UPDATE: Check out the latest version of my Monthly Scouting Report Guide, updated for FIFA 19.
After a month of scouting you’ll receive a Monthly Scouting Report in your inbox, it’s mostly straightforward but here’s a guide to help you understand the important parts. TL;DR at the bottom as always!
Player Types
Even with a 5*/5* scout, it’s likely that all players in your first monthly scouting report will show up as ‘Unknown’ player type. The only way to discover this is to leave them on the scouting report and hope it appears next month (risky), look at their available stats along with their potential positions and make a guess or just sign them. Once the player is in your youth academy their player type will no longer be hidden. If you’re a bit unsure about about player types, go back and read the previous section of our guide.
Position
A player’s exact position will also be vague at least for the first scouting report. You will be shown a pitch and usually up to three positions that they might play in (the exception being Goalkeepers). Just like with player types you can either wait, guess or just sign them to your academy.
Overall Rating (OVR)
This is the number that you’ll be most familiar with because its ubiquitous across FIFA 18 and is the simplest way to understand how good a player currently is. Each player in the monthly scouting report will have their estimated overall rating represented as a minimum and maximum range. The difference between the two numbers is usually around 16 and will decrease if you leave that player on the scouting report for next month. Just like Player Type and Position, Overall Rating is revealed once a player has been signed to your youth academy.
Potential
This number is also represented by a minimum-maximum range to keep you guessing. This is the number that you should be really interested in and for that reason the game makes the ranges wider than for Overall Rating, usually between 20-25 to start with. Once again, this range will decrease in size if you leave the player on the scout report. One difference with Potential is that you won’t be given an outright number if you sign a player to your academy.
Value
This is the monetary value of a given player and can only be viewed if you select that player. I find that this number is useful in determining a youth player’s current Overall Rating. If you’re playing as a top side, you ideally want youth players that already have an OVR of 60 or more. To do this you’re going to want to target players that have a value of at least £300,000. Anything under this and the players starting OVR is so low that it will take a lot of training and gametime to get them to a reasonable level, by that point their potential might have already dipped. Obviously if you’re playing with lower league sides, many of the less impressive youth players will still be suitable for you. The temptation when you first start youth scouting is to sign everyone, because an OVR of 44-60 and Potential of 60-85 looks interesting. This soon falls apart when you’re left with a 48 OVR player with a potential of 71.
Stats
Looking at a players individual statistics can sometimes be useful if you are very particular about the kind of players you are looking for. However, while looking at players in the monthly scouting report, most of their stats will be obscured. It appears to be random which ones are actually displayed, so there’s no guarantee you’ll even see that statistics that are important to you. As with a player’s Overall Rating, individual stats will be represented as current and potential values. It’s easy to get caught up in these numbers but don’t forget you can improve most stats (except physical ones) through training – although it’s up to you whether you want to spend your training sessions smoothing out flaws or improving strengths.
What Next?
With each monthly scouting report you have a few choices, first of all you could exit out of career mode and reload the save (if you saved the day before) – but this is something of a grey area, perhaps I’ll do a blog post on this in future. Playing the waiting game is your next option if you’re unsure on a player and want the accuracy of the report to improve. Be warned though, doing this means there is a risk of another club signing the player to their own academy (how? we aren’t able to do this to other teams?!). The other point I would make here is that for the very best youth prospects, you’ll know straight away – no need to leave them on the scouting report for another month. If a player is 65+ OVR/80-95 potential and/or worth £500k plus – my advice is sign them straight away! When you have found a player you’d like to sign, go into their menu and hit sign player. This will automatically add them into your youth academy and put them on a weekly wage of £425 – unnoticeable for most clubs.
TL;DR
- All players will have a ‘player type’, but this won’t always be visible
- With the exception of goalkeepers, a player’s true position won’t be clear until they have been on your report a few months or you have signed them
- Overall Rating and Potential Rating are displayed as ranges that will decrease in size each month
- The best way to assess youth prospect is a combination of OVR, potential and value – 65+ OVR, 80-95 potential and £300k+ are usually winners