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GW8 – The Review… HOW DID YOU DO???
#FPL Insight: Mata vs. Hazard by @shots_on_target
#FPL Insight Mata vs. Hazard by @shots_on_target
Big thanks to Yirma regular @shots_on_target for a great insight piece – to view more of his articles check his site at www.shotsontarget.co.uk
This is clearly represented by a comparison of both players attacking stats from the first two gameweeks with Hazard earning an average F.SCORE of 46 compared to Mata’s 26.
To see @shots_on_target follow this article up with some further analysis with Cazorla and Bale visit his website at http://www.shotsontarget.co.uk/2012/10/matahazard-vs-95m.html
Gameweek 7 preview: Can Suarez repeat the trick?
Gameweek 7 preview: Can Suarez repeat the trick?
Luis Suarez likes Norwich. Norwich doesn’t like Luis Suarez.
In fact, quite a few people don’t like Luis Suárez (£9.4m), but Fantasy managers shouldn’t be amongst them in the next few weeks as the Uruguayan ace looks to provide the goals which shoot Brendan Rodgers’ Reds up the Premier League.
Being Liverpool hasn’t always been too easy whilst they’ve had Suarez around, but Rodgers’ new philosophy is designed to get the best out of the Reds’ No. 7, with last Saturday’s hat-trick at Norwich proving that it is a philosophy which is beginning to click into gear.
Saturday’s treble was Suarez’s second successive hat-trick at Carrow Road, and if you’d backed him to repeat the trick against previously wounded opponents then you might like to see who Liverpool are welcoming to Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Suarez scored twice against Stoke in the League Cup last season and then once more against the Potters in the FA Cup, helping the Reds towards the finals of both competitions and no doubt leaving Stoke sick of the sight of him.
They’ll be coming up against him on Sunday though, and even though Tony Pulis will no doubt be drumming plans of how to stop him into his defenders’ heads as we speak, Suarez will fancy his chances against an outfit he has shone against before.
Steven Gerrard (£9.4m) managed to get on the scoresheet alongside Suarez last Saturday, but perhaps better value can be found in his fellow midfielder Nuri Sahin (£6.7m), another who found the net at Carrow Road and a gifted playmaker who is only likely to see his influence on this Liverpool team grow the longer the season goes on. The Turk is good enough to warrant Real Madrid spending big money on him last summer, whilst Arsene Wenger was desperate to bring him to Arsenal before he chose Anfield. Three goals and two assists in his last two games hint at a lot more points to come.
Away from Liverpool, Chelsea are still likely to be most Fantasy manager’s focus groups for another weekend, with the re-emergence of one player in particular surely not going unnoticed.
Juan Mata (£8.8m) might be considered old news by some following the arrivals of Eden Hazard (£10.3m) and Oscar (£7.8m) in the summer, but the Spanish magician has started to work his magic in the past week, scoring four goals in his last three games and providing the assist for Fernando Torres (£9.9m) to find the net against Arsenal.
The Euro 2012 winner sparkled during his first season in England, but a gruelling summer both in Poland and the Ukraine and then at the Olympics affected his stock amongst Fantasy bosses at the beginning of this season. Currently only 4.3% of teams have him on their books, but that will only grow in the coming weeks.
The game of the weekend is surely Newcastle against Manchester United, which threatens to become a shootout between Demba Ba (£8.1m) and Robin van Persie (£13.5m) but could be settled by the skills of Hatem Ben Arfa (£7.9m). The Frenchman has either scored or assisted in each of Newcastle’s three games at St James’s Park (sorry Mike Ashley) this season.
Manchester City, Everton and Tottenham all have fixtures which will make their players popular with Fantasy bosses, but for our third player selection of the week we turn to an old Fantasy favourite – the player in the wrong position.
Arsenal’s Gervinho (£7.4m) may be listed as a midfielder but he certainly doesn’t play like one, and the in-form Ivorian will be looking to improve his record of five goals in his last five games when the Gunners go to West Ham.
