Once a player has been scouted, either specifically or as part of a general scouting assignment, you are able to view a scout report for him on the Scout Report section of his Reports screen. It is important to use a player’s scout report to help you to properly assess him and decide whether he would be a suitable signing for your club. A scout report contains information on player ability and various pros and cons.
You can obtain multiple scout reports on a single player and each report can be prepared by any of your scouts. You can access the different reports on a player using the Scout Report By drop-down. However, the information on each report is static and so may only be relevant as at the date shown and is only based on the player knowledge level as at that date. Therefore, you may need to obtain an up-to-date report before assessing a player. If you are scouting a player over a period of time or matches in order to increase the player knowledge level, as explained in the Scouting Assignments guide, then this will keep his report up to date.
You can view a list of all players that have been scouted by your scouts on the Scouted tab of the Scouting screen, while you can view a list of all players that a particular scout has scouted from the Reports screen of that scout.
Player Ability
The panels on the right-hand side of a scout report show the player’s ability star ratings, and a suitability analysis that displays the player’s ability star ratings in different positions and roles and compares his star ratings to those of players in your squad in the same positions. Also shown is a scout summary that gives a brief overall assessment from the scout.
Ability Star Ratings
A player’s current ability and potential ability star ratings are shown along with a recommendation star rating. These represent your scout’s opinion of the player’s ability. The recommendation star rating is simply equal to the potential ability star rating, as this is the highest possible current ability the player is expected to attain between the time of the report and the end of his career.
The accuracy of the star ratings given by a scout depend on his Judging Player Ability and Judging Player Potential attributes, and the star ratings given are fixed as at the date the report is gathered. Therefore, in order to get more accurate ability star ratings from a better scout, or more up-to-date ratings, you will need to request a new report. Uncertainty over a player’s current and potential ability also affects ability star ratings, and this uncertainty is represented by black stars.
The higher the player knowledge level, the fewer black stars are included in a player’s ability star ratings, as explained in the Scouting Knowledge guide.
It is important to understand that ability star ratings ignore many important factors that affect a player’s performances, regardless of a scout’s ability. Therefore, you should not base your assessment of a player’s ability on ability star ratings alone.
The Player Ability guide discusses how current and potential ability ratings are determined, along with other factors that affect performance.
However, ability star ratings can be particularly useful in allowing you to easily filter out those players, typically those with a potential ability rating of less than two and a half stars, who are not likely to be good enough to be a useful member of your squad.
The ability star ratings of a scouted player are shown next to his name on the All Known Players, Scouted and Shortlist tabs of the Scouting screen.
Using the All Known Players, Scouted and Shortlist tabs to search for and shortlist players is explained in the Player Search & Shortlists guide.
Suitability Analysis
The Suitability panel enables you to see at a glance the depth and quality of your squad in any of the positions for which the scouted player has at least competent position familiarity, as well as the player’s supposed ability in each role. This can help you in assessing how he might fit into your squad structure based on his current ability, whether signing him or a similar player is necessary, whether the player’s estimated cost and wage demands are appropriate considering this and whether another player in the same position already in your squad will need to be sold to make way for the new player.
However, you should not rely on the ability star ratings given for a player in each role. Instead, you should form your own opinion of whether a player suits a role by looking at his attributes and also his traits.
The Roles & Duties guide suggests useful player traits for each role, along with the key attributes.
Scout Summary
The scout summary is largely based on the player’s ability star ratings, although it may reference other information that the scout has assessed. For example, it may say that the player is not interested in joining your club.
Although you can use the scout summary to help to guide you, you should form your own opinion of a scouted player based on your own assessment of his ability and other considerations, as discussed below, in addition to the ability star ratings provided by your scouts.