New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2017/18 West Ham
Hello and welcome to New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2017/18 West Ham. West Ham struggled for the most part last season and at one stage looked like they may get dragged into the relegation mire, with boss Bilic under severe scrutiny. Both he and them weathered the storm though and came out with a fairly respectable 11th place finish and they even managed to beat Spurs in their Cup Final. They’ve made a few relatively small but maybe shrewd moves in the transfer window so far, most notably bringing in Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez. I shall take a brief look at all four and their relative FPL prospects. I should preface it all by saying that I really don’t rate at least 2 of them as players though, so the bias police beware! I’ll also preface it with a mention of their opening fixtures. They play the first 3 away from home due to the World Athletic Championships being held at their ground. The stadium ‘gift’ that just keeps on giving then… As a group of opening fixtures though they aren’t actually that bad. Away at Man United first game isn’t ideal and probably promises little in terms of either attack or defence points if we are being brutally honest but beyond that they visit Saints, Newcastle and West Brom, face Huddersfield at home amongst that lot and then have their aforementioned ‘Cup Final’ early this time with Spurs at home in GW6. Yeah it’s not the best but also could be worse. Onto the new signings…
Joe Hart
Position: Goalkeeper (in theory)
FPL Price: £4.5m
“We didn’t expect so many mistakes from Joe Hart”… That was the damning verdict from the Torino president himself. Probably didn’t watch the Euros prior to loaning him then did you Mr Cairo?! He did concede that Hart “did some good things too”. Bless. Look, I’ll be honest here – I like Hart as a person, he seems like a really good lad and he’s always been honest in his interviews – be that about himself most recently or even back in his good old City days when he occasionally ripped into the team. As a keeper though I think he’s damaged goods. The Euros was horrendous for him, it was the last thing he needed with Pep just incoming and seeing his supposed number 1 exposed, and he’s never really recovered since. Pep was brutal and ruthless in both his assessment and subsequent disposing of him. Less so in buying two clowns to replace him but that’s another story!
Can he recover though? He’s joining a team who conceded 64 goals last season – only 5 teams conceded more and 2 of those got relegated. They only kept a clean sheet in 26% of their games so it could well be a case of chasing save points with Hart really. Which brings me back to the Euros again funnily enough, not his strongest suit anymore…!
At a surprisingly budget friendly £4.5m though he could well be a rotation option if you can find the right partner for him…
If you are as of yet unfamiliar with the above picture then go and check out the Fixture Trackers again as we have added in some new features which show the best rotation partnerships for defences for the first 10 GW’s.
Pablo Zabaleta
Position: Defender
FPL Price: £5.0m
I won’t go on about Pablo too much as you should all be familiar with him from his many years at Man City. If you somehow aren’t then basically he’s a much liked attacking full-back who will grab the odd goal and probably a few assists along the way, maybe less so now that he is at West Ham as opposed to a very attacking unit like City. He’s also £0.5m more than Hart so if you feel the need for a West Ham defender then that difference probably won’t be worth the stretch. Oh, and he’s about 55 years old now…
Marko Arnautovic
Position: Midfielder
FPL Price: £7.0m
Does anyone else have that player who they always meant to own but never quite got around to it? And then every time they did anything it felt like a small dagger in the back! That’s what Arnie is to me. It’s a very small and very infrequent dagger fortunately but it still niggles! I liked Arnie when he first came into our FPL lives back in 2013 and he had a hand in 14 goals in 30 games that season so the dagger was fairly consistent at first! He was dirt cheap back then too, I’m not sure exactly how cheap but £5.0m springs to mind. He was still relatively cheap 2 seasons ago when he managed 11 goals and 6 assists, probably £6.0m at that point. Fast forward a few years and he’s now a solid mid-priced midfielder at £7.0m so that ‘value’ pick has gone. The trouble with the move to West Ham is that any set-piece threat may have gone too, as they are already full of such specialists, but that will have to be monitored. Take him back a million or so and I’d be sort of interested, but at his current price he has too many alternatives to be considered for me, and that’s just within his own team, never mind amongst the rest of the teams!
Javier Hernandez
Position: Forward
FPL Price: £7.0m
“Ex-Real Madrid superstar signs for West Ham”
There’s so much wrong with this quote that I don’t even know where to begin!
