How important is Leadership?

[Mojam]

just curious about how important leadership is to your team. i am currently managing arsenal and we are ranked 19th in the league in terms of leadership. although we are top of the league i usually see about 4 players with looks nervous. Was wondering if leadership had anything to do with this, as if i had more leaders in my squad maybe they can motivate others to concentrate.

thank you for your help;)

[felley]

I'm preparing to be corrected for being wrong here, but I think leadership is simply related to how suitable a player is for captaincy and how accepting other players will therefore be of him in a leadership role. Choosing the player who has lower leadership will have negative morale effects whereas choosing the higher rated player will have positive effects.

There could be some background effects that I'm not aware of and it is of course preferable (but not entirely necessary with the changes this year) to appoint a captain with a good personality... but apart from that I think it's fairly simple.

Oh and this low rating for Arsenal may be FM's way of explaining why they're serial bottlers

[Mojam]

I'm preparing to be corrected for being wrong here, but I think leadership is simply related to how suitable a player is for captaincy and how accepting other players will therefore be of him in a leadership role. Choosing the player who has lower leadership will have negative morale effects whereas choosing the higher rated player will have positive effects.

There could be some background effects that I'm not aware of and it is of course preferable (but not entirely necessary with the changes this year) to appoint a captain with a good personality... but apart from that I think it's fairly simple.

Oh and this low rating for Arsenal may be FM's way of explaining why they're serial bottlers

thats true about arsenal

[edj]

I have a theory that Leadership - which used to be 'Influence' - is how well a player spreads his nervousness / confidence / aggression / etc to nearby teammates. My theory is just that, and based on watching players who look calm / motivated / nervous seem to spread those attitudes to nearby players.

Love to be proven wrong on this one, but it does affect my subbing patterns and does seem to work (a high 'leadership' player who tends to play calmly sure seems to me to calm down nearby players too, etc).

[tmpnd]

Could be wrong, but I think leadership affects matchday morale.

Just an example, but i could be wrong:

I know that would be almost impossible to happen IRL, but think of Liverpool with Balotelli as captain (10/9 determination and leadership). You're losing 3-0 at half-time against bitter rivals Everton. Everyone is frustrated. The capn's reaction: "Doesnt that suck lads? :/ ". The team proceeds to have a frustrated, nervous body language.

Now think of Chelsea losing to Arsenal 3-0 at half-time. You have a 20/20 captain in John Terry. It's only rational to think he'd boost up his team morale for them to keep composed and focused by leading them. "The heck is wrong with you lot. There are still 2700 seconds, for US TO GIVE HELL TO THESE *@$&(&@$¨$(@& NOW GET YOUR ($&24 TOGETHER AND SPARTA". The team proceeds to have an aggressive, fired-up body language.

[HUNT3R]

I have a theory that Leadership - which used to be 'Influence' - is how well a player spreads his nervousness / confidence / aggression / etc to nearby teammates. My theory is just that, and based on watching players who look calm / motivated / nervous seem to spread those attitudes to nearby players.

Love to be proven wrong on this one, but it does affect my subbing patterns and does seem to work (a high 'leadership' player who tends to play calmly sure seems to me to calm down nearby players too, etc).

I see this too in matches. I choose a captain based on Leadership, but also Personality. In matches he will get "Looking Motivated" and fairly soon, you see this in other players too, especially those around him. The opposite can happen too, where a player can influence others to also become "Nervous" etc.

I'd say it's true for all players with high leadership, but that your captain has more of an effect because he's the captain and players will look to him more.

[phnompenhandy]

I would love to get a clearer answer to this question.

In the editor I created a squad of 14 year-olds and the highest leadership attribute was about 7 iirc. I would have thought a 14 year-old captain with 7 leadership would be a disaster but I could barely see any discernable effect on team performances. Squad morale certainly tends to be ultra-frail and a couple of defeats in a row sends it crashing; and in-match I see some players just give up after going a couple of goals behind, but they tend to be the ones with low determination, so it's tricky to see what's actually affected by leadership.

[PhroX]

Yeah, this is something I'd like to know more about. The game implies that leadership is important for captains (pretty it shows the leadership attribute when you go to the "captains" section of tactics), but I'm particularly interested if it has any effect on other players.

[Orikoru]

I've also always looked at 'leadership' when selecting my captain, but not really for anything else. And I don't even fully know the effects of selecting whichever captain. I just had to choose my captain for the upcoming season actually, and it was tough because the guys with decent leadership were back-up players, while the starters didn't have great leadership stats. Ended up choosing a winger with 10 leadership just because he'd been at the club a while and had ok mentals generally.

