The Truth About Stars in FM 

first 40 seconds of the video is an actual representation of how my assistant manager rates my players

I love seeing a 3 star player go up to 5 and then back down to 2.5 in the course of a season. Talking about you Emi Buendia.....

This channel is underrated af

not sure if it was stated, but PERFORMANCE has a huge effect. My world class player can go from 3.5-5 stars dependant on his perfomance.

I’ll assume that was the dancing that graced all those Swansea nightclubs back in the day

The star ratings seem to fluctuate alot more this year than previous years imo

Man next door: “What is that dimwit doing now?” Kid: “Daddy, he can’t dance. Make him stop!”

That intro is something special

I only use star ratings for the first 2 years of managing a team. After that I know which players are good and the star rating becomes only a guideline for new players until I gauge their relative ability in my opinion.

I've had a basic understanding of star ratings for some time and this video was incredibly useful to back up my opinions and shed light on areas were i wasn't so correct. I find it slightly annoying that it is solely based on your team as i think it makes it harder for you to improve your team. for example when you get promoted (especially to a much stronger league such as championship to premier league) being told your whole team is 3 to 5 stars can be misleading to many players who think their team is ready for premier league football with just a couple tweaks. i personally find it very useful to look at my best players reports to see what division they are best suited to and try to sign players that my scouts say have a similar star ratings to the players who are suited to the level i want. so if i have a 3 star player who is best suited to championship football and a 4 star who is a solid premier devision player, when i get promoted i look to buy 4 star players until my team average means that a solid premier league player is 3 stars. i also think the date of the scout report can be important to look at because sometimes you have a year old scout report that suggests a player is 4 stars but now your team has improved they will only be 3 stars once you buy them.

Definitely wins the vote for most seductive football manager tactics channel.

you're smashing it when it comes to making informative videos entertaining!

Great analysis, thank you, one thing though: In the columns section in the squad list view, remove the assistant manager's ability/potential columns and replace with scout's. Insert Column --> Scouting --> Ability & Potential. This is on my default custom saved view.

imagine driving past his house while he was filming and seeing him do the dances lol

That intro was fives stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 and a thumbs up

Best fm2020 youtuber out there! I've gained so much useful information from you!

Woah this is mad inspiring man, Its refreshing to know that you can be your genuine self and excel in youtube. Video is really entertaining and tbh I know nothing about FM but now I kind of want to. Keep it up Z

Playing FM and CM for almost 2 decades. Perfect explanation 👌. I use the Star Rating as a second opinion on my and target players. Together with 'comparison' I get usually a very overview of the CA of my players

Just found ur channel on my recommended and I love it! also from New Zealand so I love the name

I couldn't get past the intro without hitting the like button lol.. Great vid as always Z

Best FM RU-vidr, you make football manager so much more lively than other people

Especially in leagues where the difference between most clubs is low, i find stars don't always say a lot because a few attributepoints more or less, quickly result in extra stars. And then it's especially important to find players with the main attributes you want for the job they need to do, rather then picking the highest star player. I however always felt like the stars were also linked to the division i play in.

This video changed the entire game for me. Thank you. Everything makes so much more sense now I might cry

Ok man. You’ve earned my subscribe. You make the best videos about this game. And I’m addicted to this fooken game.

Thank you for explaining this to us. I've always thought it works something like this, so you've just proved me right.

Would you ever consider putting twitch clips or vods on youtube? Can't make the streams but wish i could, can't be the only one!

This is amazing, and explains why as you improving your squad you sometimes end up with someone rapidly appearing to go downhill to 2 stars

dude that intro was amazing. had me laughing in the AM which is no mean feat!.

Always a well made video sir! Appreciate if you can dive more into development center & playing time pathway someday. Cheers!!

The first minute was so good that I subscribed as soon as I could 😂😂

This brilliant game and these videos are getting me through isolation I love it

Entertaining and informative. Great content!

Usually my most consistent player is a 2, 2 and a half star player. Stars are a good quick reference but u need to trust the numbers in the important stats. Great video btw

When considering buying a player, using the comparison screen is a great way to compare to the player you are looking to place if you dont trust your scouts...

Helpful Vid Zealand!!! Keep em’ comin’

This. Is. So. Helpful. Thank you so much!!!!

