The absence of Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham from the top end of the table over the opening six rounds into the Premier League season should spark the curiosity of SuperCoach EPL managers across the country.
Is it time to sack your overpriced players from those clubs and start shopping at the overachievers?
So far, Brighton and Brentford don’t look like going anywhere, while Everton fans get the rare treat of looking down at their Merseyside rivals.
In this week’s SuperCoach EPL lookahead, we’ve gone shopping for some bargains that you might have slept on in your first recruitment drive.
Snooze, you lose. It might be too late to cash in on the season’s success stories, with Brighton & Hove Albion duo Pascall Gross and Maxim De Cuyper the top best players in the game so far, with 99 and 90 points respectively, while goalkeeper Bart Varbruggen is not under the radar at all, the second most expensive in the competition now behind David Raya.
Midfielder Gross, who has been laying on the assists, has added £7.1m to his fee, which has risen to £16,080,000 (congrats if you recruited him at his initial price), while defender De Cuyper is now worth £11, 930, 000.
One of our hot tips before the season, Luka Vuskovic, could be more in your budget if you’re looking to cash in on Fabian Hurzeler’s side’s equal-league best defensive performance. The 19-year-old Croatian worth a reasonable £9,610,000.
Paraguayan midfielder Diego Gomez is another candidate for you; the winger had more shots than anyone on the park in their win over Sunderland on the weekend; at £8,700,000, you’ll benefit if you’re ahead of the curve with him, a player who is the eighth highest scoring midfielder in the game but the 17th most expensive.
Two other options who have more than 50 points this season include defender Olivier Boscagli (£8,600,000) and midfielder Malick Yalcouye (£7,890,000).
There are some genuinely star performers at Brentford, and while Kevin Schade and Vitaly Janelt in their engine room are not in the Gross and De Cuyper territory, they’re averaging 10.7 points per game, which places them in the top 10 midfielders in SuperCoach by average points scored, for players who have played all six games this season.
For context, that’s higher than Dominik Szoboszlai, Declan Rice, Morgan Gibbs-White, Martin Odegaard, Elliot Anderson, Enzo Fernandez and Bruno Guimaraes.
That’s food for thought.
Brentford on the second rung for goals conceded, with six so far this term, which has Kristoffer Ajer and Michael Kayode interesting propositions at £7,170,000 and £6,700,000 respectively. They aren’t game changing acquisitions, but both affordable, top 20 ranked defensive performers in SuperCoach this term.
They are yet to lose so far this season.
Kevin Schade, Brentford. Photo: Getty Images
A goal, assist and being part of a defence with three clean sheets has helped James Tarkowski rocket to 85 points over the opening six weeks. Now £12,730,000, he is the most expensive defender in the game.
Nonetheless, Everton is an interesting place to go shopping, with six players above 50 points, none over £10,000,000.
Journeyman midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is 12th overall for points, and ninth for average per game, looking at home in the Premier League this season and capable of a classic goal.
Their consistency is seen by the spread of their performers across the park: England defender Jarrad Branthwaite, striker Thierno Barry, who has three goals in six games and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford have played all six games, while defender Vitalii Mykolenko ranks 15th for average points, meaning Everton boast 3 of the top 15 in SuperCoach EPL.
Defender Jayden Bogle, whose price has ballooned to £11,650,000 has been one of the most talked about assets in SuperCoach while Daniel Farke’s side ride the high of being at the pointy end of the able, but there are a couple of interesting propositions if you think Leeds can maintain the rage.
Fellow defender James Justin is cheaper at £8,920,000, just seen points worse off, while highly rated goalkeeper James Trafford is over performing his price of £7,180,000, ranked fifth for custodians.
Whether or not Hull can maintain the rage, they’ve shown they’re competitive and their players are on the cheaper side, expected for in form forward Mohamed Belloumi (£11,470,000).
Two of the defenders and the goalkeeper in a backline Lucas Herrington wants to crack into are part of defence that has only leaked six goals: Ryan Giles (£7,960,000), Konstantino Tzolakis (£7,450,000) and Nobel Mendy (£7,160,000)