Coach Report

When assessing a player's potential, sometimes coaches compare it to the potential of another player, and sometimes put it on a global scale; i.e. "XY has the potential to become a good EPL player".

Why is that? What affects the type of assessment I'll get from my coaches?

I'm asking because the latter is far more useful to me, but I can't always get it since my coaches only express the potential ability of some players via comparison with their team-mates.

It seems that a defending coach will give the more detailed estimate of the defending players. Goalkeeping coaches will give the detailed estimate of goalkeepers and so on. Sometimes you might not get an estimate from any type of coach, and i'm not sure why that happens. Maybe when the player in question is too good to be screened by your coach?

If the player or coach are fairly new to the club the report may not give full information even if the coach is the right type, I think it takes around 6 game months for the reports to fill out.

It has to do with the staff ability Judging Potential. Atleast, it did in FM10. If you can't find a good coach with high Judging Potential, you may have to look at a mediocre coach with high Judging Potential skill, but I for one always make sure I have one in my team to give me reports on my youth team's potential talent. I recommend a skillheight of atleast 18.