Some surprising results last night (Arsenal, hello?) and probably not the winners many were hoping for.
It was a treble day but not a huge treble day and so the scores can sometimes be a bit softer and still win. It also highlights the chaos that a game winning goal causes as the winners would have been completely different had a couple of late goals not gone in.
The biggest example was Barkley who would have cruised the midfield category if not for a late sloppy goal conceded by Chelsea.
Game winning goal has been discussed recently, notably on the Football Index Guide podcast with his guest of the week Sam.
It’s worth noting that I am not a hardcore advocate of making huge changes to the scoring system like many.
It’s a bit like a kid asking for all her light grey Lego bricks back after they’ve been pooled to build a castle with her friends. It’s very hard to undo without making a mess. People have bought on a certain basis. So changes must come but they must come slowly.
I think any scoring system will always have it’s quirks. We will end up fixing one thing and breaking another.
But if there is one thing that I think really needs looking at it is the sheer randomness of a game winning goal.
It’s important, yes. But it often has very little to do with skill or real performance and everything to do with luck. If FI are selling themselves as a more intellectually satisfying product, which they are, and so they should, I think this aspect of it is distinctly unsatisfying.
I am not clear on what you would replace it with. But rewarding 2nd or 3rd goals in a game makes a lot of sense. That will however tip things even further in favour of strikers. So I think a graduated goal system like FPL might work where defenders and midfielders get more credit for goals since they are harder to come by from deeper positions.
I think it is well worth keeping this topic trending in the hope that FI take the feedback on board. And there are probably better ideas than what I have outlined above. If anyone has any thoughts, add them on Twitter!
Risers
Moussa Dembele
Dembele is picking up some buying and perhaps this is in anticipation of both tonight’s game vs the farmers of Guingamp and possibly even an upset in next week’s Champions League clash with Barcelona.
It’s not a bad shout. In an ideal world, you could buy even earlier than a week ahead if you want them for a big game but the price is not crazy on this and it is far, far better than buying on the day of a CL game like we saw with Manchester United players last week.
Dembele did not have the best start to life at Lyon, but he is doing much better and is on a scoring hot streak. Lyon are looking a threat in general and although next week’s game will be tough, it is the home leg for Lyon and I would not be surprised if they got some kind of result.
One of the better form/fixture punts.
Diego Lainez
A very nice goal for Lainez for Betis last night has traders typically interested given the age.
He closely aligns with many of the current trends so you can see why people would go for him. He has some suitability in terms of playing position and a win or two if given 90 minutes in a decent team regularly would not be out of the question.
But there is nothing special in his stats that make him stand out above many others.
I think we are really scraping the barrel for young talent by now and relying on the trend to carry the price rather than the talent and FI suitability.
Fallers
Alexandre Lacazette
Only a small drop for Lacazette after his red card. Although in context, he has had a bad time in the last few months.
He was hotly anticipated at the season start as people assume a big striker at a big club would come in and do well. But, when getting regular minutes, a players hype/shine does not last long if they are not delivering.
He is actually doing pretty well lately with some good goal threat and even shows flashes of strong involvement in some games. But his low passing accuracy lets him down.
When a player is in decent form and yet not being rewarded by the scoring system, it’s always a red flag that needs to be looked at in detail.
If he isn’t going to get much better and is still not challenging we need to think about what needs to change to fix that. Is it a better club, a positional shift? Are any of those things likely?
And sometimes we just have to accept that not every player suits the FI scoring system, just like in FPL.
Hot Gossip
Yacine Brahimi
Porto’s Brahimi is an FI suitable talent and he is picking up several transfer rumours. Less desirable is Everton and Wolves. Better is Manchester United and Arsenal.
At a cut price £1.17, he would likely to be going straight into a team and competing for dividends. Worth watching but possibly for next season and maybe as a cheap Europa punt if you back them to overturn Roma at home.
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