Fantasy Football 247 team – Fantasy Premier League 2014/15
We are delighted to announce that FF247 will be running a site team this year, which will be competing in the FF247 Classic and Manager of the Month Leagues as well as taking its bow in the Banterbury Leagues. The main objective of the team however is to give you all an insight into our thinking and planning, which we hope will not only help you with your teams but also prompt plenty of debate, banter and advice along the way. Clearly with over a fortnight still to go until the season kicks off, plenty can still happen with any of the players we have selected – injuries, new transfers in or out, hell we may even have the odd bite to contend with! Therefore please treat this very much as a provisional squad for now and allow us to talk you through it and the thinking behind what we have come up with thus far.
Goalkeepers:
Tim Krul – as soon as the visit of the Champions in GW1 is out of the way, Le Toon face a pretty attractive run of fixtures. We feel Pardew has actually spent wisely this window (that could come back to bite us) and with Captain Coloccini fit and seemingly happy, we believe Krul is great value at 4.5mln.
Vito Mannone – this is one we need to keep a close eye on due to the summer acquisition of Costel Pantilimon from City. Both Sunderland keepers are priced at 4.5mln and once we have determined who is the no.1 they will come in to rotate perfectly with Krul, with our two keepers costing a total outlay of just 9mln.
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Defenders:
Filipe Luis – but what about rotation, we hear you cry? And you’d be absolutely correct to bring it up. However, we feel Chelsea’s opening fixtures are too good to ignore, they have the strongest defence in the league and Jose will be gunning for the Premier League title that he will feel his team threw away last season, despite him maintaining all year that Chelsea couldn’t win it. Can’t fool us Jose! New recruit Felipe Luis is, alongside Cesar Azpilicueta, the cheapest of the mainstream defenders and we feel that they wouldn’t have forked out €16mln to leave Luis on the bench on a regular basis.
Luke Shaw – United’s new left back has been deployed by LVG in the left wingback role in the 3-5-2 formation that United look like they are deploying this season. Therefore, as he will be given licence to join in the attacks we feel that he could benefit from a few assists, maybe the odd goal and could be a contender for bonus points, similar to Leighton Baines. Not only that, but with LVG breathing fire into the United dressing room, we estimate that they will be a more competitive force this season and clean sheets aplenty should be forthcoming.
Rio Ferdinand – cheap, experienced defender, who alongside Steven Caulker should make the Rangers defence more solid. Some attractive looking early fixtures make Rio a good option for us.
Adrian Mariappa – Palace left back and the only likely starter priced at 4.5mln. We need to keep track of Palace’s pre-season friendlies to ensure he retains his place but given the solidity they showed under Pulis at the latter end of last season we feel they are a good bet to continue that trend.
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Midfielders:
Juan Mata – now being played in his preferred and most effective no.10 position. Sat behind Rooney and RvP and with a sumptuous list of opening fixtures, we feel we may just see the Mata of old. If we don’t then he’ll be out of there quicker than you can say Yaya Toure!
Gylfi Sigurdsson – another with potential to be fantasy gold, but with the added bonus of costing just 6mln. A return to Swansea will see increased game time and two goals on his debut makes him difficult to ignore. He showed enough on the rare occasions Spurs did venture to utilise him to suggest he’s still the player that graced the Liberty a few short seasons ago.
Alexis Sanchez – everyone loves an out-of-position fantasy prospect and Sanchez is just that. Capable of playing up top, just off the striker or on the wing we feel he is hard to ignore, despite his 10.5mln price tag. Arsenal’s opening fixtures are mixed and they do face City, Spurs and Chelsea in the first seven matches but we feel, with the Gunners attacking talent, they are more than capable of scoring in all those matches. Whether they win them or not, we don’t care!
Cesc Fabregas – another world class midfielder down at the Bridge. Can be deployed just behind the striker or even deeper but has the ability to get involved in attacks, provide assists, score and it looks like he’s on set pieces as well. At 9mln we feel he’s good value and has the advantage of not being involved much at the World Cup.
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Strikers
Wayne Rooney – seemingly happy with life under LVG at Old Trafford, we consider Rooney a must for our team. Has been in good scoring form on United’s tour of the US and LVG has already stated he sees Wazza as a no.9 or 10. With RvP having spent pre-season on the beach, we expect Rooney to hit the ground running in the league and like Mata and Shaw, will benefit from no European competition this season.
