应。这个属性与“无球跑位”能很好地工作。

      现在我们队前两个属性的定义有个总体概念，但我们还需要更进一步观察移动跑位。我不会提到无球跑位，像防守队员需要位置感属性一样，它是主要的进攻属性。除了守门员，无球跑位和位置感是进攻和防守球员特有的属性。无球跑位对于进攻球员，位置感对于防守球员。
   

shawnyong

Stephen Warnock manages to come across and pressure Shaun Wright Phillips. Even though SWP is the faster player when he was waiting for the pass from Stephen Ireland he was facing the wrong way. This meant that Warnock had the upper hand as he was facing the correct way due to the position he took up. This allowed him to use his acceleration to come across and cover.

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.

There is in fact a fairly obvious superiority of Anticipation, Composure, Determination and Workrate. This is one of the reasons why Stephen Warnock got to the ball first, along with the attributes already mentioned above.

By showing a good amount of composure it allowed him to stay calm and not rush into making a tackle. Here is a reminder of what composure does.

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.

I also mentioned determination which is;

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.


（截图，官网显示不出来）


（分析截图）Stephen Warnock 负责防守和压迫Shaun Wright Phillips.即使Phillips更快点，但当它等Ireland的传球时，他面向了错误的方向。这意味着Warnock占据的位置，面向了正确的方向而占了上风。从而让他用他的爆发力防守和压迫对手。

爆发力从一个球员从开始到达到最高速度有多快的能力。因此与速度属性有紧密的关系。

预判、镇静、决心和工作投入，事实上有明显的优势。这就是为什么Warnock能首先拿到球。就是因为上面提到的属性。

表现出良好的镇静，使他保持冷静而不冲上去抢断。这里就暗示了什么是镇静。

球员情绪与能力的稳定，特别在带球时。当面对一个很好的得分机会，或者很大的防守压力时，一个有着高镇静的球员，会保持他的头脑，做出更多的有利于球队的理智决断。

我也提一下决心是什么：

一个成功的承诺。一位有决心的球员会为了赢球付出一切。这和勇敢紧密联系起来。球员在这些属性中，拥有一个高属性的话，也可能在其它方面也高的。就像必要的特质一样。

shawnyong

Once Warnock knew what he had to do he was very determined to get to the ball. His workrate also allowed this to happen.

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.

Then once side by side with SWP it came down to Warnock’s decision making in what he should do.

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.

He decided to make a tackle but he could have quite easily decided to force him wide. But on this occasion he made the correct call to make the tackle. He wins the ball passes it to the striker who then comes deep and loses it. But luckily Warnock was on hand again to repeat the above as SWP looked to win the ball back.

So for me this moved worked as follows;

Positioning – Anticipation – Acceleration – Determination – Workrate – Composure – Decisions.

Sfrazer also made a good spot here in regards to this move;

Also I don't know if you noticed, but just before Warnock plays the ball to Milner, both Milner and Agbonlahor are facing in the direction that the possible move Milner refuses and the eventual move that leads to the goal comes from. That may not have any relevance whatsoever but I thought it might be worth pointing out. It could indicate just how early both players have anticipated the move. Indeed just before Warnock receives the ball after the contest between Toure and Agbonlahor, he turns to face Milner then receives the ball then dribbles infield past the poorly positioned Adrien to pass to the excellent choice of Milner. If you look at how the Aston Villa players involved in the build-up to the goal turn and move, it looks very clear to me that each move has been Anticipated well in advance and that each player has turned and looked in exactly the direction of each subsequent pass quite a few touches prior to execution.

This can be highlighted in this screenshot;




From viewing the clip several times it is clear that Warnock does consider passing to Adrien but realises he isn’t in the best position and decided to cut infield and pass to James Milner. It is hard to show the full movement of the above in just a screenshot. So I’ll also add the PKM to the end of the post so people can download it and see for themselves the events we are talking about.

shawnyong

Part Two of the Move

Once Stephen Warnock wins the ball for a second time, he then comes infield and picks a pass to James Milner.





