Do players of your country of origin "over achieve" on their ratings?

Just a thought while making a couple of comments on other threads. Do players who are the same nationality as you're set up as punch above their weight? It's just now having a 30 rated 5* centre mid injured and my 34 rated 5* goalie injured that I've noticed that my 23 rated 3* centre mid and my 17 rated 2* goalie have been rating 7 or above each game and seemingly doing a better job that their higher rated counterparts did. Both these reserves happen to be the same nationality as me, so just got me thinking..............

No. They were out of the team but came in and did well. Nothing more.

I dropped my previous strikers for failing to perform and got a new one and he performed better. I then played the reserves to avoid injury before a Final and my reserve strikers played so well I kept them in. Once they drop their form they're out again.