I have a player with a Free Kick taking attribute of 19

So in what dimension of which universe would an assistant manager think said player shouldnt be taking free kicks? I dont understand.

There are other stats involved in free kick taking. Listen to your ass man!

Or your ass man is stupid. Or unprofessional and dislikes said player...

I usually dismiss all Ass Man advice.

sack him and find another ass man

Perhaps he has atrocious statistics elsewhere.

For example, a player with a very low decisions rating might be able to strike the ball cleanly and accurately, but he shoots from 35 yards by the touchline, and crosses when central from 20 yards.

This is the sort of thing that really needs to be explained in-game. What other attributes should be considered when selecting a free kick taker? At least the penalty kick info shows 3 columns (finishing, composure and PK.)

Generally technique & decisions are pretty key to any set piece, as well as the corresponding set piece stat. If they're shooting, they need the relevant stat (finishing for pens, long shots for free kicks). If they're passing, creativity is a good idea to spot the right ball to play, and crossing comes in handy for free kicks/corners. Decent composure and concentration and doesn't hurt either.

I agree to an extent that other attributes come into play, but surely the attribute "free kick taking" is the most important? At 19 and your ass man telling you to take it off, it may as well be a void attribute.

my assman does the same,

doesnt make a differance if they got stats of 1 or 20, they still dont go in lol

Assistants suck, thats is all i have to say, mine is good for media work and thats only because i dont study his answers otherwise i might find he is terrible at that aswell

Like someone mentioned the other day, Barca lead the league by 20 points, there is 7 remaining games (21 points), assistant asked 'who do u think wins the league this season' and replies 'Villarreal'

Perhaps we are doing our Assistants a disservice, and in fact they just have an ironic sense of humour.

The OP is like Brian Kidd wryly saying to Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of a meeting, "Oh, Alex, I forgot to mention that David Beckham lad missed one of his free kicks today. You'd probably be better off letting Gary Neville take the reigns on that one!"

Only reason i have an assistant is to do those pathetically mundane press interviews, not a chance in hell i would take tactical advice from him!

I agree to an extent that other attributes come into play, but surely the attribute "free kick taking" is the most important? At 19 and your ass man telling you to take it off, it may as well be a void attribute.

That's what i've been thinking all these years.

What's the sense of free kick taking, corners and penalty taking attributes if they are all put together by other attributes anyway?

i.e.: if a player has high stats in finishing, long shots, technique, etc he should be great in free kicks anyway.

or make the free kick attribute BASED on the other stats it needs, so if it says free kicks has ahigh number they have the stats to take them.

Technique, technique, technique. Same for corners too.

I agree to an extent that other attributes come into play, but surely the attribute "free kick taking" is the most important? At 19 and your ass man telling you to take it off, it may as well be a void attribute.

I think somebody on last years version aid that technique was one of the most important stats. I can't remember his free kick stat, but for me nobody has scored more than Xabi Prieto from free kicks.

Joe Mckee scored around 50 for me from Blue square premier up to the championship in my Welling United game on FM11, and also never missed a single penalty 8 seasons - Legend.

i.e.: if a player has high stats in finishing, long shots, technique, etc he should be great in free kicks anyway.

Not really... Dead-ball situations are different to when the ball is moving. Generating spin from a dead ball is harder, and the opposition has the opportunity to organise themselves defensively.

Usually, of course, the best free-kick takers will be ones with high attributes in the areas you suggest, but the reverse-implication is not necessarily true.

Free Kick Taking

How accurately a player is capable of taking free kicks both indirectly to his intended target area and directly into his intended target area of the goal.

Important related attributes: Passing (to improve the accuracy of passes from free kicks), Long Shots (to improve the accuracy of shots from free kicks), Technique (to improve the quality of more difficult free kicks, such as those from distance, curled around the wall, or hit with power), Anticipation (of the movements of teammates and opponents when intending to deliver a cross from a free kick), Composure (to remain calm enough to take the free kick accurately and well, and to anticipate well and make good decisions), Creativity (to see all the options of where to aim the free kick) and Decisions (to choose how best to take the free kick and where to aim it, particularly if free kicks are set to be taken mixed).

This is the sort of thing that really needs to be explained in-game. What other attributes should be considered when selecting a free kick taker? At least the penalty kick info shows 3 columns (finishing, composure and PK.)

This is a pet peeve of mine. The only way researchers can give a player a value for Penalty Taking is to watch him score or miss penalties and then give a value that they think reflects his likelihood of converting a spot kick. They have already assessed his finishing and composure as those are the things that make up penalty taking, Is he able to hit the corners does he keep his nerve.

When the match engine then uses Penalties, Finishing and Composure to compute if he scores it is double counting.

Not such a problem for researched players but newgens can get strange combinations of attributes say Penalties 20 Composure 4 Finishing 4, This player might only score 45% of the penalties they take. Now what human researcher would ever award a Penalties attribute of 20 to some one who scores less then half the time. What would be their rationale, Oh his a great penalty taker its just that he blasts it down the middle and if he has to wait around he has a habit of blasting it well wide.

Should I mention that my Assistant Manager is Theirry Henry?

This is a pet peeve of mine. The only way researchers can give a player a value for Penalty Taking is to watch him score or miss penalties and then give a value that they think reflects his likelihood of converting a spot kick. They have already assessed his finishing and composure as those are the things that make up penalty taking, Is he able to hit the corners does he keep his nerve.

When the match engine then uses Penalties, Finishing and Composure to compute if he scores it is double counting.