Diego Costa – Jose has been courting Costa for some time and sees the Brazilian Spaniard as the cure to his striking problem. With just Fernando “Row Z” Torres and Chelsea Pensioner Drogba as competition, Costa is the no.1 striker by a long way. With a supply line of Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Schurrle and Fabregas behind him, expect Costa to be one of the stars of the league. Now fit again and with an injury plagued World Cup behind him, Costa scored 27 times in 35 games for Atletico Madrid last season and will be eyeing a similar return this term.
Blanks!
You will have noticed that we have left three spaces blank – one defender, one midfielder and one striker. This is where you, our community, come in. We have 14.5mln left in the bank to fill these spots and would appreciate your thoughts and ideas as to who should be added to the FF247 squad. Do we fill them according to what we have left as of now or do we sacrifice a big name elsewhere to provide more balance? These are the questions we will be asking ourselves over the coming days and weeks ahead of the season and hope you will help us decide as you continue to discuss your own teams on the boards too.
Hello, Hello need some help for a mate. Can you guys rate these two teams, please. Wanted to get him some outside opinion before I offered mine. Thanks!
Team 1
Howard-Myhill
Coleman-Shaw-Luis-Zaba-Cameron
Barks, Ander, A. Johnson, Hendo, Shelvey
Lukaku, Roon, Bony
And Team 2
Bego-Speroni
Coleman-Shaw-Luis-Zaba-Cameron
Barks, Ander, Ozil, Hendo, Shelvey
Lukaku, Roon, Weimann
Where’s Torres? He alone would score you 200+. Anyway,let’s cut the crap….why the Luka love? Fixtures are not that promising.
These are pretty horrid. Coleman has poor fixtures and won’t score/assist each week. There’s about 40m tied up in defence and Cameron won’t play, Zab will be rotated. Barkley, see Coleman. Herrera is not a great fantasy asset for my money at his price. The other three are solid but unexciting when there’s Snodgrass and Sigurdsson with better fixtures, even Eriksen for a bit more cash. Interesting forwards, but again, why Lukaku based on Everton fixtures?
He needs to start again, your mate
haha unless “my mate” is actually just you Mito?!
Wow your “friend” …;) (just joking) really doesn’t value midfielders does he?! I bet you must be thinking the same – lose Zaba and Coleman straight up to free up cash and replace with some 4.5 / 5 mil defenders from mid tier teams that rotate (believe there is a rudimentary effort at giving some guidance on this on the site haha ). Lukaku hm well not for me early doors. As for mids some premium names desperately needed. Start with a Ramsey or Sanchez and take it from there
Mito’s mate,
Not a huge fan of either team, if I’m honest – did Mito select it for you?
Only joking.
I don’t like Zabaleta because Sagna will be given some starts
Coleman and Howard have pretty tough starts and three Everton is too much, in my view.
Herrera I don’t think is the best option as he’s be playing relatively deep, behind Mata.
Ozil is ok if you want to go down that route, but he is likely to miss at least GW1 due to World Cup fatigue and recovery.
Your forwards bar Rooney are questionable at best.
Basically you have picked 15 decent players, or 14 in Team 1 (Team 1 also has 4 Everton players, which is a bit naughty and not allowed)
What you need to do first is work out those players that you really want. Now that might be Rooney, Costa, Hazard, Ozil, Sanchez, Yaya, Silva, Sturridge, Lukaku…whoever. but pick 3/4 players that should score you 200pts over the season.
Then work out your formation because you cannot accommodate 5 decently priced mids and 3 not cheap forwards. Find some bargains.
Decide if you’ll play 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 and find the cheapies that you won’t necessarily rely on in your first XI but will be on your bench and can play if any of your starters get rotated.
There are plenty of defenders priced at 4.5 that are worth having – and there are cheapish midfielders that can also play. Having 2/3/4 of these players will allow you to upgrade elsewhere…ie turn Weimann into Giroud or Jovetic or turn Lukaku into Costa.
Hope this helps – look through some of the previous articles for some of the cheaper options.
Good luck
Thanks guys! I am sure this will be of some help to him, even the smart arse remarks. 😉 but considering I was the one asking, I sort of expected a bit.
