Dream team GW10

Bench: Hazard, Sagna, Shorey

UCL dream team GW4

So this is my UCL dream team for this week. I went for Robben, Lichtensteiner and Emanuelson in my personal team too. And I have the big hitting forward line along with Vidal.  Hopefully the reports from Germany are correct and Robben starts, and I really think Milan could surprise people with a win here after winning 5-1 in Serie A in the weekend and Emanuelson is key to most of the things they do offensively.

Enjoy your CL games everyone and good luck!

GW9 Dream team

Bench: Guzan, Cazorla, Boyce, Gorkss

Comments

Goalkeepers:

Begovic- One of the best defenses at home vs the worst offense in the league 

Guzan- Villa at home vs Norwich probably low scoring so Villa very likely for a CS.

Defenders: 

Richards- I went for Richards over Kolarov here as he is more nailed on this week with Maicon and Zabaleta out. Overall a very attacking defender with a good fixture this week.

Santos- Very attacking player and a differential with a nice fixture.

Huth- Stoke are the likeliest for a CS this week, and Huth is the most attacking of their defenders.

Boyce- OOP defender with a nice fixture and lots of goal threat. 

Gorkss- Reading should be better defensively than they have been so far and have a nice fixture this week. Gorkss is also a nice goal threat from set pieces also very cheap.

Midfielders:

Gervinho- This is a big risk over Cazorla since it is dependent on weather he will play as the striker or on the wing.  But I just don't like Cazorla that much any more after I got him in my team :). I feel a bit cheated after falling for his flair.

Cazorla- I at least had to put him on the bench

Nasri- Great differential with a good fixture. Should be very involved in all of City's attacking as long as Silva is out.

Bale- The best player in the team playing against the worst defense in the league. I also considered Dempsey for the differential value, but just could not overlook Bale here.

Maloney- What is there not to like about him attacking, on penalties, cheap and has a good home fixture vs West Ham this week.

Forwards:

Aguero- is probably the best forward option this week, providing he starts the game.

Ba- is my favorite forward option so far this season, and a great option this week against the struggling WBA defense

Defoe- I love basically every attacking player going against Southampton, so Defoe is the obvious choice for my third striker.


Have great gameweek everyone!!! Follow me @KristjanPulma for more of the same.

FPL GW 8 Dream Team

Bench: Schwarzer, Pienaar, Riise, Davies(SWA)

Comments

Defense: 

Really strong offensive presence in the defense this week, outside of Davies. All teams represented have a great chance for a CS and at least one of that back 4 should produce attacking returns.

Midfield:

I really like Valencia and Gerrard this week for their differential value and both with great fixtures and very likely to start. Michu and Nolan as the budget heavy hitters- both offer loads of goal threat for their price and both have a great fixture this week. Pienaar only made it to the bench, mainly because he is the only one of my players with an away game.

Forwards:

I went for some ultimate differentials here: Andy Carroll and Giroud facing the worst defenses in the PL look like great options, especially with ownerships like 0.6% (Carroll) and 1% (Giroud). And RVP here also with a nice home game. Suarez barely missed out, but I felt I already had too much Liverpool.


I wish a great Game-week to everyone, follow me on twitter @KristjanPulma for more of the same.

FPL GW7 dream team

Subs:Foster(GK) Morrison, Gaston Ramirez, Davies
Just missed out: Petric, Bale

COMMENTS

Defenders

I have gone for the heavy hitters in defense as I feel all the historically solid defensive sides like City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham will come good this GW. A WBA defender misses out on the starting lineup mainly because of the injury issue in the back line. If I owned any of them they would go straight in my starting lineup.  

Midfielders 

Its time for Michu to deliver after many of us have kept faith for a long time. Same goes for Hazard. I got Dempsey instead of Bale for the incredible differential value. Petric just missed out whereas Berbatov(if fit) would have been in instead of Torres. I watched the WBA game last week and Morrison was impressive- so I am backing him again this week. Sterling is my best dirt cheap option this week.

Forwards

Lambert gets the nod over Gaston Ramirez in the starting lineup as Southamption cover which is a good idea vs Fulham at home this GW. Defoe also gets the nod here with Villa likely to concede and Adebayor still not 100% fit.

