Confused at how 'Current Ability' and 'Potential Ability' work with attributes

Can someone explain to me how the CA and PA ratings work with attributes and overall growth of a player.

If I have a 17yr old striker with a CA of 80 and a PA of 120, going just from those two numbers he will never be a premiership quality player is that correct? I vaguely remember someone saying years ago that a average English premiership player had a CA of 140.

If that 17yr old has decent attributes for his position how does this correlate to his PA rating. If for example the striker was a good finisher with decent movement skills/anticipation etc but had a low PA, does this mean that he will never gain anymore attributes at all?

I think i'm just confused, the CA/PA ratings are the total of all the stats added together, is this correct? So is it possible to have someone who is a very good striker for example but with a low CA/PA because his other stats that do not matter so much to his striking ability are poor?

Can someone explain to me how the CA and PA ratings work with attributes and overall growth of a player.

If I have a 17yr old striker with a CA of 80 and a PA of 120, going just from those two numbers he will never be a premiership quality player is that correct? I vaguely remember someone saying years ago that a average English premiership player had a CA of 140.

Depends on the distribution of his stats, I had a 138 CA/PA winger who was integral to two title wins for my Betis team in FM10. Usually someone with 120PA will not be good enough for a top league but there can occasionally be someone so focused in his position that he will work. The fake player frome a few years ago To Zé (a fake put in by a researcher) had a very low CA/PA but scored all round him due to the correct distribution for the game he was in.

If that 17yr old has decent attributes for his position how does this correlate to his PA rating. If for example the striker was a good finisher with decent movement skills/anticipation etc but had a low PA, does this mean that he will never gain anymore attributes at all?

I think i'm just confused, the CA/PA ratings are the total of all the stats added together, is this correct? So is it possible to have someone who is a very good striker for example but with a low CA/PA because his other stats that do not matter so much to his striking ability are poor?

There is a weighting applied to different stats for the positions, so passing for a central midfielder will cost more CA/PA points than it would for a centre-half. There was a post done by The Lambs detailing all the weights given to the different attributes for all positions in FM10, which is here. Please note though that this doesn't cover the base 1:1 ratio of CA point to stat point.

Firstly - yes, he is unlikely to star in the EPL with that PA.

The PA caps his growth as a player but I do not believe the CA actually corresponds to the total number of attributes. That would mean a player with a 200 ca would have all attributes maxed (ie. 10) But there are more than 10 attributes.

What you can do as a manager is focus his development in a particular category - that means you use the available potential to say improve finishingf as much as possible.

If that 17yr old has decent attributes for his position how does this correlate to his PA rating. If for example the striker was a good finisher with decent movement skills/anticipation etc but had a low PA, does this mean that he will never gain anymore attributes at all?

It would mean he is probably not very quick, or something else isn't there making him a less complete player.

Thanks for the reply.

I am still a little bit confused though, how does the PA effect a players growth then. Is it simply a case of a low PA will never allow a player no matter what you do to gain attributes despite training? So if my 17yr old striker (80 CA / 120 PA) has a finishing rating of 15, that will never change because of his low PA?

I am not sure I understand all together what you mean by weighting, looking at that chart it shows a strikers acceleration has a weighting of 6, what does that mean?

Thanks for the reply.

I am still a little bit confused though, how does the PA effect a players growth then. Is it simply a case of a low PA will never allow a player no matter what you do to gain attributes despite training? So if my 17yr old striker (80 CA / 120 PA) has a finishing rating of 15, that will never change because of his low PA?

Yes PA limits a players growth to some point. Once a players CA = his PA, the player wil no longer improve. A 80CA / 140PA player still has much room for improvement tho, so his stats can still improve. The rate at which they improve depend on training schedule / coaches / facilities / league rep / first team playtime / injuries / age ...

There is no guarantee he will ever reach his potential, but there is still room.

I am not sure I understand all together what you mean by weighting, looking at that chart it shows a strikers acceleration has a weighting of 6, what does that mean?

Weighting means that a striker will spend more CA to improve his finishing, than to improve his tackling for instance. For example (not the correct values):

finishing goes from 14->16 costs 1 CA

tackling goes from 5->6 costs only 0.5 CA

The PA caps his growth as a player but I do not believe the CA actually corresponds to the total number of attributes. That would mean a player with a 200 ca would have all attributes maxed (ie. 10) But there are more than 10 attributes.

No the CA/PA limit has been set deliberately below the number of points needed to max out all stats. If you think about it saying that PA is matched to stats and CA is not is a bad statement as all PA is maximum possible CA, so if they are worked on different scales then they wouldn't work together. Look at Messi in FM10 he's 190CA/195PA (probably same in FM11) and yet there are some stats significant to his position which could do with a lot of improving.

Weighting means that a striker will spend more CA to improve his finishing, than to improve his tackling for instance. For example (not the correct values):

finishing goes from 14->16 costs 1 CA

tackling goes from 5->6 costs only 0.5 CA

Ahh ok I think I understand the weighting now. So theoretically if you had a striker with a 80/140 CA/PA and you focused all his training efforts on Acceleration/Pace then they would go up but they cost a lot more of his 60 spare ability so they could go up a point or two and use up all his remaining ability points.

My own advice would be to ignore PA and CA. If the guy has attributes that fit the role you want him to play and is doing well, it doesn't matter what is hypothetical ability is. I've regularly employed average players in key positions simply because their attributes fit the job and they perform well.

If the player doesn't fit the role, then focus training on the attributes that you want him to improve. If he plays well, then keep on using him. If he doesn't, then drop him. If you find someone to better fit the role, then buy him. Focusing on the abstract nature of CA/PA really hurts the intricacies of the playing experience (in my humble opinion of course).

My own advice would be to ignore PA and CA. If the guy has attributes that fit the role you want him to play and is doing well, it doesn't matter what is hypothetical ability is. I've regularly employed average players in key positions simply because their attributes fit the job and they perform well.

If the player doesn't fit the role, then focus training on the attributes that you want him to improve. If he plays well, then keep on using him. If he doesn't, then drop him. If you find someone to better fit the role, then buy him. Focusing on the abstract nature of CA/PA really hurts the intricacies of the playing experience (in my humble opinion of course).

The only issue with ignoring it, is that it will criple your chances of making a profit on players. I'm not saying you should open your editor to keep track of a players exact CA, I haven't done that since FM05 or so. But I do think it's important to consider the scouts advice as to his CA and PA and his margin of improvement. If you only sign the top prospects, that of course have the correct attributes, you'll have a much easier time on the transfer market.