Pa/ca

Just how useful are these? For instance I often find on GenieScout that players can have 199 PA but with 'Show potential attributes' box ticked it shows that they will never reach that potential. Also CA...Gerrard currently has a lower CA than Hamsik and Toulalan, but I'm reluctant to drop him for either of them, is CA an accurate measure of how good a player is, or can a player with lower CA still put in better performances than a player with higher CA?

CA is different for each player, if Gerrard has a CA of 180 his PA will probably be 180 aswell. He won't get any better.

If Hamsik's CA = 180 and his PA is say.. 190 then he is 180/190 and still has some growing to do.

Hope this helps a little.. Im not really sure how to explain it very well so maybe a more experienced player can help out.

If you don't think you should drop him, don't! Just because their CA are higher, it doesn't mean they are necessarily better. They will have different stats, so you have to judge how good they actually are, CA acts as more of a guide. The attributes are weighted differently, and footedness also affects the CA.

Also, if someone isn't achieving their potential when you click show potential ability it is probably due to the club he is at. When I use genie scout, players at lower league clubs, or clubs in south america/ africa etc do not develop as well if they stay at their club. If you sign them, put them on a good training regime with good facilities they will get better

CA is different for each player, if Gerrard has a CA of 180 his PA will probably be 180 aswell. He won't get any better.

If Hamsik's CA = 180 and his PA is say.. 190 then he is 180/190 and still has some growing to do.

Hope this helps a little.. Im not really sure how to explain it very well so maybe a more experienced player can help out.

Thanks for the reply! The example I have is Gerrard has a CA of 178 and Hamsik of 181, so on this basis Hamsik is better at the moment. I can understand that in the future he might be better than Gerrard, but I can't see that current either he or Toulalan is better. I am in 2012 by the way

I didnt mean he was better. A player like Hamsik can have worse stats than Gerrard and still have the same/a higher CA..

Gerrard may not improve anymore as he is way too old...Ronaldo at corinthians has a PA of 195 but he can never reach that..It all depends on the system, sometimes he plays well sometimes not, although u gave him the proper tactics

More for the GD, so moved.

Just how useful are these? For instance I often find on GenieScout that players can have 199 PA but with 'Show potential attributes' box ticked it shows that they will never reach that potential.

There's debate about whether this GenieScout function actually works.

I like to think of CA as a foundation. CA is the tally of ability points the player currently has. If you want to think of this as any sort of game, CA is basically the amount of "upgrade points" a player has. PA means the maximum they can ever have.

However, just like video games, it depends where those "upgrades" are spent. There's no point for Nemanja Vidic to have a 20 in finishing, for example. That's why I like to think of CA as a foundation - it's a rough idea of how good a player is but it's not definite. If you think, a player with 170 CA could be a good all-round player, but with stats all over the place they might not be as good as they could've been in their position. A player with 150 CA could be a better player in their position despite being a less-rounded player.

That's why you should use PA to see how good a player could be (and even then Genie Scout might be wrong - as someone mentioned above it takes into account current factors, but those might change if the player moves to a better club) and when looking at players for the "here and now" you should look at their CA for a rough idea before focussing on where their stats are as well as their form, condition etc.

The reason that Steven Gerrard is highly likely to play better than the other two is highly likely to be a mixture of factors, like how adapted he is to the country/club, how good he is in the role (the other two can't play AM, for example), his current form, his condition (match fit 100%, or severely lacking in match fitness) and where his stats actually are - which also links with your tactics. If you're using a tactic which means the central midfielders do more defensive duties then a better tackling stat is necessary. If you're using a tactic which uses the central midfield as a creative hub then creativity and passing are necessary.

Hope this has helped

~ AVARiCE