This is the ultimate guide to learn more about player personalities in Football Manager.
In Football Manager, each player has a set of attributes, including hidden ones, that shape their personalities. These personalities affect a player's behavior on and off the field. This guide will detail various player personalities and their implications.
Identifying Player Personalities
To view a player's personality, check their profile. The personality appears on the right side, like the 'Resilient' personality shown in the screenshot below.
Scouting for Personalities
While you'll see the personalities of your team's players, scouting other teams is necessary to uncover their personalities. It might take extensive scouting to reveal a player's true personality.
Personality Attributes
A player's personality is determined by nine attributes, some visible and others hidden.
These include:
- Ambition
- Controversy
- Loyalty, Pressure handling
- Professionalism, Sportsmanship
- Temperament
- Determination
- Leadership
Types of Personalities
Personalities fall into three categories: Positive, Neutral, and Negative. Real players in FM typically don't have negative personalities, but newgens generated annually might possess them.
Positive Personalities
The positive personalities are the ones you should be looking at. These will help the development of a player throughout his career and he will have a positive influence on both the pitch and in the dressing room.
- Model Citizen
- Perfectionist
- Resolute
- Model Professional
- Professional
- Fairly Professional
- Spirited
- Very Ambitious
- Ambitious
- Driven
- Determined
- Fairly Determined
- Charismatic Leader
- Born Leader
- Leader
- Iron Willed
- Resilient
Neutral Personalities
Most players in Football Manager will have a neutral personality, which will have both positives and negatives, but are mainly built with positive attributes.
- Jovial
- Light-Hearted
- Devoted / Very Loyal
- Loyal
- Fairly Loyal
- Honest
- Sporting
- Fairly Sporting
- Unsporting
- Realist
- Balanced
Negative Personalities
These are the personalities you should be avoiding in Football Manager. The negative personalities are also only given to newgens and not to existing players in the database.
- Slack
- Casual
- Temperamental
- Unambitious
- Easily Discouraged
- Low Determination
- Spineless
- Low Self-Belief
Changing Personalities
Changing a player's personality is possible through mentoring or tutoring, mainly effective for players younger than 23. When signing young talents, aim to alter negative personalities early in their youth contracts if they show potential.
Mentoring in Football Manager
In Football Manager, tutoring has evolved into mentoring, allowing a group of players to work together to change personalities and traits. A big change with mentoring compared to the older tutoring is that mentors and mentees need to be in the same squad for mentoring, whereas with tutoring it was possible for a first-team player to tutor a player in the U19 squad..
Choosing the Right Mentoring Groups
You can select more than one mentoring group and you should always do that. Select experienced players who have influential roles in your squad (check the Dynamics area) and position them in their own mentoring group. Then select younger players who preferably play in the same position and/or role as the experienced player to create an effective mentoring group.
Acquiring Player Traits
During mentoring, a young player can adopt traits from their mentor, enhancing mental attributes, player traits, and ultimately changing the personality of a youngster. To maximize player development even further, you should swap or change mentor groups every now and then. This way a young player could develop more different traits and different mental areas of his game. Just make sure the player traits do not conflict.
Squad dynamics
Would it be advisable to put every 16-year-old in your first team so they could participate in mentoring? No, putting too many youngsters in the team might disrupt the squad dynamics and should be treated carefully and thoughtfully. Pick a good mix of young and experienced players in your first team.
Conclusion
Personalities are built from a set of attributes and the level of these will determine the type of personality a player in Football Manager has. When scouting new players always check the personality of the player and make sure it is either a neutral or positive one. If you encounter a newgen with a negative personality you should either sell the player or try to change his personality through mentoring.