New FPL Transfers Chelsea Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko

New FPL Transfers Chelsea Alvaro Morata Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko

Hello and welcome to New FPL Transfers Chelsea Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko. Chelsea won the league with relative ease last season, a feat they achieved with a core of no more than 13/14 players. However it’s worth remembering that Chelsea had no European football to contend with, this season they will have the small matter of the Champions League to deal with while also trying to defend their title. Antonio Conte will be quite aware of this and Chelsea have already splashed something in the region of £130m on three players, Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko. Remember when £130m was a lot of money? Now it wouldn’t even buy you Neymar. Chelsea fans will could expect more arrivals over the coming weeks but for now let’s take a look at Morata, Rudiger and Bakayoko.

Alvaro Morata
Position: Forward
FPL Price: £10.0m

This spot was reserved for Romelu Lukaku, but the big Belgian signed on at Manchester United and formed a dance crew with Pogba instead. So Chelsea were left scrambling looking for a top forward, in particular after Diego Costa was spotted…err, by Diego Costa wearing an Atletico Madrid shirt and apparently mocking his manager. While the talks for Lukaku were breaking down and Costa was being Costa, there sat Alvaro Morata waiting for a team willing to meet the high demands of Madrid for his services. Luckily it all worked out for both Chelsea and Alvaro and now we have another possible star man to count on in FPL. Morata has moved around a bit in his short career. Breaking in at Real Madrid as a teenager, a couple of years later he was to move to Turin after he was bought by then manager, you guessed it Antonio Conte. Unfortunately for Morata, Conte left before he ever managed him. Nevertheless it shows that the Italian has liked the Spanish forward for some time now. After a couple of seasons at Juventus, Alvaro was to make his way back to Madrid after they exercised their buy-back clause, but in his return to Madrid he found himself stuck in the same situation again. Second in line and not getting the opportunity he desired, it is once again Conte who came for him. Hopefully this time the partnership works out.

So how will Morata do in FPL? Well, who really knows in the end, because we can project his numbers to account for the minutes he hasn’t yet received all we want, but we don’t really know how long it will take him to adapt or if he can do it for a prolonged period of time. So all we can really do is give him the eye test and hope that he isn’t pulling one over on us. A couple of weeks back we wrote a bit on him and almost all of that still rings true, so here is what you need to know. His physicality is impressive, he can ride tackles and is certainly strong enough for the hold up play that will be required of him. Alvaro has deceptive speed, his frame sometimes fools you into thinking he is a lumbering forward, he is far from that. His strike rate is good, but in the last year it was absolutely ridiculous. Only Messi had a better one in La Liga. He possesses the ability to finish with either foot and he is very strong in the air. He is also versatile enough to play wide if needed as he is a good dribbler and because of his hold up play and good vision he can drop a bit when required. He gets fouled quite a bit and he tends to be a touch over aggressive, really more than he should at times, so expect some yellows.

Should you buy early? Depends how comfortable you feel with new players transitioning over, but his slightly lower price tag will sure make him tempting.

Antonio Rudiger
Position: Defender
FPL Price: £6.0m

Chelsea may have had the 3rd best defence in the league last season but this didn’t stop Antonio Conte making Rudiger his first significant signing of the summer. The German began his career at Borussia Dortmund’s academy before moving to VfB Stuttgart and made his first team debut in January 2012. In total he made 60 appearances for the German club before moving to Roma on loan at the beginning of the 2015/16 season a move that was made permanent 12 months later. He made a total of 56 appearances for the Italian club scoring twice. At 6ft 3in tall Rudiger shouldn’t be fazed by the aerial battles and should take the physicality of the PL in his stride. He confirmed this when speaking the clubs official website, “I would say that I enjoy the physical element of the game and putting in strong tackles. I’m a fast player and I play with passion.”

With John Terry and Nathan Ake having left the club during the summer, and Kurt Zouma set to go out on loan perhaps it’s no surprise that Conte’s first summer signing was a defender.

What of his FPL prospects? Rudiger can play centre back, right back or even left back. Following his move Talksport spoke to a Roma fan (Matteo Ciampani) who said that the position Rudiger played most often and with the best results was on the right or left of a back 3. Apparently he himself favours playing on the left of a back 3 but given that he’s right footed I would expect to see him play on the right of the back 3. This will obviously have repercussions for others and the most likely scenario would appear to be Azpi moving to right wing back and Moses dropping to the bench, although Conte may choose to adopt a horses for courses approach. At £6.0m the German is cheaper than Alonso, Cahill & Azpi, and the same price as Luiz. The issue is he hasn’t previously offered a significant threat in the opposition area, he’s mustered just four goals from 122 appearances. It’s also worth noting that due to his involvement at the Confederations Cup he has started pre-season late and has played just 37 minutes of football against Inter Milan and this is likely to result result in him not featuring at the beginning of the season. I’d adopt a watching brief on the German for now.

Tiemoue Bakayoko
Position: Midfielder
FPL Price: £5.0m

After seemingly months of speculation Antonio Conte finally got his man and in the process made Bakayoko the clubs 2nd most expensive player. Aged just 22 the French international is still very much in the early part of his career. He made his league debut for Rennes at the beginning of the 2013/14 season and went on to make a total 24 appearances that season. His performers for Rennes brought him to the attention of Monaco and he moved to the Principality at the beginning of the following season. He struggled to settle in Monaco and suffered a serious injury in January of his first season. His 2nd season didn’t start much better but the arrival of Claude Makelele to Monaco’s coaching staff saw Bakayoko move to the next level, everything changed both on and off the pitch. Last season he made 32 league appearances scoring twice and picking up one assist.

While he’s undoubtedly a great signing for Chelsea he’s unlikely to set pulses racing among the among the FPL fraternity. He’s quick, likes a tackle and his reading of the game allows him to make a lot of interceptions. However as we know from our years playing the game these are not necessarily characteristics that are rewarded in FPL. He does enjoy to drive forward in an attempt to take the game to the opposition but this does not result in a great number of shots on goal, he only managed a total of 28 in the entirety of last season. It’s also worth noting that Monaco scored for fun last season, 107 league goals, but Bakayoko managed just two. Like many other defensive midfielders across the league he will allow his team mates pick up the points while he does the donkey work.

Thanks for reading New FPL Transfers Chelsea Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko . This article was written by Kop Warrior

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