Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 5

Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 5

With the Champions League having kicked off it means we are now into the season of rotation and it started last weekend with many fantasy managers suffering a kick in the teeth as Brendan Rodgers chose to rest Raheem Sterling ahead of the visit of the mighty Ludogorets on Tuesday night. What this goes to prove is that that fantasy football is a squad game and that over the coming weeks and months those cheap bench players we all own are likely to become more important. Slowly but surely we are starting to see patterns develop which should in theory make our decisions much easier to make, but let’s be honest, sometimes the more information the more difficult it is to make a decision! So just to make things ‘easier’ for you we have below outlined a number of players whom we feel can deliver over the coming game-weeks.

Goalkeepers

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Fraser Forster arrived on the south coast having built an excellent reputation for himself with Celtic. However, like with all players who ply their trade in Scotland, many wondered would he cut the mustard south of the border and whether he was worth the £10m which Southampton paid for him. It’s early days yet, but he has settled into Premiership life like a duck to water, conceding just three goals in his first four games, keeping two clean sheets in the process and should he maintain this form he will surely be putting Joe Hart under pressure on the international scene sooner rather than later. The Saints were blessed with their early season fixtures and between now and the end of November their fixtures remain extremely winnable and I predict a number of clean sheets between now and then.

United enjoyed a sluggish start to the season as they picked up just two points from their opening three games, but they gave their season a much needed kick up the derriere with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over QPR and this saw David de Gea pick up his second clean sheet of the season. Obviously United will be a work in progress over the coming weeks as their new additions continue to settle in and while QPR didn’t put up much of a fight the indicators last Sunday were positive. LvG orchestrated some easy early season fixtures and these fixtures continue over the coming weeks with three of their next four games coming against Leicester, West Ham & West Brom and with these three fixtures in mind I suspect the Spaniard will add to his two clean sheets to date.

Two other keepers who I feel deserve a mention this week are Swansea’s Lukasz Fabianski and Burnley’s Tom Heaton. Fabianski moved to The Liberty Stadium during the summer in search of first team football and to date he has impressed, picking up clean sheets in each of Swansea’s home games and with their next three home fixtures against Southampton, Newcastle & Leicester, I wouldn’t bet against a couple of clean sheets from these fixtures. Granted he is coming off the back of a poor result at Stamford Bridge, but let’s face it, he won’t be the only keeper to concede four or more against Chelsea this season. Having scored just once in their opening four games it appears that Burnley will need to depend on their defence if they are to have any chance of avoiding relegation, luckily they have kept clean sheets in their last two games. Their next four games come against teams who they could very well end up in a relegation battle with, so they will be hoping that Heaton continues his recent impressive form.

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Defenders

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If memory serves me correct the Southampton defence proved extremely popular in the early part of last season and if the first four game-weeks of this season are anything to go by they will become more & more popular over the coming weeks, despite all of the departures during the summer. Both Nathaniel Clyne and Ryan Bertrand have enjoyed great starts to the season and it would appear that their new gaffer is encouraging them to push forward as much as possible, Clyne already has a goal and an assist while Bertrand has an assist. Deadline day signing Toby Alderweireld went straight into the first XI last week against Newcastle and enjoyed quite an assured debut and he is likely to be the clubs defensive lynchpin over the course of the season. All three currently offer great value for money but I would slightly favour Alderweireld as he is £0.2m cheaper than Clyne and as he proved during his time with Ajax, he has an eye for goal.

Against QPR last Sunday LvG started with a flat back four for the first time this season, although this was possibly because he felt he only had four fit defenders. Whatever the reason, the result was that Brazilian full-back Rafael made his first appearance of the season. Rafael is far from the best full back in the premiership but he’s the only natural right back that United have and he is also quite suited to play as a wing back. He didn’t have the greatest of seasons last year but then again which United player did, and he was in & out of the squad through injury. However if he can recapture the form of the previous season in which he scored three & picked up five assists he could prove to be excellent value at just £5.3m. The only United defender to have played each of the four games to date is youngster Tyler Blackett. Now obviously he is unlikely to be a regular once everyone is fit but with Jones and Evans both currently ruled out due to injuries he could be a good short term solution at just £4.5m if you fancy United to build upon back to back clean sheets.

