Having failed to produce any attacking returns in his last three appearances, and with no league fixture on his agenda this weekend, Juan Mata is being sacrificed by significant numbers of Fantasy managers in an attempt to address the conundrum that is Gameweek 29. The Spaniard has been sold on by over 46,000 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers, more than any other player so far but with three home games in four following directly on from his blank (WHM, sou, SUN, TOT), the potential for points is just around the corner. In this latest article for members, we take a look at his recent displays to ascertain whether there is any reason behind his current malaise.
And the Oscar goes to..
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Still gutted about last night 🙠Stupid football. Can we now assume the deadline for any GW29 matches going ahead has passed?
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yeah its dead, it would be insane shhort notice at this stage! only the 6 games im afraid
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RVP --> Benteke. And after the blank, Lambert --> RVP.
Yay or nay?Open Controls
Cup Opponents out...opponents team;
Begovic
Johnson Caulker (?)
Michu Sissoko Bale
Suarez Lambert Le-Fondre
Anyone reckon Caulker will start?Open Controls
No he won't
Open ControlsPlayed the 2 before last week.
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and score 😉
Open ControlsNah. Not against Liverpool. Dawson-Vert pair are doing well.
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Doubt it. Possible though - could play Vertonghen at left-back again although you probably prefer the experience in the centre to combat Suarez.
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Caulker - doubt it.
...my opp:
Bego
Walker Shaw
Michu Snodgrass Whelan
Gouffran Lambert SuarezOpen ControlsGood luck, you *should* win but it is the cup after all 🙂
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cant wait to get gw29 over with! pure nuisance
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Tom Dwan is such a great player... I love watching his high stakes poker videos...
Do you play much yourself?Open Controlsyea he's my favourite player to watch! i play a good but but i'm no flair player like tom, i'm very conservative
Open ControlsYeah I'm more a TAG player myself... but I'd do well to incorporate some of his moves in my game...
I love how he bets, with the same movements and expressions every single time...
Genius player..Open Controlshe's unbeleivable! so unpredictabe aswell, i've seen him casually 3 bet 7 2 on a few occasions and often taking down big pots! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS49a6RQMJM is a personal favourite
Open ControlsYeah I've seen all of that one...
I can't believe Eastgate here, I know everyone just called the raise which means there could be another 2, but the chances of it are very slim...
Very poor fold IMO... but it just goes to show how intimidating Dwan is...Open Controls
great at taking rich guys money! he doesn't play enough any more I think he would struggle against ike, kanu, sauce etc these days. it'll be interesting to see how he gets on in the ps v ftp match this weekend.
Open ControlsDo not try incorporate Dwans style into your own game! There are two type of games online now games where his style doesn't work because people don't know what they are doing and games where it doesn't work because people do know what they are doing (and know how to beat it). Live you can find game where it works well but then live is a very different game its like playing online games from 10 years ago!
Open ControlsI prefer playing live now, I used to like online but I make much more money playing in live tournaments and cash games that I hardly ever play online anymore...
It was a tongue in cheek comment, I know I'm not good enough to play that way, and it would most likely be detrimental to me game...
Cheers mate...Open Controls
Anyone else keep hoping one of the NEW POSTS would be:
Manchester games rearranged for GW29!Open Controls
Nah. I'm sure the first I'd hear about it would be from someone in the comments on the present post.
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First sample: 25 games
Second sample: 3 games (including a 14 minutes appearance and City)
I agree that Mata is the first in line to lose in our midfields, but i think the stats selected are warped slightly.Open Controls
All stats are warped. It is then a matter of perception and judgement ...
Open ControlsLook at his stats before the last 3 even, they were still poor but he was getting points.
Open ControlsThe alternatives in the Chelsea midfield does support 'Mata out' however.
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Get high.
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So he's getting less shots away than a RB, a defensive mid and Torres.
😕Open Controlstime to sell
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Georgeous set ... 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIwSt2R54XsOpen Controls
Not the sort of "set" I was hoping for 😉
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I own Mata and the way I see it is that he has 3 nice fixtures coming up + a DGW.
Sometimes a player is saved because although his fixtures don't look great, he has the form. In this case his form may have dipped, but he still has excellent fixtures to put that right.
A transfer to take him out and then another to bring Lampard / Oscar back in, could quite easily turn into an 8 point hit over the remainder of the season.
I'm sticking.Open Controlsdepends on whether or not he ets his form back tho! he had a nice fixture last week too
Open ControlsObviously. Unless one of us can see the future.
