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Table of Contents
The Players
Every player in KICKABOUT is rated for a number of attributes which affect his performance during matches. Each player must have a name, (though only second names are recorded), and in addition each player is given an age, performance level, favourite position, and a nationality.
Each player is also of a certain physical Category (powerful player [P], skilful player [S], power/skill player [P/S] and can be one of five types (A qualified professional, an apprentice, a schoolboy, a future star, or a Star). These details along with the player’s contractual details, match appearances, goals, and other statistics are held on our computer system that does all the processing and updating of your team’s details. There are other factors a player might have too, such as his skills at man-marking opponents, and any unusual abilities he has for learning quickly, or even for being an injury-prone bloke who occasionally loses some of his ability through the odd knock or two. Let’s now take a look at each of these attributes in greater detail.
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Club Captain
Each team will have a Club Captain whose job is to lead and inspire his fellow players. A Captain allows the manager to assign extra levels to his team, to simulate the motivation that such a player provides. These levels depend upon the Captain’s age and the number of games he has actually played in as Captain. So, an Age 27 captain who has played 179 games as captain would gain an extra 7 levels to distribute across your outfield areas. On your squad sheet will be the number of bonus levels available to your team if your captain is selected to play in any games that session. If your captain is not selected to play in a game for any reason then you will have no bonus levels to assign. To choose a new captain, fill in the relevant box on your turn sheet.
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Transferred Captains
When a Captain is transferred between clubs, he will take a percentage of his Captains Games with him, dependent upon his age. This is presently marked at 2% per year x age, which means a 20 year-old will take a maximum of 40% of his Games with him, while a 33 year-old will carry 66% of them. Though this is not much of a disparity between the younger and older players, you will usually find that not many 20 year-olds have many games under their belts, while the aged Captains may have played upwards of two hundred games, and therefore gain a far greater benefit. A newly acquired Captain must be designated as such on your next set of orders; otherwise he will not play as such.
Note that if a Captain is placed in the Auction but remains unsold, he will lose some of his influence on returning to the team in exactly the same manner, due in some part to his disillusionment at being offered up for sale!
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Loss of Captain's Influence
If your Captain is sent off during a game, then some of the influence he had on your side will also be lost, depending upon when he was actually dismissed. His levels are taken from the team from all areas, but from your attack first then midfield, and then your defence, in as equal measures as is possible.
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Playing Out of Position (OOP)
Occasionally a manager may wish, or be forced, to play a player out of his normal position. When doing this, a player does not perform at his usual level of efficiency, due to the strangeness of playing in an unaccustomed role. For that game only, the player will be rated as only half his normal performance level, rounded upwards, when calculating the skill totals per area. For example, if a Level 11 Defender is played in a midfield role, then he will be rated as a Level 6 player for that game (being reduced to a 5.5, and then rounded upwards).
For every match that a player is played beyond his normal position, he gains experience in his new role, to the value of 1 qualifying game for a competitive match, and 0.5 for a friendly game. If a player gains ten qualifying points from playing out of position (OOP) during any one season then he will be able to play OOP in all future games without any loss of levels. This turns him into a Utility player (UT) and thus worth significantly more to his team and his manager. The only restrictions on a player playing out of position are as follows:-
- A player playing as a GK or SW must always be a GK or SW.
- A GK cannot play in an outfield position
- Unqualified APPs and SBY’s cannot play OOP
- A SW may play in DF without losing any levels. Playing him there is not considered as Out-of-Position with respect to qualifying as a UTILITY. If he plays in MF or FW then he starts to qualify as a UT.
Note: that an unqualified SBY or APP Sweeper cannot, under any circumstances, play in defence until he is qualified. He must play all his qualifying games in the SW role.
A UT player can play in any outfield position (DF/MF/FW) without losing any performance levels. His position should be recorded as the outfield area he is playing in, not written as `UT’.
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