Fantasy Premier League

The Week Ahead

Thu Apr 17 04:30PM

The fantasy season has two really difficult stretches.  The first of these is the beginning of the campaign and the difficulty comes in due to the fact that clubs are working in new players and none of us really have much of a sense - beyond some obvious candidates - who is going to start, who is going to produce, and who is going to disappoint.  Fantasy managers pull out a lot of hair when the prized new acquisition (purchased on the cheap in the fantasy game) starts out on the bench as he "learns the English game."

We are firmly in the middle of that second difficult stretch.  The close of the season - most teams know how they are going to finish and no one knows for sure what the agenda is.  Do you want to finish strong with your strongest team and maximize the amount of prize money and momentum that you bring into the summer and the start of next year?  Do you want to evaluate younger and/or fringe players for spots in next year's squad? Do you want to rest the cornerstones of your team so they don't pick up a longterm injury in a relatively meaningless match?  Do you want to keep pushing forward to reassure the base of supporters that the team is putting forth maximum effort in return for the money that those supporters are spending to come down to the stadium.   As you might imagine, predicting which of these paths a particular club is going to go down on any given week is not the easiest task in the world.  If you'd been on the other end of Jeremy's IMs when he discovered that Lampard and Hilario weren't starting against Wigan on Monday - you'd get the idea.

Why do I mention this?  It is meant to underscore the value of certainty that your players will actually play when you build your team.  This means looking for situations where clubs still have something to play for and/or where the club doesn't have other options at a specific position.  As I mentioned last week, the alternative is to find specific players who have something to play for but as I look back on those suggestions, the one thing that those players can't control is whether they are selected to play (see Crouch, Peter).

So, who fits the bill?  Fulham, Bolton, Birmingham, Reading, and Pompey.  Chelsea and Everton would both be in this category as well but since neither has a match this coming week, we'll ignore them for the purposes of this discussion.

Throw in the fact that West Ham has Derby at home and is likely to want to use this as a chance to build some momentum, you have your list of teams that you should be looking to choose from.  Of the rest, Liverpool is the biggest worry having very little to play for in the Prem (having essentially secured their Champions League place with Everton's draw against Brum last weekend) and having a big Champions League date with Chelsea next week.

Hard to say what ManYoo will do in this spot.  It will depend a lot on the outcome of today's match.  If Chelsea win and are only two points back, you have to figure ManYoo will put a close-to-full-strength squad out against Rovers.  If Chelsea don't secure full points, then ManYoo probably rests CRon, Rooney, and Rio and hopes that the rest of the group is good enough to win anyway.

So, with all that thought process out of the way, here goes...

Strikers
McBride, McFadden, Zarate, Ashton, Sears, Walcott, Bendtner, Babel, and Defoe. 

If Chelsea wins today, then look to Rooney as a premium-priced striker.  He's due for one of his crazy 2 goal, an assist, and a bunch of shots on target type of performances.

Midfielders
Not too much to love here...Kranjcar, Dempsey, Davies (S. Davies from FUL, that is), Downing, Nani, Mullins, Parker, and Muntari.

Defenders
Steinsson, MTaylor, Paintsil, McCartney, Ridgewell, Spector, and Murphy (David, from Brum).

Keepers
At 5.15, you have to like Lehmann unless Almunia completely recovers and is thrown back into the mix.  Otherwise, at the really cheap end of things, Schwarzer is the only other particularly interesting option (and that goes against the theory of betting on teams that have something to play for).  If you can get your budget there, Robert Green is probably the next best bet going against a Derby squad who just can't have much left in the tank after a draining season of frustration topped off by the destruction at home to Villa last weekend.

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