Open Controlsform > fixtures, i'd sell him for someone like bale or sissoko maybe but not sure if he's worth selling for anyone else
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Strongly considering ditching Mata this week and replacing him with Lampard (via Puncheon) the week after.
Lamps is more fixated on that record than he is on Christine's chocolate pudding.Open ControlsLike I've said above, it could end up being an 8 pointer, as it's 2 transfers you could have used elsewhere. Not worth it imo
Open Controlsits not an 8 pointer if he doesnt bring him back in
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Had the same plan earlier, scrapped it but considering it again now.
Open ControlsLook at Oscar. Seriously.
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thouht i was in rough shape this week but my cup opponent has bigger problems 🙂
Open ControlsLampard is all you need ... imo.
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When mata was doing so well one look at his stats and he seemed due a regression. Now that's its showing it feels difficult to sell him with his fixtures. Is anybody here actually selling him anymore even with his poor stats?
I do apologise if this comment doesn't include anything about Nani's redOpen Controls
Look at my table below.
You're right that he was due regression and it has hit him hard.
It was evident in GW25 when I played my WC and luckily I resisted the urge to buy him.
Lampard is looking like the best option in that Chelsea midfield right now, even though it's taken me a long time to admit it.
I might welcome him back into my team after the blanks are out of the way and the DGWs on the horizon. Last time he was seen there was the double at the start of the season!Open ControlsI know it is difficult to admit but lamps seems the way forward. Also at least with rafa we know lamps is as much a rotation threat as mata or anybody bar Cech or cashley. SOLD!
Open ControlsYep. On my table he's got the most goal attempts, the joint most shots in box, the most shots on target and is third for chances created.
Oscar could be tempting but Lampard is as close to nailed-on as it gets in that Chelsea midfield.Open Controls
My cup opponent has only bale, suarez and benteke available this week no keeper he has made 2 transfer's do 5 players in total, confident of going through
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This article would have been a lot more helpful if it had looked at the last 6 gameweeks IMO.
3 is a really small sample size and he only played 14 minutes in GW26.
Here's the table for the last 6 GWs. I've added Shots in Box:
http://members.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/my-stats-tables/view/2285/Open ControlsI've no idea how to organise the columns by the way, sorry 😉
Open ControlsCreated 16 chances but Lampard has had a lot more attempts on goal
Open ControlsAnd as Baines taught us midway through the season we can't count on only chances created forever
Open ControlsI think Baines is a special case of a particular statistic looking good but not telling the whole story.
I'm sure Mata's chances a good quality ones and ones which his team-mates can realistically be expected to convert at/above the league average over the remainder of the season.Open Controls
Thing is though, Silva has created chances more often and has very similar data for shots in the box and shots on target over the last 6.
Few are talking about buying Silva so I don't see how Mata is much different.Open Controls
hes different because hes shown consistency over the season.
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repost from old article ðŸ™
The real criticism that should be aimed at man utd last night is that they didn’t have a single fit defensive-minded player on the bench to call upon once Nani was sent off.
I said before the game that Fergie was in serious trouble if one of his defenders picked up an injury half-way through. Apart from Evans, (who was even carrying an injury) every single player on the bench was an attacker…Young, Valencia, Kagawa, Rooney, Hernandez.
They might have depth in their squad but what Man Utd lack is a plan B when their natural gameplan doesn’t work out.
Why wasn’t Smalling on the bench last night?? If they had the type of players to bring on to deal with being down to 10 men they might have salvaged something. But Fergie refused to act. Not because he didn’t want to but because they had no obvious options!
While you can go on about the Nani incident, what really lost Man utd the game was this lack of plan BOpen ControlsInteresting theory.
Open ControlsP.S. it's sweet that you waiting for a new article to post this Ben 😉
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what about the almighty micheal carrick, he really schooled xabi alonso last night didnt he...
Open ControlsPhil Jones was a blow, but United were better than Madrid for the majority of the match anyway. Whatever your opinion about the Nani incident was, one man denied a club of a deserved victory.
Open Controlsand too busy moaning
Open ControlsCorrect but I also would've shifted an ineffectual RVP for Rooney last night and thrown Hernandez at 80ish minutes.
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Although I think the red card was excessive (albeit defensible by the letter of the law), it was Man United's failure to react in the 15 minutes after that which was decisive. The players' heads dropped visibly, and their manager was too wound up in his sense of injustice to react tactically.
