Rating Players

[Cummins]

Good afternoon all,

I've been lurking since I started playing FM again (hasn't played one in a looong time). Currently doing a save a Conference North team Chorley FC and in pre-season of my 3rd season. I'm fairly happy with my progress so far, 8th in the first season, 2nd in the 2nd season (failed play-offs).

Now to the reason I'm posting... How do you rate players? At present I've been going solely from my coach reports, if a coach says he's 4 stars, he'll start whenever he is fit / decent morale / not having issues. I also use the circle bar / star rating in the tactics screen to do team selection.

The longer I play though, the more I'm noticing massively fluctations in these ratings. Tom Baker, long standing player and top performer in the club was at 3.5 stars. He was injured for 3 weeks and dropped to 2.5 stars. I played him regardless as I knew he'd performed well and he continued to get 7.00+ ratings yet his stars never recovered. This leads me to believe these may not be as reliable as I hoped... which makes sense as the game would be too easy I guess. Do you suggest following these?

So. What am I looking for in my players? I had the idea of making a spreadsheet of everyones stats and basically selecting on who had the best average for the "role". i.e. a ball winning midfielder (defend) needs: Marking, Tackling, Aggression, Bravery, Determination, Positioning, Teamwork, Work Rate, Acceleration, Stamina and Strength. The problem with this was I'm playing lower league, a play with 4's across the board could have his stats heavily inflated by one high stat like Determination or Teamwork. Along with this I assume there will be kill stats, i.e. an advanced playmaker can't do his job if he has 1 passing regardless of how good his other stats are?

So, how do you rate players? What are you looking for? If it helps the main roles I use in my 3 formations (4-3-3x2 and 4-4-2) are:

GK - Goalkeeper - Defend

GK - Sweeper Keeper - Defend

DL/DR - Fullback - Support

DC - Central Defender - Defend

ML/MR - Winger - Attack

ML/MR - Winger - Support

MC - Ball-winning Mid - Support

MC - Ball-winning Mid - Defend

MC - Advanced Playmaker - Attack

ST - Deep Lying Forward - Support

ST - Advanced Forward - Attack

ST - Poacher

Any insight that people can offer would be greatly appreciated. If you need any additional information like full formations, current player base, coach ratings etc., let me know and I'll get them all posted up. I'll reserve first post to add details that are requested.

Thanks,

Cummins

[Cummins]

Reserved

[Cougar2010]

Its each to their own TBH.

In the past I've gone to the enth degree creating & downloading spreadsheets for each particular position/role. Nowdays I take a more overall suck it & see approach and work on my gut instinct more.

My personal approach would be something along these lines:

A) Stars - These give a good overall impression of how good the player is compared to your squad/league. I use them to narrow down my options.

B) Scout reports - My second port of call, initially I'm just looking over the strengths & weaknesses to get an idea of the player.

C) Attributes - Does he have the right attributes for the position/role I want him to play, I usually check to see if any of the key attributes are low.

D) History - The longer you go in the game the more info you get, who has he played for? what level? how does his average rating look/compare for his position. A player with a 7+ average over several seasons has often got high consistency. You can also tell when a player has reached their limit - maybe averaging 7+ in the Championship for instance then promoted to Prem average drops to 6.7, maybe back in the Championship he is back up to 7+. This could indicate he is a good Championship player but can't cut it at the higher level.

E) Watch the games and judge from seeing the player on the pitch - Obviously you can't do that with all the players you scout but for those already in your squad you get to see them in action which perhaps gives them an extra chance to sway my opinion.

[Cummins]

Thanks for the response, seems to make sense. Few follow ups.

C) Do you value any attributes more than others? My assistant rates my best ball winning mid as someone who has 5 tackling and 5 marking (remember, conference, a "good" stat is 10 here), assumably a massive part of his job is tackling and marking people. I don't see how he functions without the stats there. For the record, he's done pretty well over the last 2 seasons so my assistants aren't wrong.

