The HiddenXI guide
Every number here
means something.
Learn to read them.
HiddenXI rates players on what they did on the pitch this season, never on the ratings Football Manager keeps hidden. This guide shows you what each number measures, what a good one looks like, and exactly when not to trust it.
Bar length is how many players sit in each band. Seven players in a whole game world reach 90. That is what the top of the scale is worth.
Evidence, not attributes
Ratings come from what a player produced against others in his position. Current Ability, Potential and reputation are never read. If the game already knows it, it is not scouting.
Minutes buy trust
A player with few appearances is rated cautiously on purpose. The reliability mark beside every score tells you how much football sits behind it.
Limits stated, always
Where the data runs out, the app says so. Missing evidence shows as missing, never as a quiet zero, and never as a confident guess.
How it works, step by step
Short clips of the real app. No sound, they loop.
Sync straight from the game
The Reader reads your save out of a running FM26 and sends it in. One click, one wait, one snapshot.
- 01Open the Reader with FM26 running.
- 02Export from memory, then sync it to your account.
- 03Wait it out, and the whole app points at your save.
- 04For faces and logos, allow this browser to reach the Reader once in Settings.
Bring your data in
Create a snapshot for the in game month, then drop the export in. The Reader app does all of this in one click.
- 01Create a snapshot and set it to the month and year in your save.
- 02Drag the exported file into the upload area.
- 03Wait for scoring to finish, then the whole app is pointed at that snapshot.
Find the player
Every player in the save, ranked. Narrow it down, sort it, and lift a filter back off when it cuts too deep.
- 01Search by name or club.
- 02Narrow to a position.
- 03Set a minutes floor under Advanced.
- 04Sort on any score.
Read the player
One page holds the rating, the skills and what they rest on.
- 01Open a player from any list.
- 02Read the skill profile and the standouts.
- 03Check each stat against his position group.
Who else could do the job
Every profile lists players in the same style, better or younger. Switch what you are asking for.
- 01Open Alternatives on a profile.
- 02Switch between similar and better, and younger with upside.
- 03Open a match.
Compare players side by side
Add players to the compare tray from any list, then open Compare to see them measured against the same group of players.
- 01Find a player in any list or on a player page.
- 02Add him to the compare tray. The tray holds up to four.
- 03Open Compare to see percentile bars, category shapes and raw output together.
Start from your squad
Pick one of your own players and the engine ranks everyone by how closely they play like him.
- 01Open Discover.
- 02Pick the player to match against.
- 03Open a result.
Let the board find the gap
Squad weak spots grades every position you field. The board then ranks the market against the biggest hole.
- 01Read your weak spots.
- 02See targets for the worst one.
- 03Open a target and read what it fixes.
Track targets with the shortlist
Star a player to put him on your shortlist. When a new snapshot lands, anything notable that happened to your targets is waiting in the alerts bell.
- 01Star any player to add him to your shortlist.
- 02Add a tag or a note if you want to remember why.
- 03After your next snapshot, open the alerts bell to see who moved.
Score it your way
Clone a preset, swap a stat, and the whole database ranks on a score of your own.
- 01Clone a preset.
- 02Swap a stat and rename it.
- 03Save the score.
- 04Sort the table on it.
Shape the XI
Your best team on the pitch. Drag anyone anywhere and it stays that way.
- 01Open the board, then Edit XI.
- 02Drag players between positions.
- 03Reload, and it is still your board.
Your own squad, scored
Depth, age, minutes and value in one table, with a replacement question on every row.
- 01Open My Team.
- 02Stand the squad on the pitch.
- 03Ask any row for a replacement.
Make it yours
Accents, score colours and six languages. Nothing is locked in.
- 01Pick an accent.
- 02Choose the score colours.
- 03Switch language whenever you like.
What is he actually worth
What the club asks, against what he is worth in this market. The range beside it is the honest part.
- 01Open the Market tab.
- 02Read the fair value, the likely range and the call.
The score library
22 termsOVR
1 to 99, higher is better. 55 average pro, 68 solid starter, 80 top few percent, 90 plus elite.Overall rating, 1 to 99. 55 is an average pro, 90 is one in two thousand.
Read the full explanation
OVR is the single overall rating, 1 to 99, built from role fit and peak skills. It is scaled so a rating is equally rare in every position: 55 is an average professional, 68 a solid starter, 80 the top few percent of the game world, and 90 or better roughly one in two thousand players. The scale reads lower than FIFA on purpose: a 68 here is a good player, not a mediocre one.
How it is built
Role fit blended with peak skills, then mapped so every rating is equally rare in every position.
Two caveats apply to every score: close numbers are a tie, and it is only as good as the minutes behind it. Check the reliability mark first.
Position key
Football Manager's position names, and the short form this app uses for each one.
- GK
- GoalkeeperGK
- CB
- Centre-backD (C)
- FB
- Full-backD (L)D (R)WB (L)WB (R)
- DM
- Defensive MidDM
- CM
- Central MidM (C)
- AM
- Attacking MidAM (C)
- W
- WingerAM (L)AM (R)M (L)M (R)
- ST
- StrikerST (C)
What the engine cannot see
Every scouting report has a horizon. Here is ours, stated once and linked from every score it touches.
Hidden ratings
Ability, potential and reputation are never read. Using them would defeat the point of hunting for value.
Off the ball
The data counts season output, not movement. Runs that create space without touching the ball leave no trace.
Matches the game skipped
Football Manager only plays some fixtures out in full. Where its detail is invented, we drop it rather than score fiction.
Shot quality faced
Nothing in the data says how hard a save was. Goalkeeper numbers are shown, and treated as noisy.
Questions, answered
Why does a just transferred player show scores from his old club?
Football Manager wipes a player's season record the moment he moves, so HiddenXI keeps his last real scores and marks the card. The card names the club and minutes the evidence came from, and scores rebuild as he plays for his new side.
Why are some stats missing for a player?
Football Manager only plays some fixtures out in full; for the rest it fills the detailed columns with stand in numbers that never happened. We detect and drop those, so the stats read as missing rather than as fiction.
What does league adjustment do?
Output in a stronger league counts for more, so raw numbers are put on a common footing before anyone is ranked. The overall rating carries no league bonus, so a big club name cannot inflate it. Switch percentiles between adjusted and raw wherever they appear.
What exactly is a snapshot?
A dated photograph of your whole game world. Scores and comparisons live inside one snapshot; trends come from comparing one to the next. Take one every few months of game time.
Get your save in
The Reader reads your live game and syncs it in seconds.
Find players
Filter the database, or start from a player you already like.
Compare
Up to four at once, same position, same evidence.
Plan the squad
See your gaps, then turn a budget into a shortlist.
Track change
Each new snapshot shows who is rising and who is slipping.
Figures on this page describe a full FM26 database.