Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 14

Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 14

For a number of reasons I was forced to miss the last few weeks so before the waffle begins I’d like to thank both Init & Cookie for ensuring that Tips continued. You were in good hands as Cookie proved last week when he tipped Leicester’s Danny Simpson. Many laughed at our Cookie but he was to have the last laugh as Simpson pitched in with 10pts last week. So what’s happened since I’ve been gone? The United defence continues to impress, picking Liverpool players is once again a possibility, Jamie Vardy has equalled Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record and now has Stan Mortensen’s record in his sights, Harry Kane has rediscovered his form, Sergio Aguero has made a goalscoring return and it’s déjà vu for Arsenal as key players continue to pick up injuries… oh Arsene if only you’d spend some cash! All of this has livened up FPL and has given us more options as we endeavour to break away from the template. So after my brief hiatus we’ve once again sat down to ponder where the points will come from over the coming weeks and this is what we’ve come up with…

Goalkeepers

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[/three_fourth]When it comes to goalkeepers there really is only one place to start and that is in Manchester. No, not Mr. Head & Shoulders, we’re of course referring to David de Gea. United currently boast the best defence in the league with just nine goals conceded from their opening 13 games and if it hadn’t have been for a Troy Deeney penalty on Saturday afternoon de Gea would have made it five clean sheets on the bounce. United lie second in the table just one point off the top and this is thanks in no small part to de Gea and his defensive colleagues. United face free scoring Leicester this weekend but following that they have a run of games from which the Spaniard will be quite confident of adding to his five clean sheets. We’ve seen in recent weeks that LvG is more than happy to rotate his defence and therefore de Gea would appear to be the cheapest guaranteed starter from their defence.

Liverpool haven’t exactly been solid at the back this season, they’ve conceded 15 times in their opening 13 games and Simon Mignolet has kept just four clean sheets. While we’re not here to make excuses for Mignolet & Co. it should be pointed out that their fixture list has been pretty tough. That however is all set to change and aside from Leicester in GW18 five of their next six games are against teams who have been struggling for goals in recent weeks. Jurgen Klopp was never going to turn things around overnight but there have been signs of improvement since his arrival, even at the back, where they have made ‘fewer’ stupid mistakes in recent weeks. Given their fixtures and the signs of improvement Mignolet could prove to be a good bet for a couple of clean sheets over the coming weeks.

A number of other keepers who warrant a mention this week are Stoke’s Jack Butland, Newcastle’s Rob Elliot and Crystal Palace’s Wayne Hennessy. Admittedly Stoke have a tricky run of fixtures between now and the end of the year but defensively they’ve been quite solid and have conceded just 12 times in their opening 13 games with Butland keeping five clean sheets. He’s made 51 saves to date and this has resulted in him picking up 12 extra points as well as eight bonus points so even when he’s not keeping clean sheets he’s racking up the points. Elliot & Hennessy feature once again thanks to the fact that they are both priced at £4.0m. Both Palace & Newcastle have a reasonable run of fixtures until the year’s end and while Newcastle aren’t exactly to be trusted you can’t expect much for £4.0m!

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Defenders

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[/three_fourth]Should you be happy with your current goalkeeping combination you are obviously not in the market for David de Gea. If this is the case you may want to consider a United defender with Chris ‘Mike’ Smalling being the standout candidate. Previously ridiculed by opposition supporters as well as a few of his own, Smalling has come on leaps & bounds this season and on current form is arguably the best centre back in the league. He is certainly the leader of the United defence and he is the only United player to have started every game this season. He’s yet to find the back of the net but as he’s demonstrated in previous seasons he does know where the onion bag is so he’s a good bet for a goal over the coming weeks. He’s picked up an impressive nine bonus points to date with only Alexsandar Kolarov, of the defenders, picking up more. His impressive form this season has seen his price rise to £6.7m, a price which some managers may baulk at, should you be one such manager you could instead consider Marcos Rojo. Many fantasy managers were caught with their pants down when LvG decided to bench the Argentine against Watford on Saturday. Hopefully the reason for this was due to the fact he had played twice for Argentina during the break and with the Watford game being an early kick off LvG chose to rest him. At £5.5m he is excellent value for money, particularly if he can make the left back spot his own and it should be pointed out that he’d started the four previous games.

