Mentality — the three settings the engine reads

Mentality is the overall risk dial. The tactics screen offers three settings — defensive, balanced and attacking — and the engine reads your choice as three separate multipliers: a force multiplier that decides your share of possession and chances, a multiplier on the quality of your own chances, and a multiplier on the quality of the chances you concede.

What each setting multiplies

Defensive multiplies your force score by ×0.96, your own chance quality by ×0.94, and the opponent's chance quality by ×0.90. Attacking multiplies force by ×1.04, your own chances by ×1.05, and the opponent's by ×1.06. Balanced changes nothing — every multiplier is exactly ×1.00, which is why it is the safe default: on balanced your team plays to its raw numbers.

A fourth setting, very attacking(force ×1.07, own chances ×1.08, opponent's ×1.12), exists in the database and keeps working on the weekly tick — a couple of AI clubs carry it — but the tactics screen never offers it, and any other value falls back to balanced.

Reading the trade

Defensive is not symmetrical: you give up 6% of your own chance quality and take 10% off the opponent's, so it earns its keep when you expect to spend the match without the ball. Attacking is near-symmetric on quality — 5% better for you, 6% better for them — which means the real reason to attack is the force multiplier, not the chance quality. The settings are not a slider; they are different bets.

It helps to know where the number lands. Force is a product: the average effective ability of your eleven, times formation, style, home advantage, morale, momentum, fatigue, philosophy, the four dials — and then mentality. ×1.04 to ×1.07 looks small next to a bad week of morale, which is exactly right: mentality sharpens a team, it does not rescue one.

Changing it mid-match

In a live match you can switch mentality between segments: the change is validated server-side, takes effect at the start of the next five-minute segment, and lives only inside that match — it is never written back to your saved tactics. The same channel also accepts a style change and live substitutions, capped at three in-match (five per match in total). Going a goal down at home with half an hour left is the classic moment to move from balanced to attacking; holding a two-goal lead away with fifteen minutes left, the classic moment to move the other way.

What mentality is not

It does not change your defensive line, your tempo or your pressing — those are the four numeric dials, and they carry their own multipliers. Setting mentality to defensive with a high defensive line is not a contradiction the engine complains about; it is a contradiction your results will show.