Football Manager Guide to Hidden Attributes

Get acquainted to the different hidden attributes on Football Manager and their influence on players performances

Welcome to this definitive guide to Football Manager hidden attributes. This article about hidden attributes is the follow-up guide on Football Manager player attributes and is part of a wider series of beginners guides to Football Manager.

Both guides are considered basic learning for all new Football Manager gamers but might also be valueable for all experienced managers who might have forgot the importance of hidden attributes when signing players.

The hidden attributes on Football Manager will have a greater influence on the players’ performances both on and off the field. Understanding how these hidden attributes in Football Manager can improve or reduce ‘the quality of a players’ is essential learning, especially when trying to sign the perfect player!

In Football Manager there are 6 different hidden attributes. They will range from 1 to 20, just like the Football Manager player attributes. However, they won’t be visible in the player profile and can only be revealed through scouting or requires an extensive knowledge of the player to be visible in the players’ scout report or coach report card.

In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at the different hidden attributes on Football Manager and what they mean.

As you will discover the Football Manager hidden attributes ranges from positive to negative traits of a players’ tendencies or likeliness to perform or adapt. Some will even reveal the potential chance for a player to learn new positions or how often they might get injured and thereby their chance to develop to their maximum potential.

This means that you need to weigh up the pros and cons of Football Manager hidden attributes before signing players as they have a huge influence on judging the quality of the players.

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About the Different Football Manager Hidden Attributes

Adaptability

Adaptability is the likeliness of the player to adept to a new country, culture or settle down in a new club quicker.

A players adaptability is essential to take into account when you are considering signing players from outside your nation, region or continent.

If you are looking to sign a promising talent from South America when managing in England, the player will need time to settle in and get adjusted to the playing style in England. If he is fairly adaptable when it comes to living in another country, he will become a great asset far quicker. He will gel with the team mates quicker and be able to perform better earlier one than one who is ‘incapable’ of adapting to living in a new country due to his poor adaptability.

When assessing a players profile you want to look for those players who got the pros;

• Should have no problems adapting to living in another country, or
• fairly adaptable when it comes to living in another country

At the same time, signing a player with poor adaptability will represent a higher risk of the player to get easily home sick, unsettled or unhappy due to not being able to gel into the squad and fit into one of the squad’s social groups as easily.

You should take into account the risk of signing players who is has these cons in the scout report;

• fairly susceptible to problems when it comes to living in another country

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Consistency

Consistency describes a players’ likeliness to perform to his maximum ability level* on a more regular basis. To translate it into a language you might understand, the current ability of the player will fluctuate less if the player has maximum (20) in Consistency.

A player with maximum consistency will play to the level of technical and mental attributes described within their player profiles in an higher degree of matches than a player with low consistency, who will more frequently vary their form and performances as they are unable to play to the level of their attributes.

Players with an high consistency will thereby perform more consistently and become a more reliable player. Instead of varying in his performances, the player is more like to keep the standard and level of ability by turning in better performances more often and thereby be a great asset to the team.

He’s a player you can put your trust in every week in and out as his level of consistency will ensure he performs more consistently over a longer series of matches without major dips in his form from one match to the next. Overall, with a squad filled with players with high concistency you should have a better chance to experience superior team performances to your opponents if CA and Consistency differs from your team and the opponent.

In fact, Football Manager will never be as black as white as this either due to the random factor playing in and affecting the players performances and the match results.

Look for players in the scout report described as;

• Very consistent performer, or something similar

However, as everything in Football Manager there’s a random factor that affects ever players performances and this random factor is also represented in the ratio of how often a player plays to his maximum current abilities relating to the level of Consistency.

A player with low consistency will often see greater differences to his average ratings. One match it might be 7.4 whilst in the next his performance might drop and he plays rather badly – e.g. 6.4.

A player who has low consistency will be described in the scout report as;

• fairly inconsistent performer, or
• must become more consistent if he is to stand a chance of making it here

You should consider the risk of signing these types of players as they will be more inclined to not play to their levels in a bigger amount of matches. For minor teams featuring players of lower current ability, the difference between a player with low or medium-high consistency might not be as huge as you’ll might come up against players with equal or lower current ability.

