New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Bamford, Lens, Mitrovic, Kaboul
Popular Eurovision beat combo, Bucks Fizz, once sang, “Don’t let your indecision take you from behind”. Wise words indeed. With barely a week left until the first ball of a new season is kicked, most FPL gaffers will be fairly settled with their squad. And judging by Twitter, everyone has pretty much the same squad anyway. But it’s landing on those final 2 or 3 places that cause the most anguish. Tick. 5 days left, and that 3rd striker slot is obviously Deeney’s. But wait… Patrick who? Oh. Well he’s the one. Tock. 2 days left, Mitrovic. Mitrovic! Maybe. Tick. Then those final minutes; the painfully slow logging in as the Premier League website grinds to a Berbatov-like jog. It’s not enough time. It’s not enough time! Tock. Time up. Don’t let your indecision take you from behind.
Here are some words about footballers.
PATRICK BAMFORD (Crystal Palace – Forward – £6.0mln)
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Selhurst Park’s new recruit is so defined by his perpetually nomadic existence that he may be better served changing his name to ‘On loan from Chelsea’. It’s not the most shirt-friendly name to have on one’s back, but why should Jan Venegoor of Hesselink have all the fun? ‘OLFC’ joined the Blues in 2012 and has chalked up 43 goals in just shy of a century of games, taking in the sights of Milton Keynes, Derby and Middlesbrough. Unbelievably, he’s yet to play a single minute for Chelsea. But then, one can’t expect Jose to find room for a promising young English striker when (and this is just an example picked at random) he can pay £140k a week for a 29-year-old who scored 4 goals last season. On the bright side, at least Bamford can finally move to London now, and all the pre-season signs indicate his growth will continue along it’s parabolic path. A few more repeats of his tidy triple against Bromley last week and a return to the deed poll may be in order. ‘Hat-trick’ Patrick anyone?
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JEREMAIN LENS (Sunderland – Midfielder – £6.5mln)
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The arrival of Jeremain Lens gives the Black Cats some welcome balance, and now have genuine attacking width on either flank. We all know about the threat Adam Johnson poses, especially to [comment removed by legal team], but on the other wing it seems Advocaat has found talent to mirror the Englishman perfectly. A left-winger that likes to cut inside and look for goal certainly possesses the qualities to pique FPL interest. Coming from a mixed couple of seasons at Dynamo Kyiv, the Mackem masses will hope the Dutchman can recreate his PSV form which peaked in 2012/13, finding the net 15 times in 30 games. Furthermore, the Dutch Eredivisie saw him regularly register double figure assists. That the Sunderland manager’s brought him to the Stadium of Light is no great surprise, having worked with him at AZ Alkmaar then PSV. By all accounts Lens was the only positive to take from Sunderland’s recent woeful 2-0 defeat at Doncaster. If Dick’s boys can get their act together, his team’s kind start to the season could see fantasy managers soon switch their focus to Lens.
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ALEKSANDAR MITROVIC (Newcastle United – Forward – £6.5mln)
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At £12m, the 20 year-old Serbian international is the Magpies 4th most expensive ever capture. Admirably swatting away interest from both Roma and Porto, Newcastle have managed to secure a striker boasting a bumper 20 goal campaign in Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League (Nope, me neither). In fact, over his two seasons with Anderlecht he’s scored 36 times in 69 games. Impressive for someone so young, and it suggests McClaren has made a very shrewd investment. Self-styled on personal idols Didier Drogba and Alan Shearer, the 6ft 2in Mitrovic will hope to follow the latter into Geordie folklore, and not go the way of, say, Obafemi Martins or Michael Owen. Or Mark Viduka. Or Antoine Sibierski. Or Marlon Harewood. Or Emmanuel Riviere. Described by the new manager as “a real warrior” the Serb does currently lack match fitness and one wonders whether he’ll be thrown into the starting lineup straight away. But he’s definitely one for the Toon Army to get excited about.
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YOUNES KABOUL (Sunderland – Defence – £4.5mln)
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“Younes wouldn’t join Sunderland even if there was an earthquake. We have more interesting options than Sunderland. Don’t even think about it.” Yes. Those were the words of Younes Kaboul’s agent in 2008. Well, 7 years on and despite there being no earthquake, Kaboul clearly no longer had ‘more interesting options’. Not since Pascal Chimbonda, has a player’s arrival stirred such shoulder-shrugging apathy. In fact, this is probably the first most have heard about it. It’s hard to make a case for Kaboul as a fantasy option, when even teammates Van Aanholt and O’Shea have more appeal, and with only 3 goals in 5 years you don’t get much added value, even at £4.5m. He did however get given the armband in the second half of their Doncaster friendly, so one could argue that Advocaat trusts him and is likely to be a somewhat reliable fixture in his eleven. Barrel scraped. Straws clutched. Job done.