As Milner received the ball Manchester City’s defence have already begun to step up meaning I have two player’s off-side. The thing that stands out here is that Milner could play the ball through first time. Had he done so however, Agbonlahor would have been half a yard offside. Beyond the technical difficulty of the first-time pass, I see no reason to imagine that Milner would not have considered it, seeing as how he spots the next pass. Therefore in my opinion Decisions has come into play in Milner before he even touches the ball, to make him refuse the bad pass to the offside Agbonlahor.

The attributes brought into play by receiving the pass goes like this;

Anticipation – First Touch – Composure – Technique

He anticipates he’ll receive the pass from Warnock. Then when he gets the pass his first touch is excellent. Important to the First Touch is the fact that Milner has anticipated the pass. Again turning to look at the ball and the passer before it reaches him. Had he not anticipated the pass then irrespective of his First Touch/Composure etc. the pass would have bounced off him? First touch is;

How good a player’s first touch is when receiving possession. A higher rating will ensure that the player can trap the ball quicker and put it in a useful position to then act upon. Players with lower ratings here will struggle to control the ball as adeptly and may be prone to losing the ball if closed down quickly.

shawnyong

Composure then comes into the equation and allows him to not panic about receiving such a difficult ball. Technique also plays a part here;

Technique is the aesthetic quality of a player’s technical game – how refined they appear to be with the ball. A player with high technique will be more likely to pull off a tricky pass or a cross-field ball with greater ease than someone less technically able. This in turn affects a number of technical attributes – poorer technique will let a player down.

This is also an important attribute when first touch is used, they go hand in hand.





The next attribute that really sticks out is Determination. Look at how Milner attacks the game immediately after controlling the ball. That is a determined run, by a mile. There is a bit of Agility, Dribbling, Acceleration, and I would say perhaps Aggression and almost certainly Workrate involved. No doubt a bit of Composure and Technique as well, and Anticipation of the challenge of the number 7 Ireland. Overall though, Determination is written all over that move.

The two attacking player’s in this move are way offside that is why Milner makes the decision to run with the ball. His run is determined but he is also anticipating that Agbonlahor will get back on side. For this to happen Agbonlahor needed to show great determination and acceleration to be able to get back in time. Milner’s timing is crucial here because if he plays the ball now then the whole move collapses. So his decision to hold onto the ball and drive forward before picking the pass is down to his decision making and determination to see the move succeed. Another thing is this move is 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.

Concentration played a very important role in the move as well. The Concentration aspect of the move can be shown in how well each player anticipates each other’s movements throughout the move. As this move is early in the match, the final action in the move is a matter of split seconds between pass and run. If this was later in the match then both players might lose Concentration in the later parts of the move and mis-time or even fail to spot the final run or final pass of the move.

Concentration is;

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.

shawnyong

Part Three





It’s quite clear that Milner and Agbonlahor are working together here because of what happens next. Agbonlahor gets back onside and is on the defenders blind side. As soon as Agbonlahor is back on side he starts to move forward again. Milner then plays a worldclass ball over the top for him to run onto. For him to be able to do this he has shown good anticipation, concentration, teamwork and decision making. In fact Milner looks to be waiting for Agbonlahors runs, showing Concentration and Teamwork, and the Anticipation of the precise timing of the pass is very good. Almost perfect give or take a few milliseconds and quarter of a yard. Concentration plays a large role here in my opinion.

The Teamwork aspect of the move can been seen in how many of the components of each players movements are linked together, in how early they both start playing the move together even before the pass and the run. A low Teamwork player might only spot the run, or the pass, instead of actually moving around before hand to assist his teammate in making the move easier to pull off.

The above is vital and you need to watch the PKM and view the first goal, to get a good understanding of what happened here. No amount of pictures or explanation can describe exactly what happened like viewing the clip would show.

