Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 2

Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 2

Can we start again? Seriously?! No one in their wildest dreams or nightmares could have predicted that the average score for GW1 would be 34pts. I mean, not even the ‘experts’ could have predicted that Thibaut Courtois would be sent off! Before mass panic sets in it is worth remembering that this was a freak game-week, only two players in the GW1 ‘Dream Team’ were owned by more than 10% of managers. Of course some of these players will perform well over the course of the season and a number of them are actually discussed below. However this is not to suggest you should tear up your team just to bring these players in, remember you didn’t pick your squad for just the opening game-week. So on the basis of what we witnessed in GW1 we have below outlined a number of players whom we feel could prosper over the coming weeks.

Goalkeepers

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[/three_fourth]It’s often said that predicting where clean sheets will come from at the start of the season can prove difficult and so it proved to be the case on the opening game-week of the season as only 5 were kept. So where does that leave us in terms of goalkeepers? Perhaps somewhat surprisingly the standout candidate for a place between the sticks after GW1 is Sergio Romero! With David de Gea unlikely to play for United for the reminder of August and perhaps beyond, the Argentine could prove to be a bargain at £5.0m, at least in the short-term. He had some dodgy moments in the first half against Spurs but grew into the game and made a couple of excellent saves as the game drew to a conclusion. Should de Gea move on there is every chance that United will dip into the market for a new keeper and Romero will be relegated to the bench. However such a scenario is unlikely to pan out until the end of the transfer window, meaning Romero should start the next three games against Villa, Newcastle & Swansea, and there’s every chance he’ll pick up another couple of clean sheets. For those of you looking to replace Courtois, look no further!

Perhaps the most surprising result on the opening weekend was West Ham’s 2-0 win over perennial underachievers Arsenal. Understandably 16 year old Reece Oxford grabbed the headlines but one of the stars of the show was Adrian. The Spaniard picked up 11pts thanks to 2pts for his six saves and three bonus points. In previous seasons it would have been unlikely for a keeper to pick up maximum bonus points unless he stopped a penalty, this certainly suggests that the change to the BPS does indeed favour goalkeepers. If The Hammers can maintain this form over the coming weeks, Adrian could very well pick up a number of clean sheets particularly when you consider that four of their next six games are at home to Leicester, Bournemouth, Newcastle & Norwich.

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Defenders

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[/three_fourth]Much like the majority of last season Manchester United failed to impress, yet they still managed to get the job done as they eked out a 1-0 win over Spurs. Matteo Darmian was possibly the least spectacular of United’s summer signings but if his performance against Spurs is anything to go by, LvG has made a very astute signing. He’s an old-fashioned full-back in that he defends first and attacks second, although when he got forward he showed enough composure to suggest he will pick up a number of assists over the course of the season. It must be said that Spurs weren’t great but the United back 4 showed enough to suggest that they will be a tough nut to crack this season, especially if they sign a top class centre half. All of this points at Darmian being a great source of points over the course of the season!

In just 45 minutes last Saturday afternoon we saw the best and the worst of Cedric Soares. He claimed an assist thanks to a great cross for Pelle to open the scoring, while earlier he had forced Tim Krul into a good save. However he picked up a yellow card for a cynical foul early in the game and committed another number of fouls over the course of the first half, and at half time he was substituted rather than be sent off in the 2nd half. Those of you who had read Chins’ preview of Cedric a number of weeks ago will not have been surprised by this and it’s probably a sign of things to come! However he showed enough going forward to suggest that the pros certainly outweigh the cons and you’ll do well do find better value in defence.

A couple of other full-backs who warrant a mention are West Ham’s Aaron Creswell and Swansea’s Kyle Naughton. As we’ve already noted above West Ham’s next four home are on paper rather easy and they should pick up at least a couple of clean sheets. Cresswell had one attempt on goal against Arsenal and at home against inferior opportunity there should be more opportunities for him to grab some attacking returns. Swansea may have conceded twice against Chelsea but at no stage during the game did their defence appear to be under any serious pressure. To be honest there’s not much between Naughton & Ashley Williams, but for now Naughton shades it due to his attacking forays down the right side.

