Football Manager Mad.
Scouting Players
How to find the best Young Talent, Youth Players & Wonderkids in Football Manager
I often get tired of sitting around waiting for my scouts to find young talent in-game, and usually found that bigger clubs with better scouts always snapped up the best players before I'm aware of them and particularly if you're managing a lower league team your scouts most likely aren't of sufficient calibre to hunt the best youngsters down for you.
Here's some tips on how to spot the best young talent, youth players and wonderkids so that you can sign them before the bigger clubs come sniffing, and it involves you the manager becoming your own chief scout.
Using these methods my club has become a Wonderkid academy, bringing the best youth players through it's ranks from around the world before anyone else gets to them and before their prices become over-inflated.
It does take time, but it's well worth it!
Here are the best ways to go about it:
Method 1
Go to Search>Players and filter by 'Person Age' 'is at most 18', making sure that the box 'ask assistant to filter out unrealistic targets' is unchecked. You now have a huge list of under 18's, go to View>Change to Selection Info and then click on the 'Last 5 games' column to sort by form from best form to lowest.
Working from the top of the list I scout using my best scouts and add to shortlist (tip: adding to shortlist means you'll always be alerted in 'News' if another team is trying to make a move for the player) any player who has played more than 2 games (indicated by the amount of form bars, all those who have at least 2 bars) until I get down to around 7.40 average form. (tip: so you don't have to view and scout each player individually use ctrl or shift to highlight more than one player at a time and then right click whilst hovering over them to scout multiple players)
Then generally as a rule if a player comes through the scouting with 3.5 stars or above then I'll look at signing them.
This method is useful as the 'Last 5 games' also includes reserve games and under 18 games, so it can help you find talent hidden away in other clubs reserve and youth teams that you might not normally spot.
Method 2
Follow the same pattern as Method 1, but rather than viewing 'Last 5 games' go to View>Stats and then click on the 'Average Rating' column from the highest average rating to the lowest and continue to follow the pattern of Method 1 only scouting players who have made 2 or more appearances either starting or as a substitute.
This method only finds young players who have broken into the first team of a club as the average rating only covers first team matches played. So it is very useful for finding good young players from less well known teams or outstanding young players or wonderkids who are already good enough for a bigger clubs first team.
Method 3
To get the best results with this method it is best if when you start your game that you choose to be able to view the top Brazilian and Argentinean leagues as well as the top 2 tiers of the Italian, German, French, Spanish and Scottish Leagues.
Go to >World and select for example Brazil>Under 20s and then go to each 'Group' selecting Stats>Player Stats. Then scout the top players in each category and maybe click on the average rating category to view the complete list of players and continue to work down the list as far as you want to go. It can also be useful to repeat this method in Under 20s>Under 20s Cup.
I try and use this method a couple of times a season so as not to miss any talent coming through, and particularly focusing on the Argentinean and Brazilian top tier as you can often sign the players for much better value than European players.
Just be aware that although you can snap up a South American player at 15 or 16 he won't join your club until he is 18.
Method 4
Follow the same pattern as Method 3, but as Under 19s & Under 21s European Championship and World Cup and Qualifiers come around follow the 'World' menu to them and go to Stats>Player Stats and again scout the top players in each category.
Method 5
Go to any team and select 'Under 19s' or 'Under 18s' etc and click on the 'Average Rating' column to sort from the highest to lowest and scout and add to shortlist all the players who have an average rating above 7.00.
I usually try and do this whenever a top Argentinean or Brazilian team comes up in 'News'.
Method 6
Ok, this is the last one and you may feel it's taking it too far but it helps you to keep your eye on top youth players coming through across the world.
Whenever an International Under 21s or 19s team comes up in my 'News' or if you are really up for a challenge and are really determined to find talent you can work your way through all of the International Under 21s & 19s teams then I will click on each team and highlight all of the players in the team, scouting them (spreading the load amongst all of your scouts) and adding to shortlist.
Once you've started this it's easier to keep on top of as usually there will only be a couple of new additions to each team during a season. The advantage of adding the whole team to shortlist is that they'll always be highlighted red so it's much easier to spot new players in the team plus you'll be alerted in 'News' when a club is making a move for a player.
Well I hope this has been helpful, and take my word for it you'll soon have the best youth team in the game and a whole generation of wonderkids making their way through the ranks!
