How to select your captain in FM2008
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This aspect of the game is one you can choose to ignore entirely. The game will quite happily select a captain for you, and eight times out of ten it will be a sound choice. The best managers however pick their own, a steadfast, trusted and loyal bastion who commands his teammates' respect, cuts an inspirational figure and, as Bruce Rioch once said of his then Middlesbrough captain, Tony Mowbray, if you could take one person with you when flying to the moon, it would be him.
Why are captains important? Well, think about the number of occasions when a manager states he can't control his side any longer once they're out there playing a game, or the times when your boys are 1-0 down in the second half and looking for someone to inspire them. The captain is your on-pitch leader, someone who demands enough respect to make his fellow players listen to him, follow his lead, etc. There are many different kinds of footballer who have stepped up to the captaincy, and a variety of personalities. This means a prototype captain simply doesn't exist, which is good news for the 99.99% of clubs without the next Bobby Moore in their ranks.
Picking the right player for the job is a fairly straightforward process on Football Manager, thank goodness, and not like in reality where some bizarre and inappropriate choices have worn the armband. Fair enough, every gaffer has his preferred leaders, and there will always be an element of favouritism that goes into the decision. At the foot of this document are some case studies that show a few good and bad examples of captaincy. In FM, all you really need to do is check through a few criteria to work out who your most likely candidate is. Everyone has their own, and mine works along the lines of a six-point checklist, in order to priority. It looks like this:
1. Influence
Invariably, if left to its own devices the AI will automatically offer the armband to the player with the best ‘Influence.' As the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, it's a quality within people who can wield ‘influence' over others, like an extension of natural charisma and presence. Your captain must have a high number here in order to exert any authority over his colleagues. But this can be as much a problem as a blessing. Influence alone does not a captain make, and you can find your team becoming quarrelsome and divisive if the captain is an antagonistic Cassano type.
2. Teamwork, Determination and Personality
What's the score? It's Bobby Moore! Two other categories that are not quite as important in determining the identity of your captain, yet crucial nonetheless. My tip would be to use these numbers as a kind of tie-breaker if you have two players with similar levels of Influence. Obviously, good statistics in all three is a given - in the Premiership/La Liga/Serie A, you would ideally want at least ‘15′ in these categories. ‘Teamwork' determines how likely your man is to play as part of a unit, rather than for himself. Consider Cristiano Ronaldo, especially in his early days at Old Trafford, and the amount of showboating he attempted, impressing the fans with his individual trickery rather than operating in tandem with his teammates. He was an example of the wrong stuff. Your captain ought to be the archetypal team player, someone who can draw colleagues together rather than divide them and weaken the line. As for ‘Determination,' here you're talking about someone who will, in the words of Elliott Ness, never stop fighting until the fight is won. Every side has one, a terrier who keeps the cause in the forefront of his mind at all times, and applies himself accordingly.
Though the numbers can tell you a lot about your player's make-up, it's always worth taking a look at his personality and the coach's report. Here's where you find out exactly what sort of guy your potential captain is. What you're looking for is someone whose mindset is roughly in tandem with the ambitious attitude you want permeating through the entire squad. Get this right, and that hungry group of players you've put together will be topped off with a captain who's just as determined for success as you. He can make all the difference.
3. Squad Status
Nigel Reo-Coker - too much, too young? Put simply, this means little more than ensuring you pick a captain who will play as often as humanly possible. There's no point selecting a confirmed squad rotation type to wear the armband, as he will only actually get to lead the side from time to time, which is useless to you and potentially damaging to the team's morale. If your present captain is relegated in status due to age, then it's time to pass on the armband. Don't be too put off by the warning that changing the identity of your captain can have a detrimental effect. As long as you don't entirely switch things around each season, and you select appropriate candidates for the role, there should be few problems.
4. Age
Personally, I don't hold entirely with the notion that team captains must be over 25. In CM 01/02, I handed the responsibility to 21-year old Mark Kerr, leading to years of constant and fine service. Generally though, players like Kerr and Nigel Reo-Coker are flukes, and the advice is basically sound. The reason for this is that by then, your player is presumed to have reached or be very near to his peak years as a footballer, coupled with accumulating enough experience to be a competent leader. Prior to this, he's too wet behind the ears to command the sort of dog-eared respect that captains possess quite naturally.
5. Language Barriers
It's such an obvious point but one that is very rarely mentioned. Let's say you're Tottenham, playing with a side packed full of young homegrown talent. Then you go out and sign Javier Saviola, and you're so chuffed with your investment that you instantly make him team captain. Saviola can't speak a word of English. It's going to take him a few months to grasp the basics, let alone the year or two he'll need to be comfortable with his new tongue. How on earth is this going to work? Answer - it ain't. My advice would be to choose someone who's either the same nationality as the country he's playing in, or get a fluent home language speaker. Otherwise, communication is lost, and you can almost picture the scene where Saviola is barking instructions to his players, each of whom is running around the pitch with an interpreter at their side doing some breathless translating.
