Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 11

Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 11

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s easier being a Premier League manager as opposed to an FPL manager! Take Liverpool as an example, on Tuesday night against the reigning European champions Real Madrid, Brendan Rodgers decided to rest a number of key players ahead of the weekend’s visit of Chelsea, what a luxury to have!! While up the road in Manchester, everything is A ok despite having won just three games as they are a team in transition. At over £150m it’s a bleedin’ expensive transition! So while the likes of Brendan & Louis have it easy us fantasy managers are faced with weekly decisions which could make or break our season. One advantage that you guys have over the Premier League managers is FF247 and once more we have put our ‘thinking’ caps on to come up with a number of players whom we feel will deliver over the coming game-weeks.

Goalkeepers

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[/three_fourth]Reigning champions Manchester City have struggled to find consistent form all season and currently lie six points behind the leaders Chelsea. Like the vast majority of teams they have struggled to keep clean sheets, managing only three to date, however despite this they have the 2nd best defence in the league having conceded just 10 in their opening 10 games. Despite being dropped for the trip to Hull back in GW6 I feel it is safe to assume that Joe Hart is firmly established as Pellegrini’s #1. Take a look at City’s fixtures between now and GW22, you will realise that aside from a trip to Southampton and the visit of Everton their fixtures are pretty straightforward and I would suggest we’ll see Hart pick up quite a number of clean sheets throughout the remainder of 2014.

Just like City, Arsenal have hardly been pulling up trees in the league this season, though Wojciech Szczesny has just kept back to back clean sheets, albeit against Sunderland and Burnley, but with clean sheets in such short supply this season, beggars can’t be choosers. Only four clubs boast a better defensive record than the Gunners and on that basis I feel that the Pole is worth some consideration. Arsenal’s fixtures are somewhat of a mixed bag over the coming weeks but with Laurent Koscielny due to return after the international break you would have to assume that his return can only but solidify a defence that has shown signs of improvement in recent weeks.

A couple of cheaper keepers whom I feel warrant a mention this week are Newcastle’s Tim Krul and West Brom’s Ben Foster. Krul proved extremely popular before the season kicked off due to a combination of Newcastle’s fixtures and his perfect home/away rotation with Sunderland’s Vito Mannone. Unfortunately for owners of Krul it has proved to be quite a fruitless season with just one clean sheet from his opening seven games. However Mr. Angry has flicked a switch and all of a sudden Newcastle have won four games on the bounce in all competitions and Krul has picked up two clean sheets in his last three games. The Geordies next four fixtures are on paper relatively straightforward and I wouldn’t be at all surprised should Krul pick up another couple of clean sheets from these games. With Saido Berahino grabbing all the headlines down at The Hawthorns it has gone relatively unnoticed that Foster has picked up four clean sheets over the course of the season. The Baggies have a mixed bag of fixtures over the coming weeks but given Foster’s price (£4.5m) and their form he could prove decent value for money during this period.

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Defenders

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[/three_fourth]Personally I’ve never bought into the theory that Leighton Baines should be looked upon as an extra midfielder, however, slowly but surely I’m starting to come around to the idea. In three of the last seven game-weeks he has returned double figures while on another two occasions he has picked up seven points, there aren’t many midfielders or forwards, if any, to have managed that. It was expected that as soon as Everton got through the opening seven game-weeks that the clean sheets would start to flow and that certainly appears to be the case as they picked up two in their last three games. With the Toffees having quite a benign fixture list between now and 2015 I fully expect Baines to accumulate both attacking as well as defensive points and at £7.2m he could prove to be a bargain midfielder, sorry I mean defender! Many managers have benefited from doubling up on Southampton defenders over the opening ten game-weeks and perhaps it is now time to double up on Everton. Should you choose to double up my tip for the second of the double act would be Phil Jagielka as I feel a Baines/Coleman combo is too expensive. The centre-half has demonstrated that he has an eye for goal this season with two to date and has also weighed in with nine bonus points.