“Like a puppy with a beach ball”
So let’s start with this one instead! It was a random comment, not even on an article, not even in relation to Chicharito himself. And yet it became a bit of a tag line as a certain Steven Naismith grew a cult following on here. I quote it now as I have the same feeling about the pair in relation to their first touch! Now granted, I haven’t seen that much of Javier since he left these shores a few years back so maybe he’s honed his skills and is now a more rounded player. I can only hope so for West Ham’s sake otherwise they are putting a lot of faith in a football CV that really defies belief when you see the actual player behind it. I can understand him ending up at Man United as he scored a shed load of goals at Guadalajara and looked like the perfect poacher. When he got there though he looked like a fish out of water whenever asked to do anything outside of the six yard box! Quite how Real Madrid then decided he was good enough for them is beyond me.
Anyway, he since left there and went to Bayer Leverkusen and did what he does best which is score goals. He got 28 goals in 54 games for them. I can’t comment on whether his general play has improved but that won’t be what he will be judged on in FPL terms next season, it’ll be goals and assists and he should be able to provide a good few goals at least and may well be great value given that he has been more than reasonably priced at just £7.0m. Or maybe it’s just that FPL towers remember him how I do!
Thanks for reading New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2017/18 West Ham. This article was written by Inittowinit
The Fixture Tracker…
Hey guys,
Thoughts on my latest draft? Lacazette could be Jesus,not yet decided between the two as of now.
Feel it’s a balanced team.
I’d probably go with Jesus as you have no City cover.
Yes thats going to happen most likely
Hey Kunal, no City attack jumps out. I’d either downgrade Ince or Kolasinac to go Laca > Kun or Salah > KDB. Just 2 cents.
Jesus for Laca should be enough for me as far as City is concerned. I’m not sure who starts in that team
Kunal, hey, that’s pretty good.
I’d take Jesus if you’re not having KdB (which, in my opinion, is inadvisable in itself) but Laca has potential.
Saints have great fixtures, sure, but I think 3 is a bit much. Tadic is in my current draft, though, and I agree that he could be an absolute bargain for the first month or two.
I also don’t see Ince as bench material. I’m sure you have a good rotation in mind but 6.0m is a lot…
James – along that thought, do you prefer Ince/Gayle or Tadic/JRod?
Colriles, sorry for the late reply, my pick would be Tadic / J Rod.
Their first few fixtures are both great: could a home / away rotation burn you?
Hey James,
Thanks for the reply. I’m an Arsenal fan do Lacazette has been in my team since day 1. But I don’t think I will go without any City cover so Jesus might come in.
As far as saints are concerned, I’m trying to find someone who is better than Tadic as that price who also has good fixtures.
Thanks for your thoughts bud
No worries, as an Arsenal fan too, having no Arsenal players at all – let alone Laca – does weigh on my mind a little but, ultimately, personal preferences can’t interfere with fantasy.
Only Arsenal player I’d consider is Ozil. He must play a pivotal role behind Laca if I’m not wrong..
Anyone else get the feeling Conte isn’t happy with Moses and Alonso? Seem to be linked with about 10 full-backs (mainly down the right flank but apparently had a bid for Alex Sandro (LB) rejected).
I think Alonso will be alright. Moses I think will be the most likely to lose his spot. Atleast Alonso is a defender whereas Moses isn’t.
Hope so!
The FPL site is wrong its says Moses is suspended the first game? He has a one match ban that will be served at Community Shield?
Yeah I believe it is incorrect.
The community shield doesn’t count towards suspension I believe so he will miss the first game.
Are you sure about that? If the Charity Shield isn’t considered to be a competitive game it won’t count towards his suspension.
Ahh, yes you might be right there actually.
It’s not counted. Koss will start for Arsenal in community shield and then suspended for the first two games
Community Shield is considered a friendly not a competitive game.
“The Community Shield was thought to count as one of those, but the FA have confirmed that they consider the game to be a friendly, meaning Koscielny will be free to play”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-koscielny-chelsea-community-shield-10912161.amp
Oh, so has it changed recently?
Cheers Init, by the way.
@Matt, Alonso is not a defender, 5 minutes of watching him makes that perfectly obvious. They need an Alex Sandro type, otherwise they will get punished down Alonso’s side. That boy couldn’t stay in front of a turtle.
He’s more of a defender than Moses is anyway but he is definitely poor.
I agree with Mito here – I don’t see Sandro as being a direct replacement.
What also counts is the fact that Chelsea will be hoping for about 10-12 extra games this season if they progress well in the CL so rotation/resting will occur too.
I don’t think Conte is convinced by either. If Conte rated Alonso he would not be trying to buy Sandro but no one has come in so he’s fine for now. Foreign managers tend to try and go for community shirld. Mourinho always includes it in his trophy count
“Mourinho always includes it in his trophy count”*
*Yeah since winning it last season!
He used to always scoff when it was attributed to any other club.
