Your players name that has been generated by the system. You can change this by submitting a list to the GM.

This is your players age. Once he gets over 32 there is a chance he will decide to retire at the end of the season. This decision will depend on things like the number of games played, his performance rating and fitness. Age increases by one year for all players at the end of the season.

There are 4 main positions and 3 sub positions for players.

Main Positions:

• GKP - Goalkeepers
• DFC - Defenders
• MID - Midfielders
• ATT - Attackers

Sub Positions:

• P - Goalkeeper only
• L - Left
• R - Right
• C - Central

A players position will be a combination of these so a central defender is DEFC, a right sided attacker is ATTR.

You can use players that have the same position. The match engine is clever enough to figure out the various formations and where to position players. There is no penalty if you play multiple central players together as this is normal eg 3 DFCCs however, if you play multiple wide players they will be fighting for space so may harm each others performance in that match eg two left backs (DEFL). When picking your team you should consider what tactical and formation combination you want to play. For example, playing lots of wide players in a narrow tactic might not work well.

Each player has a total of 11 visible skills

Some skills mean the same for both goalkeepers and outfield players, but some are different. The ones that are different for Goalies are shown in brackets below.

There is no maximum skill value but all player skills have a potential skill value. This potential skill is the maximum that the player can reach in that skill. The potential skill is determined by the player's hidden skills. The potential skill is not visible to the manager. When you have coached a skill to its maximum the skill will turn red on the turnsheet to show it cannot be coached any further.

Different skills have different levels of importance for different positions. For example, a striker will need a high shooting skill, but a defender will not. The importance of each skill for each position is not disclosed but many of them will be obvious.

Skills can be coached each week. In order to coach a skill the teams coach rating muct be higher than the skill you are trying to coach for that departemnt. So if you have a defender with 5 tackling you will need a coch who is rated 6 or higher to coach that player. If a skill is orange on the turnsheet it means the coach is not high enough to coach that skill.

The player skills are:

• Passing (Kicking)
• Control (Handling)
• Tackling (One on Ones)
• Running
• Shooting (Shot Stopping)
• Dribbling
• Defensive Heading
• Offensive Heading (Crosses)
• Flair
• Strength
• Creativity

This is the players current fitness rating. The lower it is, the less match fit he currently is. Fitness plays an important role in match performance, tired players will not perform as well in matches! Fitness recovers naturally each week as well as decreasing with each game. All players need a rest at some point and you will need a squad that allows for squad rotation to keep your best players fit for the big games.

Each player has a contract that is measured in weeks. Every week a players contract decreases by one week. You can renew a players contract and the amount you offer him as a signing fee and his loyalty rating will determine how likely he is to sign a new contract with the club. If a players contract reaches 0 he will leave the club and become a free agent.

Player values are calcualted by the system based on lots of factors such as total skill and age. This is the minimum value that a player can be bought or sold for.

Player wages are calcualted by the system based on lots of factors such as total skill and age. They are paid weekly so you must balance your finances so you can afford to pay your players and run your club.

This is the total skill rating of a player. It is calculated based on lots of factors such as a players visible and hidden skills. It is a measure of how good a player is and whilst high skill players will not always work in your side they generally get better performance ratings. That said, high skills are not as important as having the right skills for a particular position.

There are hundreds of elements that go into determining how well a player performs at your club. Ratings such as fitness, how he blends with his team and what key skills he has all play a part. This value shows his average performance in all games and should be a key consideration for assessing a player.

Availability of 0 means a player is available to play that week. If a player is injured or banned, he will have a value for 'Availability'. This value shows the number of weeks until he will be available for selection again. Availability decreases by 1 each turn.

Loyalty is an important stat when it comes to signing a player. The higher his loyalty, the more likely it is that he will stay with his current club. If you try to sign a player with high loyalty, he will often decide to stay with his current team. If you are trying to get him to renew his contract, high loyalty will help him decide to stay with you (a higher contract signing fee will also help). Loyalty is not a fixed value and can be influenced in game so it is ok to sign players with low loyalty and work on them to improve this. When a player signs for a new club he will often increase his loyalty as he will have been happy to join his new team.

This shows the current bookings points for a player. He will get 1 point for a yellow card and 2 points for a red. When he reaches certain break points he will get a ban. There is a hidden skill that helps to determine how likely a player is to get a booking.

The ban break points are:

• 5 points - 3 week ban
• 10 points - 4 week ban
• 15 points - 5 week ban
• 20 points - 6 week ban
• 25 points - 7 week ban
• 30 points - 10 week ban

TL means 'To Leave'. A player cannot leave a club while he has a TL value. This is to prevent managers buying a player one week and selling them the next. The TL value is a fixed value when you sign a player. This wont effect most managers as it is presumed that when you sign a player you intend to keep him for a while to see how he works in your team. It also prevents players being sold to a team for a week to help then beat an opponent or win a cup final.

Players have many hidden skills that help determine how good they are and what sort of personality they have. Hidden Skills are not disclosed but examples include 'Consistency' - how consistent a players performance will be and 'Recovery' - how well he naturally recovers his fitness. new hidden skills are introduced all the time as new game systems are added.

Blend is one of the best systems in the game

Each player has a blend value and this determines how well a player will gel with his teammates.

We all have players who have joined real life clubs who have just not worked out and the blend system goes a long way to replicate this. The feature promotes experimentation, manager interaction and insures that you cannot simply buy your way to having the best team.

The lower a teams blend rating the better those players will play together.

Whilst you will never know a players blend rating, you can try different combinations of players to figure out how well players blend.

When you establish that a player does not blend with your players you have a decision to make - do you sell him or build the that area around him?