Like any football team, in Football Manager 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 every manager needs a player who can lead his teammates in the field. This is the job of the team captain, a key role in every successfull team.

In Football Manager, we can identify 4 attributes that define a good Captain: Influence, Determination, Work Rate and Team Work.

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.

In my opinion, this is the most important of those 4 attributes. A player with high influence (18 or more) can be considered a natural leader, an example for his teammates.

Determination

High determination can be understood as a commitment to succeed. A determined player will give everything in order to win. As you can see, any good captain needs determination.

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.

Team Work

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. You can guess that your captain needs to work well with his partners, so high team work is a requisite.

Examples of great Captains

In both Football Manager and real world soccer, you can identify John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Fabio Cannavaro as top class captains.

This was a guest article written by Ruderic To read more of Ruderic’s Football Manager stuff checkout Football Manager Debot.

Related Posts

1. Football Manager Set Piece Tactics – FM2011 & FM2012
2. How to Develop Young Players – FM2012 & FM2011
3. Don’t Underestimate the Need for Good Backroom Staff
4. All Out Attack – Getting that late goal