Team Talk Fantasy Football – GW2 2014/15
Whether you had an excellent, average or disappointing start to the season, it’s time to put that behind you and move on – FPL waits for no-one and only looks forward, not back. Which is a result as I’m fed up of hearing about United’s failure to compete in the transfer market, Malky Mackay not quite being the victimised, sweet, innocent guy we all thought he was and Tim Sherwood pulling “out of the race” for every job going as if he’s just turned into Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Fergie all rolled into one. But, it looks like we have Mad Mario back, for entertainment purposes at least – firework suppliers have gone into overdrive and “Why Always Me?” t-shirts are, errmmmm, still selling well in Liverpool. GW2 is here and like ourselves, some teams will be looking to push on from a decent start, while for others it is time to kick-start their season. The gameweek commences on Saturday lunchtime as Aston Villa host Newcastle at Villa Park and then we have just four 3pm matches as Chelsea entertain Leicester at the Bridge, West Ham travel the short distance to Crystal Palace, Southampton welcome West Brom and Burnley visit Swansea. Everton host Arsenal in the late game. Due to their Europa League commitments Hull and Spurs host Stoke and QPR respectively on Sunday before the late game sees LVG’s United go to Sunderland, hoping for a quick turnaround. Our gameweek comes to a conclusion on Monday evening with a humdinger of a match as Man City host Liverpool at the Etihad.
So, there’s plenty to look forward to, let’s go Around the Grounds to see the latest news.
Aston Villa vs Newcastle (Sat 23 Aug 12.45)
Villa attempt to continue their good start and welcome new boys Carlos Sanchez and Joe Cole into the squad, leaving just strikers Christian Benteke and Libor Kozak on the treatment table.
Alan Pardew is delighted to be able to include Siem de Jong into the squad after the attacking midfielder recovered from a calf injury, but midfield enforcer Cheick Tiote is still a week away, despite returning to light training. Davide Santon, Ryan Taylor and Papiss Cisse remain sidelined.
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Chelsea vs Leicester (Sat 23 Aug 15.00)
As if going to Chelsea isn’t hard in itself, Leicester will have to cope without Matthew Upson, Danny Drinkwater and Matthew James. However they could welcome back Marc Albrighton and Jamie Vardy as they attempt to avoid their seventh consecutive defeat vs the Blues.
Unfortunately for the Foxes, Chelsea have no new injuries and a fully fit squad to choose from. The Special One didn’t give much away in his presser, but did offer hope to Petr Cech and others who didn’t make the team in GW1, by saying the games will be coming thick and fast soon, meaning there will be chances for the fringe players to perform. Probably in the Capital One Cup!! Ramires is available after serving his suspension.
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Crystal Palace vs West Ham (Sat 23 Aug 15.00)
Big Sam has to make do without the suspended James Collins for the trip to Palace, while strikers Diafra Sakho and Emmer Valencia continue to build up their fitness. Andy Carroll and Ravel Morrison remain unavailable and James Tomkins is struggling with a hamstring injury, but will be given every chance to recover as this would leave Winston Reid as the only fit central defender. Joey O’Brien and Carl Jenkinson are also both struggling, while Matt Jarvis has a slight chance of being available.
Palace caretaker manager Keith Millen once again takes the reins of the side and revealed that on the pitch at least, things are improving. Jonny Williams is available again, Scott Dann has an outside chance of playing, Jerome Thomas could also be available, while Adrian Mariappa has returned to training and could be in contention. Jason Puncheon is suspended. Palace have kept clean sheets in five of their last six meetings with the Hammers and reading the team news on both clubs, another Eagles shutout is on the cards.
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Southampton vs West Brom (Sat 23 Aug 15.00)
West Brom have a fully fit squad to choose from for their visit to Southampton, although new signing Joleon Lescott only took part in half of Thursday’s training, so could be eased back gently, while defender Cristian Gamboa is lacking actual match fitness and unlikely to be involved quite yet. Gareth McAuley is pushing for a recall and striker Brown Ideye is hoping to feature and make his debut for the club. Georgios Samaras, who signed for the Baggies on Friday, won’t be involved vs Southampton.
The Saints will aim for their first win under Ronald Koeman and after last week’s spirited display at Anfield, they will be confident. Ronald Koeman will need to decide whether new defender Florin Gardos is fit enough, while midfielder Gaston Ramirez is sidelined for another week. J-Rod is still missing.
