Trading well is key to building that high upside, title winning squad but anyone who has played in a draft league will know exactly how difficult it can be to get a deal over the line!
The art to trading is knowing who to target and when to strike as well as which players to use in the trades. This weekly segments looks into the strategy of selling high on those overachievers and buying low on those studs that haven’t performed as expected…
Sell High
Adama Traore – Wolves – Forward
Those who play Official FPL will have been tearing their hair out watching Adama Traore squander chance after chance over the first two gameweeks of the season. Those who own him in Fantrax will have watched those ghost points roll in during a hot start to the season for the Wolves speedster!
Rumours of a move to Tottenham, however, are cause for concern with their new manager known to use Adama as his impact substitute. His output of ghost points (39.5 in two games) seems unsustainable but it will be impossible for him to keep that up from the Tottenham bench. You can target almost any player you like using Traore at the moment so going for a safe, steady scorer at this stage is a good plan. A good time to cash in as even if Traore does stay at Wolves, the return of Daniel Podence may lead to more rotation to come in the future.
Said Benrahma – West Ham – Forward
Said Benrahma is my top “trade high” candidate of this week. The Algerian winger has been on fire over the first two weeks with a goal and an assist in both games seeing him average 22.25 points per game so far.
The fact that his average score isn’t higher is my first concern though. It’s fair to say that Benrahma can’t possibly keep his current rate of scoring (I’d still be surprised to see a 10 goal/10 assist season from him). He isn’t backing up his attacking returns with the ghost points that suggest he will stay in the goalscoring action this season, scoring only six points through ghost points over the two weeks.
Rumours of a Jesse Lingard return should be a bigger concern for anyone who has any interests in Benrahma, Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals with rotation guaranteed despite all three enjoying a very good start to the season. Round six was the highest I saw Benrahma fly off the board in drafts this summer so trading now would surely guarantee some profit if you target one of the early underperformers (Harvey Barnes or Kai Havertz).
Buy Low
Emi Buendia – Aston Villa – Midfielder
See last week’s article! Despite the “easy” start fixture-wise, Emi Buendia is a long, long way from justifying that late 1st/early 2nd round draft spot. Buendia owners may nervously be looking to cash in on one of their top picks before his price falls further or before he loses his spot in the starting XI.
Big things were expected of the Argentine following his record move but scores of 0.5 and 7.5 against sides most expect to be battling relegation this season will have left a lot of Fantrax managers frustrated. With Ollie Watkins, Leon Bailey and Bertrand Traore fighting for attacking spots in the starting XI, Buendia needs to step up quickly and this week’s matchup against Brentford is a crucial one.
A 30 pointer could easily be on the cards, and in that case Buendia won’t be featuring in this segment again for a while. Another poor performance will give owners a whole owner to stew on what on earth to do with their first round pick…
Raul Jimenez – Wolves – Forward
Plenty of chances but no goals in the Premier League yet for Wolves and Raul Jimenez. It’s been a tough start in terms of fixtures and finding the back of the net, but with fixtures set to change dramatically for the better after the international break, the goals should start to flow for Wolves and their talisman.
The big question mark over Jimenez was whether he would be the same player returning from his horrific injury and although the ball is yet to find the net the Mexican looks sharp. The Manchester United fixture in GW3 represents the last really tough test for a while so I’d be using the international break to test the resolve of the Jimenez owner. The perfect second forward this season if you can get your hands on him for a good price!
Fantasy Football 92 