Scout Notes – Pre-Season Round Up – Sunday

Exactly the situation i'm in. I just downgraded Haz to Fab and it let me upgrade my defence, Ritchie, and Ramsey to Walcott.

But, I just don't feel comfortable not owning him. That first game against Swansea, he has potential to really explode, then rather than just reshaping my team to get Aguero, i'm then struggling to get Hazard in as well - which probably means an early wildcard.

I think the best bet is play it safe and start with Haz, unless we find out Aguero is fit to start, then we can think about downgrading Haz if we create a route for getting him in if he does deliver.

As you say, it is about the biggest decision to make. I am going without just to have better points cover across the players. As you say, a very dangerous move though.

Currently going with Fabregas. My therory is that the player I combine with with will get more points than the player I can get alongside Haz.

I can't see any reason not to have him.

I'll personally be going for Fabregas for the first few game weeks. Mainly because of his explosive starts, and against Man City he might get deployed further up the pitch with Mikel/Ramires and Matic holding. And like you say, Hazard is better against weaker teams, and the first 8 or so games are against mainly strong opponents

I feel you have to go with him, but I felt that last season when a much higher percentage went with Fabs.

Prob cost me a top 10 finish.

HAZARD!

Had one draft with Hazard, hated it. Hazardless since then... It has been either Fab or Costa to replace him...

Don't be afraid to go against the crowd. I'm going Hazardless and playing Costa. The point of FPL is to score goals and I'd rather go .5 cheaper for someone who's sole purpose is to do just that.

I have swung back and forth, but will inevitably have him in my team.

I am banking on Benteke and Wilson to perform...........my attack line is currently
Hazard Walcott Ozil Mane Anya
Rooney Benteke Wilson

Hazardless for me. Fabregas had more points than him after 5,10 and 15 GWs. More points + decreased difference in price . Hazard is primarily close to essential status when and if Chelsea play striker less later in the season looking for 1-0s or 2-0s.
Its his overall points tally that influences people, but FPL depends on who you own and when.

The difference between Hazard and Fabregas can create an extra premium mid

Costa is the expendable one from the Chelsea attack. Personally I'm starting with Hazard & Fabregas and plan to ditch either Fabregas or Cazorla GW4 to fund Rooney to Kun. Going without Hazard at the start is far to risky

I've been playing with this one, and I think that ultimately it comes down to the fact that I can get a much better midfielder (Sterling, Ozil, Walcott, Ozil, Cazorla etc.) with Costa than the striker (8.5 or below) I get with Hazard.
For me, I think I'll start with Costa and then see if it's necessary in an early WC to switch and get Hazard, as his price probably won't rise that much in the first few GW's due to high ownership.

I'd decided to go Hazardless and get Fabs instead since the fixtures were tricky.. However, with Aguero not back in training and Sanchez out for a few weeks there's no place to spend my money really. So Hazard IN it is.. Him/Rooney/Wally/Benteke offer me my captain choices for the first few weeks

If I go without Hazard, I would double up on Chelsea attack with Fabregas + Costa. Would lose attacking coverage spot of another team...But I think Costa is more captainable than Hazard.

I am going without for GW1 and will be behind the sofa behind the curtain behind the wall.

Hazard's ownership is more than 55 percent because many noobs have auto complete teams which does not have Hazard........

I'm going without and will get Fab instead. Main reason is that beside 1st GW there is not any more weeks early on where everyone will be capping him (GW 4 when he have Palace at home Man City have Watford so i thing Aguero will be obvious cao there). Difference of 2.5 mil betwen Haz and Fab is imo to much, and it could be used to improve 2-3 players acros your team.

Ofcourse there is a possibility that Haz explodes GW1 but still i wouldnt get him with City and WBA away game in next two. Will get him at some point, probably when i WC

He's probably the best player in the league, in the best team in the league. It's Costa and his classic 'goal + YC = 5 points' I'm happy without. I think even if you start with not having Hazard in, you'll end up putting him in.

Hazardless here. Uneasy about it though.

I will start with Fabregas, no doubts, my headache is in other players, like Mane or Pelle, picking up Arsenal big hitters, etc...

I don't understand why ownership is so important in GW1 Jonty. I think its more important to have a strong side and if Hazard weakens it then thats not good.

I start with Agrero Hazard & Walcott,then fill in the rest.

Just imagine he blanks in the first 3 or 4 games. You should be able to buy him then at 0.2-0.3 cheaper if lots of people panic and jump ship. Here's to hoping 😀

as we all know, Fabs tends to perform historically really well first half of season, on that basis he starts in my team over Haz

I will probably play it safe to start, but he is certainly on the OUT watchlist.

