What is a FotMob rating, and what counts as a good one?
Every UnderPar score starts with a FotMob rating. Here's what that number is, what normal looks like, and what we learned from the first six Gameweeks of the 2026–27 Premier League season.
The basics
FotMob is a football app that gives players a match rating out of 10. The rating is worked out automatically from what each player does in the game: passes, tackles, shots, saves, mistakes, goals and so on. Nobody sits and scores players by eye, so the same performance gets the same kind of number whoever is watching.
Ratings update during the match and settle after the final whistle. UnderPar always uses the final rating.
What a normal rating looks like
We looked at every FotMob rating for the players in our game across Gameweeks 1 to 6 of this season. That's 1,684 ratings. Here's what they show:
| Rating | How often |
|---|---|
| 8.0 or more | 1 in 10 |
| 7.0 or more | 43% |
| Under 6.0 | 9% |
The average was 6.88 and the middle rating was 6.8. So a 7.0 is a solid afternoon's work, an 8.0 is a standout game, and anything above 9 is rare. The highest we saw was 9.8.
Position makes a difference
| Position | Average | 8.0+ | Under 6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | 6.92 | 15% | 17% |
| Defenders | 6.84 | 7% | 9% |
| Midfielders | 6.95 | 11% | 6% |
| Attackers | 6.85 | 11% | 8% |
Goalkeepers are the boom-or-bust position. A keeper who makes a string of saves can go above 8, but one who concedes three or four can drop below 5. Midfielders are the steadiest: they're the least likely to have a really bad day.
Starting matters most
Players who started averaged 7.02. Players who came off the bench averaged just 6.37 when they did get a rating. And about a third of substitutes didn't get a rating at all, usually because they only played the last few minutes.
In UnderPar, a player with no rating scores +0.3, the same as a player who doesn't play. That's why the most important question when you pick a player is simple: will he start?
How much does one player's rating change?
Quite a lot. For a typical player who played most weeks, his ratings moved up and down by about 0.6 from his own average. So even a player who usually gets 7.2 will often finish anywhere between 6.6 and 7.8. That's the luck in the game, and it's why one good week doesn't make a player a must-pick next time.
Why this matters in UnderPar
Every player's PAR is our estimate of the rating he'll get in that fixture. You score his PAR minus his real rating, so you want players who will beat what we expect. Knowing what normal looks like helps: a PAR of 7.6 means he needs a very good game just to break even, while a PAR of 6.5 can be beaten by an ordinary 90 minutes.
For more on picking players, read how to beat PAR.