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.
Morning people
Liking the Site Team so far.
Looking forward to the ongoing articles about it and following the progress.
Question is
begovic,krul
ferdinand,davies,van Aanholt,ward,wisdom
sig,mata,fab,arnautovic,albrighton
sturridge,rooney,costa or
begovic,krul
ferdinand,luis,van Aanholt,wisdom,lovren
sig,mata,fab,sterling,albrighton,
jovetic,rooney,costa
Hello everyone,
damned, after each of your (precious) article, I realize that I need to cahnge my team!
Anyway, here is my (semi-definitive) line-up:
Krul (Manone)
Debuchy Colocci Dawson (Mariapa Rosenior)
Hazard Ramsey Mata Snodgrass (Sigurdsson)
Rooney Dzeko Lambert
0.5 in bank
I wonder if I should not downgrade either Snodgrass or Sigursson to upgrade Dawson to a Chelsea defender.
Alternatively, I could do that and downgrade Lambert to substitute Dzeko for Costa.
Any comment and other thoughts greatly appreciated!
Hi vinci, Well lambert ? not to sure how many starts he will get and dzeko well jovetic has been on fire pre-season so may get a start ahead of him, rest of the team i like.
Hi Vinci, I’d defo look at doing your suggested swaps on the forwards to get Costa and a cheaper one. Really unsure on the game time if both Lambert and Dzeko at this stage. Getting a Chelsea defender also as you say may be wise.
Hi Init what do you think Hazard or Costa still stuck on this
Thanks to both of you.
I wasn’t aware of the Jovetic/Dzeko situation, and still believed Lambert would be the natural side player to Sturridge.
So following your good advice, I now run with:
Krul (Manone)
Debuchy, Colocci, Filipe Luis, Mariapa (Rosenior)
Hazard Ramsey Mata Snodgrass Shelvey
Rooney Costa (Nugent)
It indeed looks better to me!
I still am a little frustrated to have sacrified Sigurson to Shelvey. I will maybe try to scratch the missing 0.5 by downgrading Nugent or Rosenior…
So many choices, so little £..
Jovetic/Dzeko, Sturridge, Mata, Fabregas, Costa, RvP/Rooney, Gerrard/Sterling.
Causing such a headache.
Sterling, Rooney, Costa and Mata would be included by me
My team nearly sorted but still stuck on Hazhard & Coata although Costa getting some good write ups
Hello all, how are we? Great new idea for an article and I look forward to following it this season. Question for you fine people; 2 premium defender and 3 rotating cheapies or 5 mid-priced (4.5-5)?
Ive gone 2 prem Def rest rotate 3-4-3 best option
Hi Alex, hope you are well. 1 premium, 1 mid and 3 budget for me. So yeah option C 😉
What two budget ones do you suggest who I guess rotate?
Hey Alex,
I personally go for 2 premium and 3 cheap options. To throw a spanner in to the works I now class Crystal Palace cover as essential, as were Stoke when Pulis was in charge. So all in all that’s 2 cheap defenders I’d be after, but probably won’t get a look in.
At the minute I’m on Felipe Luis and Debuchy as my premium.
Morning NZ (or whatever it is for you, ha). My back line at the moment is two rotating pairs and a premium. Pieters&N.Taylor, Caulker&Dann + Luke Shaw as the ever present. I’d love to bring in John Terry but as a whole i really like my current defence. Decent chance of price hikes there too should any of them kick off.
Evening NIN, 😉
Well some interesting points there. Its a tricky one this year, I’ve had Shaw and Luis (plus rotating) since I first put my team together now I can make a way better overall team by going DDG and Ward, Taylor, Simpson, Cameron, Davis. Any thoughts on this?
NZ – I’d prefer to see one premium in there to be honest. Consider Caulker mate. He got the most minutes out of all defenders last season for an atrocious Cardiff team who only managed 7 CS’s. Caulker still racked up 122 points from a brilliant 5 goals scored and 19 BP’s. Pretty handy return for a Cardiff defender.
NIN, its a very good point and I guess its only a 0.5 upgrade from Simpson. What are your thoughts on Cameron? That 0.5 could be very handy although I do remember you saying you liked Peters?
NZ – One thing you can be sure of with Pieters is serious price hikes should he kick off. Just 0.7% ownership just now and with Stoke’s new attacking players i’m hoping Pieters can improve on his 1 goal and 3 assists from last season. Cant see Cameron being first 11 to be honest.
Nin. Is peters a full back that would potentially benefit from new bonus rules?
NZ – Yep. First choice LB.
Thanks nin. My team is radical different because of your advice. And I like it. Appreciate yours (and everyone else’s) input.
Hi NZ Alex, if you’re still reading for stuff on defenders: I’ve gone with Debuchy + Newc/Sun + Stokes/Swans as my back 5. I guess one of the rotating pairs could be subbed for a QPR+Palace pair too. My GK is De Gea.
Another twist would be Newc-Sun in goal (to free up 0.5m), use that to buy Shaw for Debuchy, and then stick in QPR+Palace to fill the defence. I will probably agonise over this a bit longer!