FM 2012 Idea

What is Flex-Ability?

Flex-Ability (FA from now on) is a bonus mulitplier which is added to managers. It boosts the players who are playing under them and improves their stats. So for example a youngster who goes to Manchester United and works under Sir Alex Ferguson would improve a lot more than if he was at Man Utd under the management of Dave Whelan.

Sir Alex Ferguson has continuously developed young, promising talent (ie. Cristiano Ronaldo) and lengthened the careers of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes for example. Where as Mike Whelan hasn't. In Football Manager it's not taken into account how much a player can grow under a specific manager.

If Fergie retires in FM and Whelan takes over, he can carry on the exact same role as Fergie did, enjoying the same results and the same success but he isn't the same manager as Fergie is. Surely there should be a dynamic statistic which influences success and failure of a manager and not basing success on the team's reputation? The better the manager surely the better influence he'd have on a player?

What's wrong with the current system?

It's very simple. SI Games have overlooked one massive aspect to management. The actual manager. Manager's aren't the same, human managers will differ from AI managers and their management methods will not be the same. The impact each manager has on their team isn't taken into account at all.

CA is the statistic of the players ability. PA is the statistic that defines the potential ability of any given player.

Now the flaw is this.. the top talent in the game (players with high PA or negative PA) only move to good clubs with training facilities which will make them grow. You'd never get Aguero going to a crap club, you'd not see the players with negative potential going to weak clubs.

SI base the CA and the PA of a player to only be attracted to clubs with a specific range of reputation. These high ranking clubs are often managed by managers with pre-defined, high statistics.

If you're looking for great young talent in FM you can find a shortlist from here, start a new game and the players are there on a plate. This can only happen because Sports Interactive have two ability calculations (Current Ability and Potential Ability). Now PA is the growth span of any player in the game, it dictates how good a player can become with the right training - but it doesn't define the one key aspect of management - The effect the manager has on the player.

How does FA work?

Very easily. FA is added to managers as a hidden statistic. This stat will then affect the players PA at a club and allow them to grow faster - if the manager is very good with young players for example. If the manager is really poor with youngsters the players wouldn't develop so well.

Each manager would have a key FA. For example Kevin Keegan is a great motivator so he'd have a team with high morale more often than not. Fergie and Wenger are great with youngsters so they'd develop youngsters better than Keegan. You'd get Mourinho who's teams are often very well prepared defensively, so defenders would grow better under Mourinho than Keegan (who is more focussed on attacking).

AI managers don't affect the game enough. You should see AI managers failing if they're not compatible with the club and it's way of playing the game.

SI Games take into account the way each team plays, the clubs already have a predefined status and reputation, so all you'd do is add this feature to managers and that would then give the game more un-predictability. You would see the shape of a club altering under each manager.

Look at Chelsea. Under Mourinho they played 433, they had attacking proficency, a solid back four and he inspired them to win back-to-back titles. He gave them confidence and they reaped the rewards on the pitch, he made players with real PA into world-class players (Terry, Lampard).

Under Grant they changed their shape, but not their players, they changed their mentality and focussed more on a counter-attacking style. They weren't as solid at the back as they were under Mourinho and they lost a lot of confidence. They eventually picked things up but they were a vastly different team to that under Mourinho - even though the team was nigh on identical (swapping Robben for Malouda and the purchase of Anelka).

Under Scolari they brought in Deco and played more though the middle. They passed the ball better and they seemed quietly confident (still not as content as they were under Mourinho), eventually though Scolari's vision fell apart, things didn't go as well as they'd have liked and he was sacked.

Now they've got Ancelotti and it's still 80% the same team as Mourinho's but you know they will play differently because Ancelotti will have a different impact on them as did the other managers. This isn't touched on in the game and it does have a massive effect on the way the game plays out over time.

- with a simple statistic for AI managers you could really change the entire feel of the game. This FA stat could make or break an AI manager at any club, you'd not know how it would work. If you see a manager move club in FM you know that nothing different will change about that team, they'll keep the same formation and they'll go on a spending spree.

If you add FA into the mix you have the potential to make every game on FM unique because Aguero could move to Arsenal, work under Wenger and become the greatest player on FM. On the other hand he could stay at Atletico and only mildly improve or move to AC Milan (where Leonardo is a young, inexperienced coach) and start to lose his abilities a little.

The other bonus about this idea is that you could as a manager integrate your personality into FM. In FM the AI managers have set personalities but human managers have dynamic personalities - you pretty much know what not to do in the game so you change your actual persona as not to negatively affect the game for yourself or your club.

If you were able to add some of your traits when making a manager you could pick your FA stat (ie, works well with youngsters or has a friendly persona) and that would embed your own image and own real-life personality into every team you manage. Not only that, your team could respond well to you or not depending on your own personality and that would add another dimension to the game where you can sometimes have issues with certain players because (for example your stats sway you more towards youngsters and the older players are a little upset about being frozen out).

The possiblities for this are endless and with a small addition to the coding you could really rejuvinate the experience of this game.

Adding features like media conferences is only going to take the game in a repetive direction, where as adding something like this makes every game you play completely unique and every club you manage is a new experience because you'd not know how the team would take to you. Right now who you manage has no impact on the game, you can manage any team who are mid-level and make them world-beaters because you know all the -PA players in the game.

I copy this from another site, but i think it's a very good idea and this shoud be promoted

From a brief read that sounded terribly simplistic. You just can't move a player to a team that happens to be managed by SAF (for example) and then they turn into Messis. The current system works quite well. A simplification like this certainly wouldn't be a step in the right direction.

Also, what about SAF who is great at building youth AND a great motivator?

Clearly the abilities of managers should be reflected in piles of attributes, not some added "superattribute" that override a lot of the others.

this was not the main reason, the idea was that managers have to be realistic at the moment we do not see "The Special One " (for example). and about what you said, not all players would turn into Messi

What has Dave Whelan got to do with all this anyway?

We can already develop young players with the right training, scouting networks, player interactions, etc. SAF doesn't do it just by being there.

I think your proposed "FA" already exists. It's called "Working with youngsters" and every staff member has it. Obviously it does not affect the PA of the players who work under that staff member, which I think is what you are proposing.

I can see where you're coming from though and it's not a terrible idea, at least by forum standards. Certainly some food for thought.

Also, Dave Whelan? You realise he is the chairman of Wigan Athletic, not the manager right?