It’s a short journey for them, but it could be a profitable one for you.
@Mark_Jones86
GW6 NOTHING BUT BONUS POINTS!!
Due to the fact that Carlos Tevez is still in my team, I’m not going to even try and work out how he got two bonus points this week… but he did and this pleases me – as it will please a large percentage of #FPL players!
Anyway.. here are the Bonus points in Full.
@ryano83
| 29 Sep 12:45 | Arsenal |  |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Everton |  |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Fulham |  |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Norwich |  |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Reading |  |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Stoke City |  |
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| 29 Sep 15:00 | Sunderland |  |
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| 29 Sep 17:30 | Man Utd |  |
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| 30 Sep 16:00 | Aston Villa |  |
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| 01 Oct 20:00TBC | QPR |  |
v |  |
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To Infinity and Beyond- or at least GW5-GW9 (By @shots_on_target)
If you would like to get involved and write your own guest post for @FantasyYirma feel free to contact us via email, twitter or directly on the site
Many thanks to our guest post from @shots_on_target . This week he looks at some selection choices with the next 5 or 6 gameweeks in mind.
Here is my appraisal of transfer target’s that should serve you will for the next several gameweeks and beyond. The players featured are those that have the right mixture of good form and good fixtures, regardless of price. Obviously I am trying to aim slightly off the beaten path as there is no need to highlight the likes of Van Persie and Tevez . These are all picks that aim to strengthen your squad on a mid to long term basis, rather than one week punts or trying to pick up a cheap or temporary option, with a particular focus on the next 6 game weeks. All should be guaranteed game time, high points potential and value for money.
Up Front
Demba Ba (Newcastle) £7.7m 18% owned FIXTURES: NOR (H) RDG (A) MUN (H) SUN (A) WBA (H) LIV (A)
Already bagged three this season from 5 shots on target and 15 shots in total. This kind of production is perfectly reasonable return from a high quality striker, and his overall record in the Premiership is enviable (26 goals in 50 games with Newcastle and West Ham). Reports that Cisse is suffering from illness eases concerns over his gametime in the near term. Obviously is a slight risk having been named a sub recently but I think he’s too good not to start.
Dimitar Berbatov (Fulham) £7.1m 7.2% owned FIXTURES: WIG (A) MCI (H) SOT (A) AVL (H) RDG (A) EVE (H)
Fulham showed Top 4 attacking form last year at home but struggled away. This year they top the charts for total shots on target with 33, 10 more than next placed Tottenham. But they top the charts for shots on target away from home too, with 14, 3 more than next best Spurs, so they are able to create chances away from home, and with the audacious Berbatov leading line, he, and they, are going to score goals. I would even consider Berbs as a captain option for Fulham’s home fixtures.
Also consider: Luis Suarez (£9.4m)
Middle of the Park
Kevin Nolan (West Ham) £6.1m 8.7% owned FIXTURES: NOR (A) SUN (H) QPR (A) ARS (H) SOT (H) WIG (A)
Featured in my Midprice Midfielders article last week Nolan’s attacking intent, fixtures and goal-scoring record at this level get him into my best picks for the coming 6 weeks regardless of price, which is very, very generous considering West ham’s impressive start.
Also consider: Hatem Ben Arfa (£7.7m), James Morrison (£6.0m)
See also last week’s post on Midfield options here… https://fantasyyirma.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/guest-post-midfield-selection-advice-by-shots_on_target/
At the Back
Leighton Baines (Everton) £7.1m 14.6% FIXTURES: SWA (A) SOT (H) WIG (A) QPR (A) LIV (H) FUL (A)
Not the best immediate run of fixtures but Baines is a season long pick in my opinion with games against Sunderland, Reading and Norwich to come after the next 6. Baines looks to be on track to recapture his FPL form on the 2010/11 season that saw him return a 178 point season. Last year he suffered but with Pienaar back in the team and Fellaini moved up front they are creating plenty of space and opportunity for the England man to join in the attack.