Good luck to everyone this GW. Follow me on twitter @KristjanPulma for more of the same 

GW7 shortlist:Tevez and McClean need replacing

I just wanted to take a look at a few players who I am considering to import into my team this week or the next, and also have a look at how good of an idea is it to get rid of Tevez. With a good look at the possible replacements for him including a closer look at Ba who is slowly turning into a must own again. 

Tevez and the other mid price strikers:

Carlos Tevez- He is one of the most owned player in the game and also the most transferred out player currently. With a home fixture vs Sunderland and nice fixtures after that coming up it is a big dilemma for myself weather to keep him or get rid. 

His shot conversion rate calculated based on last 2 seasons( for the 2010 season I will discount the goals and shots used for Pens)

• GW1-6: Shots taken:17(2.8PG) Goals scored:3
• GW1-6: Key passes made:7(1.2PG) Assists made:2
• Normal rate of shot conversion:3.34 shots per game, 7.7368 shots per goal
• Normal rate of key pass conversion(2010-11): 1.7  key passes per game 5.167  key passes per assist

After doing the numbers I am surprised how poor of a striker he is for FPL managers especially considering the low number of shots he takes for a striker with a low conversion rate. But as he did not play in the UCL he now seems likely to start on the weekend. I personally will keep him for now, but if I would be getting rid I would consider these options along with the majorities favorite Suarez.

Fantasy Uefa CL Dream team GW2

The Champions league is upon us again, and it is time to enjoy some top quality football. But first lets make sure our fantasy teams are in order.

!!!FOR PEOPLE WHO PLAY THE OFFICIAL UEFA GAME!!!Dont forget to use managerial subs, that means start all players who have a game on day 1 and switch the ones that did badly out for your day 2 players. The same with Captains- at first captain a player with a game on day 1 and if he does not do well than switch to someone on day 2.

Bench: Mannone(GK) Sammir, Nonkeu, Demichelis

Captain day 1: Messi
Captain day 2: Ronaldo

Comments:

Defenders and Goalkeepers

• Jenkinson and Mannone- two 4 mil defensive players for an improved Arsenal team with a good home game vs Olympiacos are very good value. 
• Vidal is just the best defender in his game for his Pen duty and for the fact that he is actually a midfielder and he will probably be in my starting lineup all season long.
• Cant look past Marcelo this week with his explosiveness on the offensive end going against a weaker Ajax side
• On the bench are 2 cheaper options with good fixtures IMO Nonkeu vs Braga and Demichelis vs Anderlecht
• Unnerstall keeps his place with a 3 mil price tag and a nice fixture coming up.

Midfielders

• Lampard(only 7mil) is likely to start tonight and is always likely to put in a good game in the UCL(also takes pens for Chelsea)
• With Rooney and RVP reportedly starting this time for United, I really like Nani at 7.5 to be the man getting the assists with all this striking power up front
• Kroos speaks for himself with his form and price and with Robben out this week- he is the best Bayern midfielder for fantasy in my opinion
• Cazorla- another Arsenal player is a even a long term move with 2 great home fixtures up for the Gunners- he is also the center of all Arsenal attacking play- so bound be a part of some points this week and/or the next.
• One the bench we have Sammir a man with an incredible form in his home league, hopefully he can find his feet in UCL too. 

Forwards

• I just cant look beyond Messi despite the tricky fixture- you just know he can pop up with a brace in any game and a reliable captain option as always
• Cristiano Ronaldo- the man is selfish and on pens and most free kicks for Real madrid. That is exactly what you want from your fantasy player- he is also the best C option for day 2
• Hunterlaar- great fixture and a great player- enjoy the points :)

Follow me on twitter @KristjanPulma for more of the same! :)

FPL Over- and Under-performers up to GW6

I was planning to overview the over- and under-performers during the International break, but with a game-week where many differentials had a great performance and many regular names failed to perform I thought it was a good idea to do it now and maybe help some managers avoid knee-jerk transfers. 

