Saturday morning is literally the best time of the week.
These days, I can get myself a sausage sandwich and a cup of tea and just watch people fall over themselves to buy my players with alarming reliability.
If I got “stop buying players on the day!” trending on FI Twitter every day for the next 3 years it probably wouldn’t stop people. For all of the rationale traders out there there are plenty of “recreational” traders too who will do it just for fun.
In online poker finding recreational players is like a blood sport. And for good reason because it is like shaking a free money tree. Invariably, they transfer their money to serious players over time. In fact, the standard of online poker even at lower levels is so tight by now that most profits are made in that one hour you find yourself at a table with a bad or recreational player.
FI is quite forgiving at the moment so you can get away with quite a bit of sloppy trading practice like this. But it won’t always be this way. We’ve got to knock these bad habits out of our game so that we are sharp as a tack when we need to be later on.
For those that do think a bit ahead though, there is great money to be made with not much more than a fixture calendar and a bit of forethought.
There are two huge treble days to look forward to this weekend. As a fan I look for the close and most entertaining match ups. As a trader I look for the most totally one sided crushing walkovers possible!
We could look to Liverpool, Bayern, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter, Sevilla, PSG or even Monchengladbach and Atalanta here. Some huge scores are surely imminent.
Members can check back later this afternoon where I will publish a new article: “Under 24, Under £4, Under Rated”. With the rise of Havertz, Dembele, Pepe and Jovic I will pick out some under 24 year old players with similar stats and assess their overall prospects. I aim to publish that around 6pm.
Risers
Julian Brandt
The breakout game for Brandt that has been written all over the stats for a while now. I highlighted his strength on the Daily on the 27th January and this week for my members Europa League preview too.
He is in great form and has everything needed to be a regular performance challenger. He is also just 22 and will almost certainly get interest from big clubs with a contract expiry in 2021.
He’s got all of the key attributes required of a strong performance player and also doesn’t have many of the annoying niggles that take strips off performance scores, like a tendency to foul or pick up yellow cards.
If at a bigger club, all of that should only get better.
He was nailed on for the “Under 24, Under £4, Under Rated” article I am currently writing but after last night he might not make the Under £4 cut anymore.
Jonathan Bamba
Whenever you get a breakout player like Pepe at a club you can almost always bank on the “search for the next Pepe” to begin.
Taken on the whole season so far, Bamba has marginally better distribution than Pepe but half the goal threat.
So, he isn’t quite Pepe. But half a Pepe isn’t bad, either.
In the last 5 games, those season long stats stay pretty much true. His expected goals are still around half of Pepe’s, although recently his distribution is slightly worse.
He’s in decent form. Last game was particularly good for him.
Overall, I think he’s solid but I’m not sure I’d be chasing him much above £3.
Fallers
Leroy Sane
Sane’s been drifting slowly downwards in price this week.
Has he done anything wrong? His stats are a little down in the last few games, and he is consistently being hooked off on 70 minutes or so which is not helping.
But, overall it’s a good season for him where he is getting minutes and he is showing performance suitability.
This is just an example of what happens to a player that gets heavily bought in excitement and then inevitably does not win immediately or has a bit of a downturn.
And it’s one reason why chasing rises beyond a sensible value no matter the level of excitement is a bad idea.
I think long term patient holders have a good player on their hands, though. But like any young player at the moment, the value is more questionable particularly if you don’t really have the stomach for long holds.
Hot Gossip
Hector Herrera
Herrera will be totally off the radar of 99% of people. He’s 28 years old and has played for Porto almost his entire career. But with the likes of AC Milan, Tottenham and Inter now interested, it is worth taking note.
He could be extremely performance suitable and at 28 he is a buy who will be going straight into the side but still have years remaining. Stats reminds me of Parejo but perhaps without the penalties. Make a note of the name for the Summer watch list.
But, he is in form so if he pops up with a good score vs Roma in the Champions League next week you now know not to be surprised.
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FIT
