There are a number of ways in which you can employ your scouts over the season, and you have a couple of them available every session. Scouting can be applied to a particular side’s league and/or cup matches, any cross-league “European” ties or to get information on a single individual player. Scouting a specific team - You may, and should, scout your forthcoming opponents.
A scouting report will tell you the totals of the scouted team’s GK, SW, DF, MF, and FW before additions for category, playing style, marking and weather (i.e. the scouted team’s totals as shown on their orders sheet). It also shows the players involved in the game scouted and what position on the pitch they were playing in.
You are also told how many Aggression or Motivation points that team used in the game you scouted, whether he played offside or not, if a physio point was used, the team’s playing style and category, if he played defensively away from home, and his penalty taker.
To scout a team normally costs 25K. If you purchase a SUPER SCOUT in the auction during the season, or as an International Manager receive one free then you can scout two teams per session free until the end of the season when the SUPER SCOUT leaves your employ.
The use of such reports is up to you to decide. Remember that just because a team used certain tactics in one week it doesn’t mean they used the same the week before, or the week after!! Apart from the basic details given above you can assign extra cash (in units of £1k) to glean EXTRA SCOUTING INFO (ESI). ESI tells you the name and code numbers of all the players in the scouted team’s squad (at the end of the session after transfers).
The code numbers are essential if you wish to mark players of the opposition in future matches. It does not tell you positions and performance levels. Nor can you use a code number that has been reported to another manager by ESI. The numbers generated are encoded and unique to each team. Trying to use the wrong numbers will have your players attempting to mark thin air with a consequent penalisation of your team, so don’t try to be clever, it will backfire on you!
Scouting a specific player - if you are unsure what position or skill a specific player in an opponent’s team plays at, then you can find out more about him by using the Scout Player option (which is free). This is done in the same manner as scouting a match, and the effectiveness of tactical ploys and extra scouting information, but needs a slight change to the way you fill in the details. You need to identify the team name as normal in the first box, skip the “venue” box altogether, and then enter the name of the player you want to scout in the next box. Whether or not you gain the details of this player is dependent upon how much money you spend on Extra Scouting Info when compared to the Tactical Ploys of the scouted team. If the tactical ploys are higher, you’ll gain nothing at all, while a successful scout will reveal all the players relevant details, along with his code number for marking purposes.
European match scouting - You will be allowed to scout any match played in a pre-determined European tie, either in the Champions or Cup-Winners Cup or Super Cup. To scout a match you identify the two sides as normal and after the match has been played (at the end of that same session) you’ll get a report on both teams in the same way as normal scouting information is revealed. This is expensive however, and to scout a European game will cost you 150k per scout. Please note that any European game must be highlighted as such when filling in your scouting, on the off-chance that you choose to scout a side that is in the same league as your own team, and may be confused as a normal scouting mission.
Also it is wise to bear in mind that you don’t receive these scouting details until the session AFTER the one in which you scout the game. European games are played at the end of each session, so the information will be revealed on the NEXT session’s printout.
See also…