Defensive Abilities
Marking ability – How well a player can retain a position close to an opposition player that makes him a less viable passing option.
- Primary attributes: Marking, Composure and Positioning.
- Key mental attributes: Anticipation, Decisions and Teamwork (movement), Composure and Concentration (focus), and Determination (endeavour).
- Related physical abilities: mobility (for tracking a player he is marking) and physical presence (for physical tussles with a player he is marking).
Defensive positioning – How well a player can retain a protective position that blocks a route to goal.
- Primary attributes: Composure and Positioning
- Key mental attributes: Anticipation, Decisions and Teamwork (movement), Composure and Concentration (focus), and Determination (endeavour).
- Related physical abilities: mobility (for moving his protective position as necessary according to the movements of opposition players) and physical presence (for physical tussles when holding up an opposition player).
Closing down ability – How well a player can move towards the opposition player on the ball in order to restrict his options and put him under pressure.
- Primary attributes: Composure and Positioning.
- Key mental attributes: Anticipation, Decisions and Teamwork (movement), Composure and Concentration (focus), and Aggression, Bravery and Determination (endeavour).
- Related physical abilities: mobility (for closing down quickly).
Tackling ability – How well a player can take the ball from an opposition player.
- Primary attributes: Tackling and Composure.
- Key mental attributes: Anticipation (awareness), Decisions (decision making), Composure and Concentration (focus), and Determination (endeavour).
- Related physical abilities: physical presence (for tackling forcefully).
Intercepting ability – How well a player can move to intercept a pass made by the opposition.
- Primary attributes: Composure.
- Key mental attributes: Anticipation, Decisions and Teamwork (movement), Composure and Concentration (focus), and Determination (endeavour).
- Key mental attributes: mobility (to move towards the ball), physical presence (for physical tussles when competing with an opposition player to get to the ball) and aerial presence (for reaching an aerial ball).
Tracking back ability – How well a player can run back from an advanced position to take up a defensive position.
- Primary attributes: Composure.
- Key mental attributes: Anticipation, Decisions and Teamwork (movement), Composure and Concentration (focus), and Determination (endeavour).
- Related physical abilities: mobility.
Clearing ability – How well a player can kick or head the ball away from danger.
- Primary attributes: Heading (for heading the ball clear), Technique and Composure.
- Key mental attributes: Anticipation and Teamwork (awareness), Decisions (decision making), Composure and Concentration (focus), and Determination (endeavour).
Player Fitness
A player’s fitness affects how well he performs all playing abilities throughout a match.
The effects of Stamina, Natural Fitness and other fitness related attributes are discussed in the Player Fitness guide.
In particular, a player would benefit from greater fitness, and therefore higher Natural Fitness and Stamina, if he has better endeavour (particularly Aggression and Work Rate).
Assessing Player Ability
Using the above information you should be able to determine a player’s best playing abilities, and therefore assess how he might be used most effectively on the pitch, although you should also take into account how his traits will affect the way he plays.
Such an assessment of your players is necessary in order to choose an appropriate tactical style for your team and suitable roles and duties for each player. You can also obtain a general idea of whether a player is suited to a role by using the Highlight key attributes for role drop-down on a player’s Profile screen.
Useful attributes for different tactical instructions are discussed throughout the Tactics guide.
It is not advisable to rely on your coaches’ opinions of a player’s most suitable roles as these are automatically generated by averaging the key attributes for roles and do not take into account his traits.
However, assessing a player’s general ability relative to that of other players in your league division is more difficult. To do this you can use your coaches’ current ability ratings as guidance, and also look at the overall team ratings in different attributes on the Comparison tab of the Team Report screen. In addition, you can undertake a more detailed assessment by looking at individual players at other clubs in your division.
Player Abilities in Lower Divisions
In lower reputation league divisions players are likely to have poorer intelligence, focus and technical attributes. Therefore, the endeavour attributes (Aggression, Bravery, Determination and Work Rate) and the physical attributes can be particularly useful.
