Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 16

Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 16

It’s ok, you can come out from behind your sofa or wherever you chose to hide as GW15 came crashing down around you! Did you cry? It’s ok if you did, rumour has it Chuck Norris even shed a tear. Not only was GW15 an unmitigated disaster for most it has also meant that GW16 is not going to be a walk in the park as the majority of managers will have to deal with both injuries and suspensions to key players. Whether you decide to sell a particular player or bench them for a week while they serve a suspension is entirely up to you. It’s worth taking into account that many managers will be forced into taking a points hit this week, so if you can avoid doing likewise you are giving yourself a good head start this week. As ever we have been busy this week chewing the fat and below we have outlined a number of players we believe can deliver in the five game-weeks prior to the January wildcard.

Goalkeepers
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[/three_fourth]In the past Joe Hart has deservedly come in for some stick for those Wash & Go adverts and in fairness he’s also made some clangers, but in spite of this he is a decent keeper. Despite winning the league last season, City’s players have largely been ignored this season, particularly their defence. They do however boast the leagues 3rd best defence having conceded just 14 times in their opening 15 games, with Hart claiming five clean sheets. While they haven’t looked rock solid at the back of late Hart has picked up three clean sheets in his last six games, conceding just four in that period. The fixtures over the forthcoming five game-weeks scream CITY and I fully expect them to keep a number of clean sheets. With the games set to come thick & fast over the festive period there is every possibility that Pell will rotate his defenders, so Hart is potentially the safest route into the City defence.

When it comes to goalkeepers in FPL the majority of managers are on the hunt for a keeper that is both cheap & reliable and throughout the season there will be a number of keepers who fit these criteria. For me the keeper who presently best matches the criteria is Aston Villas Brad Guzan. Having gone through a torrid time in which they lost six on the bounce they would appear to have turned the proverbial corner as they are unbeaten in their last five, during which time Guzan has kept two clean sheets and conceded just three times. Villa’s fixtures appear quite favourable over the coming weeks and with defensive lynchpin Ron Vlaar due to possibly return this weekend I would expect Guzan to claim some more clean sheets before the end of the year.

Sticking with the theme of keepers who are cheap & reliable, I feel that the following three keepers could potentially fit the criteria over the remainder of 2014, and they are QPR’s Rob Green, Newcastle’s Jak Alnwick and Costel Pantilimon of Sunderland. Green picked up his 3rd clean sheet of the season in GW15, albeit against Burnley and Harry will be hoping his team can build upon this in the coming weeks and with home games against West Brom and Palace to come, I wouldn’t bet against it. Newcastle are down to their 3rd choice keeper which is actually quite good news for us fantasy managers as young Alnwick is priced at just £4.0m. The Geordies have a mixed bag of fixtures over the coming weeks, but it should be noted that they have conceded just three goals in their last six games and at just £4.0m Alnwick could free up some much needed cash. Sunderland are very much this season’s draw specialists with nine in their opening 15 games. Happily for fantasy managers the Black Cats have had three scoreless draws in their last four games making Pantilimon great value for money at just £4.4m.

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Defenders
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[/three_fourth]As I have outlined above, Manchester City haven’t grabbed any defensive headlines this season, yet only Southampton, Chelsea & Swansea have kept more clean sheets over the opening 15 game-weeks. As a result of this their entire defence represents something of a differential and with their remaining fixtures in 2014 being relatively easy maybe now is the right time to invest in their defence. Over recent weeks we have tipped Gael Clichy as being great value for money and unlike most Frenchmen, he hasn’t let us down! However with Aleksandar Kolarov fit and back in the squad maybe now is the time to turn our attentions to Pablo Zabaleta as both Clichy & Kolarov are likely to be rotated. I suspect Zabaleta will be rested once over the festive period, however he will play the majority of the games. The Argentine gave us all a reminder of his capabilities with a deftly taken goal against Sunderland and for those you who own Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic but are looking elsewhere for a defensive heavy hitter maybe Zabaleta could be the man.

At this stage of the season it’s always good to have a defender you can rely upon and despite being substituted after 66 minutes last Saturday I still feel that Cesar Azpilicueta can be that defender. Saturday’s loss to Newcastle was only the third time this season that Chelsea have conceded more than one goal and they have kept six clean sheets to date, with three of them on the spin prior to the Newcastle defeat. Chelsea don’t really have any difficult fixtures remaining this year but a couple of the fixtures could prove tricky. Despite this I feel that Jose will want to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat and he will start at the back and therefore I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Chelsea pick up another few clean sheets in 2014.

