Football Manager is an extremely frustrating game.
You know the drill. You spend hours putting your team together. You’re careful to pay attention to all of your scouting recommendations. You choose only players who have an A rating or better – or, if you’re playing in an older game, you only choose players who get a “90” recommendation from your scout.
You focus on young, untried players. You bring them in, hoping to develop them.
But they never seem to play up to their potential, no matter how much you try.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. All of us have run into this problem from time to time.
There are a number of things that might be going on in this scenario. Your players might simply not be good enough. Your scouts might not be good enough – they might not know talent when they see it. There might be a problem with your tactics.
Or – and this is the scary part – it might just be that your players have poor consistency ratings.
Inconsistency
So what causes inconsistency in Football Manager?
Are all young players inconsistent? Is it an attribute that improves with player age, or with in-game experience?
Is consistency something that you can teach a player, or something that you can mentor them into? Is it worth it to pay top dollar for a player with good looking ratings who just so happens to have that tell-tale yellow, orange, or red inconsistent target on his profile?
Let’s look into these questions one at a time.
What Causes Inconsistency?
Consistency is one of those secretive, hidden attributes in Football Manager – one of the ones you can only see if you cheat.
Just like every other attribute, consistency is rated from 1 to 20. A player with a 20 consistency rating is extremely consistent; a player with a 1 is as inconsistent as they come.
The deeper the green that famous target is, the higher the consistency rating. In contrast, a player with a consistency rating of 1 will have a dark red target on his coaching screen.
What Does Inconsistency Do?
In football manager, a consistent player performs to the best of his ability each game.
Likewise, an inconsistent player is a player who might not play to the best of his ability on any given game.
There is no way to predict when an inconsistent player will play to his current ability. He might have a hat trick one game, and then go three games in a row without even a peep. He might play well every other game, every 5th game, or every 10th game. There’s no way to predict it.
That’s it. That’s all it means. Consistency has nothing to do with a player’s potential, or with that player’s attributes. Inconsistent players won’t see their attributes lower as a result of their inconsistency, nor will they start training poorly. In my experience, poor training is actually tied closer with that determination-ambition-professionalism triangle than anything else.
Now, this is important to understand. If you have a player who is very inconsistent, but whose level is far above his peers, he will still play well.
Youtuber TheGibShow explains that concept here. He gave Virgil Van Dijk a “1” consistency rating – and then watched as Van Dijk absolutely tore the Premier League apart.
However, don’t be fooled. This doesn’t mean that consistency simply doesn’t matter. Rather, it means that Van Dijk’s abilities were so far above the defenses he faced that it didn’t matter if he wasn’t playing at the top of his game.
This is why Moukoko was such a great young player when he was released in the last patch of Football Manager 2021, despite having that inconsistency red flag. Even when not playing his best, Moukoko could tear through Bundesliga defenses like it was nobody’s business.
Are All Young Players Inconsistent?
No.
It’s not hard to find young players with high consistency ratings. However, keep in mind that a consistent player is merely a player who will play at his current ability level more often. A player with a “20” rating for consistency who has poor attributes is still a poor player.
It’s common to see inconsistent players coming through your Youth Intake. I don’t know of any way to remedy this. My recommendation is to scout other teams for young players who are consistent.
There are numerous content creators who claim that young players are inconsistent by nature. They are simply wrong. If you don’t believe me, come back in a few weeks when I show you my method for scouting newly generated players, and we can count together the number of consistent players we find.
Can Inconsistency Be Fixed?
Honestly, no.
You can nudge the consistency slider a little bit. Others have tried this. The most popular recommendation is to scold players for poor performances and praise them for good performances.
Now, you need to remember that this isn’t going to have much of an impact in the short term. Consistency changes extremely slowly. Your inconsistent star player might have a horrible game one day, and follow that up with a great game the next. No matter how you praise or scold him, he’s not going to be able to guarantee great performances in the future.
Most report that the consistency attribute barely budges over time – something like 3 to 4 points over a 7 year period.
And there is absolutely no truth the rumor that mentoring will impact consistency. Mentoring seems to impact determination, ambition, professionalism, and certain player traits. You almost certainly will not see an inconsistent player suddenly become consistent because you stuck him in a mentoring group with a very consistent older player.
A Real World Example
Here’s a quick example of what consistency and inconsistency looks like in a real save.
Regular readers of this blog will recognize Lewis Greene. He’s home-grown, a youngster from Salt Lake City. His attributes are actually pretty good for his age. And he’s inconsistent – he’s got that orange target right there in the center of the screen.