2:38 solid way to say “circle jerk” without getting demonetized

Thank you, finally I see someone say this, I figured out the star sistem when I put Everton on the 11th League and signed a Pakistani player with five stars and then when I signed a guy with Championship quality, the other guy went from 5 stars to 2 stars in a second

7:41 The ability levels on the progress screen are not relative, this is the player fluctuating in his progress and some players take a dip during summer break. The star ratings shown are however relative. If you a year later, after significant squad upgrades, again look at Jarlans star rating in March 27 it could very well be that his star rating is shown as 2.5 stars. (sorry if it is getting too nerdy ;-) )

I do believe that the star rating is how the player's skill level is perceived within the team, and it's related to the playing time pathway feature. When my guy's star rating fluctuated a lot during the season, when I tried to negotiate the contract he asked for important player playtime when he was at 4 stars, and then only for first team player when he was at 3 stars.

Great channel. Love that intro 😆

Nice video, it certainly clarified some misunderstandings I had!

Very helpful and entertaing video at a same time. Thanks bro!

Best Intro ever!

Dude ypu deserve so much more views and klicks. maybe the wrong game. thanks for the vids and the entertainment

Great video on stars. And that plug for this guy is good and this guy is not... I would be thrilled to see it. Say you searched for the attributes for a Complete Wing Back and in the list you see one guy a scout has given 3 stars and another 4 stars for their current ability. Breaking down what the variance is and how important of a distinction that is in a video (maybe for 3 different positions) would be great. I haven't really seen that from any other FM service, nor have I done it myself and I assume it would be related to the core attributes for the role or the mental attributes but who knows maybe it's all garbage, either way we would all like to become a FM genius :p

Really good explanation - thanks

This channel has been a massive help. Sensible advice well explained. Managed to take Hereford FC to FA Trophy success on my first season! (Also sick dance moves.)

Haaland on my Mainz save had a terrific season at age 23 took him to 4.5 Star. Then he fell off the cliff next season took him down to 3 Stars. So it also depends on form as well.

The club reputation also affects stars. After winning the Europa League with Dinamo Zagreb, the club's reputation raised from national to continental, so my 4-star players became 3 or 3.5-star players instantly. All in all, great videos, I still haven't watched them all, but I would for sure. I was a massive Championship Manager 01-02 fan, played it for 15 years. I also played FM 2006 and 2009, but 2014 was the first FM that forced me to give up on CM :) Now, I play FM 2019 and it's pretty interesting. No big difference in regard to 2020. Nice choice with BATE Borisov, I've always played with big teams from small countries (Dinamo Zagreb, Partizan Belgrade, Glasgow Celtic are my top three).

Great content, have learned a lot by watching your videos. Is there any way you can do a video on getting work permits for players ? maybe south america bc they have huge talent but never get a work permit unless youre a huge club

That intro was fantastic 😂

Willo Flood at BATE as a coach, I've really seen everything now

This was very informative. Cheers!

I feel like 90% of the time when a player is being given a high star-rating by my staff relative to what I think of their attributes, it's because they're in really good form. Form has a huge impact on star ratings in this FM in particular, you can go from 4.5* upon arrival at a club down to 3* just based on not being in the same vein of form as you were 3 months ago. That's why to me it's not super reliable.

I just love your personality 😂❤️

Zeaiand I was wondering if it would make a good video analyzing the importance of high attributes for set pieces. I suspect that it should be on the list of buys for any club that they have someone that is an expert at set pieces (free kicks especially) even if that person is considerably worse at everything else.

Hey man ... subbed even though I haven't played FM since ... 2015? You're a funny guy. How come you haven't got any playthroughs to follow here on RU-vid? Get some in, ya numpty!

that's the best video intro i've ever seen

I always add the attributes of the players playing role and divide that number with the number of attributes used to get the av. rating for that role. f.e. a sweeper keeper with att duty is used, then I calculate for each of my goalkeepers their att for sweeper keeper and divide that number with 20 (since 20 att are highlighted for a sweeper keeper with att duty). I do that every 30th of June, 31st of December to check their progress. I lose a lot of time this way, cca 1.5-2 hours every time calculating but it makes me feel good to see that average rise. a good example is Donnarumma who has, at start, for SK-Att av. rat of 13,05 and now in the second season has 13,6 :) would love for SI to implement this in the game so that I do not need to calculate every time but oh well...

Very informative! So how does the star system when scouting potential players to sign? What are those stats relevant to? Your own existing players? Or the players in their squad that they currently play for? This has opened a can of worms for me haha

Best Intro yet, Z

This just blew my mind, and I have been playing this game for like 20 years now...

that intro was beautiful

Since I've been living in Fiji for the past three years, this video surprised and made me laugh (I didn't even know the proper name of the FJ league) :D

This is the best video intro of all time 😂

Great Chanel mate

I was looking for a video about this :)

Love your intro 😂

Officially best intro ever

I agree 100% that the star rating of players is relative to your team. Indeed, you will also notice that there is a good chance that the star rating of players outside of your team will go down if you increase the quality of your team (if the player in question does not improve at an equal or better rate than your overall squad, that is).

