How important is "Important Matches"?

[Tom 99]

Hi folks,

 

I have a super talent (Messi-Ronaldo-level) but this guy has one huge problem: My staff said this guy plays bad in important matches. So my question is: How important is the "Important Matches" value? Is e. g. a PA/CA 198 / important matches 3 guy better or worse than a PA/CA 175 / important matches 18 guy when we talk about the CL final?

 

Greetings,

Tom

Edited June 5, 2021 by Tom 99

[FrazT]

My interpretation is that the guy with the low attribute for important matches would more than likely not perform to his best in a big match.  The other guy is more likely to perform to his best or better with a high attribute for important matches.  For a CL final, I would go with player 2 and get a good performance rather than run the risk of playing player 1 and get a poor performance.  It is worth mentioning that a player at CA of 175 is still  a top class talent.

[XaW]

I value "Important Matches" highly, almost as high as "Consistency". What use is a fantastic player that almost never shows up, and especially in the big matches when it matters the most? I don't need him to score 7 goals in an early round cup match against a non-league side, scoring 3 there and 3 in the Champions League final would be much better!

As always though, it's not as clear cut as "low attribute = trash", but if I have two similar players I would trend towards buying/focusing on the one who are consistent and likes big matches even if the other might be slightly better.

[Bojanbbz94]

It's absolutely a matter of personal choice and a question of how you choose to manage your side. For me personally a player who really hates big matches would be a 'red line' that would make me not want to sign him. My understanding is that 'big matches' aren't just cup finals, but also fixtures against your rivals and six-pointer kind of matches that can decide relegations / league championships. So, particularly at higher levels of the game, you might actually end up playing quite a few 'big games' in one season.

E.g. a lot of the big/bigger clubs in England (Man City, Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool) are all rivals with quite a few of the other big clubs for local or historic reasons. Same in Spain where there are a lot of shared rivalries between Barca/ Real Madrid / Valencia / Atléti / Sevilla. Same in a lot of countries where a handful of big clubs have battled for titles and cups over decades, and so developed rivalries with each other. Then you also have the latter knockout stages of European games and (hopefully at least one every few seasons) the final of a domestic cup. So you could reasonably be managing in a lot of big games against high-quality opposition quite often.

If I'm scouting a handful of different players for one position, all with relatively similar attributes, I'll eliminate the ones with low consistency/big matches pretty quickly. At least, I will if I'm in a position to be choosy in terms of my budget and the quality of player I can attract. But like I said at the start, it's matter of personal choice and how you might manage around this issue. In the case of your player, 198 CA is obviously going to make him the best player in the world, and he's going to tear it up in games that aren't 'big matches'. Even if he doesn't perform at his best in big matches, he is still might well be better than most players in the world even when playing below his optimum level. When he is really that good, there is also a strong case for having him around just to prevent other big clubs from buying him.

Edited June 6, 2021 by Bojanbbz94

[phnompenhandy]

As with 'Consistency', it's hard to know if shirking the big games means the player operates at 50% capacity or 95% capacity. Problem is you don't know until you  try, and they're the very games you don't want to take a risk. If I have a player who's flagged as possibly a bit iffy in a big game, I might start him with an eye to an early substitution if he clearly underperforms, but as with so much, it does depend on the situation.

[Tyburn]

Just because you don’t enjoy something doesn’t mean you’re not good at it. I don’t enjoy brushing my kids teeth, but our dentist is pretty happy with them. 😁

[phnompenhandy]

3 hours ago, Tyburn said:

Just because you don’t enjoy something doesn’t mean you’re not good at it. I don’t enjoy brushing my kids teeth, but our dentist is pretty happy with them. 😁

Do you brush their teeth in front of 80,000 baying fans?

[Tyburn]

47 minutes ago, phnompenhandy said:

Do you brush their teeth in front of 80,000 baying fans?

Week in, week out.

[XaW]

17 minutes ago, Tyburn said:

Week in, week out.

Man, I didn't know competitive children's teeth brushing had gotten to that level of popularity yet...

[vikeologist]

If you drop a player who doesn't like big matches for the big matches, he won't gt better at big matches.

I think it would be be more productive to pay special attention to him in big matches. Give him an individual team talk. Praise him if he does well.

 

Saying all this, I don't know if a player can really change his attitude towards big matches after 22. I'd love to try to make it happen, but frankly, my team doesn't play a lot of big matches, and I haven't been able to generate a change in the 3 or 4 cup ties a season we do have.