Agbonlahor shows good off the ball due to his movement throughout the move. He knows exactly where he should be and knows the run he needs to make. Anticipation once again is also important. Here is what off the ball does;

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.
Once he gets back on side then he uses his agility to turn and make a run onto the ball from Milner.

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.

As you can see agility uses a lot of other player attributes and it’s them all combined what makes the difference. However for this move it doesn’t matter than Agbonlahor doesn’t possess great balance or agility because the defender is on the back foot. Due to Agbonlahor running back from an offside position he’s managed to get onto the blind side of the defender. So already he has the advantage. All he needed was for Milner to execute the ball well and he would be away. And that’s what happened.

shawnyong

Once the ball comes over the top of the defender the striker already has a good 5 yards advantage and would never catch someone as fast as Agbonlahor up. He doesn’t even need a good first touch for this as he lets the ball bounce in front of him. He almost runs onto a dead ball by the time he gets on the end of it. Then he picks his corner and fires it home to make it 0-1.

So this move came about using;

Off the ball – Anticipation – Agility – Acceleration – Pace – Strength - Composure – Decisions – Technique - Finishing

Apart from pace and acceleration, Agbonlahor is quite poor in the other attributes. But that didn’t matter this time due to him getting into a position what allowed him time and space without been under too much pressure.





The player circled in red is trying to attempt a last ditch tackle just as Gabby is about to fire the ball home. The other defender Toure is just behind Agbonlahor and from viewing the clip several times you can see he tried to out muscle Gabby off the ball. But Agbonlahor is quite strong so he just dismissed Toure’s attempt and shrugged it off. Toure had one attempt to muscle him off the ball as he was behind the attacker so couldn’t tackle him as he would have given the penalty away.

The finish was also important. Finishing is;

The player’s ability to put the ball in the back of the net when presented with a chance. A high finishing attribute will put the shot on target a majority of the time as a bare minimum but compared to a player with poorer finishing will find the places where the goalkeeper can’t save it. This is purely the ability of the player to perform an accurate shot – Composure and Decisions will also impart on the ability of a player to score consistently.

00odysseus

挖掘理论基础吗？支持下

shawnyong

The next bit of this guide will look at certain moments from the same game. This should allow me to pick out key things that will highlight the rest of the attributes I’ve not mentioned yet. Plus the PKM is already uploaded should people decide to watch the game.

So far I’ve mentioned;
Positioning
Anticipation
Acceleration
Composure
Determination
Workrate
Teamwork
Decisions
First Touch
Technique
Concentration
Off the Ball
Agility
Strength
Finishing



In this screenshot it is a simple move that Fernando Gago does. He gets the ball and runs past Lee Cattermole. For this he used composure, technique, concentration, dribbling, balance, decisions, creativity and pace.
Dribbling is;
This refers to the player’s ability to dribble with the ball. This is purely his proficiency with the ball at his feet – his Pace, Acceleration, Agility, and Balance will all aid his dribbling in different circumstances, and whilst a higher dribbling attribute will also help him in different situations, dribbling alone isn’t enough to get by.

I also mentioned balance which is;

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.

As the player is not instructed to run with the ball in his settings, then it is obvious his creativity played a part in the move.

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.

He saw he had a good chance of running past Lee Cattermole (due to his creativity) and then used his decision attribute to decide to do it.





Then he gives the ball to Fabian Delph and drops back. For this he used passing, composure, teamwork, workrate and positioning.

shawnyong

Adebayor who is circled in red is just about to receive the ball. Now if you look at my defensive midfielder you’ll see he is in a good position, especially as Adebayor is facing the wrong way. Then Adebayor starts to run towards the flank as he looks to turn and run towards my goal.



But he shows a bit too much of the ball allowing my defensive midfielder to slide in and take the ball away from him. For this Gago showed good positioning, marking, anticipation, bravery, determination, aggression, tackling, acceleration, concentration, workrate, and decisions.