Not such a problem for researched players but newgens can get strange combinations of attributes say Penalties 20 Composure 4 Finishing 4, This player might only score 45% of the penalties they take. Now what human researcher would ever award a Penalties attribute of 20 to some one who scores less then half the time. What would be their rationale, Oh his a great penalty taker its just that he blasts it down the middle and if he has to wait around he has a habit of blasting it well wide.

I like to see someone try to explain this one.

One thing nobody has mentioned is the player's position. If he is a striker, it is no good having him take free kicks where he won't be shooting as he then won't be in the penalty box trying to score.

Doesn't matter.

Beckham can't score them so no one should be allowed to.

Shola Ameobi

Great at penalties (has never missed one iirc), awful at shooting under pressure.

David Unsworth

Scored more penalties than most people have taken, but would you play him up front?

David Unsworth

Scored more penalties than most people have taken, but would you play him up front?

I remember him scoring a penalty for us, against United in a beautiful 2-0 win

Free Kick TakingImportant related attributes: Passing (to improve the accuracy of passes from free kicks), Long Shots (to improve the accuracy of shots from free kicks), Technique (to improve the quality of more difficult free kicks, such as those from distance, curled around the wall, or hit with power), Anticipation (of the movements of teammates and opponents when intending to deliver a cross from a free kick), Composure (to remain calm enough to take the free kick accurately and well, and to anticipate well and make good decisions), Creativity (to see all the options of where to aim the free kick) and Decisions (to choose how best to take the free kick and where to aim it, particularly if free kicks are set to be taken mixed).

Hmm. If Free Kick success is based partly on passing (for passes) and long shots (for shooting), in addition to the free kick attribute, it would seem to me that the free kick attribute is a bit redundant. At the very least the free kick attribute only adds to what passing/long attributes shots already explain, it doesn't explain anything unique.

Hmm. If Free Kick success is based partly on passing (for passes) and long shots (for shooting), in addition to the free kick attribute, it would seem to me that the free kick attribute is a bit redundant. At the very least the free kick attribute only adds to what passing/long attributes shots already explain, it doesn't explain anything unique.

Kicking a deadball and kicking a moving ball are two very different things tho, you could argue they could do away with the freekick and corners attributes and change it to one deadball attribute which would then take the other attributes into context before deciding how good the player is in that situation. But the free kick attribute is definitely a separate attribute, but also an extension of the mentioned attributes.

I'd make the free-kick attribute an all-encompassing attribute (with the exception of things like pressure and important matches, which are independent of it), and the closer you get to the corner flag, the more the "corner" attribute is blended into it. In other words, things like technique and long shots become redundant, with the advantage that it is now much less confusing.

Free kick attribute is an accuracy stat for the player of how capable they are at taking free kicks direct and indirect to the intended target.

They should also be high in stats for, passing, long shots, technique, anticipation, composure, creativity and decisions.

Shola Ameobi

Great at penalties (has never missed one iirc), awful at shooting under pressure.

Can that be accurately recreated in FM?

I don't think so because in the match engine his poor Finishing and Composure count against his excellent Penalty taking. Either you need to make those attributes artificially high to get him to convert his spot kicks or set them in line with his real ability and make him a worse penalty taker then IRL.

Can that be accurately recreated in FM?

I don't think so because in the match engine his poor Finishing and Composure count against his excellent Penalty taking. Either you need to make those attributes artificially high to get him to convert his spot kicks or set them in line with his real ability and make him a worse penalty taker then IRL.

I think this is not incorrect, since when taking a penalty, Goala Ameobi will have plenty of time to compose himself, concentrate on striking the ball where he wants to, and aim for the area of the penalty spot that he wishes to aim for - in other words, his utter lack of finishing ability and composure means a lot less.

x42bn6 I agree. I also think the problem is larger then just set pieces.

Any time a ball is struck Technique seems to be used in the calculation of the outcome but whether its a Free Kicks a Passing or a Long Shots the researcher can only rate it based on their assessment of the players likely hood of succeeding. When the researcher gives a player twenty for long shots his saying this guy hits the corners of the goal very often from range not this guy hits the corners very often from range when the ball is under his control and he is well positioned to strike it. The researcher has to some extent evaluated his Technique when giving him a Long Shots attribute value. When the ME then looks at Technique and Long Shots to calculate the likely hood of a well set player scoring from the edge of the area its double counting Technique the researcher already took it into consideration in his assignment of a value for Long Shots. I think Technique should be used more sparingly in the ME in the case of long shots for things like volleys, overhead kicks and lobs.

The Dribbling attribute is another one that seems to have way less influence then it should do. When I see a player with good dribbling I immediately check his Agility because unlike the real world where people include the ability to change direction when talking about a players skills as a dribbler in FM it seems to be more of a measure of how close a player can keep the ball to his feet while running in a straight line.

I think the thoughts expressed in this thread are very important and have been a problem with FM for a very long time.

There are two many 'double counted' stats. Ones that should either be a complete composite, or complete standalone stat. Having seperate free kicks and penalties are good examples, but as has long been noted, finishing, dribbling, and most other technical stats mean little or nothing without taking into account 5-6 other related stats. A friend of mine did a test which showed that having 'very strong' in the particular footedness of the free kick was far more important than having a high free-kicks score. If Free Kicks is only %10 of the free kick equation, then it should be renamed or removed, same with penalties.

Doesn't matter.

Beckham can't score them so no one should be allowed to.

Aaaaaand beckham scores

That does not really matter( re: Thierry Henry being your assistant manager) . His stats as a player do probably not reflect in his stats as a coach/ass man. He could have really dire stats as an ass man.