Red cards happen - it's how you react to the situation that matters.Open ControlsWell said
Open ControlsThose 10 minutes cost us, we couldn't have done anything to stop Modric's goal though. We put up a fight after going 2 down though, a massive fight.
Open ControlsYeah, sorry, our players were busy marking the runs of every Madrid player because Modric always shoots. He hardly ever threads a killer through ball. Or maybe you wanted Evra to Grow an extra head?
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I agree and I think teams at this level should also be planning for the worst possible outcome. Fergie not having defensive options on the bench meant that they had no way to tactically react to this sort of incident...which isn't entirely unusual, red cards happen all the time in these big matches.
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!noinipo nwo ruo ot deltitne lla er'ew ,hguone riaF
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Everybody seems to ignore the fact United dropped back and got in their shell. And Madrid were starting to pin United deeper and deeper with Kaka,Ozil and Alonso pinging pass after pass at United back four. If it wasn't for red card incident we might have been talking something different here.....
Open ControlsThis is true, we had dropped very deep after scoring; but the problem is, because of the red, we'll never know what would have happened
Open ControlsYeah we would never know that. But thing is all the initiation of pressing n keeping Alonso and Ozil in check suddenly disappeared, with 40 plus minutes to go you just can't drop off and give that quality players space to operate in. Sooner or later they were always going to punish United even with 11 men. Look at how Untied played with 10 men once they had backs to wall.
Open ControlsIt changed the game, for sure. But the point I was trying to make is that if Fergie had more defensive reserves we also might have been talking about a different outcome. He didn't act because he had no plan for this situation.
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Midweek quandaries...
Pick Benteke, Lukaku, Remy or Lambert for this week instead of Fletcher? OR
Transfer Fellaini or Mata out?
Also who do you guys reckon will be the best gk from this point to the end of season?Open Controls
Neither, sell Rvp.
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Think I'll keep Mata along with Rooney, Zabaleta, Walcott thus only fielding 9 + keeper but avoiding the 4 pt hit.
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Fairly sure now I'll save my transfer. I have ten if they all play, for this week.
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Those planning to ditch Mata, I recommend a look at Oscar. I think i am ditching him and getting Oscar after the blank.
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Looked very lively against WBA on MOTD highlights, although with Moses is it worth even more of a Rafatation nightmare?
Anticipating the line-ups would be too much!Open ControlsThat applies to every Chelsea player though, doesn't it.
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This is based on the WBA game alone though...I mean before that he hasn't looked that great for FPL and has 1 assist in 8 games
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Is Oscar not a big risk? or do you think he's sufficiently settled into the team now?
Open ControlsLamps from that Chelsea attack for me. See discussion above.
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I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on Nani's red card? No-one seems willing to stick their neck out and say anything about it.
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Crikey can only field 8 without a hit - anyone doing worse?
Open ControlsSomeone posted on the last article with 7. If it makes you feel any better. 🙂
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I remember the last time everyone sold Mata in their droves right before a West Ham game and a run of 1,3,1 and a substitute appearance... I was one of them...
He went on to score attacking returns 5 games in a row and 54pts in 7 games.... I, for one, won't be making that mistake again... Mata is a class act, he will step up his form again...Open ControlsDepends..Rafa is using him wide now..
Open Controlsdon't agree
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True Pep.
Bales form.was patchy at a point thats that sold missed the early part of the explosion.
Sell away fools.Open ControlsHis underlying statistics were fantastic though. Different story IMO
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next gmw Mata & puncheon out Fellaini & sissoko in,What do u reckon guys??
Open ControlsYou not having Sissoko for this week?
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Forget the red card, forget the result, the biggest talking point last night was that Modric actually looked like a good player, and even scored a goal!!
Didn't see that coming!Open ControlsTalking about Oscars....did Granville & Co win anything at the awards last night?
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LR - do u regret selling suarez?
I did opposite sold Aguero for suarez & am loving itOpen ControlsNa, i am delighted i missed out on the hat-trick.
Well done though.Open Controls
Bunn
Pearce Davies Cameron Dawson (Demel)
Bale Puncheon Taarabt (Mata / Afro)
Sturridge (Aguero / RVP)
2 FTs with £0.4m in the bank.
Current thinking is Taarabt > Sissoko and Aguero > Remy with GW30 transfer of Studge > Suarez.
Anybody got any reasons to not do that or perhaps better ideas. Pain in the arse this GW.Open Controls
