Seeing your favourite wonderkid’s determination gradually drop from 18 to 11 over a season is heartbreaking to say the least. You had hopes of him developing into the next superstar, but now you are not sure what will become of him. In this article we will take a look at what causes determination to drop in football manager, whether it can be stopped and also how to improve the determination of the affected player.
Reasons For A Player’s Determination Dropping In Football Manager
A player’s determination dropping can be caused by a few things, the first one being the squad’s personality. The squad’s personality is calculated by finding the average of the personalities of all players in the club. This can normally be checked under the club’s info screen.
If the player in question happens to be under the age of 24, and the squad’s personality is worse than his, then his hidden attributes in addition to determination will gradually shift downwards to match that of the squad. Likewise, if his personality was worse than the squad’s personality to begin with, then the player will see a positive improvement to his personality and determination to match that of the squad.
The second factor that can cause a drop in determination, is the player’s mentoring group. If the player in question is in a group with influential players who have less determination and a worse personality than his, then his personality and determination will also shift downwards to match that of his mentors. Therefore, if your youngster already has a better personality than the influential players in your squad, it is better to skip tutoring altogether in this case rather than risking your player picking less desirable characteristics from the other players in his mentoring group.
Also, a youngster can be influenced by the personality of an influential player if they are in the same social group. Just like the first two, the effect can either be positive or negative depending on whose personality is better, the mentor or the youngster. This is more difficult to rectify since formation of social groups is out of your hands and can be influenced by a lot of factors including age, nationality and amount of time they have spent in the club.
A youngster can also have his ambition and determination reduce after being handed a huge contract at a young age. The player would seemingly feel he has achieved everything he set out to do, then stagnate in his development. This might also be followed by the player not showing up in training sessions, in addition to being spotted at clubs late in the night. Although this is primarily left to regens as it would bring some controversy if it happened to real world players.
Finally, a regen can have his determination drop by a massive amount overnight. You will then be provided with an email explaining that due to certain off field events, the player’s determination and ambition has taken a hit, and he is not bothered about his career as before. This is completely random, and you can not do anything to prevent it. This effect can also go the other way, with a player with poor personality suddenly becoming serious with his game and gaining 10 points in the attribute rating overnight.
How Important Is Determination In Football Manager?
Determination, alongside ambition and professionalism, is one of the most influential attributes in the game and comes to play both in a match and outside it during training sessions.
During a match, determination influences whether your team will give their all when they go a goal down. More determined players will dig in and try to overturn the deficit, while those who have less determination, are more likely to roll over and ship in more goals. This hints that when picking a captain, only choose those with a high leadership and determination rating, since the players will normally rally around their leader.
If the captain is not fazed by conceding a goal, then the other players will also hold their ground and try to come back from behind to win the game or rescue a point.
Outside the match, determination influences whether your players develop in the right way or not, not directly, but it has a major impact. The most important factors when it comes to player development are professionalism and game time. However, most players that have high professionalism also tend to have high determination and ambition, and since you can not view the professionalism rating without the editor, most managers resort to relying on the determination rating to gauge whether a player will give his all towards developing.
This is not a full proof method, but it is better than simply singing random players and hoping that they will develop in the right way.
How To Raise Determination In Football Manager
Determination used to be the easiest attribute to raise in previous versions of FM through tutoring, but that has been largely fixed through the new mentoring system. Still, you can do the following to raise the determination of your younger players;
- Put them in mentoring groups where it is evidently clear that the mentor has a better personality and a higher determination rating.
- Avoid signing players with poor personalities, having players with the best personalities will raise the squad’s personality, therefore younger players will gravitate towards a personality that is beneficial to their development.
- Fine players for poor performances. If a player’s rating is 6.4, go to the interact page and warn the player about his poor performance. If the rating is at 6.3 or lower, you can fine him half a week’s wages. Depending on his attitude, he might apologize, and you will see an increase in his determination or work rate attributes, sometimes in both. It is worth noting that fining increases the chances of him getting offended and reacting badly. However, should he respond well, he gets a bigger boost compared to only when he is warned.
At the end of the day, do not expect massive determination increases of 10+, especially in newer FM versions. An increase of 4-6 is a success in my book, although it is definitely possible to achieve more than that should you start the mentoring process sooner and with the right mentors.
