City Lose Benjani For Openers
Man City’s Benjani will miss the opening games of the season after picking up a thigh injury.
The striker pulled a muscle in training and he isn’t expected to recover in time to make the season opener on August 16. It’s not yet known just how long he’ll be sidelined for.
City’s options up front are now severely limited with new signing Jo also out of the opening two games due to involvement with the Brazil at the Olympics. That will mean that Hughes may have to turn to Vassell or Bojinvov, with the likes of Corradi and Bianchi expected to depart in the coming weeks.
Hughes has been linked with the likes of Bellamy and Santa Cruz of late and City will now need to bring in someone of their quality or risk falling short on firepower for the start of the season.
Fantasy managers should certainly monitor this situation with regards to the value of Martin Petrov. The winger is a major temptation as a mid-price midfielder but without a striker to tuck away his crosses, his output could be severely hampered.
Need some more ideas about my team:
Schwarzer (Howard)
Bosingwa Clichy Cahill Laursen (Jagielka)
Fabregas(C) Young Parker Geovanni (Downing)
Torres Yakubu (Harewood)
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Reply by Richard on July 23, 2008 4:12 pm:
Pretty good team Ollie but here’s my 2 penneth…
Drop Jagielka for Baines if you want an Everton defender - particularly if he’s going to be sub first week. That frees up 1M right there. Then spend the extra 1M on Matt Taylor of Bolton, instead of Parker, as the Trotters have Stoke, Newcastle, WBA and Fulham in their opening matches. Should their be any set pieces you can sure Matty’s grabbing that ball and he may even play as a midfielder cum striker should Bolton go 4-3-3. Apart from that you’re sorted. No Man Ure players again i notice :o)
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Reply by Ollie on July 23, 2008 5:23 pm:
Thanks Richard, I’ll probably do that! I found an extra 0.5m and got Kitson instead of Harewood.
How does everone know Baines will play?
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Reply by Richard on July 23, 2008 6:28 pm:
Apparently Lescott has stated he much prefers to play cb rather than lb and Moyes has promised Baines a more prominent role this season…Baines and Valente are the only genuine lbs Everton have so if Lescott does stay at cb I’m thinking Baines is a shoo in providing he stays fit
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Is there a reason ive missed why everyone is taking Ferdinand out?
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Reply by Richard on July 23, 2008 6:31 pm:
For me 1) He’s expensive at 7M 2) He has no match in GW3 and 3) Man Utd have 3 or 4 really tough fixtures in the first month so best look elsewhere for clean sheets early doors…In my opinion anyway :o)
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Reply by Mark on July 23, 2008 6:33 pm:
Hi Feiticera. It’s possibly because of the back injury that’s kept him out of the last couple of friendlies. He returned on Tuesday however and played the full 90. Plus like Richard says, United miss a game in the first 5 and have tough fixtures.
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What do you all think about Geovanni vs Liam Lawrence at Stoke? Both cost the same in my league…have Lawrence now but Geovanni is playing a forward role in friendlies and sounds like he could get some good opportunities as a midfielder…let me know your thoughts!
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Reply by Mark on July 23, 2008 6:57 pm:
I like them both and there’s little to choose from them in my mind.
Stoke will rely heavily on set-pieces and that means Lawrence should feature heavily in any points they score. Geovanni meanwhile, looks set to play up front as you say. If they are both valued identically in your game then it will come down to fixtures - at least until we see how Hull and Stoke settle. Right now I would say that Hull have the easier opening 4-5 games.
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Reply by Brian on July 23, 2008 8:14 pm:
Thanks for the reply Mark! What do you think about the rest…
3 4 3 to start
Howard (Jaaskelainen)
Lescott Carragher Clichy (Scharner, P Neville)
Fab, Young, Downing, Gerrard (Lawrence)
Adebayor,Crouch, Santa Cruz
I am in the ESPN league where you can only play 11 guys, no subs, so I have loaded my starting 11 for the first game weeks since everyone plays on the same days, more or less.
I think I am a bit heavy up top with strikers starting off slow last year, I may switch some $ to another defender and play a 4 4 2, thoughts?
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