Cooper

Archive for October, 2011|Monthly archive page

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Last Minute Tinkers, cont…

In Squad Sheet, Strategy on October 28, 2011 at 11:24 pm

Ashley Young could miss the clash with Everton as his toe looks set to keep him out. The Official Fantasy Premier League has him at 50%. The Manchester United site still just says that he will be assessed on Friday and we’re at a loss for other constructive news at the moment. If you’ve got him, start him but put the armband elsewhere. United is about to get into the easier portion of their schedule and all Red Devils are looking to be good buys once they finish this trip to Goodison.  Danny Welbeck got the start in the last EPL match but we’re assuming that this one will feature Chicharito and Rooney returning once more to Everton.  Owen and Berbatov played well in the Carling Cup and they may be used this weekend as Sir Alex needs to keep one eye on the Champions League match.

Everton are missing Cahill, Neville, and Drenthe (suspension) and will need to find someway to contain the United attack while still getting Leighton Baines involved in the attack.  We’ve written before but Baines is not worth the money he cost as scoring is hard to predict. Either you need to stick with him every match or you risk missing out. Of course, this season there has been little to miss out on. Last season he notched 5 goals and 11 assists. This season he has just one goal.  If you haven’t cut ties with him already, do so now.

Rooney is not the only striker returning to unwelcoming fans as Darren Bent will make his return to the Stadium of Light to face a Sunderland side that he eschewed for greener pastures last winter window.  Barry Bannan is suspended by the club and may be replaced in the starting XI by Jermain Jenas.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Last Minute Tinkers: Guess Who’s Back?

In Squad Sheet, Strategy on October 28, 2011 at 6:51 pm

Back Again. Nando’s back…tell your friends.

Cooper has an article to be posted shortly at EPLIndex that examines the role Fernando Torres has played at Liverpool and Chelsea over the past four seasons and we’re not sold on him as a significant value for fantasy premier league managers moving forward. In the short term, however, we like his form and for those looking to take a punt on the three home games in the next four.

Chelsea will not be without Jose Bosingwa as Chelsea have decided against appealing the red card that was questionably awarded against him in the match with QPR.  Chelsea did managed a win midweek, 2-1 over Everton at Goodison, and the squad for the Carling Cup featured on David Luiz and Anelka from AVB’s regular starting XI’s.  With Drogba facing suspension it will be Torres, Mata and likely Sturridge in the front 3 for CFC. The Blues do have a Champions League match but we’re not expecting much rest for the first choice players ahead of the trip to Genk as Chelsea handed Genk a 5-0 loss last time out and the Blue have taken 7 of 9 possible points from their first three group matches.

The Blue will be hosting the Gunners, themselves perhaps looking to the visit from Marsielle on 1 November, and Arsenal will not have the luxury of resting Robin van Persie at the start of this match.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Streaks

In Strategy on October 26, 2011 at 2:23 pm

This season has seen a number of interesting streaks continued into gameweek 9.

Chelsea have now allowed a goal in eight straight EPL fixtures.  With Arsenal visiting this weekend it looks a good bet to be nine and owners of David Luiz, Ash Cole, John Terry and Petr Cech have to be frustrated.  Terry has managed two goals but having scored just three all of last season those points can not be expected to continue.  Similarly, Cole’s two assists have provided the only relief from a string of 0-2 point fantasy premier league performances from the left back.  Chelsea have been regressing defensively for the past three seasons having posted clean sheet totals of 22, 18 and then 15 last season.  This year they have just 1 in 9 and would need to keep a clean sheet every other match for the rest of the season to make a run at surpassing their 15 of a year ago. 

Danny Graham has scored in three straight games for Swansea since breaking his duck. In that span he’s accumulated 26 of his 35 FPL points this season and he has been a bright spot in an unfortuate run that saw the Swans claim just 4 points from 9 when 6 or 7 would have been possible.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Weekend Recap: Sunday

In Squad Sheet on October 23, 2011 at 4:55 pm

Sunday’s matches provided a good deal more excitement than Saturday, unless you’re a fan of Wolves or Norwich. Or Manchester United. But then, United’ve hardly any supporters.

So it was 6 stuck past de Gea and frankly without his excellent handling of the ball and solid positioning on several other efforts there was little else keeping City from topping United’s 8 goal romp against Arsenal.  Assists for Lescott, Richards, Silva, Milner x2, and Dzeko.  The latter also scored twice, could have had two more while playing just 30′.  Silva bossed the match, he made at least one goal that Milner assisted, and his splendid long ball to Dzeko in added time finally earned him a fantasy premier league assist.  He had scored earlier in the match, with the other three goals going to Kun and a brace for Balotelli.  United were out of the match once Jonny Evans saw red, and there was no disputing the call as he hauled down Balotelli only steps from the edge of the box after the Italian was past him and clear through on goal.

