Whether you had a good or indifferent GW13 there is little opportunity to dwell on it now as GW14 starts in earnest on Tuesday night as Crystal Palace host West Ham to kick us off again on the merry-go-round that is fantasy football. We will as ever cast an eye over the next four weeks to give you an indication as to who we feel will prosper and who will possibly falter and tell you which players we feel may do likewise. Of paramount importance though is that you are aware that this week’s deadline is on Tuesday night at 7.30pm.
Favourable Fixtures
LIVERPOOL – Norwich (H), West Ham (H), Tottenham (A), Cardiff (H)
A surprise defeat at Hull on Sunday has dented slightly what was looking to be a very promising start to the season for Liverpool. Their fans will be hoping it was just a blip though and these things can happen. Their upcoming fixtures should see them rebound nicely from this setback.
Three home games in the next four put Liverpool firmly at the top of the favourable fixtures list this week. Add in that those home games are against Norwich, West Ham and Cardiff and we expect that there will be plenty of investment in Liverpool players over the next few weeks. Liverpool are looking irresistible at home right now having notched 11 goals in their last 3 at Anfield. A visit to White Hart Lane in GW16 is their only road trip in this sequence but given that Spurs are struggling to score and Liverpool have scored 4 in their last two away then we suspect this game could well bear fruit for them as well.
Tips
With that run of fixtures we expect there will be plenty of chances for clean-sheets coming up so if you have Simon Mignolet then we suggest you play him but many may be tempted to double up for this run. With Glen Johnson now back and fit having started the last three, he usually offers some good attacking potential whilst Jon Flanagan has filled in at left-back in the last two now so could be a very cheap way to capitalise on this fixture run.
Further forward Steven Gerrard is Liverpool’s Mr Consistent still after all these years and leads their midfield points scoring by quite some distance. Apparently not the driving force he once was but 3 goals and 5 assists so far as well as being on most set-pieces he still makes a compelling case for inclusion in our sides. Phillippe Coutinho had a five week lay-off but had started the last three prior to the Hull game and he will be looking to push Gerrard in terms of production for the rest of the season. A derby day goal was his first of the season but we expect he may well kick on from here and begin to replicate the promise he showed at the end of last season. Assuming his latest ankle injury is a minor one, and judging by the woeful performances of his stand-ins Moses and Sterling on Sunday, then he will not have much trouble regaining his place once fit.
That’s it for our Liverpool tips, we can’t think of anyone else. No? Oh ok, go on then. Luis Suarez. Not got him? Get him. Especially at home. Probably captain him. Enough said.
MAN UNITED – Everton (H), Newcastle (H), Aston Villa (A), West Ham (H)
Much like Liverpool, Man United now enjoy a run of three games from the next four at home. Everton on Wednesday could well be tricky for many reasons. The visitors will be sure to be fired up facing their ex-boss for the first time and may be out to prove a point and arrive at Old Trafford in good spirits having thumped Stoke at the weekend. Don’t discount Moyes having his boys fired up as well though for the same reasons. This one could be a cracker! Beyond that though United would expect to take full advantage of next three. Newcastle are themselves finding some form but trips to Villa and West Ham at home look good on paper for them.
Tips
Patrice Evra is once again United’s outstanding points scorer in defence which is largely down to his consistency of starts compared to his team-mates but he has also chipped in with a goal and two assists so far. United have only managed a surprising three clean sheets so far this season but this may be due in part to not having a settled back-line.
One of the stranger quirks of recent seasons has been the lack of any United midfielders that have warranted inclusion in our fantasy teams and this season is no different. If Shinji Kagawa is afforded some decent game time then he may well emerge from the pack but Moyes seems uncertain as to how to fit him in, barely playing him and then when he does seemingly out of position, which is a massive shame given the glimpses we have been afforded and his undoubted quality as evidenced from his spell with Dortmund.
Wayne Rooney is the obvious choice up top for United at the moment. 8 goals and 7 assists so far suggests he is bang in form and owned by only a surprisingly low 17% of fantasy managers he is a touch of a differential still. RvP seems to be struggling with any number of injury complaints as of late but if he can return to fitness, then he too warrants our attention again having scored 4 and assisted 2 in his last four starts.
MAN CITY – West Brom (A), Southampton (A), Arsenal (H), Fulham (A)
In contrast to Liverpool and United, City have three away in the next four and their home game is against title rivals Arsenal. Despite this we feel that City are building momentum and this little spell could tell us if they are genuine title contenders which they surely must be? Their away form has been patchy but this cannot continue if their home displays are any indication of what is to come from them. This is not an easy set of fixtures by anyone’s imagination but we would not be surprised to see them come through it and emerge near the top of the league come Christmas.
