Gleaning information from the VIP form graph

In a previous post I mentioned the hidden form tendency and some of the ways it can be affected. Here, I'll be looking to build on that information to show you how the form graph - something I've touted for a long time as one of the biggest perks of being VIP - can be used to help figure out a player's hidden FT. The reason for this being better than just checking arrows is that arrows on their own don't tell the whole story; increases or decreases in form of less than 5% will show as a black arrow but may be visible on the form graph.

Spotting a positive hidden tendency after training

A lot of people will tell you that the dreaded overtraining has been removed; this is only partially correct. Players can still overtrain but, instead of receiving a form drop, they just gain no form at all. The training report will show this as a "minimal effect" - something that happens quite a lot for players on high form (as the actual form gains can be quite small) - but the form graph will tell you who has this as a result of overtraining, which can only happen if the hidden form tendency is positive. Note that players will get a similar outcome if they are injured (or slightly injured) and their form is above 10 when training finishes.

Spotting players that lost form after a game

Players that get a black arrow after a match may have gained or lost a small amount of form. The only way to determine exactly what happened is to check the form graph. If a player lost a slight amount of form after a game, it could be an indicator of a negative hidden form tendency, particularly if the player / team had a good game (as that would normally yield a form increase).

Note that there are a number of factors that can affect a player's form after a game - the individual performance (including events like chances), the team part performance and the result can all have a bearing.