Fantasy Premier League Promoted Teams Analysis FPL 2018/19 Cardiff City
We start our look at the promoted teams with a trip across the Severn Bridge to Cardiff. Neil Warnock’s men finished second behind Wolves in last season’s Championship which sees them return to the top flight for the first time since their relegation in 2014. The Bluebirds kept 19 clean sheets in 46 games last term, with 11 of those coming at home where they won 16 out of 23 matches, losing just three. The Welshies scored 69 goals with only midfielder Callum Paterson reaching double figures. Junior Hoilett and Kenneth Zohore both scored 9, while interestingly defender Sean Morrison scored an impressive 7 goals.
Fixtures
The fixture computer has handed Cardiff a straightforward looking introduction into the Premier League as they are pitted against Bournemouth, Newcastle and Huddersfield in GWs 1-3. And then the computer bites back, with a vengeance as they then face Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Burnley, Spurs, Fulham and Liverpool over the next 7 game-weeks. Ouch!
They then face a comparatively simpler task until the end of March when they face a tough run-in. Not nice for Warnock and co but for us FPL managers this may play into our hands somewhat because Cardiff last season were very much a team that were able to go on long runs of positive results. They started the season with five straight wins and then recorded eight straight wins in February and March. On the down side they lost four successive matches over the Christmas period.
If these trends continue then it may give us a clue when to hop on and hop off Cardiff assets.
Fantasy assets
Given that Cardiff conceded less goals than anyone else in the Championship last season it would seem fair to assume we should be concentrating on their defensive assets rather than their offensive ones. I’m not sure that’s completely the case however as FPL has been its usual mean self and priced star defender Sean Morrison at 5mln, which values him alongside the likes of Alexander-Arnold, Bertrand, Shaw, Keane, Douglas and all first-choice Burnley defenders, while proving more expensive than Daniels, Cédric, Tomkins, Zabaleta, Duffy & Dunk. Looking at those comparisons I’m not sure I want to pay 5mln for Morrison just yet but maybe he is worth a look from GW11 onwards or indeed for the first 3GWs if you are planning a very early wildcard. For those Morrison fans that need a convincing argument to hold onto him despite the fixtures it may be worth pointing out that the defender had a goal attempt at a rate of one every 66.6mins better than any Premier League centre half last season.
Cheaper budget options in defence are Joe Bennett and Lee Peltier. Both are priced at 4mln and if they can secure starts then either could prove to be great enablers. Don’t expect much in the way of attacking returns – the pair returned one goal and five assists last season, hence their FPL price. Be aware that Bennett faces competition from the more expensive Greg Cunningham.
In goal Neil Etheridge is priced at 4.5mln and could offer an interesting combo with Wayne Hennessey as the pair would give an early fixture run of fulham, NEWCASTLE, huddersfield, SOUTHAMPTON, huddersfield, NEWCASTLE, BURNLEY, WOLVES, FULHAM, ARSENAL, LEICESTER, BRIGHTON, everton, WOLVES, brighton – not the worst if you are looking for two cheap, rotating keepers. Though be warned that Etheridge could miss up to 5 weeks in January to play in the Asian Cup and could also face competition from new signing Alex Smithies.
Midfield sees two obvious FPL potentials – namely Joe Ralls and Danny Ward.
Ralls is Cardiff’s playmaker and is on set pieces, including penalties. Loved by Warnock, the manager said of him last season, ‘he’s the first name on the team sheet. I’m running out of adjectives to describe him.’ Ralls scored seven goals last season and created four assists and has come through the ranks at the club. Priced at 5mln the left footed midfielder is as rotation proof as you get with Warnock and will be fundamental to the Bluebirds’ chances of creating enough chances for his team mates.
Despite being named as a midfielder by FPL, Ward plays higher up the pitch, usually on the left of a front three and has scored four goals so far in pre-season, albeit against fairly ordinary opposition. Ward has the no.9 shirt for the Bluebirds and missed three months of last season with a knee injury which curtailed his scoring to just four league goals. Priced at 4.5mln he could well be the cheap OOP we have been looking for if he can get enough game time with the likes of Reid, Murphy and Hoilett all jockeying for spaces up front.