How to find the best Young Talent, Youth Players & Wonderkids in Football Manager
I often get tired of sitting around waiting for my scouts to find young talent in-game, and usually found that bigger clubs with better scouts always snapped up the best players before I'm aware of them and particularly if you're managing a lower league team your scouts most likely aren't of sufficient calibre to hunt the best youngsters down for you.
Here's some tips on how to spot the best young talent, youth players and wonderkids so that you can sign them before the bigger clubs come sniffing, and it involves you the manager becoming your own chief scout.
Using these methods my club has become a Wonderkid academy, bringing the best youth players through it's ranks from around the world before anyone else gets to them and before their prices become over-inflated.
It does take time, but it's well worth it!
Here are the best ways to go about it:
Method 1
Go to Search>Players and filter by 'Person Age' 'is at most 18', making sure that the box 'ask assistant to filter out unrealistic targets' is unchecked. You now have a huge list of under 18's, go to View>Change to Selection Info and then click on the 'Last 5 games' column to sort by form from best form to lowest.
Working from the top of the list I scout using my best scouts and add to shortlist (tip: adding to shortlist means you'll always be alerted in 'News' if another team is trying to make a move for the player) any player who has played more than 2 games (indicated by the amount of form bars, all those who have at least 2 bars) until I get down to around 7.40 average form. (tip: so you don't have to view and scout each player individually use ctrl or shift to highlight more than one player at a time and then right click whilst hovering over them to scout multiple players)
Then generally as a rule if a player comes through the scouting with 3.5 stars or above then I'll look at signing them.
This method is useful as the 'Last 5 games' also includes reserve games and under 18 games, so it can help you find talent hidden away in other clubs reserve and youth teams that you might not normally spot.
Method 2
Follow the same pattern as Method 1, but rather than viewing 'Last 5 games' go to View>Stats and then click on the 'Average Rating' column from the highest average rating to the lowest and continue to follow the pattern of Method 1 only scouting players who have made 2 or more appearances either starting or as a substitute.
This method only finds young players who have broken into the first team of a club as the average rating only covers first team matches played. So it is very useful for finding good young players from less well known teams or outstanding young players or wonderkids who are already good enough for a bigger clubs first team.
Method 3
To get the best results with this method it is best if when you start your game that you choose to be able to view the top Brazilian and Argentinean leagues as well as the top 2 tiers of the Italian, German, French, Spanish and Scottish Leagues.
Go to >World and select for example Brazil>Under 20s and then go to each 'Group' selecting Stats>Player Stats. Then scout the top players in each category and maybe click on the average rating category to view the complete list of players and continue to work down the list as far as you want to go. It can also be useful to repeat this method in Under 20s>Under 20s Cup.
I try and use this method a couple of times a season so as not to miss any talent coming through, and particularly focusing on the Argentinean and Brazilian top tier as you can often sign the players for much better value than European players.
Just be aware that although you can snap up a South American player at 15 or 16 he won't join your club until he is 18.
Method 4
Follow the same pattern as Method 3, but as Under 19s & Under 21s European Championship and World Cup and Qualifiers come around follow the 'World' menu to them and go to Stats>Player Stats and again scout the top players in each category.
Method 5
Go to any team and select 'Under 19s' or 'Under 18s' etc and click on the 'Average Rating' column to sort from the highest to lowest and scout and add to shortlist all the players who have an average rating above 7.00.
I usually try and do this whenever a top Argentinean or Brazilian team comes up in 'News'.
Method 6
Ok, this is the last one and you may feel it's taking it too far but it helps you to keep your eye on top youth players coming through across the world.
Whenever an International Under 21s or 19s team comes up in my 'News' or if you are really up for a challenge and are really determined to find talent you can work your way through all of the International Under 21s & 19s teams then I will click on each team and highlight all of the players in the team, scouting them (spreading the load amongst all of your scouts) and adding to shortlist.
Once you've started this it's easier to keep on top of as usually there will only be a couple of new additions to each team during a season. The advantage of adding the whole team to shortlist is that they'll always be highlighted red so it's much easier to spot new players in the team plus you'll be alerted in 'News' when a club is making a move for a player.
Well I hope this has been helpful, and take my word for it you'll soon have the best youth team in the game and a whole generation of wonderkids making their way through the ranks!
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