Just to Recap
Mon Jul 07 11:14PM
It's been a while since I managed to get online and blog - throw in the hangover from Euro2008 being over (and what a great tournament it was), some holidays here in the States, and the general lack of any substantial activity on the transfer market, and there hasn't been a ton to write about just yet.
That said, for my own sanity, I wanted to start keeping better track of who will be available for relatively cheap when it comes time to pick your first XI of the new fantasy season. I also wanted to mention to everyone who is sticking it out with us over the summer that I got a little bit of a preview of the changes that Yahoo has been making while we've been resting and I'm very excited by what I've seen so far. I think we should all have the chance to check it out later this month. Until then, take my word for the fact that the interface will be much improved - especially when it comes to making changes and searching for replacements. It may have taken a while but our voices have been taken into consideration and some big improvements are in the offing.
With that said, here's the list of guys to consider for your line-up so far...
+10 Status (no-brainers)
- Modric - looks like he'll be a points machine in this game between freekicks, assists, and some goals.
- Bosingwa - he's going to start in what will likely continue to be a great Chelsea defence (assuming Terry is healthy and Carvalho stays).
- Deco - big name, should be similar to but not quite as productive as Cesc in fantasy terms - I'm guessing he'll be a 7 - 8 point/game guy which isn't bad if he's cheap
Worth Looking At
- Liverpool Wing Defenders (Degen and Dossena) - There are so many people who could end up playing wingback for Liverpool, its hard to say how to evaluate these guys. If both start, there aren't going to be many better deals at the beginning of the season. If not, you'll be pulling your hair out.
- Giovanni - not new to the Prem but likely to get a lot more PT at Hull than he did behind Elano at Citeh. Could be a Koumas or Andy Reid-like figure at the bottom of the table.
- Gera -depends on whether he is listed as a defender or a midfielder. At the back, he's not a bad bit of busines, in midfield, not so much.
- Dos Santos - Depends on the rest of the Summer activity up top at Spurs, if Berbs and Keane are on the way out, he might have a chance to start. If one or both of the more established players stay, then Dos Santos is likely a 3rd or 4th striker and not of much interest unless you're in a Carling Cup fantasy league (if such things exist).
- Gutierrez - I'm going to wait a few weeks to see what happens at NUFC but worth keeping your eye on.
- Jo - So hard to decide what to think about everything going on at Citeh but here's what we do know...between Elano and MPet, there will be service and Sparky knows how to get a lot out of his strikers. He's not +10 material quite yet but depending on the number of high profile new arrivals, he might start moving in that direction.
- Ramsey - nice to hear from the young man that he's targeting a starting spot from day one but you have to agree that would be something of a stretch. Given the lack of true wingers at the Emirates, its worth watching but lets not get too carried away.
On the horizon, we'll hopefully have the following additional choices to think about but those will be evaluated once they come to fruition...
- ManYoo Striker - will it be someone good enough to push Rooney to an attacking midfield role? Will it be a foreign import? or will SAF raid a competitor to the chagrin of that club's supporters and fantasy managers everywhere?
- Chelsea Winger(s) - they do need some eventually, no?
- Chelsea Striker - will they finally manage to recruit a striker who provides instant impact for fantasy managers? (or in real life for that matter)
- Nasri? Can we please just get this one over with?
- Arshavin? Only question is whether he's coming to England and, if so, with whom?
- Spurs Striker? Funny looking at the list of people associated with Spurs so far this Summer, big list. Anyone who thinks they know what might happen, please let us know.
- Liverpool winger? It doesn't seem like it should be this difficult to attract talent to a Top 4 team on the rise in the "best league in the world" now does it?
- Villa right back? This is finally going to be the year they get one?
- Sunderland striker? Someone needs to replace Kenwyne's impact if they're going to stay afloat until January.
Anyway, just some random thoughts on a Monday to keep you tided over until something substantial happens in the wonderful world of football.