!!!On a side note:
I will not look at some of the players that went crazy this GW like Suarez and Sahin- but I do suggest not to get carried away with all the bandwagons. Out of the players with big scores this gameweek I see these players as possible good long term investments: Suarez, Gerrard, Sterling, Jelavic, Bale, Verthongen, Mata, Gervinho, Silva, Ramirez(Southampton), Walters, Morrison, Ba, Torres(only because Chelsea still look like they will play him constantly), Aguero, Van Persie, Rooney, all Stoke defenders and Sunderland defenders, Clark

Over-Performers

Peter Crouch- I looked at the entire PL career for Crouch to get a better idea of his normal conversion rate, mostly because last seasons was offensively very poor for Stoke, so his stats were probably worse than normal for last year.

• GW1-6: Shots taken:13 Goals scored:4
• Normal rate of shot conversion: 2.08 shots per game, 8.9 shots per goal

FPL Dream Team GW6

Subs: Guzan, McClean, Bannan, Nelsen(QPR)

Comments:

• I went for 4 defenders this week as outside of the Everton game I feel that this could be a low scoring GW. All very scoring defenders and likely for a clean sheet. 

• Hoilett earns a spot in the midfield as one of my favorite differentials and having a great fixture this week and Fellaini is a must with his form.

• Jelavic another great differential and will get the C armband in my personal team.
• Fletcher was a must with his form and the fixture against Wigan at home.

Good luck for this week to everyone and follow me on twitter @KristjanPulma for more fantasy PL and UCL related stuff.

Fantasy FPL hidden gems

If you cant be bothered to look through all of the options, I posted my favorite ones in the bottom of the article. Here are some explanations of the terms used: 

KP-key pass, SPG-shots per game, the number with the % sign = percentage of teams selected by

Midfielders

With Liverpools fixtures improving one of those 2 will be in my team.

LIV 9.4£ Gerrard 3.8% (2.6 KP and 2.6 SPG) Takes pens, corners and many set-pieces as well
LIV 4.6£ Sterling 5.4% (2.6 KP, 1 SPG)

Depending on playing time, one of those 2 could be a nice player once the fixtures clear up again.
CHE 8.9£ Mata 3.7%(1.8 SPG, 2.5 KP)
CHE 7.8£ Oscar 1.1%(2.3 SPG, 1.3 KP)

Sunderland are strangely defensive at this point, but once they pick things up both of those players could be nice assets.
SUN 6.4£ McClean 2.6%
SUN7.0£ Adam Johnson 1.9%

Southampton are very attacking so any of these 3 players could be nice for your team
SOT 6.0£ Lallana 1.5%(2.4 SPG 1.8 KP
SOT 4.4£ Puncheon 1.1%(2.8 SPG 1 KP
SOT 6.0£ Gaston Ramirez 0.3% ( 2 SPG 3 KP)

Maloney is kind of OOP on the wing of a front 3 and as he takes pens and some set pieces he is one of my favorite budget differentials
WIG 5.0£ Maloney 1.4%  (0.8 shots 1.8 KP Pen taker)

Snodgrass has amazing stats and is one I am closely looking at as soon as the fixtures improve in GW 9
NOR 5.9£ Snodgrass 1.4% (3.2 SPG 1.8 KP)

Best offensive asset in QPR, playing almost as a striker and I am keeping a close eye on him
QPR 6.0£ Hoilett 1% (3 SPG)

West Brom are not very attacking, but if you should choose any attacking cover from their team it would be one of these players, need to check on their fitness before making that decision though
WBA 6.0£ Morrisson 1.7% (2 SPG 1.8 KP
WBA 5.8£ Brunt 0.6% ( 1.6 KP Set pieces and Pens)

FPL GW5 dream team

So I have been very busy this week so just a quick dream team from me, good luck for the weekend!!!

Bench: Jaaskalainen, Kagawa, Davies, Steven Taylor

Uefa Champions League fantasy dream team GW1

I tried to make this team affordable and the managerial subs are not in order, so sort them out yourself. Captain options are Zlatan for GD1 and Messi for GD2

Subs: Unnerstall, Boateng, Vida, Rafael

Reasoning for these selections:

GK: Bayern defenders are very close to a must have and all of their value options are not very attacking so you could just have Neuer and pair him with the ultra cheap Unnerstal.

