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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Just having a look around at a few set-piece stats after a throw away comment by Kop the other day who said flippantly he’d be basing his entire squad upon the set-piece list. Caught my eye and I thought ‘actually that’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard!’
First pic is total pens per team last season.
Credit: http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Premier_League_Penalty_Statistics.html
The second is free-kicks and corners scored from.
Credit: http://statspack.squawka.com/
I always knew some of my ideas were good
I didn’t conclude anything yet
Some more slightly random but interesting stat pics from the same sites –
Goals and assists combined and then chances created…
Great stuff init, that’s some class info right there. One question though… who the hell is Borges Da Silva?
Willian, NiN
Willian. Obviously…. !
Cheers lads, wouldn’t have twigged that one.
Last one. Players with the most stuff!
That is some bloody good info…
Hi Gear, definitely worth digesting and dissecting a bit more. Just posted it for now. I’ll have a proper look tomorrow and see what I make of it. Hopefully some others may do the same in the meantime.
Yep, there is definitely food for thought here.
Does the site have any championship stats from last season? It’d be good to know what the new boys did. I always end up going through them team by team to try and find a bargin!
Found some elsewhere. Loads of drop down menus on the link for goals, assists etc. This is the pen one anyway…
https://www.statbunker.com/competitions/ForPenalty?comp_id=524
Hull aren’t on the pic but they got 5.
Some great info there Innit.Leicester had 13 pens ?? Wonder what the record in a season is for a premiership team ? There is another interesting stat I’m interested in but not sure where I could find it,how many clean sheets did Leicester keep when Kante was in the team and how many when he wasn’t ?
Ok so I clicked on the link,Leicester broke the record for penalties awarded in the premiership last season.Didn’t know this or maybe I did and forgot.Memory like a sieve these days….. 😛
Haha was just about to post that! The pen thing, not you losing it
Actually loads of great stats on the actual premiership website too.Real interesting stuff all this.Gonna have a proper delve into it all tomorrow.
On the Kante thing I think he played 37 of the 38 games. So probably an arbitrary stat but I believe he missed the West Brom game which they drew 2-2.
Thank you for these init.
I used statbunker earlier today and interestingly (maybe) I noted that Burnley’s new signing Johan Berg Gudmundsson had the second most amount of assists in the Championship last season. For Charlton – who were relegated. He was their top scorer with six as well in to the bargain.
*taps nose*
I just bought a 1400 pound pc. Have I completely lost it?
Init stat horny? :p You sure you’re not American? 😉
Going back to my roots Raz and just doing stuff that I used to do which I haven’t done the past few seasons and those have coincided with my worst 2 ranks ever. Picked my team early, will play with it as I go along and will look into stuff like this too. I’m determined to get back to normality this time in terms of habits and actually playing the game for me.
Aaaah okay, well that’s good. Hmmm. You did not play the game for yourself, the past season? Where did it go wrong?
My main problem was when I had to focus on multiple accounts (two). Now back to one and ummm not in ummmm H2H leagues, which influence your tactics in the long run, you sometimes make transfers for he opponent you face the next week, not what is smart for your team in the long run.
I don’t play H2H’s for that reason.
As for not playing for myself, no not really. Not at all in fact.
Aaah, figured you were also in the H2H leagues Innit. Yeah, I noticed my rankings are better when not in those. Even the H2H thingy half way into the season messes up my gameplans. Usually you see a drop in my rankings.
Aah, sorry was late and I missread it probably. Find your swagger back chicken!
Yes
Yes, as in a £1,400 pc is slightly mental.
He complained about paying £5 for a FFFix subscription the other day too :p
Okay, just slightly is not bad.
Aaaargh Innit. You did not get my point, at all. :-\
I did. It’s completely insane!
No you did not. And I plan to use this one for 10 years. 😉 So it’s a future buy plus there is a monitor included.
Last desktop PC I bought in 2006, this one in 2016 and in 2026 I’ll again buy a good one.
