Choosing a top Captain

Hi guys...apart from the influence stat, what else do you look for in a Captain? Captains like the Roy Keane's, Bryan Robson's, Tony Adams, John Terry's, Stevie Gerrard's of the past and present?

I normally go for high influence and nobody under the age of 22 but thinking about it maybe i should look at more stats in other areas when choosing/buying a Captain.

There was a great post on this by a user- Jimbokav?- but it's been purged.

Determination, team work, work rate, and position (DCs and MCs are normally the best choice) are all important, and the player must fit into the team's personality.

Influence is important but from a discussion I had with Amaroq this can raise just being the captain. I tried but didn't work so that would be something to find out.

Having said that, Determination, Team Work, Work Rate, Composure and Influence are the key stats I look for. Also your players need to respect him, that can either mean that he has been at the club for several years or he could be a big player you have just brought to the club. If it is the latter, you need to make sure the other players will respect him.

IMO Determination is the first thing I look for in a captain and then Influence.

In the past I've had a player with a high Influence but fairly low Determination and a player with a very high Determination and middling (10-12) Influence and the latter player was the better captain.

Club Loyalty is the key for me. After that i then look for Very high mental stats

Sometimes i also look at every players personal's page and see which player appears more in that "good relationship" thing.

I think its also very beneficial to pick one of your best performing players. I always get the feeling that the individual performance of my captain can pull-up/ drag down the rest of my team.

I'm thinking that other than Influence, you'd want someone that has one of the more "desirable" personalities (compared to, say, "Tempremental"), in addition to being good enough to hold down a place in the squad in the majority of your matches. So fitness, injury proneness, consitency, etc are important. Also someone your fans/board/other players don't hate, and who's been at the club for a while.

I use a combination of Influence, Work Rate, Teamwork, Age and number of league games they've played. The more games, the more loyal. The older, the wiser. If they work well in a team they should play well with everyone. Better work rate, just look at Stevie G - tremendous work rate that gets everyone going. And obviously, influence.

I have used a 'special formula' on FM08 that has resulted in me having at least 5 players saying "Delighted X has been chosen as captain" for the last 4 (out of 5) seasons. The first season no one said anything good, but no one said anything bad. I've never had the 'Thinks X would be a better captain than Y' in my game.

Sod's law says this will all have changed for FM09 though...

Influence does have more of an impact than I thought it would. I'm the same as everyone else here, in that I looked for work rate, team work etc as well as influence, this lead me to promote Philipp Lahm to Captain rather than Bastian Schweinsteiger, when Ollie Kahn retired. Lahm looked the better candidate, but had lower influence than Schweinsteiger, there is a difference in play and ability with the team when they are captained by either, and the better results seem to come when Schweinsteiger is captain.

23+

High influence, determination and work rate.

Preferably loyal and consistent too.

The only stat I ever look at is Influence. I try and go for a top performer, and someone who has been in the first team at least 5 years. Every change to the captain I have ever made has been met with approval with fans/board/team etc - not one has gone 'wrong'.

I go for a first team regular for the past 3 seasons, age 22/23+, high influence and determination, and either a CB or MC, as well as being an established international. This will seem extremely obvious, but under description or personality, you can get "world class", "leader", or "born leader", so obviously those descriptions are a good indication. In my arsenal save, mamadou sakho had achieved all of these at 22, so he was straight in and I've never looked back

On my Real Madrid save i initially had Raul because 1 he's Mr Real madrid and 2 yeh he's got high influence but also is a "born leader", soon after as he aged more i moved to Casillas, This is good because he leads by performance with his saves.. concentration and his influence isn't too bad 14 i think and he's also been at Real Madrid all his life and once he goes i'll move to Sergio Ramos who is vice captain atm. So i mainly choose somebody that means something to the team mainly via loyalty!