FM11 Guide - Scouting & Player Search

In your job as football manager you’re inevitably going to need to recruit more players. Scouting is useful in expanding the number of players that appear in your player searches, finding new players you might not be aware of and in giving you more information about a player and whether they are suitable for your team. If you’re using attribute masking then scouting is crucial in revealing all of a players attributes.

The player search allows you to view all players that are known by your club and set filters to help you narrow down the results and find players that are right for you.

Scouts
Your scouts have a couple of different functions, they can be sent out on assignments to gain knowledge of other nations and recommend players to you, they can give you scout reports on specific players and they can scout your next opposition and give you tactical advice. The most important attributes for a scout are judging ability and judging potential. Other useful attributes are level of discipline and adaptability which have an effect on how successful a scout is on assignment and tactical knowledge which is important if you have a scout who is scouting your next opposition.

Scouting Knowledge
Your clubs scouting knowledge determines what players appear in the player search (and staff search). For example, if your club has full knowledge (100%) of Albania then all Albanian players will appear in an unfiltered player search. At 90% knowledge of Albania your player search would show roughly the 90% highest reputation Albanian players and so on. Very high reputation players will appear on you player search regardless of whether you have knowledge of their country.



The scouting knowledge screen shows what regions and countries your club has knowledge of, the level of that knowledge and also where or who that knowledge comes from. Your clubs scouting knowledge can come from several sources:

• Your clubs nation - A Scottish club will have full knowledge of Scotland, a Welsh club will have full knowledge of Wales and so on.
• Links with other clubs - A link with Melbourne Victory of Australia will give your club full knowledge of Australia and any other knowledge Melbourne Victory have.
• Staff knowledge – The knowledge of each member of staff at your club becomes part of your clubs knowledge until that staff member leaves. Almost all staff members have complete knowledge of their own nation and often additional knowledge of other nations so it can be a big advantage to have staff from many different nations. Staff can also gain knowledge through relationships with other staff members in the game, they gain 50% of their favored personnel’s knowledge. For example, Sir Alex Ferguson lists Carlos Queiroz as favored personnel, Carlos Queiroz has 100% knowledge of Portugal, so Sir Alex Ferguson has 50% knowledge of Portugal.
• Scouting assignments – Scouts can gain additional knowledge from scouting nations and regions on assignments, the knowledge gained from scouting a country will remain at 100% for about a month before slowly dropping back down to its original level.

Scouting Assignments



Scouting assignments are used to scout specific nations, regions and competitions. Only scouts can be put on scouting assignments. There may be restrictions on where you can send your scouts which can be viewed on the boardroom overview screen, it’s possible to expand the areas you’re allowed to scout through a board request. The time it takes for an assignment to be completed depends on the type of assignment, the size of the nation or region being scouted and the numbers of players in that nation or region. The mental attributes of a scout may also have an effect on this. The different types of assignments are listed below:

• Nations – A scout will search that nation making a number of scout reports on recommended players until his knowledge reaches 100% then the assignment is complete.
• Regions – A scout will search each nation in that region individually making a number of scout reports on recommended players until he gains 100% knowledge of that nation, then he moves onto the next nation in that region until he has scouted each country once, then the assignment is complete.
• Competitions – A scout will watch games from that competition and give scout reports on players that he recommends. Competition assignments won’t give you any knowledge of a nation.
• Next opposition – Your scout will give you a report on your next opposition and give you advice.

Scout Reports



Scout reports give you detailed information on a player, they give you insight into a player that you would not be able to gain simply from looking at their profile. Scout reports are gained naturally through scouting assignments or can be made by asking any of your staff to give you a report on specific players. Scouts, coaches and your assistant can be asked to give you scouting reports. You can ask your staff to give you scout reports on as many players as you want but they will only complete 3-5 reports a day. Below is some insight into the different areas of a scout report:

• Personality – here the players most distinct personality attribute (highest or lowest) is described. Also your teams personality (as can be seen on your club information screen) is compared to the players relevant personality attribute, for example, if your squad personality is professional then the scouted players professionalism attribute is compared.
• Strengths & Weaknesses – here you’ll gain insight into a players best and worst attributes and if you’re lucky then some information on hidden attributes can also be found such as how consistent a player is or how injury prone he is and so on.
• Current Ability – here you get a star rating based on how good the player currently is in his best position. In addition you get a comparison of him to the best player in your team in his position and also a judgment on what league standard the player is capable of playing at. The accuracy of the information in this section is based on the staff members ability to judge player ability.
• Potential Ability – here you get a star rating based on how good a player can become in the future, a comparison of his potential against the current best player in your team in his position and also what league standard the player is capable of playing at if he reaches his full potential. The accuracy of information in this section is based on the staffs members ability to judge player potential.
• Transfer Information – this section lets you know whether the player is likely to be interested in joining your club, a rough estimate of the minimum transfer fee his club will likely accept and also what the players minimum wage requirements are likely to be.

Player Search and Filters
The player search function is crucial in finding the players that are right for you. Unfiltered, the player search will show all players known to you (high reputation players and players known through your clubs scouting knowledge). The filter has many options that can help you find certain types of players; you can make it show only players with specific attributes, a specific position, below a certain transfer value and you can even get your assistant to filter out players that would not be interested in joining your club. Filters can be saved and when you first join a club it’s useful to create a variety of filters for different positions and age groups that can quickly be accessed whenever you need to look for certain types of players.





If after narrowing down your search using filters you decide you want extra insight into the players or you just can’t be bothered to go through each players profile you can easily ask for scout reports on multiple players by right clicking and selecting get scout report. Later, you can go that staff members reports and just look through the players that have the highest recommendation rating.





Newgen Dates
Newgen players are created each year to replace retiring players. Each country has its own newgen date and it can be useful to know this date for each country so you can be the first person to find the next Messi and beat the big clubs to the signing. Below are the Newgen dates for each nation in the game.
01.01: Chile
02.01: Brazil
05.01: Iceland, Republic of Ireland
07.01: Finland
10.01: Colombia, Singapore
15.01: African teams (all but South Africa)
20.01: China PR, Norway
28.01: Peru
14.02: Belarus
09.05: Costa Rica
10.05: Honduras, Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, St Vincent, Guyana, Grenada, El Salvador, Cuba, Bermuda
07.06: Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzeg., Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, Georgia, Andorra, Albania, American Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu, Armenia, Malta
20.06: Australia, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales
25.06: Austria, England
29.06: Slovakia
30.06: Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Cyprus, Indonesia,
01.07: Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania
07.07: Denmark, Netherlands
10.07: Serbia, Spain
15.07: Argentina, South Africa, India
20.07: Mexico
29.07: Poland
01.08: Uruguay
20.08: Mali
19.09: Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago
01.12: Sweden, Hong Kong
09.12: Canada, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, U.A.E, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Macau, Yemen, Thailand, Tajikistan, Syria, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Palestine, Pakistan, Oman, Northern Mariana Islands, Nepal, N. Korea, Mynamar, Mongolia, Maldives, Macau (China PR), Laos, Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, Guam, East Timor, Chinese Taipei, Cambodia, Brunei, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh,
15.12: Malaysia,
27.12: Russia, Sth Korea, U.S.A


Advanced Tips

• Sign many foreign staff members to easily increase your clubs scouting knowledge.
• Be aware of the newgen dates for each country so you can be the first to spot and snap up new talent
• Create and save player search filters for each position so you can quickly find suitable players
• Using scout utilities such as Genie Scout or Scoutmeister can make scouting much easier and quicker