Say What? – Gameweek 3

Say What? returns to ease you through the international break with a selection of Fantasy Football’s most quotable snippets from Gameweek 3. We visit a very buoyant Anfield for Brendan Rodgers’ comments on his current hot-topic, Mario Balotelli, whilst elsewhere on Merseyside, Roberto Martinez hints at rotation ahead of Everton’s hectic schedule. Manuel Pellegrini and José Mourinho faced mixed fortunes in their title chase at the weekend and the pair discuss ‘weaknesses’, Harry Redknapp talks tactics, and Alan Pardew waxes lyrical over his new protégé on Tyneside.

Say What? regular, Brendan Rodgers has made a serious point of touting new signing Mario Balotelli to the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) community after seeing the maverick Italian striker in action for Liverpool for the first time against Spurs:

“He was excellent… and I think we saw the team ethic. He was pressing, working as much as he could. For the first time in his life, he marked at a corner! I’m serious! An international player who has won titles, cups, Champions League, and we were doing corners. I said to him to pick up at the corner, and he said ‘I don’t mark at corners!’ I said ‘you do now!’ And he went in, and got a great header from a corner. If you treat him like an adult, and give him responsibility, he can respond.”

In fact, Balotelli could have scored a hat-trick but for some miscued finishes and his overall performance will certainly have encouraged prospective buyers. The Italian matched Daniel Sturridge for shots (five), doubled his penalty box touches (four to two) and made more touches throughout the game than his English counterpart (38 to 36) despite playing 30 fewer minutes on his debut.

With around 3% FPL ownership, Balotelli cuts an intriguing figure when compared with 27%-owned Sturridge, who is a full £1.5m more expensive, and according to Rodgers, there is every chance the two will share the focal roles in Liverpool’s dynamic attack;

“There’s no doubt that they can play together as a front two. The beauty of Mario is that he can play with Dan, he can play up there on his own and he can play off the sides. He’s not just a central striker. I did that a number of times last year for games when either Luis or Dan played on the side and one played through the middle. It’s all about what’s going to benefit the team.”

Newcastle youngster Rolando Aarons caught the headlines last weekend after stepping off the bench to steal the plaudits in the thrilling 3-3 home draw with Palace. With reports now surfacing of a possible four-month lay-off for Siem de Jong, Aarons’ cameo, which produced a goal and assist in just 24 minutes, certainly strengthens his chances of more pitch time if the Dutchman is indeed ruled out – manager Alan Pardew had plenty to say on his talented youngster’s impact;

“There have been times when we have come up against packed defences in the last two, three games, really, and it’s sometimes difficult. Things come unstuck, and you start losing your flow and your ideas, and then you just need that sub to make an impact… Well, he certainly did that (against Palace), and he did that at Gillingham in the week. There’s just something about him. I have given a lot of really good players a debut – Jonjo Shelvey, Mark Noble, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain spring to mind – and I would put him in that category, where he is right now. But those guys see it through and that’s what he needs to do. But he really has been a real bonus for us this pre-season and at the start of the season.”

Manchester City sent shockwaves through the Fantasy world when their juggernaut-like attack was derailed in their own back yard by a resilient Stoke City. The Citizens had picked up a couple of wins in the opening Gameweeks without ever really impressing and manager Manuel Pellegrini was quick to point the finger at player fitness. With a number of the squad failing to start full training until just days before the season kick-off as a result of World Cup duties, Pellegrini admitted he had his reservations:

“We started with the most creative players that we have in the team – with Yaya, Silva, Nasri, Jovetic and Aguero. Today, two things happened – first, that we are not very creative and second, Stoke did very well. I was very concerned about the start to the season. Our squad is not 100% fit and I think in the second half today, we saw it. Three or four players can’t play with the same intensity for 90 minutes. We now have 15 days, it’s not the best to have an international break, but we must continue working and try and recover in a difficult week after that.”

Pellegrini also discussed his new summer signing Eliaquim Mangala. Yet to feature for the champions as he continues to build up his match fitness, the French international was assumed by many to be the automatic partner for Vincent Kompany but, as his manager admits, the upcoming schedule is likely to afford him the chance to rotate in order to bring the new boy into the City first XI:

“He (Mangala) can bring a lot. He is a very strong defender, who is very fast. He is only 23 so he can still improve a lot, which is what we were looking for. We are helping him to settle here in Manchester and after the international break he will be able to play. We need the three of them. Like I have said about the strikers, it’s the same with the defenders. We have so many games to play. At the moment Demichelis and Kompany are playing well but that doesn’t mean that Mangala can’t play as well. He will have his time to play, and then it will depend on his performances for the team.”

No such concerns were apparent for Chelsea’s José Mourinho after his side’s incredible 6-3 thumping of Everton, however. The Blues were rampant on the road against a strong Premier League outfit, thanks to a slight shift toward a more expansive and attacking playing philosophy – but the Portuguese boss maintained a level head, citing defensive failures as the focal point for improvement:

“I know they are a good offensive side but to concede three goals is too much. All of them I can clearly define the mistakes, the people involved and where we failed. We were killers in attack, especially on the counter-attack, so when you come to this stadium and get three points it is a reason to be happy. When you come here and score six goals, obviously my players did well. I want to be different in that we play better football, score more goals, but I don’t want to be different in the sense that we concede goals. To concede three goals and identify the mistakes we made is something I have to work at.”

The defeat spurred Everton’s Roberto Martinez to admit that changes could be made to his first XI. The Toffees boast two of FPL’s most expensive defensive assets in Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines, but with ten goals shipped in just three outings, and trips to Manchester United and Liverpool in their next four, owners will be hoping for a more conservative approach from Martinez as he looks to rotate a competitive squad in order to cope with a busy schedule that sees Everton play seven times in 22 days from their Gameweek 4 clash against West Brom onwards:

“One aspect that is very important is to have a competitive edge with your team and your selection. If we keep conceding goals like that then the competition for places needs to be open and allow football to make those decisions. We have very good centre-halves that at the moment are not playing, we’ve got two or three players per position and that is going to accelerate the competition for places. But we have a lot of games coming up and it is that competition we need to see how the players react and perform. Nobody is guaranteed their place in the team and the aspect of a good team is to have options and competition for places. This will be important.”

One man who did successfully manage to stem the flow of goals against his side recently was Harry Redknapp. The QPR boss reacted to a 4-0 hammering at White Hart Lane by shifting from a back-three to a four-man defence and the move paid immediate dividends as the Hoops picked up their first goal, clean sheet and three points of the season at home to Sunderland. Redknapp seems set to stick with the formation but intimated that tactical flexibility could be key to keeping his squad happy;

“I’m always open to change, I said if you’re not happy we can go back to playing this way and there are no excuses. If you’re playing in the system and it suits you because you’re in the team as a wing-back and there might be another full-back who can’t play wing-back he won’t like the system. It’s always difficult but I could go back to it [three at back] quite easily.”

Swansea left-back Neil Taylor has revealed the reason for an upturn in resilience this season. After registering just two clean sheets in 14 matches under Garry Monk in 2013/14, the Welsh club looked anything but resilient at the back – with just a single goal conceded in their opening trio of fixtures, Taylor admitted the Swans’ hard work is paying off:

“We’ve definitely tightened up. We’ve worked all pre-season on our defensive work because we knew the players we had signed up top would be big for us this year. We knew if we kept the door shut at the back, we would do really, really well.”