A decidedly dull encounter at Anfield saw Liverpool grind out another three points and continue their mini-resurgence with a 1-0 victory over a battling Fulham. Elsewhere, the Carling Cup proved far more eventful, as Birmingham City edged out West Ham in extra time to progress to the final and hand us Fantasy Managers new fixture conundrums to unravel.
Liverpool’s win was their second victory in the space of five days, propelling them up to 7th in the Premier League and leaving them targeting a previously unimaginable European spot. In Fantasy terms many of their assets are slowly edging back onto our radars as possible differentials, although the blank for Fernando Torres will have bitterly disappointed his hopeful owners.
Kenny Dalglish employed a 4-5-1 with Torres supported on the flanks by Max Rodriquez on the left and Dirk Kuyt on the right, the returning Steven Gerrard worked in tandem with Raul Meireles; both seemed to play the box-to-box central midfield role and generally took control of the halfway line with neither afraid to attack. Christian Poulsen, who was in for the injured Lucas Leiva, played deeper protecting the back four.
Having failed to keep a clean sheet for 6 Premier League games, Liverpool have now earned consecutive shut-outs. With Martin Kelly, seemingly, a nailed-on starter, the right-back’s 4.3 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) valuation is now looking immensely attractive. Kelly was again impressive and continues to draw plaudits while Glen Johnson has looked effective enough at left-back.
Raul Meireles has become a Bonus Point darling in recent weeks; the Portuguese International picked up another maximum last night, giving him 8 over the last three fixtures. In Gameweek 24 he picked up a total of 19 FPL points, notching a goal and an assist at Wolves. With just 1.6% ownership and a price of 6.8, he remains a realistic candidate for our watchlists.
Fulham continue to be a difficult outfit to break down and have conceded just 3 goals in their last 6 league outings, earning them 3 clean sheets in the process. Investment in their back four needs to be carefully considered however; with a couple of tricky games on the horizon (NEW, avl, CHE, mcy, BLA, Eve) they will find it hard to maintain their current run of defensive form. David Stockdale, priced at 3.9 in the FPL has proved an excellent short-term prospect between the sticks; it will be interesting to see if Mark Schwarzer can reclaim his place once he has returned from the Asian Cup.
For all their gritty defensive form, Fulham are still finding goals hard to come by. Moussa Dembele remains an interesting prospect however. The Belgian was awarded 2 bonus points last night as his influence on Fulham’s attacking play remains strong. If he can start to muster goals and assists, he certainly has the potential to be a decent option in the budget bracket as an FPL bench forward. Again however, Fulham’s tough run of opponents has to be considered.
Over in the Carling Cup, Alex McLeish made wholesale changes to his midfield with Alexander Hleb and Keith Fahey dropped and David Bentley cup-tied, in came Lee Bowyer, Craig Gardner and Sebastian Larsson. The 3-1 victory saw Bowyer and Gardner both claim goals, whilst Larsson also impressed. Following the disappointing 5-0 loss to Manchester United, McLeish may choose to keep his cup heroes in his starting XI for the FA Cup tie with Coventry.
Despite our Birmingham triple Gameweek hopes being dashed by their progress to the Carling Final, Birmingham’s key assets should still be looked at as potential point grabbers for their double home fixtures in Gameweek 27. As we stated in our earlier article, Birmingham follow this up with a blank fixture in Gameweek 28 and then another double in Gameweek 29.
Gardner and Larsson both started and impressed last night and they could be cheap FPL options, although McLeish continues to rotate in midfield areas and, right now, there appears little security on offer. Defensive targets, with Roger Johnson perhaps the key figure having scored two goals over recent matches, look to be more solid considerations.
On that front, the selection of Martin Jiranek at centre-back, allowing Liam Ridgewell to move to left-back, meant that David Murphy dropped to the bench. We were lining Murphy up as a potential bargain over the rest of the season given that he was earning starts following the season-long injury to Scott Dann; Murphy is priced at just 3.9 in the FPL. However, Jiranek was singled out for praise by McLeish and could now hold his starting role.
“We felt that Martin deserved his chance. Maybe I’ve been too cautious not giving him more playing time. I thought he was magnificent tonight.”
You can pick up the Czech for 4.5 in the FPL but the uncertainty surrounding his starts and those of Murphy, will likely discourage investment; hardly desirable as we approach Birmingham’s double Gameweek.
