FPL Transfer Window New Player Analysis part 2

FPL Transfer Window New Player Analysis part 2

[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]With the transfer window slamming shut earlier this week we took an initial look at a few choice signing’s in part 1 and we continue do so here with a further run down on how we feel each new signing will fare from both a real life and also from an FPL perspective. Crystal Palace, Hull and Southampton have all brought in some interesting prospects, Spurs have replaced Sandro, champions elect Swansea have bought a centre-back while Burnley opted for the ‘White-Pele’. Lets take a whistle stop tour of some of the more interesting transfers that occurred in the window.

Abel Hernandez – Hull
Position – Forward
FPL Price – £7.0m
The Uruguayan striker was signed for a cub record fee and most probably to replace the departed Shane Long. He has a very decent record at Palermo and scored 14 goals in 28 appearances last season to help his side win promotion to Serie A. He has also scored 7 goals in 14 matches for his national side and made two appearances at the 2014 World Cup. Although he did not feature in the top Italian League, his goals to games ratio of one every two games is very decent. He will most certainly partner Jelavic upfront and those two could forge a solid partnership but with his price being 7mill in FPL, perhaps some time to assess would be needed.

[divider_1px]

Hatem Ben Arfa – Hull
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £5.8m
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]All Hatem Ben Arfa wants is to be loved, and he never received that from Alan Pardew as he was frozen out of the Toon side and told to train with the reserves. He has never lived up to his potential in fantasy terms and only produced less than a handful of goals and assist in his last two seasons with Newcastle. He will definitely add value to this Hull side as he attacks down the flanks but for now one cannot be sure if he will be a regular starter for the Tigers. With a little bit of man management from Steve Bruce and some regular performances then Ben Arfa at 5.8mill could produce the goods, but for now it is too big a risk for me.

[divider_1px]

Gaston Ramirez – Hull
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £5.5m
Yet another last minute loan addition to Hull City, the man from Southampton who only joined a couple of season ago had never been able to secure his spot in the side due to injuries and form. He does have fantastic skill but what he needs to add now at Hull is consistency. Predominately a midfielder but Steve Bruce will need to find what his best position is as he can also play in the number 10 roll just behind the strikers. Due to all of this, he has not really lit up the FPL, this will have to be a big season for him if he wants to secure his future in the English League.

[divider_1px]

Benjamin Stanbouli – Spurs
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £5.0m
A bit of an unknown quantity here, but at first glance it would seem that Stambouli has been brought in to replace the departed Sandro. He was known for his versatility at Montpellier where he played as a defensive midfielder, centre back and full back. It would seem he is in the Morgan Schneiderlin mould, versatile and very technical, and I know that Schneiderlin scored two goals over the weekend but do not get excited as Stambouli differs to him in the fact that he is more comfortable operating in front of the back four. It would seem that he is a decent signing for Spurs and one in which they required, but for us fantasy managers I would not get too excited with this one.

[divider_1px]

George Boyd – Burnley
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £4.4m
‘The White Pele’ as he was beautifully christened during his days at Stevenage, is a winger/ attacking midfielder who has not had a fast-tracked route to the Premier League it has to be said. Released by Charlton as a youth, he went non-league (at that time) with Stevenage ‘Borough’ (as it was then) and slowly worked his way up the football league, making his name at Peterborough United (with a notable goal average of 1 every 4 games). He had loan spells at Nottingham Forest and Hull (where he notched four goals in thirteen games) which eventually persuaded Hull City to sign him permanently in May 2013 (although fantastically not before Forest manager Alex McLeish thought he had got his man, only for the club-owning Al-Hasawi family to claim that Boyd had failed the ‘eye test’ part of his medical and the deal was off. Not long after, McLeish was off). Boyd’s two goals in 30 games as a permanent Hull player does not admittedly compare favourably with his previous goalscoring exploits, it can be argued that with the rotation of the Premier League, he never found a level of consistency. He’ll be hoping to find that at Turf Moor this season having transferred for £3M on deadline day. Although he is a Man of Kent (not rhyming slang), Boyd is now a full Scotland International thanks to a Glaswegian grandfather. It will be very interesting to see where Boyd will play in this Burnley side whose manager Sean Dyche is a firm believer in the 4-4-2 formation. It would be assumed that the winger spaces will be fought out between Michael Kightly, Matt Taylor and Boyd himself. If a place were to be cemented in the Clarets’ team for the skilful, dribbling, long-locked Boyd, then at £4.4M he could be the “fifth-midfielder” bargain of the season.

[divider_1px]

Federico Fernandez – Swansea City
Position – Defender
FPL Price – £5.0m
Amidst British transfer records being broken and red tape wrangles, one Argentine managed to sneak in to the Premier League virtually unnoticed, step forward one Federico Fernandez. The man who began his career in his native Argentina with Estudiantes, left ‘The Rat-Stabbers’ (it’s real, look it up) for Naples to test himself in Serie A. Rather disappointingly, he could only manage 44 appearances in two and a half years at Napoli and took in a short loan spell at Madrid-based Getafe in La Liga where he played 14 matches and notched 1 goal. The 25 year-old centre back has one or two decent career highs to date, he is a Copa Sudamerica winner, has scored two goals (unfortunately in a 3-2 defeat) in the Allianz Arena versus Bayern Munich in the Champions League and has played four games in a World Cup finals. Although he eventually lost his place with La Albiceleste for the latter rounds, he did play all three group matches and the Round of 16 victory over Switzerland keeping clean sheets in two of these games. He has signed for Swansea at a time when they are joint top of the Premier League and as a consequence, has found a central defensive partnership of Jordi Amat and Ashley Williams difficult to split. So far he has one appearance for the club and that was the 1-0 victory over Rotherham United in the League Cup. It could be expected that he would take the place of Jordi Amat sooner or later to form a partnership with club captain Williams but at present, fantasy managers should continue to check the line-ups and wait to see when Fernandez will see some Premier League action having been an unused substitute in the recent 3-0 home victory over West Bromwich Albion.

