Scouts

Hi all

New here, so bear with me if this subject has been discussed a million times already... I was wondering how you view scouts? I am somewhat ambivalent - on the one hand I can definitely see how it adds to the realism (and I could easily see both agents and scouts play an even more significant role in the game), but on the other hand I also feel that it has decreased the fun of finding players a bit. I tend to never buy players that I haven't scouted first and if the verdict is below 3 stars (i.e. "fairly good" or less), then I'll never buy the player, no matter what skills he may have. I don't know how the scouts are programmed but I expect them to be able to use the hidden ability & potential ability scores why I trust their verdicts pretty much 100%. What is your experience? Are the scouts invaluable? Are they ever wrong in a positive way - i.e., players they deemed "not good enough" - but you bought anyway - turned out to be stars?

Share your experiences with me. Thanks.

BrondbyRover

I manage in the Championship quite a lot and I have found that I ask my scout to scout and player whose a free agent and I get told he isnt good enough. I then offer a trial and find that player x is good enough and my scout got it wrong.

I use my scouts as well like you do but you have got to remember that scouts can get it wrong like real life.

Couches and scouts are just a general guide in my opinion. The AI often tells you a player shouldn't be transfer listed because they are good enough for the squad, yet if you get a asst man team report that players isn't on his list there and ever time you do play them it's mistake after mistake and no production. Same goes for if a player is good enough for your team, you should know best what is good for your team.

I only use scouts to get the info on the player for me, the only time I listen to the AI for who is good and who isn't is if I have 2 very closely matched players I let it help be point to the better choice.

I use scouts to give a general indication. I often sign players who are only fairly good, but end up getting the highest ratings of the whole team. My 'Decent' Striker actually is the League Topscorer, despite my assistant manager constantly telling me to transfer list him

Yes, I hear you on that - it's definitely not always the star players who get the highest avg ratings. For instance, when I play Man City Joleon Lescott always ends up on the bench for me instead of Onuoha who "officially" should be far less good. And the same goes for the right and left back players - Wayne Bridge and especially Micah Richards are both deemed "fairly good" by the ass man who constantly want me to buy replacements but both get avg ratings of 7,2 - 7,5. I guess the learning is to not put too much emphasis and trust into the scouts and coaches, although a 1,5 star rating or less probably does mean that the player isn't good enough.

I guess the learning is to not put too much emphasis and trust into the scouts and coaches, although a 1,5 star rating or less probably does mean that the player isn't good enough.

And with that it shows that you shouldn`t solely rely on your staff to run your club. They have a manager for a reason and they are often people who have a real influence on a team, regardless of how good the actual players are. If you can apply a good tactic with a less good player it goes without saying that you shouldn`t apply a bad tactic with good players. Everyone can put 11 good players on the pitch, but there aren`t many who can put 11 players on the pitch and let them play better than they are supposed to. That makes someone a good coach (or manager) who can win prizes.

I use scouts to give a general indication. I often sign players who are only fairly good, but end up getting the highest ratings of the whole team. My 'Decent' Striker actually is the League Topscorer, despite my assistant manager constantly telling me to transfer list him

Heh, reminds me of my left back. Was desperate for one and a saw one with stats I liked on an amateur team. Asst rated him at 1 star with 1.5 potential. But he had the stats I wanted and he was dirt cheap so I tried him. Turned out this -amateur- has been my second best/most consistent defender on a team that's had the lowest conceded rate in the MLS this season (second only to a physical stat monster RB) and has since become a 2.5 star rating from my asst. That's why scouts and assts are what they are instead of being manager themselves.

Theres 5 areas that affect the viability of a player for the match day squad and/or team in general

CA/PA, Players Reputation, Attribute Balance, condition/fitness and form.

Scout's, Coaches and the AssMan just view the first 2 afaik when recommending a player as a worthy signing or not.

They use 1 of the first 2 + condition/fitness when asked to select a squad for match day (not sure if they use CA or Reputation for this)

Which leaves Form and Attribute Balance to us as methods of chosing, the latter usually giving a significant advantage over AI decisions.