:big-lol:
As for FFF. I like ranting, it is what I do best. I get why they ask money for the product because they have put time in it. But the concept of it all, is so very smart. First get the people to really like a product, than after a year, they must have it. 😉
They do the same with anti-virus programs and sorts of stuff. Actually also a little bit similar to ummm android gaming. They get you addicted to something, but if you really want to progress you have to pay.
My main problem is the foreign transfers though, a lot can go wrong there. And it has, in the past. FFF probbably is credible though and I really like their site.
We did the same Raz. Back in 2011. Sure you remember the post? £1 a comment from now on. You owe us £19, 780 so far
Aaah 2011? In 2011 the seed for FF247 wasn’t even placed in the female yet. :p
**Fixture Trackers Updated**
Added the full GW1-19 tracker, sans any fancy colours beyond GW6 but the full lot is there now if anyone needs it. Thanks to Mito.
https://fantasyfootball247.co.uk/fixture-tracker/
Beaut. Nice one init / mito :thumbup:
See Innit? Right now, this is way too small for me. I can’t read it, in the future I can read your stats again. Just be happy for me?
Brilliant work, thanks Mito
Hats off Mito.
Top work my friend. I don’t like the yellow. Yellow is dreadful. Who would like yellow ever?
Morning all,
So how are your teams shaping up? I know there is still 3 weeks to go, with numerous friendlies to be played and transfers still in the “offing”, but have you got a basic plan as to the structure of your squad?
Will it be defensive focused? Or maybe 3-5-2 with that array of top class midfielders? Or the normal tried and trusted 3-4-3.
And how about those strikers – given that most will go with Aguero, will your 2nd striker be a Zlatan, Sturridge, Kane priced striker or are you preferring 2 cheapies?
Discuss. I’ll get a :coffee:
Morning all I have decided tinkering & take
Morning Cooks.
You well?
I brought Zlatan in on a draft last night to play with Aguero. I actually like it.
I want a flexibility of 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 so keeping that at the forefront of my mind. Not earth shattering stuff but looking for a third striker/fifth midfielder rotation today.
Morning GP,
Am well thank you my friend, it’s Friday after all! How you doing? Any new street words for me to learn today? 😉
Interesting re Zlatan, do you find yourself satisfied with your midfield with him in your team? May I propose Saints and West Ham for you rotation?
Cookie,
Apologies – out on site there for a bit.
Yeah I have Carroll/Davis just now.
Yeah we have FPL on the horizon and it is Friday! That’s just sick 😉
Can’t look beyond Kun+Zlatan just yet. I think a viable option could be a Fletcher+mid-price 3rd striker. Some interesting picks in the 7-9m bracket, no?
Hey Web, yes for sure – plenty of options – so much so that I am wondering if it’s worth going with two plus Kun and then investing in midfield.
Morning Cookie,
I must be the only one yet to put a draft together!
Morning Kop, that was never in doubt mate!
Kopster, i ain’t.
Looks like I’m the only one planning not to have Kun or Zlatan in the squad… Interesting! I’ve gone with Lukaku as my “big” striker (changed it since yesterday so will likely change again) with Everton’s easy-ish start to the season and Koeman’s influence I hope he’ll start hot! I’ve got three expensive midfielders in De Bruyne, Payet and Hazard to get me my big points this season… Will be rotating between 4-4-2 and 3-5-2
As I was about to say before I got dragged into a management review I have stopped tinkering to stand back & see which is the way fwd
I don’t thk I will go with Kun & Ibra which a few are this makes the team very unbalanced it will be 1 or the other @ present Kun. Now do I have 4 on the bench as fodder ie 4.5m rest 4m what are peoples thoughts on this.
Silvers, I haven’t looked at creating a team yet but I very much doubt I’ll have both Kun & Ibra.
Hey Cook, right now I’m coming up with 3 drafts: one with Kun and Ibra, one with just Kun, one with none of them. I’m thinking of having a 3-5-2/3-4-3 rotation so I think a decent 3rd striker and 5th mid is the best way to go. Right now I’m thinking Feghouli and Long but I want Payet in my team so don’t think having the two of them is a good idea.