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
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Cheers for this Cook. I’m certainly interested in Janmaat I thought he was the one good thing about a terrible Newcastle team so if he does get that form back then he would be a very good option.
Not sure if I’d bust my gut over City defensive cover just yet. I want to see them improve defensively and maybe Bravo can aid in that but he’s not going to keep every shot out so it’s up to the lads in front of him to limit chances, which right now I’m not sure they can do.
@Matt, they haven’t been that bad. A touch unlucky is probably more the case. All 3 games they lost their CS in the 2nd half. One was on a dumb penalty. They are only allowing 8 Shots per game, so they are certainly limiting their opponents.
A team that most of us would agree have played well defensively is Hull, they are allowing about 23 shots per game.
City kind of reminds me of Spurs from last season so far. If you looked at the underlying stats, they should have had more CSs, they were a good defensive side. Very frustrating though, so I wouldn’t blame anyone for selling City defenders. Kompany close to being back will make things interesting.
Hmm didn’t know those stats. I guess it just seems that they aren’t playing well defensively maybe because they are more open due to attacking so much whereas with Hull we can clearly see them sitting back and defending.
I sold Stones this week for Williams and it paid off but if Bravo comes in and greatly improves the defence than Stones may come back in at some point.
It’s a miracle, Jakupovic has risen.
Or whatever he’s called. After a week promise by FFF and FPL statistics. 
No he hasn’t he’s still 4.0 mil and I was literally just looking at it.
Jakupovic has gone up, took them a while
Ah right now I understand what you guys mean. He’s still only 4 mil when you try sell him though.
It says he it still 4.0 to me as well, are you guys looking at the statistics site?
And he’s probably just about to lose his place as well Raz
RMWCT Please
Foster Jakupovic
Shaw Williams Morgan Evans Amat
Hazard Sterling Lamela Redmond Capoue
Kun Ibra Negredo
Any suggestion regarding the team would be very much appreciated
Looks good but keep an eye on Lamela and Kun to see what their fate will be.
hochoki
Yep, what Matt says.
Hi all, what do people think will happen regarding Lamela and Aguero? Very tempted to ditch both, bringing in Sterling for Lamela and Costa/Kane (is Dembele back?) for Aguero. This would mean Aguero is easy to bring back in. So annoyed my coin toss of Everton mid/Sterling landed on the ‘Mersey-side’ but that’s FPL, and Barkley’s fixtures are awesome
Gray, Lamela and Aguero in the same team – thank god I don’t have long term injuries to contend with too and 2FTs!
That’s unlucky AT but we will just have to wait till about lunchtime today. I’d imagine we’ll hear something by then even if it’s just that the FA are looking into it.
Matt, I’m actually not too bothered currently. It would give me an excuse to ‘diversify’ my team and that can only be seen as a good thing. Worst case scenario is all three get 2/3 games but that would only be a 4 point hit (and that’s if I decide to bin all three). Let’s just hope the Int’l break is a steady one!
Yeah I have Gray and Kun and 2 FTs so I’m alright anyway but Lamela was one player I was planning on bringing in.
Spurs have looked distinctly average so far, which surprises me given their pre-season form (classic pre-season haha). Lamela has been their only positive note. It’ll be interesting to see the difference upon Dembele’s return.
AT, I agree Spurs have been strange so far this season. I think with Dembele back we could see Kane start to score again so maybe then they will kick on.
Yo AT, also got Lamela and Kun and Gray. I also have ummm 2 FT’s. A 3 match ban for Kun would really make things interesting for us.
Hey Raz. Yeah it really would. I’d like to see teams a bit more varied. Defoe, Sterling and Costa/Kane ssounds quite appealing to me.
I was more thinking in the lines of getting Sanchez and the other City striker which name I can’t spell. Sounds like carpaccio though. 😉
Good idea also Raz.
£0.2m off Sanchez, Iheanacho and Costa. Ouch.
Lol, I can actually just make that move. :p
Omg,that would have me Gray/Kun/Lamela replaced. But I doubt that all 3 will get a ban.
Wow, that is some move. Might have to be Ozil for me..
Thanks Blue, I thought Pereyra would be able to do more in Europe, he was young when he left for Europe and looked to have a promising future, but his arrival to Watford is probably not a great sign, in particular since he was at Juve.
Will keep my eye out though, maybe he will start to resemble the River Plate promise he showed once.
I haven’t given up hope Mito, Saturday was a nice start
for him, he’ll be backed by the manager and has some good fixtures from GW6 onwards by which time he should be 100% settled.
Just noticed that the FA Cup third round is two PL games away, meaning that any three game suspensions would be completed by GW5, yes? Would be painful to remove Aguero for just two weeks!
Shrugs, wildcard in GW6?
We have 2 again this season right? One we have to use before the winterstop? Or am I wrong?
Yeah think so Raz.
Correct Raz
You can wait using your wildcard but that rarely works out. I think I actually did it in GW3 or gw5 last season. With a little luck you can pick up certain players cheap and build teamvalue. GW6 is usually also a good indicator whom the players to get are. But we’ll see. He’s not even banned yet. :p
Yes AT, he would only miss 2 FPL weeks if he is suspended for 3 games.
Cheers Mito, I’d still bin him!
AT
To clarify, that’s the League Cup you mean?
yeah probably GP haha
Too many bloody cups and shields and what not. No wonder the players are exhausted at the end of the season. It’s crazy. Also take into account the Christmas matches. The clubs in England have way too much money too spend but damn… the other way around… >.< They must be tired as fuck. Especially if Wenger is your manager, I'd drop out injured before even looking at the pitch. :p