Striker Bobby Reid joined Cardiff from local rivals Bristol City in a £8mln deal this summer. Reid scored 19 goals in the Championship last season and attracted interest from the likes of Bournemouth and West Brom before agreeing terms with Cardiff. Warnock has been impressed with both Reid and new signing, winger Josh Murphy, in preseason but is managing their minutes as he deems them indispensable for the GW1 kick off vs Bournemouth. At 5.5mln Reid certainly comes under the budget options but is likely to be a ‘wait and see’ to see if he can perform in the top tier before attracting significant FPL interest.
Be sure to keep an eye on Cardiff’s pre-season friendlies and any clues as to who Warnock prefers in goal and at left back and as to whether Ward and Peltier can nail down a starting berth.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Premier League Promoted Teams Analysis FPL 2018/19 Cardiff City. This article was written by Cookie
PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES
Usually we run an article and ask people to get involved and cover the friendlies with any info they can gather. And it’s usually fun but in all honesty it’s usually also a bit messy and difficult to refer back to. This season we have one link that you will need need for all such info, courtesy of Mito –
Here you will find all the pre-season info you could ever wish for in one place – line-ups, scorers, assists, match info, sarcastic comments….
FPL FIXTURE TRACKER
(It’s scrollable btw, just swipe left or right)
FIXTURE TRACKER LINK
It’s been a busy summer already with Arsenal, Everton, West Ham and Chelsea appointing new managers, Manchester City adding to their already dominant squad, Man Utd continuing to splash the cash and Liverpool trying to protect Karius by beefing up their midfield. Spurs may even have a new home soon.
And FPL wise, this is the place to discuss strategy, learn about the promoted teams and their players while in the days and weeks to come we’ll have plenty of articles, interviews, player analysis, Bore Offs, Tips, etc, etc.
So be sure to get involved in the discussions, the RMTs and the banter as we look forward to another season of Fantasy fun!
The League Codes for FF247 for the 2018/19 season are as follows –
The main public FF247 League , which anyone is welcome to join, can be accessed using the following code 1581-751 (auto-link below).
The prize pool for this one will be confirmed in due course.
Join Our League – Quick Link
League Code: 1581-751
View league standings
Our Regulars League* for 2018/19 is now open and has a cash prize pool of £300 paid directly to the winners from the FF247 management team. The first 5 places are paid out in a tiered system.
To enter this one you need to be an active and recognised site member and you need to e-mail us for the league code – elleffcee@gmail.com
*terms and conditions apply and are available upon request. Management reserve the right to review membership of this league on an ongoing basis. If you enter and win a prize you have to have commented on the site at least 5 times for 8 consecutive months between August 2018 and March 2019 or you will not be considered for a prize. That’s basically 1 comment a week all season, we think that’s a reasonable ask to be considered a ‘regular’.
In your e-mail could you please supply:-
Your name.
Your site user name.
Your team name from last season and your new team name if it has changed,
Hey All! Working on my my rules team and I could use a little help. My rule is “players on teams who played france at the WC”. struggling to find a third forward. Have Luka and Kun. Zorro expanded it to teams they played in qualifying as well, but I still can’t find a third. Anyone I’m missing?
Hey up! You well? Who did they play?!
Hey there Init. Been well. Your evening out with the writing team looked fun. I guess my invite got lost in the post :winktongue:
Belarus, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Sweden, Luxembourg, Australia, Peru, Denmark, Argentina, Uruguay, Belgium, Croatia.
If only Vinny Jansen was listed in FPl for Spurs, but he was on loan and they’ll probably sell him.
Figured that might have been a stretch?! But yeah for sure, that’s a learning curve for next time. Rosco is chief organiser so I’ll make sure he includes an invite to everyone next time, regardless of distance! DMC probably should have been included too. Knowing him he’d probably have come. Get a grip Rosco!
On your team there, yeah you’re playing 3-5-2 I reckon! Can’t think of anyone.