6. The Importance of Position
Roy Keane - the best?A bit of a personal one this, but when I choose a captain, I like him to be either a central defender or holding midfielder. The reasons for this should be straightforward enough. From here, your man can see most of the pitch before his eyes, and is capable of spotting things going awry in most sectors. The defensive midfielder should be a fairly authoritative player anyway, a natural leader who has a lot of work to do bridging the gap between defence and midfield, and you'll often find he's a candidate. In all truth, I have no idea whether this criteria has any bearing whatsoever on the strength of your captain, but it occurs to me that their typical personality traits don't lend themselves too well to the sleeves rolled up grittiness that one needs to fill those boots.
Though I don't claim that this is in any way a comprehensive list, I think it covers the basics, and I have usually found a good captain by judging them against the six points outlined above. Currently, my armband wearer at Inter is Fabricio Coloccini. The vice-captain is Esteban Cambiasso. Both stack up well against the things I'm looking for, and with Inter being one of the world's top teams, there are the merits of Christian Chivu to take into account also.
As promised, I have picked up on a few case studies from real life, which are intended to see why some choices for captain work, whilst others crash and burn…
Case One - Roy Keane (Manchester United)
Ol' GoldenballsKeane is quite possibly the best team captain I have ever seen (I'm a bit too young to remember Lord Bobby of Moore). Aside from ticking all the boxes where the above points are concerned, he was the very epitome of determination. When he told you to join him in overturning that 1-0 deficit in the 85th minute, you would be there, and not because of the danger that he might go medieval on you afterwards, but due to the sheer fact you knew he would be first over the wall, every time.
Case Two - David Beckham (England)
Sven-Goran Eriksson made Goldenballs his captain because the latter would always play for ‘Team England' and had perhaps the highest profile in world sport at one point. Never the obvious choice for the armband, Becks tried to lead by example, often covering more turf than any other player for his country and certainly providing the passion his comrades usually lacked. Unfortunately, Eriksson's policy of selecting Beckham on a ‘no matter what' basis meant we sometimes had to endure the sight of a far from fully fit superstar who contributed very little to games whilst a string of young and potentially better alternatives languished on the sidelines.
Geremi - not as good as the Pearl Jam song of the same name(ish)In the plus column, Becks was willing to run his legs off for the cause and at his best cut a genuinely inspirational figure. On the downside, he lacked natural authority, was unable to ‘gee' his teammates up when the chips were down, and will probably go down as the tip of the iceberg where the problematic ‘golden generation' was concerned. A group of players that was talented certainly, but ever with an eye on the next contract, image rights and other income streams. Try as he might to overcome that, Beckham led the way for profit-seeking footballers and remains a curious choice for captaincy. Still, he was miles better than Michael Owen.
Case Three - Geremi (Newcastle)
I admit my brain did a leap when it learned Sam Allardyce had nominated Geremi to lead his side. A Cameroon international with slightly above average skills who played on the right wing? He was an incredible selection, all right, a player who seemed to have a passing acquaintance with English rather than cordial relations, and someone who didn't once strike me as Mr Charisma. I could be wrong, but Geremi didn't match up well against the usual criteria. Consequently, the Toon staggered through their games, lacked obvious leadership, and led to the end for Allardyce. This wasn't all Geremi's fault, but a factor it must have been.
Invariably, if left to its own devices the AI will automatically offer the armband to the player with the best ‘Influence.' As the Oxford English Dictionary suggests, it's a quality within people who can wield ‘influence' over others, like an extension of natural charisma and presence. Your captain must have a high number here in order to exert any authority over his colleagues. But this can be as much a problem as a blessing. Influence alone does not a captain make, and you can find your team becoming quarrelsome and divisive if the captain is an antagonistic Cassano type.
2. Teamwork, Determination and Personality
What's the score? It's Bobby Moore! Two other categories that are not quite as important in determining the identity of your captain, yet crucial nonetheless. My tip would be to use these numbers as a kind of tie-breaker if you have two players with similar levels of Influence. Obviously, good statistics in all three is a given - in the Premiership/La Liga/Serie A, you would ideally want at least ‘15′ in these categories. ‘Teamwork' determines how likely your man is to play as part of a unit, rather than for himself. Consider Cristiano Ronaldo, especially in his early days at Old Trafford, and the amount of showboating he attempted, impressing the fans with his individual trickery rather than operating in tandem with his teammates. He was an example of the wrong stuff. Your captain ought to be the archetypal team player, someone who can draw colleagues together rather than divide them and weaken the line. As for ‘Determination,' here you're talking about someone who will, in the words of Elliott Ness, never stop fighting until the fight is won. Every side has one, a terrier who keeps the cause in the forefront of his mind at all times, and applies himself accordingly.
Though the numbers can tell you a lot about your player's make-up, it's always worth taking a look at his personality and the coach's report. Here's where you find out exactly what sort of guy your potential captain is. What you're looking for is someone whose mindset is roughly in tandem with the ambitious attitude you want permeating through the entire squad. Get this right, and that hungry group of players you've put together will be topped off with a captain who's just as determined for success as you. He can make all the difference.