This will be an interesting match for United to rebound from.  There were plenty of short tempers in the waining minutes with Rooney visably upset at his teammates.  He had dropped back into the midfield in the final 10′ or so but even the additional presence did nothing to stem the tide. Read the rest of this entry »

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Weekend Recap: Saturday

In Squad Sheet on October 22, 2011 at 7:55 pm

Saturday was a bad day for many parties. It was a bad day for Swansea City as the inexplicably collapsed after 84′ and allowed Wolves to score twice in two minutes and nearly find the winner in stoppage time.  It was a bad day for Luis Suarez who had an off day when an inform effort would have found him with at least a hat trick.  It was a bad day for referees who gave a red card for a phantom elbow against Aston Villa’s Herd. And finally it was a day day for Shane Long who had to be taken off of the pitch after 20′ with injury and is going for scans to determine the extent.

For West Bromwich Albion it was a good effort that saw them earn the full three points.  They scored twice on Chris Brunt corners after  Brunt had earlier missed a penalty, badly. Very, very badly. But he and the Baggies took full advantage of the referee’s mistake in dismissing Chris Herd for little cause.  At the time of the red, Villa was already up 1-0 following Darren Bent’s penalty kick .  Gabby Agbonlahor earned the penalty with a strong run and Bent converted easily though he had squandered several chances in the match, both before and after his goal, and this match will not inspire much confidence in fantasy premier league managers.

WBA did not add to their tally of clean sheets and still remain some way from their target of double digits that Roy Hodgson has set for his side. Read the rest of this entry »

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Last Minute Tinkers: Sunday

In Squad Sheet, Strategy on October 21, 2011 at 7:59 pm

Sunday will see five more matches including  both the Manchester and West London derbies but before we get to them we need to look at our pick for Captain for a third successive week.

13, 2, and 12 are the point totals for Robin van Persie over the past three weeks and we believe that he’s in line for another double digit return this weekend.  RvP’s numbers look good across the board, although his recent form has seen his price rebound to £12.1m as his ownership approaches 10%.  Teammate Aaron Ramsey, he of the last second Champions League winner, is fit again and ready to return to the starting 11. With a goal and three assists in the past four EPL fixtures, Ramsey is an excellent value at £6.5m  Arsenal have won five of their last six in all competitions and they will host a Stoke side also coming off of a midweek match. If you own Gunners, you need to play them this weekend, from Szczesny to Gervinho, but they will need to present more effort to top Stoke as Arsene Wenger’s men have lost their last two EPL matches following Champions League fixtures including their 4-3 loss to Blackburn.  The difference here will be the home stadium, as their previous to EPL matches following CL matches were on the road and we believe that Stoke will likely not present much opposition this weekend.

Kenwyne Jones hasn’t played a full EPL 90′ since August 28th.  He returned to play 90′ and score against Maccabi Tel-Aviv.  Also scoring in that match was Cameron Jerome who earned a second yellow and was sent off before half-time.  Following their last two Europa league fixtures they’ve lost 4-0 to Sunderland and 2-0 to Swansea, both matches away. Read the rest of this entry »

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Last Minute Tinkers: Saturday

In Squad Sheet, Strategy on October 21, 2011 at 6:11 pm

Last Minute Tinkers will be split Saturday/Sunday this week but two quick suspension notes: Torres still out for his red and Lucas has picked up a one match for 5 yellows.

This week sees two big sides face off against one another on Sunday but the fantasy premier league table will be unlikely to fluctuate much with the result of the Manchester derby as ownership continues to be high for the key players on both sides.  However, astute managers can fill their starting XI with lesser owned players facing lesser opposition this weekend.  This will start with Swansea traveling to Molineaux to play a Wolverhampton side that has not managed a point in League play since game week 3.  Wolves will be without Steven Fletcher and that severely limits their attacking potential as Fletcher has three of Wolves six goals this season. This will be the polar opposite of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object as Swansea have yet to take a point on the road.  However, Brendan Rodgers has stated publicly that last weekend was an unacceptable performance and we’re expecting to see Swansea turn in a Liberty Stadium quality performance, earning the victory and the clean sheet.