A number of budget friendly defenders caught the eye last weekend most notably Liverpool’s Joe Gomez, West Ham’s Reece Oxford and Micah Richards of Aston Villa. The Brittania stadium is no longer full of jolly green giants, however it’s still not the easiest place to make your top flight debut, particularly for an 18 year left back up against Jonathan Walters but that was the task faced by Gomez and he coped admirably. Aside from one or two moments he looked assured, while he also picked a rather fortuitous assist which helped him pick up maximum bonus points. Liverpool have a number of extremely difficult games away from home over the coming weeks, however they have a number of easier home games from which they should claim a number of clean sheets. Last week we mentioned Oxford but didn’t tip him as we didn’t expect him to see much gametime once the PL kicked off. However following his impressive PL debut at the Emirates on Sunday we feel we should include him this week as he’s priced at just £4.0m and as we’ve mentioned above West Ham have a great run of home fixtures coming up. We would urge some caution though, he’s only 16 and will need to be managed in the correct manner, and with new signing Pedro Obiang back in training the youngster could soon be back on the bench. A trip to newly promoted Bournemouth could have proved a potential banana skin for Villa on opening day and while they didn’t set the world alight they were solid at the back. Their defence was well marshalled by Richards and following the visit of United on Friday night they have a number of fixtures from which they could very well pick up a couple of clean sheets. Finally Watford’s Miguel Layun warrants a mention. Priced at just £4.5m the Mexican played out of position on the left of midfield and opened the scoring. The catch? He only played 59 minutes and once a number of others are fit he’s likely to lose his place.

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Midfielders

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[/three_fourth]Last week we tipped Raheem Sterling ahead of David Silva and we completely ignored Yaya Toure. Judging from the ownership levels of the three we weren’t the only ones to get suckered in by Sterling! We’re probably being a little harsh on Sterling, on another day he could’ve had a couple of goals and he certainly showed enough to suggest he will be amongst the points over the season. Sterling was certainly overshadowed by his senior colleagues, particularly David Silva who was the heart of everything. He had all the time in the world to do as he liked but that shouldn’t take away from his quality of touch and movement. The little Spaniard finished with just an assist to his credit, although many would argue that the first goal should have been credited to him. The first goal was instead awarded to Yaya Toure who took the initial strike from the edge of the area, meaning the Ivorian finished the game with two goals and maximum bonus points. If there was some doubt over Yaya’s first goal the 2nd goal was most certainly his, as he drove forward from midfield exchanged passes with Bony on the edge of the area before curling a shot into the top corner. On the basis of this performance the Yaya of 2013/14 is back. Whilst West Brom were well below average, City were extremely impressive and on the basis of this performance we will all want a City midfielder to accompany Sergio Aguero in our teams. Of course the likes of Silva & Toure won’t always be afforded so much space but as we’ve seen in the past, when they’re on form they’re irrepressible.

Liverpool lost Raheem Sterling this summer and couldn’t keep hold of Luis Suarez the previous summer. I wouldn’t be at all surprised should they find themselves in a similar position with Philippe Coutinho next summer. With Liverpool’s game against Stoke headed towards a scoreless draw the pintsized Brazilian unleashed a thunderbolt to secure victory. Now he’s not going to score a goal like that every week but he is undoubtedly Liverpool’s most creative player and should surpass the five goals & seven assists he has claimed in each of the last two seasons, particularly if Liverpool’s new signings can gel. One of those new signings Firmino made his league debut off the bench and in his 12 minutes on the pitch he showed a couple of glimpses to suggest that he’s certainly one to keep an eye on. For what it’s worth he struck a hat-trick in a game played behind closed doors against Welsh side TNS on Monday.

With so many of the established big hitters failing to shine on the opening weekend it was left to a trio of new additions to the league to vie for our attentions, I refer to Crystal Palace’s Yohan Cabaye, Swansea’s Andre Ayew and Dimitri Payet of West Ham. Ok, so Cabaye isn’t necessarily new to the league but he’s new to Palace. Much was expected of the record signing and he didn’t disappoint. Despite being fielded in the double-pivot role he pushed forward with every opportunity as was evidenced by his goal in the last minute. Having spent the majority of last season on the bench it will take him another number of games to get up to adjust to the pace of the Premiership but once he does he should prove a bargain at just £6.5m. Ayew did not look like a player making his league debut on Saturday evening, rather it looked like he’d been playing with his Swansea teammates for a couple of seasons. Swansea were not intimidated by Chelsea and pressed them at every opportunity, they were comfortable in possession and were not afraid to take the game to Chelsea. The Ghanaian international showed great composure in the penalty area for his goal and his link up play with Gomis could prove quite fruitful over the coming weeks. Payet arrived in England with quite a reputation, but because he had developed that rep in France some wondered would he cut it in the Premiership. He couldn’t have hoped for a better debut, although Arsenal made it quite easy for him. In fact, at times Arsenal struggled to cope with West Ham and it was Payet who pulled the strings. With The Hammers having a number of rather easy home games over the coming weeks Payet is likely to prove quite popular. Georginio Wijnaldum probably deserves a mention as well, but with Newcastle’s fixtures being on the hard side of tough it might be best to just put him on the watch list.

