Fantasy FPL 2014/15 Transfer round up Part 4
Today we cast our eyes over four new imports to the Premier League all of whom come with a decent pedigree and will be hoping to make a name for themselves this season. Chelsea have moved to secure a new left back to replace the departed Cashley, Liverpool have signed another… yes you guessed it… attacking midfielder, Newcastle have gone and signed … yes you guessed it… a Frenchman and West Ham have signed a nutter. Let’s take a look see…
The FF247 league code for FPL is 14923-10423 by the way…
Anyway before we begin the analysis here is an update on all major transfers IN so far…
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Filipe Luis
So Jose continues to strengthen his squad, this time by splashing £20mln more of Roman’s petty cash on Brazilian left back Filipe Luis from Athletico Madrid. Luis has just come off an amazing season, where he helped Athletico win La Liga for the first time in eighteen years together with a great run in the Champions League where they fell at the final hurdle, beaten by fierce rivals Real. Described by some as one of the most complete left backs in world football, Luis’ uncompromising tackling, tactical awareness and aggressive positioning will likely see Cesar Azpilicueta return to his more favoured right side, where he will compete with Branislav Ivanovic. Luis will be 29 years old by the time the season starts, providing more experience to a defence that was rock solid last season and suggests that this term will be little different. Luis has not been a huge attacking threat historically, scoring just twice for Athletico in 127 games and assisting three times last season. However, he will be expected to link up predominantly with Eden Hazard down the left and plays more like a European than a South American, which probably explains his omission from Brazil’s World Cup squad – on the flip side, he’s had a proper rest this suimmer and as importantly, has not been exposed to the huge emotional trauma that his international colleagues were subjected to during the World Cup.
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Lazar Markovic
Sell your best player who just happens to be one of the world’s best players for a massive amount and use the money to add a significant number of players to the squad. Sound familiar? Correct this is exactly what Spurs did last summer and it now appears as though Liverpool are following a similar path, although the scousers will be hoping for better results! Brendan Rodgers has splashed out £20m for 20 year old Serbian international Lazar Markovic, making him the fourth new arrival at the club this summer. The youngster is a product of Partizan Belgrade’s academy and broke into the first team at just 17 before going on to make 46 appearance & scoring 13 goals for the club and this saw him named in the Serbian SuperLiga’s team of the year two seasons in a row. This form saw him move to Portuguese giants Benfica at the beginning of last season and he went on to score five times in 26 appearances for the Lisbon club and he was included by UEFA in their Europa League team of the year. Markovic has predominantly played from the left but he has also been deployed in the number 10 role behind the striker. No matter where Rodgers chooses to play him, his pace, trickery & vision should see him fit in well with the likes of Sterling & Sturridge. From a fantasy football point of view the obvious problem is potential rotation as no matter what formation Brendan Rodgers chooses to play in a given match a number of his attacking midfielders are likely to be disappointed, so our advice for now is to pay close attention to Liverpool’s pre-season games.
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Mauro Zarate
Mauro Zarate has arrived! Now the fun begins for all the fans of the Argentinean. When we say fans, we mean those who love players that can cause commotion on and off the pitch. How much damage he will do on it remains to be seen, as he struggled when leaving the comfort of Argentina in his previous venture to Europe. His stints in Italy with Lazio and Inter were somewhat unremarkable to say the least, but I guarantee you those Lazio fans will forever remember him and by that I mean forever hate him. He arrives at West Ham coming off one of his most successful seasons. He was the top goal scorer in the Primera Division of Argentina with 13 (they divide their seasons into two separate tournaments) including notching 3 braces in his last 4 games. Zarates’ talent has never been in question, but you sure as hell can question his character. He has caused quite a bit of trouble over his career including a Nazi salute (he claims he had no idea what it meant) when sitting at a Lazio game with the team’s fans. He ‘mistakenly’ punched a referee and got suspended for 3 games; he has been known to throw fits when he gets benched, etc, etc, etc… Sorry not actually done, he also made up a skin condition and went on vacation and he was rumoured to have had one of his Lazio managers fired by placing an ultimatum on the team… I could go on, but we will leave it at that. Zarate can play on any of the wings, as the CAM or as the highest forward, so he is versatile. He has good pace and is a very good dribbler, but this might also be his biggest downfall. He over dribbles and has been criticized for being highly selfish in the past. He will drive you nuts!! Hopefully Big Sam will play with two forwards or at the very least play Zarate somewhere along the attacking line. This is debatable though as we have seen Allardyce sometimes play with no forwards. We would call it a false 9, but that would be a lie; it was more like a holding-mid up top. If Mauro is on, then Hammer fans will be blowing bubbles forever, but if he is not…HEHEHE it could get dicey.
