Why do potential ability stars decrease and increase?

Why do these increase and decrease?

I injected a son into my squad. When he first came in he was potential ability 5 stars, a week later his potential was 4 stars and then when I sent him on loan a week later his potential was 3 stars?

I have had this with fully developed players too. Their stars will go up and down slightly.

Anybody know?

My understanding is that the stars are in context to the rest of your squad. So if you sign a bunch of players with a higher PA, then star ratings will decrease.

I also think (but don't quote me) that the accuracy of the stars are in part determined by your AM or Scouts ability.

Macca has it. The stars are dependent on how good the rest of your squad is. So if you sign a couple of 5 star players the star ratings of the other players in your squad will drop.

Also when it come's to potential, as the player gets closer to their potential it may become apparent that they won't end up being as good as first thought and hence their star rating will drop. For example I had a player who had the potential to be a leading league 2 player, however as he started getting better his potential fell to good league 2 player.

Macca has it. The stars are dependent on how good the rest of your squad is. So if you sign a couple of 5 star players the star ratings of the other players in your squad will drop.

Also when it come's to potential, as the player gets closer to their potential it may become apparent that they won't end up being as good as first thought and hence their star rating will drop. For example I had a player who had the potential to be a leading league 2 player, however as he started getting better his potential fell to good league 2 player.

This all begs the question that scout reports on other players rate them presumably against your current squad, so if a 4 star potential signing is 1 star better that your current player (3 stars) then the rating of 4 stars will be deceptive if your own player has dropped to 1 1/2 stars instantly because you loaned in a quality player. The star system is great regarding seeing an at a glance rating but should be broader to cover total ability and not sliding in relation to your squad, eg. red 1 star = park player, green 5 star = Messi. Maybe with light green, yellow, grey, orange inbetween to give 30 or so "bands" of actual quality.

Take the case of Bebe. The Man Utd scouts probably gave him 5 stars considering the amount they spent for a completely unknown player. But as he aged, and as he hasn't shown any progress in training, his true potential surfaces.. Somewhere near 1 1/2 - 2 stars

Take the case of Bebe. The Man Utd scouts probably gave him 5 stars considering the amount they spent for a completely unknown player. But as he aged, and as he hasn't shown any progress in training, his true potential surfaces.. Somewhere near 1 1/2 - 2 stars

Shouldn't the scouts be considering the determination of player as well and then giving a star rating? I think determination is directly related to growth of a player..

I injected a son into my squad.

That sounds a bit fruity!

Whoa! This is news to me about the stars. I don't know a thing about futbol/soccer so I have been using the star rating almost exclusively. Can somebody point me to a guide that will teach me a better way to evaluate players?? Thanks!

Yeah I'm confused by it too, I'm in the Scottish League One in the 3rd season, after getting my "Create a club" promoted in the first season, and I had some players going up to 4, 4.5 stars but they keep decreasing even though I haven't been signing any top players for League One standard... take for example my captain, Kris Irvine, who started out as a 3.5 star player and in around March of the second season he got up to 5 star! He didn't let me offer him a new contract but then suddenly at the end of the season he was fine with signing a new contract and is now only a 3 star player... he's only 23! So I don't understand because now my highest rated player is 3.5 star and I signed him for free, while my goalkeeper has supposedly been improving according to my coaches, yet my goalkeeper has gone down from 3.5 star to only 2 star. It's really annoying, and while I understand it's relevant to the rest of your squad, my squad isn't improving all that much but the first XI players still decrease! It's annoying and I don't like it, it feels like the team is getting worse and worse even though they aren't

Yeah I'm confused by it too, I'm in the Scottish League One in the 3rd season, after getting my "Create a club" promoted in the first season, and I had some players going up to 4, 4.5 stars but they keep decreasing even though I haven't been signing any top players for League One standard... take for example my captain, Kris Irvine, who started out as a 3.5 star player and in around March of the second season he got up to 5 star! He didn't let me offer him a new contract but then suddenly at the end of the season he was fine with signing a new contract and is now only a 3 star player... he's only 23! So I don't understand because now my highest rated player is 3.5 star and I signed him for free, while my goalkeeper has supposedly been improving according to my coaches, yet my goalkeeper has gone down from 3.5 star to only 2 star. It's really annoying, and while I understand it's relevant to the rest of your squad, my squad isn't improving all that much but the first XI players still decrease! It's annoying and I don't like it, it feels like the team is getting worse and worse even though they aren't

The star rating also changes depending on form I have noticed. If you play someone constantly and they do well, after a while you notice their star rating (in the assistants' opinion) is much better or it could also be worse.

The best is to check if the attributes fit the role you want, then take a look at the PPMs, and the coach report (inconsistency, big matches, etc.), and the personality and you will be able to determine this yourself far better than the star rating can.

The star rating also changes depending on form I have noticed. If you play someone constantly and they do well, after a while you notice their star rating (in the assistants' opinion) is much better or it could also be worse.

The best is to check if the attributes fit the role you want, then take a look at the PPMs, and the coach report (inconsistency, big matches, etc.), and the personality and you will be able to determine this yourself far better than the star rating can.

Yeah, in short if you have players performing well/poorly, that may cause your staff to increase/decrease their opinions on their CA/PA, therefore their star rating can alter over time.

Also, as mentioned above, the stars are relative to your team/division, so a player with 3* potential at Barcelona likely has the potential to be a top quality player, but if he moved to Eibar he'd have more stars.

Just to be clear, the actual PA value does not change, just the gameworld's 'perception' of the player.

Now I see why Predrag Rajkovic was potentially 4.5* when I first signed him but after 3 years of being on loan is only potentially a 3* player! My squad has improved since then but poor Predrag was ruined by Celtic!

It might also be a case of the player initially being overrated by the scouts/coaches, then realising over time that his potential just wasn't so good.

I'm no expert but I've always felt the stars rating shouldn't be used on it's own