the stats on players who turn 30 drop way too fast imo

it says on the game that age 27-32 is nomrally the prime for a defender, yet when mine reached 30 he became a walking corpse.

Agreed. Stats drop way to fast. A world class player at 27 can become nothing by the time he is 32. Defenders are usually not too bad, I find their stats usually drop at around 31/32.

I agree totally mate.

I find that the likes of Ballack and Lampard are useful into their mid 30's. No worries.

i have kovac in my starting line-up and he's 37...

yep they should make that age limit higher its not close to what is happening in real life.

Disagree, I've had outfield players aged 35 and over whos stats don't degrade fast at all, if a player has high natural fitness they will last longer, so a 35 year old with 17 nat fitness could have near his peak stats.

Problem there earmack is that regens don't have high natural fitness, maybe that is why I have noticed it more.

Agree with the OP. The tips are funny too: "...generally peak from 27-32" and next second "...generally don't improve much after 24".

OK! We know that already. But you can't "reach your peak" if you need a cane and a med-alert badge to hobble around the pitch.

yes i do agree with this

Im not sure. With some players, their stats drop rapidly, but in real life a lot of players drop out of top flight ability and play lower leagues.

You do however get some players who you can still play into their late 30's

I think people only notice it because it happens to your key players. I have had player in their early 40's still playing for me in older versions of the game. It was CM0001 though which was rather accommodating with its super tactics.

I'm really worried about this. I have Rio Ferdinand at 31 and he has the highest average rating in my squad for the season, which is three games from finishing. Because of that, I see no reason to replace him, but I'm worried he's going to become pants almost immediately at some not-too-distant point.

Another issue that needs to be resolved for FM 09 and future releases. I hope this is not overlooked and SI improve this since it really is disappointing to see your star players rot at ages such as 30-32. There's world class players IRL at these ages that are still playing for world class clubs.

Another issue that needs to be resolved for FM 09 and future releases. I hope this is not overlooked and SI improve this since it really is disappointing to see your star players rot at ages such as 30-32. There's world class players IRL at these ages that are still playing for world class clubs.

True. But it is quite rare to see a Maldini or a Giggs or a Scholes. Decline does need to happen. It's just the abruptness of it that bothers me.

True. But it is quite rare to see a Maldini or a Giggs or a Scholes. Decline does need to happen. It's just the abruptness of it that bothers me.

Indeed it does need to happen, decline I mean. However in all of my FM 08 saves that I've started and ended, once my star player reaches the ages of 30 and up, his stats plummet like there's no tomorrow and thus throwing an off-balance between a player of his caliber within the game and in real life. That is what I would like to be improved in future FM releases as well; the rate at which a player declines.

There is a known issue in 8.02 where players attributes do drop too fast, on the whole, when they get into their early 30s.

This is a side-affect from a fix which was supposed to sort out the problem where players were too good well into their 30s.

There is a known issue in 8.02 where players attributes do drop too fast, on the whole, when they get into their early 30s.

This is a side-affect from a fix which was supposed to sort out the problem where players were too good well into their 30s.

Rather than a side effect, that sounds like an overly zealous correction that swung the issue the other way.

Experienced the issue myself, but if it's already known, let us all hope balance will be restored for 09.

It depends on natural fitness - you can see this even more extremely in FML.

Rather than a side effect, that sounds like an overly zealous correction that swung the issue the other way.

Experienced the issue myself, but if it's already known, let us all hope balance will be restored for 09.

Yeah, I was being poilte.

I agree, I sell anyone as soon as they turn 30, even if hes the best player in the world because they drop so badly.

I've had a few players that can still do the business at an older age, Milito was 35 when he won his second CL with me at Barca and Mexes was 35 by the time I was leaving Roma. Both had averages over 7, but they couldn't play every week.

I find certain positions are affected worst by age, and it's usually the strange positions e.g. DM who really should be able to play at a higher standard for longer comapred to other positions. Rolfes at Bayern was absolutely useless by the time he was 32 (I gave him a new contract anyway, because of loyalty), whereas Kuranyi was still banging them in at the age of 34.

I agree with the original poster too. Stats degrade way too quickly when a player gets to 30 or 31 imo.

IRL the player might lose some of their strength, stamina, pace and acceleration but in my current saved game players like Scholes and Giggs become pretty useless after just one season.

Hopefully this will be sorted in FM09.

Would be nice to see players stats as they get older decline in the physical sied but at the same time improving in the technical/mental side, a trade off maybe where the overall level of the player isnt effected until th point where physically they cant do it any more as is really the case in real life.

I also agree, after one season Giggs and Scholes get dropped into the Man Utd Reserves.

6 of my first team players have all reached the 30 to 32 age and I am seeing a huge drop off in stats, physical is the first to go.

They all have natural fitness of 14 or higher, so god knows how bad they would be now with a lower score there.

Because of an increase in mental stats they are still first choice players, but they also spend an huge amount of time injured compared to in their youth, far more than you would expect from players that have hardly been injured before then.

I can not tell if the current rate of decline is correct or not?

I would say for the majority of players it is spot on, but maybe a few players should be able to compete at the highest level until they were at least 32 with only a slight decline. That said I am no expert on fitness, performance verses decline with age.