Arsenal haven’t enjoyed the best of starts to the season and have yet to keep a clean sheet so it might come as a surprise to see Calum Chambers included this week particularly with London derbies against Spurs and Chelsea just around the corner. However with Mathieu Debuchy side-lined for up to two months with an ankle injury the youngster is set for an extended run in the side and at just £4.5m I feel he is worth some consideration over the coming weeks. The Gunners are a better side than some of their recent results suggest, so surely there are some clean sheets somewhere on the horizon?!!

As we have alluded to above, if Burney are to survive this season they will need to rely heavily on their defence and with their next four games relatively easy, now might be the best time to invest in their defence which has conceded just four goals from their first four games, keeping two clean sheets in the process. The obvious choice is Michael Duff who is excellent value at just £4.0 and has picked up two bonus points in each of the last two fixtures as Burnley picked up clean sheets. Much was expected of Kieran Trippier this season thanks largely to the 12 assists he picked up in the championship last season, but to date he hasn’t picked up any attacking points. However with their fixtures beginning to get a little easier now might be the time to take a gamble on Trippier.

A couple of other cheap defenders who I feel deserve a mention this week are Leicester’s Liam Moore and Aston Villa’s Alan Hutton. Due to Leicester’s opening fixture’s many avoided their defence, but against Stoke last week they proved that they will pick up a number of clean sheets over the course of the season. Granted they face a rejuvenated United this week but following this game they have a great run of fixtures from which they will hope to pick up a number of clean sheets. Given Villa’s upcoming fixtures it will probably take a leap of faith to draft Hutton into your squad, however after the opening four games of the season Villa boast the league’s best and at Anfield last weekend they dealt comfortably with everything Liverpool could throw at them.

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Midfielders

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At the time of writing close to 170k fantasy managers had transferred Angel Di Maria into their sides and on the basis of his first two games it’s hard to argue with this. The Argentinian was the star of the show with a goal, an assist & three bonus points as United turned in an accomplished performance last Sunday to defeat QPR 4-0. Against QPR, United started with four players who were new to the club this season, while a fifth (Falcao) appeared from the bench, but despite these newbies the signs were good for United and one thing is for sure and that is that there’s goals in them and with Di Maria’s creative abilities beyond question he will surely pick up his fair share of assists this season. I’ve seen some people suggest that the Argentine is already a ‘must have’, but let’s not get carried away just yet, he’s only played Burnley & QPR! A cheaper alternative is Ander Herrera who also picked up a goal & an assist against QPR and with Daley Blind now in place to anchor the midfield Herrera will surely be given the opportunities to push forward.

So Arsenal didn’t need Cesc Fabregas?! Following Arsenal’s sluggish start to the season I wonder if Arsene is regretting not taking up the option Arsenal had on the Spaniard, probably not knowing Arsene! Given his previous success in English football most if not all us expected Fabregas to be a success in his second stint but I’m not sure if any of us expected him to have such an immediate impact, he’s picked up six assists in his opening four games which is two more than any other player. Chelsea have an abundance of talent in midfield and there will certainly be some rotation over the coming weeks and months but no one else in the Chelsea midfield can pick out that killer pass on such a consistent basis, so I expect the Spaniard to feature more often than not. It looks like he and Diego Costa have been playing together for years and as their understanding develops I suspect we will see Fabregas creating more & more goals for the Brazilian.

With 42 goals from midfield in just four seasons Dusan Tadic arrived in England with quite a reputation and while he is yet to find the back of the net for Southampton he is slowly but surely starting to show glimpses of the form which made Ronald Koeman spend just under £11m on him. Southampton are a much changed side from last season and could still be considered a work in progress but the early signs would suggest that Koeman has put together a decent team and with Southampton in the midst of a great run of fixtures I reckon Tadic could very well be amongst the fantasy points over the coming weeks.

Both Liverpool & Arsenal have enjoyed shaky starts to the season but in Raheem Sterling and Aaron Ramsey they possess players who are capable of lighting up a fantasy manager’s weekend. Despite scoring seven goals in their opening four games Arsenal have lacked a certain spark and Ramsey certainly hasn’t hit the heights of last season, but despite this he has still scored twice and claimed an assist. Liverpool rested Sterling last weekend against Villa and it backfired on them as the youngster was unable to influence the game off the bench. Liverpool have scored six times in their opening four games and Sterling has been directly involved in three of them and despite the fact that he is still only 19 he is fast becoming the clubs talisman. Liverpool would have expected to beat Villa last weekend and they will expect to win the majority of their games over the coming game-weeks and should this happen Sterling will surely find himself on the score sheet a number of times.

