Series Player search and a key attribute

[rafa]

Searching for players is an art. Of course you can always rely on the players you already know. Maybe check the iScout forums for the latest findings of the community. But sooner or later, if you want to master FMH, you will need to know in your guts if a player is good or not.

I consider myself quite well versed in the art of spotting good players. But I must confess that many times I decided against signing a player because his attributes were not good enough - and the lad turns out to be a freaking star!

Let me show you a practical example. You're managing a decent Premier League club. More like fighting against relegation than pushing for Europe. You are keen to find a promising young central defender, that will develop into a class act. You pull up your search screen, and some of the results are these:

All of them look pretty solid, very few red attributes, some good tackling... But one of them will become the best defender in the game. I'll purposely leave this question unanswered.

It becomes even trickier when trying to spot good young goalkeepers. Sometimes you find two youngsters with very similar stats. But one will be a world class goalie, the other will never achieve the desired level of consistency.

But hope is not entirely lost. There are few attributes that can tell you whether your player will be great or not.

*All players posted here are from FMH11 iOS database. Only English leagues loaded.

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Goalkeepers:

In my opinion, the most difficult position to fill in. But there is one attribute that only the best keepers in the world have above 15: Handling

List of all keepers in the game with Handling 15 or higher:

• Casillas
  
• Buffon
  
• Júlio César
  
• Cech
  
• Lloris
  
• Reina
  
• van der Sar
  
• Valdés
  
• Wiese
  

With the exception of Tim Wiese, all others are World Class keepers. So, if you find a regen with high handling, there's a 90% possibility that he is a real gem!

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Outfield players:

Note that this is not a fool-proof method, but it's knowledge can give you an important edge when signing players. Of all game attributes, there's one that the majority of great players have in common. I'm not saying that without it a player cannot be great, nor stating that any player with this attribute will be a world beater.

But I'm sure that, if a player has this attribute high, there's an enormous possibility that he is or will be great.

Without further ado, I give you the most important attribute in the game:

Decisions

*In my opinion, of course

Proof?

Defenders with Decisions 19 or higher:

• Terry
  
• Lahm
  
• Samuel
  
• A. Cole
  
• Nesta
  
• L. King
  

Under-21 defenders with Decisions 16 or higher:

• S. Kjaer
  
• J. Boateng
  
• H. Badstuber
  
• M. Hummels
  
• T. Alderweireld
  
• M. Musacchio
  
• M. Sakho
  
• D. Santon
  
• N. Kvekveskiri
  

Again, with the exception of the last one, all the others are future stars.

Players with Decisions 20:

• Messi
  
• Xavi
  
• Lampard
  
• van Nistelrooy
  

U-21 players with Decisions 17 or higher:

• Busquets
  
• Müller
  
• Bale
  
• Özil
  
• Pastore
  
• Kjaer
  
• Sahin
  
• M'Vila
  
• Hummels
  
• Poli
  

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What we learned here today? Not all great players have high Decisions, but almost every player with high Decisions is a great player.

Think about that

[rafa]

FMHVibe member finishes reading Rafa's latest article. Scratches head, pulls out PSP/iOS and do a player search. Filter: Decisions > 15.

[Mysterion]

It is the middle player using your guide and just checked PSP your right

[rafa]

It is the middle player using your guide and just checked PSP your right

Mystic powers I have...

[Mysterion]

Rafa you are a genius

[StokeCity]

so can this help with regens?

[rafa]

so can this help with regens?

I don't know. Can it?

[StokeCity]

i dont know but inthery it could

[rafa]

It can. If a regen has high decisions, he probably is the regen of one of these great players.

[StokeCity]

exactly