Kristoffer Andersen - The only player I've ever seen who's PA has changed

Now being in 2015 in my save I thought it was about the right time to gather some statistics to compare to a previous save of mine. I found a strange anomaly however comparing a couple of backup saves.

Rough background:

There was a youngster called Kristoffer Andersen, from Stabaek, who a coach said I should sign. I did, he had a terrible attitude, and I've since sacked the coach and I'm set to let his contract run out or try and sell him off. Nothing special, just another failed youth player. Don't get me wrong, he's a decent young player, but nothing special.

Now, the statistics I was most interested in had to do with youth players in the league. None of them are good enough for my side and I have no intention of signing anyone here, this is purely to compare to how Hungary produced youngsters. A basic overview is that Norway was producing better youngsters on average than Hungary after becoming one of the top 3 leagues. The reason has to do with a value called "league importance". But that's another story.

I usually keep lots of backups (I normally leave a couple a season behind), I do so because I lost a 3 season save back in FM07 and I don't really like making the same mistake twice. It does have some uses when I get in the mood to trawl through statistics like now. Anyhow, the anomaly:

In the save from the middle of last season (I'm not looking at the current one) I found that Norway's best youngster was some young centerhalf with a terrible attitude at Rosenborg with a PA of around 150-60. There were a few more like that. I then was looking at a save from 2 years ealier and spotted something I didn't ever think could happen in the game, Kristoffer Andersen had a PA 172 and was the "best youngster" in Norway. This was in 30-1-2013. I then looked at a save from the 19-1-14 and yet again 172. This was now confusing me as Kristoffer Andersen didn't even register in the later half of 2014 save. I then checked 30-3-14 and found that he had a PA of 115! This was the same as the PA on the later 2014 save. Somehow his PA literally changed by 57 points... I didn't know that could happen!

Incidental maybe that coach didn't deserve to be sacked... Well, he was a rubbish coach too.

So to summarise:

This players PA changed from 172 to 115 somewhere between 9-1-14 and 30-3-14. Strange... Wonder what did that...

Interresting find. I too am curious to what can have caused that.

Massive injuries can cause drops in PA.

Having had a good look, I can't really find anything that would explain it.

He's had a few injuries, but nothing major. A twisted ankle, a stubbed toe, that sort of thing.

His age then? Stagnation over time caused FM to "reset" his PA to his CA?

Did he get older?

We all know players don't develop properly if they aren't playing. Perhaps that translates into a drop in PA when they reach a certain age?

Just speculating, but that was a massive drop in PA. Perhaps it's related to his Personality too? Many people say that after a few seasons Balotelli suddenly develops the footballing skills of a turnip. If he loses any sort of determination to continue his development, naturally he's going to suffer right?

This is weird...

PA is fixed, what changes is CA, and the "Highest attainable PA"...

If a player has a PA of 170 but his CA is 60 and he has a terrible attitude and/or is at a mediocre club and/or doesn't get tutored, trained and played right and/or suffers serious injuries he'll NEVER REACH the 170 mark, but he'll get a lower CA peak... let's say at 120.

But his PA is still 170... he just hits a glass ceiling, placed somewhere between his starting CA and his original PA.

I don't quite understand how your Andersen guy could lose 50+ PA points... AFAIK it's technically impossible...

Which tool are you using to see the PA? Are you sure it's not a different Kristoffer Andersen?

I checked it with 3 tools, FMRTE, Genie Scout and something called MeisterScout. He's currently just turned 18, but he was 17 on the save that I found this on. His CA is 92 on that save, so its not as though he's just been terrible and its reset (which to my knowledge it doesn't do). Its probably just a little bug.

You say you are using FMRTE, which is a tool that can edit in game data. I don't know MeisterScout but if that is an in-game editor too I think it is much more likely that one of these 3rd party programs are responsible for the drop in PA.

I have played Football Manager for nearly 20 years and I have never seen this. And i use scouting tools (but not editors) a lot

You say you are using FMRTE, which is a tool that can edit in game data. I don't know MeisterScout but if that is an in-game editor too I think it is much more likely that one of these 3rd party programs are responsible for the drop in PA.

I have played Football Manager for nearly 20 years and I have never seen this. And i use scouting tools (but not editors) a lot

That would make sense except I hadn't used any on this save (or series of saves including the backups) and as such they couldn't have affected it. On top of that it appears in more than once of the back up saves (4 that I checked) and unless the programme's are specifically targeting him I'm not sure how it could happen so consistently. Good thought though.