It’s confession time – I’ve cheated this week. Normally this would be written through blurry eyes, snatching at a cold mug of coffee, pangs of hunger being held off before I embark on an epic bacon sandwich quest once these words are written. Due to circumstances beyond my control (okay so having a baby wasn’t totally beyond my control), I’m committed to other things this morning and forced, instead, to fall back on words written through Friday night’s blurry eyes.
Fortunately, whilst my Saturday morning is being spent taking care of the needs of a “bundle of joy”, my Fantasy team barely requires my attention. For this is a week that’s already been played out in my head as a high scoring affair and, by many, as the week that Robin Van Persie comes alive and finally puts Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez in their place.
Robin has just one league goal in five; one goal in nine appearances in all competitions. In all honesty, he should be ashamed of himself. While he’s previously blazed a trail and justified his inflated Fantasy price tag, of late, he’s sat back and allowed Rooney to raise the question marks and Suarez to steal his Fantasy thunder, slipping a foot into his Golden Boot.
While Van Persie has delivered 21 points in the Fantasy Premier League since Gameweek 22, Liverpool’s Uruguayan has weighed in with 63 by comparison. Those numbers are compelling, adding fuel to the furnace of doubt that has surrounded Van Persie’s value all season. It’s time for the Dutchman to deliver, then.
The stage could not be set more perfectly. Rested for the FA Cup tie with s Chelsea, opponents do not come any more obliging that Reading. They arrive at Old Trafford with the worst defensive record in the league. With 56 goals conceded, three clean sheets with no shut-outs on the road, the Royals are surely cruising for a bruising on Saturday. No side in the league have conceded more “big chances” than Reading – chances that, ordinarily, would have been expected to be converted. Surely if they continue to be charitable on Saturday, Van Persie will take his “big chances” on his way to perhaps his seventh double figure haul of the season.
It’s a scenario that will give Van Persie’s owners reason to be smug come 11.30, with the armband safely in place on his bicep. I’ve no qualms in confessing to feelings of complacency, to admitting that I’m almost counting on Robin to deliver. And yet I have to recognise that, for all his achievements in his first term at United, Van Persie is finishing the season as a player that has split Fantasy managers rather than unite them under his banner. While at one point there looked to be no argument as to his merits, the tide has turned somewhat and it’s going to take another burst to restore order and herald Van Persie as the season’s most “essential” player.
I’ve noted, with some concern, that three of the top four FPL managers go into the deadline without him and it made me consider whether my unshakable faith in Van Persie has already cost me and will ultimately see my season fade out with a whimper.
Writers are often called to “murder your darlings” – kill off the dialogue, scenes and characters you like because, if you like and admire them, you cannot possibly be objective about them; you can’t judge them without bias and that’s likely to mean that they’re not as good as you think they are.
It’s a chilling prospect to apply such a theory to Van Persie, particularly when you consider that those who have swapped to Suarez have likely done so without such feelings confusing their judgment. Suarez is a world-class talent – but is he admired and liked? This year’s Player of the Year awards will tell us more.
Clearly there’s a danger that I’ve held on too long, that memories of Van Persie transforming my average Gameweeks with another assured finish have led to admiration which has clouded my Fantasy thinking. There’s little doubt Robin is my darling, the big question now is whether I should have killed him off weeks ago.
