Star Rating vs Actual CA/PA

Something I've been looking at recently is the differences between my assistant managers star ratings and the actual CA/PA of my players. Let me just start off by saying that my ass man has JCA/JPA of 20/20, and he's been with me for years with excellent club knowledge, so his results should be solid.

I play as Athletic Club so obviously youth development is of massive importance, plus I don't sign spanish under 18s unless they already have Basque nationality as I feel that replicates real life more accurately. So for this reason knowing the potential of my players and making judgement calls based on their attributes, as opposed to just their star ratings is key. I've always avoided using any kind of in game scouting tool as it takes the mystery out of it and it would kinda eliminate the whole challenge of my save in my mind.

It's really disappointing when a highly rated youngster (let's say a 4* PA) ends up becoming nothing more than a rotation 2 1/2* player after seasons of work to develop them...this is of course working on the assumption that variables which might cause star ratings overall within my squad/the young players position to change having remained static. Obviously that's life and it adds into the whole feel of the game. Similarly I had a young prospect coming through with a 1.5 star PA in the LB role. I was desperately in need of a LB to come through with basque nationality at that time and he was the best I had at the time. His attribute spread looked appropriate so I decided he could possibly develop well. I tutored him and his stats really started to jump, his PA star rating slowly increased and now I have a fantastic LB for my first team at the age of 20 (his CA/PA is actually 151/166 now).

The only reason I know his actual CA/PA is because I was starting to get a little bored of my save so wanted to use it as an opportunity to see how the star ratings and the players actual CA/PA could differ, so I downloaded a scouting tool (mac assistant - it's really excellent) to take a look at how it all worked. I was really surprised to see just how different both CA/PA was compared to the star ratings of my supposedly all powerful ass man.

These are all regens, so no spoilers here, but just a quick overview of few interesting examples, the first 3 are from the same natural position:

Player 1: CA 162, PA 162 - Star rating according to my ass man 3*

Player 2: CA 156, PA 156 - Star rating according to my ass man 4* (plays same position as player 1)

Player 3: CA 125, PA 159. Star rating according to my ass man 1.5* CA, 2.5* PA (Gold), 3.5* PA (Blacked out) - he plays in the same position as Player 1/2.

I also scouted a Real Madrid player from the same position, my top quality scout came back with a 2.5 star CA/PA. I was really surprised because his attributes are insanely good....better than my players. I checked his CA/PA in the scout tool and it was 174/174. For what it's worth, I've generally considered player 1 to be the better option and he's got the nod when it mattered against player 2.

And finally (different position)...

Player 4: CA 140, PA 200!!!!!!! Star rating according to my ass man 2.5* CA, 4* PA (Gold), 5* PA (Blacked out)

There are other examples of similar stuff but thought this was pretty interesting as an example.

Don't always trust your assistant manager! Star ratings are a decent guide but aren't always the best...use their attributes and your own personal feelings about their performances. I guess it just goes to show that building a team around star ratings is not the most effective way to do it. Can anyone shed any light on what could make an assistant manager more/less accurate with the ratings?

My star ratings have gone a little hectic since 15.3, I've no idea why this is or if it's just a coincidence but I'm just letting it play out. Has anyone else had star rating madness since 15.3?

I was going to quit this save, but I really have to see how player 4 turns out!!

Experienced FM players don't even give stars a glance. Attributes + ppm's + history are what counts when you judge how well a player is likely to perform in the role/duty you intend for him.

Star Rating is not just CA/PA, it's also the player's rating at a given position which is as important as the CA, and I think it also takes into consideration hidden stats such as Consistency, which are not used for CA calculation.

Star Rating is not just CA/PA, it's also the player's rating at a given position which is as important as the CA, and I think it also takes into consideration hidden stats such as Consistency, which are not used for CA calculation.

It's a lot to do with reputation as well, along with a good helping of fuzzy, especially for perceived potential stars.

Star Rating is not just CA/PA, it's also the player's rating at a given position which is as important as the CA, and I think it also takes into consideration hidden stats such as Consistency, which are not used for CA calculation.

Yeah I'd say those hidden stats definitely have an influence. Player 1 in the above example has some fairly poor hidden stats, whereas player 2's hidden stats are a slight improvement (particularly 'important matches').

PA200 player has an injury proneness of 16, which to be fair, I didn't need the scout tool to tell me I'm really interested to see how close he gets to his PA with his injury proneness.

Experienced FM players don't even give stars a glance. Attributes + ppm's + history are what counts when you judge how well a player is likely to perform in the role/duty you intend for him.

It's almost impossible to say anything about a players potential without looking at stars (a player aged 18 with 125/125 will look exactly the same as a player with 125/190). When it comes to current ability I agree

A factor not mentioned specifically which has a massive influence on the potential ability stars is age. As the players grows older it will become harder and harder for him to bridge the gap between current and potential ability, and this is reflected in the star ratings

It's a lot to do with reputation as well, along with a good helping of fuzzy, especially for perceived potential stars.

Do you think that's something that's been developed more in recent FM's? Maybe it's just me but I feel like it's become more exaggerated in recent years. Especially reputation. I am noticing more and more on this years version that after a full season playing in the first team consistently and featuring in big matches that star ratings for younger players increase with no major attribute changes. I've consistently had players who seemingly hit their potential at 2.5 stars and then are up to 3.5 after a season of big games which could build reputation.

Do you think that's something that's been developed more in recent FM's? Maybe it's just me but I feel like it's become more exaggerated in recent years. Especially reputation. I am noticing more and more on this years version that after a full season playing in the first team consistently and featuring in big matches that star ratings for younger players increase with no major attribute changes. I've consistently had players who seemingly hit their potential at 2.5 stars and then are up to 3.5 after a season of big games which could build reputation.

From what I can tell it's been something they've improved on largely to help deal with potential being too obvious to some, as well as ability. As with what was seen in the "Guess the Potential thread", it's actually seemingly working quite well, and offers quite an interesting scouting experience.

From what I can tell it's been something they've improved on largely to help deal with potential being too obvious to some, as well as ability. As with what was seen in the "Guess the Potential thread", it's actually seemingly working quite well, and offers quite an interesting scouting experience.

Yeah couldn't agree more, adds an extra layer of depth to the game. My Athletic saves on the last few FM's have been fascinating with some hot prospects drifting away to obscurity and some unexpected stars coming through. I tried to find that thread when I was going to post this but couldn't see it - probably right in front of me and I missed it