[divider_1px]

Toby Alderweireld – Southampton
Position – Defender
FPL Price – £5.0m
The Belgian was signed on deadline day on loan from European Cup Runners-Up Atletico Madrid (he played seven minutes of normal time and the full extra time period in the final in place of Filipe Luis (where’s he gone?). It will be no surprise to see him however as his appearances were limited at the Vicente Calderon by the utterly excellent back four of Juanfran, Miranda, Godin and Luis. Playing only roughly a third of Atleti’s matches and scoring just once in a Copa Del Rey match in his one and only season in the Spanish capital, the 7M Euro signing from Ajax can play either centre back or right back. It will be interesting to see where his new manager Koeman utilises him. Nathaniel Clyne would seem to be first choice right back so it looks like he may partner Jose Fonte in the centre but a word of caution, Southampton have also signed Romanian Florin Gardos this transfer window. The £5.0M valued, 35-cap Diablo Rouge, has a career average 1 goal in every 12 games and is a product of the famous Ajax academy so merits consideration if he plays consistently in a Saints side about to embark on a run of fixtures which are very favourable until the end of November.

[divider_1px]

Sadio Mane – Southampton
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £7.0m
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]As the deadline loomed Southampton swooped to capture Red Bull Salzburg winger, Sadio Mane. According to Ronald Koeman the Senegalese international can play either on the wing or down the middle, however with Koeman known to have been in the market for a winger he will surely feature out wide for the Saints. Mane featured primarily on the left side for Salzburg despite being right footed although it remains to be seen whether Koeman will play him on the left, forcing him to cut inside on his right or whether he will play him as a traditional winger on the right hand side. From an FPL point of view he is certainly an exciting prospect having scored 31 goals in 63 games for the Austrian outfit and should he secure himself a spot in the first XI he is certainly one to watch at just £7.0m.

[clear][divider_1px]

Wilfried Zaha – Crystal Palace
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £5.4m
Wilfried Zaha is still only 21, yet he has just started his 3rd stint at Crystal Palace. The youngster was signed from Crystal Palace by Alex Ferguson back in January 2013 for a reported fee of £10m and was immediately loaned back to Palace. He wrote his name into Palace folklore as he scored twice against bitter rivals Brighton in the 2nd leg of the play-off semi-final. His time at United has to date proved disappointing and he has only made two appearances, although he will argue that he hasn’t been given a chance. He spent the 2nd half of last season on loan at Cardiff which wasn’t successful as he made just 10 appearances and failed to score. Now back at Crystal Palace and despite being only 21 you feel it’s now or never for the youngster. He has made an instant impact at Selhurst Park since his return as he climbed off the bench to score the equaliser last weekend against Newcastle. If he can earn a permanent spot under Warnock he will be worth some consideration as his pace will cause trouble for defences, but for now we’d suggest you wait and see if he can cement a spot.

[divider_1px]

James McArthur – Crystal Palace
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £5.5m
Having only being appointed Crystal Palace manager on August 27th Neil Warnock wasn’t left with much time to put his stamp on the squad. He did however splash out on McArthur, bringing him from Wigan for a reported club record fee of £7.0m. The Scottish international has netted 10 times in 124 league appearances for Wigan and is likely to battle it out with Joe Ledley for a spot beside Mile Jedinak in the middle of a four man midfield. From an FPL point of view he’s unlikely to offer very little, with both Zaha & Jason Puncheon offering much better value.

[divider_1px]

Ricky Alvarez – Sunderland
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £6.0m
Alvarez became Gus Poyet’s 9th summer signing, joining the Black Cats on a season long loan from Inter Milan. The Argentine joined Inter from Velez Sarsfield in 2011 and in 73 subsequent league games for the Italian giants he has picked up 11 goals and 16 assists. He is a skilful left-footed midfielder and is clearly as capable at setting up goals as he is at scoring them and can play in the centre of midfield or just behind the forwards. Like many a South American before him, he is known to be quite unpredictable although some might simply call him inconsistent, so expect him to go missing during games. Poyet has used a 4-1-4-1 formation in the opening three games of the season and should he continue with this formation Alvarez is likely to be battling with the likes of Rodwell & Larsson for one of the spots behind the lone forward. Alvarez is no mug as was evidenced by his inclusion in the Argentinian World Cup and should he secure a regular place under Poyet he could be an exciting FPL prospect.

[divider_1px]

Morgan Amalfitano – West Ham
Position – Midfield
FPL Price – £5.0m
Amalfitano became Big Sam’s ninth signing of the summer and will hope to force a way into the Hammers first team immediately. The French midfielder has decent Premier League pedigree, having spent last season on loan at West Brom where he scored four goals and also contributed four assists, playing from the right wing. His preferred position is, however, playing just behind the striker, though with the manager’s love of long balls and crosses (despite sometimes playing without a striker), Amalfitano may well end up hugging the touchline. He will have to fight with Matt Jarvis for that role, so maybe it’s a case of watch and see if he can nail down a starting spot. If so, and if Andy Carroll ever plays again, he could be the man to put the crosses on the big striker’s head.

Thanks for reading FPL Transfer Window New Player Analysis part 2 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Cookie, Kop, Inittowinit, Migs and The Gallant Pioneer