Tips
City’s defence is a bit of a lottery but the imminent return of Vincent Kompany could finally give us at least one nailed on starter each week assuming he stays healthy this time!
In midfield Yaya Toure is proving to be as consistent as anyone in the league and his new found free kick speciality is delighting his fantasy managers no end. Jesus Navas arrived with a word of caution for fantasy managers as his goal rate was poor in Spain but his brace against Spurs has shown his potential in this respect and he could well put himself firmly in our thinking should that form continue. Samir Nasri has never been the same player as the one who left Arsenal since his big pay rise move to the Etihad but he seems to be firmly in favour with Pellegrini and his two goals on Sunday will only further cement this.
Sergio Aguero is the obvious choice up top so we will not dwell on him too much as his appeal is obvious and immediate and hard to ignore. The intriguing alternative is his strike partner Alvaro Negredo. We shall leave you with an interesting stat on Negredo. He has only completed 90 minutes on four occasions this season for City yet he has managed 6 goals and 3 assists. At £3.1m less than Aguero he could prove to be an excellent cheaper differential
THE BEST OF THE REST…
West Brom host City in GW14 but then have Norwich (H), Cardiff (A) and Hull (H) to follow. Gareth McAuley is West Brom’s leading scorer so far from a fantasy point of view but Sessegnon, Amilfitano and Long are all vying for our attentions at the moment.
Swansea are another that have three home fixtures in the next four. Newcastle, Hull and Everton all visit the Liberty and their away fixture is Norwich. Europa concerns do seem to be a factor for Swansea and seem to be impacting negatively on their FPL season. Three at home in four though may afford them the opportunity to get their season back on track. They may need to find a striker from somewhere though unless they decide go down the West Ham / Spain route!
Difficult Fixtures
FULHAM – Tottenham (H), Aston Villa (H), Everton (A), Man City (H)
Having finally parted company with Martin Jol, Fulham will be hoping that a new manager can turn their season around. Rene Meulensteen is that man and will be hoping that he can last longer than he did at Anzhi (16 days)! He may want to do the good old ‘new manager’ trick though and stay in the stands for a few games as their next four look a bit daunting to say the least! Villa at home may be their best chance of points in this run as Spurs and City at home offer little hope and Everton away probably none!
EVERTON – Man Utd (A), Arsenal (A), Fulham (H), Swansea (A)
Having dispatched with Stoke so easily Everton will be looking to cement their place in the top four but their ambition will be severely tested this week with trips to both Old Trafford and the Emirates within a few days. Should they come away from that double header still in the top four then maybe the Fulham and Swansea games might not start to look too bad for them.
ARSENAL – Hull (H), Everton (H), Man City (A), Chelsea (H)
Being top of the league does not make you immune from a challenging run of fixtures and that’s what Arsenal have coming up make no mistake! Hull will be no pushovers fresh from their fantastic victory over Liverpool and then the next three may well define Arsenals season one way or another. They will do well to come out of that lot with anything like the lead at the top that they currently enjoy but if they do then we have serious title contenders on our hands. Time will tell…
BE WARY OF…
Southampton are a success story so far but exactly how far they have come will, and is, being tested at the moment. Aston Villa (H), Man City (H), Newcastle (A), Spurs (H) is a challenging run for them and may well indicate whether they are serious challengers for the European slots or not.
Sunderland have a way to go to climb out of the bottom three and their upcoming fixture list may suggest that this challenge is still some way off. Chelsea and Spurs at home are followed by a trip to West Ham and then they host Norwich at home. The last one being their only decent fixture on paper and even then it’s by no means guaranteed by any stretch.
Fixture Fun
As mentioned in the intro, it is worth repeating – THIS GAME -WEEK BEGINS ON TUESDAY AT 7.30PM!
We shall be back with another Tips / Fixtures article later on in the week to prepare you for GW15 on Saturday but until then…
Good luck everyone!
This article was written by inittowinit
Please help!!?!!!
Current team –
Boruc (Harper)
Coleman, Zab, Koscielny (Gabbidon, Baker)
Yaya, Ozil, Morrison, Cabaye (Ward-Prowse)
Aguero, Suarez, Rooney
I have 1FT and 0m left in the bank
Is it worth a -4 point hit doing Boruc >> Mignolet and Zab >> Johnny Evans?
or better to just sell Boruc for a cheap keeper? i’m thinking Myhill at the moment.