Defeners:

• I cant not have 2 Barca players and Alves coveres both defense and offense.
• Vidal is my favorite defender in this game and Ill keep for the entire seaso, I call him "Baines on steroids"
• Jenkinson at 4 mil I think he is a super option for the defensively in form Arsenal
• Vida- looks like the best 3.5 option to have so far
• Rafael a very attacking option for a top side with a good home fixture

Midfielders

• Sammir and Renan Bressan are the best budget options IMO
• Robben is the best UCL mid if playing, very attacking and greedy plus takes pens for one of the best offensive sides.
• Reus was the top scoring midfielder who does not take pens in the top leagues in europe last season, and very likely to do well against a leaky Ajax
• Boateng is one of my favorite picks who did not make my own team for budget reasons, mostly because of AC Milans horrible form so far. But he is taking loads of shots and a goal is bound to follow soon, especially with their early good fixture

Forwards

I have avoided the budget forward for GW 1 as I think Messi is a must have, Zlatan the best C option for GD1 and not having RVP could turn out to be a horrible mistake. I also found the budget options in the middle of the park and in defense much more appealing.

UCL fantasy defensive and offensive ratings

I am going to look at this in a simple way in terms of goals conceded per game and goals scored per game for teams. Some sample sizes are small but still we can get some idea of a teams form.

Defenses

English Premier League (4 games played):

Arsenal  0.25
Chelsea  0.5
Man United 1.25
Man City 1.5

Erdevisie 5 games played

Ajax 1

Serie A 3 games played:

Juventus  0.666
Ac Milan 1

Liga Sagres 3 games played:

Benfica/Porto   0.6666
Braga   1.666

Ukrainian Premier League 9 games played:

Shaktar Donetsk  0.4444
Dynamo Kiev   0.77777

La Liga 4 games played:

Barcelona 0.75
Real Madrid  1
Malaga  0.5
Valencia 1.5

FPL: Kostjas GW4 dream team

Wont add any talk to all this, lets just see how these guys do. Will make the team affordable, to add some budget options in the mix.

Bench consists of Guzan, Guthrie, Cuellar, Ben Davis

International break overview of over- and underperformers

The International break is upon us and many fantasy mangers are using their wild cards. An excellent time to look back on the first 3 game weeks and see who have over- and underperformed. Hopefully this will help some people with some key decisions in their wildcard teams. First up the players who are bound to have a drop-off in production.

Yaya Toure- Unless you are expecting him suddenly to play more forward than last season than look out for that drop off, especially once Silva returns to form-which should happen soon.

• GW1-3: Shots taken:6 Goals scored:2
• GW1-3: Key passes made:9 Assists made:1
• Normal rate of shot conversion: 2 shots per game, 10.7 shots per goal
• Normal rate of key pass conversion: 1.7  key passes per game 9.066  key passes per assist

UEFA Champions League Fantasy budget options

Finally the Champions League is starting, so here are my budget options for this campaign, even a couple of 4 mil nailed on midfielders who were not easy to find. Enjoy! This is now complete with all budget defensive options, but I would suggest everyone to invest in their defenders as they are the best vale players in this format with points for recovered balls.

AC Milan

M 7.5 Boateng- 7 shots per game 1 key pass per game so far in 2 games

F 8.5 Piazzini- takes penalties, could be a nice differential

D 4.5 Acrebi- started last 2 games, so could be a cheap way into the Milan defense

RSC Anderlecht 

M 4.0 Guillaume Gillet- nailed on mid and has scored 2 assists this season in 5 games.

D 3.5 Deschacht- is a nailed on defender for them but is currently slightly injured so there is need to get updates on his situation before putting him in your lineup.

Ajax

M 4.0 Thulani Serero has started 4 out of 4 games so far and has scored 3 goals, and has also got a red card to his name. Could be a very nice 5th mid.( did not play in the last game, so check lineup before getting him in)

M 4.0 Ryan Babel has somehow managed to end up in Ajax, but I see no stats of him playing this season so I don't know what to make of him at Ajax.