E-mail this story
IM this storyWhile Modric was the PK taker to Croatia, Srna (the BEST buy in the Euro2008 game, thank you very much) took all the free- and corner-kicks. Not sure that will be any different at Spurs with the linkes of Jenas and THud still around.
From jspitzberg on Tue Jul 08 12:06AMJeremy/Neal, do you think tht Bosingwa will be a regular starter for Chelsea? Whose position is he replacing? I'm not a Chelsea fan... not familiar with the position of each player.
From p.harry15 on Tue Jul 08 05:38AMre (2) Bosingwa is likely to be the first choice right back for Chelsea. I would have thought that Dos Santos will play a larger role than 4th choice striker, he must have preferred sitting on Barcelona's bench to sitting on the Spurs bench? I think Ramos must have made some sort of guarantee about being given a chance, possibly on the right of midfield for Lennon?
Looks like Finnan will be off to Villa now, that closes off any +10 potential there. Villa need to get a new keeper from somewhere though, that could offer some potential.
From the_evo_master on Tue Jul 08 09:55AMre (3): I think Ramos plans to play Dos Santos on the left side of an attacking midfield, he is after all left footed
From nikargiropoulos on Tue Jul 08 05:30PMgomez bale woodgate king hutton dos santos modric jenas malbranque keane berbatov should be starting line up if none sold or injured
From sophiesmightymacs on Tue Jul 08 06:46PMI can't believe you didn't mention Heurelho Gomes in this post. If he plays like he did for PSV during the last four years, he will outclass any EPL keeper in fantasy points - mark my words. He's pretty much earned PSV the last four titles. He held a clean sheet in 60 percent of his Eredivisie-matches. No other goalie has ever achieved that (not even vd Sar). And you all saw him play against TOT and ARS in UEFA matches. End of rant.
From mboots on Wed Jul 09 12:52PMThe Dream Team league is back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From gareth.dawkins on Wed Jul 09 01:54PMAwesome, it's back and it looks very good, the whole layout and and ability to search/filter players has improved x1000000!!!
From nikargiropoulos on Wed Jul 09 03:13PMhmmm, at first look these values seem confusing, you buy a player and he shows up at a different value in your team, but still, its good to have it back!!!
From petegoddard11996655 on Wed Jul 09 03:50PMRE Heurelho Gomes being part of the post...I couldn't find confirmation that his move is official (i was using Football365.com's list of transactions as my summary). I know the move was close but didn't see it as official (sort of like Nasri for Arsenal). If he does finally go official (or its just an oversight at F365) then my thought is that he'd be a great bargain IF Spurs nail down their central defence. Right now, any Spurs keeper is undermined by the fact that their two good central defenders - Woody and King - are more likely than not to be hurt and the replacements have shown themselves to be, well, not good.
From neal_thurman on Wed Jul 09 05:15PMCan anyone tell me what the deal is with the pricing thing on the new layout..it's a little confusing...e.g I buy a player from 12 mil and in my team line up it says 'bought for 8.65 mil'...anyone know why this is? Other than that it all looks great though
Also how long do we have to wait for the likes of the Jo and Deco transfers to be updated?From ketzz on Wed Jul 09 05:35PMnot a fan of the new format...cant see any benefit at all of having a huge pitch with the players names in your teams names on it. just something you have to scroll past all the time. Need to be able to see more that about 5 players at a time on the lists too; size 50 font is a bit silly. new search system looks good though.
From joshtottenham on Wed Jul 09 06:03PMBIGGGGGGGG PROBLEM !! YOU CAN CURRENTLY SEE OTHER PLAYERS TEAMS !! GET IT SORTED YAHOO PLEASE
From cribmad_1958 on Wed Jul 09 07:07PMThe change to cleansheet points (now 6 for defender or goalie instead of 4 and 5) is terrible, like someone thought defenders were undervalued and this is meant to fix it. But you can still only get 1 CS per player/game, so nothing has changed! You would never drop a forward for the chance of an extra 2 points. All this does is make Boswinga etc (new Big 4 defenders) more necessary longterm keepers, reducing the number of fantasy football decisions you make. Jeremy or Neal, please intervene!
From fraacthpawn on Wed Jul 09 07:35PMGood: YFF is back and with a new look and it's still free, BAD: price list doesn't make sense "buying at" is different from "market price" -huh? UGLY: players are still missing from the list so it seems yahoo went on-line before they were actually ready. Are we gonna have to wait weeks for corrections again?
From goeasy27 on Wed Jul 09 08:31PMWell, at least Yahoo didn't change the pricing for players new to the premiership. +10 continues! Looks like they've only added Modric and Bosingwa so far, but if the pricing stays consistant the new additions will look like this. F: 6.59, M: 5.78, D:5.23, GK: 5.87
From jamesdowney on Wed Jul 09 08:41PMI thought the full point for tackles and fouls won during implemented during the euros were fantastic because it gave defenders a new found importance. Most players play a 3-4-3 to minimize the amount of defenders, but I thought that system gave all players a fantastic balance. Agreed?
From flurry725 on Wed Jul 09 10:04PMFull post on this tomorrow but I wanted to let everyone know that what you are seeing is a Beta test version of the site which is helping the guys at Yahoo identify bugs and areas to improve with a few more people "banging on it." The fact that you can see others' teams is a known thing and they are working on it. The "market price" vs. "sell at" price is likely on their list as well but definitely on the list of things that Jeremy and I will be passing on to them tomorrow. Rest assured it will be fixed.
Not sure how soon new players will be added - would be nice to see Deco and Jo on there. On the other hand, happy to see Babel and BFAY in midfield where they belong.
From neal_thurman on Wed Jul 09 10:16PMGuys, theres a link at the top of each team page to the bolg, but then when you're on the blog there isnt a link back to the team page, can this be addes or is it just a case of clicking the back arrow numerous times?
From petegoddard11996655 on Thu Jul 10 09:12AMFoul committed a whopping minus 5 !!!!
From iansanderson197 on Thu Jul 10 10:22AMre (20) I think you'll find thats -.5, not -5 !
From petegoddard11996655 on Thu Jul 10 10:34AMAh.
From iansanderson197 on Thu Jul 10 11:06AMcheers guys you fixed the problem !
From i_ate_the_pies on Thu Jul 10 12:40PMSo defenders don't lose any points for conceding goals anymore? That's makes them an absolute goldmine! Effectively they will score the same as midfielders, but with the added bonus of potentially getting clean sheet points. paRTy, Bale, Bosingwa etc will be must haves now.
From the_evo_master on Thu Jul 10 01:57PMI never realised defenders lost points for conceeding goals on YFF, I thought it was only keepers!?
From nikargiropoulos on Thu Jul 10 02:09PMnikargiropoulos you are right, defenders never lost points for goals conceded on this game, only keepers.
From petegoddard11996655 on Thu Jul 10 03:08PMCheers Pete, thought I was going mad!
- NikFrom nikargiropoulos on Thu Jul 10 03:53PMmboots@6 and neal@10 -- Gomez's transfer is still pending as he needs a work permit first.
From jspitzberg on Thu Jul 10 04:11PMsorry, Gomes'
From jspitzberg on Thu Jul 10 04:11PMFantasy EPL is on.. with cool new style!! wogh...
From alay27 on Thu Jul 10 07:59PM
Comment on this article
Please sign in to add your comments.
This site is Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! and Eurosport. All rights reserved.
- Terms of Service
- Updated Privacy Policy
- Copyright/IP Policy
- Remarks and Suggestions
- Corporate info
- Jobs at Eurosport
Notice: We collect personal information on this site. To learn more about how we use your information, see our Privacy Policy.