As you can see, he’s got all sorts of positive aspects – fairly professional personality, good technical ability, high level of bravery, great work rate, and great improvements in training – but he really should be looking to add greater consistency to his game.
Guess what? If I play him in every single game, he’s still going to be inconsistent. In fact, his performances are going to be quite inconsistent no matter what I do. It’s enough to make you want to rip your hair out.
Here’s what happened when I had Greene on the first team squad. He played extremely well in one game – a friendly against Ogden City, a game that we were going to dominate no matter what. In contrast, he played very poorly against Houston and Chivas. To make matters worse, he also put up a horrible 6.2 rating in a friendly against Phoenix – a team that is certainly underneath his actual ability.
That’s what inconsistency looks like. A good player like Greene looks like a horrible player from time to time – even when playing against a team that is clearly below his level.
I’ve had Greene in the under-18s for the last month or so. He’s played well for the most part, which is not surprising. He should dominate this league. However, that inconsistency has bitten him again, causing him to have a really bad performance against the D.C. United Under 18 squad.
Now, I do want to note that consistency is not the be-all, end-all of player development. Don’t believe the people who tell you that consistency is the most important thing in Football Manager! It’s simply not true.
Ryan Burke is our starting left back, now that Greene is back with the youth team. Burke is older, a little more experienced, and has slightly better attributes. He’s not quite up to the Super League 1 level, but he is getting there. And he’s pretty consistent.
I care a lot more about that consistency than the holes in his current game. I want to see Burke play up to his ability as frequently as possible. I know that his other attributes will improve with training.
Here’s what Burke’s form look like. Notice that consistency does not make up for lack of ability. In other words, the fact that he is fairly consistent does not serve as a guarantee that he will play well in every match. It just means that he is more likely to actually play at his current ability level.
Burke’s poor ratings against Santos Laguna and San Luis are likely due to him being overpowered by better opposition, and are not because he is an inconsistent player. And I really suspect that his poor game against Dallas is because he needs rest.
Even though the difference between these players might not be clear from statistics alone, I will always choose the consistent player over the inconsistent one.
Dealing With Inconsistent Players
I recommend selling your inconsistent players.
Actually, let me rephrase that. I recommend loaning the young ones out to increase their value, and then selling them.
There is no reason for you to play with inconsistent players. No matter which country you are playing in, no matter how poor your reputation is – you can always find consistent players in your country and at your current level.
Fixing inconsistency is almost impossible. You don’t want to spend seven years dealing with a player who simply isn’t always going to show up. It’s not worth your time. Sign consistent young players instead – players with good potential.
If you combine good youth with an excellent training setup, you’ll see your consistent players grow quickly. Their performances might not be great at first, but they will get better. And soon you will find yourself dominating the league, beating much larger sides without much concern, and eventually conquering the world.
Football Manager News
The January version of Daveincid’s Realism Megapack has been released. If you play FM23, but you aren’t playing with this megapack, you need to change your ways. This is one of the most important fan-created Football Manager add-ons, and is a must-download for any serious player.
Blog Roundup
View from the Touchline takes us over to a new job in Slovakia.
On The Break is back with more from Denmark.
Channel Watch
FM Scout brings us a Mikel Arteta recreation tactic – Liquid Football.
BusttheNet Gaming brings us a list of things that SI needs to fix. Hey Sports Interactive – can you just give me some wins?
It’s a terrible start for CaptainGoodspeed and Fulham.
Matty89 is also having difficulty with Leeds.
Sortitoutsi gives us a China league guide. My old standard answer was to always manage Yanbian, but they no longer exist, sadly.
The honeymoon period is over for Shaun Does FM.
FM GNG brings us more of that great university challenge.
The Northman makes the unbelievable happen in the Faroe Islands.
More FM23 experiments from The Flying Scotsman – this time putting Mbappe and Haaland in the Old Firm. I’d prefer putting them someplace like Malaysia, but your mileage may vary.
It’s a triple header for Oisty FM.
Jay Edworthy is still top of the league with Forest Green Rovers.
Back to the best of all YouTube series – Omega Luke’s Youth to Gold, where we’ve encountered a board takeover.
FM Russ brings us the FA Trophy quarter-final.
WorkTheSpace gives us an end to the season that is too close for comfort.
Zealand asks if Football Manager has changed in the last 5 years. If you think this is a change, go back and play the old Championship Manager games, my friend.
Finally, Lollujo just keeps on winning.'
Inconsistency