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Archive for July, 2012|Monthly archive page

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Fantasy Premier League | Early Trends M

In Player Projection, Pre-Season, Strategy on July 31, 2012 at 11:29 pm

14.5% of Fantasy Premier League managers believe that Clint Dempsey will be staying with Fulham. The £9.5m rated midfielder led all fantasy premier league midfielders with 209 points. His 17 goals and 7 assists led his strong campaign, helped only incidentally by the 11 cleansheets. Indeed, for player who scored as frequently as he did, Dempsey did not earn many FPL bonus points. Clint took only 22 FPL bonus points (one less than the ’10-11 season). His 22 was good for seventh, behind Van Persie (45), Rooney (37), Adebayor (31), Aguero (30), Van der Vaart (27) and Ba (25). A move to Liverpool can not sustain this type of production as Dempsey would likely have his shooting curtailed by Brendan Rodgers’ tiki-taka approach. In a recent post at EPL Index, Dempsey was compared to the top forwards and wide attacking players. While there is plenty of good to take from the analysis, Dempsey is not as good at creating chances and too quick to take a shot from poor position, which leads to a poor chances conversion rate.  Last season he was at 16%,

Moving to Anfield?

while other top scorers Van Persie (21%), Rooney (23%) and Aguero (22%) were more economical with their shots. With Luis Suarez already poised to play in the center of the front “3″, it is most likely the addition of Dempsey would be to play a wide attacking role alongside the Uruguayan.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Fantasy Premier League | Early Trends D

In Player Projection, Pre-Season, Strategy on July 29, 2012 at 6:08 pm

Off the top of your head, which defenders scored more than 2 goals last season? How about an easier question? How many defenders scored more than 2?  It is a short list led by Arsenal’s Vermaelen and Chelsea’s Terry, each with 6. Below them are are just 7 other players: Baines (4), Kompany, Boyce, Caldwell, Huth, Cahill and Ivanovic (3). Only 18 defenders posted more than 2 assists, with the top number again coming in at 6: Evra, Ashley Cole, Ryan Taylor and Richards. 14 defenders posted 12 or more clean sheets. Just 15 had 10 or more bonus points, with Leighton Baines and John Terry leading the way with 18. Contrast that with midfielders where 38 players had 10 or more Fantasy Premier League bonus points, led by van der Vaart’s 27. And again with forwards, where Aguero (30), Adebayor (31), Rooney (37) and van Persie (45) earned nearly 1/3 the points of Kompany’s entire total in bonus points alone.

The top point earned? Vincent Kompany, who scored 3 times, assisted 2, posted 15 clean sheets and managed 12 bonus points. Kompany, priced £7.5m, is currently the most owned defender despite the high price. City’s opening schedule does favour owning one of their defenders but Lescott £6.5 or Richards/Clichy £6.0 are more economical. Playing a City defender has the added cost of taking 1/3 of your slots for that side. Early, this is not an issue as the rotation in the other positions may not be established. However, later in the season, a move away from City’s defenders to capitalize on more valuable assets elsewhere remains a good strategy.

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Fantasy Premier League | Early Trends GK

In Player Projection, Pre-Season, Strategy on July 29, 2012 at 2:03 am

This Early Trends post will focus on ownership of Goalkeepers. Perhaps not the most interesting of positions, you buy an expensive one, you buy a cheap one, and fingers crossed for the clean sheet, yeah?

However Goalkeeper can provide an excellent opportunity to reap early rewards and play a bit of modified arbitrage. For those who bought early on Vorm last season, the ability to reap the 2nd highest point total from a presumed Fantasy Premier League reserve was one of two options. There were also those who chose to sell high on the ‘keeper, presuming that the Swans defensive streak could not be maintained. The extra funds gained in the sale of Vorm provided the opportunity to purchase higher priced ‘keeper with the expectation that they would hold the value gained by Vorm. This can also work in the short term. With prices set to fluctuate early, jumping on the goalkeepers that have a quality early schedule, coupled with a low initial price, can provide an extra £0.5 to £1m to play with early. Taken in the context of this season, purchasing Vorm at £5.5 based on a strong opening schedule and 17.6% ownership could see a rise to at least the £6.0 of de Gea and Reina, and perhaps as high as the £6.5 of Cech.

