First Team player stats always going down in training reports

[timcliffsmith]

My youth team players go up but my main players always seem to be losing with orange arrows pointing down right across the board. I have decent coaches all on 4 stars or more and their workload is light or average in every area so I can't work out why this is happening.

Any ideas?

Also, why is it that I scout a player thoroughly and it says he's 3.5* to 4*. Okay, so I sign him and he's suddenly 2.5*.

Or, I sign a player who's 2.5* as a squad player. When I signed him he was indeed 2.5*. Due to injuries I've been playing him regularly and he's now 4* and a world class player. I'm talking about Phil Jones specifically here.

All these players were 100% scouted.

This year the star system seems a touch random, sometimes going up and down every time you check a player.

[herne79]

Ignore the orange arrows. Player attributes are not rated 1-20 as we all see, they are actually rated 1-200 so an attribute dropping from say 150 to 149 (i.e.., negligible) would still show you an orange arrow. Instead, look at the 12 month individual training graphs - if they are showing a steady downward trend only then may you have an issue.

Downward trends can result from such things as long term injuries, position retraining, player age, poor individual training regimes.

As far as star ratings are concerned, also ignore them. Instead read the scout reports and look at the player attributes to see if it is the type of player you need for your system. If the scout report says a player has the potential to become world class, then you know you are on to a winner.

[felley]

(EDIT - Herne's post above mine is probably much more concise than my waffling!)

Ok, quite a few things to explain here...

First of all, attributes can drop for a variety of reasons such as poor training methods, adjusting to a new team and general morale/happiness. Without seeing details I couldn't give you a perfect answer, but in my experience the most likely cause is that they are unhappy with training. You may be giving them too much or not enough to do, or they may be generally unhappy with the allocation of your training procedures. It comes down to their personality essentially. It's solvable though and unless you routinely annoy your players in training, you will be unlikely to see worryingly large drops in ability if they are also playing first team football.

As for the star ratings, an important thing to consider is the source of the star rating. What are the "Judging Ability" and "Judging Potential" attributes for your Scouts/Assistant Manager/other staff? If these attributes are low, they will make more errors in their judgement, either understating or overstating a player's ability. It is quite likely that your Scout and Assistant have different ratings in these attribute categories, meaning that the players you sign will vary in their ratings between the scout report and the assistant's recommendation.

Finally, the star ratings are not static. As players improve, decline or perform better/worse, their star rating will change accordingly.

...this is a further point, and I understand if you are a beginner and do not wish to go into too much depth... but you should never fully trust your Scout/Assistant because their judgement can be off. Combine it with your own personal judgement of the players. Their attributes will tell you most of what you need to know, alongside the player's personality and their "preferred moves". For example, if they perform well as you are playing them but your Assistant doesn't rate them, why would you drop the player? Equally, you may have a player who your staff rate very highly, but if he doesn't have a place in your tactic, then why keep him?

Those are just a few points to consider anyway. Hope this helps.

[timcliffsmith]

Many thanks gents.

I've been playing FM and CM since it first came out but the stars do seem particularly changeable this year.

I don't really like the star system at all. For me the best way was in the early days; looking at players in teams and judging who had the best stats and performance ratings. Then again, back then, we were all saying wouldn't it be great if we had scouts!

Thanks again for the help. Clearer in my mind now.