Potential rating dropping

[mersk]

Anyone else experiencing this? The coach report will say 4.5 stars potential, he's playing regularly and fairly well, yet he suddenly drops to 4 stars.

Take Raheem Sterling, who's been my first choice on AML for two and a half season. He's had a 5 star potential rating all along, he's been superb and has an avg. rating of 7.37 so far this season. Suddenly his value increased from £17.5m to £20m, yet his potential rating dropped to 4.5 stars!

I didn't make any changes to neither the squad or the backroom staff in that period of time, he's playing great and progressing well in training, so I'm having a real hard time trying to make sense of it. Is anyone experiencing the same thing? Or knows why it happens? It's not that the potential rating is all that important to me, as long as the player is playing well and progressing (hell, one of my best players this season only has a 3 star rating). It's just frustrating and I can't figure out what causes it.

EDIT: Of course, I'm also experiencing the opposite: After it has dropped, it can sometimes suddenly go back to its previous rating. I figured this had to do with apps and performances, but the Sterling one confuses me.

[Bob Dole]

As the overall strength of your squad increases this will reflect on the star rating of your players.

For example, in the case of Sterling over time you must have added players. or as a whole your team have improved if they're young. Thus the star system, which is a reflection of their ability to squad strength will decrease as your team is stronger. It's just a correlation. Hence why when you scout a team their star rating is different if you compare them to their squad or yours.

The rating can also be effected by training facilities, thus the reason when you send players on loan their potential goes down a bit but usually goes back to normal when they return.

[mersk]

As the overall strength of your squad increases this will reflect on the star rating of your players.

For example, in the case of Sterling over time you must have added players. or as a whole your team have improved if they're young. Thus the star system, which is a reflection of their ability to squad strength will decrease as your team is stronger. It's just a correlation. Hence why when you scout a team their star rating is different if you compare them to their squad or yours.

The rating can also be effected by training facilities, thus the reason when you send players on loan their potential goes down a bit but usually goes back to normal when they return.

Yes, I was aware of this possibility, as I've heard others mention it before. However, during the time Sterling dropped in rating, I didn't buy any players, didn't make any changes whatsoever to the squad, the staff, the facilities or anything else. Like I said, he even increased in value at the same time as dropping in rating!

In other words, if you're right it must be due to general improvement among the squad. This would make some sense, as my squad is very young. However, I haven't noticed any improvement in rating among any of the other players. Could it be simply because they have indeed improved attribute-wise, but that the improvement isn't big enough to be reflected in the coaches' potential rating? Which again makes the improvement hard to spot, but is enough to make Sterling's rating drop?

Thanks for your input. I'm sure you're right, and I'm trying not to put too much emphasis on the rating. I have also noticed what you mention regarding players out on loan, so I guess it does explain it. I just have some sort of fetish for 5 star rating.

[Scotty98TR]

Yes, I was aware of this possibility, as I've heard others mention it before. However, during the time Sterling dropped in rating, I didn't buy any players, didn't make any changes whatsoever to the squad, the staff, the facilities or anything else. Like I said, he even increased in value at the same time as dropping in rating!

In other words, if you're right it must be due to general improvement among the squad. This would make some sense, as my squad is very young. However, I haven't noticed any improvement in rating among any of the other players. Could it be simply because they have indeed improved attribute-wise, but that the improvement isn't big enough to be reflected in the coaches' potential rating? Which again makes the improvement hard to spot, but is enough to make Sterling's rating drop?

Thanks for your input. I'm sure you're right, and I'm trying not to put too much emphasis on the rating. I have also noticed what you mention regarding players out on loan, so I guess it does explain it. I just have some sort of fetish for 5 star rating.

But it is rated in comparison to the other player's CURRENT ability, so as other players get better, his potential rating might decrease

[mersk]

But it is rated in comparison to the other player's CURRENT ability, so as other players get better, his potential rating might decrease

Yeah, that's what I was referring to when I said "Could it be simply because they have indeed improved attribute-wise, but that the improvement isn't big enough to be reflected in the coaches' potential rating?"
But for some reason I wrote potential instead of current, my bad.

[mnk26]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to star ratings personally, in previous FM's they would sometimes be flat out wrong. Example: Sime Vrsalkjo in FM 12 was consistently my highest rated defender over 6 seasons and rarely, if ever, had a bad game. Yet he was almost always rated 2.5-3 stars, lower than the rest of my defenders. Of course in the case of player potential it is different and an important thing to pay attention to, but they do fluctuate up/down pretty often so it's not something to worry about.