We’ve already covered positioning so let’s move straight onto marking;

How well players, mainly defensive types, mark an opponent. Marking alone will see them do a good job if the attribute is high, but remember that other attributes – Strength, Off the Ball, Anticipation – will play a part in the effectiveness of the marking, as well as the comparable physical statures of the two players.

He also needed to be brave as he did a sliding tackle;

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.

We’ve not mentioned aggression before so here goes;

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.

And finally tackling which does exactly as it says on the tin;

How successfully the player is at winning tackles and not conceding fouls from such situations. Players with a high tackling rating will consistently win the ball cleanly and be a more capable defensive player

What we are beginning to see here is that a lot of the same attributes are used in all moves. Thing’s like decisions, anticipation, positioning and concentration seem to be more prominent than other attributes and are required for all actions a player does on the field. This is why it can hard to see how attributes work in game.

There are a lot of other factors involved in how attributes work, namely the team and individual settings you have instructed them to follow. But we will talk about the link between attributes and settings once all the attributes have been covered. This thread is just a basics understanding of what each attribute does before we move onto the more difficult stuff regarding player settings. That requires a lot more time and attention due to the sheer amount information we need to squeeze into them. But for now we’ll continue with the attributes and hopefully have this finished by the start of next week

shawnyong

The other outfield attributes that I’ve not mentioned so far are;

Corners

This attribute reflects how well the player takes a corner. Taking advantage of set-pieces is important, and having a capable corner taker to put the ball into key areas is useful.

Crossing

This indicates a player’s proficiency at crossing the ball from wide areas into the penalty box.

Heading

This is a player’s competence in aerial situations. Heading applies to all situations and is only about the player’s ability to head the ball well. Jumping (and to a lesser extent Strength) plays a big part in combination with heading to utilize the attribute to a greater level, as well as a player’s height.

Jumping

This attribute related to how high a player can jump from a standing start.

Natural Fitness
How fit a player is as standard – his base level of fitness. It affects how many games he is likely to be able to perform to peak physical fitness in before becoming noticeably tired and susceptible to injury.

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.

The reason I’m not showing you how flair and creativity work in game just yet, is because I can discuss it more and put the point across a lot better but showing you how it works with the individual and team settings we choose. I feel it will be better served expanding on this when discussing those aspects.

Influence

Influence is the player’s ability to affect events or other players without any intentional effort. Players with high influence will be leaders on the pitch and team-mates will tend to rally around these players.

Free Kick Taking

This reflects how good at taking free kicks the player is. It applies to both direct shots at goal and deliveries into dangerous areas from wider or deeper positions. A player who is proficient in taking free kicks can be a valuable commodity – scoring five free kicks a season and adding five more assists from them can be a huge bonus.

Long Shots

This is the player’s prowess at shooting from distance – from outside the penalty area. It is largely a stand-alone attribute but pay attention to any PPMs the player may have which complement their long shots rating.

Long Throws

The ability of the player to perform a long throw, which can be taken advantage of in attacking situations.

Penalty Taking

The ability of the player from the penalty spot. A player with a high rating here will be more confident and capable from 12 yards.

These attributes are easy to see in game and are simple to understand. So there is no need to show how these work in a game situation. These are the easier attributes to see.

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Goalkeeper attributes are probably one of the harder set of attributes to see in game. I’ll go into detail about a few of them now but a lot of them will be more visible to see and understand how they work when we talk about how attributes affect what we’ve instructed a player to do.

Aerial Ability

This is a goalkeeper’s ability to deal with the ball in aerial situations – punching and catching. Goalkeepers with higher ratings here will be able to deal with these potentially tricky situations more capably. Taller goalkeepers may have an advantage as well, but that isn’t to say smaller ones will struggle.

When you see a keeper coming for an aerial ball this is what he uses. Agility, balance, strength, concentration, determination, jumping, positioning, composure and anticipation all have an effect. All these attributes are used to determine if he will get to the ball, whether he gets the ball all depends on his handling.