He’s always banged on about it except when he’s not in it
Or when it counts for a treble!
Wrote an article on Pogba, if anyone is interested: http://readmanutd.com/2017/08/02/matic-just-pogba-ordered/
Still can’t decide whether to have him or not. Could be a steal at £8.0m (or alternatively massively over-priced!)
Appreciate this AT, just had a read. I want to see how they play vs Madrid, hoping Matic starts. If Pogba is advanced I think he will be worth it this season
Would you take him instead of Lukaku?
That’s what I’m waiting on, Mito. And thanks!
And currently I am doing that, Smash.
So Aguero and Kane?
On Jesus and KDB at the moment, with Kane.
Ah yeah that also works
AT
Very nice piece mate. I liked it.
Cheers GP
Good read he’s interesting. Your right he could be a bargain. Surely now he will be pushed further forward
Cheers Smash
Matic is playing tonight with Pogba so will be interesting to see how he gets on
How exciting. Hatty inbound 😉
Then again, what the hell is that formation? Not a clue where he is playing.
I’m a bit baffled by it as well AT!
Think Mkhi is up top with a 3 back? Looks odd whatever it is.
I think it’s 3-4-3. With Darmian in a back 3. Blind and Valencia win backs
This is how the Irish broadcasters see it …
I’ve checked a lot of minute-by-minute feeds but none confirm the formation.
* the official club tv channel I meant.
Distracted by where they game is.
Yep, that’s what I think it is.
Latest incarnation. Gabbi started up top last game for Soton with Austin dropping in to the three behind, if they line up like that again then I reckon Gabbi could be the way to go…
I’m not sure I like the Benteke pick. When I watched Palace play against Liverpool, Benteke was nonexistent and Palace themselves were actually very poor on the attack. I think this year they may be a more defensive team and until they prove me wrong then I wouldn’t be going with Tekkers up top. If you want to go with the 2 cheapos up top then I’d swap Tekkers for Defoe.
+1
One last question for tonight guys and then I think my team is finished bar any injuries.
Would you rather have?
Foster and Cedric
or
Forster and Hegazi
Tricky purely due to the question marks over Cedric. I had the latter but a few on here shifted me to the former. The certainty of Cedric will ultimately decide it for me.
Cedric isn’t in the Southampton squad for tonight’s game.
Cheers Kop. Not sure I’ll risk him then tbh.
Surprising depends how long he gets in last friendly
Foster and Cedric. Yeah there are doubts Cedric will start first game. But Confederations Cup weren’t that long ago. He’s the Portugal RB they won the Euros last year I’d be very surprised if he don’t start if not the first certainly second game and beyond
Cheers lads. I’ll leave it till the last friendly and see what happens.
Evening all, could have have a RMT? I am trying to go with 3 cheap rotating defenders (cpl/wat/swa) not sure about prodl though. Any thoughts?
I don’t like Simpson and Prodl there are better 4.5 defenders out there. I’d swap them to Mee and Dunk to be honest.
Thanks Matt, I am playing around with the idea of 3 rotating defenders based of fixtures but does leave slim pickings as I was targeting Palace, Leicester & Watford. I will have a look at the rotating if I included mee & dunk. TBH defence is always my weak area, I never seem it get it right maybe because I try & go too bargain basement!
Seren I thk you need Unt cover in MF or attack if your going with 3 cheap def they should all be 4.5m Alonso & Trip will play every game so can can get away with two rotators the balance of the team is good 😉
Thanks Silvers, I get abut of an allergic reaction when I put united in my team I really should try & overcome it! Who do you suggest?
It’s a tough one Seren I have same problem with Utd as I’m a Leeds fan but Luk is obvious choice Pogba , Mika & Martial he he starts are all options but it would mean trying to find 1.5m to upgrd Tadic tough 😉
One for me to think about – I will struggle to raise the extra cash though. I thought you were Liverpool way – Leeds united is a curve ball! I don’t support any particular team however my family were all LUFC fans & my other half is a Liverpool supporter so it has rubbed off on me.
Everyone says I’m a closet Pool fan Seren just don’t let anyone know 😉
I think Leicester will be decent enough this year. I don’t think anyone knows how Watford will do. Silva is a good manager but that team is pretty shocking. Not sure why you would want Ward in there. You only need 2 though Alonso and Trippier will play every week
Thanks Smash, Maybe 3 rotating is overkill, I will have a look at a rotating pair.
Dunk and Simpson ain’t too bad. However it’s a shocking first game
Looks like dunk & Cedric could be a good option at least rotating well for first 10weeks ( thanks ff247 team for the fantastic rotation trackers
)