Pancho
Jurgen Lucadia (Brighton) was called up by Netherlands during qualifying. Didn’t physically play but that’s the closest I can see.
GP for the win!!! Thank you sir!
Shane Long (Southampton) played a friendly Vs France if you could count friendlies 2018
Apologies Pancho you’ll be on the list next time for sure!
No problem Rosco! I don’t really consider my one article per season to make me an official part of the writing team!
Cant find any either, You have to put your hope for Chelsea to buy Gonzalo Higuaín
https://www.foxsports.com/soccer/france-men-team-schedule?competition=42&season=2018
Pancho, already replied on another thread: Batsuhayi!!
Frenchie, I looked for him but he wasn’t in the Chelsea squad…
I’ll have another look as the season draws closer!
Evening everyone. How are we all? I’ve decided to start tinkering with my team and have come up with 3 drafts which I have entitled Salah and Bobby, Salah and Keita or Bobby and Keita. I’m sure you can guess the criteria 😉 Please cast your eye over them and rip them apart if necessary because they definitely won’t be the finished article.
First up Salah and Bobby.
Salah and Keita
Bobby and Keita
3 from the promoted teams on the 2nd one, so me no likey that either.
By default I take team 3. But I don’t like the double recently promoted coverage or Sorloth for that matter.
You have 4 attacking players from promoted teams. I suggest you edit this out before AT slaps you. 😉
I’m always watching :lurker:
Yeah Kamara you can kind of ignore I just stuck him in there as a 4.5 fwd. Same with Sorloth the 3rd striker is what I’m having most trouble with the budget options aren’t the best so just looking at one’s that might play.
I’m really considering a 442 or 352 formation with the 3rd striker being as cheap as possible.
Looks like Bournemouth have signed a LB. If true, that probably spells the end of Daniels as an option.
He’s flying in for his medical so likely true
Thanks for the great article Cookie. I already have Ralls in the draft for my Ghost team, as I’d read he was on penalties and thought that was a really decent price. I didn’t realise how favoured he was with the manager though, so if he is as fixture-proof as you say then he is perfect for my season long “set and forget” ghost team. I’m hoping he will be this season’s Milivojevic in terms of being a bargain fantasy mid who scores a ton of penalties 😀
Team News / Around The Grounds on a Friday. The one with the predicted line-ups. Does anyone actually use it? Would anyone miss it? Just knocking a few ideas around the office. Thoughts appreciated please.
That’s my holy grail!
Alright Hatters, calm down! 😉 Just debating a few things. Your opinion is well and truly noted!
I write some of it and even then I don’t even really use it. Like at the beginning of the season I would look at most of the teams but once we discover the team’s that are crap and down the bottom of the table… nobody has them in their teams so I never look at them and only at the lineups where I might have a player. That is something I can do myself on Twitter or with Ben Dinnery. It’s really just something that is useful but can be found out on your own very easily.
Init
I have Twitter notifications which provide be with all salient information on my team so I can get by without it from a team news POV.
However that’s not to say I dont read it word for word when it’s published. I enjoy the quips and the funnies.
Would it be less work for those involved but still work as an article if it were the projected line ups only? That way if a player isn’t shown, people can ask why in the comments and alongside their RMT and get the answer there?
Yes Init always look at predicted line ups possible injuries useful
The article itself I’ll usually read for a laugh, and the predicted line ups I find very useful. Could perhaps live without the article, but I’d really miss the line ups.
Re: Around the Grounds
I enjoy reading it more for its entertainment value than its information. I know how much time it takes for all 20 teams to get covered and usually I only read it with a couple of easy-to-answer questions. Usually your FPL team is pretty rotation-free with a few questions that can easily be answered by a twitter search. I know that is often the point of bringing content to people – to make it more easily accessible, but I’m not too sure the benefit is greater than the cost. The benching concerns of our community here usually revolve around a handful of players every week; without ATG, I know that the fitness information etc. would be posted on site anyway.
I think the risk with stripping it back to just team line ups is that it invites questions of why certain players are injured repeatedly because posts answering that question by another site user already will be swallowed up by all the RMTs on Friday and Saturday.
