Battle of Captains

When I put something in my head I can't rest until I put it to the test. This time is no different.

I've been wondering for a while who the perfect captain would be in FMM. We all know that a captain's main attribute is 'leadership'. But there's of course a lot more to it. There's the age factor, teamwork, decisions and possibly his position on the pitch as well. I wrote an article about it a while back which can be found here for those interested: Suitable Captains

What if leadership is equal? Will his experience be the deciding factor? His great teamwork perhaps? Will his better decision-making be the decisive facor? Or will his position on the pitch outweigh every other aspect which we believe makes a great captain? It's really hard to prioritize these additional attributes. Ideally we'd want high numbers on all of them but I think it's safe to say that all of us here on Vibe can agree that a player with leadership of 20 makes a (potentially) fantastic captain. But who is the very best?

For this test I've chosen 4 candidates in 4 different areas of the field (GK-Def-Mid-For) with equal leadership (20). I have brought all 4 of them into a new team (Bayern) in order to nullify the possible advantage of being at a team longer than others. I will also play all of them in the exact same squad versus the exact same opponent over and over again. Playing a career would damage the accuracy of this test as result game 1 (think morale, tiredness,..) influences result game 2 and 3 etc etc which means game 2 and 3 in Testsave 1 will never be 100% identical to those respective games in other saves. If you lost me there just believe me when I say that everything will be 100% identical in all 4 Testsaves. I'll play the length of an average season, I chose the simple number of 50 games, and will calculate the average rating of the entire team (all 11 players) as I'm solely interested on the impact the captain has on the team performance and how much exactly his influence lifts the team.

All 4 Testsaves will be featuring the following team against the same opponent. Sole difference will be the Captaincy.

 

The Team: 4-4-2 Att.

4 Testsaves, 1 team.

 

Captain Buffon (Goalkeeper)

Leadership 20 - Will his age and perhaps position make him the Best Captain?

 

Captain Terry (Defender)

Leadership 20 - Will his fantastic teamwork make him the Best Captain?

 

Captain Gerrard (Midfielder)

Leadership 20 - Will perhaps his position and personality make him the Best Captain?

 

Captain Totti (Forward)

Leadership 20 - Will his very balanced 'additional' attr. and age make him the Best Captain?

 

50 Test Games

German Super Cup: Dortmund - Bayern

 

Test Save One - Captain Buffon (GK)--------Average Team Rating: 7.22

• Buffon as captain average rating: 7.15
• Buffon being captained average rating: 6.95

 

*** Test Save Two - Captain Terry (CB)---------Average Team Rating: 7.29 ***

• Terry as captain average rating: 7.35
• Terry being captained average rating: 7.25

 

Test Save Three - Captain Gerrard (CM)-----Average Team Rating: 7.20

• Gerrard as captain average rating: 6.95
• Gerrard being captained average rating: 6.45

 

Test Save Four - Captain Totti (ST)-----------Average Team Rating: 7.28

• Totti as captain average rating: 6.95
• Totti being captained average rating: 6.55

 

Winner:

* Captain John Terry *

 

Final Words

Captain Terry won but why did Totti come in as a very close second? And Gerrard dead last? Well, if you look at all the averages it's close but then again, these are the averages over 50 games (an average season) so there's a decent significance to it. A difference of 0.1 rating of all 11 players over an entire season could mean the difference between a good and great campaign.

It seems to me Terry's great teamwork attribute brought him the victory. This attr. is significantly better than the other captains. After this test it seems to me that this is the 2nd most important attribute for a captain to possess after leadership. Totti did great too probably due to his balanced attr. as well as his age. Both Terry and Totti have decisions 14 so I think Totti's age played a big part in him finishing as runner-up. I therefore put the age factor ahead of the decisions attr. which is perhaps surprising. Gerrard coming in last is a surprise to me since I always believed that a captain's position on the field (midfield is ideal) was very important, but he does have a rather poor teamwork attr. Buffon has an even worse teamwork attr. but his age seems to have pulled him into 3rd place which just confirms that age really does play a significant role in choosing a captain.

