New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Sterling
Manchester City have been relatively busy over the last couple of weeks bringing in Fabian Delph & Patrick Roberts, although it remains to be seen if they join the likes of Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell on the list of players who have ruined their careers by moving to the Etihad. One player who is highly unlikely to join that list is Raheem Sterling. Having had their first two bids rebuffed by Liverpool they finally got their man, breaking the transfer record for an English player in the process. In all likelihood there will be another couple of arrivals at The Ethiad but even if there’s not, the arrival of Sterling and his hippy crack has significantly improved the City squad.
Raheem Sterling
Manchester City
Age: 20
Signed From: Liverpool
Fee: £49m
[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fourth]
It has been suggested that young Raheem would have been better served staying at Liverpool for at least one more season because this would have helped his development as he was assured of playing every week, unless he was feeling tired! However City have not spent £49m on him for him to sit on the bench and therefore I expect him to play a significant role over the coming months as City endeavour to reclaim the title. Despite what some might say, they haven’t signed him just because he’s English, the lad can play.
Having signed for Liverpool back in 2010 at just 16 years of age, he came to the attention of the masses in the 2012/13 season making 24 league appearances, scoring twice and picking up six assists. The following season saw him link up to devastating effect with Messrs Suarez and Sturridge, finishing the season with nine goals and seven assists. Much was expected of him last season, but like his teammates he struggled without Suarez and endured a rather disappointing season. However he still finished the season seven goals and 10 assists and was probably Liverpool’s best player over the course of the season.
There’s no denying that at £49m Sterling is overpriced but he has improved season on season, the problem he faces now is that he’ll be expected to do it every week. So where will he fit in at The Etihad? At Liverpool he played everywhere from right wing-back to centre forward so he’s certainly versatile and while he’s unlikely to be played as a wing-back at City his arrival undoubtedly provides Pellegrini with options. With more arrivals likely at the Etihad I expect City to play a 4-2-3-1 system this season with Sterling on the right of the 3, cutting in to support Aguero. Although he could also play in a more central role closer to Aguero.
As I’ve stated above I expect Sterling to be a regular in the City side with his dribbling and pace complimenting the vision and technique of David Silva and the firepower of Sergio Aguero. This should see him improve on the seven goals and 10 assists in registered last season, and with a starting price of just £9.0m he could very well offer some early season value.
Finally, it’s worth noting that young Raheem’s City career got off to a great start this morning scoring inside three minutes of his debut. It was a typical Sterling goal as he ran onto a pass behind the defence before slotting past the keeper, I suspect we’ll see plenty more over the coming weeks and months!
[divider_1px]
Is Aguero really going to be out until GW 3?
We’re going off of last season’s stats with that Bob, after the WC Kun never started a game till GW 3 although he did still manage to score coming off the bench in the opening two games, he’s had the Copa America this summer to deal with so it could be along the same lines as last year’s start, with Citeh playing Chelski in GW 2 however I think he’ll be back in the starting line up earlier than last season but it’s all just speculation and guessing for now.
But otherwise, he’s not injured is he?
Not that I’m aware of but he’ll be behind the rest of the squad in fitness terms, I’m not sure if he’s even joined up with the them yet for their Americano tour.
This is Aguero. He’s perpetually injured 😉
Not accordingly to Ben Dinnery: http://www.premierinjuries.com/
Also Copa America is very different from a WC, in games/minutes played, media and country pressure, etc, it basically doesn’t really mean anything in my view from a fitness/injury perspective. The only issue here would be his return date from holidays which Arsene already said to be a problem for Alexis, but Manuel didn’t for Kun so I’d be very surprised to not see him come GW1.
Just wondering if I should take him in my draft league if he’s available.
He just tweeted this.
In a draft I’d still take him number 1 Bob, I’d be surprised if he was still on the board by the time we get to number 2.
I have the second pick. It’s obviously between him and Hazard.
Well then I’d say he’s fit accordingly to Ben Dinnery’s injury site but probably won’t feature in GW1 accordingly to Ben Dinnery’s twitter …
Hello everyone
How’s this for City coverage?
Its to much.
Which one (s) would you ditch Ant?
When will ff247 will reveal his fpl team
Hi LaB, it’s not a ‘he’ it’s a committee of us but that’s by the by! Anyway yeah, said committee is getting there slowly. Very slowly. We had walkouts and cups thrown already
We’ll probably post the first draft in an article sometime next week. :thumbup:
Can just picture the mayhem.
Ha, I’m looking forward to the community one :popcorn:
Andy ours will be a picnic compared to that! That’s coming out toward the end of the week……
Is that walkouts or walcotts? 😛
Has anyone seen my FF247 mug? I might have thrown it inadvertently.