As we’ve outlined above Liverpool have been rather lax at the back this season, but there have been some small signs of an improvement in recent weeks, while they also have a number of decent fixtures coming up over the next few weeks. Nathaniel Clyne currently features in a staggering 28.7% of teams but I suspect many of those are managers who picked him at the beginning of the season based on his score from last season! Martin Skrtel demonstrated his prowess in the opposition penalty area against City last Saturday evening and is always a threat from set pieces and it’s for this reason that he is our preferred choice from the Liverpool defence. If you’re looking for someone a little cheaper you might want to turn your attentions to Alberto Moreno. With Liverpool’s fixtures set to ease they are likely to have more possession during games and this should in theory see the Spaniard get forward more often which will hopefully result in a number of attacking returns.

In terms of fixtures Everton had a horrid start to the season and this resulted in them winning just three of their opening ten games. However since GW11 their fixtures have improved dramatically and unsurprisingly so has their form particularly in front of the opposition goal and against Villa last Saturday they picked up their 3rd clean sheet of the season. The Villa game saw Seamus Coleman pick up just his 2nd clean sheet of the season although given Everton’s upcoming fixtures we suspect the Irish international will pick up some more attacking returns over the coming weeks coupled with a number of clean sheets, and given the fact he currently features in just 8.8% of teams he could yet prove to be a decent differential.

Spurs currently boast the league’s 2nd best defensive record yet aside from Toby Alderweireld none of their defenders feature in more than 10% of teams. Thanks to the fact that Eric Dier is playing OOP in midfield we have five defensive options to choose from. Our tip this week is right back Kyle Walker. Why? It’s pretty simple really, at £5.0m he’s the cheapest of the five and with an ownership of just 2.3% he represents a great differential. His underlying stats aren’t quite as impressive as his defensive colleagues, but aside from the aforementioned Alderweireld he has more than matched the others in terms of fantasy returns.

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Midfielders

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[/three_fourth]Much was made of Everton’s recent upturn in fixtures and those who jumped on board early have been amply rewarded with the Toffees plundering 11 goals in their last three games. At present there are just two players from the Everton midfield who you should be considering and they are obviously Ross Barkley and Gerard Deulofeu. Between them they have weighed in with six goals and 10 assists, to put this into some context the rest of the Everton midfielders have managed just one miserable assist between them. The obvious pick is undoubtedly Barkley as he has outscored Deulofeu by 30pts over the course of the season, he has however played over 600 minutes more than the Spaniard. If we take a look at their last three games we see that things are much tighter with Barkley outscoring Deulofeu by 23pts to 21pts. However, the underlying stats from these three games would suggest that Barkley is much more involved in Everton’s attacking play and therefore he would be our choice of the two. Then again if it is a differential you’re looking for Deulofeu is the man for you as he currently features in just 2.5% of teams as opposed to a whopping 25.2% for Barkley.

As we’ve noted above, Jurgen Klopp was never going to turn Liverpool’s fortunes around overnight… countless managers have tried to do that over the last 25 years! He has however injected some much need energy and enthusiasm into the squad and the players once again appear to be enjoying their football. One player who has greatly benefitted from the German’s arrival is Philippe Coutinho. Much was expected of the Brazilian at the beginning of the season but as Liverpool struggled the season appeared to be passing him by. In the last three games he’s scored four, claimed an assist and picked up the maximum nine bonus points. He is clearly the fulcrum around which nearly all of Liverpool’s attacks are built and with Liverpool having a number of relatively easy fixtures over the coming weeks we see no reason as to why he won’t remain in the fantasy points. He did of course leave the City game early due to a suspected hamstring injury, although reports now suggest that he could make Sundays game against Swansea. We would of course recommend you wait for Team Talk before drafting him into your squad. Roberto Firmino also deserves a mention this week following on from his impressive display against City. Having yet to secure a regular starting position for his new club his performance against City would suggest that he is set to do so under Klopp. Some of his linkup play with Coutinho was scintillating and we suspect that we’ll see his name on the scoresheet on a regular basis over the coming weeks.

Hands up how many of you have sold Alexis Sanchez? At the time of writing over 58k managers in total have sold the Chilean this week. There’s no denying that his form of late hasn’t been great, he hasn’t picked up any attacking returns since GW9. However against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday night he didn’t look very tired and this resulted in him bagging two goals. As we’ve seen in the past he’s very much a confidence player and these two goals should give him the boost he needs. What we’ve also seen in the past is that when he’s on form he’s very much a flat track bully and with the Gunners next three games against Norwich, Sunderland & Villa he’s certainly got a flat track ahead of him. We can’t move on from Arsenal without discussing their man of the moment Mesut Ozil. The German would finally appear to have added some much needed consistency to his game registering attacking returns in each of his last seven games and he now has 11 assists for the season which is five more than the next best. Assuming Sanchez does bounce back to form this will give Ozil yet another outlet and don’t be surprised should his assist stats get better and better.

