Wednesday’s Scout Notes
Benjani and Sibierski are at the top of the scoring charts while Ronaldo can’t even pick up an assist. He can however, help himself to a 3-match ban. It’s not going according to the script so far. Get my notes on Wednesday’s games here…
David Healy and Michael Chopra continued their fine starts to the season. Healy turned and fired Fulham’s equaliser against Bolton while Chopra volleyed Sunderland level at Birmingham. Both can be found at a budget price in most Fantasy Games and will doubtless be massively popular transfer targets prior to the weekend.
Benjani isn’t likely to prove as popular a target, although there’s no doubting his early season form. The Portsmouth striker buried his second goal of the season against United, despite starting the game out wide on the right. He looks set to keep his place in the Pompey lineup as they face Bolton at the weekend.
Wigan’s Sibierski got his second in two games and is another who has emerged as an early season bargain, particularly as he’s classed as a midfielder in most Fantasy games. The only consideration with him is that Henri Camara is now back to fitness and could threaten to break into the side in the next few weeks should Sibierski hit a dry spell.
The bigger names didn’t fair quite so well. Tevez earned an assist on his debut but lacked the sharpness to capatilise on a few chances tonight and, understandably, began to tire late on. Yakubu was reportedly non-existant for Boro against Wigan and clearly seems distracted by all the transfer talk. Bolton produced few clear cut chances, although Anelka was denied a second goal of the season by a smart Warner save against Fulham. It was left to Drogba to fly the flag for the big name forwards, showing his class in his first start of the season, cracking Chelsea’s winner.
As predicted there were few clean sheets about with only Man City and Wigan managing shut-outs. That’s two clean sheets in a row for Sven’s defenders and their appeal as transfer targets will only be limited by the fact that they face United at the weekend, but, given the injury to Rooney and Ronaldo’s suspension, that may not be such a negative.
Chelsea’s indecision on set-pieces without Terry was there for all to see as Reading took the lead through Bikey. That particular symptom should be cured if Terry returns to their lineup at Liverpool as expected.
Team news wise tonight it was interesting that Sidwell got the nod over Mikel in the Chelsea side following Essien’s absence through injury. He actually played beyond Lampard, pushing up on Drogba and Kalou. However, significantly Sidwell was replaced by Mikel in one of two substitutions made at half-time, pushing Lampard further forward which proved the catalyst for Chelsea’s second-half revival.
Derby manager Billy Davies clearly fancies Craig Fagan over new signing Robert Earnshaw with Fagan offering the option for him to play a 4-5-1. It could be then that Earnshaw is destined for appearances from the subs bench, something he suffered previously in the Premiership with West Brom.
Looking at the possible absences as a result of tonight’s games. There is Ronaldo who, as I posted earlier, is now banned for the next 3-games following his red against Portsmouth. In the same match Muntari gained a red for 2 bookings and so will miss Portsmouth’s game against Bolton at the weekend. Reading’s Kalifa Cisse also got two yellows against Chelsea and will miss this weekend’s game against Everton.
Injury wise, Reading’s Duberry went off early in the first-half with a groin strain and must be a doubt for the weekend. In the same match, Carvalho had to be replaced after half an hour with a knee injury and seems likely to miss the Liverpool game.
Carlos Edwards had to be removed for Sunderland against Birmingham, leaving them with 10 men on the field. He suffered a hamstring injury after a magnificent run and cross which began from his own half, leading to John hitting the bar. Edwards must therefore be a major doubt for the game at Wigan which is a big blow for Sunderland given that he was their star performer on the night.
Noe Pamarot also picked up knock for Portsmouth in the game against United. Stewart Downing appeared to twist a knee in the game at Wigan but completed the 90-minutes. He could be sore approaching the weekeend game at Fulham though so his situation is worth monitoring.
As always, I’ll have updates on all these injuries with team news for the weekend’s matches in the next 24 hours.
Finally, outside of tonight’s Premiership games it was interseting to see that Hleb hit his second goal of the season, from his new role just behind Van Persie, as Arsenal beat Sparta 2-0 in their Champions League qualifier. Could Hleb provide a stop-gap option for those looking to replace Ronaldo over the next 3-weeks?
IanDowieLoveChild
Dksbananas
X-Ray Dog
StewB
Jonny
So far Hleb is 2 for 2 with last second goals this season…I’ll keep him till Gilberto gets back, then again, maybe I’ll keep the boy.
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i also have Hleb. i just hope he don’t use all his points out of the league games!
on another note, i think i’ve experienced one of the unluckiest starts ever….
rooney, vaz te (lasted 45mins-injured), ronaldo (sent off in 2nd game), jagielka (new million+ signing can’t get a game) not to mention a collapse at the back for bolton amongst others! i’m sure i’m not the only one….
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Wildcard thoughts? Might be worth doing an article on this, after last year I promised I would save it for as long as possible but with the Ronnie+Berbatov plus other deadwood in my team I’m faced with 6 transfers at least in 3 weeks or wildcard now (except this gameweek isn’t particularly exciting matchup wise). How many points/value do people think a wildcard is worth. I would say minmum 20points (assuming you use it on a stacked double gameweek etc)
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i used my wildcard this gameweek, and it proved to be a winner as now i am at the top of my league, with 104 points.
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Josh…it could be worse. You could do the Telegraph game and not be able to make transfers until the 22 August. Therefore you could have - as many people will do - Cech (no clean sheet 2 games),Dawson (injured), Ronaldo (sent off), Jagielka (can’t get a game) with the injured duo of McCarthy and Rooney up front. Or you could also have the likes of Bent & Berbatov instead, ha ha!!
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I’ve used my wildcard now - you may get a double stacked week later in the season, but you can already see the players/teams who are looking solid (city) and others less so (bolton)as well as stand out players…I’ve lumped on now while I can still afford them and am also top of my league..
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paitence is a virtue: i’ll give it to gameweek 4 or 5 before i use the wildcard, despite the stick im getting from the guys ahead of me…
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Any idea why Lauren wasn’t playing for Portsmouth last night?
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What do people think about gambling on transfers and willing to lose points to make points a few games down the road? I have got rid of tuncay for healy. My Tactic is to wait and see.It will in enable me to get the form players in the future with 2 million in the bank no matter how much thier price goes up.I also dumped nolan for milner.Form and fixtures 3 4 games in advance is the key with my team.I have van p, healy and chopra up front now for example.I will also dump carvalho for carragher after this week AND maybe cech and take another 4 point hit (depending on the liverpool result).I was tempted to use my wildcard but I am going along steadiliy at 86 points in the fantasy prem league.Last year I made 75 transfers this year I will try to keep it to one a week.I prefer the cyki fantasy game.Can make two transfers per week which suits my tactics better it also is free and has cash prizes!
In the fantasy premier league I have scharner starting ahead of carvalho and milner starting instead of downing.Which may sound like madness but again I am going on form and fixtures not rep ever since I got stung with two overpriced wastes of space from chelsea carvalho and cech.
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I’m doing the exact same thing. Also, like last year, once the season starts to have teams w/ 2 fixtures a week, I’ll take point hits to try to get as many players playing twice as possible.
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I’d have Downing starting. If Middlesbrough do manage to score he’ll most likely be involved somehow. I went for a double transfer this week and took the points hit. Swapped Ronaldo for Arteta, and the waste of space Yakubu for Martins. I’ve made Martins my captain, so I hope that might cancel out the 4 point penalty. This is my line-up for the weekend:
GK: Kirkland
DF: Clichy, R.Ferdinand, Evra
MF: Arteta, Koumas, Malouda, Downing
ST: Forsell, Martins(c), Van Persie
subs: Howard, Ridgewell, Oakley, A.Cole
I don’t want to make any more transfers until next week, but if anyone has any suggestions as to changes to my bench or my captain they are definately welcome
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Nice team, Sam! u have an enviable subs bench and your midfield especially looks threatening. u mite want to transfer a.cole out since chelsea’s defence haven’t look at all solid recently and now carvalho is out (terry is bak tho) just a thought!
also Any ideas as to how one can make the most of the variable prices of the players? Some fantasy managers make several transfers to ensure that they have players with increasing values. In the end, they have heaps of money to spend and are able to buy a much better squad. Initially however they do lose points because of the transfers they have made. Also, I remember player values stooping so low last season (Sommeil & Chambers a mere 3.3 millions!) that you could fill u dubs bench with them and have a killer starting team. Although this was a huge risk when will their prices start to get that low? also any ideas as to how one can make the most of the variable prices of the players?
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