The Manchester City defence has been somewhat overlooked thus far, probably because it is felt that they do not offer value for money. The cheapest option is typically either Aleksandar Kolarov or Gael Clichy, the problem being that they are more often than not rotated. However with Kolarov likely to be sidelined for the next month this has surely left the door open for Clichy to have an extended run in the side. While the Frenchman is not as explosive as Kolarov and does not provide the same attacking threat he did prove against United last weekend that he can be quite adept at getting forward. As I have already indicated, City’s fixtures are quite reasonable over the medium-term and as a result I feel it would be wise to, at the very least, consider Clichy.

In 90 minutes last Saturday Calum Chambers picked up as many points as any United defender has managed in the opening 10 game-weeks, ok so that’s not saying much but you get my point. Obviously the youngster is not going to score, assist, keep a clean sheet & pick up three bonus points every week but at just £4.8m he is superb value for money. As I’ve already mentioned above Arsenal have a mixed bag of fixtures over the coming weeks but I still fancy they will claim their fair share of clean sheets between now and the end of the year. By drafting Chambers into your squad you will have a defender from one of the top clubs whom you will probably play every week thus giving yourself once less problem to worry about, hopefully!

£3.9m defenders are like buses, you wait game-weeks for one to come along and then all of a sudden we have at least four, Newcastle’s Steven Taylor, Hull’s Paul McShane, QPR’s Yun Suk-Young and Leicester’s Marcin Wasilewski. The problem with such defenders is you’re never quite sure how long they will remain in their respective teams, but for £3.9m your expectations shouldn’t be very high! For me the best bet is Steven Taylor. It’s probably just a coincidence but since his return to the side Newcastle have kept two clean sheets in three games and Pardew will surely be loathe to dismantle a winning team. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Taylor has proven in previous seasons that he has an eye for goals. QPR have shown signs in recent weeks that they are up for the fight and their defence has also appeared more solid. Following this weekend’s visit of City they have a run of games from which they could possibly pick up a couple of clean sheets and Yun is therefore one to watch.

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Midfielders

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[/three_fourth]We’ve been tipping Alexis Sanchez for a number of weeks now and he certainly hasn’t let us down (if only I’d listened to my own advice!). Arsene Wenger has recently compared Sanchez to Luis Suarez and while this may be a little wide of the mark there is no denying that his recent returns are rather Suarezesque! In his last three games he has scored five, created one & picked up nine bonus points, giving him a haul of 45 points across the three games. This has brought his total points for the season to 70, making him the games highest scoring player. Could he possibly be this seasons Yaya Toure? If he does turn out to be this seasons Yaya then you need to get him into your team ASAP. For those of you who have yet to join the Sanchez bandwagon you could always help to create a new bandwagon in Theo Walcott. Whether or not Wally starts this weekend remains to be seen but he will surely be in contention for a starting spot following the upcoming international break and with a current ownership of just 0.4% he’s one hell of a differential!

Chelsea now have three of the top ten scoring midfielders in FPL. Of course this trio is comprised of Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Oscar. The great thing about the trio is that in FPL terms they all bring something different to the party. Fabregas now has nine assists to his name and only on two occasions this season has he failed to score more than two points. However as a result of this unbelievable consistency he now features in over 50% of teams. Hazard has of late shown glimpses of last season’s form which saw him score 14 & pick up 10 assists, and perhaps unlike Cesc he is capable of some explosive weeks, but this doesn’t come cheap at £10m. If you’re looking for someone a little cheaper and perhaps more of a differential then Oscar is most certainly the one for you, the Brazilian is currently priced at just £8.3m and features in just 4% of teams. In recent weeks he has been in sparkling form with three goals and an assist in his last five games.

