Determining Players: Star or Bust?

[walsall]

I'm new here at FM-Base, but I thought a great discussion to have would be about how to determine whether a player is going to be a star for your team or a bust. Often, a player has the attributes to be a great player and your scouts recommend him, but sometimes they just do not perform. Everyone's experienced this.

First thing I generally check when looking for a player are his attributes. This one's pretty obvious. The next thing I tend to look at is personality. If the player's personality doesn't fit in with the team, I immediately forget about this player. To me, that's one of the big reasons why players under-perform. Additionally, I think language is of vital importance. While it's nice to sign the Brazilian star for your English squad, it will take a year or so for him to learn basic English, which may seriously damage his teamwork and performance.

Beyond that, I don't know what else to look at. My scouts are all top class and the attributes don't lie. Even when players fit all my criteria and seem perfect, often they disappoint.

To the FM community:
1. What are your processes of finding the correct player?
2. Do you know how to spot a player who will disappoint?
3. Provide any other thoughts on this facet of the game.

 

[Mads2506]

There is no player who will definitely fail. Language is a barrier that could be overcome quickly if you have a very multinational squad (ie if you already have 3 Spanish players they can help the new Spanish player settle in). Personality can be seen before you sign him, and I've never really had any major problems with anyone who has the "wrong" personality myself anyway.

Another thing is what you can't see. His hidden attributes like his ambition levels and adaptability. Basically, a player who is given enough time to settle in, has the right people around him to do so, and of course has the ability, won't fail.

 

[hazmanv2]

when i go to sign a player i go by the same process Walsall, the main reason i have success with a player is because of the role he plays in the tactics; say i wanted a poacher for my tactic i would specifically look for the attributes that are needed such as finishing, composure off the ball etc, rather than sign him for his overall attributes.

i would know if he was going to fail as player if he didn't have the right personality like you said but also if his flair and determination attributes are poor because having these attributes contributes the his overall performance.

also before i sign a player i always check his preferred moves, if he argues with officials i wouldn't sign him of course because he'd get sent off and booked constantly.

 

[rvallant]

I don't actively seek players, unless you want the game to progress at snails pace. It's easy enough to get by with 'standard' players if you have a good tactic and you know when the 'crunch-time' peroids are (i.e. when the game tries to inject drama to simulate the 'pressures' of say, if you win the next game you're champions, watch as the team generally underperforms in the lead up to that match for whatever reason.)

Players suggested by the scouts and AM are usually ok. What I do is take a note of the stars rating (they're compared to my players so I have a good idea already if they're good enough for whatever league I'm in.) then I note the personality and their strengths and weaknesses. Players who crack under pressure, don't like big matches are injury prone or inconsistent are immediately blacklisted. The only exception is a youth player for inconsistentcy as they can grow out of it.

I then check their wage demands in the report, anyone excessive I ignore and come back another time. Only then do I check their stats, specificially their technique, determination, work rate, decisions and team work. Oh and stamina. Everything else is usually gravy and can be improved easily in some method or other.

That's all I need to know before I sign a player. Language doesn't matter I picked up a Hungarian Richard Takacs and he's performed well over 7.40+ average over the season and every club in the world wants him now (I'm in League 1 mind...) and yet others who have all the stats such as a certain French striker I picked up can go 30 games with only 4 goals yet the next season start banging them in for fun (possibly because he's now settled in.)

 

[Redrup]

Step 1: Check for players with the highest Potential Ability on Genie Scout.
Step 2: When seen a player with high PA and low Sale Value, look at their Progress rate, Consistency and Injury proneness stats.
Step 3: Sign them.

Pretty much this simple for me.

 

[Snypar]

for me it's a case of sign a **** load of regens and hope for the best. whenever a scout recommends a youngster and he's a promising "..." i won't bother with him. i generally have lower attributed scouts roaming the world, and have a few "head" scouts who i'll get reports from on players who were recommended by the other scouts. most of the times however, my wonderkids are players who i "stole" from other tams because they were labelled as "wonderkids".

 

[khemo]

Step 1: Check for players with the highest Potential Ability on Genie Scout.
Step 2: When seen a player with high PA and low Sale Value, look at their Progress rate, Consistency and Injury proneness stats.
Step 3: Sign them.

Pretty much this simple for me.

Same here.

 

[Shaneckham]

I would say don't sign to many great youths for one position, as when it comes to a time when you need them to Play some first team ftball you will have too many players, and you won't be able to give them all playing time.
Personality can be changed with mentoring same with determination. From 16 to 20/21 I put all my youth through a highly physical regime, so they pick up a foundation of fitness strength stamina etc.
Then one they are into a good physical state, I break them down into position training where they will learn their skills to play in their natural position. The rest is bread and butter try and get these players in the first team 19 20 years old at least 15 games a season, one player a match so the team overall won't be effected, no pressure on the youth to perform.

 

[Deltablue]

I would say don't sign to many great youths for one position, as when it comes to a time when you need them to Play some first team ftball you will have too many players, and you won't be able to give them all playing time.

Agreed, I tend to overstock sometimes. I manually search, often scouting 50-100 (sometimes more, especially at a new club when I haven't got a handle on the standard I should be looking for in attributes) players having looked at 10+ times more, usually setting a value point to go down to. Don't always wait until all reports are in like I use to but I do look a lot more than some people.

 

[debsicus]

what i do before signing a young player is to check his personality. ive noticed that players who are ambitious often turn out to be good players. you know a player has the potential to be world class if he is ambitious, determined, a professional and has good stats. keep in mind other factors affect this like training etc

 

[Shaneckham]

Agreed, I tend to overstock sometimes. I manually search, often scouting 50-100 (sometimes more, especially at a new club when I haven't got a handle on the standard I should be looking for in attributes) players having looked at 10+ times more, usually setting a value point to go down to. Don't always wait until all reports are in like I use to but I do look a lot more than some people.

Yer I like to manual scout, I tend to go into the search filter and put age limit oldest 21 then value at least 1 mil search. Then when the list of players come up I click age ascending so I work my way down through the youngest players first. Iv found that a 15 16 or 17 year old who are worth 1 mil plus is often a half decent prospect and obviously some are then next star. Doing this at the begging of a season you can poach them before they have signed a pro contract which is handy too.

 

[walsall]

To each his own Redrup. I personally do not choose to use Genie Scout.

I'm very pleased with the response to this thread. I'm glad to see many different approaches to an inevitably huge part of the game.

rvallant, I think your take is very interesting. I'd like you to elaborate on your strategy in what you call "crunch-time" periods. How do you inject the pressure that will make players perform in the clutch?

Shaneckham, I've actually adopted your strategy and so far, I'm liking the results. It feels right to be scouting out the world's upcoming best. I'm just hoping for a bargain to come along one of these days.