What about a sort of ‘live feed’ of the players people are actually interested in? Not live in the sense that someone has to be updating it every minute, but it just looks like a live feed in its layout and is added to when new information on a key player comes to light or someone asks about a player in the comments that we have overlooked. The reason ATG is useful from an information POV is to flag up injuries that have only just come to light in the presser or, perhaps more so, a hint at someone being benched which would not be visualised by a yellow flag on FPL. A nice design and it’d look great (thanks in advance, Rosco
).
This right here^
Around the grounds is good but do we use all the information. We do roughly know the players who are likely to play every week. What are we looking for? Those players who are doubts, those who will definitely miss the game, those who might be out of favour and suspensions (those who are and those that are close)
I don’t use twitter, so I rely on this kind of articles to get the news.
Plus I always enjoy some Southampton press conference coverage
Live in China, so time diffence means generally cant catch pressers, Twitter is a no for me. No Youtube also means cant wat pressers when i get a chance. ATG was usually read by me, but i will admit i usually only check the line ups of teams relatted to my FPL team and if something strange, then read why.
ohyesali, I’m in China and use a VPN, then I can use twitter etc
I relied on Around the Grounds last year quite significantly because I wasn’t on twitter – not making the same mistake this year.
However, as Smash said, the main things I think the community gets out of the article is who is definitely out, who is a doubt and who is suspended. I’ve never looked at Ben Dinnerys injury list during the season (think he does one) so maybe just a link to this would suffice if you need to cut the article.
He does do one; it’s a very good source of info.
I’ve always used the below, is this his? Anyway its always been an excellent source of information!
https://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php
I believe this is his: http://www.premierinjuries.com/injury-table.php
Comes with quotes; we like quotes
Why is there West Brom in there instead of Southampton?!?!? :big-lol:
Haha. Hadn’t spotted that. It’ll get resolved soon, I’m sure.
Well I’m a Saints fan so spotted that in 3 seconds 🙂
I like it for the banter but I know the effort that the guys go to and honestly the actual ‘team’ bit is in some cases a bit of guess work and should at best be taken with a pinch of salt.
Personally I do my own research throughout the week and I’m always watching out for last minute injury news before the final deadline on Twitter etc.
i use it alot, would miss it
+1. Being at a distance, with limited alternatives (and a time advantage), I find it indispensable. The late injuries, and other surprises, from the pressers, saved me a fair number of points last year.
Thanks for this site. I panicked when my “go to” site went down recently. I’m glad some of the same folks are here to provide insight and help. So with that said here is my way to early first draft team. Please rip to shreds.
I understand what you’re doing but midfield is too weak. Luka & Kane unlikely to start the season & Kane’s never scored in August anyway. Glad you found us, they’re a good bunch here.
Kant Aubam & upgrade m/f to have Sessegnon & Jota?
Kane>A
Yay, one of the familiar faces chiming in. So maybe something like this?
That looks better for opening mate
Welcome, Terrapin. If I were you I’d drop Doucoure down to a £4.5m/£5m (don’t need 8 string attackers) and upgrade Vardy to Firmino and replace one of the promoted boys in midfield with a more certain entity. We have articles coming with promoted teams analysis re: which you should keep – most would probably favour Jota I think, due to his potential striking role.
Welcome Terrapin, hope you enjoy the site.
Zorro has said we are a great bunch but you probably won’t like me now because I really don’t like that first draft for a number of reasons mate.
1. If you are going for DDG you don’t need a backup and could save 0.5 mil there
2. The backline is rather risky. Kola might not be guaranteed minutes, Yedlin has terrible fixtures, Rice is the same with bad fixtures and might not be a guarantee with the new manager, not sure on Cardiff yet but I do like Douglas so there’s a silver lining 😉
3. The mid is rather weak with Kane, Lukaku and Salah in there. I would probably drop Kane and Luk, both will miss GW1 maybe even 2 and that is a lot of money to have tied up in lads that won’t play yet.
Go in with two feet and studs up Matt! 😉
A warm welcome to the site Terrapin.
First rule of football : Let him know you’re there! 😉 haha
Thank you!!