Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 23

And now for something completely different…
Python may not quite be back on our screens but Basil is with Fawlty and as ever the madness that is our transfer window held plenty of classic comedic value. From Chelsea taking one look at Forest in the summer and saying “Hold My Beer”, 600 million pounds worth of beer, right to the other end of the spectrum and Everton’s board saying “Hold My Front Door (tightly shut, please butler)”.

With such a bumper window, midweek fixtures, and having already done a fantastic Tips article last week to cover the upcoming games, we thought we would do something different and provide you with a bit of coverage / knowledge / back-story on some of the strange characters that will soon start popping up on your screens as you switch on live games or MOTD.

As such we sent OddDane off to research the good, bad and ugly of the transfer window. And here is what he found…

Arsenal
Trossard (6.7 Mid) – Also known as Trollard, super troll and… Well, you get the picture. He’s now joined Arteta’s armoury and true to his nature immediately started trolling all those poor Martinelli owners…

Jorginho (5.8 Mid) – Another familiar face, not much to talk about here. He may take away penalties from Saka when he plays, remains to be seen. Came in for Partey against Burnley, err… Everton, was it?

Jakub Kiwior (4.0 Def) – Not expecting to see him in action any time soon, though he did make it to the bench.

Aston Villa
Alex Moreno (4.5, Def) – The lively Spaniard joined from Real Betis where he has 3 assists to his name in La Liga and has started in the past few games for the Villains (helped by Digne’s shoulder injury). Looks promising in his play but was benched for Digne against Leicester (subbed in at half-time). Would expect the good lad to earn a place to start, if nothing else Digne rarely remains available for longer stretches at a time. Probably hold off a bit and see what time brings.

Jhon Duran (5.5 FWD) – New signing from Chicago Fire (MLS). Came in for Bailey at the 82’ mark. Moving on…

Brentford
Kevin Schade (5.0 MID) – New toy from Freiburg, the 21-year-old German hasn’t seen much game time this season but managed 7G+1A from 25 games (10 starts) last season. Interesting what Frank will make of the lad.

Bournemouth
Dango Outtara (5.0 MID) – Made his debut vs Forest where he assisted on the first goal and started again against Brighton. He comes in from Lorient in Ligue 1 where he played on both wings and managed 6G+5A across 21 games. Seems like a solid signing, but it’s Bournemouth lads…

Antonie Semenyo (5.0 FWD) – Started up front against Brighton. Championship signing from Bristol City where he’s done well the past few seasons, not sure how it’ll work out for him in the EPL.

Hamed Traoré (4.5 MID) – Signed from Sassuolo, Serie A, where he’s recently had a bit of injury struggles (foot) but otherwise appears to have done well on the left wing (mostly). Last season saw him bag 8G+2A from 23 starts and 36 appearances.

Brighton
Bounanotte (4.5 MID) – The 18-year-old signed from Rosario Cent in the Argentinian league where he had 24 games (19 starts) with four goals and 3 assists, playing many positions, mostly RW and RM. It’ll be interesting to follow his development in the EPL. Subbed in for Lamptey at RW/RWB around the 75’ mark.

Yasin Avari (4.5 MID) – The 19-year-old signed from the Swedish league where he’d worked his way into an upcoming name for AIK Stockholm. Probably a promising prospect but not expected in the main squad currently.

Chelsea
Oh boy where do we start on this one, so many new shiny toys for Boehly and Potter here…

João Felix (7.5 FWD) – On loan from Atletico Madrid, he came on already against Fulham where he looked decent until… The incident… He’s back from suspension vs. the Hammers in the upcoming game week though. The Chelskis will be in desperate need of goals, and he may well be the one to help with that. He certainly knew his way around the net in his Benfica days, and he’s been decent enough for Atletico as well, averaging about 0.9 G+A per 90 minutes this season and the prior – albeit across just 20 starts (38 appearances).

Mykhailo Mudryk (7.1 MID) – The expensive new toy from Shaktar Donetsk! The young Ukrainian looked lively when he came on vs Liverpool and then started against Fulham… where he was subbed off at half-time. That one was less conclusive, but hey his other goal was solved. “DO NOT GET SENT OFF!” was his primary objective from Potter, according to locker room rumors 😉. Elsewhere we’ve seen reports that he may have been measured for one of the fastest runs in EPL for the season thus far. A worthy punt for an easy fixture or two maybe.

Benoit Badiashile (5.0 DEF) – This new signing from Monaco has impressed in defence where he’s started and played the full 90 minutes in their last three. All three with a clean sheet to show for it, plus 2 BPS vs. Crystal Palace. He’s even showed a bit of goal threat and has a record for scoring the odd goal in Ligue 1 for Monaco – this looks like a promising option, and at 5.0 he’s fairly priced too.

