'Trial Day' is Useless in It's Current Form

I realize that the guys who show up to your club's trial day are guys who are without a club and not exactly at peak physical fitness, but how exactly are you supposed to make any sort of judgement if all 22 players are hovering at ~50% condition after 20 minutes of play. The last trial day I held six players got injured in the match and my physio told me that as they would now be injured for the duration of their trial period I should just terminate their trial. How does this help me at all?

Your coaches and scouts will make a better and more reliable evaluation of the players' abilities by watching the match.

How if they are either so exhausted that they can barely stand, or else they are injured and therefore unable to complete the trial?

It's just how it works with scouts. I don't think their fitness throughout the game will have a massive affect on the report. You've also got the coach report for the duration of their trial which can give you a good indication of their CA or PA.

the whole thing is useless when there are 2-3 trial matches and you only go to 1.

i want reports on all trials where i can sign from. not just 1 in the country i happen to be in.

england you go to 1, when there are 2, and 1 in the wales, scotland, ireland etc.

The use is that you learn that these players are available and willing to sign for you. You then see their attributes, get coach/scout reports and work from there. The actual match is not of huge importance anyway. Although I do agree that the trialists shouldn't be as low on fitness as you describe.

It is realistic though. Players who have been without a club for a certain period of time will dip in fitness.

I understand that. But there is a big different between a dip in fitness and a M.A.S.H. unit. This is, at the end of the day, a video game. Having six players get injured during the first trial match to the point where they can no longer continue the trial might be superbly realistic, but it doesn't help me in my attempt to identify and sign players that could potentially do a job for my club, which is surely the point of holding a trial day? Realism is great, but this as it stands is just self-defeating.

The fact is though, you still get scout reports and coach reports that will be accurate. The fitness of the player and whether or not they get injured will not affect reports.

This is, at the end of the day, a video game.

No, it's a simulation and there's a world of difference.

Having six players get injured during the first trial match to the point where they can no longer continue the trial might be superbly realistic, but it doesn't help me in my attempt to identify and sign players...

Correct and that's the point. The game attempts to model the ups and downs of being a football manager. It's not designed to help you find players (or ensure your quick success, for that matter), it's designed to allow you to find players. There's a big difference there. If you need a boost for instant success, you can always crank up the editor, check the trial squad that way and dispense with that silly reality. Speaking from personal experience, I scout the trial day matches and, on occasion, find a useful player. Seems to work about right for me.

I am not looking for an "instant success boost" and I think you are going out of your way to be pedantic by trying to differentiate between game and simulation. I am just that the trial day in its current guise defeats its own purpose if the players myself and my scouts are looking at all get injured before we get a chance to take a decent look at them, which makes it a bit of a useless option.

If your main complaint is the six injuries, then I agree with you that it's atypical. Nevertheless, in the real world of football, these oddball events happen quite often. Who figured that City would hose Man U. 6-1 not too long ago? Critics could look at that result in FM and say "what a crock, that would never happen". As I have been pointing out in other threads, even a perfect simulation will (correctly) produce some seriously offbeat results when millions of players simulate tens of millions of matches. If you're saying that you routinely encounter the six injury problem, you should document it and submit it as bug. Otherwise, it's just another one-off that we benighted football managers must all suffer through occasionally.

offbeat results

i beat arsenal in a penantly shootout with blackpool having 3 injures to main midfielders, and they missed every single penantly. wouldn't happen but it did.

as for injures, never seen 6 injures in a trial game, it is just an occasional 1 injury.

How if they are either so exhausted that they can barely stand, or else they are injured and therefore unable to complete the trial?

You are assuming the game actually gets scout reports based on the game the scout watches...we can only dream. It looks like the game says the players PA and CA is this, the scout is this good, so here is the scout report. The player may not even take the pitch, but your scout will give you a glowing report if he is any good.... great

I don't see a problem here; scout reports from Trial Day are reliable enough, especially when checking potential of players. The rest is unimportant.

Curiously, I do find that Trial Days on the continent regularly tend to throw up way more potential gems than the UK Days. I have made some super free transfers in Italy & France from these.