Buying on CA ore PA?

[jjrroen]

Would you guys rather buy on CA ore PA?

For Example Lacazette has a CA and PA around 155 but scores like crazy. Ore would you rather buy a striker for example origi 145 CA and 170+ PA?

I feel like some players just play better then what their CA is showing..

 

[buddumber88]

as far as my experience is concerned ca and pa does not matter a lot. let's say you are playing with a mid table team and you want to buy a player, ignore his ca and pa and rather see what he has done for the past few seasons, how well he will gel in your tactic and then buy him

as a classic example, i got a youth intake and majority of my players did not have high ca or pa, but there are few players who are perfect for my tactic and so they are doing well, better than any other players at their age

 

[Bigpapa42]

Have to give the classic answer - it depends.

Its very situational for me. I will approach things differently if I'm a big, rich club without a lot of immediate needs than I would if I'm a mid table club or lower, especially if my resources are more limited or I have other factors in play (Work Permits or foreign player restrictions).

Potential, purely on its own, is overvalued by a lot of us. I've been guilty of this for a long time. Once you recognize that there are a multitude of factors that will impact player development beyond simply PA, then you realize those other factors have value and must be considered as well. It keeps it from being a simple prioritizing A versus B approach.

CA 50 PA 185 - 19 year old player - low Professionalism and/or Ambition
CA 85 PA 160 - 17 year old player - higher Professionalism and Ambition

I am more likely to target the latter player. A lot of factors to consider - attribute distribution, PPMs, hidden attributes like Injury Proneness, availability of mentors, etc. But leaving all of that aside, being more developed means the latter player is more likely to get match time a higher level. And with having a better personality right from the start, I would expect a more accelerated development and high probability of maxing out their potential than the first player. The first player has more risk attached and has a lower probability of reaching their maximum potential, or even the max potential of the other player.

buddumber makes a great point about how he fits the tactic you are using. I've made this mistake many times and I now proactively try to avoid it. Knowing how I play and how I want to play, I target players who fit that. Even if means retraining in some situations. But I will avoid targeting players who just don't fit. If I want a big physical and well-rounded forward, there isn't much use targeting the short dribbly types unless I am changing things up or am just investing to sell on profit. If I play a technical possession game, I won't target attacking players without good technique and passing. Once you have a better idea of what you value, sorting thru tons of prospects gets much easier.

 

[NoviceTrevor]

unless I am changing things up or am just investing to sell on profit.

I think I'm guilty of doing this more so than is necessary. Seeing a classy youngster that can be picked up for cheap I try and force him in to the squad because of the money-making potential. Some financially weaker sides can certainly benefit from this though, I've managed to increase Celtic's value by a couple of times by taking this approach. Sometimes if I'm trying to play a possession game I'll still force in a big target man if there's an exceptional prospect and just instruct the wide man to aim crosses at him or something similar, basically allowing the overall side to adhere to my philosophy but letting the talented big donkey up front develop to a point where I can make $$$ on him.

 

[loveunitedhatecity]

all dependent on situation i prefer spending on potential for longevity but very big but is i do like a marquee signing every few seasons to really push when ai is stacking up my rivals with quality

 

[dilakh2]

Have to give the classic answer - it depends.

Its very situational for me. I will approach things differently if I'm a big, rich club without a lot of immediate needs than I would if I'm a mid table club or lower, especially if my resources are more limited or I have other factors in play (Work Permits or foreign player restrictions).

Potential, purely on its own, is overvalued by a lot of us. I've been guilty of this for a long time. Once you recognize that there are a multitude of factors that will impact player development beyond simply PA, then you realize those other factors have value and must be considered as well. It keeps it from being a simple prioritizing A versus B approach.

CA 50 PA 185 - 19 year old player - low Professionalism and/or Ambition
CA 85 PA 160 - 17 year old player - higher Professionalism and Ambition

I am more likely to target the latter player. A lot of factors to consider - attribute distribution, PPMs, hidden attributes like Injury Proneness, availability of mentors, etc. But leaving all of that aside, being more developed means the latter player is more likely to get match time a higher level. And with having a better personality right from the start, I would expect a more accelerated development and high probability of maxing out their potential than the first player. The first player has more risk attached and has a lower probability of reaching their maximum potential, or even the max potential of the other player.

buddumber makes a great point about how he fits the tactic you are using. I've made this mistake many times and I now proactively try to avoid it. Knowing how I play and how I want to play, I target players who fit that. Even if means retraining in some situations. But I will avoid targeting players who just don't fit. If I want a big physical and well-rounded forward, there isn't much use targeting the short dribbly types unless I am changing things up or am just investing to sell on profit. If I play a technical possession game, I won't target attacking players without good technique and passing. Once you have a better idea of what you value, sorting thru tons of prospects gets much easier.

This. You can get the next Messi with 200 PA but if he has low ambition and professionalism he may never reach his full potential. Too many factors decide if a player with a high PA will reach his potential and you can't always control the factors. e.g serious injury.

 

[Bigpapa42]

I'll give an example from my most recent save. I was managing in Russia, where Russian players are extra valuable due to foreign player restrictions. The best prospect as the club is an 18 year old striker. They are not particularly well developed for their age, not really capable of starting at that level right away, personality isn't ideal, but they have good (not amazing) potential. I've run a lot of test sims and I've never seen the AI maximize that potential. He typically gets loaned out to a 3rd division club, doesn't start with an ideal personality, and doesn't typically develop enough to become a first team player at the RPL level. But in my save, I had him mentored by two players. So by the end of the first season, I had a player with almost ideal personality for development - highly Professional, high Ambition, and even high Determination to boot (though that doesn't help them develop).

The personality is only part of the development battle. He also needs to play. I made sure he got some matches even in that first season, despite lacking the overall skills to compete at that level. The top striker at the club is on loan, but rather than bring in a striker suited to that level for the second season, I decided to make do and give the young player a chance. So he started regularly. He had some bad patches but he scored pretty regularly. By the third season, he was a regular started for the Russian national team and is close to maxing out his potential. He's a wonderkid and wanted by clubs like Manchester City.

My only point with that story is that the same prospect with the same potential can turn out differently in different saves because of the variables involved. If I didn't get him tutored and/or didn't give him regular match time, he wouldn't have developed as well. So that potential only means so much unless you can maximize it. And even doing those things, he could have suffered a bad injury, missed 6 months, and had his development derailed.