Glen Johnson (Liverpool) £6.4m 2% FIXTURES: MAN (H) NOR (A) STO (H) RDG (H) EVE (A) NEW (H)
Liverpool are well off the fantasy radar right now and Glen Johnson has suffered a price drop since the start of the season. You probably won’t want to pick him up for the forthcoming fixture against United but after that things start to brighten up with plenty of clean sheet potential in games versus Norwich, Stoke and Reading in particular. Johnson has been involved plenty in Liverpool’s attacking play with an impressive 6 key passes and 7 shots. Liverpool were dealt a harsh opening schedule but Johnson has shown promise that the forthcoming fixtures could reward some investment.
Guest Blogger Profile: @shots_on_target
Football and stats fan who finds nirvana within the game of fantasy football!!
Visit his blog for
#FPL key stats, rankings, analysis and point forecasts http://shotsontarget.blogspot.co.uk/
Guest Post: Midfield Selection Advice (By @shots_on_target)
Many thanks to our guest post from @shots_on_target . If you would like to get involved and write your own guest post for Fantasy Yirma feel free to contact us via email, twitter or directly on the site
A few days ago I took a look at 5 budget midfielders whose performances in the Premier League had caught my eye, based on their FPL points to date plus their underlying stats that led to those points. ( http://shotsontarget.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/5-budget-midfield-options.html )
The midfield options for an FPL side are one of the most important areas of the team. Upfront can tend to pick itself at times and many elect to play a 3 man defence so the midfield is all important and a potential conundrum.
This article looks at some midprice options, ones that offer no surprise to anyone reading this I’m sure, but their attention is warranted, both on FPL points scored and underlying stats. In a future post (soon) I am going to look at the 5 midfielders in this price range that have come in under the radar.
What to expect of a midprice midfielder?
I’m putting midprice at £6.0 – 8.0m. Based on the rationale outlined in the budget midfielder’s post, I’m gonna aim for a target of 150 FPL points, or roughly 4 pts/game. This will require an offensive points tally of about 60 points, which equates to 10+ goals, or 5 goals and 10 assists.
Looking at last season the kind of players who were getting close or exceeding this tally in the midprice bracket were Ben Arfa, James Morrison, Sessengon, Yaya Toure and Walters – so not too many.
Here’s a look at players this year that are showing some early promise. There are no surprises but I’ve taken their current form based on underlying stats only and projected expected points scored in their next 6 fixtures. I’ve also extrapolated this points projection to a price value based on ?1m netting you 20 pts, as explained a little in the budget midfielder’s post.
Any comments, queries or suggestions, do let me know. Thanks 🙂
Hatem Ben Arfa – Newcastle (£7.7m)
The most expensive player in this list and rightly so from his form end of last season. I remember reading a piece in the Observer last year that one day he might be “the best player in the world” (his words). He’s certainly an option in this price range. He’s scored two goals this season from only two shots on target but Newcastle have not had the easiest of fixtures so there’s sure to be more to come. Upcoming fixtures are mixed.