This has explained so much confusion i had!

Can you make a video on how to get the best regens on the first day they appear? Love your channel

If you hover over "ability" and "potential" on the reports screen shown at 3:24 it will tell you that the star ratings are your assistant managers opinion. But you can also create a custom player view and if you under filter choose "scouting" you can actually create a player view where the "ability" and "potential" star ratings are the opinions of your scouts. If you do so you will from time to time see different star ratings on the squad overview screen versus the individual player screen which is still showing coach opinions. The star ratings seem in both cases to be summaries of either all your coaches or all your scouts.

Speaking from my experience. League level, personality, physicality/ technique/mental attribute, player's age, coach judgment ability, player role and how many appearance(s) are working together when determining the star rating.

when it is for your own players it is relative towards the system you play including the positional instructions. but independantly of this it is for their best position. Example empty your team selection and drop down select for a player, you will see players rated different stars for different possitions. So if you have Paul Pogba he is 4 and 1/2 or 5 star normally, but if you play 4-1-4-1 with 1 defensive play maker and 2 attacking play makers he will be 3 star for those as his best position is left hand side of a two man midfield.

5 stars for d intro!

quality content every time

The music in the background is from the game King of Retail. That distracted me so much. Lol

Thx for the content man

I’m a simple man. I see great content, I subscribe.

This video is a total game changer for me.

what a fucking intro, immediate subscription

You can use 1 member of your scouting staff for the star rating of your team. You can select scout opinion of ability and/or potential as a custom view in team screen. Not sure which scout that is though, I assume the chief scout but might be wrong.

In FM12 I played Lokomotiv Moscow. I have an Inside Forward, 2 star rating, his name is Denis Parfenov. One day my team reached the Semifinal of UCL vs Real Madrid, and Parfenov scored 2 against Casillas. One of his goal was lob ball. The aggregat was 4-2 for my team. We went to final and faced Liverpool. He scored 1 and we won 3-1 and lift the UCL Trophy.

@4:15 Think you can get scout star ratings for your team by configuring your current squad view to include the appropriate scout CA/PA star rating option.

Hello Zealand from beautiful Greece! First of all you helped me a lot becoming better in fm. Your videos are very informative and helpfull. Based on this video i would like to ask you to make a video on scouting. Shoud i trust my scouts based on their reccomendations? Because it happend to find a wonderkid but when i scouted the player my scouter gave me a 60 preccent reccomendation. So please do a video about scouting because its my favourite aspect of the game.

Yo man the beginning of the video had me bustin out laughin hard

The thing you didn't mention and does change a star rating a lot is form. During the season, outside of transfer window, with no squad changes some players go from 4.5 star rating to a 3 star rating because they don't perform that well, and once they do start playing well again it increases. I wouldn't say fm players hate star ratings or don't rate it at all but I agree they can be very misleading. Great video though!

What is that Rick James style music at the beginning? Love it!

The dancing made me subscribe before even watching the whole video

This video pulls together something I was already starting to notice. Mainly, when I look at a 4 star player on my team (sunderland after one year) and then look at a 3 star player from one of these videos, the three stars in the videos from advanced saves in the premier league instead championship blow my four and four and a half star players out of the water. This is the first save I've played for a full season and I'm now realizing I have a problem which is, I've been buying young players and prospects around star potential rather than strictly paying more attention to the actual stats because I figured the player was going to get good eventually. But if their potential is 5* in championship they could be only a three star in premier league, which means almost all my signings are going to be trash if I get promoted. I guess we will see how things turn out.

this intro was worth 5 stars

Star increase for registration (Belarusian in this case) and especially in fm20 form has really lessened the quality of it imho. There really should be a simple raw rating for quality even if it is compared to quality of own team. The amount it can change for role/position changes is also questionable. It should change but sometimes it seems 2 much.

What a voice, jesus, it's amazing

It all made sense to me when I got a godly 18 year old from my Nigerian farm club and my whole team went from 4 stars to 2 1/2

YES! Kane's rick roll made it into a vid!

Had a player recently whilst i managed at sporting lisbon. Started the season 4 and a half star with 5 star potential. He has scored 25 by christmas, still 4 and a half star CA. Didnt buy anyone except couple youngsters in jan. Gets the the end of the season and he has scored 56 in 42 games. Yet somehow now he is only 4 star. He is my highest scoring player ever yet the star rating reckons he is worse than what he started as

Very useful. I assume it was the average of your league. I’m sure many of us worried why our players are getting worse by losing stars

Best intro ever