Aggression - your thoughts

[nash123]

I, for myself, thought, aggression means, how "powerful" the player tackles. Or respect decisions -> aggression causes cards.

But... I checked the attributes of my players, because, this season they got a lot of cards. I also try to find out, if they are just cosmetic or if they have an effect.

My player with one of the lowest aggression-skill got the most cards (without FA).
aggression 52% this season, 15 games, 4 cards (2.most cards: 3)
aggression ~69% 12. season, 42 games, 7 cards (2.most cards: 2)
aggression ~85% 11. season, 38 games, 5 cards (2.most cards: 3)
aggression ~100% 10.season, 46 games, 8 cards (2.most cards: 3)

The lowest has 22% aggression this season, but 3 cards.
Last season, he had ~40%, but got 0 cards.

I also aviod hard tackling, I usually use normal tackling - if fouls are too much, I switch to easy.


So, I don't think, aggression don't cause cards.

What are your thoughts about aggression, or about the attributes generally?

[LeManiaque]

Since this is all speculative anyways...

I think cards relate more to tackling skill than aggression (you could review your carded players vs tackling instead). Or tackling and strength vs dribbling and strength of opposing player).

Aggression, I think, might relate to how well a player can close down on the ball, another player, or a passing lane. One of my better defenders has relatively low aggression, about 118. If he's marking someone, he can clear the ball or deflect shots. If he's not marking someone, it sometimes looks like he's picking daisies in the middle of the field. Can't be bothered....

I've wondered if arrows might affect aggression. If a player is more willing to close someone (high aggression) and stick their foot in for a tackle (bravery might be involved), then a low tackling skill might make him more foul prone. Coincidentally my fair tackling, low aggression player does well with an up arrow in many cases.

[nash123]

Maybe you're right about tackling.

3 seasons ago, I saw, my defenders had really low tackling-skills (to train "only" tackling isn't that easy) . I thought, maybe that's the reason, why opponents had a very high shot to shot on target-ratio (f.e. 9 shot, but 6 SoT). So trained all new defenders high tackling (best or second best stat). This season, all defenders together had 76 appearences, but only 2 yellow cards - and that's my DL, who has the lowest tackling-skill, but also the highest aggression.

The player, I descriped, has average tackling-skill.

[gizzmo]

Well, not being a native english speaker does not help for this but to me, "aggression" is not a quality that relates to tackling skills but more to the ability to win duels. In my country, a defender who tackles is a bad one. Thiago Silva, Laurent Blanc or Paolo Maldini (fantastic defenders according to this definition) were very good in aggression but hardly ever tackled. Good defenders are always well positioned, remain on their feet and win duels. Tackling is left to the others..

[Toxcatl]

to train "only" tackling isn't that easy

If you need Tackling to your defender, like, right here and now, you should use 1-on-1 Finishing. You will waste half of experience to grey Dribbling and Finishing (25% each), but 50% will go to Tackling. The fastest way.
The rest three drills (Press the Play, Piggy in the Middle, Stop the Attacker) are equally (in)effective. But I guess it's better to use Press the Play, it usually has the highest level and doesn't have greys.

[nash123]

I know, but... if you are me... I thought, aggression causes cards, so I avoided press the play, piggy in the middle, because aggression is an key attribute.

It worked, but my defenders are good at dribbling right now, because all other drills with tackling have dribbling too.

[Cloverfield]

As I have mentioned many times I will say my opinion once more.

I have not found a single proof that single individual skills play any role in the game.
If a player has more speed than another he does not run faster.
If he has shooting higher he does not shoot better.

So I give no value to aggression I just try to train my defender so that the defense % average is as high as I can.

[woopypooky]

As I have mentioned many times I will say my opinion once more.

I have not found a single proof that single individual skills play any role in the game.
If a player has more speed than another he does not run faster.
If he has shooting higher he does not shoot better.

So I give no value to aggression I just try to train my defender so that the defense % average is as high as I can.

That's something i have been suspecting also, take a look at the supposedly hard to beat Mourinho team, his players has stats as equal in every department. Can just swap his striker and defenders since all skills are the same.

[justcallmeupik]

Since this game is similar to football manager maybe the attribute is similar too, in football manager:
Aggression
How likely a player is to choose to get involved in a physical situation and how much he exerts physical force in such situations. Physical situations include attempting to tackle an opposition player, marking and competing with an opposition player to get to the ball.

so I think aggression is good to have for defender, my best defender have high aggression (165%) and never get a card (not even 1 yellow!). I also have defender that have 196% aggression that never get a card and other defender with 119% aggression with more card than the other 2 (3 yellow this season) so its unrelated to defender dirtiness imo.

[Balon11]

Well, lack of aggression may cause a crucial mistake by a defensive player at the end of match. I experienced this situation in past seasons. Especially, in the past season, my goalkeeper conceded many last minute goals come from high-distance shots, corners, free-kicks etc. This situation led me be eliminated at final matches of Cup and Super League at the past season.

While focusing on details, I found a common point on my defenders(including DMC) that is low-ability of aggression. The overall was about %80(I generally face with teams which have 100-120 overall quality). This could make sense despite that my defenders had elite defensive attributes and fitness ability. Well, I don't know how I can relate the aggression with conceding last minute goals, but they seem related.

Now, I'm trying to rebuild the training of my defenders that gives priority to increase their aggression ability. For now, 4th day of the season, there is no significant mistake by my players.