Handling

How securely the goalkeeper holds onto the ball when making a save or coming for a loose ball. Greater handling will be beneficial in unfavourable weather conditions, but in general a goalkeeper who doesn’t give up rebounds will be useful.

Command of Area

This affects how well the goalkeeper takes charge of his penalty area and works with his defensive line. A goalkeeper who commands his entire box (i.e. has a high rating) will be instinctive and look to take charge of situations, especially coming for crosses (therefore working in tandem with Aerial Ability). Do note, however, that a high rating only increases his penchant for coming for crosses and not necessarily claiming them all.

Communication

How well a goalkeeper communicates with his defensive line and organises the defensive side of the team. A higher rating reflects a better communicator and will allow your back five (or more) to work better together, ensuring better defensive stability.

This is vital for sorting out defensive free kicks, a higher communication will allow for the defensive wall to be set more accurate with the right number of people in it.

Eccentricity

This attribute represents the likelihood of the goalkeeper to do the unexpected and typically act completely un-like a goalkeeper. Things like dribbling out of his area will be commonplace if the eccentricity attribute is high.

Ever seen your goalkeeper do something weird for no apparent reason? This could be the reason why.

Kicking

The physical capability of a goalkeeper to kick the ball – this purely defines the distance he can reach. His Passing and Technique ratings will define how accurate his kicks are.

One on Ones

The ability of the goalkeeper to do well when faced with an opponent in a one on one situation. Higher attributes will see goalkeepers attempt to impose themselves and win the ball with confidence.

When faced with a one on one situation, anticipation, decisions, composure, concentration, balance, agility, positioning, reflexes and rushing all will all come into the equation at some stage of the move. The higher the attributes for all those then the more likely he would be to deal with the situation.

Reflexes

How good the goalkeeper is at making instinctive reaction saves. If he has a high reflexes rating he will be able to respond to the unpredictable with more success and be able to pull off the highlight reel saves.

Rushing Out

How good the goalkeeper is at coming off his line to react to through balls and similar situations. A goalkeeper will benefit from Pace and Acceleration here as well.

Tendency to Punch

This determines whether a goalkeeper will catch the ball when he can, or punch it clear. A higher rating reflects a tendency to punch most things clear even when it may be possible to hold onto the ball.

Throwing

How good the goalkeeper’s distribution with his arms is. A higher rating will increase the accuracy of his throws, although Strength imparts on the distance he is able to reach.

Trying to show these attributes working in screenshots wouldn’t get them across well enough. So I am working on some videos to illustrate this better. But that will take a while longer, so I’ll edit the thread and add the links once finished. Might take me a while though as I’ve never done videos before.

Now I’ve covered the rest of the attributes I can move onto showing them in practise in a game and illustrate exactly what impact they have on the settings you select.

shawnyong

Next we take a look at the impact that attributes have on the style of play that you choose to use.

Looking at the attributes of your players is also a good way to determine what type of football they can play. Whether you want to play defensive or attacking football the attributes are very important to determine if they can play this way. I think this is an area that is overlooked by most folks and they just tend to pick how they want to play off the top of their head. Regardless of if they have the right players available to play this way. This is why so many people struggle to find consistency in my opinion because they don’t have the correct players. So let’s take a closer look at the attributes and see what you should look for.

Defensive

To play a defensive type of game it is important that your team is able to keep the shape at all times. This will make you hard to break down and mean you are well organised. When playing defensive if you don’t keep the shape it will mean you have holes in your tactics and the opposition will exploit them. Plus if you don’t keep shame then the whole philosophy is flawed to begin with. The players must be alert for the full 90 minutes and be on-the ball so to speak. Any lapse in concentration can be very costly especially late in games. It also requires you getting men back behind the ball. Remember also that someone defensive minded will be less ambitious with their passing.