Why yes, this is photo-shopped.

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Fantasy Premier League Transfer In

In Pre-Season, Squad Sheet, Strategy on July 24, 2012 at 7:56 pm

Several clubs have already made high profile additions this summer. Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal and more have added new talent in advance of the new season. Which of these players are priced to buy? Probably not Shinji Kagawa.

It hurts to say that Kagawa will not be worth the price of admission. His price opened at £8.5m. That is the same price as teammate Ashley Young. In his first season at Old Trafford, Young was solid if unspectacular for Fantasy Premier League managers. Embarking on 19 successful dribbles in 1565′ is impressive, but it doesn’t fill up the stat sheet where it matters. Still, his 6 goals and 11 assists are impressive for 1/2 a seasons worth of minutes on the pitch. With both Valencia and Nani still slated to earn full playing time, and priced equally at £9m, there will be fewer EPL opportunities for the new boy to prove himself. We’re expecting a successful campaign, and you can read more about his statistical outlook in Cooper’s post at EPL Index: Shinji Kagawa.

Arsenal are once more in the midst of summer turmoil as questions over Robin van Persie’s future. Joining Arsene Wenger’s side are Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud.  Both are, correctly, rated as forwards with Podolski £0.5m behind the £9m rated Giroud. You can read a statistical preview of their season at EPL Index: Giroud and Podolski.  The rating as a forward for each certainly diminishes their value if RvP stays and continues to play the centre-forward role. Read the rest of this entry »

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Fantasy Premier League Initial Reactions

In Player Projection, Pre-Season, Strategy, Uncategorized on July 23, 2012 at 7:14 pm

After looking through all of the statistics, player prices and an eye on the transfer market, these are the players that stick out.  A lot of what we’re writing in this is base on our two posts from last season, 5 Years of EPL Goal Scorers and 5 Years of Assists.  Those trends are worth reading or rereading – but be forewarned we touted Dirk Kuyt to get off the mark quickly.

Manchester United’s midfield is going to cost you.  Gone are the day when you could buy Valencia for £7m and ride his assists up the table.  Valencia and Nani are priced £9m, with Young right behind at £8.5m. Undoubtedly fueled by memories of United’s opening five games last year that saw Manchester United run out to a 5-0-0 record, beating Arsenal and Chelsea and scoring 21 goals. This season starts well with Everton, Fulham, Southampton and Wigan. We’re expecting a quick start again but remain cautious on expecting too many goals from the midfield:

However, we fully expect that at least 5 players will score 7-8 goals, including Nani and Ashley.  The value in United’s player come from their total play, and both Nani and Ashley look to be good value to score additional fantasy points with assists.

That proved to be the right assessment with the Red Devils boasting Rooney (27), Chicharito (10), Welbeck (9), Nani (8), and Berbatov (7). The assists also aided a number of the attacking options with Antonio Valencia led the squad with 14 assists (and added 4 goals) which saw his value rise all the way to £8.3m. However, together with Nani, he sets the bar in the United midfield at an opening price of £9m.  Ashley Young remains a better value, priced £0.5m less despite scoring 6 goals and assisting in his inaugural season at Old Trafford. Read the rest of this entry »

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2012-13 Fantasy Premier League Now Open

In Pre-Season on July 22, 2012 at 3:47 pm

The Official Fantasy Premier League Game is now open and accepting registration.

 

To Join the Fantasy Gaffer League Use Code: 144781-42820.

 

Of Course – the start of the new season is as good an excuse as any to use our favourite image.

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