How exactly does Creative Freedom work?

I know that, broadly speaking, it lets the players deviate more from their tactical instructions.

But what specifically does it change? Tempo, passing length, forward runs, long shots?

I used to just think, If the player has lots of creativity, give him lots of creative freedom. But I don't think that is actually the right policy if it affects everything. Really it seems to work best with Decisions. If the player makes brilliant decisions, then give him lots of freedom because he'll make the best choice.

Also imagine a player with amazing technical stats, but rubbish mental stats. Could he get away with lots of freedom? Sure, he might make the wrong choice, but his amazing ability should give him half a chance of making it work regardless.

Works the other way too, A player may have amazing mental stats. Flair, Decisions, Creativity. But there is no point giving him freedom if he can't hit a barn door. He should be on a strict rigid outlook, as to make sure he doesn't go off trying 40 yard passes he is never going to make.

Thoughts?

You're thinking aboout things too much. Creative freedom should be given to your most capable player, if it's given to a player at all, and it's usually going to be obvious who should have high creative freedom and who shouldn't i.e. Messi rather than Puyol, Nani rather than Fletcher. There really is no need to consider it in such depth.

You're thinking aboout things too much. Creative freedom should be given to your most capable player, if it's given to a player at all, and it's usually going to be obvious who should have high creative freedom and who shouldn't i.e. Messi rather than Puyol, Nani rather than Fletcher. There really is no need to consider it in such depth.

lol

I get more enjoyment from finding out exactly how all these things work.

Well there are two things that influence how free a player is to do what his player style and personality likes on the football pitch: Creative Freedom and the other sliders. The more to the right the sliders are (excluding Creative Freedom), the less is the player allowed to do what he likes. If you max out all of them except CF, he will run forward and join the attack, run after the ball all the time, shoot whenever he gets the chance, dribble all the time etc etc. This creates, the way I see it, a conflict. I believe his decisions will become poorer if you tell him to do lots of different things often, because they sometimes make him do stuff even though it is not the best choice at the moment (for example run to the byline and cross vs Stoke).

Keeping the sliders on rarely or sometimes will imo give the players more creative freedom to do what is best at the moment. This should be used alongside Creative Freedom to ensure a fluid playing style.

High CF will see a player try more "tricks" - if it's CR7 max it out, if it's JT then give him minimal...

You're thinking aboout things too much. Creative freedom should be given to your most capable player, if it's given to a player at all, and it's usually going to be obvious who should have high creative freedom and who shouldn't i.e. Messi rather than Puyol, Nani rather than Fletcher. There really is no need to consider it in such depth.

It isn't really obvious when you are playing in 2026 and with regens.

So even I would like to know if anyone has any idea which player performs better with creative freedom

player with good mentals and rubbish technique

or

player with great technique and average/mediocre mentals

Creativity and Creative Freedom are two very different things.

Creativity = Vision. ie. How easily a player can see a pass

To be honest I'd rather trust my tactics and keep creative freedom low - sometimes at 1 for every single player - simply because I prefer designing tactics that are consistent. Therefore the best players on my team keep doing the same thing over and over again, and as long as my tactic works, they will keep carving open defences in the same way.

For mobile formations, I do up the creative freedom a little, but I usually keep everything low.

I'd argue, in fact, that the creative freedom slider should really start at 1 rather than 10...

Creativity = Vision. ie. How easily a player can see a pass

Yeah, I know that.

Apparently, Creativity is just basically how many passing options a player has available to him. Xavi will be able to decide between all sorts of options. Whereas John O Shea only thinks about a straight line pass to the nearest man or back to the keeper.

To be honest I'd rather trust my tactics and keep creative freedom low - sometimes at 1 for every single player

Interesting idea, but I'm almost certain that is not a good idea overall.

I remember on an older FM, if you gave everyone 20 Creative Freedom you'd win every game easily. Like Flair, I think it is somewhat linked to how good your team is overall. And the more of it you have the more likely you are to score. They might have changed it completely now though.

I guess it is fine to have it all on 1, as long as the instructions they have been given are perfect.

It has nothing to do with decisions.

Think of Creativity as a circle around your player. Xavi will be able to see most of what's in the circle (ie pretty much everything) whereas John O'Shea will on be able to see what's in front of him.

Decisions is tandem to that.

It has nothing to do with decisions.

Think of Creativity as a circle around your player. Xavi will be able to see most of what's in the circle (ie pretty much everything) whereas John O'Shea will on be able to see what's in front of him.

Decisions is tandem to that.

....

That's basically what I said.

It gives them a wider range of options.

You tied it into deciding which one to take as well, which isn't part of the attribute and could be misleading to people reading it.

You tied it into deciding which one to take as well, which isn't part of the attribute

No I didn't.

I said he'll be able to decide. Not anything about the decision itself. The whole point of creativity is to give you more options from which to make a decision.

Interesting idea, but I'm almost certain that is not a good idea overall.

I remember on an older FM, if you gave everyone 20 Creative Freedom you'd win every game easily. Like Flair, I think it is somewhat linked to how good your team is overall. And the more of it you have the more likely you are to score. They might have changed it completely now though.

I guess it is fine to have it all on 1, as long as the instructions they have been given are perfect.

It depends - if I have an effective tactic, why change things?

While kimz's tactics in FM08 were exploit tactics, all variants had creative freedom 1 for all players, so that they did nothing but exploit.

I accept that creative freedom is useful when things go wrong and you need a bit of magic, or for when you need a plan B, or for when circumstances dictate (i.e. against tactic you've never come across before, or for heavy rain where your perfect tactic falls down), but I would rather they followed my instructions, since it feels good to be in full control.

But that's just me.

Basically just a semantics issue that's got carried away.

I have all my defenders on little CF. But surely we have all had it, the right or left back who has a player in front of him and just stops almost confused as to what to do. He generally loses it, therefore allowing the opposition to intercept.... Is that down to too low CF or just a bonkers match engine?!!!!!

I have all my defenders on little CF. But surely we have all had it, the right or left back who has a player in front of him and just stops almost confused as to what to do. He generally loses it, therefore allowing the opposition to intercept.... Is that down to too low CF or just a bonkers match engine?!!!!!

umm... we have? I don't recall...

my full-backs do their jobs (usually) and I'm pretty happy with them.