Importance of captains

What does everybody think about captains in FM? Do they have any relevance to your team at all, apart from affecting the person appointed and some teammates who will like/dislike your decision for a little while?

My issue right now is that 3 or 4 of my senior players have all left the club on free transfers because they are clearly not good enough for my team anymore, and this included my captain and vice. Because they barely played all last season, my third choice captain wore the armband for most of the season despite being only 22. Now I get to the point of selecting a new club captain so I select the 22 year old who now feels I am putting too much pressure on him, even though he was basically captain all of last season.

I have one or two players who have higher influence but aren't even close to my first team, so should I just select one of these reserves as the official captain, but actually let my 22 year old wear the armband like last season?

Well my experience using captains is that they are pretty vital. When I first bought FM11 I had a captain set and noticed that every time my team started to lose, they started fouling more and getting more yellow/red cards. It seemed to be an avalanche, the longer they couldn't pull themself together, the more frustrated they became and carded more. I was REALLY perplexed by this because all the players were "balanced" or "professional."

So I started doing some digging into the reason why and found out that my captain actually had a preferred move of "Likes to argue with the referee" I've never seen this before ever so I had a good laugh out of it. I moved him to vice captain mid-season and put someone else in who didn't have that trait, and the yellow/red cards went down to practically nothing when the team started losing.

Captains definitely make a difference. I noticed this when I had to drop my old captain because he was 36 and no longer made the grade.

Remeber that it's not just a captain's influence that matters. The other attributes also rub off on the other players (Esch has pointed this out as well). I think that the higher the captain's influence, the more pronounced the effect. There was a post around 4 years ago where someone had pointed out that they noticed that their captain's mental attributes seemed to be rubbing off on the rest of the team, and SI confirmed this is indeed the case. So an ideal captain would be determined, professional, have high work rate etc. etc. as well as having high influence. This also means that you might not want to set your player with the highest influence as your captain if they have other, less desirable traits.

So a potential captain with 1 influence and the trait for “likes to argue with the referee” would be opposite effect.

Captains definitely make a difference. I noticed this when I had to drop my old captain because he was 36 and no longer made the grade.

Remeber that it's not just a captain's influence that matters. The other attributes also rub off on the other players (Esch has pointed this out as well). I think that the higher the captain's influence, the more pronounced the effect. There was a post around 4 years ago where someone had pointed out that they noticed that their captain's mental attributes seemed to be rubbing off on the rest of the team, and SI confirmed this is indeed the case. So an ideal captain would be determined, professional, have high work rate etc. etc. as well as having high influence. This also means that you might not want to set your player with the highest influence as your captain if they have other, less desirable traits.

So does this apply for the captain on the pitch at the time, or the appointed club captain?

Yeah it would be interesting to know what the effects are of choosing a captain and never playing him and having your vice/3rd choice playing all the time??

i have had andrew surman as my captain for the last 6 seasons. he is described as a leader and he does seem to do the job very well. even at 34 hes still playing well and i feel an example to the rest of the squad, especially the youngesters. sadly he retires at the end of the season so im already on the look out for a new captain.

people may argue but the captains role is one that i like a player over 30 to have and its the only reason i would keep an old player.

So does this apply for the captain on the pitch at the time, or the appointed club captain?

Definitely to the one on the pitch. The observation and feedback from SI predates club captains, and I hadn't actually given it much thought, so no idea about that aspect

What about stripping the original captain of his captaincy at the beginning of a save? For example, De Jong, instead of Tevez. Has anyone experienced the original captain become frustrated?

What about stripping the original captain of his captaincy at the beginning of a save? For example, De Jong, instead of Tevez. Has anyone experienced the original captain become frustrated?

Some of them spazz out and the team can get all crazy too when they don't like the choice of new captain or still are loyal to the old one

I know that in my Lower League save, I had an injury to my preferred captain in the first half, and the second choice captain was my GK. By the time the half rolled around, I noticed 2 of my players had a motivation of "...is finding it hard to motivate himself with GK X as Captain". I checked into statistics and while the GK had a higher influence than others he had low Decisions, Determination and Natural Fitness. From that point on, I choose my captains by looking for the best combination of those 4 stats, though I select a higher influence player if the other stats are a little low.

Choosing a captain using that criteria has been made easier by a set of panels that break down my selection via Captaincy, Set Pieces and Penalties.

What about stripping the original captain of his captaincy at the beginning of a save? For example, De Jong, instead of Tevez. Has anyone experienced the original captain become frustrated?

I tried this out by saving my game and then dropping my youngster to vice-captain and appointing a more experienced player as captain. This led to the youngster being unhappy and wanting a conversation. This is the same guy who complained when I made him captain in the first place because of the pressure!

Also a few other players commented that I was too quick to make a change, and one of my reserves felt he would be better suited to being captain.

ive not really experimented much with captains, but i have had a 22 year old CB as captain, was a regen in 2010. the entire team was happy with the descision and he seemed to do well.