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Emmanuel Riviere
Just when we thought Pards had run out of recruits from the Foreign Legion, he pops out another one. Striker Emmanuel Riviere has joined Le Toon from Monaco for a fee believed to be around £6mln and becomes Newcastle’s fifth signing of the summer. Striking options have been the biggest problem for Pardew, well on the pitch anyway, especially with Papiss Cisse struggling to recover from injury. Why Riviere has chosen to leave the Principality for the Geordie Shores is beyond me – I’ve pondered this for a while and makes little sense unless he’s upset the Prince. Of course his starting appearances once Falcao joined have been somewhat reduced, so maybe, just maybe we’ve found a Frenchman who wants to work for his money rather than just sit on the bench and accept the pay cheque. Anyway, whatever his reasoning, in the season and a half he spent at Monaco, Riviere scored 14 goals in 44 appearances including ten in 30 games last season, but despite representing France in every youth level from U16-U21 he has yet to be selected for the senior national side. Maybe he hopes Didier Deschamps will see more of him in a Newcastle shirt than playing in the Champions League.
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For any potential Man City players owners out there:
Here is the Jambos report of their friendly match tonight. Should give a fairer view of the match rather than a possible bias on City’s own website.
http://www.heartsfc.co.uk/articles/20140718/match-report-hearts-1-2-manchester-city_2241384_4014340
For those to lazy to read it, here is how City lined up:
Manchester City: First half – Wright, Richards, Leigh, Nastasic, Rekik, Garcia, Zuculini, Sinclair, Nasri, Navas, Negredo
Second half – Caballero, Bossaerts (Clichy, 71′), Boyata, Kolarov, Denayer, Fernando, Rodwell, Sinclair, Huws, Jovertic, Guidetti.
Goals by Scott Sinclair & Aleksandr Kolarov.
Oight Alex and GP!
Tonight Sunderland have brought Borini off Liverpool for 14 million! That mucks up my Wickham plans his gametime will be reduced big time I’d have thought!?!??
Olright DP (doubles partner!) hmmm thats an interesting move. I think Borini will start but will he start alongside Wickham? After the end to last season he surly must get a fair crack. On a side note, there are a few rumours on the Owls chatrooms he may be coming back to us but I feel that is wishful thinking than anything else!
Cookie was saying earlier that Fletcher is back from injury which to me spells trouble for wickhams gametime! Having said that at 6.5 Borini could actually be an ok 3rd striker!?!?
peaky,
Certainly only muddies the water for you. I agree with Alex though, he deserves to start as first choice based on his end to the season (providing he is fit of course), Be interesting to see how Poyet plays in all his pre-season games. An educated guess would be the guile of Borini would supplement better either one of Wickham or Fletcher.
Betting suspended on Remy to Liverpool tonight I see . . . . so Borini making way for him by looks of it.
Peaky, GP,
What do we think of Remy to Liverpool. At 7.5 he could be fantasy gold! But will he be rotated? Peaky, id leave Wickham for now and do as GP said and keep an eye on preseason. On that note do wither of you know of a good site to keep track of preseason games? Especially from a fantasy perspective. Anything happening on the mighty FF247?
With CL this season Rogers is clearly after a full set of strikers to rotate,surely it’s Sturridge plus A N Other!?!?!? I don’t know a website mate there’s nothing official on here but the odd score or line up is posted.U could always go on twitter and ‘befriend’ some footy teams!!
Peaky, Im just adding all the FPL teams on twitter now! Your team the same as before?
Morning all, we’re going to be covering the preseason friendlies to an extent don’t worry – not every single one of course!! But you’ll get the info you need!