In my opinion, after these tests, this is a captain's criteria in order of importance:

1. Leadership
2. Teamwork
3. Age
4. Decisions

Lastly, perhaps the most surprising of all is that all 4 of these captains perform better as a captain than having someone else lead the team. That's something I never thought of but definitely makes sense. It might not going to influence you when selecting a captain for your team but it's a very interesting stat. I hope you enjoyed these tests and hopefully you have a few extra things to ponder over when selecting a captain for your team. It does make a significant difference.

Thanks for reading and as always comments of any kind welcome.

Edited December 11, 2016 by BatiGoal

[rseven]

Interesting post!

please post the result!

[Helio]

Can't wait for this test to be published, really interesting! 

[veerus]

I always thought that because of the simplified match engine, captaincy was mostly cosmetic in FMM.  So I would just pick whoever had the highest leadership attribute.  

[Real_Random]

Very interesting read mate. I think Gerrard will win

Edited December 9, 2016 by Real_Random

[BatiGoal]

9 minutes ago, veerus said:

I always thought that because of the simplified match engine, captaincy was mostly cosmetic in FMM.  So I would just pick whoever had the highest leadership attribute.  

And if you have 4 guys with the highest attribute?

 

[Mikee1984]

Another great article mate they just keep on rolling out from you, looking forward to the results keep up the good work.

[Meow]

Interesting post, will be interesting to see the results. 

[Thepremiermanager]

2 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

And if you have 4 guys with the highest attribute?

 

In that case I'd usually pick whoever was at the top of the list when I sorted by leadership. If not, probably the guy I liked the most i.e. not John Terry!

[Dar J]

I normally do the average of leadership, decision and team work

[BatiGoal]

Glad you like it guys.

3 hours ago, Dar J said:

I normally do the average of leadership, decision and team work

I usually check highest leadership + a rough balanced average of the additional attributes, but if these are terrible I'll pick a more suitable player with lower leadership.

[BatiGoal]

Results are in and OP has been updated. Interesting findings

Cheers!

[UKFootballScore]

Wow! love that it made them play better as captains that really interested me as that means wanting a player to score more goals for a 1kc it makes sense to make him captain

[BatiGoal]

29 minutes ago, UKFootballScore said:

Wow! love that it made them play better as captains that really interested me as that means wanting a player to score more goals for a 1kc it makes sense to make him captain

It definitely does if he possesses the attributes for a leader otherwise I'm sure it will prove counter-productive. 

[veerus]

So to me, the only real conclusion here is that captaincy seems to improve that player's match performance.  Consideration should be given to someone with higher leadership with priority tiebreaker for whoever is the more key player in the starting lineup.

I have a much harder time making any conclusions from captains' influence on the rest of the team.  The team ratings are within 1% of each other which, to me, is within the margin of error for a single season.  If anything, it supports my initial hypothesis that captaincy has no effect due to the simplified match engine.

Did you, by chance, keep the W/L records during your tests?  If so, any difference there?

[BatiGoal]

11 minutes ago, veerus said:

So to me, the only real conclusion here is that captaincy seems to improve that player's match performance.  Consideration should be given to someone with higher leadership with priority tiebreaker for whoever is the more key player in the starting lineup.

That makes sense indeed.

 

13 minutes ago, veerus said:

I have a much harder time making any conclusions from captains' influence on the rest of the team.  The team ratings are within 1% of each other which, to me, is within the margin of error for a single season.  If anything, it supports my initial hypothesis that captaincy has no effect due to the simplified match engine.

Did you, by chance, keep the W/L records during your tests?  If so, any difference there?

You have to remember tho that these 4 captains are all outstanding leaders so the difference was never going to be that great between the 4. But like I said it does show that even at this level teamwork as well as age make a small difference. Perhaps a few follow-up tests with high leadership + low teamwork and age vs low leadership + high teamwork and age is in place to see if there's any significant differences there.

The W/L % was very balanced over all 4 saves btw, pretty much equal.

[veerus]

6 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Perhaps a few follow-up tests with high leadership + low teamwork and age vs low leadership + high teamwork and age is in place to see if there's any significant differences there.

I would be more interested in a test of that same team but with you picking 4 other starters with low leadership, say 13 or below (other stats don't matter).  The contrasting performance to the four seasons you have already simulated would prove whether or not captaincy is even a factor on the team's overall performance.  And if it is, then you could run tests to isolate secondary stats.

