Board Expectations / Star Rating / Getting Sacked

[SpHSpH]

I have figured out some quirks about how your team's star rating is calculated ... and how that star rating influences the board expectations ... and how you can manipulate your team's star rating (and, therefore, have some control over your initial board expectations). This is all in the spirit of not getting fired. Here we go ...

The game uses the average OVR of your top 18 players (regardless of position, age, whether or not they are in your team sheet, etc. - but this does NOT include any players that you have away on loan) to calculate the overall star rating for your team. I checked this for a variety of teams using the rosters from SoFIFA. For example. the top 18 players for Swansea City had an average OVR of 76.83 ... which rounds to 77 ...

81+ ... 5.0 stars
77 - 80 ... 4.5 stars
74 - 76 ... 4.0 stars
70 - 73 ... 3.5 stars
66 - 69 ... 3.0 stars
64 - 65 ... 2.5 stars

... and Swansea are listed as a 4.5 star rating team.

Next - I checked how the board expectation varied as a function of the star rating (admittedly - this also depends on the league that you are playing in). Swansea are expected to qualify for Euro Cup (which means finish 5th) ... and all other 4.5 star rating teams in the EPL had the same board expectation (Southampton / Stoke / Spurs). When I checked the board expectation for 4.0 star rating teams (West Ham, Sunderland, Newcastle) ... the expectation was reduced to "finish mid-table". And so on ...

My next move was to see what I could do about reducing the star rating of my team - so that I could receive a more manageable board expectation. I *wanted* the answer to be that I could add a bunch of scrubs to my roster ... yes, this will reduce the complete OVR for my team ... but remember, the game only uses the average of your top 18 players. So I needed to make some decisions about if any of those top 18 could be removed in an effort to push my top 18 average down to 76 (if you remove a player ... the next player in line now becomes part of the top 18 ... and the average recalculates). I decided to part with some of my "higher-rated but old and less likely to play" players ... and I pushed my average down to 76.00 ... and my star rating adjusted to 4.0 ... and my board expectations changed to "finish mid-table". And I was pleased.

(Note - you will need to make these roster adjustments before you begin your career ... go to edit teams / transfer players ... something like that ... and transfer the necessary players from your squad (you can just place them in the free agents) ... then you will need to save the squads ... and when you begin your career ... you will need to use "current customized" squads.)

This work-around is really only useful at the start of your career - I do not have any advice about what to do with board expectation for the beginning of Year Two and so on. But usually the first year is the hardest for me (because I need to get used to playing the newer version of FIFA) - after I make it through a full season, I am more willing to tackle a tougher objective.

So you, the player, have to make a decision about balancing board expectations against the stronger players on your roster ... you cannot win both times ... either you have to accept a challenging objective or you have to be willing to "cut" one (or some) of your top 18 players. Your call!

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I am not adeptly skilled at the actual playing of the game (I am always on here asking loads of questions about to get better at mashing the buttons) nor am I particularly useful in the slider iterations (I am only marginally contributing there) ... but I am very good at spreadsheets and analytic problem solving ... so this kind of nerd-stuff is a way that I can contribute to the OS FIFA community.

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Also ... when is the v1.05 update coming to XBox? ... someone needs to get on that!

[EvertonianSteeler]

I love it when people do all this analytical stuff. I am guessing that if you released some older players at the end of the season it might have a similiar effect but could get quite costly paying off the contracts. Maybe you could take the risk of not renewing a contract, releasing them on last day of season and hoping they are still available as free agent when new season starts if you want them back.

Was it you that did the referee ranking spreadsheet on 15 ....... if so do you fancy doing it again !!!!