Each player has his own personality which directly affects:
- His match performance.
- His training progression.
- His happiness and plans – these are shown on his Overview > Information/Dynamics screens, while an overview of squad happiness is shown on the Dynamics > Happiness screen.
- His interactions and relationships with his teammates, coaches and manager.
- His interactions with the media.
A player’s personality also has a large indirect effect on his morale (as player morale is affected by match performance, happiness, interactions and relationships).
A player’s personality is determined by his ratings in the Determination and Leadership mental attributes, as well as the seven personality attributes, which are:
- Ambition
- Controversy
- Loyalty
- Pressure
- Professionalism
- Sportsmanship
- Temperament
Like Determination and Leadership, the personality attributes are rated from 1 (low) to 20 (high). However, unlike Determination and Leadership, the ratings of the personality attributes are hidden.
A player’s personality is broadly described by his personality description and media handling style description which are shown on his Overview > Information screen under Personal Information.
Similarly to players, each staff member also has his own personality which affects his own interactions and relationships.
Learning & Managing Player Personalities
It can be very useful to gain an idea of the personalities of the players in your squad, (as well as those of potential signings) as this can help you to man manage individual players effectively.
Poor management of a player’s personality can adversely affect his happiness and morale, as well as, potentially, the happiness and morale of some of his teammates, especially if they have good relationships with the player or if the player is high in the squad hierarchy.
You can judge a player’s personality attributes by:
- Interpreting his personality description and media handling style description using the information provided below under Personality Descriptions and Media Handling Style Descriptions. Personality information is also included in coach reports and scout reports.
- Looking at what social group he is in and whether the description of the social group mentions personality – a player’s social group is shown on his Overview > Dynamics screen and all of the social groups in your squad are displayed in detail on the Dynamics > Social Groups screen.
- Noting how he tends to act during interactions, such as when …
- … You give a particular team talk.
- … You talk to him privately.
- … Comments are made about him in the media.
- … He himself makes comments in the media.
- Monitoring his happiness and plans for any indicators of personality attributes.
- Monitoring his body language during a match for any indicators of personality attributes.
Making notes on the Notes section of a player’s History tab can help you to keep track of any clues you pick up.
For help with linking your observations to particular personality attributes, as well as with managing different personalities, see the analysis of each attribute under Personality Attributes below.
Squad Personality
You can also check your club’s squad personality on the Club > General screen. This is based on your players’ ratings in the Ambition, Loyalty and Professionalism personality attributes, as well as the Determination mental attribute, with the most dominant being referred to in the squad personality.
For example, if your club’s squad personality is described as professional then you know that you have a number of players with high Professionalism.
Squad personality is particularly useful as young players at a club may be influenced by it, in which case they gradually improve their rating in the attribute that the squad personality refers to over time.
For example, if your club’s squad personality is described as professional then some of your young players may gradually improve their Professionalism attribute as a result.
The age range at which a player is young enough to be influenced by squad personality depends on his rating in the Adaptability hidden playing attribute. The higher a player’s Adaptability, the greater the age at which he may be influenced by squad personality, up to a maximum age of 24 years old.