Before we move onto the forwards a trio of midfielders whom I feel warrant a mention are Spurs’ Nacer Chadli, Everton’s Kevin Mirallas and Sebastian Larsson of Sunderland. Despite scoring three in three games and costing just £6.1m Chadli is still flying under the radar, featuring in just 5.6% of teams. The Belgian has certainly benefited from the arrival of Pochettino and he is currently the best value for money in the Spurs attack. His compatriot Mirallas also offers himself as a differential, with the Everton man featuring in just 4.7% of teams and has scored in each of his last two games. With a goal and two assists to date Larsson offers great value for money at £5.6m and with Sunderland having some decent fixtures over the coming weeks I expect him to build upon his early season form.

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Forwards

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The term ‘must have’ is often bandied about in FPL circles, but to be honest over the course of the past few seasons there have been very few must have players, Suarez last season and RVP in the previous two seasons and Ronaldo prior to that are the obvious candidates for this title, but after that there are very few, if any. However after just four games of the season Diego Costa is well on his way to becoming a must have, in fact with seven goals in four games he is possibly in that category already. In Costa, Chelsea have themselves a forward who was tailor made for the English game, not only is he big & strong, he is also quick and has a great touch. Chelsea have had a relatively easy start to the season and face their first big test of the season as they travel to face Manchester City but I wouldn’t be at all surprised should Costa score for the fifth consecutive game and at this early stage of the season he is slowly becoming everyone’s default captain. He was even rewarded a rest this evening, coming on for just the last 15 minutes of Chelsea’s CL game. A word of caution though…these phantom hamstring injuries will surely catch up with him at some stage!

Last week we tipped Wayne Rooney to get back amongst the goals and with a goal and an assist he certainly didn’t let us down. With Radamel Falcao sat on the bench Rooney turned in his most impressive performance of the season and in doing so he moved into joint 3rd on the list of scorers in the English top flight. The problem at United at the moment is that we’re still unsure as to what LvG considers his best team, but it seems unlikely that he will start a game with Mata, Falcao, RvP & Rooney on the pitch and of these four Mata would appear to be the most obvious one to lose out, although van Persie couldn’t buy a goal at the moment (cue a hat-trick this weekend!). With LvG only just having appointed Rooney his captain you would have to assume that his place in the XI is relatively safe and even if he is forced to drop deeper an in-form Rooney will always carry a goal threat.

Apparently Manuel Pellegrini has challenged Sergio Aguero to win the Ballon d’Or. If the opening four games of the season are anything to go by he’s unlikely to be the best player in England let alone Europe as he been completely overshadowed by Diego Costa. He has had a slow start to the season, although this is possibly due to starting the opening two games from the bench, yet despite this slow start he already has three goals to his name. City as a team have been rather sluggish this season with none of their players playing anywhere near their best, but once the likes of Yaya & David Silva manage to find their groove Aguero will surely sparkle.

Those fantasy managers who play 3-4-3 with two expensive forwards and a mid-priced forward who can be relied upon to pick up points on a consistent basis have been crying out for such a forward since the season begun. Perhaps that forward is Southampton’s Graziano Pelle who has scored three in his last two games and has a current valuation of just £7.6m. The Italian arrived at Southampton on the back of two superb seasons in Holland with Feyenoord but had previously struggled to make an impact in Italy. His first couple of games in England suggested he had brought his Italian form with him but as the Southampton team become accustomed to each other and Koeman’s methods he has begun to settle in. With Southampton enjoying a great run of fixtures now might be the best time to invest in the Italian.

Our final two picks this week are Everton’s Romelu Lukaku and Leicester’s Leonardo Ulloa. Lukaku claimed his first goal of the season last weekend and I expect him to build on that over the coming weeks, after all he’s got the Merseyside derby coming up! Many Leicester fans questioned whether Ulloa was worth the £8m which the club paid Brighton for him but with three goals in his opening four games he has certainly won over all of his critics. Given Leicester’s upcoming fixtures I feel that Ulloa is currently the budget striker to own.

Thanks for reading Kops Fantasy Football Tips Game-week 5. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @KenLyons79

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