Fantasy Premier League Promoted Teams Analysis FPL 2018/19 Cardiff City

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

@SteveCook9

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 –

FPL Pre-Season Info

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….

(It’s scrollable btw, just swipe left or right)

FIXTURE TRACKER LINK

FIXTURE TRACKER 2018/19

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 –