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Swansea vs Burnley (Sat 23 Aug 15.00)
Having won at Old Trafford in GW1, Garry Monk needs to earn all his managerial skills to keep his player’s feet on the ground and avoid any overconfidence by taking Burnley lightly. An unchanged squad is expected, though new defender Federico Fernandez may be included if international clearance is received in time. Leon Britton, Marvin Emmes and Jay Fulton are unavailable. The Swans have signed Spurs midfielder Tom Carroll on loan for the rest of the season.
Burnley are still missing key striker Sam Vokes so Lukas Jutkiewicz will likely partner Danny Ings up front again, with manager Sean Dyche suggesting he will begin the season in an attacking formation, but accepting the need may come to shore things up if their brave style of play in top tier does not produce results after a few weeks. Vokes is the only injury, while Stephen Ward could be in line to make his debut for the club.
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Everton vs Arsenal (Sat 23 Aug 17.30)
Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Mikel Arteta has been ruled out of the trip to Goodison and said he has to “be creative” to fill his shoes – a possible midfield berth for the versatile Calum Chambers maybe? Per Mertesacker, Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski will be checked but the manager said they won’t all feature due to a lack of match fitness. David Ospina, Kieran Gibbs and Theo Walcott remain sidelined but striker Yaya Sanogo is expected to rejoin the squad after missing out on Tuesday’s CL opener.
Everton are delighted to have Seamus Coleman and Darron Gibson available again and will be missing just Bryan Oviedo, Ross Barkley and Arouna Kone as they look to repeat last season’s victory over the Gunners. Arsenal have now gone four games without beating the Toffees.
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Hull vs Stoke (Sun 24 Aug 13.30)
Hull’s new signing Robert Snodgrass will miss the best part of six months after dislocating his knee vs QPR. Only Allan McGregor and James Chester retained their starting berths for Thursday’s Europa loss, illustrating Steve Bruce’s willingness to utilise his squad for different competitions. Striker Yannick Sagbo is suspended, while Alex Bruce is a doubt after limping off during the opening day win at QPR and there are rumours he could be going to Blackburn as part of the deal which would see Jordan Rhodes sign for Hull.
On loan Victor Moses is unlikely to feature this weekend for the Potters as manager Mark Hughes says he needs to build up his fitness after a limited preseason campaign. Geoff Cameron and Peter Odemwingie are both inline for a return to the squad after being given extra rest after the World Cup, but Stephen Ireland is out and faces a fortnight on the sidelines after suffering a rib injury.
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Spurs vs QPR (Sun 24 Aug 13.30)
Jan Vertonghen made his comeback in Thursday’s Europa League match in Cyprus, with Paulinho, Ben Davies, Andros Townsend, Lewis Holtby, Harry Kane and Roberto Soldado also featuring – Davies owners will be particularly concerned with his midweek outing, meaning Danny Rose will likely retain the starting spot in the league. Kyle Naughton is suspended after being red carded in the win at West Ham. Emmanuel Adebayor and Christian Eriksen didn’t travel to Cyprus, ensuring their inclusion on Sunday, while Erik Lamela impressed as a substitute, assisting both goals.
Rangers new signing Mauricio Isla has finally received international clearance and could make his debut while striker Vargas will do likewise in GW3 once his clearance comes through. Another new signing, midfielder Leroy Fer has no such issues and will feature on Sunday. The only absentee is Adel Taarabt, who I can’t even be bothered to write about.
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Sunderland vs Man Utd (Sun 24 Aug 16.00)
Gus Poyet is expecting to welcome defenders Santiago Vergini and Billy Jones back into the squad for the visit of United – the manager said “our back four last week was a different one to the one we wanted to play – hopefully we’ll be back to basics this week”. The back four last week, fyi, was Brown, Roberge, O’Shea, van Aanholt – I would suggest this would probably means Brown replacing Roberge in the middle and Vergini to play on the right. Midfielder Emanuele Giaccherini continues to miss out with a groin injury. The Black Cats will be hoping to stop a horrendous record at home to the Reds which has seem them go winless in their last twelve meetings at the Stadium of Light.
United’s midfield continues to suffer as Ander Herrear, Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick and Jesse Lingard are all missing, while new signing, defender Marcos Rojo is not eligible to play vs Sunderland as he awaits a work permit. Better news up front as RvP is fit and available for the match, while Jonny Evans and Antonio Valencia were both spotted training yesterday.
