2021/2022 Wildcard thread.

Yeah I think so too. I had him in so far. Just which striker to go with him.

I've never played an early WC, so very unsure about what to do, I can get Ronaldo with a -4, but then Lukaku v Villa could be worth having. Bruno has already fallen back to starting price, so any future falls will impact. Is Pep resting stones post euros, or has he lost his place to Laporte? Dias seems to be most guaranteed player for comes at 6m, and his returns are usually capped, which for 6m doesn't seem like value.

Keep TAA or sell - can pick up 3 good defenders by spreading the money around, and/or upgrade other areas. Yes his ceiling is high, but at 7.5m what would you be expecting him to reach for the season. It's neigh on impossible to compare the impact of going without him as well, as the money is spread around the team.

West Ham have brought in a few lads, will that affect the way they/Benrahma plays. Likewise Chelsea went out and bought some lad does that affect Mount at all.

Saul? He strikes me as more a threat to Kovacic appearing at all if anyone is affected. I doubt he'd outdo Mount at his job.

Love it!

You called it:

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester-uniteds-cristiano-ronaldo-released-21467380.amp

What do you mean he was unavailable for the first two games? He's been on the bench for every game this season including the super cup. He didn't play at the Euros' either, so dunno how he's not match fit if he's making all these squads. Other players that were at the euros have played these games - Mount and Jorginho for example played in the super cup, and then started first game of season, James is another player at the euros but was fit and played. I think to say that he wasn't is just ben nice to him, instead of saying that he's out of favour at the moment.

I do feel like this Trincao/Traore thing might be a case of overthinking it. In the 3 games so far Traore has an xG of 1.50 and an xA of 0.61, where Trincao has 0.63 and 0.17. I also expect players with lower volume to be more efficient than Traore, because Traore is inefficient, but how much more efficient does Trincao need to be than Traore to compensate for that volume difference? It doesn't feel that likely to me. Feels like Traore will be a reasonable pick for the price through sheer volume alone. He will underperform his xG (he can't underperform his xA only his teammates can ruin that on him), but it shouldn't really matter.

I've the stats here. 2.08 xG and 2 goals. So yeah, not much regression, but its also difficult to talk about (due to the tiny sample size) considering he had such a low xG to begin with. He has acccumulated already 3 quarters of his total xG from last season in 10% of the minutes played. So it is clear that in the small sample size that is Lage's time as Wolves manager, that Traore has had a hugely elevated role compared to under Nuno.

If there is no dropoff (which feels somewhat unlikely), he'd have an xG of 19 goals and an xA of around 7/8 this season. So evaluating how effective an asset Traore will be this season ultimately comes down to how inefficient a finisher he is going to be relative to xG and whether he can maintain the same important role in the team throughout the season. I mean it feels logical that he will not get 26 goal involvements this season, but at 6.0, he will not need to, to be a good option. He is really in my thoughts at the moment. I mean I'm not compelled to stick with him if his role does diminish anyway and the fixtures are great.

I wouldn't be doubling up on a team that haven't scored yet this season. Wait until Jiminez scores before he comes in, that was an awful injury he got. Like Carragher said last week, he needs to score a header to prove to himself he's over the fear.

All good picks, and as someone who likes to spread risk....

If ya already have Salah I'd go Raph/Benrahma

If ya already have Antonio I'd go Jota/Gray

If ya have both of them, I'd probably be swayed for Jota/Gray. Leeds possibly hitting second season syndrome, West Ham have signed the Croatian lad, and have Europa league headaches

Thats a tough one. If we knew Firminos injury is serious then I think Jota + Gray could just shade it over the next 5 or 6 GWs. If Firmino is back in GW5 then it becomes a different proposition. I have my doubts about Benrahma continuing on his hot streak but Im going to hold him this GW at least.

Raphinha is an interesting one as I saw some Leeds fans chatter about the signing of Daniel James meaning that Raphinha likely plays as a no.10. If that happens he could be one of the bargains of the season, a no.10 in an attacking Leeds side for just 6.5m. Raph was always a season long set and forget for me and he could become even more so.

Good points I could do Laporte/Allan/MacArthur to Williams/Gray/Smith-Rowe

You've seem to sacrifice most your team to keep TAA - who do you plan to bench most weeks?

Bissouma, Gallagher and Gilmour - your going to have to play at least 1 of them every week, given how your defense looks. Is Gallagher worth it at 5.5 to be playing every week?

Feel like you've also decided to ignore Antonio - despite his great form,

Son over Antonio feels misguided to me. Especially since the money saved could save your problems.

The thing is though, majority of other teams are going to have 4 premium players, so in this instance, your relying on that 1 other player to perform along with the cheap players, over someone who has a more stable team. Is TAA, Livramento and Gallagher for instance going to outscore Christensen, Matip and Torres. And you can see that's two 5 mill defenders and a 7.1m midfield player. You might choose a cheap mid that is returning big, and spread the extra dollar further. Picking Matip removes the CS benefit of TAA,

Ultimately there is no right or wrong, but i personally wouldn't be playing a WC and having to be relying on Bissouma, Gallagher, Dennis each week in my starting 11, along with one of Duffy/Williams/Livramento, that's not even considering what the bench is like.

If it goes pared shaped, the next WC is over 3 months away and there are a lot of passengers in the team to sort out.