Players and skills

Finishing, long-shot and penalty quality; also helps sell a short pass and refine set-piece delivery.

Finding space in midfield and the box, plus attacking assistance.

Receiving under pressure, dribbling, aerial technique and several creative/set-piece actions.

Opening actions, box delivery, midfield domination, direct free kicks and crosses.

High-ball receptions, headers and aerial defensive contests.

Minutes at full strength, pressing intensity, assistance work-rate, wing-back runs and injury resistance.

Ground challenges, defensive aerial technique and pressure matchups.

Reaching attackers, defensive assistance, pressing and set-piece location.

The primary save skill once a shot reaches the goalkeeper.

Starting position for the save and the contest when rushing a free attacker.

Anticipating and intercepting opposition passes, deciding whether to rush a free attacker and contributing, alongside Organisation, to defending set-piece crosses.

• At corners and crossed free kicks, IN and OR contribute together to defence with different weights. IN does not organise your own attacking set pieces.

Holding a save or spilling it into a rebound; also supports keeper-led counters.

Organising defensive assistance in the penalty area, the wall and the defence of set pieces.

Updates on Monday: the current arrow moves form up or down one denomination, or leaves it unchanged when steady. A new arrow is then drawn with a bias back toward Decent.

• Form changes the skill used in match calculations by adding or subtracting skill points. It does not permanently change the player’s skills, and Constitution is unaffected.
• Awesome adds 5 points; Brilliant 4; Superb 3; Excellent 2; Good 1; Decent 0.
• Weak subtracts 2 points, but no more than 10% of the raw skill.
• Poor subtracts 4 points, but no more than 15% of the raw skill.
• Awful subtracts 5 points, but no more than 25% of the raw skill.
• The percentages only cap negative adjustments: use whichever loss is smaller.
• For example, Awesome form takes skill 60 to 65 before other match modifiers: a gain of 5 points, not 5%.
• With Awful form and skill 10, the 25% cap limits the loss to 2.5 points, leaving 7.5.

Reduces poor execution and effort fouls. League and international matches add experience; gains slow from Good onward and again from Brilliant.

A per-skill development ceiling. Youth detail is progressively revealed and natural potential is fully known at 21.

Traits affect named situations such as assistance, discipline, pressure, salary and captaincy; a starting Diva also adds a small, explicit Fun Factor bonus. They never add an unexplained universal bonus.

• Charming lowers and Obnoxious raises the chance that the player’s own foul is booked, by 25%.
• Cautious lowers and Reckless raises his fouls in close duels by 30% and his injury risk by 25%.
• Team Player gives 10% more help to team-mates and Egoist 10% less. An Egoist playing ST, DM, LW, RW or OM receives 10% more help himself, and gets +2 to reach a loose ball after a rebound.
• Confident counts as one experience level higher (+10) at set pieces and penalties; Nervous as one lower.
• Resolute plays two form steps higher while his team is behind.
• Extrovert makes the player’s other match traits stronger (×1.5) and Reserved weaker (×0.5).
• Diva borrows traits by the score. While not behind he becomes Charming; if he already is, Extrovert; if he is both, Confident. While behind he turns Obnoxious and Reckless.
• Content and Ambitious act on wages only; Loyal and Turncoat on wages and on a captain’s influence.

Each ability has its own bonus, multiplier, probability change or immunity. The Special abilities guide lists all 16, with exact conditions and examples. Generation grants at most two: roughly one player in ten holds one and one in fifty a second.

The preferred foot affects open-play passing, whether a player can shoot from distance on a flank, and automatic taker selection for corners and crossed free kicks.

• Left and right are always viewed in your team’s attacking direction, towards the opposition goal.
• For open-play passing, a left-footed player suits a left-sided position and a right-footed player a right-sided position. On the opposite side, he uses 90% of Passing. A player who uses both feet or has the Two-Footed ability avoids this penalty.
• For Shoot from distance, the inside foot means the foot towards the centre of the pitch: right foot from the left flank, left foot from the right. It describes which foot the player needs, not a shot struck with the inside surface of the foot.
• There is no foot restriction for this order through the centre. A player who uses both feet or has Two-Footed can also attempt it from either flank. If his foot does not fit the flank of the move, he continues with a pass into the box instead.
• For example, a left-footed player on the left passes without the wrong-foot penalty, but cannot use Shoot from distance from that flank unless he also has Two-Footed. A right-footed player on the left can attempt that shot, but without this ability his open-play passes still carry the wrong-foot penalty. These checks use the preferred foot shown in the player profile.
• An in-swinging cross curves towards the goal. Automatic selection for corners and crossed free kicks therefore prefers a right-footed taker from the left and a left-footed taker from the right. A designated taker takes priority over this preference while on the pitch.