Despite last weekend’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of West Ham I am once again tipping Swansea’s Neil Taylor. Swansea have an excellent record at the Liberty Stadium, keeping four clean sheets from eight games and conceding just five goals in total. Two of their next three fixtures are at home while the game sandwiched in between is a trip to Hull, so I won’t be at all surprised should the Swans pick up another couple of clean sheets in the coming weeks. At £4.8m the Welsh international is cheap enough to be considered your 4th choice defender, however his returns suggest he’s good enough to be 3rd choice or even 2nd choice if you’re not willing to overly invest in your defence.

Before moving onto the midfield let’s take a look at a trio of cheap defenders who may allow you to buy yourself an expensive midfielder or striker for Christmas, and they are Aston Villa’s Alan Hutton, Sunderland’s Anthony Reveillere and QPR’s Yun Suk-Young. Hutton saved many a game-week on Monday night and the Scottish international has picked up 16 points over the last two game-weeks. Obviously we can’t expect such returns every week but at just £4.3m he should prove to be an excellent investment. Reveillere has proved a great addition to the Sunderland team since making his debut in GW10 and has picked up three clean sheets from six appearances. Sunderland have the 4th worst defence in the league but importantly they have conceded just six in their last six and four of those were against an Aguero inspired City and there’s no shame in that. The Frenchman could be decent value for money at just £4.5m and he’s a superb differential, featuring in just 0.1% of teams. Yun features once more as he’s priced at just £3.9m and has started the last eight games, and for that money, that’s all we expect!

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Midfielders
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[/three_fourth]Many will argue that Yaya Toure has been somewhat lucky of late and that his form hasn’t been great, and they may be correct but reality and fantasy don’t always marry up. And if you remember correctly it was said time & time again last season that he wouldn’t continue to score & accumulate points, but he did. The Ivorian now has three goals, an assist & eight bonus points in his last five games during which time he has picked up 37 points. As I have already alluded to above, City’s fixtures really are too good to ignore and with Kun Aguero ruled out until early January at the earliest Toure is perhaps the man to own from the reigning champions, particularly now he’s back on penalties in the absence of Aguero. At £10.8m he’s not cheap but he’s unlikely to be rested over the festive period as he’s off to the ACON in early January and City will be keen to get their monies worth before he jets off! I should however point out that he is currently sitting on four yellow cards, which must be sore! Someone to keep an eye on is David Silva who is due to return imminently and was on the bench for tonight’s Champions League game. His return will be a massive boost for City and he will be an excellent differential once he returns.

Arsenal’s form of late has been patchy to say the least with three wins and three losses in their last six. If we’re being honest the only player to have impressed for the goonies this season is Alexis Sanchez and he has kept the points ticking over with a goal & an assist in his last two games to bring his tally to nine goals, three assists and 16 bonus points for the season. Given their form of late it’s difficult to say whether or not their remaining fixtures of 2014 are easy or not, however I’m pretty confident that Sanchez will remain amongst the points. Aaron Ramsey has certainly not hit the heights of last season when he scored 10 and picked up nine assists. He has however scored one and assisted another in his last two games, while he also scored twice in the Champions League on Tuesday night. The Welshman still features in over 13% of teams but given his form this season I suspect that many of these will be ghost teams and therefore he could prove to be a decent differential should he maintain his recent form. He was however substituted at half-time on Tuesday with a suspected hamstring injury, so I would suggest you check in with us on Friday when Cookie brings us the news from around the grounds.

Is it a good idea to buy a player based solely on their home form? When the player in question is Eden Hazard the answer to my question is yes! The Belgian has scored in each of his last four appearances at Stamford Bridge and on three occasions he has picked up maximum bonus points. While he is brilliant at home he is equally as frustrating on his travels and he has claimed just two assists away from the bridge. With three of Chelsea’s remaining five fixtures away from home in the calendar year you are probably wondering why Hazard continues to feature on these pages regularly, it’s quite simple really, his sensational home form makes him a potential for the armband every time he runs out in the library and given his undoubted talents it’s surely only a matter of time before he scores away from home!

A couple of relatively cheap midfielders who have caught the eye of late but are not featuring in many teams are QPR’s Leroy Fer and Stoke’s Jonathan Walters. While Charlie Austin has been grabbing the headlines at Loftus Road of late Fer has largely gone unnoticed despite scoring twice in his last three games to bring his tally for the season to two goals and three assists. After a slow start to the season when he struggled to make it into the starting XI Walters has come to the fore of late with four goals and two assists in his last seven appearances. At £5.5m and £5.2m they are probably a little expensive to be purchased as your 5th midfielder, however if you have picked three heavy hitters already in midfield they could potentially be picked as your 4th midfielder.

