Scouted potential as a lower league team

[Bladefm]

Hey all!

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding which young players/newgens to sign in my save.

I'm playing as F.C. Andorra, and I'm currently in my second season after a promotion to the Spanish second division.

I've been scouting a lot of newgens and young players and a bunch of them were rated as 5-star potential, but I'm sure some are world-class players while others are only rated as such because they are compared to my current players.

How can I tell them apart? I've been googling a lot and I can't find any pointers (other than looking at the current stats and their determination).

I feel that the media description is a bit random, should I trust it?

In addition to that, I've been reading the scout report description. In some cases, it seems useful because it says something like "He has the potential to be a LaLiga player in the future" and I'm assuming that they are better that those players where they say "LaLiga 2". But then again, I've seen 5-star potential players with potential to be in "LaLiga 2" and 4-star potential players that my scout thinks could end up in LaLiga. So not sure what to make of it...

Finally, I've seen a similar behavior on the second part of the description, where it says "Would be a superb/good/... player".

I love signing and developing young players, but I don't want to end up spending a lot of my scarce resources on players that will end up getting nowhere.

Do you have any advice here? Thank you so much!

Edited July 8, 2021 by Bladefm

[Speedyol]

I would sign the once who are good enough current ability to play on the first team, at least as subs or in cup matches, and some league matches.

[XaW]

The star ratings are how the scouts (or coaches) rate the player in comparison to your team. So if you are playing in the lower leagues, there are 1000s of players who would be rated as 5 stars in comparison. Do note that these scout can (and will sometimes) be wrong. So there could be a case of you bringing in a player rated 5 stars, but after a month or so, he is rated 3 stars. That's because your scouts and coaches rate him differently, and the longer they are looking at them, the more correct it will be (depending on the staff attributes).

So what you want to do, is bring in the best player possible, but you are not likely able to get in LaLiga players at this time. You wouldn't have neither the money nor the reputation to tempt players of that quality to join. So you need to find the best players who are willing to join and also fits your wage budget. Also make sure you buy in players that fit your tactics. You can't really tell them apart directly (unless you've gotten familiar with what to expect based on the attributes).

The media description I would not trust, since it's what media thinks. How many times have you heard about the next Messi?  

The scouts will estimate what their current ability is (He is currently operating at LaLiga2 level), and his potential (has the potential to be a LaLiga player in the future). The longer the scout follow the player, the more likely the report is to be correct (and scout attributes). So based on that you know how well the scout rate the player. You can also see if the player has any interest and often a guesstimate from the scout on how much it would cost and expected wage demands. Those can also be wrong though.

Based on all that you need to make decisions of who you want to try to bring in to your team. I know these are very general, but I can give a nice advise from the lower leagues. Play simple tactics, and bring in fast strikers. Defenders are often very slow in the lower leagues, and lots of balls over the top towards fast strikers is a very useful way of scoring goals down the tiers.

[Speedyol]

I signed a 2.5 star central defender this january for 850K. He has played half the league matches and most of the euro cup 2 matches (and scored 2 goals). He is now one of my best defenders already and I am sure happy my assistant found him.
Could probably gotten a better deal but I like to see what my assistant makes offers for and I have the final say in if they join the club or not, and I also negotiate their contracts.

[kentonizking]

Have a look at this YouTuber, Zealand, he has don't lots of deep guides on scouting etc