GameDay Squad Football Round 3 review

Welcome to the Round Three review for GameDay Squad’s Football Platform. In these reviews we’ll examine how the round went, who scored well and the talking points.

In a round where clean sheets seemed hard to come by with most favoured teams failing to keep them, coaches had to rely mainly on their midfielders and attackers to get the job done, of which there were some standout performers in Enzo Fernandez (28.5), Jack Grealish (33.5), Kieran Dewsbury-Hall (25), Bryan Mbeumo (29.5), Bruno Fernandes (27) and Lucas Paqueta (25). The fixtures made for a good amount of variance among coaches team selections as a vast majority of the games provided rationality for players.

This week’s top 10 consisted of six midfielders, three defenders and one forward, as no goalkeepers featured. Jack Grealish’s great start at Everton continues to bear fruits as his high usage by teammates resulted in another two assists.

The major new discussion points from the round are short and sweet including; historical form and “safe” points.

Historical performances can be a good indicator for how well not only a team performs against a particular opponent, but also how a particular player does. This week history showed Crystal Palace as the standout candidates, in particular, forwards, Mateta and Sarr. Before their round three game, Aston Villa had scored sixteen goals in their past five meetings. Sarr had five goals in his past three games against Villa, while Mateta had seven goal contributions in his past five. They scored 12.5 and 13.5 this week as both players scored goals. History does not always repeat, but it does give some indication towards who could do well for your team.

The term “safe” points, in this instance, refers to picking players who should bank points regardless of if a high scoring statistic (such as a goal, clean sheet or assist) occur. It does include some research around favourable fixtures and 1v1 player matchups, as we’ve spoken about in previous round reviews.

There are several good examples of this including players such as Nathan Collins, Bruno Fernandes and Cody Gakpo. While these players aren’t necessarily examples of this every round, certain characteristics favour them in some rounds with the scoring system. Let’s take Cody Gakpo, who is a tall winger at 6 ft 4 in, who will typically come up against shorter fullbacks. From the get go you could argue Gakpo should bank points such as aerial duels. Nathan Collins is a similar example of this aerial dominance, when he’s up against your typical quicker or smaller striker. This is even more present in central defenders, with the potential for other defensive stats to be seen as safe points in particular matchups. As well as this, Brentford’s style of play, in particular, their long throws lend themselves to the opportunity for Collins to win more aerial duels and/or shots on target. Bruno Fernandes’ importance to the team and his role typifies his “safe” points, which appears more and more likely to be a weekly occurrence that means he is almost a lock regardless of matchup. This season Fernandes has scored 15.5, 10 and 27 against, arguably, one top tier, a middle of the pack and one lower tier team. Bruno’s key passes are what seem to typify his scoring, however regardless of these his role seems to entitle him to a variety of the statistics every game, racking up 1-2s in several GDS scoring categories most games.

…and that’s a wrap for the round! Unfortunately, we’ve ran into the first international break, but who doesn’t love an extra week to contemplate their thoughts and change their team a million times only for the first draft to be the best scoring.