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Rickie Lambert on anyone’s radar? If Berahino goes he would surely lead the line every week and his stats show how capable he is when he is actually played. All this for just 0,5m more than Deeney/Wilson.
AT
Absolutely on the radar. Excellent penalty taker as well if he’s given them.
Watchlist.
GP, only issue is fixtures – harly a nice start to the campaign for West Brom.
Adebayor a good shout? Good fixtures and, despite going AWOL all the time, he is a fairly reliable goal scorer!
Personally wouldn’t touch Ade until I see him scoring and playing regularly.
Might take a punt on him 😉
Under radar here and even more if Berahino stays put. Pulis would play both with the latter behind lambs.
Interesting, DMC.
With their first few fixtures would you start with him though? That’s the one thing stopping me from putting him in right now.
Probably not AT
Just sitting here looking at the PC…. list of players, prices and points in front of me…. dazed and mesmerized. Here is my last draft, but still not sure –
Schmeichel
Azpi—- Koschielny— Clyne
Hazard— Cazorla— Mane—Schneiderlin–Coquelin
Rooney—– Lukaku
Subs: Fabianski, Deeney, Francis, Alderweireld
Have £1.5m in the bank.
twinkle, fractionally too much spent in defence personally. I have Kos and Azpi but Clyne makes it a little bit expensive in defence in my opinion and Pool hardly have away fixtures to boast about.
Schneiderlin and Coquelin would make okay cover on the bench but definitely not both starting (I’m guessing Deeney is benched for one week?)
Lukaku is certainly a differential and could hit the ground running but he is too inconsistent for me and his preseason hat-trick consisted of two penalties – hardly a reason to have faith in him.
Personally I would downgrade your defence and Lukaku slightly and use it to bump up your midfielders.
Bench is great (could downgrade Fabianski to a £4.5m to raise funds if need be)
Thanks AT
I’m aware of the cost of my defence…. I could downgrade Kos for Debuchy and gain 0.5m. Coq au Vin is one of the best midfielders at 4.5m and I like him…. can’t find anyone else apart from Wanyama at 4.5m? Fabianski scored really well last season… he will be my main keeper for the season. Schneiderlin is a risk… but could start well. Still on the drafting stage, so could change completely before next weekend… especially if Aguero starts. ha ha ha take me away to the funny farm.
Please RMT guys, plan to swap Costa and Walcott for kin and a 7mil mid later.
FDMS, cracking team!
Is Schwarzer set to start? Must admit, I know little of Leicester’s goalkeeping situation but wouldn’t have thought he was first choice of Schmeichel?
Schmeichel is first choice ,and hendo to milner for me.
Assuming you Mean Ozil->7m mid looks as good as haz+kun teams can look. Concerns over moore game time though. Also schwarzer wont play and it remains to be seen if holebas is nailed on. Muniesa should be but monitor that too given whoschield played well last term In his absence.
Moore won’t play so needs changing but I like the team
Thoughts on having both Silva and Sterling in a team as a substitute for Aguero?
AT
If you are going to have two midfielders from the same team it would either be those two, Haz and Fab or any two Arsenal I think.
Could work very well indeed.
GP, unsure on how to get Aguero in and the pair seem to be playing well together. Although a fit Aguero would worry me weekly if I didn’t have him!
AT
Welcome to the club
GP, hahah
How’s your team coming along?
Nearly there AT
Got around 10/11 I’m set on. The other 4/5 I’m pretty sure on. Lots may change . . .
It’s just getting Aguero in really which makes it hard aha. Whether that be planning for him or starting with him.
AT
It will all change today if he plays any part in this friendly.
Very true, I will stop tinkering pointlessly for now then
I actualy have them 3 + Haz In my current XV
Any thought about this team? Who is the best 8.5 MF? Is it worth having Depay?
Albinz
over 24% of fantasy managers seem to have faith in Depay, whereby only just over 17% are goung with Cazorla……. read into that what you may, but I think Depay is a good choice 8.5m mid and in fact, I’ve only just included him into my team
I wouldn’t pay too much attention to player ownership at this stage. You’re bound to get a large number of fans selecting their new signing.
I do think Depay could be a great pick though but I’ll probably wait and see how he settles first.
Guys any advice? Do let me know what you think of my team
Thanks in Advance
undertaker – Quite a few changes needed here mate. None of your subs are starters for their clubs, and neither is Zouma so essentially you’re going into GW1 with 10 players.
yea zouma I will be changing…. Subs I know none of them going to start but I selected 11 players who will start also subs I selected to save money by buying cheapest ones