Sticking with North London for a moment and we turn our attentions to Spurs’ Christian Eriksen. With five wins and three draws from their last eight games Spurs sit atop of the current form table and with a decent fixture list over the coming weeks we see no reason for this form to dip. Eriksen is yet to hit top form this season but he has still managed to pick up two goals and six assists. But with his main target man Harry Kane himself hitting top form we should see Eriksen claim his fair share of assists over the coming weeks and he’s a decent differential as he features in just 6.2% of teams.

For those of you on the hunt for a cheap 5th midfielder the obvious choice is undeniably West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini, while should you fancy a punt you could opt for West Brom’s James Morrison. Lanzini has been overshadowed by Dimitri Payet since the beginning of the season but with the Frenchman now sidelined Lanzini will have the opportunity to step into the limelight. As we saw against Spurs the Hammers will struggle without Payet but Lanzini still managed to get his name on the scoresheet for his 4th of the season. They have a number of tempting fixtures before the end of 2015 and this should see Lanzini continue as a source of fantasy points. West Brom have struggled at times this season and it says a lot when with three goals to his name Morrison is their joint top scorer. The Baggies have a mixed bag of fixtures over the remainder of the year but at £4.8m Morrison is ideally priced to sit on your bench for the bad ones!

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Forwards

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[/three_fourth]Having scored just once in the opening nine games many were starting to accuse Harry Kane of being a one season wonder. However with seven goals in his last four games all such accusations have been long forgotten. Last season he was a ‘must have’ because of his bargain basement price tag and while he is now classed as a premium striker he will soon be bordering on a ‘must have’ especially if he can maintain his recent form. With a trip to Azerbaijan on Thursday followed by the visit of Chelsea at lunchtime on Sunday many will argue that it might be best to wait a week before purchasing Kane, we would however like to point out that it was against Chelsea last season that Kane made people believe he was the real deal and we all know that Kane loves to score in London derbies. Spurs have a great run of fixtures following the Chelsea game and we wouldn’t be surprised should Kane catch Jamie Vardy in the scoring charts before the end of 2015!!

Against Liverpool last Saturday evening City were nothing short of terrible and they created very little in the way of clear cut chances. Despite this Sergio Aguero, who was clearly a distance off match fitness, managed to fashion a chance for himself, a chance which he dispatched with great aplomb. City are unlikely to play as poorly as they did against Liverpool anytime soon while Aguero’s fitness will continue to improve and this can only mean one thing, more goals for Sergio. The Argentine currently features in just 14.7% of teams and for someone of his undoubted quality he must be classed as a differential although such a classification is unlikely to remain for very long.

Having scored in three consecutive games there is a danger that Romelu Lukaku has added an element of consistency to his game. I know, we also find it hard to believe but the stats just can’t be ignored. With nine goals to his name only Jamie Vardy has found the back of the net more often this season and at £8.9m he currently offers great value for money. With both Barkley and Deulofeu in such great form behind him the Belgian is likely to be provided with plenty of opportunities over the coming weeks and with the Toffees having such a great run of fixtures there is nothing to suggest his goals will dry up…only that nagging sense that with consistency within touching distance he’ll go and make a mess of things!!

With so much talk surrounding which three strikers to choose from Vardy, Aguero, Kane & Lukaku many are ignoring Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud. Granted he hasn’t grabbed the headlines like some of the others but he has still managed to find the back of the net on seven occasions which isn’t too shabby. If it’s a differential you’re after look no further than the Frenchman as he currently features in just 9.3% of teams. With Ozil at his creative best in midfield Giroud will continue to get the chances and while he’s unlikely to hit big scores on a regular basis he’s pretty reliable and will score consistently.

For those of you in the market for a cheap 3rd striker our tip is once more Watford’s Odion Ighalo. The Nigerian international continues to impress on his debut season in the Premier League and has now registered seven goals and three assists. If you’re going to buy Ighalo now is the time to do so as they have three quite easy fixtures before their fixtures turn horrific over the festive period.

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Thanks for reading Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 14. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @KenLyons79

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