Enzo Fernandes (5.0 MID) – If you’ve not heard of him, we offer our heartfelt congratulations on recovering from your October-22 induced coma!! The Argentinian national impressed during the World Cup and saw his market value skyrocket as a result. To Chelsea that means they must have him! And so they did! Get him that is… Oh if only he’d been priced at 4.5 we dreamed, but even at 5.0 he may still find his way to your team. Despite his DM-role he’s tallied 1G+5A for Benfica from 17 games this season and is not afraid of trying for the odd banger from outside the box, as evidenced from his appearances for the national heroes.

INTERLUDE!

A slight mid-alphabetic interlude here to take a breather as conveniently all of Everton, Palace and Fulham did little or nothing in this window. Technically, Everton recalled 3 loanees, Palace signed Ahamada and Lokonga and Fulham got Shane Duffy, Sasa Lukic and Soares from Arsenal but good luck if you think any one of those will help your FPL team anytime soon!

Man City and Newcastle ruined our alphabetti-spaghetti plans but they too can sit here as City did bugger all, perhaps hoping to go unnoticed by the powers that be in light of what has followed since, and Newcastle simply signed Anthony ‘the attitude’ Gordon. So they may as well have done nothing too.

Leeds
Georginio Rutter (5.5 FWD) – Leeds’ new striker from Hoffenheim has two goals and assists to his name in the Bundesliga from 11 starts (15 appearances) and is considered a promising prospect at just 20-years-old, from what we can gather. He played alongside Bammy in the FA cup and with Rodrigo out that may not be a one-off. One to watch. From afar.

Maximilian Wöber (4.5 DEF) – The Austrian defender started and played the full FA game vs. Accrington Stanley. Judging from his past seasons in the Austrian Bundesliga with RB Salzburg he has a bit of goal threat, managing 4G+1A last season. He’s played a fair bit of left-back in addition to his main CB-role and with a bit of good form may nail a spot with Leeds’ defensive line.

Weston McKennie (5.0 MID) – The US national signed from Juventus, eager to leave for some playing time from what we understand. Plays center midfield (as well as RM/LM) for the national team but has had games in just about any role apart from centre back for Juventus. Best guess is he’ll complement and/or compete with his US teammate, Aaronson.

Liverpool
Cody Gakpo (7.8 MID) – Klopp’s new transfer impressed in the WC and has had 9G-12A from just 14 games in the Eresdivisie for PSV Eindhoven. So naturally he’s been off to a flying start for Liverpool, right? Well, wrong! Three games in the EPL and nothing to show for it thus far, let’s see if Liverpool will get their act together first, shall we?

Leicester
Tetê (5.5 MID) – New signing from Lyon, Ligue 1. The 22 year-old Brazilian managed 6G+2A across 14 starts this season and started his first game with Leicester the other night. He scored. Not a bad start for the right winger.

Victor (Bernth) Kristiansen (4.5 DEF) – The 20-year-old wonder boy from FCK (Copenhagen) started his first game already the other night where he didn’t look half bad, though they did ship in a couple goals. At least he didn’t score an own goal. He’s played quite well in the Danish Superliga, but… How to put this nicely… That compares about as well as a Lada does to an Audi. Nevertheless, a good lad and promising prospect – let’s see how well he adopts to the EPL.

Harry Souttar (4.5 DEF) – New signing from Stoke. He too started. He’s the one who scored an own goal. Well, at least it wasn’t two…

Manchester United
Marcel Sabitzer (5.0 MID) – Versatile player, brought on from Bayern München. Probably to help offset the many red cards Casemiro and Fred are competing for as well as Eriksen’s unfortunate leg trimmings by Andy Carrol’s scissors… He may start, now that Casemiro sent himself off for a few game weeks now.

Wout Weghorst (6.0 FWD) – Signed with Ten Hag before learning he could’ve reunited with Dyche! Poor boy. You know the Burnley chap a few seasons past? He’s scored 1 for Manchester United in the EFL Cup and well, that’s it really. Martial can’t stay fit to save his own life, so Wout not try some Weghorst? Yep, okay. I’ll let myself out…

Nothing to see here Forest
Tough luck, the evil sheriff spent it all before Robin Hood could steal it for the greater good. Forest has signed another starting XI, possibly hoping if they have enough players to both relegate AND to field an entire new team, then the latter may yet stay in the Premier League. They’re in for surprise come Summer…

Gustavo Scarpa (5.0 MID) – The attacking midfielder from Brazilian Palmeiras has shown good form over the past two seasons there and he may well help turn the tide to score goals for them – we wonder who will be on the receiving end of his passes though. Not holding our breath here though.

