Key vs Preferred vs other attributes

[resko]

How big difference does it make if player has attributes concentrated in key or preferred attributes? How much more are those worth to not important attributes? I know, that of course, key attributes are the most important, preferred a little less and so on, but my question is how big difference does it make? And do I have to even pay attention to other attributes (neither key nor preferred ones)? When I evaluate player, I tend to make an average from all of his key and preferred attributes and than I compare averages. But assistant manager and scouts with their stars ratings tend to disagree with me often and I dont know how much it matters in in game engine.

As a special case, you can take Wilmar Barrios as ball winning midfielder with defend duty. He is absolutely perfectly suited to his role. All of his preferred and key attributes for this role are enormously high (average over 16 - simply world class) but literally all of his other, not important attributes are trash. I thought its not important, but it probably is because his ratings are constantly bellow others. Same goes for aging players in some positions - for example deep lying playmakers or central defenders on stopper duty or deep lying strikers - physical attributes are not key or preferred for their roles. Now, when players like this, lets say Thiago or Pjanic or Suarez or Chiellini are getting older, their physical attributes are declining rapidly (and assistant manager is announcing their steep downfall, sometimes from world class to average in space of season), but since those attributes are neither key nor preferred does it matter? And if so how much it matters? Is it better if player gain +1 point in key attribute or +2 in other, not important attribute (f.e. pace for dlp)? What if older player still has off the chart key and preferred attributes but his physical ones are trash?

Edited May 11, 2020 by resko

[yolixeya]

2 hours ago, resko said:

As a special case, you can take Wilmar Barrios as ball winning midfielder with defend duty. He is absolutely perfectly suited to his role. All of his preferred and key attributes for this role are enormously high (average over 16 - simply world class) but literally all of his other, not important attributes are trash. I thought its not important, but it probably is because his ratings are constantly bellow others.

Not necessarily. His ratings might be bellow others because role you picked doesn't suit your tactical system.  By the same token, your slow defender might perform better with deep defensive line compared to high line where he would need to chase quick opposition strikers exploiting the space behind your defensive line.  If you defend narrow and leave opposition more space in wide areas, you will have to deal with a lot of crosses and then it becomes more important that your CBs have good jumping and heading. If you want to play high pressing tactic attributes like work rate and stamina become more important etc. You always have to keep broader view and see what you will require them to do.

In general I think all attributes matter, those key and preferred are just most important for the selected role.