[Rashidi]

I only look at leadership when I want to choose my captain. Other than that..not worth my time

[Hootieleece]

When selecting a Captain, the players have Both Leadership and Determination are shown.......so I think both are important. But I always pick the player with the higher Leadership for Captain. (As long as he's an everyday player)

Determined teams which most of mine are.......also seem respond better to the "hairdryer" treatment.

[JaYmZeE]

LEADERSHIP IS WITHOUT QUESTION THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN ANY HUMAN ENDEVOUR - LOOK AT THE WORLD AROUND YOU - THIS IS THE ABSENCE OF LEADERSHIP - TOTAL CHAOS - I'd say Leadership is important.

I was at the Rangers v Cowdenbeath Scottish Cup game at Ibrox early in the year - for my sins - and partook with my host into a discussion regarding the apparent brilliance then complete lack thereof in one Danny Wilson Esq.

My enquiry went thus, that first year - he looked a player - I mean in big games against real opposition (EUROPE) - he looked like a serious prospect - how come then he's so bad now?

"Davie Weir" came the reply - Davie Weir talked him through that whole season.

Davie Weir was horrifically slow in terms of no pace by this stage in his career - but boy did he know how to defend - he also knew how to lead apparently. Is leadership on a football pitch important? I mean seriously?

[JaYmZeE]

You know - you can put this along with the question "HOW IMPORTANT IS TRAINING"?

TRAINING & PICKING YOUR CAPTAIN should be without question two of the biggest factors on team performance come matchday. How do Managers fix flaws in there team "ON THE TRAINING PITCH PERHAPS"? The difference between success and failure should be in the ability to see problems and have some form of control to resolve and so on and so forth and if something as meaningless as picking your clubs captain shouldn't be a big consideration in game - what exactly is it your simulating?

[OrientTillIDie]

Of course Leadership is important. Explains why Arsenal are so crap in real life... They don't have any leaders and haven't had a proper one since Vieira.

The only example I really have is from FM14 when I took Orient up the leagues. First season I had Nathan Clarke as captain but didn't use him. Instead I used Scott Cuthbert who has a rating of 9. We did ok but bottled it in the playoffs. I then ended up signing Paul Corry on a free from Sheffield Wednesday who had a rating of 15 and a Determination rating of 19 (I don't think he's that good any more!!). I gave him the captains armband and we went on to win League 1 comfortably. We finished 8th in our first season in the Championship followed by automatic promotion the next season. Kept him in the Premier League and we finished 11th, then 6th, then 2nd. Unbelievable captain and was able to drag my players out of poor form. He consistently got ratings of 7 and I played him as an Anchor Man. The fact that he had 19 Determination and a Very Professional personality (I feel like it might have been called Consumate Professional or something like that) meant he was a sensational tutor and lots of CM youngsters became better because of him.

I noticed a huge difference when he wasn't playing as well. The rest of the team usually reacted well to team talks when he was playing but when he was out they didn't react as well. He became a club legend, playing over 500 games for me before he retired and I made him my Assistant Manager. So in my opinion, Leadership and choosing the right captain is pivotal.

[thokk]

I see this too in matches. I choose a captain based on Leadership, but also Personality. In matches he will get "Looking Motivated" and fairly soon, you see this in other players too, especially those around him. The opposite can happen too, where a player can influence others to also become "Nervous" etc.

I'd say it's true for all players with high leadership, but that your captain has more of an effect because he's the captain and players will look to him more.

Interesting! In the save i'm playing, the current captain it's older and he doesn't play, and the sub captain rotates a lot, so I let the assistant choose the player he feels right. Normally it's between two players, and in some matches i've saw players motivated and looking professional almost all the time, and other games some of them felt nervous. It's something I was wondering why, matches I was leading (or huge leading) and having nervous players around.

So, by “those attitudes to nearby players “ a central midfielder could influence a lot more players?

[HUNT3R]

So, by “those attitudes to nearby players “ a central midfielder could influence a lot more players?

Possibly, but that's just an assumption on my part. I usually see players around my captain being affect more/quicker.

[swansongs]

I see this too in matches. I choose a captain based on Leadership, but also Personality. In matches he will get "Looking Motivated" and fairly soon, you see this in other players too, especially those around him. The opposite can happen too, where a player can influence others to also become "Nervous" etc.

This is how I look at it, especially for the Vice/3rd/4th choice captains. I want the guys with good hidden personality attributes (pressure, temperament) and Determination with the armband even if their leadership isn't fantastic (but not super low, obviously). This gets less important a few seasons in when you've tutored and recruited a good batch of personalities throughout the squad.

But I have given the vice captaincy to my best player before, to make him a bit happier despite being an awful person. Needed to renew his contract.