New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2018/19 – Riyad Mahrez and Ben Foster
Welcome to New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2018/19 – Riyad Mahrez and Ben Foster. Two familiar faces and yet their transfers create uncertainties that must not be ignored. Well, I guess Foster’s could be but I just do what I am told. Mahrez’s £60m move is an indicator of his quality and whilst Ben Foster joins Watford for a relatively tiny £4m, his guaranteed route into a once solid West Brom backline will be fondly remembered by many a fantasy manager. Pre-empting that many of you are here to read about Mahrez, I have put him first.
Riyad Mahrez
Manchester City
FPL Price: £9.0m
I just love watching Mahrez play. Do not worry though, this article won’t take a weird ‘Rosco turn’. Mahrez’s tricky playstyle juxtaposed Jamie Vardy’s directness almost poetically at Leicester. There is one major negative about the transfer from a fantasy perspective though. It is an obvious one, but then you are not reading this as a result of paying me on Patreon and clicking on the article did not throw a barrage of unwanted video adverts and betting pop-ups at your computer screen, so it could be worse!
Anyway, I digress. The negative: whilst I cannot wait to see how he links up with Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, and the rest of Manchester City’s hyper-talented squad, picking him would also leave me a nervous wreck waiting for the line-up to be announced every weekend to see if he is even in the hyper-talented squad that day and disappointed when he is sometimes (inevitably) not there. Perhaps for the first few gameweeks at least, with Raheem Sterling sunning it up somewhere for almost bringing football home, Mahrez might offer a decent route into the thereafter unpredictable City attack.
Excluding goals scored whilst he was not on the pitch, Mahrez scored or assisted 46.9% of Leicester’s goals last season. Leicester only scored 56 goals. City scored 106. I am not suggesting that Mahrez will score or assist 50 goals next season, of course, but even 30% would do! If the game had been released a week later, after City had signed Mahrez, I would have been surprised to see the Algerian listed for £9.0m.
Leicester’s title-winning season saw Mahrez rack up 17 goals and 10 assists which he replicated to an extent last season with 12 goals and 11 assists given that he was not on penalties last year, which accounted for four of his title-winning tally. The 2016/17 season was a difficult one for a Kante-less Leicester and Mahrez in which he only managed six goals – three of which were penalties – and four assists. However, more promisingly, his shots and key passes were not significantly different to the other two seasons.
With a current record of nine penalties scored out of 13, I highly doubt the newcomer will oust both Aguero and Jesus from penalty duties. Indeed, it might be better if he does not! Mahrez had a large role in corners for Leicester and so, given that De Bruyne is De Bruyne, this must be factored into the newcomer’s value. However, only two of his assists came from corners last year despite taking over 80 of them, and he has only ever assisted one other goal from a corner.
Ultimately, any City attacker is a risk this year except Kevin De Bruyne. £9.0m is a lot of money if it is used to warm the bench with (although, rather amusingly, City’s substitues/professional bench warmers cost a lot more than that!) but, as Mito pointed out in his Ramblings article, City’s fixtures after the Arsenal game are too good to miss. I will be taking the rough with the smooth – and the rotation is pretty rough – but last season’s promoted teams along with this season’s in a GW2-7 multipack is as smooth as it gets (no weird imagery in the comments, please). Let us hope that the Community Shield sheds some light on Pep’s plans. We can but hope.
Ben Foster
Watford
FPL Price: £4.5m
Watford Player of the Season 2007 Ben Foster returns to the club, seemingly to replace loanee Orestis Karnezis who has returned to Italy. Heurelho Gomes appears to be looking for a move away from Vicarage Road which would leave Foster to battle it out against 19-year-old Pontus Dahlberg for the starting berth. It is an apprenticeship rather than a battle that Javi Gracia has in mind though with Dahlberg expected to learn from Foster from the sideline and in training whilst the latter wears the gloves week in week out.
Although Watford’s first three fixtures look okay on paper, Watford conceded 64 goals last term, a figure only beaten by West Ham and Stoke. Watford fans are expecting/hoping that the club fork out for an established centre-back, which could increase the appeal of Foster from a clean sheets point of view.
The visit of Brighton in Gameweek 1 is a promising induction for the goalkeeper though given that Chris Hughton’s men only managed to score 10 goals on the road all last season. This dismal figure was even bettered by Huddersfield who seemingly spent much of last season just trying not to lose. This opening day generosity continues into the following two gameweeks; Burnley only managed to score 16 at home last season and Crystal Palace 16 away (although, like a good ‘friend’ on FIFA, Palace only started trying halfway through (the season)!).
After that they have visits from Spurs and Manchester United followed by Arsenal away in Gameweek 7 before a relatively kind string of fixtures up until the third international break after Gameweek 12. At least against the two North London clubs, Foster’s points are more likely to come from saves. Foster recorded 99 saves in 37 matches last season, 16 fewer than the previous season. The Watford duo of Karnezis and Gomes chalked up 93, which was 24 fewer than Gomes managed the year before that. Six of one and half a dozen of the other, really, but not all too close to Lukasz Fabianski’s 137 of last season. Last year, Watford’s keepers faced 2.7 fewer shots per game than the number Foster and Boaz Myhill were exposed to behind the Baggies backline (although that was still an average of 10.9).
Thanks for reading New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2018/19 Riyad Mahrez and Ben Foster. This article was written by AT
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In your e-mail could you please supply:-
Your name.
