New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2016/17. West Ham
What a difference a year makes! Roughly 12 months ago, some bozo on here was ribbing this lot to the max, predicting a rough season and possible relegation due to the appointment of “woeful” Slaven Bilic as head honcho in replacement of the ever sturdy Sam Allardyce. An unknown French dude was supposedly the key to Hammers success but this bozo just didn’t believe it. Who was this character, you ask? None of your goddamn business, that’s who. Now, moving swiftly on; West Ham have been quite busy in the current window, snapping up some very interesting players, 4 of which we’ll cover in this here article. Two youth prospects (Domingos Quina & Toni Martinez) aren’t really expected to break into what is fast becoming a stacked Hammers team but they are worth a mention nonetheless. Quina, a 16 year old Portuguese attacking midfielder, has been highly touted as one for the future and West Ham have done well to nip in and take him on board. Martinez, slightly older at 19, was snapped up from the Valencia youth and is again seen as one for the future. Like Quina, he’s not expected to get much if any game time this season but as fantasy managers we’d be doing ourselves a service to keep an eye on the progression of Martinez and Quina as we may well be punting on them in a season or two. With those two now out of the way, lets have a peek at the Hammers signings that are more relevant to the upcoming fantasy season, shall we?…
For West Ham’s pre-season games, line-ups and general musings here is their link on the Pre-season hub we have created West Ham Pre-season info
Håvard Nordtveit – Defensive Midfielder / Center Back (£5.0m) Classed as a mid in FPL
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Signed from German outfit Gladbach, this defensive minded Norweigan has seemingly been drafted in to help plug the holes in a Hammers defence that was pretty porous at times last season. Despite playing an attractive, attacking style of football and finishing a more than respectable 7th, West Ham ranked 8th from the top 10 in terms of goals conceded – shipping a hefty 51 times over the course of the season. A reduction of 10 or so goals may have resulted in a top 4 finish, what with there being just a four point gap between themselves and Manchester City. Considering this, it’s not surprising that Bilic went after a solid member of a rather impressive Gladbach team and we’d expect Nordveit to do a job for the Hammers. Looking at his attacking stats there’s not a whole lot to whet the appetite, fantasy wise. Nordveit spent a full six seasons at Gladbach but only managed to find the net on 13 occasions and contributed few assists, making him an unattractive pick for us fantasy folk. It’s worth noting that he has been classed as a midfielder in FPL. We all know the value of an out-of-position gem in the game we love / hate so much so had he been classed as a defender then those goal scoring stats wouldn’t look all that bad really; 4 last season and 3 the season before. Decent, but only if there were clean sheet points to go along with the odd goal, which there isn’t!
Fantasy Prospect; 4/10
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Gökhan Töre – Winger / Attacking Midfielder (£5.5m)
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Now, onto the attacking side of things and first up we’ve got a loanee drafted in from Turkish side, Besiktas, a club most of you will know from their appearances in the Champions League down the years. The Hammers have dished out £2.5mln to bring Töre in for the season with a view to making the deal permanent next summer for a further £7.5mln should he do the business. The Turkish international (26 caps, 0 goals) started out as a professional in Germany with Hamburg, making 24 appearances before moving on to the Russian league of all places to ply his trade for Rubin Kazan. That venture didn’t go all that well for Gökhan and he was soon out of there, signing for Be?ikta? in 2013. During his three seasons in Turkey, Töre saw plenty of game time, making 111 appearances in total and finding the net 19 times; far from a spectacular return we think you’ll agree. Add 28 assists to that tally and we’re starting to look decent but we’d have to think that Töre will need to up his game considerably if he is to be effective in the Premier League. At just 24 years of age there is certainly time for improvement and it will be interesting to see if he gets into the starting 11 from the off but one thing is for sure; West Ham have a few players that could easily force Töre to sit out most games unless he hits the ground running. One to keep an eye on for sure.
Fantasy Prospect; 6/10
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Manuel Lanzini – Attacking Midfielder (£6.5m)
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Here’s a name we should all know from last season as he was on loan at the Hammers, and has now been added to the permanent squad for the upcoming season. Lanzini started the season off rather quietly, appearing here and there and not really showing much of anything. That was, until playmaker Dimitri Payet was ruled out for a couple of months through injury. Young Manuel burst into life in the absence of Payet and proceeded to become a heavily fancied fantasy option, scoring and assisting regularly before he himself picked up an injury that kept him out for a while. It seemed that by the time Lanzini was available again, West Ham had switched up their formation and he took time to settle back in but an okay tally of 6 league goals from 25 appearances may be a sign of what is to come from the young Argentine. How this talent ended up playing in the UAE Arabian Gulf League is anyone’s guess but now that he is on board at West Ham we’d be foolish to overlook what will likely be a much cheaper alternative to Payet, although maybe not quite as productive, but we shall see. At just 23 Manuel Lanzini has a bright future ahead of him and once he can nail a starting spot we’d expect him to continue to do well. The main drawback is the fact he is off to the Olympics with Argentina so he may not be available for the season start. Keep an eye on that one.
