Thomas Muller’s FIFA 17 rating was bumped up – “because he wasn’t good at anything”, according to an EA Sports insider.
The German forward’s overall score in the game is 87.
But Michael Mueller-Moehring who runs FIFA’s player ratings programme, told ESPN this would have been lower if they hadn’t had intervened.
Muller’s physical and technical attributes were said to be the reason behind the bump.
“A case is Thomas Muller, who isn’t good at anything, really, apart from his positioning,” Mueller-Moehring said.
“He always finds the right spot on the pitch, it’s amazing.
“But he’s not a great dribbler and he can’t really strike the ball properly — his finishing is sometimes really, really off. Shot power is not his strength as well.
“So if you rate Thomas Muller properly, he ends up with a rating that we say doesn’t make sense. It’s too low.”
So, how is the overall rating actually decided?
Mueller-Moehring leads a team of 9,000 data reviewers – a network of scouts, coaches and ticket-holders whose job it is to watch as many matches as possible.
Rather than relying on advanced statistics, the data reviewers upload subjective feedback on every player they’ve watched on a secure EA Sports website.
The league a player is in also affects their attributes.
The higher the league, the higher the technical ability, such as passing.
All of the feedback is then collated into 300 different data fields and 35 specific attribute categories, which determines the overall rating.
Once every player rating has been captured, each club’s 16 best players are used to create an overall club rating.
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