Bits & Bobs
Some key things to note...
We all know Martin O'Neil quit Aston Villa on Monday after disagreements with Randy Lerner over the future of the club. This certainly adds some risk to picking Villa players vs West Ham... how will they react on the pitch under caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald?
Ricardo Carvalho has joined Real Madrid for around £6.5m, which means Chelsea are likely to start with Ferreira, Terry, Ivanovic, Cole vs West Brom with Alex & Bosingwa still struggling with injuries. I'd expect Chelsea to sign a centre-back before the transfer window closes.
Kenwyne Jones heading to Stoke for £7m is a fantastic move for the Potters - if this goes through he'll be perfectly suited for their style of football and has proven he can score goals at the top level. I'm surprised Sunderland are allowing this move to happen, but Frazier Campbell is now a great Week 1 pick.
Speaking of Sunderland, Nedum Onuoha on his way there on a season long loan from Man City, a nice move for the young lads and another affordable defensive option at just 6.64. John Mensah is also on his way back for another loan.
Nicky Shorey has signed for West Brom, which is good news for fantasy managers with Shorey being a set piece taking defender. He's not actually in the Yahoo player database as yet, so we'll have to see what he costs when added, but it could be quite high (9+) after a successful loan spell with Fulham last season.
Blackpool have finally made some signings...4 players in fact, but they are all relatively unknown, so I can't really provide any information on fantasy value.
Harry Redknapp has indicated Gio Dos Santos has a role to play at Spurs after his great World Cup and a decent pre-season, but he's another that Yahoo have missed from their database.
A reminder that there are only 18 spaces left in the FINAL Blog League Also, please join the Facebook Group if you've not done so.
There are some other bits of news that I may have missed, so please comment below if you've seen anything that may be of interest to fantasy managers...3 days till the first deadline!
Cheers,
AM
20 comments:
dorrans has rated 50/50 for the opener...be careful mates...Nando has a great chance to start against Arsenal...Big weekend for fantasiest...
Marlon Harewood on free transfer to Blackpool:
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6306627,00.html
5 players in 24 hours for Ian Holloway.
keeping an eye on Arsenal's injuries, could give Wilshere a start.
http://www.football365.co.uk/story/0,17033,8668_6306730,00.html
as much as I like to see Wilshere getting playing time, this along with Arsenal's questionable backline (sorry greginho) playing at Anfield makes Liverpool attackers more interesting. But keeping an eye on the Gunners for next week at home to Blackpool...
Sulejmani to West Ham
http://www.football365.co.uk/story/0,17033,8668_6306463,00.html
Bellamy, Ireland and Silva left out of Europa squad
http://www.football365.co.uk/story/0,17033,8652_6306552,00.html
maybe Silva is still short of fitness?
I need help guys, which three players are better...
Malouda-Drogba-Petrov
or
J.Cole-Tevez-Lampard???
Thanks guys,
-Saul
also, Fabregas starting for Spain in Mexico.
@Saul - tough choice, Drogba questionable to start so I would say the second option, but not sure about Tevez. I remember seeing a quote from him a few weeks ago about how he's having trouble finding motivation to play football after Argentina's world cup, plus away at White Hart Lane. I think Joe Cole could do some damage against Arsenal and Lampard is pretty much 100% to start and do well, whether he can earn his 20.xx is another question...
bean- Thanks for the feeback, I went with J.Cole-Tevez-Lampard.
It was a tough choice to make because if Drogba plays I'll be screwed but I also like my chances of Lampard and Tevez scoring good. J. Cole shouldn't have a problem getting back his value. I'm banking on a Chelsea 4-0 with 4 penalty goals from Lampard haha.
Okay here's my team...
Kirk
Bale-Kolorov-Ferreira
C.Adam-Valencia-Scholes-J.Cole-Lampard
Chicharito-Tevez
A bit different from many others but I like it.
-Saul
bean
i said i will not get mad at anyone for ripping on arsenal's backline, unless they become studs and start putting out clean sheets. i know there weakness. i do think that if they had a top 10 goalie, they would get a lot of confidence and they would tighten up. arsenal ebbs and flows, with their confidence. remember, at the start of last season arsenal were destroying teams, everyone thought they would be world beaters, then the injuries set in.
Dos Santos is in the game at 5.47
i heard bale injured, is it true??
@greginho - i think arsenal's defense will actually be quite good once everything is settled. I'm fairly certain they will bring in another centre half since they almost have to. and seems relatively certain there will be a new GK in the picture soon...