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Man City vs Liverpool (Mon 25 Aug 20.00)
Manuel Pellegrini has said defender Eliaquim Mangala is not yet ready to play and needs more time, while City’s only other absentee is striker Alvaro Negredo – the rest of the squad is “mostly fit”, which we assume to be the World Cup players are not quite as fit as he would like, but available for selection. Speaking of Sergio Aguero, Pellegrini said the player “needs a long preseason, which is why he only played a few minutes” (at Newcastle). Both him and Frank Lampard are available for the match on Monday.
Most of the chat regarding Liverpool over the last couple of days has been about Mad Mario – at the time of writing the deal hasn’t been announced, so the crazy loon won’t play on Monday anyway, even if he signs his good behaviour clause. Oh the irony. Midfielder Lazar Markovic has recovered from his hamstring injury and will be in the squad, while Adam Lallana is making good progress with his knee injury and it is expected he will resume training on Sunday, but will obviously not make the game. Left back Alberto Moreno will also make the squad, but Jose Enrique is a doubt and Jon Flanagan will definitely miss out.
That’s your lot – good luck in GW2!
Top man Cookie, great write up as always. Thanks buddy. No late surprises in there for my lot, happy days.
Nice one NIN, cheers
Evening all,
Is this the best starting 11 for my squad or do I need to swap some bench players around?
Cheers
Hammers, good evening – I’d be tempted to play Davis over Bojan
Yeah I am slightly tempted by that, although my thinking at the moment is that hull could struggle after playing Europa last night
Bruce rested 9 of last week’s starting XI last night.
Hammers, do you not read Team Talk ?!!
hey Cookie – Chester did play though.
I do and what a well written article it is!
But as dreamers says -Chester played
he did, but I wouldn’t be too concerned at that. They won’t be getting tired yet. Later in the season, if they progress then sure.
Howdy hammers. I’d play Krul ahead of Begovic mate and one of Caulker/Chester ahead of Hutton. The rest looks fine.
Don’t fancy caulker away at spurs and have dropped Chester as I have bojan. If I dropped bojan I would defo play Chester
Krul in the sticks instead of Begovic, Stoke are rubbish away from home.
Seconding Cookie with Davis over Bojan as i’ve done the same.
Would also play Chester over Debuchy, but i understand the choices with Hull in the Europa…nobody really knows how they will cope.
I’ve play Chester over Debuchy ! – Can’t See Arsenal Keeping Clean Sheet
And drop bojan for Davis?
Hammers,
Having made a comment above to keep Debuchy on, now I feel it could be a case of the reverse. Chester at home to Stoke, and Debuchy away at Goodison. I would edge Chester
So if I play Chester I don’t really want to play bojan too coz they will cancel each other out. Would you recommend playing Davis instead?
Davis in for Bojan mate
Cheers bash, think I’m gonna go that route
So Costa has gone up 17.9% for 11,000 plus transfers in and Fabregas 7.8% for over 21000 transfers.
Anyone care to explain that one for me?
Dreamers without looking I presume the % is based on the initial ownership figures? Ergo Fabregas was owned by a much higher figure based on the lower % increase despite the higher amount of transfers in. I may be talking complete BS though
Init – seems to be the opposite to that as Costa is owned by more.
It would help if I didnt have a typo too I guess. Its 17.9% (Costa ) v 17.8% (Fab).
Costa has 1.2m owners v Fab 900k.
Wondering if the rules have changed that it increases slower % wise if already a rise in week?
Just a 10% ytpo 😉
It’s because Fabregas has gone up by 0.1 already this week. Total FPL have redone the algorithm for working out price rises (something to do with rising 200% after the first rise) and so the figures are different.
If you check TotalFPL and FISO, the % are different because FISO haven’t adjusted yet. Fabregas was on 80% on TotalFPL this morning and it suddenly changed.
At least thats what i make of it…
just what I was thinking Mr. Bean. Great minds and all that
Thanks for keeping us up to spec Cookie. Any thoughts on my team for GW2?
Bartley ahead of Collocini on the off chance he starts – better fixture and if he doesn’t play (wouldnt expect him as a sub), Collo can replace him?
Swiss,
thats looks set to me! Move Bartley behind O’Shea though as Bartley is a likely non starter
Thanks Bean and B-Bash. I brought in WP for Hoilett (rhymes with…) and then had to play him. Your defensive suggestions are solid and sound. Good GW to you both.
Swiss, is there a case of playing Mannone over De Gea?
