Say What? – Gameweek 9

Say What? reports for duty amidst the injuries and mind games of Gameweek 9 as we bring you another selection of the week’s most quotable sound bites. Prepare for a triumphant Sam Allardyce on “out tactic-ing” another of the league’s premier sides as he tips off Louis van Gaal on how to repeat the feat, Ronald Koeman discusses Saints’ scintillating defensive form and James McCarthy backs Everton’s successful squad rotation policy. Elsewhere Christian Eriksen cites the change of style as a reason for Tottenham’s wavering form, Mark Hughes bemoans a lack of cutting edge and we hear from Arsene Wenger and Paul Lambert on the return of a pair of Fantasy aces.

West Ham upset the odds, and over 25% of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers who were counting on Sergio Aguero, with a 2-1 victory at the Boleyn. Nearly 400,000 managers had piled in for the Argentine on the strength of his performance against Spurs in Gameweek 8, with Aguero also topped our Captain Poll ahead of Saturday’s early kick-off. With City scoring six in their previous two away trips, West Ham manager Sam Allardyce moved away from a midfield diamond and switched to a 4-2-3-1:

“Two crosses created two goals. Morgan (Amalfitano) was brilliant coming in off his line inside the far post. We didn’t play with two strikers because I thought that was too risky against their quality, so we played with a 4-2-3-1 and for me it was the right decision because we got the right result – and one not many people expected.”

The move panned out brilliantly for the Hammers, who now sit second in our Frisking the Fixtures – The Strong article, and Fantasy managers will be tempted further still by another growing FPL prospect. Diafra Sakho’s match-winning strike took his goal streak to five consecutive Premier League matches, and the Senegalese forward has now returned against Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City’s defences, making the 5.7-priced frontman seemingly fixture proof right now, though a shoulder problem sustained on Saturday should deter would-be investors until further prognosis is available. After the match, Allardyce was brutally open about his exploitation of Eliaquim Mangala and with a Manchester derby up next, it will be interesting to see how these comments resonate.

“I think they leave him [Mangala] exposed. He’s only just joined. They don’t protect him and he’s only just got here. Vincent Kompany is used to it, he’s been at this level for such a long time. This lad’s not, he’s finding his feet and we made big strides down the left and caused them lots of problems. Maybe there should have been a bit more protection from other players. That wasn’t there and we exposed that.”

The Hammers’ form kept them hot on the heels of the current top four’s only other victors; Southampton. The Saints are already a well-established fraternity for Fantasy investment and, with Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pellè commanding our attention for their attacking exploits in Gameweek 8, this time it’s the defence’s turn to shine. Southampton have now recorded five clean sheets in their last eight, and boast three of the top five FPL defenders -while Fraser Forster sits a point off the top of the goalkeeper standings – and manager Ronald Koeman shared his philosophy on clean sheets after the 2-0 win against Stoke.

“It is true I am proud of that, because we work very hard in pre-season about our organisation in the team and okay, football is with the ball, but maybe more importantly football is the organisation when you don’t have the ball and how you defend. It’s teamwork, that starts with the forwards and how they press, it’s great because clean sheets make wins and we showed that again. I’m very proud about that. I think that’s the basic to win games, to play out of a good organisation and to defend well. Defending is not only for the defenders, but defending starts from the front and that’s teamwork. It’s going well and I think that’s the key of our position on the list that we play out of good organisation.”

Mark Hughes started with a lone striker against the resilient Southampton defence but with his side facing their first away blank of the season moved to a 4-4-2 in an attempt to find a cutting edge. Stoke are yet to unearth a consistent source of attacking returns and have now averaged just under one goal per match, with the stubborn days of Tony Pulis seeming long gone. Stoke have managed just two clean sheets this season, and with trips to Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester United in their next five games, Fantasy managers would be forgiven for taking a wide berth of the Potters’ assets.

“During the second half we were a lot better when we went to 4-4-2 and put Mame [Biram Diouf] up with Peter [Crouch], because we had the threat of being able to get in behind them which meant they had to sit a little deeper, which then allowed us to dictate the tempo of the game. We managed to get ourselves into a number of really promising situations, but we weren’t able to get the quality on the ball to hurt them.”

Everton are continuing to grow in form after a torrid start to the season and only Romelu Lukaku’s clumsy defence-splitting back pass prevented them from recording back to back 3-0 wins against Aston Villa and Burnley. Roberto Martinez rested the returning Ross Barkley after midweek action in Europe, while Samuel Eto’o took up the role off Lukaku and produced a pair of superb goals to win the match and midfielder James McCarthy reckons rotation is benefitting the Toffees.

“The rotation helps, obviously. People can say three games in a week, you’re a professional, it’s your job and so on, but it can be hard coming back from places like Lille and going again for another game. But we were delighted with the resulting team performance and the three points up at Burnley.”

After starting the season looking a perfect match, Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham Hotspur’s relationship seems very much like a work in progress after Newcastle dished out a third home defeat in the last four in front of their own fans. Playmaker Christian Eriksen admitted that his team are still struggling to adapt to their new manager’s style of play and whilst Spurs fixtures look fairly strong in the long run, their woeful recent form may persuade many to steer clear of their Fantasy prospects.

“As players, we are all trying to adapt to Mauricio’s new style of play and we won’t know everything straight away. It is still a work in progress but, hopefully, we won’t take too long to get it right. We could have done better in some games. We have had some good results but some disappointing defeats too, although it is easy to forget that we are still working with a new manager. You can already see that we are starting to play the way he wants us to, and the more we work together, the better the results will be.”

Elsewhere in North London, Arsene Wenger pondered the return of Fantasy stalwart Theo Walcott ahead of a trip to Burnley. The Arsenal midfielder has served up an elite level of Fantasy returns thanks to his explosive pace and attacking positioning, but would-be investors may need to hold fire on bringing the Englishman in after a lengthy lay off though injury.

“I have to give him [Walcott] competition slowly in the next three or four weeks. His runs off the ball are fantastic and it always gives you hope that you can score goals. The pace we have in the side when he’s back is very impressive because Welbeck, Alexis and Oxlade-Chamberlain are also very quick. Could the attacking pace frighten defences? Let’s see. My imagination works like yours but I have to prove that they can work together on the pitch and that’s what I’ll try to do when everybody’s back. I don’t know if Theo will play against Burnley. We dropped points at home unexpectedly against Hull and that¹s why we have to focus on winning the Burnley game before I can plan giving Theo some competition.”

Christian Benteke’s recent return to action after recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon has raised the eyebrow of plenty of Fantasy managers. Like Walcott, the Belgian has Fantasy pedigree and some favourable fixtures to follow to but whether he will quickly rediscover the form that saw him outgun Europe’s finest at the start of 2013 remains a doubt according to Vila boss Paul Lambert.

“The injury he had was really severe. He might have to wait for six or seven game before he’s really up to speed. There’s signs he’s getting there. I think they’ll come out of the traps on Sunday [at home to Tottenham]. I know we’ll be alright in that department because when Benteke comes up to speed, and with Gabriel Agbonlahor, Andreas Weimann, Charles N’Zogbia and Darren Bent, we’ve guys with goals in them. That’ll happen.”