Fantasy Prospect; 7/10
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Sofiane Feghouli – Winger / Attacking Midfielder (£5.5m)
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Last, but most certainly not least, a player who has been making waves for a number of seasons in La Liga for Valencia; Sofiane Feghouli has been and still is an excellent player and is currently West Ham’s most exciting summer signing by far. Four seasons at Grenoble was enough time for Los Murciélagos to realise his talents and snap him up, and there he has stayed, bar a brief loan spell at Almeria, steadily improving as the seasons go by. Deployed mainly as a wide player, although at times shifted to a central attacking role or even the odd time as a central midfielder, Feghouli has almost always done what was asked of him to a high level and we’re expecting him to continue improving in a more free flowing attacking West Ham team. Work rate is the first noticeable trait in Feghouli. The Algerian has no issues with helping out on the defensive side as well as providing a skillful outlet at the other end of the field. 31 goals in five seasons at Valencia, a club who are almost always chopping and changing due to financial issues, is a decent return, considering. Feghouli is a good creator also, ticking another box for us fantasy managers. At international level, Feghouli is second only to the mercurial Riyad Mahrez in terms of importance to the team and even that is debatable. 11 goals in 40 appearances for Algeria is an excellent return, we think you’ll agree. All in all there’s no real downside to this signing and once priced reasonably he could well be one of the gems of the upcoming FPL season. Of that there is no doubt, even less so if the Hammers manage to snag one of the top strikers they are currently trying to sign. Watch this space people, Sofiane is an excellent player and should suit the fast pace of EPL.
Fantasy Prospect; 8/10
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Fixture Tracker – the first 6 games
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Long thought on Aguero and Ibra
I love both players and to be perfectly honest, despite being slightly older than Zlatan, I think I could be his love child.
Ok, now to my opinion. Kun has been the most explosive player in fpl this side of Suarez over the last few years. It is a scary proposition to go without him. Pep, should enhance that, one would think. Bayern started out murdering people last season and if we look that is probably the case for all his teams over the years. However this is the EPL and this is probably the stiffest league in the world because of parity, so maybe we give Aguero a boost because it is Pep, but we shouldn’t expect City to demolish opponents on a weekly basis right out of the gate, if ever. Kun started slow last season, he grabbed 19 points over his first 7 fixtures. So naturally everyone got comfortable not captaining him or worse selling him :say-what: then he exploded for 25 points!! I say this so you know the risk, is not that you can’t build a better team, is that if you don’t have him he might put you in a situation where you feel like not even playing anymore if you don’t have him and he goes off like he did to so many last season.
Ibra has a great scoring record and some of the attacking weapons around him look fantastic for next season. So a significant drop off should not be expected. Martial and Miki will probably make life a living hell for defenders and Ibra will get his fair share of opportunities to really put up some big hauls. One part of his game that might be underrated is his capacity to assist, which is something that Kun really did not do well last season, although in the past he has done well. On top of his capacity to assist he is better than Kun on set pieces, taking direct free kicks and as a target in the box for indirect free kicks.
Maybe we can go without one or both, but whatever we do, we better guess right, because if we don’t, our fpl season might be over before it starts.
You goin with both then?
Probably
I disagree.
I disagree with you disagreeing, seeing that I didn’t state an actual personal position in terms of buying one, both or neither.
I didn’t read it – just generally disagree
Agreed? Oh, you do? well, i disagree with that.
I’ll just say this: 11.5 is cheap. Not a bargain, but I wouldn’t be surprised If he outscores mr Kun. I agree with your reading though which is why I have both, along with their friends Miki and Kevin.
What the hell did you buy for the rest of your team? 5 Raphael Guerreiros in the back?
BTW, I agree on having both, but don’t tell NiN, I am pretending to not have an actual position on either player.
Eheh If only there was one of those guerreiros..
Here he’s my current draft. Plenty to tinker and change, around those 4. At least that’s where I’m at just now.
Humm
What you doing with Rhodes? Or are you thinking he will still start?
I would say Hernandez, but Hull’s fixtures are :say-what:
Terrible bench, but those are the sacrifices that need to be made to make the choice you made with those 4 big guns.