Technical Attributes

Tackling – This is important for all players who will be back behind the ball.

Marking – You’ll want the player’s to be able to pick up their man and stick with him. One slip up by not marking properly and you could start to see gaps appear in your shape.

Heading – Because you’re defensive the chances are a lot of balls over the top and crosses from the wings will be a big issue. So you’ll want the defenders to be able to cope with these. Heading across the field in general will be a big bonus but it’s vital for the defence to be able to deal with aerial threats.

Mental Attributes

To be able to stay focused and keep the team shape players need to be mentally aware of problems and potential problems. So they must have good mental attributes to excel under pressure and reduce the amount of mistakes they make.

Anticipation – Player’s need to be aware of danger before it happens

Composure – The calmer the player is on the ball the less hurried his next action will be. You want people who won’t panic on the ball and give possession away cheaply. Especially when in your own half

Concentration – It’s no use having players who might switch off at any moment. You need them focused at all times.

Positioning – You want them positioned well enough to force pressure if it’s needed. This also helps the players keep the shape of the formation.

Teamwork – As the team will be playing as a defensive unit then it’s important all players are on the same page and working together.

Workrate – Players need to have a good work ethic as they’ll have lots of running about to do. You need the players to want to work hard for the result.

Physical Attributes

Acceleration – You need people to be able to be fast over short distances to cover other players. Or for them to pick up and loose balls quickly. It will also help with getting across to mark a player or to close him down.

Balance - A player who falls over easily and isn’t on his feet is out of the game.

Jumping – This will help in defensive situations. Remember this is needed for the heading attribute and works hand in hand with that.

Strength – Having a high attribute for this will ensure he can hold his own against the opposition should they get close to each other. You don’t want your players to get out muscled and knocked off the ball.

Stamina – You’ll want players who won’t get tired after 20 minutes of a game. The higher the attribute the more they can cope with high level physical activities.

Some might argue that other attributes should be on the list and that could possibly be the case. But for me these are the important ones for playing defensively. A few of you would have probably put decisions on the list and I'd agree to a certain extent. But for me playing defensively is more about getting the players to follow my own instructions I've set rather. So for this reason I omitted decisions from the list.

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A Normal Approach

A normal approach is neutral and doesn’t concentrate on one aspect more than the other. It will provide the right balance between defence and attack. Meaning the players are less likely to take risks defensively or attacking.

Technical Attributes

First Touch – You want the players to be comfortable when receiving the ball. This prevents risks if they can control the ball at first time of asking.

Passing – It’s important that the players don’t take risks and lose the ball needlessly.

Tackling - The midfielders will need decent tackling so they can win the ball back and start attacks early.

Mental Attributes

Anticipation – This attribute is important for all most everything. So it’s no surprise I think its need here again. Much for the same reasons already mentioned further up the guide.

Aggression – Having a high attribute for this will make the player more likely to get involved in an incident and get stuck in.

Composure – The calmer the player is on the ball the less hurried his next action will be. You want people who won’t panic on the ball and give possession away cheaply.

Decisions – Making the correct decision is important for any good football player. As you are playing a more neutral game its important they make the correct decision.

Teamwork – It probably feels like I am repeating a lot of attributes and that would be the right assessment. But a lot of them do tie into all aspects of the game as hopefully we are beginning to demonstrate throughout the guide. Teamwork is important in that you want the team as a unit. So anything that requires you to work as a team and not individuals will always require a high teamwork attribute throughout the team.

Physical Attributes

Stamina – This is the only attribute I’d put for this part for the same reasons as the defensive one.

Playing a normal game means teams won’t excel at one particular area of the game. They should try and be competitive in all areas equally and not be ‘really good’ at anything.

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Attacking

Attacking football is all about player movement and how well you distribute the ball. You look to put pressure on the opposition and commit players forward. Then when the time is right you’ll look to carve open the defence with intelligent play and skill. While at the same time been aware of how open you are for the counter attack.

