New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2016/17. Manchester United
Life is set to become more interesting for Man United fans. The dismal reign of LVG saw the Dutchman and the United fans finally put out of their misery, just hours after the club secured the FA Cup victory over Palace. The worst kept secret was confirmed when Jose Mourinho was announced as the new manager of the Reds and he has already been splashing the cash, with the business unlikely to be concluded just yet. But what will Mourinho at United mean for FPL managers? A born winner, a frustrating wall builder, the persistent Wenger baiter – probably all of the aforementioned at different times, but what we do know is that Jose doesn’t accept coming second and you can bet that United players will now be a more interesting proposition for us this season. Let’s take a look below at United’s three new signings, but bear in mind that Mourinho has said that a fourth big signing will follow.
Eric Bailly (£5.5m)
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[/three_fourth]Ivorian defender Bailly became Mourinho’s first signing at United when he joined from Villareal for around £30mln. The 22 year old has played just 40 top-flight matches but was an ever present starter for the Ivory Coast in their successful Africa Cup of Nations campaign in 2015. Bailly is strong, quick and good in the air and is known to make powerful tackles, a trait that saw him collect 12 yellow cards last season. His weaknesses are that he is still very raw and prone to making errors, due to limited experience, while his decision making is one thing that Mourinho will look to develop. In this regard it is thought that Mourinho bought Bailly for his potential at what he could become. Bailly can and has already played at right back as well as in the centre, given United some decent options in both areas. Mourinho is impressed, but cautious and says of his new defender, “He is very strong physically and very fast. It’s not so easy to find a fast player when you have quite a big body; he’s a heavy guy, a tall boy who’s really fast. My only question mark at the moment is one I have to help him delete – the question mark of someone who has never played at such a big club with so many responsibilities and so many expectations. So is Eric ready to come here and start performing from day one? I don’t know. It is a question mark but my job is to delete that question mark as soon as possible and give him the stature, brain and personality to play for Manchester United.’
Given that quote, we think it wise to watch how Bailly fares in the pre-season friendlies – United play Wigan, Galatasary, Dortmund and Man City before the Charity Shield encounter with Champions Leicester on August 7. With Chris Smalling unlikely to be played by Mourinho vs Dortmund and City, it’s likely we’ll get an early look at Bailly in a red shirt and whether we think he is worth an investment in FPL, but he is initially likely to be in competition with Blind and Jones as to who will partner Smalling at the back, before he can convince Mourinho that he is ready for the Premier League.
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Henrikh Mkhitaryan (£9.5m)
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[/three_fourth]Let’s get one thing straight – I am not writing Mkhitaryan every week in Team Talk, so I’ll have to find some sort of nickname or abbreviation. For now, it’ll be Henrikh, but any sensible suggestions are welcome! Dortmund fans christened him Miki, which could also work. Our man Henrikh may turn out to be the most exciting of United’s new men for FPL. One look at his stats suggests he could be another Ozil but without the eyes and with more consistency. Last season resulted in 11 goals and 15 assists in 28 league matches and was enough to see the Armenian be crowned the Bundesliga player of the season – his total stats saw him play a total of 52 League, Cup and European matches, scoring 23 goals and 26 assists and creating a chance for either himself or a team mate every 32mins. Henrikh is an attacking midfielder who operates predominantly from the right but can also play as effectively from the left, if required. Mourinho describes the new signing as, “a real team player with great skill, vision and with a good eye for goal. I believe he will make an impact on the team very quickly as his style of play is suited to the Premier League.” With Zlatan likely to be perceived as too expensive by many FPL managers, it may well be that Henrikh / Miki may well prove to be a popular choice for those looking for some United attacking coverage – if Henrikh / Miki can reproduce his Bundesliga form in the Premier League then the likes of Ibrahimovic, Rashford, Martial and Rooney are set to have plenty to feed us and should see United once again look a threat going forward.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic (£11.5)
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[/three_fourth]Buying a striker who is coming towards the end of his career is not a typical United trait – although RvP didn’t do such a bad job when he escaped from Arsenal to fulfil his dream of winning the Premier League. Zlatan is even older than RvP was when he joined the Reds – the Swede is 34 years old but is described as, as fit as he has ever been and he allegedly broke United power records in tests during his medical. Ibra needs little introduction of course – he has scored goals wherever he has played – 16 goals in 40 matches for Malmo, 35 goals in 74 matches for Ajax, 23 goals in 70 matches for Juventus, 57 goals in 88 matches for Inter, 16 goals in 29 matches for Barcelona, 42 goals in 61 matches for Milan and 113 goals in 122 matches for PSG. Even his greatest detractors cannot argue with those stats. What will be the key for FPL managers is his value compared to the likes of Aguero, Costa, Kane, Giroud, Lukaku, Vardy etc together with how quickly he can fit into the Premier League with United. Whichever formation Mourinho chooses to play, it is expected that the likes of Martial, Henrikh, Rooney and Mata will be supplying chances galore for Zlatan, while Mourinho will be just as keen for the veteran striker to help nurture the exciting talent that is Marcus Rashford. Not one short of self-confidence, Jose’s purchase of Ibra brings together two of the biggest egos in the game – they have of course worked together before at Inter and they are both reported to be excited at the prospect of working together again. United fans should be excited too – win or lose, this season won’t be the tedious affair they have witnessed since Fergie retired. Ibrahimovic has won the league in 13 of the last 15 seasons in whichever country he has been playing and speaking of his working relationship with Mourinho, the Swede says, “I have great memories. The only regret I had with Jose was that I only had a short time with him. I had one season. We won together, we enjoyed it together and had a great time together. I learned a lot, and I got to know him as a person, not only as a coach, and only positive things. He’s a winner, I’m a winner and we know both what we want. We want to win. Wherever we go, we win. And we will win.”