And that is a great question. I can’t see it being a nil-nil. Utd will score a couple….surely! That said, they won’t keep the Mackems out either.
They didn’t score a couple last week and this week there is even less midfield. I’m not that confident, despite RvP returning.
Thanks for the insight. As a Utd fan I’m ever hopeful. Your reality check is timely. Ta.
Swiss, I hope I’m wrong and maybe Rooney and RvP pull it out of the bag for them. Hopefully.
Play Young away at Sunderland or Barton away at Spurs? Or ditch one and get JWP at home to WBA bearing in mind Southampton have a good run coming up.
If you’re happy with your team, JWP (or Davis) is a good call for the next few weeks.
If there are other changes you want to make in the near future, give Young a chance at Sunderland.
Thanks Mr B, no I’m all set with the rest to be honest and this is my only issue as such. New question raised then! – JWP or Davis?!
Innit,
Davis would help me towards the price rise 😉 not really sure who has the better point scoring potential…
I’d take JWP out of those 3 Init mate. Just depends if you want to be using up a transfer on it. With Rangers buying Fer, would that impact Barton?
Cookie I’m not sure. I guess Barton regardless of Fer and if you have him as I do it’s purely for set piece potential on assists so actual positioning doesn’t really matter. I doubt he follows his managers instructions too much anyway in that regard.
Yeah I’m not sure on it either, just wanted to confuse you further : hippo:
‘Arry was raving about Fer today in the presser. Does Mutch not take set pieces also. More confusion lol
I’m in a kinda similar situation myself, init. Will probably take out Young for JWP. He looks set to drop tonight, just so you know.
I would play Young at Sunderland and hold the transfer then enjoy the dilemma of 2 ft’s next week! 😉
That’s Init sorted Basher, you are like a God to him.
Lol!! Its a mutaul respect thing!!
God would have picked Puncheon when Jesus said so 😉
Damn that man! He’s in my next dgw team regardless of his form, injury or anything! I’m not missing that boat again! Cost me my top 10 place! Well, that and other things! Not that I’m bitter though………………
Sorry B! Just picking at old wounds there unnecessarily!
init – Howdy mate. I’m not a fan of Young as a FF pick so i’d ditch him for JWP and have that 0.5m in the kitty for future use.
NIN that’s exactly where I am on the issue as that 0.5 gives me some Chambers flexibility next week if that need arises.
Purely playing devils advocate, what if Young plays Sunday and has a great, ok, good, alright, mediocre game and pops with an assist or even a goal and JWP blanks? Transfer gone! He has been playing well preseason apparently and although its tempting is it not just chasing? Nearly a 1000 fpl managers have to sell him before 2 for his price to be affected before deadline. (As I understand it)
I’m only waffling like this because I had the same dilemma about selling Lovren for Clyne! 😉
Totally agree B-Bash and that’s what I’m pondering. I’m not chasing much though as JWP scored 2 points last week! This decision is a toughie and I doubt I’ll be any further on in 4 hours.
could be a long night……
True mate, chasing was the wrong word. Lets not forget that a bird poo’d in Youngs mouth last week!! That must mean something lucky, surely??
Off out now for a beer so I’ll catch up later with my FPL beer goggles on!
Speak later
init – Yeah that sounds like a good plan to me as 4.5m is a limited price bracket. Young had a decent preseason but he’s been utter shite in the Premiership for quite a while now, as the local Gulls showed last weekend
hilarious!
Hi all. Am I all set? Shame about Bego but I don’t rate Hull’s attack that highly…also, should I start Chambers? Hoping for big things from Mata and Lamela this week
Begovic (Hamer)
Terry, Coloccini, Taylor, (Chambers), (O’Shea)
Mata, Ramsey, Sigurdsson, Lamela, Fabregas
Diego Costa (c), Rooney, (Zamora)
Nice team that Pippin – Lamela was great last night when he came on by all accounts.
Thanks Cookie. I watched the highlights this morning and he looked very impressive. If QPR are still uncertain about how a back 3 works he could get some good returns with those direct runs and neat through balls.
What are your thoughts on Chambers? (anyone?)
I think you’re safe with him for another week Pippin…after that with the players returning, who knows?
yep, my thoughts too. Would you start him ahead of Colo or Taylor though? I’m a little worried Terry might miss out, if Luis is coming in for a home debut (perhaps)
Pippin, I’d probably keep with what you have above mate, to be honest
ok, thanks pal