Technical Attributes

Dribbling – You want players who are comfortable with the ball at their feet and who can commit defenders. This will help create space and openings.

First Touch – Is vital ingredient for any player playing attacking football. Players who lack good first touch will miss good opportunities for running at defences or important passes.

Passing – You want people in the side who can distribute the ball well to take advantage of situation in the game. Poor distribution will lead to missed opportunities.

Technique - Technique is the aesthetic quality of a player’s technical game – how refined they appear to be with the ball. A player with high technique will be more likely to pull off a tricky pass or a cross-field ball with greater ease than someone less technically able. This in turn affects a number of technical attributes – poorer technique will let a player down.

Mental Attributes

Anticipation – You’ll want the players to anticipate the movement of others around them as well as the type of ball they might be about to receive.

Composure – This will help with how comfy a person is on the ball in hurried situations. So when under pressure from the opposition will still attempt their ‘original decision’.

Creativity – For cutting open those defences you’ll want people who are creative. Plus it will help it spotting an opening or a different type of pass.

Flair – This goes hand in hand with creativity so can’t have one without the other.

Decisions – A player should be able to make the correct decision if more than one option is available. As you’ll be attacking then making the right decision is important and will be the difference between a goal and defending a counter attack.

Off The Ball – Movement is the key to all attacking formations and play. If an attacking player has a low rating then he’ll be less likely to find a little bit of space and make the right movement to beat his marker before he receives the goal. Sometimes it can be the difference that gives you that extra yard.

Teamwork – Again this is needed to play as a unit. But if you have a few special talents in your side that might be better playing as individuals then this isn’t as important. But very few teams have that kind of luxury.

Physical Attributes

Pace – I like to play fast paced attacking football so for me pace is essential. Especially for player’s who like to drive forward and beat their man. It’s important for me that they can reach the top speed.

Acceleration – This will provide that little edge in gaining an extra yard on the opposition. This and pace are very important.

Agility – Provides the player the ability to turn fast if needed. Ideally all attacking players should be agile when playing an attacking game. As they’ll be receiving the ball a lot and sometimes might find themselves with it when they wasn’t expecting it.

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Counter Attacking

Counter attacking is a speciality and requires you to exploit space and get the ball forward fast and early. If you fail to get the ball forward quick then you’ll have wasted the opportunity.

Technical Attributes

Crossing – Whether it is from deep or the by-line, it’s a weapon that you can use to devastating effects. An early cross to an attacker can instantly put the opposition onto the back foot.

Dribbling – To take advantage of any space that appears you’ll want players who are able to bring the ball forward.

Finishing – To make the most of any move you’ll want to put it into the back of the net.

Long shots – Players sometimes find themselves with a good opportunity to shoot from distance, especially when counter attacking.

Technique – For the same reasons I mentioned in the attacking one.

Mental Attributes

Aggression – Players should want to be involved in everything. This can also help with winning the ball back early and starting quick counter attacks.

Bravery – You don’t want players who bottle it when trying to win the ball back early do you?

Off The Ball - Movement is the key to all attacking formations and play. If an attacking player has a low rating then he’ll be less likely to find a little bit of space and make the right movement to beat his marker before he receives the goal. Sometimes it can be the difference that gives you that extra yard.

Work rate - Players will need to work hard both in defence and attacking situations. They will be up and down the field all day long, so should be prepared to put in the hard graft.

Physical Attributes

Pace – I like to play fast paced attacking football so for me pace is essential. Especially for player’s who like to drive forward and beat their man. It’s important for me that they can reach the top speed. Plus the players will be back and forth all match long.

Acceleration – This will provide that little edge in gaining an extra yard on the opposition. This and pace are very important.

Stamina – As the players will be up and down a lot, they need to be fit.