Team 1:
My take is that doubling up on Everton in the back is not ideal. They play Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and ManU in 4 of the first 7 weeks. You never know they could work a small miracle, but the percentages say otherwise. Myhill won’t start so he can’t help you in sitting Howard in his harder fixtures. De Gea is the same price as Howard and his fixtures are as good as it gets. You can also consider several keeper tandems that rotate well together. Like the Newcastle & Sunderland tandem. Cameron is unlikely to start, so you are better replacing him with a similarly priced option. A glance at our team above shows you some possibilities for that same price, but there are other defender options also. Zaba could be a rotation problem as stated by the others, plus they play Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal in 3 of their first 5. Your mids are all decent players, but probably nothing great there. As Cookie said you need more firepower. Can’t see any of the five finishing really high in the midfield rankings at the end of the season in terms of FPL points. Roon is good to go, Lukaku is a preference but fixtures as stated before might be problematic, so that could be an issue. Bony I am not completely against, that could be an option as their fixture list is not terrible after they clear ManU.
Team 2:
Stoke and Palace are not great rotation partners in terms of home and away but they don’t have the worst fixtures if you just go by that. Your defence is the same as team 1, so obviously my opinion still holds here on them players. Ozil is a premium mid and might do well over the course of the season, but as it was singled out already, he is unlikely to go in week 1. The rest of your mids are the same as team 1, so I already stated what I think of them. Your forward line is weaker on this team. Weimann might be good value for his price over the season, but the only reason to consider him is if you are needing money to put elsewhere and even then I would probably still avoid him.
Hope this helps.
Boys,considering fixtures(forget about price) between Davies and Debuchy,who would prefer to keep in the squad?
One more thing.
Is Davies surely nailed? Rose is still there signing that long contract. Would he be on that bnech for nothing?
Considering Wenger’s nature,Debuchy is nailed in that RB role. Chambers is the one for the future for sure.
monty- I think fixtures favour Spurs but I’ve got no idea really who their preferred back line is. I thought I read an interview where Rose’s contract was described as partly competition for Davies. Debuchy should be nailed I think. My big question is him, or one of the Chelsea mob.
Both teams have weak midfielders maybe downgrade your defence also no villa.
Evening lads….i’ve been tinkering again!! Fairly happy with the team below- but keep wondering if I should have Rooney instead of Giroud- although i would have to downgrade Cahill to raise the funds…..?!?!
Green (Krul) Did have mannone but not sure if he’ll start.
Cahill, B. Davies, Debuchy (Wisdom Long)
Mata, Fabregas, Siggy, Sanchez (Ince)
Valencia, Costa, Giroud
Any thoughts on this?
Cheers
Valencia?
I know it’s a bit of a punt really with Valencia for West Ham….but I started off with Austin! Now wih Remy staying? I could go rooney and Zamora (just cheap) and play two up front!?
Well your formation you need to decide on – I think there are great cases for both 3-4-3 and 3-4-3…just down to personal choice. I have put out a team down below that can be either on different weeks as Bojan and Siggy rotate very well. The other 4 mids and 2 strikers will always play.
It’s not necessarily going to be what I end up with but interesting to see comments.
So nath, decide on your formation – what I see on here is that not many have fully decided and until you do for definite its very difficult to fill in the gaps.
I would avoid Zamora to be honest – and Valencia could work really well, but being new to the league I think I would keep him on a watching brief to start with to see how he settles.
Thanks Cookie, I prefer 3-4-3 but struggling this season to get 3 good strikers, I know what you mean about Valencia and I’ve already got a few new players to the EPL who might take a while to settle in…
Your team below looks good apart from Wisdom haha just messing, my first team had Stirling but think he’s too expensive although I think he’ll do well…
Wo do you all think the best striker is for 6.0max? Thinking either Crouch or Long? Cheers
Probably Long as93
Jelavic?
Long for me, slightly better fixtures for the first few games.
OK, just had a tinker. Pick the bones out of this one.
De Gea
Luis, van Aanholt, Wisdom
Mata, Silva, Hazard, Sterling
Bojan,, Rooney, Giroud
bench: Murphy, Siggy, Coloccini, Mariappa
Pls don’t say Wisdom won’t start, cos I know. Before the season starts i’ll find a 4mln defender that does. Hopefully. Maybe.
