Chapter 04
Squad, tactics & players
Player information distinguishes natural role, preferred side, technical and physical qualities, playing personality, current form, fitness, confidence, potential and the position assigned in each phase of play.
Reading the squad screen
The squad list is both a selection board and a season summary. The first eleven rows are the starting side, the following five form the substitutes’ bench, and the lower rows contain the remainder of the senior squad. Selecting a row opens the detailed profile; exchanging rows changes the match group.
- Sta
- Status. An injured player shows the approximate weeks unavailable, a suspended player shows the matches remaining in the current competition, ctr marks a contract at or near its end, and unh marks a wage concern. During a live substitution this column displays fitness as a percentage.
- Pos
- The natural position code followed by the usable side letters: L, C and R.
- AvR
- Average competitive match rating in the current-season view. It reflects delivered performance rather than underlying ability.
- gls / mat
- Competitive goals and appearances in the current season.
- val
- Estimated player value in the current club and football context.
- ctr
- The contract is close to expiry or has expired and needs attention.
- unh
- The current wage is below the player’s expectation. The Contract page shows the requested wage.
The left and right arrows beside the table rotate between the general squad information and four attribute panels. Each panel uses the skill abbreviations explained below and in the reference chapter.
Building the formation
The first eleven positions on the squad screen form the starting team. The following places provide the substitutes from whom live changes can be made. Left-drag one player’s name onto another player or numbered marker to exchange their squad places. The game checks that the starting line-up is complete before a match can begin.
A formation is represented as roles and lanes rather than a named preset alone. This allows familiar shapes — 4–4–2, 4–3–3, a back five, a diamond — as well as asymmetric systems. What matters is that the responsibilities still cover the pitch.
Defensive and attacking shapes
Every numbered marker on the pitch can hold two tactical positions. Its ordinary place on the board is where the footballer operates while his team is without the ball. To change it, left-drag the marker to an empty place on the pitch. This sets the team’s defensive or base shape.
To give that player a different position when his team has possession, point at his numbered marker, press and hold the right mouse button, drag towards the intended attacking position and release. A white arrow remains on the board: its tail is the player’s without-possession position and its head is the position he moves towards in possession.
This allows a central midfielder to become an attacking midfielder, a wide player to join the forward line or a full-back to advance on only one side. To make both phases use the same position again, right-drag the player’s marker and release on its current base position at the arrow’s tail. If you later left-drag the base marker to a new place, both positions are reset to that place and the previous arrow is removed; draw a new arrow if the player should still move differently in possession.
Possession changes the position the player works towards. He still has to travel there as play develops, so the distance between the two ends becomes a real tactical movement on the pitch.
Positions and preferred sides
| Role | Main responsibility | Qualities used frequently |
|---|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Protect the goal, collect or parry shots and begin possession after a save. | Handling, reflexes, jumping, anticipation and ball control. |
| Sweeper | Read danger behind the defensive line and cover space before it becomes a clear chance. | Anticipation, agility, speed, tackling and ball control. |
| Defender | Mark, intercept, tackle, compete in the air and protect the penalty area. | Tackling, heading, jumping, anticipation, aggression and stamina. |
| Defensive midfielder | Screen the defence, win second balls and connect safe possession into midfield. | Anticipation, tackling, teamwork, stamina, ball control and vision. |
| Midfielder | Link phases, offer passing options and support both boxes. | Stamina, ball control, teamwork, agility, anticipation and shot control. |
| Offensive midfielder | Find space between the lines, create chances and join attacks. | Ball control, dribbling, vision, shot control, agility and forward movement. |
| Forward | Stretch the defence, attack crosses and convert chances. | Shot power, shot control, speed, anticipation, heading and jumping. |
Left, central and right are genuine parts of the role. A central defender may be comfortable centrally but less reliable as a wide defender; a left-sided forward may naturally approach goal from a different angle. Players can have more than one usable lane, and flexible footballers make in-match tactical changes easier.
The player profile
The profile combines identity, football quality and career status. Name, age, nationality, club, position and side establish the player. Statistics separate the current season from the whole career and retain previous club, time at the present team, goals, appearances, ratings, international caps and international goals.
The Contract view shows wage, remaining length and renewal possibilities. Transfer covers value, interest and possible movement. For a human-controlled footballer, Training settings opens the personal +, 0 and − priorities explained in the training chapter. Bans & fitness shows competition-specific suspensions, injury time and physical readiness.
Happiness is an explanation, not merely a colour. A player may value being at a top club, enjoy strong team results, lose self-confidence, worry about squad quality, become frustrated by limited opportunities or feel underpaid. Those feelings form part of contract and transfer behaviour.