Strength – Having a high attribute for this will ensure he can hold his own against the opposition should they get close to each other. You don’t want your players to get out muscled and knocked off the ball. It will also help you win the ball back.

shawnyong

To fully understand how I create a tactic based on stats you need to familiarise yourself with the Analysis tab. This in one of the most important areas of football manager for myself. It's where I spend most of my time looking over the game details and looking at certain styles of play. I did a thread about this for FM10 but it looks like it has been deleted off the forums. But luckily I had a back up elsewhere so will re post it in here now. I'll also add the new sections of the analysis tab to make it more dated for FM11. Remember I wrote this for a different project but its still relevant now and links very well to what we are discussing in here.


How to Identify Issues

We have many stats available to us in game but how many of us actually know what they mean, or how to adapt a tactic based on them?! Well hopefully here I can explain a little bit about how I interpret them and alter tactics based on this information. A good place to start would be to take a quick look at the match stats, so here goes;



While these stats might give us a quick overview of how our team is playing, it doesn’t show a clear indication of how well. It can also be misleading if you don’t check to see how you are using these stats. By that I mean let’s take the possession as an example. It’s possible you could very well have over 70% of the possession; however the majority of that possession might be in your own half. The same can be said for the rest of the stats. Every now and then we need to take a quick look at how well we are using things like possession, what sort of shots we are doing and things like that.

Let’s take a closer look at the stats from the screenshot I posted above.

Straight away the stats jump out as been very similar and it looked like an even close game. Even though the score line doesn’t reflect that. So was the game really even, or were Manchester United unlucky? To determine this we need to look at every aspect of the match stats to determine how I won the game and why Manchester United lost.

Shots

I had 9 shots to Man Utd’s 14.
I had 5 on target to their 8.
3 off target to their 5.
I had 3 long range to their 8.
And we both had 1 each blocked.

Again it seems like Man Utd had quite a few more shots than I did. So now let’s take a look at the type of shots they had. For this we need to use the analysis page.

shawnyong

The shots page is a good starting point and will give us a better idea of the type of shots I am having and from what areas. This can be a good way of identifying if players are getting into good shooting positions. If you just want to view 1 type of shot then you can use the filters under the control bit at the very top of the page. All you have to do is un tick the check boxes to filter the type of shots you want to look at.

From this page we can also find out if some players are having too many long range shots. Then we can try and correct it. Correcting long shots isn’t always easy as it can be a number of reasons why they shoots from distance. It could be down to them not having players running beyond them in good positions for the pass. Too high creative freedom. The opposition parked the bus in front of goal. Or it could even be a PPM (players preferred move) issue. It might take a while to find the actual cause but at least we can keep a track of the culprits of long shots via this page.

A few things we can try to stop long range shots if we feel a player(s) is having far too many are;

First and foremost check his PPM’s. If you feel he has a PPM which isn’t helping his game and encourages long ranged efforts then try to train him something more useful that will help your side.

We can also check their long shots slider and make sure it isn’t set to try them often. If it’s set to mixed try and put the slider on rarely to see if it improves.

Creative freedom can be a big contributor to why a player is trying too many long ranged shots. If he has a high creative freedom then he is licensed to use his own brain and play more how he wants to rather than how you instructed him to. Try lowering it and see if that helps.

If you still seem to be experiencing it after all the above then it could be a case of lack of options for the player. Try pausing the game at random intervals when attacking and try and take notice of your player’s positions. This should give you a clear idea of how many players you are committing to attacks and you might find the player who is taking long range shots doesn’t have any options around him. So he sees a long shot as the only option.

For people using the tactics creator you could utilise the shouts here to see if that helps. The option you’d want would be the ‘work ball into box’ shout. This should discourage players from shooting from distance.

I【屏蔽词语】 on the coloured circle on the football pitch to the right, then it plays that clip for that particular shot. This is extremely useful. It will always show you clips but the type of clip you see depends on which part of the stats you are looking at. For example if you're on the passing section then the clips will be passing ones and so on.

Let’s take a look at the stats from the screenshot I posted earlier and determine how the game was won and lost.