Next 6 fixtures: EVE (A) NOR (H) RDG (A) MUN (H) SUN (A) WBA (H)
Current Form Projected Points =27 pts 4.5pts/game Projected Value= £8.5m
Damien Duff – Fulham (£6.1m)
Good old Damien Duff. I don’t know what to make of him really. Fairly unfashionable fantasy option despite his advanced role in a fairly attacking team. This season he had a good game against Norwich at home on the opening day, as may be expected, with 2 key passes, 2 shots and 1 on target (1 goal) but followed that up in two tricky away games against Utd and West Ham with a further key pass, 3 shots, 2 on target, including a goal at Old Trafford. To be honest I would not own him although Fulham’s upcoming fixtures offer hope. Too unfashionable 😉
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Next 6 fixtures: WBA (H) WIG (A) MCI (H) STO (A) RDG (A)
Current Form Projected Points = 26pts, 4.3 pt/game. Projected Value = £8m
Marouane Fellaini – Everton (£6.9m)
Asa lifelong Evertonian I love this guy. Who remembers his Zidane like pirouette against City a couple of years ago? Moyes has been playing him up front in support of Jelavic since Tim Cahill’s form declined last year. He’s scored 2 goals so far and been more involved in the attacking play than any other Everton player. He’s shown he can score goals in the past too. Midway through his first season Moye’s shoe-horned him up front due an all too frequent striker crisis… He bagged 8 goals in 20 something games. This is having played as a defensive midfielder his whole life. Quality. No real tricky fixtures in the next 6 either, and that includes Liverpool 🙂
Next 6 fixtures: NEW (H) SWA (A) SOT (H) WIG (A) QPR (A) LIV (H)
Current Form Projected Points = 31pts, 5.2 pt/game. Projected Value = £9.8m
Kevin Nolan – West Ham (£6.1m)
The only really thing you need to say about Kevin Nolan is … the guy scores goals. Senior career stats are bobbing about the 1 goals in 4 games mark and under Allardyce and playing off Carroll he should thrive, as he’s shown already with two goals. He is well priced and still a differential. If he was in my team I would be delighted. Can he get 10 goals this season? I doubt it, maybe 6-8 and a few assists, but with some tasty looking fixtures on the horizon he is my value for money pick in this price range.
Next 6 fixtures: NOR (A) SUN (H) QPR (A) ARS (H) SOT (H) WIG (A)
Current Form Projected Points = 29pts, 4.8 pt/game. Projected Value = £9.1m
Michu – Swansea (£7.3m)
Michu, Michu, Michu. I am pleased to Michu. Michu were here. I Michu already. A fantasy darling in the making, scoring 15 goals in La Liga last year and 4 already in the Prem. this season. He’s scored with every shot he’s had on target and no one expects him to keep up this goal return but he is still at the sharp end in a very good attacking team. Clearly a bargain at ?6.5m he still offers value after a ?0.8m price rise, however, the fixtures are starting to stiffen up. Don’t hold on too long if the Swansea’s bubble starts to burst, he’s not superman,
Next 6 fixtures:AVL (A) EVE (H) STO (A) RDG (H) WIG (H) MCI (A)
Current Form Projected Points = 25pts, 4.2 pt/game. Projected Value = ?7.9m
Conclusion
Of these 5 I own Michu and have owned him since GW1, and am obviously chuffed with his FPL points so far. Delighted! But I am itching to cash in. I don’t think he can keep this form up, although he’ll probably achive the same ballpark points tally as the others on this list. But you have to take a look Fellaini and Nolan as money saving alternatives. Give me a free transfer and I’d swap my Michu for Fellaini.
Guest Blogger Profile: @shots_on_target
Football and stats fan who finds nirvana within the game of fantasy football!!
Visit his blog for
#FPL key stats, rankings, analysis and point forecasts http://shotsontarget.blogspot.co.uk/
Guest Post: Current Yirma Champion reflects on season so far.
Thanks to current Yirma champion Tom for providing his insight into the season so far. Tom finished in the top 250 last season (Out of over 2.7m players) We are already contemplating copying his team 😉
First of all, an apology for my reply to a question raised in my previous post. I believe I advised the unfortunate user to watch out for Cazorla and Giroud of Arsenal, only for me to go and start with Podolski on opening day.
It’s an interesting time as after only 3 weeks we’ll see a massive differentiation of wildcard use. Some will have played it, some will be playing it right now in this two week window, whilst others attempt to hold their nerve and save it for a rainy (or, as the case may be, snowed off) day. There is no correct strategy here but whichever direction you go in, ensure you have a mixture of the players in form mixed with those who may be creeping under the radar with excellent fixtures coming up.
I’d imagine the likes of Michu, Hazard and Tevez will have found their way into just about every team by now so I won’t mention them. Any player who has scored a goal thus far will have been brought into the limelight so the likes of Nolan, Fellaini, Piennar, Fletcher, etc) will also be making their way into squads, but what about those who haven’t fired yet?
An obvious example of an underperforming team is Tottenham. I haven’t given up on them yet and with Adebayor surely pushing for a start this weekend, things will improve. Dempsey may or may not prove to be a hindrance but I believe there are goals here if you are brave enough to pick a Spurs attacking player.
As a Villa fan I tend to stay away from what inevitably turns to disappointment, but signs of life have surfaced and the team outclassed Newcastle last time out and were held to a draw only by a rocket from Ben Arfa. I’m not sure I’d advocate shelling out on Bent or Bentake up top just yet, but there are certainly goals to be had with a fantastic upcoming schedule.
On similar lines, Dimitar Berbatov poses some interesting questions. It’s another wait and see but if he can get regular games and dictate play surely he’s in line for a great season. Cisse and Ba didn’t become terrible players overnight and should pick up last season’s goalscoring exploits very soon, whilst Danny Graham must be given a little faith despite being completely overshadowed by his midfield so far.
And what about Robin Van Persie? A player plucked from obscurity and thrust into the Premier League spotlight. Well, not quite. I don’t believe in ‘must have’ players in this game, especially at his extreme price when we don’t know how he fits into plans when Rooney comes back and Champions League rotation kicks in. Saying all that, I have him slotted neatly in my team and it would be hard to recommend against him for anyone with a wildcard this week. For those without, I wouldn’t break the rest of my team just to have him no matter what he does against Wigan this weekend. After that fixtures stiffen up and rotation is right around the corner.
I’ve avoided the wildcard this week despite some obvious flaws in my squad. The first bullet point in my last post argued that you should pick players who will play. So naturally I stuck De Gea in goal. Ryan Bennett was an unfortunate pick as he was replaced by newly signed Bassong at Norwich after the GW1 window shut, whilst my GW3 signing Ashley Williams has now been left at the heart of a completely shattered defensive unit. Apart from that I was extremely fortunate to start with Tevez, Hazard and Michu which meant that I wasn’t chasing bandwagons and had the pleasure of seeing other teams panicking to transfer them in. For those yet to wildcard, I salute you, and I hope we will be able to keep up and make our move later in the season? This is where the men are sorted from the boys.
NIFFTY League GW3
The NIFFTY (Northern Ireland Fantasy Football Through Yirma) League is off and running.
Here are the Head to Head games for GW3…
Fantasy Yirma’s Chief Football Writer @mark_jones86 takes on our man across the pond @advertisingweek in an interesting match up…Mark has played his wildcard already- will it pay off??
Citybeat presenter Stephen Clements @citybeatstephen plays Accrington Stanley’s James Gray @james_tippy10
in a tightly contested match up. Meanwhile, BBC Ulster’s Alan Simpson @alansimpsonbbc plays Larne export Neil Gardiner @larneboy73 in a match sure to be high scoring in terms of points….
Keep up to speed with the NIFFTY league and see how our GAWA boys get on- @keithgillespie7 @michaeloconnor8, @grantmccann11 and the Feeno aka Warren Feeney are all having a go at Yirma this year.. which one of them will finish higher???
NIFFTY LEAGUE IS BACK!!
Since 2007 more than 800 people have had a go on YIRMA.
The NIFFTY LEAGUE (Northern Ireland Fantasy Football Through Yirma) started in January 2012 as an invitational Head to Head version of the main game.
Reset and raring to go for the new season NIFFTY is back!
Capped this year at 38 people we have a great mixture of Northern Ireland legends, current Internationals, local radio personalities and the 20th most influencial man in Northern Ireland…
We feel the NIFFTY League has an impressive line up!! Keith Gillespie, Warren Feeney, Grant McCann and Michael O’Connor have almost 200 International Caps for Northern Ireland and much is expected of their teams!
Alan Simpson Vs Stephen Clements is the NI radio grudge match – battle of the airwaves!! I imagine a forfeit for the loser of this pairing could be quite entertaining….
With several fantasy football enthusiasts and of course the Fantasy Yirma Admin team of @ryano83 @mark_jones86 and @pedro_lamb this league promises to throw up some good matches and produce some questionable banter on twitter.
Click here for the full round up! https://fantasyyirma.wordpress.com/niffty-league/
*@ryano83
Follow us on @fantasyyirma for #NIFFTY updates
NIFFTY League players:
Fantasy Yirma: Gameweek 1 preview
Gameweek 1 preview: The story of the Blues
By now you’ll have clocked it. There can’t really be a Fantasy player who hasn’t.
The 2012/13 season will kick-off with the European champions gracing us with a double Gameweek.
It can’t really get any better can it? You’ve got all those great Chelsea players to choose from and the chance to score double points with each and every one of them, and quadruple with your captain – be it Eden Hazard, Juan Mata or Ross Turnbull. The world is your expensive, Russian oil money-purchased oyster.
Yet is it that simple? Chelsea’s matches against first Wigan and then Reading certainly look winnable, but players should be mindful that the price for the Blues doubling up on Gameweek 1 is that they’ll miss out on Gameweek 3, when Roberto di Matteo’s side (if he’s still there by then) will have swanned off to Monaco to take on Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup.
So the question facing Fantasy bosses all summer has been whether or not to load up on Chelsea players for the first couple of Gameweeks or to stay away. The answer can be found in an annoying club song, because as far as this Gameweek is concerned – Blue is the colour.
Chelsea’s best players are all expensive enough for you to easily be able to find replacements once they miss out on playing in that third Gameweek, and so at least two and perhaps three of Di Matteo’s boys should be in your starting XI come the big kick-off on Saturday.
As for who those players are, well the Blues’ midfield can now be considered a minefield due to all the players that they have at their disposal in there, and whilst it’s tempting to go with the £9.5m pair of Hazard and Mata, perhaps the old stager Frank Lampard (£9.0m) could come up trumps at the start of yet another campaign.
The usual suspects at the back for Chelsea will feature heavily on plenty of Fantasy teamsheets, as will Fernando Torres (£10.0m), a strong captaincy choice at the start of a huge season personally.
As is the nature of the game, when one team has a double Gameweek then another must too, and its newly-promoted Reading who take the honours as 2012/13 kicks off.
They won’t be expected to take anything from Stamford Bridge next Wednesday, but their Saturday fixture at home to Stoke does offer the potential of a clean sheet for goalkeeper Adam Federici (£4.5m, and a useful substitute in your team) and the defenders. They are likely to start with a back four of Ian Harte, Alex Pearce (both £4.5m), Kaspars Gorkss and Chris Gunter (both £4.0m).
Further forward, the Russian Pavel Pogrebnyak (£5.0m) has proved popular due to his success at Fulham last season, whilst midfielder Danny Guthrie (£4.5m) is a good signing for the Royals and has a goal or two in him.
Elsewhere across the division as the big kick-off approaches, the potential for a stalemate between Newcastle and Tottenham should have you looking at nobody but goalkeepers and defenders from the pair, whilst wins are predicted for Arsenal and Liverpool as they start the season at home to Sunderland and away at West Brom respectively. Reds new boy Joe Allen (£5.5m) has proved a popular buy with one in four of Fantasy players selecting him.
Manchester City start the defence of their crown with what could be a goal-filled success at home to Southampton – Carlos Tevez, at £9.0m, looks even more of a steal after that Community Shield goal – whilst Manchester United can take advantage of Everton’s often slow start to the season when they go to Goodison Park on Monday night.
All eyes might be on Robin van Persie (£13.0m) there, but it is the return of Nemanja Vidic (£7.0m) which should have Fantasy bosses cheering.
Follow me on twitter @Mark_Jones86
See more of Mark’s posts at @FantasyYirma and https://fantasyyirma.wordpress.com/
To join the free Fantasy Yirma mini league on the official Premier League game follow this link. Remember Free to Play … £50 to the winner!! What’s to lose?? http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/15005/join/?autojoin-code=44397-15005
FantasyYIRMA - Fantasy Football FPL 