Thoughts?
azzaok – not worth a -4 for defenders
cheers blue_moon!
reply failed… azzaok, see my suggestion on nr 140.
haha i saw it mate no worries. yeah think i’ll go myhill, wba have norwich, cardiff hull in the 3 games after city tomorrow so i fancy him to pick up points.
Morning guys!
azzaok I wouldnt do it, just sell Boruc for maybe Myhill, Krul (5.0) or McGregor (4.4).
QUESTION: HOW DEEP IS YOUR BENCH?
Cash on the field vs insurance against injury & rotation
It’s a key consideration, and can have a big influence over your season’s success.
So do you keep one, two or even three decent players on your bench at this time of year?
How much cover do you have in place for rotation right now as we go into this mad period?
Personally I like to keep 1 or 2 players in reserve.
Right now, just Gabbidon, given Baker may not get gametime.
I’d be happier to have one more, but think I’m fine this round.
Certainly not worth taking a hit for…
Generally J1 I keep my back line without any ‘sub’ players who I don’t expect to play.
I decided to go 4 at the back due to the lack of consistent midfield options; although not had a chance yet due to fixtures this GW will be the first, so I have a few cheap options for my midfield.
At the moment I have Brady, Morrison, and Townsend as ‘cheap’ midfielders who I’ll rotate depending on fixture, although Townsend and Boruc are concerns for this week, yet notable replacements aren’t easily apparent.
Well, you have a pretty balanced team mate, and are scoring well (last few weeks anyway) so i guess it’s working for you for now.
You have marshall as keeper cover, so boruc is managable.
yeah, i prefer to have more midfield firepower, but it’s always a compromise. your options willget gametime, which is important, as at least you know you are not only fielding 10…
any thoughts on your next moves?
Can’t really afford to replace Boruc so Marshall can get a run and I’ll wait on news of how long Boruc will be out for.
Pretty happy with my team, not much I’d change but I’ve kept Reid in hope he’d return soon, not looking likely so that’s an option. Probably address the Reid problem today and then I’ve got 2FT going into this weekend.
nice. 2FTs is a good thing at thi stime of year…
TEAM NEWS – Sagna out for Hull, Jenkinson is likely to come in (arsenal.com)
thanks mate.
do we think it’ll make much diference?
i’m playing merz / kosc / ramsey in this one…
I guess some rotation will be there, mainly in the midfield.
I hope at least Ramsey can keep his place, he’s the only one I have in this one, unfortunately…
i’d be surprised if ramsey was dropped.
and saddened!
I’ve mentioned this a couple of times throughout the past month, our formation doesn’t worry me about Ramsey’s possibility of being “replaced”.
4-2-3-1
Giroud
Cazorla – Ozil – Walcott
Ramsey – Arteta
Back four.
Now you can look at (when everybody is fit) our ‘second squad’.
Podolski
Ox – Rosicky – ###
Wilshere – Flamini
Back four. ### Can be a number of players, any from the first squad posted can play here, along with Gnabry, and more recently Wilshere has had a very good run there.
Our ‘Box-to-Box’ role is Ramsey’s, he’s earned it, and it’s likely he’ll keep it. Wilshere is the only player who can fulfil that role but at the moment is playing on the wings.
yep, i’ve seen your logic before and like it.
hopefully wenger is paying attention!
WHAT’S YOUR RANKING TARGET BY NEW YEAR?
(And do you have any chance at all of hitting it?!!)
Would love to reach the 100 000 thousand mark. Stuck at around 177 000.
Maybe one day catch up with your insane ranking?
You could easily hit the top 100k.
Mito could probably tell you how many points you are off it now.
Not many I’d guess.
761 points is 100k
Cheers! One very (very) good game week away from top 100 000k then! Got 745 points so not that far off…but catching up is like a freakin’ roller coaster!
MITO.
Has anyone thought about publishing a weekly ranking / points breaksdown?
Or monthly at least.
it’d be interesting and give people a feel for where they were.
EG
ranking 1 = 850pts
10k = 800 pts
50k = 750pts
100k = 725pts
200k =
etc…
i’d be interested ayway…!
you could call th earticle “How You doin’?!)
and have a picture of joey from friends as the image…
Mito post things like this on Twitter all the time! #gofollowus @FantasyFooty247
James, I actually do that over Twitter, I also tell you about how much a points hit will cost you, in terms of spots in the overall ranking. For instance if KungFu was to take a 4 point hit, because of his current standing it would coat him about 18000 spots before the GW even starts. I know how to check the points quickly, so if anyone ever wants to know they can always ask me. I will try and post the points rankings from 1 to a 1000000 weekly on here. As far as an article, not sure. Would have to address that with upper management, I guess. Maybe someone could do it.
