Our Watchlist rankings enjoyed a refresh today following last week’s full update, as news of injuries to Rafael Van der Vaart, Robin Van Persie and Tim Cahill wafted our way. This fresh array of knocks have had their impact on our Watchlist thinking and may now hand opportunties for a few differential selections to step up in the coming gameweeks.
You can now find the our Watchlist mid-term player rankings on every page of the site, at the bottom of your right-hand menu. Read on for a summary of the key movements and considerations this week.
Newcastle’s Steve Harper and Villa’s Brad Friedel are the notable climbers in the goalkeeper rankings and appear to offer the best low and mid-price alternative to the expensive Joe Hart who still leads the way. Hart should be in line for improved returns given City’s run of three Eastland encounters in the next four, but both Harper and Friedel also have fixtures falling in their favour.
In defence, the prospect of Everton’s double fixture gameweek promotes Seamus Coleman to the number one spot – the Irishman looks assured of his starts barring injury and will surely be an attacking threat as Everton prepare for four home games in the next five. Kyle Walker – a big favourite around these parts – climbs to second as he and Villa enjoy a smooth passage of fixtures right the way through to the end of the season. Walker’s attacking potential coupled with his 4.0 Fantasy Premier League price tag, makes him a key transfer target. Judging by the gameweek “transfers in” stats, he also remains a differential.
Aleksandar Kolarov with his role on the City left flank, is holding firm in the top five – like Hart he will surely benefit from a run of friendly forthcoming opponents and home matches. Newcastle’s in-form Jose Enrique and Everton’s double-up option – Leighton Baines – completes our current top five. The likes of Roger Johnson and Robert Huth – with decent fixtures in their sights – also remain highly ranked, with Johan Djourou dropping out of favour with gameweek blank and competition for starts on the rise.
The midfield rankings remain turbulent. Van der Vaart’s injury has damaged confidence in him to the extent that he drops out of our top five, at least until we know more and be assured of his return against Wolves in gameweek 29 (personal tweets don’t count). While the doubts surrounding Tim Cahill’s fitness is a concern, it’s not enough to see him plummet in our rankings just yet. Given his double fixture in gameweek 29, Cahill still remains a key target, regardless of his status for Saturday’s meeting with Sunderland.
The Newcastle pairing of Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton enjoy major climbs as their fixtures offer decent home opposition in three of the next four gameweeks. Barton has rarely ranked above Nolan this season, but that’s the case this week in the light of his outstanding form and contribution in recent matches. We will bring you more on the Magpies pair, including some “Paddy Power specials”, later this week.
Elsewhere, Samir Nasri also makes a return to our radars – jumping over team-mate Cesc Fabregas based on value and season returns to date. The Villa pairing of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing and City’s David Silva and Yaya Toure are your mid-price differentials. These four all look to have promising runs in front of them and could offer significant rewards for those willing to take the gamble.
A word on Charlie Adam’s current ranking – his position reflects the fact that he is still teetering on the suspension tightrope and facing up to a two-match ban. It seems almost inevitable that we will see the Blackpool skipper pick up this fateful yellow card in the next three or four gameweeks – it could even come against Spurs tonight.
Finally, amongst the forwards, there’s little movement at the top with Robin Van Persie and Carlos Tevez dominating our thinking. The news of Van Persie’s tweaked hamstring comes as a major blow given his omission from tomorrow night’s Stoke clash but, with the prospect of him returning for the Carling Cup final, this should have little bearing on his mid-term prospects.
Dimitar Berbatov suffers a minor drop in confidence with rest and rotation always a concern; Villa’s Darren Bent is threatening his position in third as he and Gerard Houllier’s side begin their run of favourable fixtures. Bent is a real differential prospect at 8.8 in the FPL but again, you’d need balls to break the Van Persie/Tevez/Berbatov front three combination for the weeks ahead.
Further down we have the likes of Leon Best, Daniel Sturridge, Moussa Dembele and Luis Suarez who are all earning some attention following decent form. Their emergence has both Nikola Zigic and Peter Odemwingie dropping down our rankings, while Louis Saha’s injury is casting doubt over his potential; that may well change when the weekend team news comes funnelling through.