Core player attributes and their effects
The player profile displays fourteen core ratings for physical and technical actions. Further playing tendencies influence the decisions made around those actions. Ratings are not isolated bonuses: several qualities, the player’s condition and the match situation can contribute to the same moment.
| Code | Attribute | What the value changes |
|---|---|---|
| spd | Speed | Maximum running pace in open space, recovery runs and races for the ball. |
| shp | Shot power | The force available in shots, driven kicks, clearances and powerful headers. |
| shc | Shot control | Clean contact, directional accuracy and useful curl; it reduces unwanted variation in a deliberate strike. |
| sta | Stamina | Resistance to match fatigue and the ability to recover when movement slows. |
| dri | Dribbling | The capacity to sustain high-intensity movement, particularly during longer runs in possession. |
| jmp | Jumping | Reach for headers and aerial challenges, including goalkeeper dives and high interventions. |
| ant | Anticipation | The first reaction and acceleration toward space, a pass or a loose ball. |
| agi | Agility | How much movement speed and balance are retained through turns and changes of direction. |
| tck | Tackling | Reach and effectiveness in a ground challenge; angle, timing and aggression remain part of the outcome. |
| hea | Heading | Force and direction when meeting the ball with the head. |
| bco | Ball control | First touch, close control and the amount of normal running pace retained while carrying the ball. |
| han | Handling | A goalkeeper’s ability to take control cleanly rather than leave a rebound or parry. |
| ref | Reflexes | Reaction speed to shots, rebounds and sudden changes in ball direction. |
| agg | Aggression | Readiness and force in competitive actions. Higher aggression also makes the timing and discipline of challenges more significant. |
A forward still benefits from anticipation and agility; a defender still needs ball control; a goalkeeper’s distribution still benefits from shot power and control. The positional profile changes which combinations contribute most to the player’s overall ability.
Footballing personality beyond the profile bars
Players also differ in the decisions they prefer. A long-shot tendency changes how readily a footballer considers an effort from distance. Teamwork influences the willingness to combine rather than keep the ball. Attacking instinct and forward-running tendency affect positioning and the moment a player leaves the team shape. Vision helps a player recognise useful passing possibilities.
These qualities are visible across repeated decisions. Two players with similar core technique may still behave differently: one comes short and circulates possession, another attacks the space beyond the striker; one looks for a team-mate, another attempts more shots from range.
Career character matters away from the pitch as well. Adaptability affects the demands of moving abroad. Loyalty shapes willingness to commit to a club for longer. Financial ambition affects wage expectations. These do not make a player “good” or “bad”; they make careers, negotiations and squad building less uniform.
Ability, potential, reputation and performance
- Current ability
- A position-aware summary of what the player’s skills offer now. It is not a simple average of every rating: the qualities important to a goalkeeper are not weighted like those of a forward.
- Potential
- The player’s development outlook and room to grow. It supports progress but does not guarantee a final level or act as a hard appointment with the future.
- Reputation
- How established the player appears to the football world. It can lag behind rapid improvement or remain high while an older star begins to decline.
- Match performance
- What the footballer has actually delivered. Ratings build a longer-term judgement that managers can use alongside the underlying skill profile.
Potential is especially important when current ability remains below it. That gap gives training a more promising foundation, but age, practice and focus still decide whether the opportunity is converted. A talented player left without suitable training or meaningful football may develop more slowly than a less celebrated player used well.
For a human-controlled player, match performance also maintains a separate long-term assessment. The player’s rating is read in relation to the standard and average performance of the teams involved. That assessment changes gradually and contributes to team selection, salary, value, transfer interest, contract decisions and national-team selection without replacing the core attributes.
Form, fitness, confidence and morale
Fitness is the immediate physical condition of the player. Injury, match exertion and recovery affect it, and reduced fitness can lower the force, speed and control a player can reproduce. Individual form moves over time and represents whether the player is currently performing above or below his usual level.
Team form captures the recent rhythm of the side. Confidence and team morale describe the wider mental environment created by results, expectations and squad experience. A footballer’s match-day effectiveness therefore has a human context: the same skill profile can feel sharper on a good day and less assured during a difficult spell.
There is also natural day-to-day variation. This means the same player can enter two matches in slightly different condition even when his permanent skill ratings have not changed.
Automatic selection and coach assessment
The automatic manager first excludes players who are unavailable for the coming competition. It then creates a coach assessment from the skills important to each player’s natural role, current form, potential and retained match performances. Time since the last appearance is also recognised so that an unused player is not treated as permanently outside the squad.
For a human-controlled career player, the longer-term performance assessment forms a substantial part of the coach’s view. Strong or weak performances can therefore change automatic selection even when the visible core skills have not yet changed through training.
After the squad has been ordered, position and side suitability determine who fills each place in the formation. This is why a player with a higher general assessment may remain behind a specialist who fits the exact role and lane. Injured and suspended players remain visible in the squad screen but are not treated as normally available choices.