It could of course be Chris Wood (5.6 FWD)… yep, still not holding our breath. Your archetypal journeyman striker, a gun for hire if you will. Only one with a limited supply of bullets in his pocket. He’ll probably bag the odd one, much as he did for Burnley, less so for Newcastle, and no doubt will for whichever poor sod is struggling at this time next season too and reaches for the desperation button, or the Chris Wood button as we shall from here on in refer to it as.

Keylor Navas (4.5 GKP) – The Costa Rican national was signed from PSG and it is an interesting one. He’s had a strong saving percentage with PSG the past few seasons and may well do some good with Henderson still sidelined from injury. Priced at 4.5 we don’t expect a rush of new transfers though.

In other news Forest signed Brazilian centre back Felipe (4.5 DEF) from Atletico Madrid who may still be injured, remains to be seen. They’ve also nicked André Ayew (5.0 MID) ahead of Everton and it would seem Forest watched the World Cup, but sadly they signed the wrong Danilo (4.5 MID) – maybe they didn’t watch it close enough after all…

Southampton
The Saints have made some interesting signings, perhaps spending big to ensure they stay up. In the past they’ve managed it. Somehow. Let’s see if it works this time too. It probably won’t…

Paul Onuachu (5.5 FWD) – The successful forward from Genk has 16G to his name from 14 starts in the Jupiler Pro league this season – scoring from penalties, his head, his feet, you name it. Well, that’s mostly it. But he’s not a one season wonder. In fact he’s been scoring left, right and center since joining the league from the Danish Superliga in 2019 (he also scored a lot there, but remember… Ladas and Audis folks…). So far, he’s just had a 45 minute sub-in vs Brentford, but it’ll be interesting to see if he can help turn things around for the Saints. If nothing else, standing two-meters tall, he’ll likely find himself at the end of JWP’s set pieces sooner or later.

Mislav Orsic (5.5 MID) – The Croatian left winger/attacking midfielder signed from Dinamo Zagreb where he’s been an effective goal threat with 8G+5A from just 15 appearances this season alone. Spurs will remember him from the Champions League, not fond memories we suspect. Thus far he’s managed only a handful of minutes despite being available for three games or so. Still, on his day he can be one hell of a winger – it’ll be interesting to see if he catches form.

Tottenham / Spurs
Pedro Porro (5.0 DEF) – this new signing has been on and off the table so many times in the same window that everyone, including Levy, will be waiting to see if he’s actually with the squad come kick off time vs City. (He was). The Sporting CP defender has replaced Doherty who went the way of Atletico Madrid. Pedro has been playing well and has a decent attacking output as well (6G+9A over the past 37 appearances in the Primeira Liga) – surely that’ll continue with Spurs, right? *ahem* Well, he’s priced at a reasonably 5.0 so it’s worth a shot.

Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld (6.5 MID) – The new signing from Villareal came on in the FA Cup game vs Preston North End and scored. He’ll likely have to compete with the talents of Richarlison, Kulu, Kane and Son for a spot so difficult to know how much time he will get in the PL, but he’s done decently for Villareal as a FW/LM.

Wolves
Much like the Saints there has been some let’s avoid relegation shopping at Wolverhampton. So far it worked against Liverpool, but well, that’s not saying much is it? *Sobs*

Pablo Sarabia (5.5 MID) – The Spanish national signed from PSG where he’s had trouble finding steady game time and scoring just a single goal in the league cup. However, most will remember him from his role in the Spanish National team, including the World Cup, where he’s done well on the right wing. Or maybe his recent 21/22 season with Sporting CP which saw him bagging 15G+5A from 29 appearances? Thus far he’s played 45 mins vs City and just shy of 60 minutes vs Pool and he did show a bit of threat versus the latter. Could be an interesting attacking option with their run of seemingly decent fixtures (mind you, it’s still Wolves we’re talking about here).

Craig Dawson (4.8 DEF) – the former Hammers centre back made his first full game in the Pool match, where the bugger went on and headed one in. He tends to find the net a few times during the season, if you get him you just have to hope it’s in the right end.

Matheus Cunha (5.5 FWD) – Another signing from Atletico Madrid (How many can they afford to let go!?) where he had a decent 21/22 as an impact sub but struggled to get much playing time in the current season. Started against Liverpool and was subbed off for Jimenez, another member of the 59-minute club of GW22. He’s had playing time the last four game, but nothing to show for it yet.

West Ham
The fans have been chanting ‘we want new signings’. The board heard ‘sign ings’. Much like the joke, it’s been seen before, and yet here we are.

Danny Ings (6.4 FWD) – We all know his potential, and he delivered as promised. First appearance with the Hammers and he’s off with an injury. Such a Danny Ings thing to do, such a Hammers signing to make. Match made in heaven. We jest, the poor lads, the lot of them, board, fans and Danny Ings… Alas, he came back with just shy of 10 minutes against Newcastle and may yet come good for them.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 23. This article was written by OddDane.

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