However, what you’ll discover is that players with significant higher physical attributes will be less likely to suffer if they have low consistency than a player with high consistency, but poor stamina or low natural fitness as these players will get more easily tired on the pitch, or see their match fitness drop and not return to full fitness between matches.

A players level of concentration may also affect on a players consistency level but the matter is slightly different as this relies to in-match situations rather than the overall consistency of playing to their attributes.

*The maximum ability level is partly affected by a players’ level of player attributes.

Important Matches

A player who enjoys the big matches will be more likely to thrive under the extra pressure by improving his performances in important matches, whether it’s local derbies, cup matches and finals.

A player with high ‘Important Matches’ will be better at dealing with playing in high-pressure matches and often, rather than cave under the extra pressure, thrive under it and enjoy the circumstances of playing in a big match. Basically, this means that Important Matches becomes a factor once playing in high reputation matches where you’re up against a bigger opponent, or there is alot at stake.

In some ways, you can describe the Important Matches as a more situational likeliness compared to the Consistency factor. Even though this hidden attribute relates more to how the player is able to cope with the extra pressure of high reputation matches, it could be regarded as another type of inconsistency factor that only applies to certain matches.

When assessing the scout report card, look for players with;

• Enjoys big matches

A player with poor important matches will buckle under the pressure and might play below par in similar situations. Avoid or consider the risk of signing players with low Important Matches. It will be visible in the scout report as;

• Doesn’t feel comfortable playing in big matches.
• Doesn’t enjoy big matches

It’s a highly positive attribute to look for players who enjoy big matches, especially if you’re playing in European tournaments or plays regularly in important tournaments

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Versatility

Versatility describes how likely the players is at learning a new position, or how versatile he is to play in other positions he is not yet fully accomplished to play in.

A versatile player will be able to adapt to new positions far quicker and remember the positions he has learned even though he is played out of his natural position.

If the person is played out of position you can be more confident that the player can turn in better performances in a position he’s weak at compared to a player who has low versatility.

These versatile players might even be more interested in being re-trained from one position to another e.g. a striker being played as a winger, a central midfielder re-trained into an inverted wing back or retraining a defensive midfielder into a central defender or defensive fullback.

You can recognize a versatile player as he’s often natural, accomplished or competent at playing in a number of positions already. These players can be a gold-mine to your squad. They are great back-up assets and can help you in situations where there’s congested fixture lists or injury crisis occuring.

In the scout report card, look for players who is described as;

• Can play in a couple of positions

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Dirtiness

Dirtiness describes a players tendency to be bending the rules. A player with higher dirtiness will have a competitive streak which can occasionally lead him to make more fouls and get more cards. Couple it with Argues with Officials and you’ll certain to have a player who will receive lots of cards (yellow and/or red cards).

A players level of dirtiness should be seen as a negative trait because the player will be more likely to break the rules in order to get a favorable result.

Understand the risk of signing players with;

• Has a competitive streak which can occassionally lead him to bending the rules

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Injury Proneness

A players Injury Proneness describes how likely and how often the player is to get injured and is translated into his level of injury susceptibility. A player with high injury susceptibility will be fairly susceptible for injuries and may get injured more often than one with lower injury susceptibility.

It’s not a factor of whether the player will be more likely to encounter more severe injuries than another player, but may indicate he will get injured more often, either it’s minor or major injuries.

In the scout report, players with high injury proneness will be described as;

• Fairly susceptible to injuries, or
• Might have problems with injuries

Signing a lot of players with a high injury proneness is never a good solution. Unless, you can be without the player for several matches throughout the season as he tries to return to match fitness after picking up injuries in matches.

Instead, you want to look for players with a low injury susceptibility, who can return to fitness quickly and endure to play more matches – meaning he has both high Natural Fitness, good stamina and the overall physical abilities to play at the level of football as your team week in and week out!

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