I...JC...Am An Idiot (A Little Player Naming...But Nothing Major)

Title says it all, but I'll explain.

I've got a squad full of players rated around the 5 star mark...which is awesome for Portsmouth...yet, despite this, I've struggled to break into the top four. I play a 4-2-4 standard formation, so I've basically got a bunch of players who can play in numerous positions, such as Wilshere and Kakuta, who are naturally attacking midfielders, but can play in midfield too...meaning I have no attacking midfield slot, and the best I'm getting from them is "accomplished" (appearing a darker geen on the formation board).

Then, by chance, I was looking at the coach reports for my players and realised you could look at the rating per position...and to my surprise, alot of said players were rated anywhere from 3 to 4 stars in the positions they were being played. Since the color was still green I thought they'd still be 5 star rated there or something, but obviously not...

So, as the season draws to a close, I'm now looking to ship out a tonne of players who I have nurtured from youth, so I can bring in a series of players to fit perfectly into my formations and make the most of their abilities.

...I'm an idiot.

If the player is good, it doesn't really matter if he has a bright green dot or a dark green dot tbh

Whoa whoa whoa! You can retrain a player into a position, so I suggest you give that a go first. Sometimes it will be almost impossible for someone to become a natural in a new position, but if they are already accomplished they can be improved significantly in that position if you retrain them.

Also, I wouldn't really bother about the coach star ratings. If a player has the required attributes and is playing well for you, keep him.

They're 23/24 now...I should have probably focused on re-training them when they were younger? I guess I could give it a go lol

And with the coach ratings...I just signed an assistant manager with top judging skills, so I'm hoping he's right. It's just a little off putting when you realise the guy you've in the attacking right midfield position only just became 4 stars a few days ago and I've been duking it out trying to see if he'd come into form.

Sucks

Is it too late to retrain them? If so it's no biggie...I'll easily get a £22.5m profit on one of them, then a £12.5m profit on another

Thanks for the responses btw

I think coach ratings are not very reliable. I mostly count on what I see with my own eyes and stats.

Don't believe your coaches. They're awful liars In 08 I had Fazio in Feyenoord and the coaches kept telling me he's the 6th best DC in the squad and that I should offload him :O

And breaking into the top four is really, REALLY hard. It's not only these clubs though - you're also competing agains Manchester City & a few other clubs with matching ambitions.

I would say that players do typically play worse out of their natural positions, but again, if they get you results, so what? And I have had success retraining a 24 year old to MR, although he was already accomplished there.

Sometimes the coaches are wrong, but unless they are all idiots when it comes to identifying player ability, they are usually close to correct with star ratings. The ratings apply to your team's ambitions, I think, not to the player's relative ability in your squad. When I changed my season goal from Euro Cup to Champions League play, many of my players' star ratings dropped.