Cheers Mito.
Article may be overkill, more an addition to existing analysis perhaps.
But yeah, posting those numbers would be great.
Thanks
High enough that Potty will still talk to me
Potty talks to you all the time….he talks to all of us, we just have to learn to hear and understand his teaching methods. Don’t question, just do. The ways of the prophet. 😉
Mito – nice one! I am such a bad pupil.
Broads don’t hit back. Okay. They do.
James – top 5k hopefully,it’s achievable but difficult.Off to work now..laters.
Yeah. I’m targeting 5k ASAP.
Can’t be far off that. (Pts)
Of course it could easily go the other way.
James – You capping Suarez this week?
not sure who i’m capping tbh mate.
though i guess i should know by now!
roon is a good shout imo. home, great form, playing old team.
or suarez, home, playing a poor team.
kun is a beast, but playing away.
in fact ramsey would be an interesting differential – but i don’t feel i need one.
James – If i had Rooney then i’d have a decision to make haha,Suarez(c) Lambert(vc) for me,really have to go now or i’ll be late for work,cant be having that,chat to you’s later lads,hopefully i return to see Jussi&Morrison have done the business for me tonight.. happy tinkering.
good luck mate!
To be fair I’m quite happy with my 283k which I believe is in the top 9% of all players.. I’m not going great guns or anything like that so there’s room room for improvement.
If I could break top 5% (150k) at any point and stay there i’d be happy.
Overall though I just want to win my work mini league.. that’s all I ultimately care about.
came on demsie, top 100k at least
top 50k is solid imo…
; )
Ah we’ll see Prata.. Obviously the higher the better.
It’s only my second season so top 100k would be awesome.. Ok. Let’s aim for that then !!
P.S I haven’t forgotten our bet !
couldnt close the gap, too easy match for you last week
Haha Prata, you can’t blame the fixtures mate !
We both have tough fixtures this GW so we’ll see how it goes.. I would say good luck but you know I don’t mean it 😉
fair enough!
should i feel bad?
I joined my company league a few days back – straight in at number 1.
(i’m consulting to them, hence not been in their league before)
James.
Naah you shouldn’t feel bad at all.. in fact you should feel great about it !
Even better if they are annoyed about it tbh.
What you doing with your keeper situation ? Someone told me you were planning on swapping Boruc to Gazz then sorting it in Jan..?? Which I think could work out. I have same 2 keepers so…..
Done it already mate.
Yep. Switched to Gazza. 2 x 3.9m keepers, but guaranteed starting behind a decent defence? I’m okay with that for the short term.
Gave me a mil extra to play with.
It’s a great idea mate.. I’ve done it too (just now).
Oscar is out, was looking to swap him for hazard anyway.. Worth the hit ?
james, did you take a hit to bring 2 keepers?
Nope. Gazza was less than Boruc.
But I’ve wanted mertz for a while and consider him likely to cover the cost of tge pts tonight.
Could be wrong, but went with my gut. That’s worked for me so far.
@ Demsie
Well done mate. Hope it works out for you.
(…us)
I am hearing that Sagna mighty be out vs Hull if that is the case, I hope you get that clean sheet, so I can expand my lead over HL. Hee Hee.
@ Demsie. Sorry. Missed your question re Oscar.
Okay, I’d rather have Haz than Oscar.
That’s why I chose him (ages ago). But there not a huge amount in it.
Are you sure he’s out? I thought he was okay. Though haven’t checked.
Do you have anyone else who can step in for this GW, so you can save the hit?
If so, are you confident Haz will out score them by 4 pts?
That’s the essence of the question right?
If not, you could just do it In a couple of days.
James.
Yeah I had the huge decision between the 2 when I WC’d and made the wrong choice imho. Now want Hazard as I should have done back then.
Yeah I heard he was injured, then just made that GK transfer now and Oscar is red flagged so I assume that’s definite ? Must be based on the Chelsea press conference right ?
My Mid without him Ravel, Lallana, Gerrard, Ramsey.
To be fair all 4 of those mids have good fixtures so i’ll prob just wait.
I have 1.1mil in the bank so can use it wisely after mid-week
Need a RMT for this GW.
Mignolet (harper)
Terry, Clyne, Evra (Jagielka, Turner-cardif)
Lallana, Cabaye, Hazard, Ramsey (Januzaj)
Rooney, Aguero, Suarez (c)
1,2 in the bank.
Thought I did a good transfer (patting myself on the shoulders) by doing Rooney+Evra for Remy+Faye? May come to regret it since it was a 4 point hit!