Wisdom won’t start
Good team mate, great midfield with Siggy on the bench! Not going with Costa then?
Hatter, I’ve had Costa in my draft all the way along – just wanted to see what I could produce without him.
My conclusion is this season is going to be great – so many different options for us, not even the formation is a nailed on 3-4-3
Yep, the only players i have that i won’t change are Rooney, Costa, Mata, Fabregas and Siggy! All the other places are up for grabs! My main concern at the moment is Ramsey or Sanchez! Ramsey obviously gives you scope in the rest of the team but if Sanchez hit’s the ground running??? I’m trying to get a team that fits both 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 but it really means having a 6.0m. Thinking Jelavic at the moment but very unsure
I could sell Long to you over Jelly in a heartbeat if you want me to?
Long vs Jelly is a dilemma for me too. Though I’m still not convinced I want 3-4-4 (which is the only time they’ll become relevant). Is Snodgrass a better option?
Hull generally seem an unknown quantity- lot of signings and Euro matches = rotation. I might sit tight for now.
OK – my take on Long vs Jelly. Or should I say my case for Long as a preferable.
Last night after their Europa game, Long was interviewed – he said Huddlestone took the penalty because Long had just taken a knock on his knee. Suggesting to me that Long is on pens.
Evening lads, nice team Cookie, my draft currently doesn’t involve Costa which is my main worry. Gone for Hazard in a 3-5-2 instead. Both seems risky to me and Hazard is 0.5m cheaper.
As for Jelly / Long – it’s interesting to hear Long may be on penalties – but doesn’t Long play on the wing with Jelly up top? That’s the main reason I have Jelavic at the moment.
Guys don’t talk about Jelly when he is not here to defend himself, let me go get him, he is probably standing way over there in an offside position.
Cookie,
I’ve been 3-4-3 all the way along until this morning. Sitting with 3-5-2 now
First thing that strikes me about your team is the coverage of all the big teams. It’s tricky to do but well done.
if Fabregas continues his pre-season form and is on set pieces, get him in for Hazard and use the money to upgrade Wisdom and Mariappa? To, e.g. Ferdinand and Ward respectively- should work well in terms of rotation I think. Love your attack, and think Bojan is a good punt with Siggy as back up.
Even though Fabregas is playing deeper and will continue to do so?
yeah, I get this too- it’s a tricky one, and don’t go for it solely on my advice!! That said, I think Fabregas is an assists machine- he pulls the strings and I can see him playing through balls into Costa as the wider players pull out the defence. This is just one of those uncertainties we can’t know about until we see the teams playing properly over the first couple of weeks I think
Read the write up about Fabregas in their last friendly! If he continues to impress, would anyone keep him out of his correct position???
http://www.chelseafc.com/matches/2014/07/vitesse-chelsea-pre-season.html
Spoke to a Chelsea season ticket holder today and asked him what his first choice Chelsea side was….
Courtois
Azpil, Ivan, Terry/Cahill, Luis
Ramires/Fabregas, Matic
Willian, Oscar, Hazard
Costa
Personally i would put Fabregas in the Oscar role any day of the week and i hope Jose does just that…
3-5-2 most weeks I assume. I like the team quite a bit. Stoke and Swansea rotate perfectly so Bojan can be used to replace Siggy, when needed. Le Toon and Sunderland rotation in the back for one defender spot looks good, you just need someone to go with Mariuappa if possible. A QPR player would be great, but I am sure you lack the funds to turn Wisdom into Ferdinand or similar.
Correct Mito – I’d have to find 0.5mln somewhere
van Aanholt, Raz will be getting the tissues out as we speak…. (tears of joy, obviously)
Don’t fancy Bojan much mate to be honest.
You calling me Raz’s fluffer?
You learn something new every day – From Wiki….
A fluffer is a person employed to keep a male adult film star aroused on the set. These duties, which do not necessarily involve touching the actors, are considered part of the makeup department. Wikipedia
So yeah I guess so 😉
Oh right – like you didn’t know what a fluffer was!!
Honestly didn’t! Last time I was on the set of one of these they were called, oh er sorry I mean no I’m all sweet and innocent me