Alaves v Real Madrid Tips: Back badboy Lejeune in the cards betting

Saturday’s La Liga action reaches its crescendo at 20:00 at the Mendizorrotza Stadium as Alaves welcome Real Madrid.

The visitors will be hoping to shake off a disappointing run of form that has only seen them win one of their last five games in all competitions. The bookies have them as clear favourites at odds of 11/20 against a struggling Alaves side that currently languish just a point above the drop zone. At odds of 9/2, the bookies reckon the hosts have an 18% chance of victory, yet they have only won 9% of their games priced at these odds.

With the referee appointment boding well for cards I have decided to delve into the player card markets and it is the joint most carded player in the league that has taken my fancy.  

With seven cards to his name in the league this campaign, no player in either team's squads have received more bookings than Alaves’ Florian Lejeune. Despite this, Betfair have him priced at 13/5, which makes him longer odds then 17 of the eligible players for this fixture. Betfair’s odds implied probability of landing is just shy of 28%, yet the French centre back has had his name taken in 44% of his La Liga appearances this season! With Bet365, he is only 5/4 to receive a card which makes him the shortest priced player.

Lejeune usually lines up on the left side at the heart of Babazorros El Glorioso’s defence which would pit him against Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio. Los Blancos attackers have drawn a combined average of 1.8 fouls per game.

Alejandro Jose Hernandez takes charge of this clash, he has averaged 4.44Y and 0.11R cards per La Liga game this season.