Determine if a player is good enough by PA/CA?

As the topic says...

Is it possible to build a team by ONLY looking at PA/CA?

I've experimented by taking control of a national team and only selecting players with highest PA on all positions.

But does that really make it the best possible team for that nation?

Is a player like Vieri or Henrik Larsson a better choice to start in a club line-up then say Pato or Bojan?

Vieri and Larsson being more experienced and avid goal scorers but significantly lower PA then Pato and Bojan.

Is anyone getting what I'm getting at?

Plain and simple, is it wrong to play a line-up based on PA (determined by FMScout)?

I would also like to know the answer on this one, started a new game and i am currently building my squad.

Anyone know?

PA: Potential Ability

CA: Current Ability

In theory a defender with 150 CA can be much worse than another defender with 150 CA.

In practice they will generally be similar players and another defender with 175 CA will generally be better.

My Advice: Forget CA; and PA because you are a national team. And judge players by their key attributes for their position.

If you want to use a 3rd party tool; judge them by their positional rating in %.

Lordarod....

Would you say forget it too for me, i'm managing a club side in league two?

CA is a rough indicator. But because you are managing a club you should take PA into consideration especially if the player is younger than 25 so there is a bigger chance he will reach his potential. 3rd party tools like FMRTE or FMScout should have positional ratings in players profiles shown as percantages. They are more accurate than CA because they take key attributes into account and CA does not do that accurately.

CA is a rough indicator. But because you are managing a club you should take PA into consideration especially if the player is younger than 25 so there is a bigger chance he will reach his potential. 3rd party tools like FMRTE or FMScout should have positional ratings in players profiles shown as percantages. They are more accurate than CA because they take key attributes into account and CA does not do that accurately.

So...

If I'm getting this right.

Let's say we have 2 defensive midfielders.

One with 120 in PA, the other one with 130 in PA, but the one with 120 PA has a higher percantage in the position as a defensive midfielder, I should go with the one with higher percantage? Even if his PA is slightly lower?

yes. After you do that compare these players. Key attributes for a DM are Tackling, Marking, Positioning, Strength, Concentration, Anticipation, Stamina. If this comparison agrees that the 120 CA player is better (It generally will); go with that player.

Why are you talking about POTENTIAL ability (how good they can become in the future under optimal circumstances) if you're manager of a national team? Wouldn't you want to look at CURRENT ability (how good they are *now*)?

Not that I'd look at either if I were to manage a national team, but between the two PA seems like the worse choice.

It's their attributes that matter, so when comparing players make sure you go for the one with higher key attributes for their position.

Larsson and Vieri should have PAs similar to Bojan and Pato.

Attributes all the way. However, CA is a rough indicator of how good the attributes would be, so you could probably scrape by with it.

Sorry guys, I'm tired!

Of course I mean CA (when managing a national team) and not PA!

Sorry!

I ALWAYS use a 3rd-party scouting tool to HELP pick players for my squad, regardless of club side or national team. There are many available in the editor's hideaway. Choose one that seems to gel with your philosophy and needs.

Seems like most people don't really understand what CA does.

All it does is say how many points you can have in total, distributed between the various attributes.

The different attributes are weighted differently for each position.

What this means (in theory) is that you can have two defenders with the same CA, where one has all his points put into Tackling, Marking, Positioning, etc, attributes who defenders really need. And the other can have all his points put into Set pieces, shooting, creativity, off the ball, etc. And it's obvious who will be the better at defending of these two, despite having the same CA.

In reality, you'll never see a scenario such as this, because of a number of factors, but the gist of it is that the attributes are what really matters in the end.

I've made an ass of myself, sorry guys!

All these years I've only been looking at CA

Is there any guide somewhere where you can be told what a player should have high stats on to be a good player in that specific position.

Guess I need to go back and read some FM n00b guide somewhere