Curious Case of Eden Hazard

Eden Hazard is the best player in the FPL so far, and there are many Hazardless managers who are nervously observing how his price rises even on the wake of a blank GW for Chelsea. One of those managers happens to be me, so there is need to analyze weather this is just another bandwagon bound to run out of steam or the new coming of the dominant FPL midfielder. 

To start it off lets look at some statistics Hazard has produced so far.

• GW1and2 Shots taken:6 Goals scored:1

• GW1and 2 Key passes made:8 Assists made:6

• Normal rate of shot conversion: 2.8 shots per game, 8.85 shots per goal(with no penalties included as he took 9 last year and probably wont take many this year, the number would be 5.32 if I would include penalties)

• Normal rate of key pass conversion: 2.4 key passes per game, 4.56 key passes per assist(I included 4 assists for penalties won as Chelsea have earned an average of  7.2 penalties in the last 5 years, I feel that this year the number would be above average, but no more than 12. Taking that number into account and also the average number of fouls per game in the PL which is approx. 12(based on 10/11 season) and the number of average fouls per game on Hazard which is  3.5 on the average of his last season and current 3 game sample. So I made an educated guess of 33% of penalties for Chelsea will be won by Hazard, meaning 4)

So if we in light of all these numbers I tried to estimate his season totals in assists and goals.I will use his current key pass and shots on goal numbers as a basis for this analysis and as the sample size is only 3 games against sub par opponents I would advise taking the results with a pinch of salt. This is merely to find out how he would perform if he would continue at the same pace in terms of making key passes and taking shots with his normal conversion rate for both. This also would mean that he would take part in all 38 games.

•  The results were as follows(both numbers rounded out): 13 goals and 23 assists.

 As he will most likely face some rotation due to cup games and CL, especially with all the attacking mids Chelsea have, I find the more likely result to be something in the lines of 10 goals and 18 assists.
These numbers would most likely make him the top scoring midfielder with a score of something around 225-250 depending on bonus, as hes points would mostly consist of assists than bonus maybe not on par with his skills so that may hinder the scores a bit. Saying all that I believe once Lamps retires and this kid takes charge of pen duty we will have the rebirth of the dominant FPL mid in our hands.


My personal suggestion: GET HIM GW4 or 5 the latest and keep!


Hope this helped to clear some of the air around this kid and follow me on twitter @KristjanPulma
for more FPL related stuff!!!

GW1 review the underperformers

As promised I will now take a quick look at who should have scored more points and have the potential to do so, this may unveil some hidden gems or differentials. Or just big guns who have been not getting enough attention.

I will use the same method as I did in the last article to rate performances, so check it out if something remains unclear.

To start off this post I will add 2 players who may seem to have underperformed but really did not. Despite being impressive goalscorers in their pre Premierleague career, they have been horrible during there time in the PL. This could be down to their teammates being unable to feed them with quality passes, or being able to turn their key passes into assists. But largely it is down to the quality of their final touch, as both players are impressive on the ball, but fail to insert that quality in to their finale touch of the ball.

!I will post this as a warning, that you cannot find gems by purely looking at stats, and watching the games and assessing their pass and shot quality is also helpful.!

Perennial underperformers

Adel Taarabt:

• GW1: Shots taken:8 Goals scored:0
• GW1: Key passes made:5 Assists made:0
• Normal rate of shot conversion: 3.3 shots per game, 44 shots per goal
• Normal rate of key pass conversion: 2.2  key passes per game 19.8  key passes per assist

I actually think that he will do better than last season and will be investing in him when fixtures improve for QPR, but not as good as the potential his stats show us.

Luiz Suarez:

• GW1: Shots taken:8 Goals scored:0
• GW1: Key passes made:2 Assists made:0
• Normal rate of shot conversion: 4.1 shots per game, 11.636 shots per goal
• Normal rate of key pass conversion: 2.1  key passes per game 21.7  key passes per assist

Suarez is a very good player in real life and is more likely to do better than Taarabt, but he is also 3.5mil more expensive and takes up one of the valuable striker spots. So I find it hard to understand why people are investing in him unless the fixtures get too good do ignore.

