Can you judge potential without a scouts help.

I've seen some players mention that the Scouts star system can't be trusted and you should judge by yourself. This must apply only to current ability because PA is something totally hidden and in no way can we see any indication of it in any way. Am I incorrect?

I also wan't to discuss the CA/PA system but perhaps in a separate thread or later in this thread if people have any opinion on it.

No, you are not incorrect. There is no possible way to judge an unknown players potential ability without using scouts or 3rd party software.

You can use judgement based on player stats and age and make an educated guess.

For example, if my scout comes back with a 19 year old right-winger who's supposed to have potential to be a lot better than my best winger, but his stats are so-so, I can conclude that the scout is either wrong or the player will never reach his potential. At 19 he'd need higher stats than that to ever fullfill his potential, if he has it in the first place. With experience you'll learn roughly how good a player's stats should be at a given age and a given potential (remember to factor in footed-ness), and if the player has lousy stats despite enthusiastic scout reports, you don't go for him.

When I get scout reports I usually check the stats before actually reading the report itself and make an educated guess, then I go on to read the report and see if my eg matches in anyway to my scouts report

scouts work on CA/PA

a 16 year old with CA 100 PA 200 is more likely to reach CA 200 than another player who is 19 with the same starting CA/PA due to age.

take into consideration the players mental stats (low determination, professionalism and possibly a few others can reduce a player's chances of reaching their potential) and then there are injuries - a lot of long term injuries are going to slow down a player's pregression.

there is no guarantee that a player will reach the top but having good scouts will give you an idea.

its also worth considering that a player with CA 135 might be a better option than another with CA 165, due to specific attributes

There are always indications as to how good a young player could be. Dont get caught up in PA, or worrying about PA as a figure. I judge young players by attributes, and using my experience i can usually have a good educated guess. Im not always right, as not every player with promising attributer progresses like you would want, but i have a pretty good success rate. If you find a youngster with some good double digit attributes in the correct places for their position, along with a good personality then you can have a good bet on them progressing at least to a certain extent.

I dont care about PA as a number, nor do i ever care to check, its pointless worrying about PA, if they dont have good attributes to begin with then the PA is completely irrelevant. The scouting system is great for helping, but i wouldnt use it as gospil, i would also make any judgements based off your own thoughts alongside the scouting rating. Remember tho, scouts will judge a young player on his PA as a number, not as a distribution of attributes, that is why it should never be taking as the final answer.

You can't judge potential, but you can judge how good they are now.

Which is weird, because apparently a scout can judge a player's PA, and a coach can judge the PA of players that you own (even rubbish coaches can judge a player's PA better than you can...).