Meaning of Asst Mgr Current Ability Rating

I have been playing for a while now, but just came to realize that I probably misunderstood Asst Mgr Current Ability Rating. In the past, I had been using that rating as an overall indication of the best player to have on the pitch at a position. In other words, the higher the Asst Mgr's Current Ability Rating amongst strikers, the better player at a given position.

But, I just copied all of my players attributes out to an excel spreadsheet and then weighted the attributes by position. What I've found is that my 5-star current ability rating striker falls out somewhere under even my 3-star striker. I put heavy emphasis on Finishing, Long Shots, and Composure for strikers, and considerable emphasis on dribbling, first touch,.... I was surprised by my finding, so I compared my 3-star striker to 5-star striker, attribute by attribute, and found that the 3-star was better at the critical striker attributes than the 5-star player. And my overall assessment is that the 3-star striker is better. This clears up an observation that I had made last season. My 3-star striker kept getting better match ratings than the 5-star striker. Because the 3-star player was only put in on rare occasions, I chalked it up to luck. But now I think otherwise.

So, I'm left wondering. What exactly does the current ability rating mean? How should I use the current ability rating? Let me make clear that I'm not asking about the current ability numbers that can be found with the database editor or external editor. I'm refering to the rating found in game on the coaches report that is designated by stars.

My best guess now, is that the potential rating is a grand sum, of all the potential individual attribute values a player may reach, in the asst mgr's opinion. My guess is also that this rating is not based upon position. I guess the current ability rating is simply an indication of how much of that potential rating has been realized. So, if my guess is correct, I would use the current and potential ratings as follows. The potential rating is a very loose, general indication of the potential skill of the player, without respect to position. The current rating just indicates to me how much more improvement is necessary to reach the player's peak attribute sum.

Interested in what others think or know.

maybe if the5 star striker is a target man style and he has good heading and jumping and strength which makes him 5 stars, hes just not as good as the 3 star in the role u want

thanks for the reply. I think I understand what you mean. I have taken into account heading, jumping, and strength.

But it's not just one striker, I'm seeing the same situations at defender and midfielders too. And I see that several defenders are better at midfielder and vice versa.

I also have a young player I signed who had good star-ratings, but who the board didn't like. I didn't understand why. Now that I've punched his numbers in the spreadsheet, I can see why the board didn't like him, his attributes aren't that good.