Two mid-priced midfielders who continue to keep the points ticking over are Spurs Nacer Chadli and West Ham’s Stewart Downing. In recent weeks both Christian Eriksen and Eric Lamela have shown signs that they may be coming into some form, however it’s Chadli that continues to deliver. His goal last weekend was the fifth of the season and his price has now risen to £6.5m but this still represents much better value for money than his more illustrious team mates. When a team is in form and has decent fixtures, more often than not that’s the time to invest in them and at present West Ham tick both boxes. Downing’s career has been revitalised this season as a result of playing in a more central position and this has seen him score twice and pick up four assists and at just £5.8m he could prove excellent value for money over the coming weeks.

For our final midfield tips this week I’m going to leave you with a punt and a cheap option. The punt is Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko. The French international tends to go through purple patches and having scored against City in the League Cup as well as picking up an assist last weekend against Liverpool I wouldn’t be at all surprised should one of these patches be just around the corner. The cheap option is Southampton’s Victor Wanyama. Perhaps this is a week late, but as they say, better late than never. The Kenyan international is predominantly considered a midfield enforcer and this results in him being somewhat overlooked, but at a cost of just £4.6m and with three goals to date he possibly deserves more consideration.

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Forwards

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[/three_fourth]I realise that Sergio Aguero currently costs £1.7m more than Diego Costa and this extra cash can potentially be used to great effect elsewhere, but it amazes me that Aguero currently features in just over 25% of teams compared to Costa in 56% of teams. As I mentioned last week, City are not playing well but his goal in last week’s derby was Aguero’s 10th of the season, just imagine what he’ll be like when City improve and this improvement will happen at some stage. Over the remainder of 2014 City are due to come up against a number of teams who have been struggling defensively and whether or not City improve as a team before the end of the year, I can guarantee Aguero will remain amongst the goals. Obviously Diego Costa cannot be ignored and with an ownership of 56% he clearly isn’t being ignored. There has been rumours of him having an operation over the international break, which would rule him out for a few weeks and if this turns out to be the case a significant number of managers will have a decision to make, but for now I’d suggest that if you ditched him when he picked up his most recent injury that you bring him back into the fold.

On his return to the side following his three game ban Wayne Rooney was pushed back into a midfield role for the Manchester derby. However with Robin van Persie woefully out of form and with LvG apparently having doubts over Radamel Falcao’s fitness I suspect that we will see Rooney back in a more advanced role over the coming game-weeks. With United’s defence down to the bare bones they really will need to score goals if they are to have any hope of finishing in the top four and Rooney certainly does look like the best bet for a consistent supply of goals. As a result of his recent ban his price has dropped to £10.2m but it shouldn’t be forgotten that prior to this ban he had three goals & two assists from six games.

With 19 goals scored in their opening 10 games Everton are currently the 4th highest scorers in the league, unfortunately for fantasy managers they tend to share the goals around with Steven Naismith and Romelu Lukaku their joint top scorers with four goals apiece. Last weekend at home to Swansea, Martinez chose to bench Lukaku for the first time this season and while it was probably just a coincidence, Everton failed to score in a league game for the first time this season. Everton have some decent fixtures over the next couple of months and I expect them to continue playing a brand of free flowing, attacking football with Lukaku spearheading the attack and with a current ownership of just under 10% he continues to represent a decent differential.

As the season has progressed we have tipped a significant number of relatively cheap forwards many of whom have done us proud but two players who we have yet to tip are QPR’s Charlie Austin (£5.7m) and Harry Kane (£4.8m) of Spurs. Austin has been in superb form of late with three goals & an assist in his last three games and currently represents an excellent differential as he features in just 1% of teams. Kane has been used predominantly in the League Cup & Europa League this season and has seven goals from seven games in these two competitions. Last Sunday he climbed off the bench against Villa to score a last minute winner and he will surely be afforded his first start of the season this weekend against Stoke. With Adebayor and Soldado currently as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike there is every chance that Kane could be set for a run in the side.

Thanks for reading Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 11. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @KenLyons79

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