Team Mentality

[maxchaplin55]

What exactly does Team Mentality do?

I have been trying to find an answer for a little whole but I cannot seem to. The word 'risk' gets flung around loosely but what does this mean? 

I am a bit of a control freak and I like to know exactly what my team is doing and why. I like explanations. My problems with changing the mentality from balanced is that I am not entirely sure what it will do. 

Why do I not just stay on balanced then?

Because I find myself wondering if things change beyond team and player instructions once you change team mentality. I find myself struggling on balanced against weaker sides, and wonder if I could break teams down easier on a higher mentality, but I do not want to change without knowing why it would make it easier? And what would it to to my defence? What is the 'risk'? 

I think there needs to be a breakdown of exactly what each mentality does. What is the point in hiding it? What is there to hide? Surely every manager should know exactly what each change does to their team?

[Hilly1979]

Look at the team instructions on balanced and then on Attacking, you will see the difference.......

[Experienced Defender]

3 hours ago, maxchaplin55 said:

What exactly does Team Mentality do?

Affects everything else, not just individual players' mentalities.

When you change the mentality either up or down, it automatically changes all instructions accordingly and proportionately, even if you haven't touched any other instruction at all. Sometimes some of these changes are visible in the tactic creator screen, but not in each single instance. For example, you play on the Balanced mentality and use shorter passing and standard tempo. Then you up the mentality to Positive. Both passing and tempo will still be displayed as shorter/standard, but they will not actually be same - passes will now be a bit more forward-oriented and players will be a bit more willing to take risks, and tempo will also be slightly higher.

The same principle basically applies to all other instructions, both defensive and attacking ones.

[CAE82]

Coincidentally I have been thinking about this recently and posted some thoughts and analysis here:

https://randomfmstuff.wordpress.com/mentality/

 

 

[maxchaplin55]

7 hours ago, Experienced Defender said:

Affects everything else, not just individual players' mentalities.

When you change the mentality either up or down, it automatically changes all instructions accordingly and proportionately, even if you haven't touched any other instruction at all. Sometimes some of these changes are visible in the tactic creator screen, but not in each single instance. For example, you play on the Balanced mentality and use shorter passing and standard tempo. Then you up the mentality to Positive. Both passing and tempo will still be displayed as shorter/standard, but they will not actually be same - passes will now be a bit more forward-oriented and players will be a bit more willing to take risks, and tempo will also be slightly higher.

The same principle basically applies to all other instructions, both defensive and attacking ones.

See this is my issue: what if I don’t want any of my team instructions to change, I JUST want the increased ‘risks’ needed to unlock a defence, or vice versa I just want less risk. Without changing pressing, passing, tempo, width, defensive line all in ONE click? Seems like such an all or nothing

[maxchaplin55]

7 hours ago, eencae said:

Coincidentally I have been thinking about this recently and posted some thoughts and analysis here:

https://randomfmstuff.wordpress.com/mentality/

 

 

It’s a good analysis of what you see on the tactic screen but it would have been great to read of a genuine analysis of what you see on the pitch. 
 

See my above comment for my continuing concerns. 

[Robson 07]

In keeping with the theme throughout this manual, mentalities – like attributes and many other in-game scales – can be thought of as being scored between 1-20. A more attacking mentality moves the score closer to 20 and represents the fact that the team is being asked to operate in a more attacking manner. Conversely, a Very Defensive mentality moves the scale much closer to the other end. Each base Mentality adjusts a number of tactical settings ‘under the hood’ combined with your Tactical instructions, including intensity of press, line of engagement, tempo, attacking width, directness and time-wasting.

In turn, mentalities also affect the actions of players set to an Automatic duty; a more attacking team mentality will ask those players to be more attacking accordingly, and the same applies if you adopt a more defensive approach.

That's straight from SI's game manual. Most people forget to look at that.

 

2 hours ago, maxchaplin55 said:

what if I don’t want any of my team instructions to change, I JUST want the increased ‘risks’ needed to unlock a defence, or vice versa I just want less risk. Without changing pressing, passing, tempo, width, defensive line all in ONE click? Seems like such an all or nothing

Good point you raise.  Can only answer by saying team and player instructions are modifiers to those other instructions.

 

[CAE82]

@maxchaplin55

Hoping to add that when I get chance.

You should search for ‘wwfan’ posts from years ago and the tactical theory frameworks that were published (I think it was 07 or 09).

A lot has changed since then, but a lot is likely to still be the same under the hood.

I’m (very) happy to be corrected by an ‘expert’ but I look simply at mentality and link it back to forward passes i.e. a player on a higher mentality will look to make forward passes more often. I guess this can be thought of as risk, if he is always looking to move the ball forward and risk losing possession, especially if there is no one in a good position to pass to.

A player on a lower mentality will look to pass sideways and keep possession.

With this simple idea, it is not hard to see why it can be hard to breakdown teams (Mourinho at Man Utd).

I believe mentality also links back to vertical position on the pitch. You need to be higher up the pitch to break teams down who sit deep, but as always it is a balance against being caught out so keeping some players on a lower mentality to watch out for counters.

Again, my views and happy to be corrected by an ‘expert’.
 

[Robson 07]

7 minutes ago, eencae said:

I look simply at mentality and link it back to forward passes i.e. a player on a higher mentality will look to make forward passes more often. I guess this can be thought of as risk, if he is always looking to move the ball forward and risk losing possession, especially if there is no one in a good position to pass to.

A player on a lower mentality will look to pass sideways and keep possession.

Yes...and no.  A riskier choice of action isn't always a forward pass.  It could be a dribble, a pass through a narrow gap or into a congested area, many things....possibly even a sideways pass.

[maxchaplin55]

4 hours ago, Robson 07 said:

That's straight from SI's game manual. Most people forget to look at that.

I hadn’t looked at that, so thanks, however again it’s ‘scales’ and there is a lack of explanation as to what exactly happens when you increase it. I would rather have the choice, between selecting pre made mentalities, as already available - or completely choosing every instruction from forward passes to anything under this hidden ‘increased risk’ category. 

[maxchaplin55]

4 hours ago, eencae said:

 

A player on a lower mentality will look to pass sideways and keep possession

Agree with a lot of what you said, I think it’ll be easier to think less about what they do and just take them for what they’re labelled, maybe. 
However lower mentalities won’t necessarily mean pass sideways and keep possession because I have noticed your defenders will be more reluctant to pass the ball short on defensive mentalities as it is considered ‘risk’. 

[Experienced Defender]

9 hours ago, maxchaplin55 said:

See this is my issue: what if I don’t want any of my team instructions to change, I JUST want the increased ‘risks’ needed to unlock a defence, or vice versa I just want less risk

They do not change literally. For example, short passing is still essentially short, but under higher mentalities it's more forward-oriented and adventurous than under lower ones. Same about other instructions. Therefore, those changes should be viewed in relative rather than absolute terms. 

Now, the more balanced and logically constructed your tactic is (both in terms of roles/duties and instructions), the fewer tweaks (if any) you'll need to make when you change the mentality by just one notch (e.g. from the Balanced to Positive, or vice versa). But if you tend to make bigger mentality changes, then you'll probably need to pay attention to other elements of your tactic (not just instructions, but also roles and especially duties).