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Fixture Tracker – the first 6 games
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Good Day all …
Morning Robin
I am really starting to get tired of all the Wenger hate, personally I really like Wenger for Arsenal….it could be because I want the worst for Arsenal, but that’s beside the point.
Can’t argue with logic like that
hi all hope everyone good, used to post a bit on here 2 seasons ago but not last as decided on more children for some reason.. ( always on reading though )should be a good season again hoping Spurs can compete with all the stars going to blue and red in manchester and gotta love Jose being back though would love to see Wenger burst him on the sidelines oneday with all the slithery digs he gives him in the pressers
thinking Shane Long might have a good season now Pelle gone always rated him and thought he should have gone somewhere he would be first choice striker.. if he even is now at Southampton
Hi geoffreys
I remember you being on here but couldn’t have told you that you didn’t appear here at all last year. With all these FPL seasons and fantasy football in the summer, it all just rolls in to one big haze of expectation and let-down!
Hope you are well and looking forward to going again.
On Shane Long, I too rate him, have since his Reading days but it’s the continual lack of regular starts that holds him back from being a good fantasy prospect for me. Jay Rodriguez should also be back this season and Charlie Austin is there too so it all depends on what the new manager makes of them all.
Keep an eye on the Southampton tab at the top of this page (on the right hand side) as all pre-season news including team line-ups specifically for them will be there.
Hi Geoffreys remember you well how are you mate still knee deep in nappies , any way welcome back I’m sure you will enjoy it again , lots of good info by the writers & good banter with all the members 😉
cheers Gallant/Silvers talk soon lads…. will have a goo at Southhampton tab ta
Thought I would take a look at last yes defenders , no prices out yet but might help us to decide 😉
Charlie Daniels the legend!
PPM would be more useful on that Silvers. Let us know when you’ve sorted it 😉
Once the racing season is over
Morning all Init excuse my ignorance what is PPM ?????
points per minute, Silvers.
Morning Cookie that’s already on there if people can divide :smiling:
Hey Silvers, you know what the kids of today are like mate – want everything done for them 😉
Evening lads
Anyone when site will be up?
Not taking any point hits in so long is eating away at me!
I’m eager to put a great team out, watch them flop, wild card in the 2nd week, then point hit and weep until the season is over!
Gotta love it!
Hi Hatters. Kind of expected it’d go up on Monday with them launching the new fascia last week but obviously not. Previous times of launch in relation to the number of days before the KO suggest Thursday may be the latest it’s ever done so. I think tomorrow is very likely.
Cheers innit :worthy:
The lull before the storm eh. Whilst it’s quiet I’m just looking at bits to add for next season. A few new emoticons will be added, as per the pic hopefully. Anyone got any specifically that they reach for but aren’t there?
And anything else in general people would like to see as an addition to the site?
Is there a Facebook site for this? Can we get emails for when people comment on a post of ours? If man evolved from monkeys, how come we still have monkeys? What’s another word for thesaurus?
We’ve missed your posts over the summer
I can’t answer the last 2 but as for the first 2 – yes we do have a FB page but we don’t really use it. We simply hook it up to twitter in the season and it replicates the posts on there. It’s something we need to improve on but it’s a time thing. If anyone wants to take charge of our official FB page then applications are more than welcome!
The e-mail notification thing already exists. It’s in the drop down menu below the comment box as per the pic. It’s probably poorly worded actually as I think it says ‘subscribe’. That’s where it is though. It works too. Which is always a bonus.
Cheers all
Innit, if i subscribe to those emails it will send me an email notification for every post!
Is there one for just comments on my posts?
I believe it works for individual comments only now. As in you can subscribe to your particular post. That’s what it did for me last I checked it / accidentally pressed it (!) anyway. I got an e-mail saying my post had been replied to. And no more after that. I’ll test it on this one.
Select just ‘replies to my comments’. The ‘s’ suggests all your comments but that’s not what I experienced. Let’s see….!
Reply test
All I know so far is that evidently it doesn’t work when you reply to yourself!
Did this work?
How about this?
and this?
Bingo. Got 3 just now for your 3 replies. Each one has a massively complicated series of links on which needs looking at but if I press the top one I’m taken here. As a notification goes though I guess that works.
Hatters
I’ll field these questions ….
I don’t know (x4)
Man evolved from an ape breed, and here we are. Monkeys and other Ape breeds remain relatively the same.
Last one interested me so I checked and supposedly “wordhoard” is the same thing. No idea if that’s true butbthere you go
Evening Init
How are you?
How about a thumb-and-forefinger in a circle ‘perfect’ emoji? When you really like a particular team in a RMT?
Pic please GP. This is Rich I have to communicate this back to you know
One of these?
That’s the boy!.
Thanks NiN
:perfectcircle:
I’ve added it to the list. Down to IT now :see-no: