The Digest – Gameweek 22

Another swashbuckling wing-back. Another midfield budget gem. Gameweek 22 provided plenty to consider, at a time when our next few moves appear more crucial than ever. Here’s our belated thoughts in digestible form…

The Player

Often kept in the shadow of team-mate and fellow Everton full-back Leighton Baines, this could now be a break-out season for Seamus Coleman.

Deployed at right wing-back, Coleman is playing with an attacking freedom that allows him to exploit the strengths in his game.

A tireless runner, Coleman also has the ability to remain composed when presented with goal scoring opportunities, as evidenced by his late strike at Selhurst Park.

Coleman was considered a winger in his fledgeling seasons – he was deployed as such in a loan spell with Blackpool and has the pace, trickery and the end product to fulfil such a role.

Ronald Koeman’s new 3-5-2 set-up is allowing Coleman to roll back the years and, in doing so, he has been transformed as a Fantasy asset.

There is proven pedigree as a goal scorer; a seven-goal return (six in FPL terms) in the 2013/14 season under Roberto Martinez highlighted a player who could contribute significantly to the Toffees attacking cause.

Coleman is on track to better that tally, as Koeman looks to supplement the steady stream of goals from Romelu Lukaku.

With four for the season, three arriving in his last 12 outings, the Irishman is on course to edge towards a double-figure goal return.

Much will depend on Koeman maintaining the current system to keep Coleman unshackled but, given recent results, we’ve every reason to expect that the 3-5-2 is here to stay.

Everton’s run of fixtures over the next six Gameweeks is almost peerless and with no blanks looming, there appears little reason to overlook Coleman as a backline option that offers real potential for double-digit hauls.

The Team

We could choose to write off Swansea City’s performance at Liverpool as the “honeymoon effect” kicking in.

While we’ve seen Sam Allardyce struggle to have such an impact at Crystal Palace, there’s little doubt that both Paul Clement at Swansea and Marco Silva at Hull City have inspired almost instant improvement in their relegation-threatened sides.

But Swansea’s lift arrives hand-in-hand with a pair of new signings, both of which added instant pep to the Welshman’s performance levels.

Martin Olsson showed promise at left-back but it was Tom Carroll, in particular, who settled quickly.

Having spent 13 matches on loan at the club in 2014/15, the capture from Spurs seamlessly slotted into the Swans midfield and showed the energy and ball-carrying craft they have been lacking.

Previously so dependent on Gylfi Sigurdsson, in Carroll they appear to have another playmaker who can get beyond the striker and lend presence to the attack.

Carroll certainly demonstrated as much at Anfield, his sublime cross for Fernando Llorente’s second goal came packaged with a purposeful scurry forward, leading to Sigurdsson’s decisive effort.

Carroll, at just 4.2, looks to be a ready-made asset for those considering a shift back to 3-4-3 with their Fantasy Premier League squads.

An assured starter with the potential to bring points from our bench, he is destined for heavy traffic should he deliver further points in the coming Gameweeks.

But Sigurdsson and Llorente will surely remain the crucial elements as Clement bids to perform a rescue act.

Faced with four home matches which all present winnable scenarios, Swansea’s goalscorers on Merseyside have a platform to go on delivering and play their way back into our thinking.

Hull’s potential elimination from the FA Cup at Fulham would only increase the Swans’ stock, guaranteeing them a Gameweek 28 fixture and ensuring that Carroll, Sigurdsson and Llorente blink even brighter on our radar.

The Talking Point

The arrival of Carroll, coupled with the exciting emergence of Tom Davies at Everton, presents us with ample opportunity to reconsider our optimum formation and squad composition.

With Eden Hazard stalling badly and Philippe Coutinho yet to convince on his return for a stuttering Mane-less Liverpool outfit, there is suddenly new doubt on the merits of going heavy with our midfield spend.

With the likes of Matt Phillips, Junior Stanislas, Wilfried Zaha and the aforementioned pair of budget attractions, there is clear value available in the centre of the park to scatter around some North London heavy-hitters.

Suddenly, this flushes funds from this area of our squads. That’s cash that could be directed at the attack with a move back to 3-4-3, or even funnelled into the defence to consider Coleman and a growing cast of rearguard options offering attacking promise.

This is clearly another crossroads in our season.

With the impending blanks and double Gameweeks also entering into our thoughts, our next three transfers will be crucial in exploiting the current landscape and preparing ourselves for missing fixtures.

With Alexis Sanchez destined for a Gameweek 26 blank and with Zlatan Ibrahimovic likely to join him, the situation cries out for a strong bench.

Spreading funds, rather than locking them into one specific area of our squads could be the optimum strategy to explore at this point.