English Football - Market Analysis

Well, well, well didn't GameDay Squad's newest sport begin with a bang! How exciting is it for coaches to be able to pack international superstars like Mo Salah, Cole Palmer & Erling Haaland. 

It's been awesome to see plenty of great packs being opened and shared, and lots of coaches have been hitting the market to trade with each other to build their collection. 

We're now over a week since Football officially opened, so let's have a look at some early market trends across each rarity. 

Bronze:

Can be used in: Starter, Contender

A change in competition structure means that bronze cards can only be used in 2 competitions (Starter & Contender). This is going to dramatically shift how coaches use bronze cards and how many each coach will need. Gone are the days of each coach requiring 3 bronze cards to use in Starter, Classic & Challenger.

Any coach that is playing Challenger or Champion will only require 1 bronze of each player. 

Any coach that is not playing the two higher comps, will only need a maximum of 2 bronze of each player. 

Summary: Don't overthink bronze cards too much, whilst there may appear to be a shortage now, give it a couple of weeks and there'll be a lot more in circulation. The priority for coaches should be to try to get at least 1 of every player they think they'll need. If you've got 3 Haalands or Salahs be prepared to swap them for players you need even if it means you're taking a "lesser" player.

Silvers:

Can be used in: Classic, Contender

We're predicting an interesting market dynamic with Silver cards which will be different to other sports on Game Day Squad. Bear with us, but is there the chance that lower averaging silvers will be more sought after than higher averaging silvers? 

Let's dig deeper into this. 

The way the new salary comps are set up sees a restriction of silver cards in the challenger competition which is where coaches have usually deployed them for their predicted lowest scoring players. Coaches are likely to use their silvers as emergencies in classic and contender, along with using them for who they predict will be the lowest scorers in their team.

Only time will tell whether early predictions are true - but there have been plenty of coaches hinting that goalkeepers and defenders won't be scoring as much as midfielders and forwards - if this prediction holds up we're expecting to see a lot of classic teams with an all silver defence. 

Off the back of this, we're predicting coaches will "load up" up front with gold and platinums for the big scorers like Salah, Haaland, Palmer, Saka etc. 

Hence the question - could a silver Jordan Pickford or Virgil Van Dijk be worth much more than a silver Mo Salah? 

Summary: Play around with your classic and contender sides to see how they look with different combinations. Work out what structure you might want to play using different rarities. Then hit the market and target what you need. If you do want to be brave then use some big name silvers as trade bait to help get what you think you'll need!

Gold:

Can be played in: Contender, Classic, Challenger

Overlooked, Ignored... now time to be adored? Let's face it - Gold cards have always been frowned upon a bit and struggled to really catch the attention of coaches. Guess what - this is about to change. 

We're predicting a strong surge in the demand of gold cards to be used across contender, classic and challenger competitions. We see gold cards being used in two ways:

Salary Savers in Challenger,

Salary Spenders in Classic & Contender,

As spoken about before, with Gold the lowest rarity being allowed in challenger we could see coaches seeking out gold cards for their emergencies, defenders and goalkeepers.

At the other end of the spectrum, coaches will need the best players in a gold edition, particularly in the contender comp where it's the highest rarity you can play. 

Summary:

Open Rare Packs I guess? Gold Cards are going to be worth their weight in....ahh gold. So don't neglect them when you're building up your collections. 

This is a big structural shift from other GameDay Squad Sports, so don't get caught on the hop! Try to beat the market by some clever trading.

Platinum:

Can be used in: Classic, Challenger, Champion

Our early thoughts are that elite platinums are going to be highly sought after, whilst we're cautiously fading "Salary Saving" plats. As mentioned before we think coaches will salary save with Gold in Challenger, so we're wary of investing too much into platinum defenders and keepers at this stage. 

Elite platinums are highly likely to feature in a lot of classic teams - so it's worth trying your luck in some trades. 

The prices of these cards are astronomical at the moment - don't be too alarmed by this. As more packs are opened and more cards enter the universe prices will make their way down to reasonable levels. 

Summary:

Don't buy any platinums on the market now. Prices will be slashed in coming weeks. Try trading any diamonds you might not need for plats that you do. You will likely need at least 1 of each top platinum - but don't rush into crazy prices or trade demands now. 

The market will get softer... trust us!

Diamonds & Legends:

Can be used in: Challenger & Champion

Let's talk about the big boys.... well we would but there's not much to talk about as yet. With so few diamonds packed there have been some stories of card trading with coaches swapping spares around - but we'll need to give it a couple of weeks before we predict the diamond market heating up with some sales. 

One thing we will predict is coaches wanting 2 diamonds of all the top players for Champion and Challenger. We're expecting to see lots of top diamonds in Challenger this year - particularly at the front end of the pitch. Ideally coaches are seeing double diamonds of Haaland, Palmer, Isak, Salah, Saka, Marmoush, Foden etc.

Football having the new legend structure is a bit of a test case. Each season will now see a new set of legends introduced to the game which has come with a much higher drop rate which is rewarding for coaches opening packs! 

Owning a Legend card with a 1.5x multiplier may sound like a big advantage over a Diamond card with a 1.4x multiplier, but the actual impact is far less significant in lower-scoring comps like English football, where top players might average around 20 points. The 0.1 difference in multiplier only translates to an extra 2 points per game in that scenario (30 vs. 28), whereas in a high-scoring comp like the AFL, where stars can average around 130 points, the same 0.1 bump gives you an extra 13 points (195 vs. 182). That’s a much more meaningful jump. So while the rarity and prestige of a Legend card is still valuable, its raw fantasy scoring edge is far more pronounced in high-output formats like the AFL than in low-output comps like English football.

If you are lucky enough to pack a legend, there may be more value in trading it for a few elite diamonds that you need. There will likely be a few disappointed coaches after matchweek 1 who played a card for its rarety rather than the name.

Summary:

Let's revisit this in a couple of weeks and see where prices are at. It's worth checking in with coaches who are playing champion to see what spares they may have to trade.

With the new restrictions it's likely that every coach is going to have different needs. Don't be affraid to "lose" a trade if it puts your team in a stronger position!