good stats defender always plays bad

I am playing in the EPL with Leeds. I bought a defender 2 seasons ago in the championship. All his necessary stats are good but he always plays terrible. He played 25 games last season 2 of them sub appearances and got a rating of 6.25. He has just got his first call up to the french squad, he is 25. I play himself and his defensive partner as their duty to defend. My coaches reckon he is a leading prem defender What the hell is wrong with him?

is he short/has low jumping stat ??

He is 5'10" jumping is 8, heading is 17

he is getting murdered in the air, so his rating will be sh*tty no matter how good he is!

which by the way is a real issue with fm10, because in real life you see a LOT of short DC's in top clubs, but in fm10 they will just kill your team.

Unfortunately this is true of FM. If you have a defender that can't jump or head a ball you have no option but to retrain him to be a DM/Ballwinning CM if he has the relevant stats, or sell him

I have the same problem. Mauro Cetto and Emir Spahic both have great stats, but they're constantly getting 5's. What's even more frustrating is that they keep getting beaten in the air by total miidgets, even though they have good heading and jumping.

cheers lads great help...he's on his way to inter. I'll keep an eye on his stats there.

I believe the issue is only with the ratings. Short players can maybe play good, but their lack of good heading stats brings down their rating too much.

A center back who can't head the ball? Playing in England? He'll be murdered everytime.

See Per Kroldrup when he was at Everton.... woeful.