GW1 review the over-performers

My plan is to look at GW1 and see who over performed and who underperformed. Looking at efficiency and general luck involved in FPL points scored. This should help to decide which bandwagons are worth riding and which are not. I will use last years statistics as a viewpoint for normal conversion rate on shots and key passes, with some exceptions.

Lets start with the over-performers... 

Ivanovic:
  This man will not score 24 points in a game week again. So there is no need to jump on his bandwagon now. A. Cole could do just as well going forward. And as Chelsea are looking like they will sign a new RB soon Ivanovic may soon find himself under threat of rotation.

• GW1: Shots taken:3 Goals scored:2
• Normal rate of shot conversion: 0.8 shots per game, 7.33shots per goal

Collins:
  9 points from a West Ham defender wont be a regular incident, so there is no point paying the extra 1 million for Collins over Demel.

GW1-6 fixture analysis

With the opening game of the Premier elague season just 3 days away, I will be taking a look at teams with the best fixtures for the first 6 gameweeks.To find the team with the best fixtures I used a simple method of rating every game of every game week from best to worst. The team with the worst fixture got a rating of 20 and the best fixture got 1.

Top 6 scores were the following: Swansea- 47, Aston Villa-49, West Ham-50, Manchester United-51, Manchester City-54, Newcastle United-54. 

Honorable mentions: Sunderland-58, Tottenham, WBA, Wigan and Chelsea with 59.

FPL player prices released( midfielders and strikers)

I will try to make this shorter than the overview of defenders and just post the best options on each team.

Man City

Midfielders-
David Silva at 10 mil is again the top man here and they guy you want when investing in Citys midfield. Unless Samir Nasri at 8.5 mil can cement his place in the starting lineup and avoid rotation. That would make him a better pick than Silva IMO, mostly because of the 1.5 mil cheaper price. Also Yaya Toure at 8 mil has shown potential in the pre-season and there are reports saying that Silva is too unfit to start the season. This news could make Yaya a nice pick as he would play further up the pitch.

Strikers-
Aguero at 11.5 mil is the best pick here, as he is the only nailed on striker for City. The case with other players is similar to Nasris case. Because if either Tevez or Balotelli both at 9 mil, can nail down a starting role than they will be the guy to put in your team. Especially Balotelli as he is their nr.1 penalty taker.

Man United

Midfielders- 

The United midfield looks like a minefield for fantasy, the best chance for a player to be in the starting 11 every week is Kagawa at 8.5 mil in my opinion. At least the guy will have a chance to nail down the starter role in the beginning of the season. As Ferguson rarely brings in guys for 20 mil who are not an upgrade on someone already playing. But as I said the situation is a minefield and should be avoided during the start of the season, to observe and see who the nailed on guys are. I actually think that there wont be any nailed on players, and there will be rotation year round, especially as it looks like 1 more player (maybe Lucas Moura) could be coming in.

Strikers-

Wayne Rooney at 12 mil is the man if you want offensive cover for United. Probably the only nailed on player for them, on penalties and set- pieces. He is also a bit of a sleeper this year as he will play more games as the main striker with Kagawa behind him.

FPL player prices released(Goalkeepers and Defenders)

FPL prices are finally out, but there is still no point in doing full team reviews as there are probably more off season moves to be made by managers. But a quick overview of the more interesting prices released will be a nice warmup.First up Goalkeepers and Defenders. I will darken up all the important spots and even underline players who I think are the best defenders available right now. So you would not have to read through all of my babble :)

Goalkeepers 

• It looks like there wont be any 4 mil budget keepers this year as all starting keepers are at least 4.5 mil.

• Joe Hart is the most expensive keeper at 7.0 and someone I will never have in my fantasy team

• All last years budget keepers are now overpriced(Vorm 5.5, Krul 5.5) as teams like Newcastle and Swansea are unlikely to repeat last years defensive showing. Especially Swansea after switching coaches and losing Caulker

• De Gea is surprisingly 6.0 mil, as I expect him to play more games this season.Looking like the best keeper out there in fantasy right now.