A number of cheaper midfielders who impressed last weekend were Leicester duo Riyad Mahrez (5.5m) & Marc Albrighton (5.0m) and Aston Villa’s Ashley Westwood (4.5m). Leicester picked up where they left off last season, attacking Sunderland with vigour and were three up inside 25 minutes. Much has been made of Ranieri’s constant tinkering and whilst the Italian did admit he will switch between systems over the course of the season these two have surely done enough to prove their worth. Mahrez ended the game with two goals and maximum bonus points, while Albrighton finished with a goal, two assists and two bonus points. It should also be noted that with Leonardo Ulloa not on the pitch it was Mahrez who claimed the spot kick. Westwood was not quite as dynamic as the Leicester duo, however it was his corner which lead to the only goal of their game with Bournemouth. One assist hardly sounds remarkable but that was Rudy Gestede’s 20th headed goal since the start of the 2013/14 campaign, so don’t be overly surprised should Westwood pick up his fair share of assists over the course of the season!

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Forwards

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[/three_fourth]Prior to the season kicking off last weekend many were of the opinion that 3-5-2 was the formation to start with as there were few standout options up front and on the basis of last weekend that may actually be the case. None of the premium strikers shone, although there were a number of promising performances from the mid-level & even budget forwards. Graziano Pelle has carried his pre-season form into the league as it took him just 24 minutes to score his first goal of the season, the fact that it was away from St. Mary’s was an added bonus, last season he found the back of the net just once on his travels. Had it not been for a late yellow card the Italian would possibly have picked up a couple of bonus points. Pelle is certainly the favoured striker to lead the line and with the likes of Mane, Tadic & Rodriguez in form behind him the goals should continue over the coming weeks.

Neither Sergio Aguero nor Christian Benteke found the back of the net last weekend but they both certainly warrant consideration, although if you need to be told that Aguero warrants consideration you may want to reconsider FPL! With Aguero always unlikely to start against West Brom last Monday night and with City due to play Chelsea in GW2 many chose to ignore him. However having come on for the last 28 minutes and with Chelsea looking anything but secure at the back against Swansea it might be worth considering bringing the Argentine into your team a week earlier than planned. Of course Chelsea are not going to give City the space which they were presented with by West Brom but with David Silva in imperious form would you bet against Aguero this weekend, I wouldn’t! It’s still very early days in Benteke’s Anfield career, but there were a couple of signs against Stoke last Sunday which indicated he will prove to be a success. It was clear when he signed that either he or Liverpool would have to change their style in order for him to fit in and it certainly appears as though Rodgers will not be afraid to change things up so as to accommodate the Belgian. Against Stoke Simon Mignolet went long with a significant number of goal kicks, something which would not have happened last season. Conversely he was involved in a couple on intricate moves on the edge of the area which failed to materialise into proper chances, but as I’ve already said the signs are positive.

Manchester United certainly didn’t light up the opening game-week as they managed just five attempts on goal in a dull affair against Spurs. Wayne Rooney picked up an assist and in fairness he should have scored had he not dithered in the penalty allowing Kyle Walker to get a tackle in, although I’m not sure if you’d call it a tackle. For now it looks unlikely that United will hammer anyone but with games against Villa & Newcastle up next I wouldn’t lose faith in Rooney just yet.

A number of other strikers who deserve a mention this week are Swansea’s Bafetimbi Gomis, West Ham’s Diafra Sakho and Sunderland’s Jermain Defoe. Gomis was a constant threat against Chelsea last Saturday and was unlucky to finish with just the one goal. With Jefferson Montero and Andre Ayew a constant threat on the flanks we saw enough against Chelsea to indicate that Swansea will score their fair share of goals over the course of the season and with Gomis leading the line he should be the main beneficiary. Sakho didn’t find the back of the net last weekend but West Ham showed enough against Arsenal to suggest they will create plenty of chances over the coming weeks meaning there’s every chance we’ll see Sakho’s name on the scoresheet. Of course that’s assuming he’s not in jail! Sunderland were terrible against Leicester and Dick Advocat admitted after the game that Defoe cannot lead the line in a 4-3-3 formation. He also hinted that if Sunderland are to continue using such a formation they will need to buy a new striker! But for now they are likely to switch to a 4-4-2, a system that they changed to when they were 3-0 down against Leicester and in fairness it led to an improvement. For now Defoe is likely to remain in the team and as he showed against Leicester he knows where the goal is.

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Thanks for reading Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 2. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @KenLyons79

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