Ability or Performances

I just wanted to ask is do you buy players because of their ability or do you tend to look at their performance i.e. if their was a striker who played for a small premier league club but at the end of the season scores 45 goals and his rating are high would you sign him even though his ability isn't that good

thanks

I tend to look at ability.

Both. Ability without the performances to back it up is usually a red flag. A lot of times scouts will give someone a 3+ star rating, but I'll look at their form and see that over the past few seasons they've averaged only a 6.7 rating for example.

Both. Ability without the performances to back it up is usually a red flag. A lot of times scouts will give someone a 3+ star rating, but I'll look at their form and see that over the past few seasons they've averaged only a 6.7 rating for example.

I don't agree. As soon as a player comes to play for me his performances are much better. I don't really care about what he's done in the past, if he fits the bill in terms of age, position and his stats i'll sign him regardless of what he's done in the past.

I can see what you're saying about form here...but at the end of the day, they say "form is temporary, class is permanent" or something to that effect...so basically, if you sign an average player who has had a great season, he could easily struggle and he won't have the stats to at least do decent.

If you just looked at form then you could miss out on a fantastic striker only scoring 12 goals a season just because the rest of his team are poor and struggle to pass the ball to him in good positions and let in a ton of goals and only just miss relegation year on year.

Definately look at the stats!! Form should just be used to see whether he is consistent.

Ability here as well.

Ability first, but if his performances have been so bad, I will probably leave it, especially if his asking price is high as well

Ability is more or less the sole consideration when I'm signing a player, although personality might also play a part. When I'm picking my team to play the next match it's generally a mix of both, also depending on fitness etc and what kind of tactics I'm going to employ.

II like to play realistic; Performance.