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Showing posts with the label Salah

Lineup Lessons: Matchday Two

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The games are coming thick and fast without the typical two-week cadence, which is probably a good thing for identifying who is in and out of the team (and who doesn't have COVID-19) but makes it really tough to find room to actually analyze what is happening. The below is a hybrid summary between who is playing and also who looked impressive.  I must also note that one of my potential strategies coming into the season was to wildcard after MD2 to take advantage of the back-to-back fixtures in MD3 and MD4, which allows you to really tailor your lineup to take advantage of 33% of all the group games. Without committing to that move just yet, it is a factor when highlighting the players below. Ajax With two games coming up against Midtjylland, this is a side worth looking closer at. They went with a much more attacking lineup against Atalanta, which will presumably be the template against the Danes too. That might therefore mean a spot for Lassina Traore (5.0m)...

Position Review: Elite Midfielders and Forwards

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Rather than grouping players purely by position, I decided that arranging by "tiers" might make more sense. The rationale is that when deciding whether we want Romelu Lukaku (11.0m) , the alternative probably isn't Patson Daka (7.5m) but is actually someone like Raheem Sterling (10.5m) . Yes, they play a different position, and Daka may literally  take Lukaku's place in your side, but with five midfield and three forward slots, the most precious resource is money and balancing out your elite options will likely take preference over the structure of your squad. The opporuntity cost of Luakaku is thus more likely to be Sterling than Daka. As we work through the premium options (who I am defining as 9.5m or higher), I am working on the assumption that we can probably afford three, or maybe  four of them, and thus we really want to have at least one playing on each "side" of the draw i.e. one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. These are labelled as " S1 ...