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New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2018/19 – Riyad Mahrez and Ben Foster

New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2018/19 – Riyad Mahrez and Ben Foster

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


HELPFUL LINKS –

PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES
Usually we run an article and ask people to get involved and cover the friendlies with any info they can gather. And it’s usually fun but in all honesty it’s usually also a bit messy and difficult to refer back to. This season we have one link that you will need need for all such info, courtesy of Mito –

FPL Pre-Season Info

Here you will find all the pre-season info you could ever wish for in one place – line-ups, scorers, assists, match info, sarcastic comments…

SET-PIECE TAKERS LIST
This is a work in progress as we make our way through pre-season but again Mito is all over it as it’s an invaluable resource and can be found here

FPL FIXTURE TRACKER

(It’s scrollable btw, just swipe left or right)

FIXTURE TRACKER LINK

FIXTURE TRACKER 2018/19

It’s been a busy summer already with Arsenal, Everton, West Ham and Chelsea appointing new managers, Manchester City adding to their already dominant squad, Man Utd continuing to splash the cash and Liverpool trying to protect Karius by beefing up their midfield. Spurs may even have a new home soon.

And FPL wise, this is the place to discuss strategy, learn about the promoted teams and their players while in the days and weeks to come we’ll have plenty of articles, interviews, player analysis, Bore Offs, Tips, etc, etc.

So be sure to get involved in the discussions, the RMTs and the banter as we look forward to another season of Fantasy fun!

The League Codes for FF247 for the 2018/19 season are as follows –

The main public FF247 League , which anyone is welcome to join, can be accessed using the following code 1581-751 (auto-link below).

The prize pool for this one will be confirmed in due course.

Join Our League – Quick Link
League Code: 1581-751
View league standings
Our Regulars League* for 2018/19 is now open and has a cash prize pool of £300 paid directly to the winners from the FF247 management team. The first 5 places are paid out in a tiered system.

To enter this one you need to be an active and recognised site member and you need to e-mail us for the league code – elleffcee@gmail.com

*terms and conditions apply and are available upon request. Management reserve the right to review membership of this league on an ongoing basis. If you enter and win a prize you have to have commented on the site at least 5 times for 8 consecutive months between August 2018 and March 2019 or you will not be considered for a prize. That’s basically 1 comment a week all season, we think that’s a reasonable ask to be considered a ‘regular’.

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,

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197 Comments

  1. 19
    MadHatter says:

    Is Zabeleta nailed at West Ham?
    If not, any 4.5’s at West Ham or Leicester nailed?
    These 2 teams rotate with Cedric early doors

    • 19.1
      Zed Leppelin says:

      Is Morgan still the captain? If he’s not nailed, then I wouldn’t trust any of their 4.5m to be nailed, both Fuchs and Simpson were heavily rotated last season. The thing is Maguire and Evans should be CBs, so perhaps Morgan is nailed if they play 3 at the back only… Too risky perhaps…

      Zabaleta and maybe Ogbonna nailed at West Ham, I don’t know, they have only two defs that aren’t 4.5m though so some of them has to be nailed 🙂

    • 19.2
      TheEastboundTravellingHippo says:

      I don’t think any Leicester 4.5’s are nailed as such, Morgan could be the best shout.

      For West Ham Zabaleta is the most likely 4.5 to start, but a combo of his age and their fixtures terrify me.

      I’m personally rotating Cedric with Tomkins, I feel like they rotate quite well for at least the first 6-7 weeks and by then we will find out who the budget cheapos are.

    • 19.3
      inittowinit says:

      Something tells me Leicester won’t have Schmeichel or Maguire come deadline day and so I’d be steering well clear.

    • 19.4
      Smash says:

      Don’t think there is anyone at Leicester in that bracket. If Maguire goes they will bring someone else in

    • 19.5
      Smash says:

      I think Fredericks will be RB at West Ham

  2. 20
    MadHatter says:

    Ok so I’m closer to being happy now!
    Gonna go with the trusted 343
    Plan is to swap Eriksen to Sane/KDB and get Arsenal cover in GW3.
    Thoughts?

    Cheers for everyone’s help today btw

  3. 21
    banjomaker says:

    Ok, I can’t resist any longer. Can I request my first RMT please folks? Issues I’m considering are:

    1) only 1 city attacker doesn’t seem enough. How best to crowbar Kun in there? Auba is the easy swap, but kinda like him. Can I raise 1.5 anywhere and swap Firmino?
    2) I know Daniels is very risky. What’s the best 4.5 alternative? And please don’t say Cedric 😉
    3) lack of any Chelsea. Should that bother me?
    4) why no love for Laca? It all seems to be about Auba?

    Thanks!

  4. 22
    Smash says:

    Schurrle at 6 million. That’s interesting

  5. 23
    Loud Atlas says:

    Rob Green joins Chelsea:

    https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/26/transfer-news-roundup-chelsea-rob-green

    Bench warmer and #3 spot? Hart or Schmeichel to come, I suppose.

  6. 24
    Smash says:

    Rumours Clyne has left the tour for family reasons. This coincides with Trent’s shortened holiday and being available from next week

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