• Best dirt cheap options seem to be: Ruddy 4,5 mil as Chris Hughton seems to have a more defensive approach than the previous coach had, Green 4,5 mil as QPR have invested some money in the back by bringing in Fabio and the new keeper, If either Begovic 4,5 mil or Sorensen 4,5 mil manages to nail down a starting spot they may be worth a look as well as Stoke will always be relying on defense for wins, or Federici( Reading) 4,5 mil as they are the team with least goals conceded from the clubs that have risen to the PL.

• As the goalkeeper rotation may cost you anywhere between 9-10 mil, the one big team keeper and 1 4.0 mil non playing keeper strategy might be an option  for this year. De Gea, Reina, Szczesny or even Krul for the believers in another great season from Newcastle might be options here. Also there are 4 mil defender options available for Reading, QPR, Norwich and no nailed on cheap options for the big teams so that might make that extra 0.5 or 1 mil spent on the expensive keeper even more reasonable.

Defenders

I will look at teams defenses separately here as there will be a time where you could want a defender from any team.

Man City 

Kompaly 7.5mil, Lescott 6.5 mil, Clichy, Kolarov, Zabaleta, Richards all 6mil and Kolo Toure the possible budget option at 5.5 mil. I never like super expensive defenders unless they have superior goal threat like Vermaelen or Baines. So no Kompany for me, but that leaves us with a bunch of players who could all be rotated. The players I like here are Zabaleta(especially with Richards playing for team GB at the olympics) and Clichy who seemed to be the favored full backs in the crunch time of last season. There is a need to examine preseason closely as City have a decent run of opening fixtures including 2 home games against easier opponents QPR and SOT and 2 away games against STO and LIV who are both not known for their scoring.

Man United 

 Vidic and Evra 7 mil- not someone I will be looking at as I think they are overpriced. Ferdinanand, Evans and Jones 6 mil, Smalling and Rafael 5.5 mil. Looking at all the possible rotation here for the below 7 mil options I see even more of a point in going for De Gea in goal.   

Chelsea 

John Terry 7 mil, A.Cole, Cahill, Ivanovic, Luiz all come in at 6.5 also Cech in goal is 6.5. This makes A. Cole the obvious player to pick here, as he is the only 6.5 defender who is nailed on.

FPL price tease

Premierleague.com have released a small teaser in to FPL player  prices https://twitter.com/premierleague/statuses/223053062988767233.

Wednesdays tease: Hazard 9.5 m, Pavel Pogrebnyak 5.0 m, Park 6.0 m

• Hazard at 9.5 could be decent value if chelsea can get the team to click early. Decision: watchlist
• I am not very excited about the other two but Pavel Pogrebnyak at 5.0 could be good value if Reading turn out to be any good. But I am taking a wait and see approach with him, after he failed to get any minutes for Russia in Euro 2012 despite the poor performances of their front man Kerzhakov. Decision:watch closely, could be a nice punt for GW1 dough, considering Reading have the DGW.
• Whereas Park I will probably avoid completely, because at 6.0 there are bound to be better players. Park wont take any set pieces and looking at his 4 goals and 4 assists with 24 games started and 11 games off the bench, he has never been a high scorer or assist provider, even for a great team like United. Decision: avoid 

The teaser is suggesting that the game will launch soon, time to get back in the FPL zone.

Here we go again

The English Premier league season is closing in fast, and preseason games have already started for some teams. After taking some encouragement from how relatively well my 2 trial article predictions went. I will write full team by team preview of the Fantasy Premier league season, along with many side posts on interesting news relating to FPL.

I am really looking forward to any suggestions on what to do better or on what else to write about. Hope you enjoy the future posts and they help some of you dominate your leagues.

Group A(budget heaven)

Poland.

The Poland team did not have to go through qualifying, so statistics are not too helpful in helping us decide who the main men are, apart from the two obvious choices in Lewandowski and Blaszczkowski. 