E) This is partly where I fall down. I turn 3D off and use the 2D pitch with highlights set to key. How important is watching the game in 3D? Does it so beneficial I should start?

Thanks again.

[Cougar2010]

I value the key attributes for the position/role, aside from those not really.

So for your example of a BWM. I would normally expect him to be on defend duty in my formations so the key atributes are: Marking, Tackling, Aggression, Bravery, Determination, Positioning, Teamwork, Work Rate, Acceleration, Stamina & Strength.

At conference level I would be looking for a minimum of say 8 in each of those (Maybe less bothered about aggression & bravery) but I would also want several of them to be 10+

A 5 in tackling and marking would be a red flag for me and an indicator he is an unbalanced player with his stars are being inflated by one/two high attributes. Personally I would rather go with a player with a better balance of attributes compared with a high/low mix.

Aside from the key attributes he is a midfielder so it would be a bonus if he could pass a bit as would height in general to both defend & attack set pieces. Neither of these are key though but I would use them to see how he measures up against other options.

As well as looking at attributes the octagon is generally a good indicator of how good a player is.

E) 2D/3D doesn't make much difference but personally I feel you get more from FM by watching the matches. For me I've found comprehensive highlights gives you a decent overview of the match. I would say at least try to watch extended and see how you get on.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

I use pretty much the same system as Cougar2010 including the use of spreadsheets in the past, however with the better in-game tools we now have I don't use one any longer. (time is also a factor)

For signing players I use the star ratings as a first glance to discard players not good enough, then move onto the scout reports for more detailed information the key line I look for is the decent/good/leading [iNSERT DIVISION] line to see how good the player is, I only really use the other bits of the report when I am in a position to pick and choose the best players rather than being in a desperate race to sign anyone who looks good.

The one thing I don't really do is look at a players history before signing him, however a players history playing under me is possibly the main the thing I use to pick my team - play well for me and you stay in the team regardless of your star rating until someone comes along and plays better than you or as the case seems to be in FM15 until you get injured .

Regarding attibutes again its the same look at key attributes first for the role, though I do dismiss a couple such as long shots, and like my Centre-Backs to have good jumping and I like at least one pacey Striker. Another thing to consider is if the role requires too many key attributes consider switching to another role with less key attributes aslong as it doesn't upset the balance of your team.

For attribute values I have a look at what values my scouts give Leading Players for my division and try and go for players around that level.

Another thing to consider is that star ratings aren't an absolute thing they are based on your staff members judging attributes, knowledge of the player, they are also weighted against your other players aswell as the division you are in and where you are expected to be, also if there isn't much spread of quality in your team a change in attributes from playing/training/injuries can cause the ratings to move around. The rating is also based on a players overall ability not role ability so a player might have below-average ability but be lucky and have most of his ability points put into key or effective attributes for his role.

In the lower leagues when my scouts aren't that good I mainly use them to reveal all a players attributes and then use the comparsion screens (both attributes and anzalyer) to compare him against the player who is starting in that role to see if he is better or not, though this doesn't take into account a players hidden attributes which maybe why the scout is rating him higher but he looks worse. Then it's down to gut instinct/luck/a gamble if the scout or your opinion is correct and whether he turns out to be a flop or the key to your sucess...

[Cummins]

This all seems reasonable enough. I think I can take that on board and try and implement it.

What universal stats do you look for in a player regardless of role i.e. natural fitness? I'm currently considering setting up a training schedule, since I'm conference north the level of player is poor. I'm going to essentially do general training on Fitness / Ball Control / Tactical in 3 month sessions. Along with that I plan to solo focus on any focused stat for their role (i.e. tackling) that is low, probably set this stat at around 7 or 8 depending on how many of them are below it, if they are all about right just do positional training (i.e. BWM-Support).

Thanks again for the help, it's appreciated.

Would you guys mind looking over tactics to see if you can see any issues or would I need to set-up a new thread for that?