For those of you on the hunt for a Christmas bargain you could do a lot worse than consider both Sammy Ameobi of Newcastle and Burnley’s George Boyd. We don’t really expect much from a £4.5m midfielder as they’re likely to spend most of the time warming our benches but given what has gone on over recent game-weeks a decent 5th midfielder can prove extremely useful in times of crisis. In terms of game time Boyd is the safer bet of the two, although Ameobi has featured in Newcastle’s last seven games. In those seven games he has weighed in with a goal and two assists while Boyd has two goals over the season. To be honest, there’s little to separate the two but given club form and fixtures I’d slightly favour Sammy.

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Forwards
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[/three_fourth]Just when it looked like Sergio Aguero had become the player whom we could all build our teams around he picks up a serious injury which has ruled him out until early January at the earliest. He will be sorely missed by City & fantasy managers alike and we must now decide with whom we should replace him. The problem is that no matter who you bring in he’s not going to be a like for like replacement, although you are likely to have some spare change to invest elsewhere. Now the question arises, do you go for form or fixtures when choosing his replacement? Should you choose fixtures, the obvious replacement is one of his City colleagues, Edin Dzeko or Stevan Jovetic. However, this could be seen as a major gamble as both Dzeko & Jovetic have been injured of late, in fact Jovetic is currently flagged at 50%. We should hopefully have learned more about Dzeko’s prospects tonight as he started against Roma and right now if I were forced to pick between the two I’d go for Dzeko. The Bosnian is often ridiculed but he still managed to score 16 times last season and should he rediscover that form he could prove to be an excellent differential as he features in just 4.8% of teams, particularly when you consider City’s fixtures.

Having scored three in his last four, Swansea’s Wilfried Bony would appear to offer both form and fixtures. The Swans remaining fixtures before the January are quite tempting as they host both Spurs & Villa, while they travel to Hull, Liverpool and QPR. Given his recent form and upcoming fixtures he would appear to be superb value for money at just £8.5m. During the opening weeks of the season it appeared as though new signing Bafetimbi Gomis was going to put Bony under pressure but the Ivorian has seen off this threat and has once again firmly established himself as Swansea’s number one. Like a number of African players he will be off to the ACON in early January and therefore I expect him to start each of the next five games.

Manchester United have now won five games in a row and while they’re not pulling up trees it surely suggests they are in some sort of form. Their remaining fixtures in 2014 are not the toughest and this means that Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie warrant some consideration as you decide on a replacement for Aguero. Both have failed to sparkle this season, but Rooney has kept the points ticking over with five goals and three assists this season, while van Persie scored his 5th & 6th goals of the season against Southampton on Monday night. I would suggest that Rooney is the safer bet of the two and is over £2.0m cheaper than the Dutchman, however van Persie currently features in just 3.4% of teams and should he remain amongst the goals over the coming weeks he’ll prove to be a superb differential.

At the time of writing Diego Costa had been transferred in by over 110k managers since GW16 commenced and this is hardly surprising given the fact that only Aguero has scored more goals this season. Costa has not scored since GW12 and despite losing last time out against Newcastle, Chelsea are still the best team in the league and it’s unlikely to be long before the Spanish international is back on the score sheet. The fact that he is starting tonight in a meaningless Champions League game is rather concerning and with Jose insinuating that Costa is still not fully fit, perhaps Costa is not the shoe in he once was, and he is likely to face some rotation over the festive period.

To date West Ham have been one of the leagues surprise packages and they currently sit 4th in the league, while they also boast the leagues joint 3rd best attack with 26 goals. Diafra Sakho has been a revelation this season as he scored in five consecutive games between game-weeks 5&9. An injury to the Senegalese international gave Andy Carroll his chance and the big man has certainly taken it with two goals and two assists in the last two games, his performance against Swansea last weekend was superb. Sakho made a return to the side against Swansea and duly scored with Carroll picking up the assist and this suggested that the two of them might work quite well as a partnership. Which of the two you choose is entirely up to you! Obviously the games are set to come quite rapidly over the next three weeks and you do wonder whether Carroll’s body can stand up to the rigours so I would expect him to be rested occasionally and Big Sam will want him fit for when Sakho heads off to the ACON. Therefore if I had to pick one of the two I’d probably go for Sakho.

Thanks for reading Kops Fantasy Football Tips Gameweek 16. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @KenLyons79

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