What’s up everyone?? I haven’t posted on here in a long time and I’m sorry I’ve missed it… but I’m looking forward to this upcoming season! And it seems like everyone has already gone crazy coming up with their teams 😛
What’s going on Josh? Got anything for us to rate yet??
Hey Calvin! I do actually haha I spent a little time going through all of the preseason articles to put together a first (or 2nd) draft. What do you think?
Butland, Speroni
Azpilicueta, Shaw, Cedric, R Martin, Cook
Hazard, Sterling, Depay, Payet, Ki
Rooney, J Rod, Deeney
I’ll probably switch Aguero for Rooney by week 2 or 3, depending on his fitness.
Not sure how much of a starter Shaw will be yet but hoping he gets some good game time. Same with J Rod, could be a great bargain if he plays regularly up top with Pelle. Haven’t looked into cheap defs or GK rotations yet so can’t comment on them, but overall looks like a nice team there
He’s looked good in preseason so far. He’s gotten in some good crosses and if he’s fit, I think he’ll be the starter. And at only 5.5, he’s pretty cheap for a top four team.
Josh!! Good to see you again. Hope you will be sticking around this season.
Mito! I’ll do my best! I kinda got lazy with my team because school was a little overwhelming. We’ll see how it goes though!!
Josh!!! Welcome back mate. Hope you are well.
Hey Init!! I’m doing great! Just enjoying my summer and the fact that there has been an abundance of soccer to watch since last season. How are you doing?
Great thanks Josh, really good to see you back. Stick around!
Josh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chins!!! How’s it going??
Good thanks mate. Great to see you back on here. Looking forward to renewing our late night debates on the merits of various strategies once those on the GMT time zone have all gone to sleep.
What’s new with you? Playing fantasy NFL this year, or just focusing on FPL?
Haha yeah, it’s pretty cool having the comments section to ourselves 😛
And I actually did (the other) fantasy football last year for the first time. I got kinda addicted, just like with this game. That one is so much easier to play though. I mean, they literally list all of the players in order of best to worst and give you all sorts of advice and expected points that you don’t even have to any research! I think I finished 4th out of about 12 people in my work league. It was fun, so I’ll probably do it again this year. What about you? How’s your FPL team looking? And are you doing the MLS game too?
Attaboy Josh, we need someone to keep chins company throughout ‘our’ night. Poor chaps been rambling to himself for hours on end!
We’ve been doing MLS and doing fairly well between us to say the least! Last count was 5 of us in the top 20!
Cheers Josh.
I’ll not be looking at my FPL team until 7th August. – Otherwise my entire life would become an endless tinkerfest, and i’d still end up with a team i didn’t like.
Yep, as Init says, a few of us have been playing MLS, and having a decent amount of success. The site team is up in or around the top 5, and a few of us are lurking not far back in the top 20. – We’ll have to get you involved next season – It’ll be good to have a bit more local knowledge.
Re. NFL, yep, i’ll definitely be playing that again this year. Completely addicted to the endless stats available and ran with 2 teams last year. I managed to win my money league and get runner up in another, so it’ll be downhill this year but it’s so much fun i really won’t mind. I can see that number of teams increasing this season too. I’ll be busy.
Right, Better get back to “work”…. This article won’t write itself….
Laters.
He finished runner up to me!
For all you regulars that are just getting back into FF247 or are blind. I am starting a new classic league this season for regular posters on the site, there will also be a cup competition aswell. So, can you e-mail me please giving your regular site name, your real name and the name of your fantasy football team, so when people ask me who someone is i can tell them, cheers.
E-mail address is :- Elleffcee@fantasyfootball247.co.uk
For those who have already e-mailed me, the code has been sent back to you. Cheers.
Great idea Elle, first time seeing this.
Never even heard about this one. When’d you come up with this idea Elle?
:finger:
Elle,
My next door neighbour has a friend who knows someone that was thinking about starting to play FPL this season. They’ve never been on this website, but were wondering if they could join your Regulars league.
I told them you’ve not mentioned it for a while, but that it’d probably be ok.
That cool??
Ta.
Hi guys!
What do you think of my team? Took out Deeney for Ighalo as he’s scored 6 goals in pre-season and had a great output last season…
I like this team mate, not sure on Baker though do you have any money left over from the Deeney/Ighalo move? If so I’d upgrade Baker
I could downgrade sterling to Yaya to save 0.5m… other than that I have no money in bank. Who could I get away with downgrading 0.5?
Clyne?? I suppose you could downgrade Sterling but Yaya might not be as prominent this season.