Do you trust your scouts and staff reports?

[ivandrago]

Most of the times I reckon on my own judgement to select my line up or to recruit players
Maybe I prefer some attribute for each position. I prefer a defender with marking 10 and creativity 1 than another one with marking 6 and creativity 7
It's sad to buy a player and see your staff ranking him the 10th for the position in the squad, when you think he's superb
Am I doing it so wrong?

[ptilinopus]

I judge my transfer targets mainly by their average rating and their stats, then if it's a youngster I trust my scouts' opinion on his potential, and then I look at the attributes.

[StormenDK]

I use their reports as a guideline, nothing more. I would never trust it blindly.

[SLDavies]

I trust my scouts mainly as they have high judging ability and potential ratings, don't see the point in using them otherwise

[scott MUFC]

of course, they show me a bunch of decent players, I look and see what i can do with them.
got recommended some players i usualy go for myself, i remember on east stirlingshire save.. scout report james cronesberry

[Ackter]

For a given value of "trust", yeah.

[Kenco]

I will buy players based on scout reports or play them based on coach reports but if they turn out rubbish or their attributes don't look right then I'll go with something else.

So I trust them to an extent but not blindly.

[chestermike]

I get scouts in who have good stats for judging player potential, dont bother with player ability. Players over 24 I will judge for myself, players under 24 I want to see what my scouts thinks their potential could be, then decide based on that and whether they will play for me right now.

[milnerpoint]

I use both my scouts and my own judgement, scouts give you a good basic idea, but you need to use your eyes to really see what a player is about, i check for a few key attributes i like players to have and form over their career, if i see a player with brilliant attributes but a poor form history i wont touch him, but a player with average attributes but great form is always worth a punt.

[mrdorf]

My scouts always recommend players as being potentially fantastic or brilliant in CA but when I look at the player's attributes, they're rubbish. I just go with what I see not what they tell me. Spotting potential or currently cracking players is easy from their attributes alone. As anyone ever picked up a young player with bad stats but your scouts say they have the potential to be brilliant and they actually did turn out brilliant?

[SLDavies]

My scouts always recommend players as being potentially fantastic or brilliant in CA but when I look at the player's attributes, they're rubbish. I just go with what I see not what they tell me. Spotting potential or currently cracking players is easy from their attributes alone. As anyone ever picked up a young player with bad stats but your scouts say they have the potential to be brilliant and they actually did turn out brilliant?

Sometimes yes but not to often. As I am now in the prem with Newport I will mainly only sign players from scout reports when the are under 19 an say potential to be leading prem striker anything lower than that then I would have to be able to see some very good attributes that the scouts have not picked up on

[Seagullfan]

I never buy a player without first checking his injury record.....no point having a highly recommended player who is always with the physio

[thomit]

Scouts - at least the good ones - give you comments on injury proneness, mentality, professionality, consistency, asking price and probable wage demands, and so on. These comments are pretty damn accurate, or close enough, in my experience. That, together with stats I can see myself, and the player's track records and match stats, give me a pretty good overview of the player in question. So yes, I trust my scouts to find these hidden characteristics that I can't see from the stats alone, given that they have had enough time to observe the player in question. And that's pretty much all I require from a scout. In that sense, scouting in FM is pretty good, in my opinion. If you're one of those that would like to know the exact CA and PA of a player, or exact hidden stats numbers, then no, scouts can't give you that. And they shouldn't. If you want exact scouting, use FMScout. It is cheating though.

[FrazT]

I use their reports as a guideline, nothing more. I would never trust it blindly.

This sums it up- your own judgement should make the final decision.

[marty78]

I like the scout/reports as they sometimes give an idea of hidden attributes/ personalities. I do tend to look at players performances before signing them and will often avoid players who have low match ratings, unless they are playing at a higher level. One or two poor key attributes can put me off even very highly rated players and I avoid players with poor injury records or that appear unambitious, unprofessional or lack determination unless they are very young and can be tutored.

A scout report is the first thing though as I use attribute masking.

[jayahr]

I very much trust the ratings my scouts give to players, at least if a scout has watched a player twice at least. Especially when it comes to determining potential there is no way for me to second-guess them anyway.

However, when scouts do scout players from lesser nations, I have often made the experience that in determining player potentials the scouts are even a bit careful. When being an average EPL club, scouts would hardly ever rate any player from the Czech or Tunisian league higher than 3.5 stars. Often they turned out having 4.5 stars potential if I sign them, so in these cases I am now always adding 0.5 stars to their rating in my head.

I also find the scouts' assessment of player personalities very useful. I'm not a personality-nazi but I do try to avoid the negative traits, especially lacks of determination and professionalism. And sometimes I will seriously consider buying a player with a leader personality over a balanced personality player who may otherwise be slightly better.

However, I do not sign players based on their scout ratings alone. Obviously whether the allocation of the attributes for a player suit my needs and likings is something which no stars rating can take into account, but thanks to the attribute highlighting option I can now easily and quickly check by myself if a player fits into the role that I'm looking to fill.

[ivandrago]

What is that attribute "highlight option" Jayahr? Where can I find it?

[MotYouOut]

Sometimes but not always.

[RSCA4Ever]

Things I trust them in are what they say about the possitive and negative points, like how players will cope with big matches, living in a foreign nation etc.
When they say that I should sign whatever the price and that player is labeled as a wonderkid, only then I will trust them 100%.
Otherwise I only trust my own opinion based on stats and attributes.