I saw a report last night suggesting Sunderland will pay 14mln for Borini….just to muddy the waters further for Wickham etc!
Hello `big Blue, Good to hear mate, they are always a pain to find a decent write up of so pleased to hear mate. cheers
NZ
I’m now worried for both his and Lambert’s gametime. I’d say it is Sturridge or noone. When you think about it anyway, they play Southampton (who won at Liverpool last season), City and Spurs both away so it is not as if they have mouthwatering fixtures in the beginning. You could take a wait-and-see approach.
I follow all 20 clubs on Twitter and they are absolutely the best for pre-season detail. Try to watch what you can as well – Liverpool and Tottenham both on TV tomorrow.
GP,
Not in NZ there not! Will try to find them on the internet! Will get a team up for some critical analysis soon, I just need a million extra now!
NZ
Apologies – I’m forgetting we’re not all in Britain.
Yeah feel free to put your team up.
Cheers GP, I look forward to your advice!
Rate my team plz
Mannone
Lescot terry flanagan
Gerad hazard cabella siggurdson
Costa lambert rooney
Krul colback upson collins
Lab
Not too bad a team there. I would worry for Flanagan a bit with Enrique returning to fitness. Lescott could be a very interesting one particularly his knack for a goal or two.
Tq gallant. Will reasses back my team
Doesn’t look too bad Labyrinth though I would say the players with questionable gametime and point tallys could be Mannone,although brilliant last season Sunderland have brought Pantimilion so nobody’s sure who No1 keeper is,Flanagan could be a doubt as Enriqye is back from injury and Mr Stevie G I reckon has had his day and he has an overinflated price due to last year when nibbles was falling all over the place for penalties!!Nice forward line! There’s been huge changes at Liverpool off season I’d wait to get 3 of their players till we see them in action a bit!
All the best L
Tq peaky for the opinion
Yeah, i will take a look for big 7 pre season games and decide who should be nail on first eleven
La I agree with GP and Peaky, Id also avoid Lambert at the start as I see him being more of an impact player. All the best.
Tq..i was think lambert as suarez replacement n bendan still play with 2 striker. But based on liverpool are in for cl, maybe he will use sturridge as lone striker n rotate with lambert..
Romelu Lukaku could rejoin Everton on permanent deal in the next 48 hours
Guys this is probably the most risky team I have ever made. I know I’m gonna change it eventually but I can’t help but admire it! No star midfielders… Rmt the hell out of this pls I need it lol:
De gea
Debuchy Cahill shaw baines
Siggy tadic cabella Snodgrass
Rvp giroud
Subs: guzan clyne puncheon wickham
I feel its way too risky :ss
Nothing wrong with being risky Tique. I woke up this morning and went straight to the bathroom without putting my slippers on. I could’ve lost my footing cos my floors really smooth, but I didn’t. I felt really energized by that experience and it’s given me a boost for the rest of the day.
I think the risky element comes from your midfield. Everywhere else seems fairly proven. One thing I’ve noticed from a few of these RMT’s is that they’re light in midfield. I don’t know why this is. I wouldn’t be comfortable fielding that quartet personally, although I do like Snodgrass in there. Keeping tabs on the others in pre-season is probably your priority. You might have hit on a good combination, but there’s too many question marks to evaluate yet.
I agree Bryan or Brian or Bry Ann or…. I like his midfield players and I be happy to take a punt on one of them, but would not feel safe going with all 4. Perhaps one? Or tops two would be a better number to start off with from those mids.
Lol thanks for the feedback guys. There was no way I was going to field that team but just wanted to see responses from others.
Can anyone rate my team?
green (murphy)
cahill marriapa clyne chester (duff)
hazard odemwingie mata (albrighton el ahmadi)
RVP dzeko sturridge
Strong forward line.
Goalkeepers – I’m assuming your back up goalie is Murphy of QPR? And, yes I suppose if Green gets injured, you have the only other option there ready and waiting, which could be seen as idiotic or genius.
But you’re then limited to QPR fixtures the entire year, what happens when they have a bad run of top 7 teams? I would prefer spending that ext a .5 and grabbing yourself Krul, Guzan or Foster who will give you an extra option when rotating your team.