Average player ratings for leagues not being managed in

I don't know if this is a bug or just a one off, but when having a look through the player stats for the active leagues for nations that I'm managing in, I noticed how much higher the average player ratings are compared to that of the Premiership, where I'm managing.

Below are the ratings for the Premiership:

Then we have the French Ligue 1 in which the top 9 players are all performing higher then the level of Frank Lampard, who is the Premierships top performer:

Next up is the Bundesliga where the top 15 players are all playing better then Fat Frank:

Things in Italy have gone a little mental where the top 23 players are performing better then Lampard:

But thats nothing compared to whats going on in La Liga, where not only are the top 23 players all out performing poor old Frank, there are 5 players with an average rating of over 8! Since when have Marcelo and Adrian been footballing gods?

(image now in the second post as I'm limited to 4)

These screenshots were taken two months before the end of the season. That has now come and the performances remained at an unusually high level for these leagues. I'd be interested to know if anybody else has noticed this or if this is just a one off for me. Apologies if this has already been raised.

La Liga

In Marcelo's defence, he's a pretty decent left back!!!

I can't say I've ever noticed this myself but would doubt it's a bug, seems more likely it would be linked into the style of play that the different leagues play. I'd be interested to see if the same pattern continues in your second season.

Would be very interesting so see how the average rating changes when the player relocates from Spain to England or vice versa.

Good spot!!

In my game, I encountered similar trends as the OP, culminating in a domination of World and European awards for La Liga and Seria A players who have exceptional high average ratings. I have EPL, La Liga and Seria A loaded as playable but only managing in EPL at the moment. I have only completed half a season so I shall monitor how it goes at the end of the season.

It might just be that the standard of the opposition is worse in other countries. These players play more than half their games against teams in the bottom half of the table, and if the teams in the bottom of half of the EPL are better than the teams in the bottom half of La Liga etc (and I think they are, although this isn't the place for THAT discussion!), then it shouldn't be a surprise that the best players in those other leagues La Liga get higher ratings than the best players in the prem.

It would be interesting to see the results of this for somebody who is playing in La Liga or Serie A, but also has the Premiership running. If La Liga still has higher ave. ratings, then I don't think there's a problem (or if there is, it's not related to where the human is managing).

I reallly can't see this being down to the standard of the opposition or the style of play of the leagues. The gulf in quality between the bottom clubs in La Liga and the Prem isn't that large, and certainly not large enough to see such a huge difference in the average ratings. And if this was the case, then I would expect both the French and German leagues to have players performing worse then in the Prem as they are arguably tighter leagues, but this hasn't happened.

I'm approaching the end of my second season now, and although I have only checked Ligue 1 and La Liga, but the same is happening again. I've never seen anything like this happen before in FM as the match ratings have always been fairly consistent throughout each country. It would be interesting to see if someone who is managing in either France, Spain, Italy or Germany but has the other leagues average could post the average player ratings for their game as it might give a better indication as to where the problem is.

Didn't see this thread so I just started one about this!!!

I'm seeing this is every game a start no matter where i manage the other leagues i've selected all have higher average ratings. Then once a player moves to the league i'm managing in his average drops to the lower level.

This must be a bug surely? Something with how matches are simulated in background leagues as opposed to the active one you're managing in. It's a bug thats ruining the game for me Although i admit most probably won't notice or care!

In Marcelo's defence, he's a pretty decent left back!!!

I can't say I've ever noticed this myself but would doubt it's a bug, seems more likely it would be linked into the style of play that the different leagues play. I'd be interested to see if the same pattern continues in your second season.

Have you ever seen him play?