Players Attributes

I'm not sure if it's been said anywhere else. But obviously as players age some of their stats decline mainly their physical attributes, while their mental stays the same. Does anyone else find it a little bit silly that their technical attributes decline as well. Doesn't make any sense to me that it declines on fm when in real life vetrans don't just forget how to pass. Particularly times when there's charity matches, the older players still have the tekkers. They just lose their speed and stamina. And even players that were aging but still playing. Players like Scholes/Pirlo could still drop the ball on a penny even in their latter years.

I personally think the attributes decline quite well. If anything, I think the physical attributes decline too quickly.

Players like Scholes and Pirlo have adapted their style over the years. Even look at John Terry, he's one of the slowest defenders at a top club but because of his great mental attributes like anticipation and positioning, it doesn't matter too much.

You might have missed my point. Aging players shouldn't be losing their technical abilities. I don't see how age plays a factor in a players passing rating to drop.

I see where you're going with this, but technical attributes also reflect reflexes and coordination which do decline with age. I think you can probably make a good case that the decline is too sudden and dramatic in some cases.

If you've ever tried to play football while fatigued, you'll have a pretty good idea why this is. I was playing some 5-a-side with some friends, and I had been out injured with a broken wrist for about 4 months. So my fitness was terrible. After a time my legs started to burn, and this didn't just affect my pace or ability to run. My first touch started to suffer, as moving my leg quickly enough to reach the ball became more difficult.

Aging has much the same effect. Reactions take a huge hit with age. It's well known that young people have much better reactions than older people. Just think about what a loss in reactions could affect. Passing would drop as it becomes harder to react to situations in a fast-paced match, where being able to quickly read the situation and get the ball out of your feet as soon as possible is vital. First Touch is the same, as would be heading, tackling and technique. All of those suffer just due to reactions alone. Not to mention increased muscle fatigue. I think that technical attributes would definitely suffer.

We often say that an attacking player peaks at around 27-29 years of age. This is because technical skill gets better with practice, so the older the better. But after a certain point age catches up and the technique starts to suffer. 27 is a very good balance of youth and experience, hence why it's seen as a golden age for strikers in particular.