Blackburn’s Phil Jones is flashing on our Fantasy radars as a new “Out of Position” option having been handed a defensive midfield role by Sam Allardyce in yesterday’s 1-0 win over Everton.
Big Sam opted to drop last season’s Player of the Year, Steve N’Zonzi to the bench in order to give 18-year-old Jones the opportunity. He rewarded his manager with a strong performance that helped stifle Everton’s attacking play.
Jones made several attacking surges and our Opta stats show that he won more “Duels” than any other Blackburn player on the day – enough to see him catch the eye of the Fantasy Premier League Bonus Point judges to earn him the maximum three point return. With Martin Olsson now classified as a midfielder, Jones could well present a new option for keen-eyed Fantasy Managers down at Ewood.
Classed as a Defender, Jones walked away with the clean sheet and now looks to represent strong value in the Blackburn defence. Both Chris Samba and Ryan Nelsen started the game and will give Rovers a solid pairing at the back. However, Jones comes in at 4.5 in the FPL, cheaper than both those options. If Jones can maintain his midfield starting role he seems set to offer defensive returns and give himself the platform to go on earning Bonus Points. He is clearly a “magnet in the making” having gathered 7 Bonus from his 7 Premier League starts last season.
Rest and rotation is a concern, particularly with Allardyce recently commenting on the risk of “burnout” for his young defender. However, whilst Jones displays the kind of form he showed yesterday, he seems likely to remain in Big Sam’s XI.
As far as Jones’ short-term prospects go, Rovers follow the Everton game up with a trip to Birmingham but have a strong run of opponents up to gameweek 8 once they get the Arsenal and City encounters out of the way in gameweeks 3 and 4 (bir ARS mcy FUL bla stk SUN).
Staying with Blackburn, they lost David Dunn to a groin injury after just nine minutes of yesterday’s game. Allardyce had this to say on the injury…
“It was a disappointment to lose David so early as he was our leading goalscorer….He has completed every single training session and every single game in pre-season and just over-stretches and extends his groin a little bit. That was a concern.”
We can expect scans and news on his situation early next week. He was replaced by N’Zonzi in yesterday’s game so Dunn’s absence could be a factor in Jones keeping a midfield position.