Why aren't there many good players?

Compared to previous FM games, where every 20 years and under player you signed turned into world footballer of the year (exaggeration but u get the point), this year's FM has very few great potential players. This is probably a good thing in a sense, and more accurate in a sense, except for DL/DR and DC positions. There are really no good DL/DR or DC's in FM10, at least in patch 10.2.

People recommend Otamendi as like the best DC to sign first season in FM10. Look at his stats starting out. They aren't good at all. if he was in FM09, no one would think to sign him. Compare him to Fazio, Demichelis, Mexes, and many others in FM09. Compare their starting stats. the best signing DCs in FM09 were much better than Otamendi and whoever else in FM10. And DL/DR is almost as bad a scenario here.

Why aren't there any good options? What happened to Fazio and Mexes over the offseason? Did they get crippled or something so they just went from the best DCs in the world to a bit above average? How'd they drop for 9.5/10's to 7's/10's?

Same with Marquinhos, so many others..

What happened?

Fazio and Mexes weren't the best CBs in the world last season so its a good thing they aren't like that anymore in fm. There are still a bunch of great new youngsters and as far as i can remember in recent versions of fm the best youngsters at the start (i.e. youngsters with -10 PA in the database) were mainly attacking players.

10.2 PATCH has a domestic regen bug which all the domestic regens are crap. So I use the 10.3 patch with the 10.2 db. Its seems to have fixed it.

10.2 PATCH has a domestic regen bug which all the domestic regens are crap. So I use the 10.3 patch with the 10.2 db. Its seems to have fixed it.

i don't think he means regens.

Same with Marquinhos, so many others..

What happened?

Well the decrease in Marquinhos's stats was needed, because he had a very poor season with Palmeiras, not living up to the potential that he had shown previously. There's no way SI could justify keeping his stats the way they were, considering how he was playing - otherwise there'd be so many "Marquinhos is overrated" posts this year.

Regarding Otamendi, I haven't had any FM experience with him myself, but I would say it's a good thing that his starting stats aren't too high because he still plays in Argentina, and therefore has yet to prove himself in Europe as one the the top centre-backs in the world. Sure, he's played for Argentina, but under Maradona so has half of the country . He's by no means the finished article yet.

Tbh, I'd much rather the researchers were conservative with their ratings. It is a lot more noticeable, and effects peoples' saves much more, when an average player is overrated than when a good one is underrated.

Thats not true. I seems to get very good regens both on 10.2 & 10.3. Playing English + Spanish league, and have 6 world class, and 5 of them are regens.

there are tons of good players what are you talking about?

Generally FM10 has world class players(or gonna bes) PA lowered...If you look at Hamsik, Diego, Torres, Mexes, Fazio(he's overrated in FM09), Sakho, Dzagoev(I still think he deserves a -10 not -9 now),Obertan, De Rossi, Toulalan, Ben Arfa, all have their PA lowered...But then I think it's kinda good since it would be so unrealistic to have tonnes of players with PAs of 180 and above at the start of the game compared to now

I believe I read somewhere that there was a conscious decision made by the research team to tone down player attributes across the board. This is so that the truly great players, your Peles, Maradonas and Di Stefanos, stand out more when they appear.