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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The defenders this time are so frustrating. No cheap defenders are available! Last time we had plenty of 4M defenders. Why are all stupid defenders priced at minimum 4.5M this time around?
Has anyone analysed whether the BPS has changed this time? And is it really worth it to pick CBs again instead of FBs?
The only difference I can see from the BPS is that now players are rewarded for successful dribbles.
FBs should be favored then right? Players like Zabs and Ivan will surely outscore Cahill and Kompany.
Well last year it was mainly the centre backs getting bonuses as opposed to the fullbacks. I’m not sure whether dribbling points alone would be enough to change that.
Zabaleta completed one dribble every 5 games and Iva one every 2 games so that won’t really change the landscape of the bps system.
The B,
There are fewer 4.0 players in defence this time but that is another quirk this season. So far, I can see Upson, Dummett as the two best alternatives to start with – others will become apparent as pre-season goes on and the season begins but those ar ethe two filling my bench currently.
Ideally we are all trying to find that full back who assists with attacks, crosses and intercepts and blocks everything. I would say you should lean to the more attacking defender. Coleman the perfect example for key passes, crosses and dribbles.
Then I should probably grab Upson. Is he nailed? Fixtures of Leicester are quite tough though.
Newcastle has decent fixtures from GW2, but shouldnt Janmaat force Dummett to bench?
the B,
I can’t say on either I’m afraid – we’ll need to see a bit of pre-season action first and see what’s what.
Hello all, just registered on the site after an abysmal FPL season last season. Used to be on the old FFC site.
I’m not convinced by either Dummett or Upson, I’ve got a feeling Upson will be used as back-up and Newcastle’s recruits will push Dummett out of the picture…hopefully a 4m defender will make himself apparent soon!
Welcome webstar, nice to see you – yeah I’m pretty much in the same boat as you. Hopefully some bargains will begin to show themselves soon, sure they will!
webstar,
How you doing? Don’t worry – remember in Fantasy Football, ‘there’s always next season!’
Yeah like I say though, they are just taking up my spaces at present and by no means am I shouting from the rooftops about them.
Hey Webstar long time no see, I agree also. Upson not too sure about, but Dummy will have trouble earning/Keeping a starting spot.
Sad day for football. Phillip Lahm retires from International football.
http://www1.skysports.com/FIFA-World-Cup-2014/news/12023/9386162/world-cup-philipp-lahm-retires-from-international-football-after-germanys-win-in-brazil
Talk about going out on a high !! Probably Germany’s most consistent player at the world cup.
Another RMT
Mannone
Cahill – Rosenier – Cameron
Hazard – Sanchez – Arnautovic – Ince
RVP – Jelly – Pelle
Krull – deJong – Chambers – Mariappa
Have 1M itb, could upgrade Mariappa to someone from Spurs, or Ince to Snoddy if Ince is not nailed.
Yo B..
Tbh …
Can’t say I like your team much ..B…. Soz,.
If your going worth hazard & Sanchez…you can’t justify RVP aswell… With Over a 3rd of your cash on 3 players its too much..!
Try removing RVP, & spread the cash more evenly, …
Also defensive cover needs boosting….Rosenior , chambers, Marriappa, & Ince got very little mins last year, they’re cheap for a reason..!
Check out my draft bellow..
Tell me wot you think..!
I dont have an issue with Rosenior and Chambers. If both can nail down a regular spot, then the points will come in as both have really great fixtures to start the season with.
Ince is just a punt from Hull, but ill change it to Shelvey/Snoddy probably.
Having RVP is definitely a burden on the team. Might try to accommodate Mata and Sturridge by taking out RVP.
Nicely balance team I think…
You have no man city cover though – they did win the league afterall!
Oh and no Liverpool – they did come second afterall! 😉
I’d check preseason to see if Cahill will keep his place, but yeah, sodid team I think…
You sure about Pelle and de Jong? They come from a very weak Eredivisie. 😉
Raz
Bony and Suarez were also from Eredivisie 😉
I know. But so was Afonso Alves. 😉
Anyway, was hoping most people would just overlook these players from the Dutch competition. That just I would select them. 😛
Hey yo…
As a Liverpool fan, Life without Suarez is a bitter sweet pill to swallow …
Of cause he’s crazy nuts, but he’ll go down in history as one of the all time great talents at Anfield…!
Anyway ..
To all Liverpool fans unsure how we’ll cope without him, this article will no doubt remind you we’ve still got a fab team & a young smart boss in mr Rodgers…
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2132671-how-liverpool-can-get-new-signing-rickie-lambert-to-20-goals-this-season
Yeah, it wasn’t all Suarez… But a whole ton of it was!!
The problem is that he’s irreplaceable – there’s no other striker in the world that makes runs like him, is a lethal finisher, but is so technically great that he will look for a pass if there’s somone in a better area.
They need to sign another world class striker soon if they’re going to have a chance of anything better than 4th place IMO…
RIP to the 2 Newcastle fans traveling to there pre season friendly yesterday. They were on board that flight.
Rip to all the 295-300 on board of that flight. Sighs. 173 (and counting) Dutch people were on it (I think 9 or more nationality’s were on that plane). Not even talking about all the people they left behind. Cruel world.
Am I right in saying that it was Malaysia airlines again?
RIP to the extremely unlucky passengers and crew…
It was Malaysia airlines. But they weren’t at fault. It seems they were hit by an attack.
Werent they flying in a “No Fly Zone”?
Nope it wasn’t. It’s a no fly zone now though. 24 hours too late.
Russian separatists and Ukrainian army are pointing finger. One says the one did the other says the other. That day the Russians separatists for the first time took down another 2 planes I think. Around 4pm (during the accident) one of their generals said they got a big Ukrainian plane at exactly the spot where the Boeing 777 crashed. So it could be they accidentally took down the wrong plane.
Some even say it was taken down on purpose (Australia and the USA). I hope not. But we’ll see. Sighs.
Yeah I heard they got shot at as some of the ukraneinans thought it was a Russian attack plane…
Sort of a bit of everyone’s fault…
This is my team newly updated. All tips and advice welcome and thanks in advance
Mannone
Cahill-Mertesacker-Rosenior
Ramsey(vc)-Eriksen-Snodgrass-Delph
Van Persie(c)-Sturridge-Berahino
Bench:Begovic-Sigurdsson-Ward-Trippier
Bank:£0m
I’ve picked gylfi because he is moving to palace
Nice team I think…
No Chelsea attack tho and that really could hurt you!
I’m not sold on berihino really, and Delph is good as a benchwarmer for the right price (last season he went down to 4.2 I think!), but 5mil is way too much!!
I’d drop Delph for albrighton If it were my team…
Sigurdson is good value for money.
I’d keep an eye on preseason for Cahill and mannnone as new signings could bump them down the pecking order…
Eriksen could be a good differencial.
If it wasn’t for rvp and Sturridge I’d be looking to put in sanchez(instead of Ramsey) or hazard in too…
I was going to see how costa did in pre season before making a final choice on that. Delph for Albrighton is a possibility but will Albrighton be a starter? I did have Sanchez and hazard but sold them to provide funds for van Persie and Sturridge. Thanks for your advice