Your site username.
Your team name from last season and your new team name if it has changed,
Hi all.
I’m playing around with this team. Is it better to have a couple of big hitting strikers or this where I have tried to fit in mids that are either strikers or high scoring?
Schmeical(if Che), Boric
Robertson,Shlupp,PVA,Cedric,Bennett
Salas,Sanchez,Chalobah, Jota,Richarlison.
Cuba,Arnie,Quader.
Jota- Sane or Mahrez?
or
Richardson – Sane or Mahrez?
Cuba = Auba? 🙂
I would prefer this instead of a couple of big-hitting strikers, but I’d have a City mid (just look at the fixtures!!) instead of Sanchez, and you’d have a bit more money for your defense too!
Sorry for the typos.
Yes it was Auba.
I didn’t explain it well. one of Jota or Richarlison I planned to change to Mahrez or Sane, but which one?
Sanchez while playing as striker would then hold a place for KDB to come in.
Morning guys. What do you think of these two line-ups? Which team would you go for?
Looks ok but the bench is weak. Firming may not start week 1 and Daniels is a risk as they just bought a new lb. Otherwise looks good. I would maybe go for 2.
How about Cairney instead of Jorginho? Takes set pieces and pens I believe.
I prefer Cairney over Jorginho but with Schrulle now coming in. I’d be a bit more worried about what Cairney does and where he plays
Nice first eleven but on bench look so weak..
Here are a few of the options I’m currently torn between. What would you go for?
1. GK selection: a) Ederson and Speroni OR b) Pickford and Fabianski
2. Man City MID: a) Sane OR b) Mahrez
3. Man City FWD: a) Aguero OR b) Jesus
4. Liverpool DEF: a) Robertson OR b) Van Dijk
5. 7.0m FWD: a) Zaha OR b) Tosun OR c) Arnautovic
6. 6.5m MID: a) Sessegnon OR b) Richarlison OR c) Fabregas
7. 5.0m MID: a) Ralls OR b) Jorginho OR c) Kante OR d) Cairney OR e) Matic
8. 11.0m FWD: a) Lukaku OR b) Aguero OR c) Aubameyang
9. 9.5m MID: a) Sane OR b) Eriksen OR c) Mane
Hi Ian,
1. A
2. A
3. A
4. A
5. A initially, if he stays and then C after a couple of weeks.
6. A or B
7. A
8. B
9. A
1. A
2. A
3. A
4. A
5. A or B
6. B if you don’t go with Tosun, if you do then C
7. A
8. B or C
9. A
+1, entirely.
Ian, ask another 2 questions and we will have picked your starting 11. Better still, post your mail address and password and we will all look after your team for the season, you won’t have to worry about a thing, you could go about doing other stuff. :big-lol:
Fabian Schar seals Newcastle move
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11449369/newcastle-close-to-signing-fabian-schar-from-deportivo
decent move that for the geordies!
Let’s see what price tag they will put on him. Hopefully another bargain in the defence department.
I’d say 4.5 is most likely but I wouldn’t be surprised if they slapped 5 mil on him.
Just seen Andre Shurrle is 6.0, what a bargain. Fulham will be dangerous this year with Seri Sessegnon and Shurrle attacking from midfield
6.0?! Nice one back to the drafts to see what I can do now.
Not played as a first eleven player in years. I’m sceptical.
Yeah that’s true but he was in teams where the wingers ahead of him were amazing. I’ll probably just keep and eye on him to see where he plays because Cairney and Sessegnon are the current wingers and might not get dropped. Could be this season’s GroS though!
He might play up top, then again they might need him to play midfield and CB while occasionally covering in goal and holding mid.
Question for you all and this is kind of settles what formation I go with and can change a lot of the team depending on the consensus.
Which of these would you choose because I can’t decide myself yet?
A. Robertson, Salah and Firmino
B. Keita, Salah and Firmino
C. Robertson, Salah and Keita
Robertson, Keita & Firmino, use the cash for another premium player.
you need Salah. I would go Robertson, Keita, Salah.
Tricky. I think the first one cash no object.
Salah,Firmino
If Vida arrives to play alongside VvD, then if it wasn’t for Firminho I’d go double defence too.
TAA an absolute steal at 5 if he is nailed and starts, but wth Vida 6.0’s should be value too
.
I think Clyne starts.
They aren’t signing Vida , not good enough
Cheers lads. I think Salah is a must. So really it’s Keita or Bobby that is the sticking point. Atleast I’m a bit further along.
I am going with B
Matt, forget Firmino….you’re never going to captain him while you have Salah in your side, therefore take a 7mln option and use the 2.5mln elsewhere……
therefore, Salah, Keita & Robertson if you want 3.
Very good point.
Yeah, this is my thinking as well, and I only answered A below out of the options given, but I think I wouldn’t have any of those options, instead I’d go for Robertson and Salah and get a 7.0m forward and a better midfielder than Keita…
How dare you, who is better than Keita? I’ll wait….
Never mind, I just checked myself. Move along.
This is what I currently have. Need to look at Liverpool’s first fixtures for clean sheet potential to see if I bother with Robertson too. Man City triple up seems sensible with those fixtures.
That’s a great idea cheers Cookie. I think that might be the way I go.
A
Matt, out of those B.
I’d personally choose A just off the basis of seeing how Keira settles in, given the fact that the other three are PL proven