New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Cedric, Stekelenberg, Fuchs
Before we get into previewing the latest batch of international superstars joining our beloved Premiership, I want to say first how great it is that the new fantasy season is nearly upon us. The excitement is really building.
It’s been brilliant reading the boards over the last couple of weeks as the regular names/faces return to the site after their long break. And some new faces too! It’s like spring time. The snow has gone and the little green shoots are starting to appear. The little baby rabbits are emerging from their holes. What’s this? A wonderful new world? A time to start a fresh? Such a wonderfully positive time. Do I dare to dream that this could be the year? The year I’ve been laying in my hole thinking about all winter (summer).
So full of optimism. What will the season hold? Will this be the year I make it across the road to that wonderful field of lush green grass? Will this be the season I win my mini league? What to do first? Eat some grass? Pick my team? Eat some more grass? Study the fixtures? The possibilities seem endless and the optimism sky high. The planning. The hope. It’s beautiful.
Statistically, however, that rabbit will be dead within a month and most of us will never see the top 1,000. But we can dream dammit. We can dream.
Let’s talk football. .
The Southampton Two.
Cedric Soares
Southampton
Age: 23
Position: Defender
Signed from: Sporting
Fee: £4.7mln
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With Nathaniel Clyne following the well-trodden path up the road to Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers has already taken the unusual step to announce that the player he sees as Clynes long term replacement at Anfield is Cedric Soares, a promising young German born Portugal international from Sporting Lisbon.
Whilst the £4.7m fee Southampton have paid for Soares won’t turn heads, the right back looks to be the starting option in one of last season’s best defences.
Priced at 5.0m, he’s 0.5m cheaper than the two remaining defenders from last season, Bertrand and Fonte. If we assume that 4.5m Yoshida isn’t going to claim the starting spot alongside Fonte, and that Alderwiereld’s replacement will be priced as at least 5.0m, then Soares will most likely start the season as the most attractive route into the Southampton backline.
The alternatives at this 5.0m price range include the likes of Janmaat, Lescott, Shawcross and Alderweireld himself. It may be a close call choosing between Tottenhma and Southampton, but I definitely fancy a Southampton clean sheet over Newcastle, West Brom or Stoke.
There are a couple of concerns with Soares however. His stats last year (1 assist and 0 goals in 34 games) aren’t in line with the attacking full backs we’ve grown accustomed to over the last few years at St Marys. He also appears to be somewhat of a yellow card magnet. Cedric picked up a booking in every 3 games he played last season, including 3 bookings in 5 Champions Leagues games and a red card in the domestic Cup Final. You have been warned.
Fantasy view: Potentially a cheap route into a historically good defence. Disciplinary concerns. Possible anger issues linked to the fact he’s called Cedric. (Apologies to any Cedrics reading this).
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Maarten Stekelenberg
Southampton
Age: 32
Position: Goalkeeper
Signed from: Fulham
Fee: Season-long loan
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Former Dutch international (and World Cup finalist) Stekelenberg has signed on a season long loan from Fulham, to provide cover for Fraser Forster who is currently expected to be out until March 2016.
Although on paper he faces competition for the number 1 shirt from Kelvin Davis, you’d have to expect that given his pedigree and his history with manager Koeman (he gave Steky his debut at Ajax), he’s a strong favourite to start at least until Forster returns. As mentioned above, if last season is any sort of guide, this could prove to be a decent defence to invest in, with a CS in every 3 games played.
The “But”….. It’s early days in pre-season, but his ownership currently stands at just 1.4%. A sign that fantasy managers are perhaps nervous that with three out of five from the Southampton backline either leaving or injured, the defence might not be as solid as last year.
Add to that, the fact that keepers are priced lower this year. For an extra 0.5m you can have Courtois or Hart.
Fantasy view: Doesn’t offer the value of previous years. Better keepers for the money elsewhere.
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The Leicester One.
Christian Fuchs
Leicester
Age: 29
Position: Defender
Signed from: Schalke
Fee: Free transfer
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F*** off!!! I beg your pardon?! I said Fuchs’ off. Off to Leicester. Oh. Well that’s alright then.
Leicester City have made their first signing of the summer with the free-transfer capture of defender Christian Fuchs on a three-year deal.
The 29-year-old Austria international left-back, has 66 international caps and made 99 career league appearances for Schalke With 2 goals and 4 assists in 20 starts last season, he appears to offer some pretty good attacking potential. The problem is that last season he was part of a 6th place team pushing for a place in the Champions League, whereas this season he’ll be part of a team near the bottom, pushing Paul Konchesky for picking-the-ball-out-of-the-net duties.