The fact that we’re picking Swansea to hold Wolves scoreless at home has also sounded the death knell for any Wolves players still on your roster, including Fletcher as injury will keep him out the better part of the month.  While ownership for the Swans backline has been limited to Williams and Taylor, that can be extended to include Rangel (£4.5m) this weekend and next as Swansea will host Bolton in a weeks time.  Additionally, we would deploy our Swans in the starting XI this week including Michele Vorm, Scott Sinclair and Danny Graham. Read the rest of this entry »

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Champions League Day 6

In Squad Sheet on October 20, 2011 at 12:19 am

Sadly, we did not pick up Fernando Torres in our Champions League fantasy best XI, and our CL team languishes.  However, for the Spaniard it was two goals against Genk as Chelsea managed to stick five past Laszlo Koteles.  The Blues looked fine dealing with obviously inferior opposition as they took some 27 shots with 12 finding the frame.

It was not a typical Chelsea starting XI, though perhaps simply for the number of changes made it was typical.  Peter Cech, David Luiz, Ivanovic, Cole (Ferreira 45′),  Bosingwa (Alex 78′), Romeu, Lampard (Kalou 68′), Meireles, Malouda, Torres and Anelka all saw the pitch in the win.

The goals came early and often with Cole assisting Meireles on 8′, Lampard assisting Torres on 11′, Meireles turning provider for Torres on 27′ and Malouda creating a goal for Ivanovic on 42′.  With little reason to worry it was a halftime substitution for Ashley Cole and shortly after for Lamaprd.  There are only a handful of players who played today that are likely to be in the starting XI against QPR this weekend with Sturridge, Mata, and Mikel all left on the bench today.

Torres is still suspended in the EPL although his form today will give fantasy premier league managers pause.  The rampant sell-off of Torres in the Official FPL has seen his price drop all the way to £10.4m from it’s starting price of £11m.  Coming off of his suspension Torres will be eligible for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, and then a trip to Blackburn before back-to-back home fixtures against Liverpool and Wolves. Read the rest of this entry »

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Champions League Day 5

In Squad Sheet on October 19, 2011 at 1:27 am

United and City each earned vital Champions League victories with United needing a pair of penalty kicks and City relying on an o.g. and a goal late in added time to secure the three points.

For City there are a number of positive points for fantasy premier league players. Not the least of the highlights was the second half introduction of Kun Aguero and his 90+3′ goal.  It was proper build up and David Silva returned to his club side showing the form that resulted in 2 goals for his national side a week ago.  There isn’t much to report except that Kun looks healthy, David Silva and Nasri returned to the starting lineup and Lescott, Kompany, Kolarov and Zabeleta took the defensive duties.  This match was a required victory for City and it is hard to tell is Mancini selected his team with an eye on the weekends showdown with United.  The match looms over the early season fixture list and we’re expecting to see a return to the back four for Clichy and Richards, as well as Gareth Barry replacing Adam Johnson. However midfielders de Jong, Toure, Silva and Nasri should all be set to feature – we’re presuming that both Dzeko and Aguero will start up front as the Blues look to exploit the many weaknesses in the Red Devils back line.

For Manchester United it was another day of mixed successes.  Ferguson’s team have had any number of joint highs and lows as they’ve taken vital wins only to lose key players to injury. Today’s match saw the return to action of several players recently returned to fitness asChris Smalling and Nemanja Vidic started in the back line with Evra and Fabio. Read the rest of this entry »

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Wolves: Losses and Injuries

In Squad Sheet on October 18, 2011 at 5:33 pm

Poor Wolves. Following back-to-back wins to open the season Wolverhampton have been unable to secure more than a single point (that coming game week 3) as they’ve lost five on the trot. Add to that this news coming from their official website that both Kevin Foley and Steven Fletcher will be out for at least the two weeks, and likely closer to a month.

For Foley this is just another setback in his return to fitness as he’s managed 74′ and hasn’t played since game week 3.  For Fletcher this represents his second spell on the sidelines after he missed the home fixture to QPR and got 45′  the next match against Liverpool.  He had scored in each of the two matches prior to last weekends trip to WBA and this injury will see Wolves lose their leading goal scorer. In fact, Fletcher’s 3 goals equals the rest of the teams effort with Jarvin, Doyle and Ward each chipping in a single goal to the cause.  With 7 points after eight EPL fixtures Wolves are in dire straights and will face Swansea and Manchester City in their next two.

The Swans weren’t able to earn their first road point last weekend, now 4 losses in 4 played away from Liberty, and will be looking to add to Mick’s misery this weekend.  For fantasy premier league managers this was the last player from the Wolves starting XI that could justify a spot in your own sXI and Fletcher’s absence further weakens any prospect of playing either Jarivs or Doyle. Both of those players are on 2 point per match runs that stretch back to game week 3 with Jarvis notably earning 3 and 1 to keep his average at 2 FPL points a week.