@greghino and bean
even if Arsenal let in a few goals I think they will still be OK since I see them scoring a lot of goals this year. I think they have a good chance to lead the league in goals.
Also, I expect Arsenal offense to be the highest scoring fantasy in terms of offensive points. If their defense can provide some clean sheets they will yet again be the highest fantasy points overall scoring team. Unfortunately, predicting who will score those points in which match can drive someone mad.
I tried to locate more info on Stam and it looks like according to the friendly with Real Zaragoza he bombed forward a lot and was dangerous on offense--e.g. he had a cross that could've been a goal had Boselli's header went in. Unfortunately, he didn't start that match but came on at 55' in place of Boyce and that was his first and last appearance in pre-season.
So I like his offensive and defensive (clean sheet) possibilities against Blackpool, I like his price (5.7+), but I don't think he'll play 90 mins.
Someone you have to consider alongside Stam for this week is Kolarov; I like Kolarov's abilities, don't like his matchup, like his price (same as Stam), but I also think he will play the same minutes as Stam but with a better chance of playing more than Stam. As I think Mancini may try to grind out a defensive strategy, I have Stam in my squad for now.
-JJOKBOB
A friendly reminder, we have a La Liga group up and running, still a couple of weeks away from it kicking off though. I have a feeling the Serie A game is not going to be a go this year.
http://uk.superliga.fantasysports.yahoo.com/football
ID: 371
PW: yahoo
hi, guys...
it is nice to see all of you yff junkies back on this blog...
woke up at 6 AM, started my car any went to internet caffe to build my team for this week...
for now it looks like this:
hilario
damme-kolarov-alcaraz-angeleri
adam-lampard-valencia
bosseli-campbell-rooney
2,59 left
waiting for some more news to make final decision
still can't decide between bale/malouda/(drogba or rooney) or o'shea/lamps/rooney.. which one better you guys think?
SM
So many people are picking Kirkland, but someone on one of the posts mentioned that Al-Habsi is getting most of the playing time in pre-season. Is Kirkland guaranteed to start?
I always find the first week the hardest, which teams will act well and which wont? Will the newly promoted ones give a good fight - it douesnt usually happen but then all the manu fans will remember Burnley....
As far as I'm concerned I have the best team that I can
Kirkland
Koscielny, Kolarov, Bale
N'Zogbia, D Silva, Lampard, Petrov, Malouda
Boselli, Hernandez
Yes it's full of new players but both strikers have shown themselves to be more than capable and Hernandez can't help but score at the moment (versus a rather impotent Rooney). Wigan should (at least in theory) show Blackpool a thing or too so N'Zogbia must surely be a flyer. Petrov at Bolton? Great Player with a cracking chance of 90 minutes and some competition for Taylor.
The advantage of taking on 5 newbies is that one of them at least is going to fly and then you can make them a season banker.
Do you want another great bit of advice - why am I sharing? Go to a bookie site, I use skybet but you choose which you like and check out the "to score in 90 minutes" market. In Chelsea's case this weekend the odds are Drogba 8/13, Anelka Evens, Lampard 5/4, Sturridge 5/4, Kalou 6/4 and Malouda 7/4. If you work them through a dutching calculator you should see that this works out as percentage chances of scoring of 22%, 18%, 16%, 16%, 14% and 13%. If you then multiply their chance by the cost of each player you get (rounded up) 4.7, 2.7, 3.3, 0.8, 1.0 and 1.7. This means that your paying 4.7 points for the chance of Drogba scoring whereas you're only paying 0.8 points on the chance of Sturridge scoring.
The bookmakers have to cover their bets and it can cost them dear so if they say that Sturridge is more likely to score than Kalou or Malouda then there's got to be a reason and he's a snip at 4.87.....
I'm actually going to use this method to predict a whole team for this seasons games based on the bookmakers concerns on matches.....It will be named "Bookmakers"
Hi, the team is made - "Bookmkares". It includes the goalkeeper of the team with the shortest odds of winning, The "lowest cost per point by average chance of scoring" midfielders and forwards from the top 5 teams with the shortest odds and the three most expensive defenders from those five teams. Any player who is listed as injured on Physioroom has been removed.
The top five teams are Chelsea, Man U, Wigan, A Villa and Sunderland and the team is:
Hilario
Cole, Evra, Vidic
Zenden, Muhammadi, Moses, Watson
Heskey, Scotland, Sturridge
I have to admit that with the only concerns being people not playing it definitely looks interesting - especially as it's a full team with 24.45 points left!!
If only there was a bookie that gave odds on "to play 90 minutes".....
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