The downside (as well as the fact he plays for Leicester) is that he’s priced at a ball busting 5.0m! How did they come up with that?! Rumours are that the early ownership of 0.7% consist entirely of managers who either live in Leicester, and /or want a player with a rude sounding word in their team.
Fantasy view: Monitor pre-season. If he gets the nod to start every game, to play as a striker, take freekicks, and penalties, I might be tempted.
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Tear it to shreds guys! 😉
Of course I joke, don’t want to cry myself to sleep…
This is intended as a very short term team (WC GW3 is the original plan unless the team is performing very well, in which case Aguero GW4 would be the plan, probably through a downgrade of an underperforming midfielder).
Thoughts?
Fairly spot on for a short blitz but, unless you’re 100% playing your WC early then i’d probably just go safer with three strong up top. The Wilson/Deeney pairing will run into trouble more often than not, even if your team does kick off strong. Would that mean losing Hazard to up one of them to Aguero?
Well for GW4, I would probably just go Walcott/Sterling/Mata -> Barry and Rooney -> Aguero, leaving me 2 in the bank.
Keeping an eye on Rodriguez, Siggy, Ritchie, Payet but no confident enough to start with any of them.
In my opinion, there is no ‘3 strong upfront’ unless you go with Aguero, Costa, Rooney/Giroud (Kane fell off a bit and not sure how long before he regains form).
Come to think of it….Aguero, Costa, Rooney sounds godly…will be back in 15 😉
By three strong i mean having a front three, as opposed to the 3-5-2 with two budget strikers.
I wouldn’t knock the 2 promoted strikers with a midfield packing like that NIN, they rotate for 38 games aswell!
Could be like an Ings-Austin rotation if history repeats itself! How godly that would be been for 11 million haha
I’m not knocking them mate, i’ve actually got Wilson in mind for a 3rd striker myself, just not sure about starting 2/3 of the striker force being so cheap, even with a big midfield.
I understand where you’re coming from pal, just statistically 3-5-2 scores higher than 3-4-3, perhaps not with this exact midfield or strike partnership, but our dear Monsieur Bean could be on to something!
I like the 3-5-2, because I think you get far better value for players who can still be explosive. Right in that 9.0 range you find a lot of good mids, strikers not so much.
It could take some time before Sterling is a regular starter therefore could be a rotation risk. Also feels Man U heavy – their fixtures are not that great – maybe save some cash there to put a bit more towards a better forward line.
Spurs home, Villa and Newcastle in their first 3, i consider that a nice opening
First real RMT of the season, maybe I have too much in defence but I’m not too sure! All pointers welcome
plus I feel I’ve struck a good one with ruddy butland, not home and away rotation but its not til GW 18 that both teams play a top 6 or 7 team!
I have rotating pairs in Alder & Mert(not that it will affect it) Cedric& Matthews and Deeney& Ritchie
Clearly a well researched and interesting team given the combos TETH. I’ll be saving this one for sure. Thanks!
Maybe on the face of it it’s a touch more than is needed in defence but that touch could be key – difference between touching on the likes of SOU & TOT and having promoted teams isn’t a bad thing. I went uber cheap on defence at the start last season and wished I hadn’t as I struggled to repair that damage.
I suffered from it as well, The Newcastle-Sunderland and Stoke-Swansea pairings did not click and despite my hope never did!
I find its important to have heavy hitters in the attack, but you cant really distinguish them from the off, depending on form when Aguero is back I can do a double transfer for Rooney and Sterling to Aguero and whoever is hitting the big time! If either Ritchie or Deeney can pull an Austin or Ings performance I will be laughing!
Still confused on my 8.5 mid! Caz is obviously going to do the same as every season, but Eriksen, Depay, Ozils pre season form and even Walcott are breaking my heart Init!
It’s certainly flexible, eh? Pretty well thought through there i must say. Nice set up :thumbup:
That it is, nailed on(as it could possibly be for 17 days out) and hopefully worthy of high scores!
Now all I need is the De Bruyne transfer to go through and ruin everything!
TETH,
I like the goalkeepers if what you say is true, not having to worry about them till the second half of the season is a great feeling.