[BatiGoal]

I'm certain it does have an impact as I've had poor and good captains with the same team over the many careers I've played and the difference is significant. I can't give any % as I haven't actually tested it but from playing experience a good captain does lift ratings as well as consistency. The difference between good/great captains is another matter.

[billy2shots]

Enjoyable read BG. 

Do you have the stats still because I'm really interested to know if the 'bump up' in average rating is just cosmetic for being captain or if their performances really improved. 

Did Terry help keep more clean sheets as captain?

Did Stevie G and Totti score and assist more whilst they were leading the team?

[BatiGoal]

2 hours ago, billy2shots said:

Enjoyable read BG. 

Do you have the stats still because I'm really interested to know if the 'bump up' in average rating is just cosmetic for being captain or if their performances really improved. 

Did Terry help keep more clean sheets as captain?

Did Stevie G and Totti score and assist more whilst they were leading the team?

I don't have the screenshots for you anymore but I did have a look at Terry and Buffon's defensive performances as well as Gerrard and Totti's performances in front of goal. I saw fewer goals conceded for the former two but no difference in clean sheets. Captains Gerrard and Totti both had a few extra assists and goals behind their names (about 5 combined over the season) over their non-captain clones. So not just cosmetic but an actual, be it small, improvement in performance.

[samhardy]

There was a theory a few years ago that having a defender as captain improved your defence a lot whilst an attacking captain enabled your team to score more. It was hard to find the middle ground as midfielders essentially improved nothing and this pretty much supports this.

Edited December 12, 2016 by samhardy

[BatiGoal]

1 hour ago, samhardy said:

There was a theory a few years ago that having a defender as captain improved your defence a lot whilst an attacking captain enabled your team to score more. It was hard to find the middle ground as midfielders essentially improved nothing and this pretty much supports this.

I think that's true to some extent.

Perhaps the simplest conclusion would be: the better your captain the more he's able to lift the team's, as well as his personal performance, and therefore boosts the line onfield he's positioned at.

[veerus]

17 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

I'm certain it does have an impact as I've had poor and good captains with the same team over the many careers I've played and the difference is significant. I can't give any % as I haven't actually tested it but from playing experience a good captain does lift ratings as well as consistency. 

 I would guess your poor captains were on worse teams who can't be expected to be as good or as consistent as Bayern.  So that statement is really odd coming from someone who is specifically testing, with actual data, the effect of captaincy on a team's performance.  

Correlation is not causation.  You need a control to test against before trying to isolate secondary stats.  All you did was test four players who have an identical value in the primary stat that is being tested and came up with a 1.2% variance in the worst case and an average of 0.78%.  If your hypothesis holds true, playing 200 more games with four different ~12-13 leadership captains would result in worse results, significantly lower team ratings, and higher variation in team performances.  That confirmation would give the rest of your tests more legitimacy.

[BatiGoal]

3 hours ago, veerus said:

 I would guess your poor captains were on worse teams who can't be expected to be as good or as consistent as Bayern.  So that statement is really odd coming from someone who is specifically testing, with actual data, the effect of captaincy on a team's performance. 

Why make such assumptions? I'm talking about different captains within the same team. Small teams as well as big teams. In my experience having a quality captain lead the team makes a significant difference opposed to an average one in the same team.

 

4 hours ago, veerus said:

 Correlation is not causation.  You need a control to test against before trying to isolate secondary stats.  All you did was test four players who have an identical value in the primary stat that is being tested and came up with a 1.2% variance in the worst case and an average of 0.78%.  If your hypothesis holds true, playing 200 more games with four different ~12-13 leadership captains would result in worse results, significantly lower team ratings, and higher variation in team performances.  That confirmation would give the rest of your tests more legitimacy.

Of course I could've run even more accurate tests isolating every single attribute using the IGE which I don't have and spend perhaps the next 12 months testing which secondary attributes makes a good captain and prioritizing all of those, but that's not why I ran the above test in the first place. The aim was simply to find out wich leadership 20 captains would perform the best within the same team (as captains and non-captains) and the results and coclusions are up there. Feel free to disagree.