SCIAGBR0B0Tstealthpapes Second, it takes into account circumstances - picking players who are undervalued in their current situation or for cosmetic reasons (in the OG book, you can have Chad Bradford, Scott Hatteburg and Kevin Youkilis as example.). Adam's stats and output have been poor - really, really poor - recently. If our scouting has revealed to our satisfaction that's due to circumstance - mismatch of role in team, only playing in certain match situations, injuries () - then he's possibly undervalued.
how can scouting identify the things you outlined
"he was shit but if he had played in role/match circumstances we didn't see him play in he would be good"
The OG example is a player who has quite "poor" stats because he's playing somewhere where the local conditions make it difficult to succeed in his role. Cricket and now baseball are very alert to this but in football we don't talk about it so much.
I guess if you put Xavi on a really bad pitch, he'd probably have worse pass completion than most top-level midfielders, but still the best pass completion in his team. A good scout would see that his poor stats compared to the league aren't reflective of his ability. Or the opposite - Ibrahima Sonko keeps giving away goals because he's being asked to play out of the back, but your team doesn't play from the back so you sign him anyway and he stops giving away goals. Or you go to scout Bobby Convey because his dribbling stats are really good and your manager thinks he might be able to convert him to play behind the striker... but then you realise Reading use the full width of a wide pitch and Convey doesn't leave the flank because he can only see out of one eye.
what's the OG book btw