Your defence is a tad more expensive than most for the beginning of the season but i can’t see much point in downgrading it because there is nowhere to upgrade (Rooney -> Aguero GW4 would be my only suggestion)
Midfield is good if Mahrez and Ritchie can perform with reasonable consistency, hope to see good things from Bournemouth this season so i’m hoping for it as well.
Benteke is a good call if/when he moves to Pool.
Team has a good base, little tinkering may be needed depending on preseason form.
Now that is going off the base that Ruddy is primary and Butland secondary, but both teams could easily have a rough patch which will lead me to ponder elsewhere.
That was my viewpoint, like I could perhaps cut a million from defence and upgrade Ritchie to Milner but I dont feel double pool coverage is a wise move.
Thanks Bean! By no means is it the finished article but I can see 5 definites at least in the squad, which is good considering we are still 17 days out haha
Here it is Mr. Bean
My initial analysis wasn’t too far off! Hopefully Jack can nail down his spot now! First time I’ve ever prayed an English man can dominate an Irish man ????
I rated Saints as a tough match up for weaker teams. Because offensively they should still be good if not better, defensively they will be weaker than last season. So that is why GW13 is double red.
Anyway that is a small preview of what we will be releasing later this week or early next. Calvin Clyne provided us (free for all to adjust for themselves) with a customizable fixture tracker and if we want we can rate teams however we feel.
That would be very handy indeed! Especially for wildcards as the season progresses!
Stroke of genius from yourself and CC
Please, I was the dummy he used to see if anyone could do it. Once CC saw an idiot like me could handle it, he felt he could release it for the other members. I did absolutely nothing to create it, I wish I knew how to manipulate docs. that way.
CC did everything.
Haha, Mito does himself a disservice here. He was instrumental in the proofing process and a significant feature of the coming article will be due to his suggestion.
Now you can pay via the usual channels for those kind words as agreed Mito 😉
For any Championship watchers, whos more prolific Deeney or Ighalo, it appears off pre season Deeney gets a lot of assists but Ighalo has hit the net several times. Is it wiser to go with the popular choice of Deeney or is Ighalo as good?
Was wondering the same! Actually put Ighalo in my first draft last night on the basis of his 6 pre-season goals but no idea really. Deeney has the numbers from past performances in that league.
It really is difficult to work off statistics! I know sweet F all about either, only that some big teams were hunting Deeney and he cracked in a few against Fulham last year, besides that I am clueless haha
TETH,
Last season Deeney and Vydra was the favoured strike partnership – Deeney started 37 matches and Vydra 31 while both appeared in all 42 games of the season. Ighalo only started 22 games and came on as a sub in 13 more.
Although Deeney is the main man up front for sure and everything goes through him, hence the numerous assists, Ighalo is a more prolific scorer in terms of minutes played and definitely more of a poacher.
Looking at preseason, I feel like Ighalo could be grabbing himself some more game time ahead of Vydra with his performances and he could be a great choice – think J Rod beside Lambert in the season he got injured.
Only time will tell…
I suppose both Mathematically, in terms of changing, and cautiously it would be wiser to go for Deeney. I am a risk taker but there are times that I just cant afford to take the risk, times referring to GW1
HELP!!! Tried to make a hazard and aguero less team and this is how it ended
I’m not trying to be an ass but I’d redraft, way too risky for my liking.
Your defence is god awful, with not one certain starter, your midfield could be powerful but explosiveness doesn’t warrant or even compensate for your forwards. Lukaku doesn’t warrant his price tag and Ings could be lapping it up from a comfy seat if Benteke signs the dotted line.
Try not to put all your funds in midfield is all
Thanks mate at least your honest. I tried picking one midfielder from each of the top teams but I guess it’s just too expensive it was only a draft anyway and after another point of view I see what you mean. Defence couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with a banjo.
@Hazardo you could drop Eriksen or a mid of your choice to a Wanyama type and see what you can use the money for. Then you can start tinkering a bit. You could also make Eriksen into a Chadli/Milner type if you want to play 5 mids and see how you can adjust your team a bit with the spare cash.
Didn’t mean to be so harsh, swapping out Stek for 2 rotating 4.5 and dropping Ings to a 5.5 striker could build up your defence a bit, might swap out Lukaku for Rooney and downgrade Depay also!
Your call of course, just a 30 point midfield every week isn’t enough to win leagues
Hmmm I think i dont have the guts to keep hazard away will b back in 20 mins lol
It’d defeat the purpose of your name anyways hahaha
Hmm….
Not perfect, but your pricing is about right! A massive improvement in the space of 10 minutes!