Yeah I put this toguether a few good 5/6 days back. When it opened actually. Needs revisitation In light of preseason form and potential bargains, etc. Bellerin and or Ota may need to be dowgraded If Bolasie doesn’t look that sharp. Rhodes could easily become any 6.5 forwards Out there. The only thing that bothers me are the keepers. I prefer to have one I can play everytime and these two are more the type I wouldn’t ever play, but there you go, for those 4 little felows it should compensate! You are going with both Ibra and Kun right? Do You then not have any premium mids?
I have no team yet.
I haven’t tried to build a team yet. So basically I am just basing my future team on BS that I am not sure would or wouldn’t work.
Ehehe I do agree a team with Ibra, Kun, Kane, Miki, KDB, Haz, Payet and Siggy should perform well!
Great stuff Mito!
I’ll be going with both from the off due to their ability and fixtures. If they dont perform they’ll be moved on but I’d much rather have that problem than trying to get one in after he gets a hat trick.
New article – Saints signings…
https://fantasyfootball247.co.uk/new-signings-fantasy-premier-league-201617-southampton/
You bastard
You bloody well knew I was putting a new one up!
Apology accepted
No Payet?! He takes pens you know 😉
Sweet, i’ll have a read of that now in a bit :thumbup:
So now… or in a bit?
I disagree
Both.
And hate!
How are we all can I have a RMT lads cheers 😉
So who’s the captain then, Shaw or Walker? I’m not letting you away with capping a shitebag and have your vice capo on Aguero. Straight up defender capo. Choose wisely.
Hey NIN thk it will be Shaw don’t worry mate I’m a man of my word Run your expert eye over my team tell me what you thk
What’s your approach going to be two bit hitters are not ???
I have no idea yet mate. I’ll have an expensive striker to go along with Aguero but i genuinely have no idea who just yet. I’m considering picking a team with a view to blitzing the first two, maybe three at most gw’s rather than the usual painstaking effort of attempting to set it for 6 gw’s. Never start well in FPL and i want that to change this year.
As for your team, i like it mate. Cabaye is an interesting pick who’ll likely go under the radar and we all know he can produce serious numbers. My only gripe with him would be the withdrawn role he had last season but if Palace are to lend someone like Tekkers then that makes him more appealing i think. Looks good all round to me buddy, one change i would defo make would be Courtois out for one of Hart / De Gea. Might drop Walker too actually, 5.5 seems a lot for him.
Cheers NIN I’ve had DDG i& Hart in but thk Conti will keep a solid def. But still not set
NIN,
I went special team GW1 last season.
picked 4 fixture ‘bankers’ and took my 11 players from those. The bench were cheapest fillers.
Backfired a bit as West Ham turned out not to be the relegation fodder the pundits reckoned & ruined my ARS 3x def.
But then reforming the team using ‘in form’ & proven starters with WC match day 1 bumped the team high up before the International break with a stonking TV as well.
It does seem price rises are best the first two weeks as few are using WC, whereas come International break there is big numbers of WC and far less price movement. The standard argument for international break WC is transfers are over and form/injuries/starters are much better known. True enough.
But with gw1 wildcard you get a special team points gamble, known starters, price rises, and then have 5 free TFs to the end of International break to shift out 1 week wonders and bring in any surprise real transfers using an expected TV of 102mn+.
On top of that is the fact that a basic on the pitch team of 4.5~5.5 players costs 65m & expects 800 points.
So at the start we spend +35mn to get 1400+ points = 40 points per million.
So a 4 point hit to get an SP of +0.1mn is points neutral, with the bonus of bringing in an in form player.
Between GW2 & International break taking a hit to lose a dud/RC/injured and gain a price rising in form player is actually the best value tactic. We can therefore use more than 5 FT into IB without harming the final position.
TotallyHammered’ 130376 will be doing this
Tiger, that ‘pundit’ was NIN
Lol.
Great post on the WC / early GW strategy that. Something I’m thinking about a lot right now. Lots of food for thought right there. Thanks for this.
Hello Everyone, Hope we are all looking for the new season. First of many drafts to come. I would be grateful for your comments or suggestions on this team selection. I have decided to go with the big hitters up front for the first few weeks , at least to see how it plays out. if not as expected, it will be easier to downgrade
Hi Gunner, welcome back.
That’s a little bit all ‘all in’ on forwards, even for my liking! I’m all for Kun and Ibra but I’ll be supplementing those with a £6.5 / 7 fwd I think, not another premium. Even that weakens the mid options. Could work though, who knows.
Hi Inittowinit,
Thanks for your comments, my thoughts exactly, but also thinking that if Arsenal gets a top class striker, i can swap Giroud for him or even with the rumours regarding Mahrez, if that comes true. Giroud might get a lot of supply from Sanchez on one side, Mahrez on the other and Ozil in the middle.
Also with two heavy hitters in a midfield of 3, i think it might be a gamble worth taking. My main worry is the defence, but you havent commented on that. So i guess thats ok.