The Watchlist – Peter Crouch

Among Stoke’s “jolly green giants,” as Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson referred to the Staffordshire side earlier this month, Peter Crouch stands tallest. Unlike the more robust looking of Stoke’s leviathans such as Robert Huth, however, Crouch’s freakishly long, fragile looking 6 foot 7 inch body means he is too often underestimated as a footballer. This allows his deft touch and at times prolific goal scoring ability to frequently catch teams unaware.

For England, he has scored an impressive 22 goals over his 42 appearances between 2005 and 2010, whilst during his three year spell at Liverpool, which came to an end in 2008, he also scored 22 goals, including a “perfect hat-trick”, with his head, left foot and right foot, against Arsenal in 2007. The previous year Crouch’s assist for Steven Gerrard’s second goal in the FA Cup final proved another highpoint in his career.

It is not just opponents that often underestimate this 31-year-old, though; Fantasy managers are also often too quick to dismiss Crouch.  Owned by just 9.4% of managers in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game and 0.8% of managers in the Sky Sports game, he has emerged as a key differential as Stoke’s fixture list significantly improves over the next eight Gameweeks (SUN, nor, QPR, wha, FUL, NEW, wba, avl).

Whilst Stoke’s opening run of games have been among the toughest in the Premier League, Crouch has already performed well, though, accruing 46 points in the FPL game, with four goals, an assist and 11 bonus points to his name. He is now ranked fifth in the FPL game among strikers in terms of total points – only Ba and Fletcher have collected more bonus points thus far.

Slowly but surely Fantasy managers are beginning to look beyond his tall frame and see the genuine footballing prospect that lies beneath. He has risen 0.2m in the FPL game over the last eight weeks, where he is now priced at an affordable 6.7m. Those setting the prices in the Sky game are perhaps less naive about Crouch’s potential and have slapped him with an 8.8 valuation but he could prove to be worth every penny if this lanky titan can continue his fine form over the kind looking schedule ahead.

The major issue surrounding Crouch as a prospect is whether there is room in our three-man FPL forward lines to find a space for the Stoke striker. With the likes of Steven Fletcher, Demba Ba, Dimitar Berbatov and Rickie Lambert all vying for our attention in the low-to-mid-price bracket, there are plenty of viable up front alternatives also to consider over the next few matches.

In addition, having recently favoured a 4-5-1 due to a punishing opening schedule, Tony Pulis is expected to return to a 4-4-2 as the fixtures ease. Jon Walters offers an alternative route if he is moved back up top – classified as a midfielder in FPL and with spot-kick duties also under his belt, the Irishman is also expected to pick up plenty new suitors and could be a better fit for some.