As an avid Football Index trader, one thing about the platform is most certainly clear: the information on a player’s profile can be hit and miss.
There are a host of well-known players playing in Europe’s top five leagues listed with the wrong age or with the incorrect club information. FI have come a long way from the days when only media dividends were on offer, and I love the uniqueness of the platform and the concept it is built upon, but they’ve definitely got to up their game when it comes to things like this.
For a trader whose strategy is primarily built upon player scouting, Football Index on its own can't be relied upon as a tool to provide accurate player data.
This is why it’s necessary to have alternatives - like FootballCritic.
Using FootballCritic for Football Index
I published a Football Index article on my website which I believe does a tremendous job of explaining what the betting platform is all about for the uninitiated.
Player Profile
Without accurate player profiles, a person’s confidence in the source of data will usually erode very quickly because this is usually the first thing that someone comes across when researching a player.
As you can see from Wissam Ben Yedder’s profile, FC highlights current and former clubs, age, nationality, playing position, preferred foot, height and weight, all in an easy-to-read format.
At a very basic level, the first two pieces of information a Football Index player needs is how old the player is and whether they play in a dividend eligible league. This saves me the time of having to search the web for basic information on several players as I can access all I need from one reliable source.
Recent Performances
As a trader who takes past footballing performances into account when assessing a player’s profit generating potential, it’s important for me to be able to dig deep into a player’s recent form.
I was recently interested in purchasing shares Borussia Monchengladbach captain Lars Stindl as he’s reasonably priced on the platform. The layout makes it very easy to make a judgement call as I can see all this information at-a-glance.
FC Rankings and Player Comparison
The FC Ranking provides a representation of players who are performing at a high level at the highest level, while also identifying players who are outperforming the current level they are competing at and could step up in class.
The overall score is updated on a weekly basis to take into account any fixtures played in the last seven days, the scores the players received and any representative changes to their bonuses. Our score incorporates, league, cup, European, and international fixtures.
As a Football Index trader, I’m always looking for the best value for my investment. Which means comparing players becomes an everyday habit. Having a metric like this is great because I’m able to see where a bunch of players rank based on match performance through the score that is assigned to them.
Although the FC ranking is by no means definitive - no single number can be - it’s very useful when used in the right context.
Taking the Lars Stindl example, I’m able to see how he fares in comparison to players who play in the same position as him. This is useful as I’m able to pivot from Stindl and possibly find a better player in comparison who I actually hadn’t considered.
FC Rankings: The Best Players in the World
Golden Boys
FC also has its own section designed specifically for players designated as 'Golden Boys' - players under the age of 21 - and given the higher value for rising talent in Football Index, this is a nice indicator of which players are in form and regularly playing first-team football.
The list is pretty close to the most expensive players on the platform, so it's a nice port of call of where to begin when looking out for current and emerging talent.
Player Statistics per league
These are a great resource for checking a wide number of statistics from any of the top European leagues, including Champions League and Europa League. Each column can be ordered from high to low, can be split per position and can also be filtered to exclude players who don't meet a minimum number of minutes threshold. Have a look below!
Player Statistics: Premier League
Conclusion
FootballCritic’s statistical platform gives users a starting point for player statistics and form and it's easy to make much more use of their data moving forward.
Samuel Waihenya is the owner of Index Scholar, a website dedicated to providing Football Index trader’s with the knowledge and confidence to make profitable trading decisions on the platform.
