As a season ticket holder at White Hart Lane for the last six years and also a self-confessed Fantasy Football addict, I’ve decided to produce this analysis of Tottenham’s key assets. This is very much my own opinion, based on watching these players first hand each week, on how they are likely to perform as Fantasy assets. All prices are related to Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
Defence
I cannot stress enough that Spurs do not keep clean sheets. Our defenders simply do not know how to defend, which explains why we only kept nine clean sheets last season. Let me hit you with a few examples: Kyle Walker is a shambolic defender who was a striker until the age of 16, Danny Rose was purchased from Leeds as a left-winger and Redknapp tried to mould him into a full-back and Jan Vertonghen lives in a fairy tail world where he thinks he is Champions League quality. However, we have beefed up our defence with Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld this summer as we undergo some defensive surgery.
· Danny Rose (5.5) – Danny Rose has really blossomed under Pochettino; he carries Spurs’ counter attack threat from the left and he gets into positions like no other full-back. When Rose is not in the team we really miss his pace and his end product has gradually improved. He got three goals and four assists last season – impressive considering that, unlike other defenders, none of these came from set pieces. If you remember our brilliant 5-3 win over Chelsea on New Years Day last season, Rose scored as he was first to a rebound in the box after busting his guts to bomb forward. He is very attacking minded and I expect him to continue improving this season. He does have competition from Ben Davies but Rose has established himself as first-choice left-back and I fully expect Rose to sit out the Europa League games.
· Toby Alderweireld (5.0) – I expect Alderweireld to partner Vertonghen at centre-back and form a successful partnership like he did while on loan at Southampton last season with Jose Fonte. Vertonghen and Alderweireld were both at the heart of Ajax’s defence and their relationship should be strong both on and off the field. As a guaranteed starter coming in at 5.0, I believe Alderweireld would be a good pick considering Spurs’ early fixtures, with the exception of Manchester United away in Gameweek 1, of course. Alderweireld showed last season that he is Premier League quality and I believe that Spurs have made an excellent signing here.
Verdict: If you are looking at a Spurs defender, Rose and Alderweireld are by far the two best options. Rose is an extra 0.5 but over the course of the season I am convinced he will contribute goals and assists just like he did last season. However, as stated before, Spurs do not keep clean sheets. My advice would be to wait and see if our new signings improve our defence. Try to resist having a Spurs defender for Gameweek 1. Vertonghen at 5.5 does not offer value as I do not think he will rediscover the goalscoring touch he had a few years ago. Trippier/Walker – at the moment it is difficult to predict who will start. Hugo Lloris is currently a doubt for Gameweek 1 with a wrist injury.
Midfield
I believe that Spurs are still in the market for a holding midfielder and an attacking midfielder so things may change slightly. Nabil Bentaleb at 4.5 will most likely be my fifth midfielder as he will be a regular starter this season. Erik Lamela is an extremely frustrating footballer to watch every week and I would avoid him in regards as a Fantasy proposition. In my opinion only Christain Eriksen and Nacer Chadli are the only midfielders worth considering.
· Eriksen (8.5) – Last season Eriksen notched up 10 goals and two assists in 37 starts and provided a few memorable last-minute winners. Eriksen is an explosive Fantasy player capable of racking up back-to-back double-figure returns. What I need to stress about Eriksen is that he is incredibly inconsistent and, now at 8.5, I consider him to be a risky pick. He blows hot and cold and goes missing in big games. Eriksen can be an excellent Fantasy pick but it is critically important that you hop on him and hop off him at the right times because he explodes but then goes quiet. Spurs’ early fixtures are: Man U (A) Stoke (H), Leicester (A), Everton (H), Sunderland (A), Crystal Palace (H). I would be tempted by Eriksen for this little run. May I make it you aware that he scored in three of these fixtures last season and two seasons ago he scored the winner at Old Trafford on New Years Day so he has good records against these teams. Call me biased but I think Eriksen is currently the best free kick taker in the Premier League and this heightens his appeal. I would say that Eriksen is proven in Fantasy football as well.
· Chadli (7.0) To my surprise, Chadli contributed 11 goals and 5 assists last season. He started off the campaign well last year as he scored twice in Gameweek 2 against QPR. Chadli comes in at 1.5 cheaper then Eriksen and I really think he could be a good pick this season. He has the knack of getting into good goalscoring positions; 10 of Chadli’s 11 goals came from inside the box and last season he had 130 penalty area touches compared to Erisken’s 99. His minute-per-goal ratio was 228.5 whereas Eriksen’s was 327.6.
Verdict: Despite Eriksen having the potential for huge returns I think that Chadli is the better pick for your Gameweek 1 team purely because of his price. At the early stages of the season I think it is risky to spend 8.5 on a player who is inconsistent. Last time out Eriksen notched up 162 points compared to Chadli’s 160. However, Eriksen started 37 games whereas Chadli started just 28. Had Chadli played the same number of minutes as Eriksen, he would have surpassed Eriksen’s points tally comfortably. The underlying creativity stats would favour Eriksen but in terms of FPL points Chadli would be my pick as he represents better value.
Strikers
Lets cut straight to the chase and talk about that boy from Chigwell.
· Harry Kane (9.5) The inevitable has happened and his price has almost doubled. Kane will obviously not represent as much value as he did last season but let’s not forget that he scored 21 goals in the Premier League last season and his first start was on the 9th November. Spurs have a good set of fixtures and as our main man I am sure he will continue where he left off last season. Nonetheless, at the moment I have no plans for having Kane in my team for Gameweek 1. Kane participated in the Euro U21’s tournament and at the moment as I scroll through instagram all I see are holiday snaps. Kane may take a while to get back into the swing of things, plus at his price he now competes for attention with the 13.0-priced Sergio Aguero, who has a great short-term run of fixtures from Gameweek 4 onwards.
Conclusion
At this stage my advice would be to steer clear of Spurs defenders for the time being so we can assess whether our new signings of Alderweireld and Trippier will help us produce more clean sheets. I know our Gameweek 1 fixture away at Manchester Utd is unappealing but our next five fixtures after are good and I am sure that Kane, Eriksen and Chadli will be amongst the FPL points.
8 years, 9 months agoGood article and I agree with most of it. A few extra points from another Spurs fan:
1. Probably worth mentioning Vorm. As Chicken-Mandy says we simply don't keep clean sheets - only four teams conceded more goals than us in the PL last year - that's an astonishing statistic for a team who finished 5th. Hull conceded two fewer goals and got relegated.
The Lloris injury complicates things but if he a) is clearly set to miss a significant part of the start of the season or b) leaves then Vorm as £4.5 probably is worth considering as part of a GK rotation.
2. Chadli is an interesting player, I actually think he is quite poor and does not contribute very much to general play, except that he gets into very good positions and really can finish like a striker (his goal vs Stoke at WHL was exceptional). As things stand he is a definite starter although that could change if for example Townsend leaves and we sign another wide player for the 4-2-3-1. Compared to other options around that mark like Henderson, Sigurdsson, Willian, Milner, Mirallas etc he seems to be a great option and is definitely on my shortlist of 5 for 3 midfield spots.
3. Kane was back in training yesterday but at that price he just doesn't appeal unless he looks like carrying on his form from last year. Rooney costs you £1m more and that to me is a no brainer.
So many players explode onto the scene (remember when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was the future of English football) and struggle to maintain it. I dearly hope that's not Kane but a lot of people are going to be spending a lot of time working out how to play him and he is no longer an unknown quantity but a marked man.