Our football props column believes one of Europe’s most-carded players is good value for another in La Liga on Saturday afternoon.
There’s no getting away from the fact that the last few days have been a big disappointment.
But in times of trouble, turn to what you know – and that leads us to card-happy Valencia.
They head to Elche, a side just five points below them, so this should be competitive.
It should also be pretty tasty with Valencia being La Liga’s most-carded team this season (they also commit the most fouls), while Elche sit fifth in that list.
Referee Miguel Angel Ortiz Arias should have his hands full and while his numbers show he’s one of the Spanish top flight’s more lenient officials, we’ve seen good examples already this season of supposedly-lenient refs being drawn into high-carding games by dirty teams.
The price which stands out here is the 2.942/1 on offer on the Exchange about centre-back Omar Alderete being shown a card (he’s also 15/8 with the Sportsbook).
The Paraguay international has been mentioned in this column previously and he continues to rack up the cards – it’s now 11 in 21 La Liga starts for a player who has struggled to stay out of trouble since last summer’s arrival on loan from Hertha Berlin.
No player in Europe’s top leagues has received more yellow cards this season and here he’ll be facing a tricky opponent in Elche’s top scorer Lucas Boye, who sits sixth for most dribbles in La Liga and regularly draws fouls – the Argentine is in the league’s top 30 on that metric.
It’s therefore somewhat strange to see Alderete up at close to 2/1, a price which puts him well down the market here – no fewer than 20 players are chalked up shorter.
Perhaps we’ll end up picking the wrong week for Alderete but it’s hard to argue there’s a not spot of value in his price in this game.
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