 The Offense

Looking that we are dealing with a defensive minded team, seemingly playing with 1 up front there are not too many options. Lewandowski is the main goalscorer for Poland and Borussia Dortmund, priced at 8.0 as many as 22.2% players of the McDonalds game have already chosen him for their teams. Poland have a tough first game but I would not bet against this clinical striker to score. And he will need to do that more than once for Poland to get out of the group as the bookies predict. Another man who will need to step up is Blaszskowski(Kuba), being a teammate with Lewandowski for club and country he should be the man to feed Lewandowski for goals. Kuba also is the penalty taker for Poland which is always helpful. Priced at a decent 7.5 he is also a very good option. Some less obvious options are Obraniak at 6.5 and Rybus at 5.5, both look like nailed on to start at least the first game. Obraniak especially is a interesting choice, given that he is actually OOP. The way Poland play allows him to stay behind the striker, but as the ball moves to the wing than Lewandowski moves to the front or the back post and Obraniak chooses the open area to move into. Rybus at 5.5 is the ultimate budget option here, not many offensive players at that price. He has played nicely in recent games and looks to have guaranteed himself a starting role. A assist and a goal are not out of reach for him.

 

 

 The Defense

Having conceded 0 goals in the last 3 friendlies Poland is looking like a strong defensive side. One can say that the opponents have been average at best, but given the low scoring opponents they will face in group stages id suggest Polish defensive cover is not a bad idea. Starting with the Keeper Szczesny at 5.0, budget options Boesnish and Perquis at 4.5, and of course the 12.6% owned Piszczek at 5.0. Piszczecks popularity is not a surprise, he has just completed a title winning campaign with Borussia Dortmund and scored 4 goals and 7 assists during that 32 game Bundesleague season. On the other hand, Poland is a way more defensive side than the impressive Dortmund. For that reason many may go for the cheaper Perquis and be happy with a few extra RB points. 

Which players I would go for:

In my opinion a defensive option is a must, so choose one. Given that they are a limited offensive side in my opinion, than I would look no Further than Kuba or Lewandowski. But if you have guts than the cheaper and OOP Obraniak at 6.5 could be a very nice differential.

Group A(budget heaven)

Group A or group of life as it has been called by many pundits, offers many great budget options. All groups have favorites and so does group A, but the odds of the underdogs are much greater than in any other group. And as no team in this group is expected to win the Euros, there are many budget options to go around. So lets started with the favorites.

Russia:

As you can see in the picture above the Russian lineup is a 4-1-2-3. In this formation both of the fullbacks get forward a lot and the 3 players in the middle of the field help out defending. This should see both fullbacks getting at least some assists despite the Russian defensive mindset. Also the 3 midfielders, one of them being the widely owned Shirokov, should collect plenty of RB points along with the offensive output. 

The Offense: 

In the McDonalds game Arshavin is classified as a forward and priced at a hefty 9.0, this makes him a overpriced option for this offense in a valuable striker spot. While Dzagoev at 7.5 is on the opposite wing and a classified as a midfielder. Dzagoev also scored 3 goals in 3 games and 1 sub appearance during the qualifying campaign, that is second highest to Pavlyutchenko who had 1 big game and is unlikely to start for Russia. Russian main striker Kerzhakov is priced at a affordable 8.0 and it seems likely that he will be the penalty taker for his nation. But given his poor goalscoring return of 0 goals in the qualifiers he is not someone I am exited about. The current crowd favorite Shirokov is the ultimate budget option for Russia, he has also been the highest scorer for Russia in the friendlies leading up to the tournament. I am not buying it dough, he is sitting fairly deep for the Russian side and to be honest his recent brace against Italy was fairly lucky. In qualifiers hes tally was also a measly 0 goals and 0 assist after playing 4 games. 

The Defense: 

This Russian side allowed the second fewest goals in qualifying of all the teams involved, they also had a fairly easy group. But as in the group they find themselves in today is not full of high scoring teams one could go out on a limb and say that a Russian defenders is a must have.

Given the low number of goals Russia score and the defensive nature of 2 of the 3 opponents they are facing, I would say there is no need to pay extra for a full back priced at 6.0(Anyukov or Zhirkov) but just go for the cheap 5.5 Alexei Berezutski and collect some extra RB points that center backs get you to make up for a lost assist or 2. The goalkeeper position seems to be undecided but weather it is Akinfeev or Malafeev in goal 5.5 and 5.0 respectively, both will be nice options to have.

Which players I would go for: