Updated Player Rankings
The player rankings in the right menu have now been updated to take into account the next five weeks of fixtures in the Premiership. As promised, I’ll be monitoring these tables on a daily basis, with another complete refresh after this weekend’s games. Read on for a quick garbled summary of this weeks movers and shakers…
Cech soars to the number one spot in the keepers category on the basis of 6 games over the next 5 gameweeks. The Chelsea defence should be as strong as ever with Terry’s return and although Cech could be rested with the Champions League in mind, it looks unlikely. Reina holds on to second spot with his double gameweek this very week and Howard shoots up the table on the back of four consecutive clean sheets. Almunia is a new entry now his status in the Arsenal goal is confirmed. Hart drops several places on the back of last night’s display from the City defence which was put to the sword by Everton.
In defence Carragher tops the table on the back of the double gameweek. Lescott jumps to the number two spot having earned 4 straight clean sheets and notched his sixth goal of the season last night. Terry is a new entry - boosted by 6 games in 5 like Cech - although rest and rotation could be an issue. Distin’s fixtures look good with 3 home games in 5, while Hutton offers the best value, and smallest risk of rotation in a Spurs defence that has 6 games in 5 like Chelsea. Wheater gets a slight climb on last week with Reading at home to come next. In contrast Dunne drops with City’s morale taking a hit last night. Samba is a long shot for points with favourable fixtures and a goal overdue.
In midfield Gerrard holds firm with his double gameweek this coming week. Ronaldo keeps second spot despite having one fewer game. Lampard climbs to third with 6 games in 5, although rest is a factor here. Petrov drops out on the back of his 3-match suspension. Jenas climbs with 6 games in 5. Downing is a new entry and goes in high with Reading coming next. Ljungberg drops despite the double gameweek, with rest a factor. Bullard also drops with United coming next.
Up front Torres takes the top spot with the double gameweek. Adebayor holds on to second with Berbatov breathing down his neck with 6 games in 5. Yakubu climbs with his form as does Santa Cruz with favourable fixtures. Benjani drops like a stone with the Petrov supply gone for three games. Drogba is a new entry with the prospect of 6 games in 5 weeks but rest and rotation is a factor. Jones is the outside bet here with 3 home games in 5 to come for Sunderland.
Panda Bear
darcy
TorresMagic
masafi
I just brought in Ljungberg for the double - why would he be rested when he’s West Ham’s best midfielder?
[Reply]
Reply by Mark on February 26 6:24 pm:
Just think that Ljungberg’s may not take 3 games in 7 days plus Curbishley has options in wide positions. Might not be rested but it’s a risk.
[Reply]
do you think i should sell petrov? i bought him at a very low price. it will be expensive to buy him back after 3 weeks. *confused*
[Reply]
Reply by theMoz on February 26 5:24 pm:
With the way he got sent off, we have seen the best of Petrov this season… I will not buy him back and I urger you not to either.
Buy a Spurs midfielder instead or buy Noble for the dble gameweek and he’s so cheap he can be a bench warmer after that
[Reply]
I think only Ronaldo is worth hanging onto for 3 gameweeks of 0 points…
Sell him.
[Reply]
Which LIV midfielders besides Gerrard look good to pick up for the upcoming double gameweek?
[Reply]
Reply by Mark on February 26 8:06 pm:
Only Mascherano is likely to play both games aside from Gerrard. Benayoun is likely to rotate with Babel or Pennant, while on the other side Rafa has Riise, Kewell and Lucas. I can’t see any of them playing against Bolton and West Ham unless Liverpool storm past Bolton and Rafa goes unchanged for the Hammers game. If I was pushed, I’d go for Benayoun - he’s tended to have the biggest impact when given a chance. He could start at Bolton and Rafa may pitch him in against his former club if he does well at the weekend.
[Reply]
Greetings all:
Which mix of forwards is preferable for the next few weeks:
Torres, Santa Cruz & McCarthy
or
Torres, Benjani & Santa Cruz
Gracias,
TheNecromancer
[Reply]
Reply by Mark on February 26 10:39 pm:
Risky going with two Blackburn strikers but then I do feel Benjani could struggle without Petrov about to hand him chances. I still go for the latter to spread the risk though.
[Reply]
Reply by TheNecromancer on February 26 10:52 pm:
Mark:
Was thinking the same, but with the way the Magpies have been playing… Didn’t someone elsewhere refer to them as the new Derby?
All else equal, would you keep Santa over McC?
Other possibilites for a third striker for my game (Yahoo) include players of the quality of Jones (SUN), Defoe, Johnson (EVE), Kalou/ (CHE) & Walcott.
Another option would be to play a 3-5-2 and bring in a midfielder the likes of Jenas, Giggs, Noble, etc. Already have Ronaldo & Gerrard, and only the highest priced players would be impossible (e.g., Arteta, Lamps, Fab, Downing, Bentley).
thanks,
TheN
[Reply]
Reply by Dave on February 26 10:56 pm:
Yes, that was ne, although someone might have said it before me…
I would keep Santa out of the two. He only seems to score in away games, and what better away game than this one? However, as I have Santa, you run the risk of owning a cursed player.
Have you not considered Young?
[Reply]
Reply by TheNecromancer on February 26 11:16 pm:
Unfort, both Young and Yakubu (see below) are too expensive in the game I play (Yahoo).
What are your thoughts on playing a 3-5-2?
(sorry for the repost; still getting used to the new system)
[Reply]
Reply by Dave on February 26 11:24 pm:
I play 3-5-2 pretty much all the time, but that’s due to my 2 defending benchwarmers…
But it’s like Alex said, it’s all about fixtures and what works better in a particular week. And how much you compromise price-wise. If you play with 5 big midfielders your defence is bound to suffer, so you should make you balance it out more.
[Reply]
Mark, I have Santa and want keep him for the Newcastle game. Want to bring in Torres, but would have to do that for Adebayor. Do you think it’s worth the risk?
I’d have to do a double then coz I also have Petrov. Thinking of Malbranque, as Lennon and Jenas are more expensive and the points potential for the double is so hard to predict anyway.
Thoughts?
[Reply]
Necromancer,
I thik it’s always risky to play 2 forwards from the same team. Although Blackburn have a good set of runs ahead of them, I would choose one. Santa Cruz is more likely to score in my opinion, but then McCarthy’s going to take the spot kicks.
Benjani doesn’t look too good without Petrov for the next 3 games, even though they’re easy fixtures. I wouldn’t quite fancy Garrido to provide the same level of ball to Benjani! So I reckon you should look for someone else in the same price category, maybe Yakubu?
[Reply]
Unfort, both Young and Yakubu (see below) are too expensive in the game I play (Yahoo).
What are your thoughts on playing a 3-5-2?
[Reply]
Reply by Alex on February 26 11:14 pm:
Well then, out of the options you mentioned I’d go for Defoe.
3-5-2 can be good, but all depends on the gameweek. I tend to bench the players with the least favourable fixtures, i.e. a defender who’s up against a big-scoring team.
Usually for me it’s between my lower-cost defender (A. Ferdinand) and my cheapo midfielder (Larsson). Whoever I bench though, I always tend to pick the wrong one.
[Reply]
Reply by TheNecromancer on February 26 11:59 pm:
Alex: Defoe is interesting but EVE don’t strike me as a team that concedes a lot at home. Am I wrong?
The game I play (Yahoo) is set up a bit differently; there is no “bench” and no bonus points. Scoring goals and recent form are heavily weighted in weekly scoring. Hence, an exceptional (in reality) midfielder can often be had for less than the price of a good forward (e.g., McCarthy is costlier than Petrov).
Since none of my affordable forwards is all that appealing, I’ll have to give the 3-5-2 some serious thoughts. The downside of NOT playing both BLA forwards would be the risk of dropping the one that scores a hattrick and keeping the one who gets nuthin…
Cheers,
TheN
[Reply]
Reply by Dave on February 27 12:08 am:
No, I wouldn’t expect much out of the Everton game, but I was thinking longer-term.
You have no bench players and no boni?? Where were you before I signed up for this hell? Would have spared me a lot of headaches…
I understand your dilemma. I always have similar ones and I always choose wrong. So good luck on that. I’m still debating whether or not to bring Torres in for Adebayor tonight.
[Reply]
Reply by TheNecromancer on February 27 12:21 am:
I had Adebayor but dropping him allowed me enough wriggle room to sign Gerrard & Reina. It also helped that I bought Torres after he netted 3 but before the players’ prices were adjusted!
At least this gives me something to think about besides the global financial metldown…
Re the Yahoo game, I won’t tell you that it does not limit the number of trades you can make. That would just give you a headace.
Good luck with your decision.
-TheN
[Reply]
Reply by Dave on February 27 12:35 am:
After just finding out my biggest opponent used his wilcard in week 2 while all this time I thought he still had it (and I still have mine) I have transferred in Torres for Adebayor on a high. Might go completely crazy this week, who knows…
I take it Torres is cheaper in your league…he’s actually 0.8 more than Adebayor in ours at the mo’. But they still haven’t adjusted his price, so I got him right before his price rise too.
Thanks for hanging out.
[Reply]
Reply by TheNecromancer on February 27 12:51 am:
Before last weekend:
Torres = 14.40
Adebayor = 21.40
Currently:
Torres = 23.83
Adebayor = 19.29
I had intended to bring Torres in for the double game week, so I bought him during the match when his price was still 14.40. Good move that.
[Reply]
Reply by Dave on February 27 1:33 pm:
Ah, in our game, Adebayor just rose to 9.6 whereeas Torres is still stuck at 10.3 due to his injury flag being removed too late.
Anyway, I’ve got him now, but still worried about making him captain.
What do you guys think is the better option for the next few weeks…
a) anelka and jenas or
b) keane and swp
The rest of my team is doin well but ive still got bent (wigan) and larsson (brum) following their recent half decent fixtures coupled with their cheap prices and need to change. Any other suggestions?
[Reply]
Id be going for Keane and SWP myself. Keane is playing really well along with the boost of winning the cup, i think spurs will be really up for it as they’ll wanna push on and get as far up the table as they can.
Don’t forget Liverpools Double Gamesweek as well if your playing FPL. Be worth selling some of you more expensive players to maybe get in Gerrard…..
[Reply]
Reply by The Stig on February 27 2:12 pm:
Cheers tommyg, yeah ive spotted the double gameweek and have torres for most of the season already- i bought in gerrard a while back as well. any other ideas for contenders in the midfield role?
[Reply]
Mark,
I made a comment when you changed the posting system and wasn’t too keen on it. Its better than I thought it would be with respect to direct responses to someone’s comment; but if you want to check on the last 5 or 6 new entries then the right hand column doesn’t show enough text and so then when you try to get the full text to each of these 5 or 6 new comments, you find yourself going all over the place as each posting is inserted after the comment that the person is replying to, which can be scattered if the replies aren’t one after another.
Before at least you knew that you had read comments up to say 28 and when you saw 36 in the right column against that heading there was 8 new entries that would all be under one another and you could catch up, but now I find myself scrolling up and down to find the new comments.
Perhaps its me, but as unorthodox as ‘@ …..’ was at least the comments followed a sequence. Please revert back and then everyone starts the comment with @ 16 (reference entry number 16), for example.
Anyone else prefer the previous set-up.
As I’ve said before, I don’t like posting negative comments, given the time you spend keeping this site going, but perhaps others don’t find the new way as workable as before.
Perhaps there’s a way of sorting them in date order as well in a drop down bar facility.
[Reply]
Reply by Mark on February 27 4:31 pm:
Hi Martin
Yep, I’d like to know other people’s thoughts on this (maybe not in this thread). When I finally get edit posts working, I’ll canvas opinion. One thing that could help is if I extend the “recent posts” list summary text. One thing you might not have realised which certainly helps one of the problems you raise is that if you click on the name of the poster in the “recent posts” list in the right hand menu, you are taken directly to that post so you don’t need to scour the thread to find it.
[Reply]
Reply by TheNecromancer on February 27 5:29 pm:
Mark:
I support keeping the current format, and adding editing features (if possible) to allow for correcting text errors and/or moving a comment to it’s appropriate place.
Continued thanks for this most excellent resource.
-TheNecromancer
[Reply]
Reply by Mad on February 27 7:22 pm:
Martin,
Yes, as Mark replied above, you can easily click the name of the recent post on the right column.
And if the new post wasn’t there on the right hand column, I use the search button of the browser using current date or the date of the post, such as e.g. “27th” for today’s post.
Anyway, I prefer the new posting system, which would be more helpful if the discussion stays on topic (which currently I’m not :P)
[Reply]
Mark,
Petrov’s price is about to fall, so I want to decide soon. Any ideas on the best replacement looking at the coming gameweeks?
I’m leaning towards Malbranque at the moment…
[Reply]