Balance vs. Strength

[lance101]

I've been working on creating my own update to the game. In this update, I'm tweaking many players attributes. Unfortunately, I'm struggling to understand the meaning of the "balance" attribute in the game. The manual of the game reads:

"Balance reflects simply how well a player can keep his balance in situations both with and without the ball. With the ball, it refers to how balanced he is running with it and evading opponents, without it, it refers to his balance when facing a player running at him, or his stability when turning/jumping."

The meaning of "balance" implied by the definition in the manual seems straightforward. However, the true meaning of "how balanced a player is when running with the ball and evading opponents" is unclear to me. There seems to be two alternatives:

Definition 1 - When players are on the ball, the balance attribute reflects the kind of balance a gymnast or a ballerina have - the ability to evade opponents when challenged while keeping your balance, but not necessarily the ability to shrug off strong opponents in a shoulder to shoulder challenge. If this is what "balance" means in on-the-ball situations, then the ability to shrug off strong opponents on shoulder to shoulder challenges would come down to the "strength" attribute.

Definition 2 - Balance, when a player is on the ball, reflects a mix of the two aspects described above - keeping balance when changing directions quickly to evade opponents + strength to shrug off strong opponents in shoulder to shoulder challenges. If this is indeed the meaning of "balance" in the game, it is unclear whether the "strength" attribute plays a role in players' ability to shrug off opponents in shoulder to shoulder challenges when players are on-the-ball.

So, I believe the manual should make clear which of the two definitions more accurately describes the "balance" attribute. Also, if the second definition is the accurate one, the manual should clarify what role (if any) the strength attribute plays when a player receives a shoulder to shoulder challenge when on the ball.

Understanding which of the two definitions is meant by the developers would be easier if the attribution of balance was consistent in the game. Unfortunately that is not the case... Giving credence to Definition 2, some tall strong strikers have very high balance in the game (Ibrahimovic - 20, Lewandowski - 19) and some players that clearly have high balance under Definition 1, have poor balance attributes in the game, presumably due to being weak (Aguero - 13, Iniesta - 12, Robben 10, Neymar 8). However, some players of low physical strength have high balance attributes (Modric - 17, Nasri - 18, Ribery - 17). This seems to imply that some researchers are operating under Definition 1 of balance. This inconsistency should be fixed - even if SI believes the manual does not need fixing, the criteria used by researchers in attributing the "balance" should be made more uniform - I don't think anyone can understand how Iniesta could be judged to have 12 in balance while Modric is judged to have 17.

Finally, I cannot understand how under Definition 1 or Definition 2 Cristiano Ronaldo has a balance attribute of 13. Ronaldo's ability to keep his balance while changing direction is very high and his strength in shrugging off strong opponents in shoulder to shoulder challenges is unparalleled among highly technical wingers. The only explanation that occurs to me is that his perceived tendency to dive (which I would argue has decreased significantly in the last few years, as he grew stronger) is causing the researcher to rate Ronaldo down in this attribute. This does not make sense to me. The interpretation of balance is clearly the "ability" of a player to stay on his feet. If a player chooses to dive, this should fall under a different attribute, such as sportsmanship. Again, I think clarification on whether tendency to dive should affect balance is needed from SI (I don't think it makes sense for it to affect balance).