New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2016/17

New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2016/17.

So, just as we get started and gain some momentum in FPL, we are subjected to an international break and a fortnight of hoping and praying that our chosen FPL ones return from duty injury free. In the meantime, we’ll talk the time to look at some of the players who have joined new clubs recently as the transfer window prepares to close for a few more months. In the first article we take a look at four players – Christian Benteke, Claudio Bravo, Roberto Pereyra and Daryl Janmaat. Benteke and Janmaat are well known to us of course but become viable FPL choices again, while we look into the history and merits of Bravo and Pereyra who have joined the Premier League from Barca and Juventus respectively.

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Christian Benteke (Crystal Palace – striker – FPL price 7.4mln)
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[/three_fourth]Finally Palace got their man. After weeks of bidding, re-bidding, walking away, waiting and then bidding again, Liverpool eventually accepted Palace’s offer and reduced their squad size by one. And how Palace need a decent striker and indeed some quality players to ensure they don’t face a long hard season struggling against relegation. Benteke’s period at Liverpool clearly wasn’t his happiest time and he never found favour under Jurgen Klopp but he still scored nine goals in 14 league starts (and 15 substitute appearances), highlighting his quality in front of goal. He will of course be more remembered for his time at Villa where for much of his career he was the top dog, regularly appearing at the top of their scoring charts and netting 42 goals in 89 appearances. A quick glance back to his brief time at Genk pre-Villa sees Benteke score 19 goals in 37 appearances – so basically he is a striker that has scored goals wherever he has been but arguably prefers to be a “bigger fish in a smaller pond”. So the stage is set for him at Palace – he will have the likes of Andros Townsend, Wilfried Zaha, Yohan Cabaye and Jason Puncheon creating for him (hmmmm) – from a fantasy point of view it’s a shame that Yannick Bolasie left for Everton just a few days before Benteke’s arrival. However, given a price of just 7.4mln and with a glance of Palace’s up and coming fixtures, we would be happy to recommend Benteke to you for your FPL team as a cheapish 3rd striker. Tekkers made his debut on Saturday vs Bournemouth and come GW4, Palace will be hoping he is 100% fit and firing.

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Claudio Bravo (Man City – goalkeeper – FPL price 5.5mln)
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[/three_fourth]Poor old Joe Hart just wasn’t a good enough sweeper or passer of the ball. Not a huge surprise to anyone who has ever played or watched Sunday league football in the park and see the keeper hoof the ball half way up the field with a massive punt! Claudio Bravo is of course well known to Pep from their time at Barcelona. Bravo was often competing with Marc-Andre ter Stegen to be the first choice keeper and was only really signed an an experienced, competitive and reliable back-up for ter Stegen. Bravo grabbed his chance when an injury ruled out ter Stegen and eight consecutive clean sheets ensured the Chilean became no.1 for the league matches last season. This season started with both keepers fit and competing and Pep stole in and offered Bravo the chance to finally become his no.1 at City and one look at his stats fully explains Pep’s pursuit of him – last season, Bravo completed 84% of his passes; Hart completed 53%. Hart gave possession to the opposition 352 times, Bravo 142. There is no doubt that Bravo will be City’s no.1 keeper and therefore only injury will keep him from being the most guaranteed cover for City defence – sure John Stones is cheaper but has more worries of rotation or being rested.

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Watford – Roberto Pereyra (midfielder – FPL price 6.0mln) and Daryl Janmaat (defender – FPL price 5.0mln)
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[/three_fourth]Roberto Pereyra has joined Watford from Juventus as he searches for more first team football after being restricted to just 13 appearances last season, culminating in a single assist. The attacking midfielder can play on the wing, but can also play as a second striker or as an attacking midfielder. Watford manager Walter Mazzarri is excited at Pereyra’s arrival for a £10mln fee, describing the Argentinian as “eclectic” and “just what we are looking for.” Historically it has taken a while for South Americans to settle in the Premier League (look at Erik Lamela for a perfect example), so therefore we would certainly advise a “wait and watch” philosophy on Pereyra to see how he settles and indeed the short term fixtures for the Hornets are not great so we are not likely to be missing out by giving Pereyra some time to settle. Saying all that, Pereyra came off the bench to score vs Arsenal on Saturday so maybe, just maybe, he will be a quicker settler than Lamela.
Daryl Janmaat is of course better known to us from his time at Newcastle. An attacking full back, the Dutch defenders stats are pretty impressive – 3 goals and 10 assists over the course of the previous two seasons for a struggling club reads very well and shows that Janmaat is certainly worth consideration. Just like Pereyra, we would wait given Watford’s fixtures, but come GW6 those fixtures ease and Janmaat will certainly be under consideration. Priced at 5mln he joins a group that includes the likes of John Stones, Wes Morgan, Craig Dawson and Ashley Williams – so there is stiff competition at the price but if Janmaat can produce his Toon form for the Hornets then he will without doubt be snapped up by many a FPL manager.

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Thanks for reading New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2016/17. This article was written by Cookie

Follow @SteveCook9

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