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: