The Week Ahead
Thu Dec 13 07:11PM
Welcome to Showdown Sunday where fantasy teams take a back seat to what we all hope are some great matches between the big guns of the Premier League. Throw in some appetizer matches on Saturday that feature teams competing in the proverbial relegation six-pointers. Before we get started, a brief comment on Fabio Capello managing England - I think it's a great choice. England doesn't have the personnel to play stylish football - if, however, the players are willing to conform to a disciplined Italian system they might be able to grind out results in a tournament format and force opponents to take risks and then opportunistically counter with the talents of Rooney (if he's ever healthy), Gerrard, and a target player to be named later (Dean Ashton?).
OK, back to the week ahead...
A quick look at the match-ups shows that Birmingham (vs. Reading), Citeh (vs. Bolton), and Villa (@Sunderland) have the most attractive match-ups. Outside of those relatively obvious match-up advantages, I'm going to throw out the very strong possibility that even playing at Anfield, ManYoo are likely to expose Liverpool as pretenders at the top of the table and probably represent a good bet for fantasy managers.
Strikers
He's a little more expensive than I'd like but John Carew represents good value at 10.64 playnig at the Stadium of Light. I feel the same way about Cameron Jerome at 11.77 - he's been hot and playing home to Reading isn't a bad thing even in the wake of the Royals win against Liverpool.
Another excellent value to consider is Roque Santa Cruz who will be headed to the JJB to face off with Wigan which has been kind even to struggling strikers. At 8.20, he's a great solution if you need to spend money elsewhere.
If I were evaluating premium priced strikers, my prioritization would go something like Ashley Young, Benjani, and Tevez.
If you need to take a risk on someone whose price is rock bottom, then Bianchi (7.00) home to Bolton is probably a good bet. He may not be long for Manchester but with Elano and Ireland unavailable he's likely to get some time against a poor defence. Tuncay is another low-priced option worth considering given his match at Derby and his recent points accumulation.
Midfielders
Sort of an unusual weekend in that most of the guys that I've been focused on this season aren't necessarily the best bets this weekend. In place of the usual suspects (CRon, Lamps, Cesc, Elano, etc) I find myself thinking of an old favorite (David Bentley), a couple guys who I haven't thought of in a while (John Utaka and Martin Petrov), and some guys who I don't generally think of much at all (Kranjcar, Downing, and Larsson).
Much like Bianchi, another option that might be worth considering is Giovanni. It appears that Elano isn't going to make it back for the week and with Ireland out due to suspension he might get a start against Bolton - at 6.58 that's not bad value.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not cashing in on Ronaldo but this isn't the week I'd spend the money to get him on my roster if I didn't already have him.
Defenders
Lets take a moment to mourn the injury to emerging blog favorite Gareth Bale. Yes, even a huge Arsenal supporter can love a Spurs player under the right circumstances. We look forward to his recovery and hope his price drops before then.
In the meantime, I'm sure there will be a lot of fantasy managers looking for a replacement. Let me be the first to nominate former DC United (MLS) Captain Ryan Nelsen. His price dropped due to a red card and Chris Samba has taken a lot of the crosses targeted at him in previous seasons but against Wigan he's worth it for 4.35.
Another potentially good value option is David Wheater from Boro. Ditto Manu Pogatetz. Both are playing Derby and have a solid chance of a clean sheet against the team that has only tallied six times in 16 matches.
If you're going to spend big on a defender, Samba and Laursen are the best bets followed by Luke Young. In the middle tier of defenders, there is great value to be found in Warnock and Corluka.
Keepers
Isaksson is, in my eyes, the best combination of price and potential points return this weekend. Sven may not like him much but he seems to be the starter and unless Anelka is auditioning for his next job, Bolton seem unlikely to score.
Brad Friedel would be my choice if I were going to spend more money on my keeper.
As it stands, I'm sticking with Given because I have him for such a rock bottom price but that's not necessarily what I'd be doing if I were starting from scratch at this week's prices.
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IM this storyWilling to hav attention on great matches from the big guns, sometimes surprises happened..remember o'shea on LIV, fletcher on CHE?..maybe carrick/nani/anderson/or even pique (like he did in Roma) this time??..also thinking on stay w/ Roo-naldo, is it worth it? though Saturday have more attractive match-ups. Comments.
From lo_verdea on Thu Dec 13 04:38AMis yakubu going to play? and is him a good choice?
From grungeboi88 on Thu Dec 13 04:44AMhow bout van persie..? he played in the previous champions league game
From shuucero on Thu Dec 13 08:35AMI think you're giving Brum too much credit...I guess time will tell though. I just don't see that as a very enticing matchup. Even if it was, no love for Kapo? He's been their best player in my opinion.
From wrigavin on Thu Dec 13 08:49AMI'm giving Solano a shot at 8.54 home to Everton...
From nikargiropoulos on Thu Dec 13 08:49AMok, aint jose morinhio has the same tactic u talking about. plus he is a modern school. plus he has a hell of experience in the english enviroment.. i believe jose was the best to take over the english team..
From fear_zone_911 on Thu Dec 13 10:04AMOk, back to the week ahead.. krancjar / larsson ...which one is better? does kranjcar take the corners and free kicks at Pompey? larsson is more cheap but i'm afraid his manager would get him out of the formation for playing a second striker, u know his first home match. he would play two strikers.. so will it be larsson or deridder or mvuemba or mccsheffry out ?
by the way i think downing wont be a good bet because he wont get that much of successful crosses, derby defenders are very tall while boro attackers are short. in addition i think derby defense are getting better, they won most of the crosses and long balls from K. Jones in the sunderland game, and they looked good against Manchester..Utaka is good, but i had my days with him, he might end up with 1.5 points or 15..
From fear_zone_911 on Thu Dec 13 10:22AMneal.. i cant decide on martins or benjani..both look equally good choices..need ur help for this..pls and thx =)
From justinlim23 on Thu Dec 13 10:39AMaliadiere,biancchi,larrson wiil be a bargain..
From ronaldobest on Thu Dec 13 11:25AMNeal, I noticed that you didn't mention about Martins and N'Zogbia. Why? I thought you said that the Magpies will have easy match-ups coming up. Aren't they good enough? Please advice. =)
From ag_ang on Thu Dec 13 12:11PMwhat about kapo in midfield
From mamur_a on Thu Dec 13 01:24PM#8: Definitely Martins. He's been in red-hot form lately. Too many other players in Portsmouth to steal goals from Benjani. Which to go for: Yakubu or Young?
From gammauniverse on Thu Dec 13 02:29PM#10: I have both martins and Zogbia in my squad. Snapped up Barry be4 his price went up. Shd I keep him. Thinking of switching to a Blackburn striker. McCarthy anyone?
From gammauniverse on Thu Dec 13 02:41PM#6. that may be true, but jose has ruled himself out, so its a bit irrelevant. kind of like saying you want alex ferguson...
From joshtottenham on Thu Dec 13 03:32PMwhat do you think of torres, carew, ronaldo, gerrard, koumas, brown, kewell, parnaby, arbolea, mokoena and given?
From matt.chizzy on Thu Dec 13 04:21PMneill,80% my squads will play on big match,
ii got rooney,tuncay,ronaldo,lapard,rosicky,joe cole,dunn,parnaby,mokoena,eboue,and kirkland...pls tell me who to loose and who to get,plizz..yhxFrom cendy_2990 on Thu Dec 13 04:26PMDeuce is going up against that crappy NUF defense at Craven...
From brian.asher on Thu Dec 13 06:44PMAll you soccer/football fanatics, make sure you check out our new show all about EPL Fantasy Football and football in general. We'll help you get the best picks for your EPL fantasy team and if you don't like our advice, call in and give out some of your own.
It wouldn't be Ace Radio without a little bit of music, so this week we'll be featuring a song from Derby's own "The Parents". Who cares if Derby is the punching bag of the EPL, these guys rock!!
Check it out at 9pm EST on our Blog Talk Radio Station www.blogtalkradio.com/aceradiolive
From benam23 on Thu Dec 13 07:00PMI've got a bad feeling about this week. I have too many players involved in the big4 games at too much of a discount to give them up. Guess I just have to hope for some crazy stuff to go down.
From jddunn13 on Thu Dec 13 08:16PMGeovanni or Muntari? Any advice?
From bobfest on Fri Dec 14 12:33AMi dont think mokeona will be starting with nelson coming back
From spartansfans42 on Fri Dec 14 03:00AMAston's S.Carson(9.29) playing @ Sunderland is a good Bet, all others have Big matches, your thoughts.
From macfacker on Fri Dec 14 03:42AMso who's the back four for blackburn? emerton, warnock, samba, nelsen? mokoena usually plays in defensive midfield behind bentley, tugay and dunn. so should i take nelsen? i already have mokoena in my team.
From zzzeclipse on Fri Dec 14 04:12AMnobody has talked of dempsey against weak newcastle defence, any thoughts ? also noticed bullard due back soon , aahhhh take me back a couple of years did he get me some points.
From lennonaa on Fri Dec 14 06:27AMi'm picking up elano - rumors that he could come back this weekend, but even if he doesnt he's a long-term keeper at under 10
From jamesmhopkin on Fri Dec 14 10:53AM80% my squads will play on big match, ii got rooney,tuncay,ronaldo,lapard,rosicky,joe cole,dunn,parnaby,mokoena,eboue,and kirkland...pls tell me who to loose and who to get,plizz..yhx
From shunshetzbhoy_10128 on Fri Dec 14 11:42AM# 14 I hate Alex Fergson..i wish he retires noooow..i think manchester without him will be brilliant..
From fear_zone_911 on Fri Dec 14 12:43PM# 26 u have to loose rooney and rosicky .. why would u keep them? u didnt get them at low prices..
From fear_zone_911 on Fri Dec 14 12:49PMwhat about elano??is he fit?? a good bet this weekend,besides petrov...
From dreck_lock on Fri Dec 14 04:01PMferguson is a legend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From jbhaigh90 on Fri Dec 14 04:30PM
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