3. Squad Status
Nigel Reo-Coker - too much, too young? Put simply, this means little more than ensuring you pick a captain who will play as often as humanly possible. There's no point selecting a confirmed squad rotation type to wear the armband, as he will only actually get to lead the side from time to time, which is useless to you and potentially damaging to the team's morale. If your present captain is relegated in status due to age, then it's time to pass on the armband. Don't be too put off by the warning that changing the identity of your captain can have a detrimental effect. As long as you don't entirely switch things around each season, and you select appropriate candidates for the role, there should be few problems.
4. Age
Personally, I don't hold entirely with the notion that team captains must be over 25. In CM 01/02, I handed the responsibility to 21-year old Mark Kerr, leading to years of constant and fine service. Generally though, players like Kerr and Nigel Reo-Coker are flukes, and the advice is basically sound. The reason for this is that by then, your player is presumed to have reached or be very near to his peak years as a footballer, coupled with accumulating enough experience to be a competent leader. Prior to this, he's too wet behind the ears to command the sort of dog-eared respect that captains possess quite naturally.
5. Language Barriers
It's such an obvious point but one that is very rarely mentioned. Let's say you're Tottenham, playing with a side packed full of young homegrown talent. Then you go out and sign Javier Saviola, and you're so chuffed with your investment that you instantly make him team captain. Saviola can't speak a word of English. It's going to take him a few months to grasp the basics, let alone the year or two he'll need to be comfortable with his new tongue. How on earth is this going to work? Answer - it ain't. My advice would be to choose someone who's either the same nationality as the country he's playing in, or get a fluent home language speaker. Otherwise, communication is lost, and you can almost picture the scene where Saviola is barking instructions to his players, each of whom is running around the pitch with an interpreter at their side doing some breathless translating.
6. The Importance of Position
Roy Keane - the best?A bit of a personal one this, but when I choose a captain, I like him to be either a central defender or holding midfielder. The reasons for this should be straightforward enough. From here, your man can see most of the pitch before his eyes, and is capable of spotting things going awry in most sectors. The defensive midfielder should be a fairly authoritative player anyway, a natural leader who has a lot of work to do bridging the gap between defence and midfield, and you'll often find he's a candidate. In all truth, I have no idea whether this criteria has any bearing whatsoever on the strength of your captain, but it occurs to me that their typical personality traits don't lend themselves too well to the sleeves rolled up grittiness that one needs to fill those boots.
Though I don't claim that this is in any way a comprehensive list, I think it covers the basics, and I have usually found a good captain by judging them against the six points outlined above. Currently, my armband wearer at Inter is Fabricio Coloccini. The vice-captain is Esteban Cambiasso. Both stack up well against the things I'm looking for, and with Inter being one of the world's top teams, there are the merits of Christian Chivu to take into account also.
As promised, I have picked up on a few case studies from real life, which are intended to see why some choices for captain work, whilst others crash and burn…
Case One - Roy Keane (Manchester United)
Ol' GoldenballsKeane is quite possibly the best team captain I have ever seen (I'm a bit too young to remember Lord Bobby of Moore). Aside from ticking all the boxes where the above points are concerned, he was the very epitome of determination. When he told you to join him in overturning that 1-0 deficit in the 85th minute, you would be there, and not because of the danger that he might go medieval on you afterwards, but due to the sheer fact you knew he would be first over the wall, every time.
Case Two - David Beckham (England)
Sven-Goran Eriksson made Goldenballs his captain because the latter would always play for ‘Team England' and had perhaps the highest profile in world sport at one point. Never the obvious choice for the armband, Becks tried to lead by example, often covering more turf than any other player for his country and certainly providing the passion his comrades usually lacked. Unfortunately, Eriksson's policy of selecting Beckham on a ‘no matter what' basis meant we sometimes had to endure the sight of a far from fully fit superstar who contributed very little to games whilst a string of young and potentially better alternatives languished on the sidelines.
Geremi - not as good as the Pearl Jam song of the same name(ish)In the plus column, Becks was willing to run his legs off for the cause and at his best cut a genuinely inspirational figure. On the downside, he lacked natural authority, was unable to ‘gee' his teammates up when the chips were down, and will probably go down as the tip of the iceberg where the problematic ‘golden generation' was concerned. A group of players that was talented certainly, but ever with an eye on the next contract, image rights and other income streams. Try as he might to overcome that, Beckham led the way for profit-seeking footballers and remains a curious choice for captaincy. Still, he was miles better than Michael Owen.
Case Three - Geremi (Newcastle)
I admit my brain did a leap when it learned Sam Allardyce had nominated Geremi to lead his side. A Cameroon international with slightly above average skills who played on the right wing? He was an incredible selection, all right, a player who seemed to have a passing acquaintance with English rather than cordial relations, and someone who didn't once strike me as Mr Charisma. I could be wrong, but Geremi didn't match up well against the usual criteria. Consequently, the Toon staggered through their games, lacked obvious leadership, and led to the end for Allardyce. This wasn't all Geremi's fault, but a factor it must have been.
