Performance ratings for all notable Ligue 1 players have now been refreshed taking into account the new scoring matrix and performances from pre-season and the opening games.
Over the International break, I’ll be refreshing each league following the changes to the scoring matrix and what we have learned from pre-season and the opening games.
The changes should not be much of surprise to members who have been following the Scouting in recent weeks. Reasons for changes have in almost all cases been discussed there.
Usually, Scouting will detail the reason for each and every change. When dealing with so many changes after the new matrix it is not possible to provide a write up for every single one this time.
But, for convenience I have listed the ones that have improved or declined below.
The full tables, with Ligue 1 players updated, are now available in the usual place in the members area under defenders, midfielders and forwards respectively.
A Note on Performance Ratings
I put a great deal of time into compiling the performance ratings. They are sound, evidence based judgements of the real performance strength of players. I am a tough marker and a player has to do a lot to get 4 stars or more.
Some people may find the ratings surprising as they can be shockingly different to the general chatter you see about how good a player may or may not be on social media or the perception of how good a player is in reality.
This is because when assessing the ratings all hype and bluster is removed – they are an evidence based assessment of how likely the player is to deliver big performance scores consistently on the Football Index. I have a high degree of confidence in them.
However, as discussed often in Key Strategy, to succeed we must use the ratings and the Scouting information in combination with the trend information available on the Dashboard and consider whether they are good value or not.
A strong Current rating is an indicator they are likely to put up consistent strong performance scores. Whilst price rises often follow, that isn’t always the case if the player is off trend.
Equally, a player with a low Current rating is still capable of getting a rare win or scoring and soaring in price if their trend fit works.
So, I would absolutely not go out and automatically buy all 4 star or above players or sell any 2 and below. That is not the intended way to use them. The primary purpose of the ratings is to be the “hype buster”. They help us judge whether a player is really strong or not and then we can trade accordingly.
For example, I may be wondering whether a player who has won recently is worth holding even if they have risen in price. If they have a high rating and are likely to win again, I am more likely to keep them.
If on the other hand a player has just won or risen in price but actually has a weak rating and is unlikely to win again, I am much more likely to sell and take that profit before they blank a few times and traders realise their weakness.
I may also hold a striker at 2 stars if they are good value and good for IPD, that’s absolutely fine and the ratings do not reflect IPD appeal (that’s covered in Scouting).
A Note on Ligue 1
Ligue 1 interest is generally concentrated in a small number of big teams led by PSG and Lyon. Lille, Nice, Marseille, Monaco can also be of interest when they are having a good season but this can fluctuate.
There isn’t a great deal worth picking outside of that, although you can find a few hidden gems who may perform well and get a good transfer (Flavien Tait as picked out 4-5 months ago for example).
The best thing about Ligue 1 is that it has a reputation for being the “farmers league” and it does give strong players the opportunity to get cricket scores. This is a valid assumption, goals do come easy in this league and of the 5 major leagues, it will tend to make players look a bit better than they are.
Because many people know that, it can be fairly easy to sell players expected to dominate Ligue 1 either in the hope of performance wins or at least IPD.
I tend to be a bit wary of players transfering out of Ligue 1 for that reason – they will likely decline a bit vs their Ligue 1 performance. Some players though, if really strong, are good enough to sufficiently compensate for that (Neymar, Depay for example).
Improvers
Renato Sanches
Jonathan Bamba
Houssem Aouar
Dimitri Payet
Aleksandr Golovin
Valentin Rongier
Wylan Cyprien
Teji Savanier
Marco Verratti
Memphis Depay
Moussa Dembelé
Wissam Ben Yedder
Islam Slimani
Neymar
Mauro Icardi
Decliners
Youcef Atal
Leo Dubois
Julian Draxler
Leandro Paredes
Francois Kamano
Samuel Kalu
Bertrand Traoré
Edison Cavani