Profiling

[Pilcs]

I wasn't sure where to post this but as this has helped me with both training and tactics, hopefully this is the right place.

Intro

profiling noun
the act of collecting useful information about somebody/something so that you can give a description of them or it

In real life, scouting can provide insight on a player, but it takes time for a manager to get to grips with the person, to understand what their strengths and weaknesses are, what makes them tick and how they might play in a certain position or system. In football manager, we’ve got instant access to all of this information and I just wanted to post this topic to talk about the benefits I've had with turning that information into real life descriptions.

The description can be as detailed/generic or formal/informal as I like - I can either be a scout detailing a player report to a manager or down the pub describing our newest signing to my mate. The important thing is that I'm turning information (attributes, stats and reports etc.) into a description.

Why?

The act of describing a player rather than interpreting values from a variety of attributes helps me to immerse myself deeper into the game, to think like a manager would when dealing with a real life player.

I’ve surprised myself with the amount of times I’ve changed my mind on a player from when I first took a look at their attributes, to when I began describing them. It’s helped me take my understanding of players to the next level, what value they can add, how they’d fit in tactically or what I’d have to change tactically to fit them.

With my understanding of players improving, not only can I identify areas that need to be worked on by a player, but also how all of my players might actually play on a football pitch, it allows me to more easily see how they might interact with one another, and how my tactics would actually look on the pitch with the group of players.

How?

Basically, I'll go through the information that I think might be important and then create a description from it. Let’s use Sebastian Rode as an example.

Aggression: 18
Bravery: 16
Tackling: 16
"He’s aggressive, brave and can tackle well."

Anticipation 15
Teamwork: 16
"He anticipates situations well and can work well for and alongside his team-mates."

Determination: 17
Work Rate: 17
"He’s a committed lad and boy does he work hard."

Flair: 8
Vision: 10
"Very predictable player who struggles to see potential openings."

Off The Ball: 11
"Doesn’t do too well when moving without the ball."

Finishing: 8
Trait: Looks For Pass Rather Than Attempting To Score
"Very poor finisher but he knows it, he’ll often try to pass it rather than attempting to score."

Height: 5’11”
Jumping Reach: 9
Marking: 12
Positioning: 12
"At 5’11”, he’s not the smallest but his inability to jump with any great height puts him at a great disadvantage aerially. He’s above average at reading defensive situations and sticking close to a player but still, I wouldn’t recommend him to be used as a defensive midfielder, even though he does well in other defensive aspects."

Overall
"I believe that with his qualities, a support role in midfield would best suit him. A role where he is allowed to support other players by winning the ball and working hard, to not have any creative responsibility and to not be the main defensive midfielder of the team."

History: Career Stats
Report: Pros
31 years old
1 year, 11 months remaining on his contract
"He played a handful of games for both Bayern and Dortmund but never really settled. He has over 10 years of experience playing in the Bundesliga. He’s a consistent performer who enjoys playing in big matches. For a 31 year old, his physicals are still good enough. Happy to keep him on his current deal and let it expire, provided we have a suitable replacement by then."

Outro

Now I know some of the descriptions above might be simple, obvious or maybe not even useful but I think for me that's the point. It's often these simple and obvious descriptions that have allowed me to imagine how the player would play like in real life. 

Hopefully though, you can see why it might be useful. You could also apply this same logic to help imagine the dressing room dynamics (i.e. the impact of an unambitious team leader), understand a youngster and what might be the best for them in terms of development (i.e. a 16 year old physically mature enough for senior football), ensure your values (i.e. professionalism) as a manager are aligned across the club, and even make sure you and your staff are all singing from the same hymn sheet (i.e. you all have similar tactical styles).

I’d be very interested to see how other players approach similar topics that help us play and enjoy the game of football manager.

[bosque]

It would be interesting as a community to try to group attributes in order to help to profile players.

I try to separate like this:

footballing intelligence with anticipation, concentration, decisions + positioning/off the ball.

mobility: acceleration, agility, balance.

"desire": aggression, workrate, stamina and determination.

But then I have problems trying to profile other stuff like creativity or prolific goalscoring.

Edited August 17, 2023 by bosque

[Andros]

On 18/08/2023 at 06:50, bosque said:

It would be interesting as a community to try to group attributes in order to help to profile players.

I try to separate like this:

footballing intelligence with anticipation, concentration, decisions + positioning/off the ball.

mobility: acceleration, agility, balance.

"desire": aggression, workrate, stamina and determination.

But then I have problems trying to profile other stuff like creativity or prolific goalscoring.

https://www.guidetofm.com/players/attribute-combinations/ attempts to do just that.  Whether people agree or not is another story!

 

Edit: Consider having a look at the Statman Skin.  It removes attributes and adds a description.  From FmScout:

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Andros
I remembered a skin.