For me this is dead easy. There are 5 or 6 players that FPL has (deliberately I think) priced protectively. Hazard, Sanchez, Aguero, Costa, Silva. Possibly you could add Rooney to that list as well.

You cannot have them all and none of them will represent good value unless you use them as a captaincy option. You can have maximum three without unbalancing your squad. Take your pick.

Aguero is probably going to be one for most people. Costa or Hazard but not both. Sanchez or Rooney but not both. Maybe two of those, possibly three at a stretch. You can't have them all.

Hazard was the one player that remained in my squad for 38 weeks last season. This season I am planning to leave him out. Doesn't concern me at all.

I just can't see him getting sub 200 points this season, and as a captain option he's (in my subjective opinion) preferable to Fabregas

I'm gonna start without and see how it goes.
If you look at his PPG last season vs his cost, he is average value, but then there are those captain points.

But I see other options that will likely do better, so I am going with my head.

I'm wrestling with it. 11.5m doesn't seem that much compared to previous Ronaldo or Lampard prices, but it's relative prices that matter and with prices being a bit lower across the board this season, it seems a high price. Particularly with all those lovely 8.5 options. Instead of Hazard and a 5.5m, you can get two crackers at 8.5m.

Problem is, with Aguero out initially, Hazard is probably the best captain choice and when you're buying someone who'll be captain a lot, price almost becomes no object.

As for all choices about a more expensive player, it's a lot easier to downgrade then upgrade

you'll never win this game if you have fear. gotta go with the gut, it's the only way

He has been in my team since day one. He is expensive but the almost guaranteed consistency is so valuable in FPL.

I've been having Fab instead of Haz since my first draft until I saw how Young played for United against Barca. He's probably the second name on the team sheet after Rooney so I switched from Fab & Mata to Haz & Young. The rest of my team still looks balanced with options to trade for Kun in GW4. I've now got captain rotations between Haz and Rooney until Kun comes in now so personally I think that'll be better.

I'll go with Hazard. Why?

Firstly, I've created a team with him and am quite happy with it.
Secondly, I genuinly think he'll outperform Fabregas enough to justify the extra 2.5m, and also when considering captaincy he is well worth the extra.
Thirdly, as you say he is only a penalty away from a double digit score and I personally think Chelsea will get more penalties next season compared to last. There is a recent hot topic on this.
Finally, when considering captaincy alone Hazard is well worth it. With Aguero and Sanchez missing for the first 1 or 2 weeks, I don't wanna rely on Rooney as a captaincy option.

WC timing will be key to this sort of Haz v Fab decision. If you are planning a quick WC it makes it easier to put Fab in.

If Haz was off pens it would make it easier to leave him out - but one stroke of that foot and its likely 8 points just like that.

I'm going without - don't plan on captaining him in any of the first 4-5 GWs so I'm happy to spread the funds elsewhere in my team. Ownership is not a good enough reason IMO.

Big dilemma tough call!

At min I have

Butland ruddy
ivanovic mertesacker/lrscott huth Richards yoshida

Fabregas, Walcott, Milner, Silva (wanyama)
Rooney Kane/Costa deeney/Wilson

With hazard looked lot less good, but catch 22 if does well could fall way behind

No Hazard but I do have Rooney, Giroud, Walcott, Sterling, Erikson.

If Chelsea had better fixtures I would have him in + how will managers cope with having him and Aguero. The teams I have drafted with both are materially weaker so I think many will downgrade Hazard in GW3.

I say as long as you have one after GW3 I don't think it is a big risk.

I think the Hazard decision is a tough one, but not because of ownership. He is a great player but has only one comparable player at his potential in terms of both price and potential, Sanchez. Ultimately, I would rather have Fabregas and Sanchez than an Arsenal mid and Hazard, I think.

Even so, I am surprised at the ownership line of reasoning before the game has even started, since much of the richness of the Smartypants/fpldiscovery site and its statistics about TSB% comes not from predicting future performance but rather from explaining what the top 10k has done in the recent past.

Without a benchmark for what a good team is, who cares what others are doing? IMO, if you are playing the game from the beginning not to lose or fall behind, you are more likely preventing yourself from winning, whatever your goals may be.

I'm happy to go without Hazard for the first few GW's due to CHE's sched...

Season long he'll outscore most but, there's better value to be found early in the top price brackets.

After reading some of the comments I felt that you can make a strong argument for both Hazard / Hazard-Less teams. Therefore, I think there is not a clear-cut right answer, it depends on who you talk to.

Either way, I believe you should choose whichever team does not disrupt your overall team chemistry and can adapt to various scenarios that change from one game week to the another.

The true question should be, will you have Hazard from Game week 1? Because, at some point during the season I can everybody owning Hazard at least once.

I saw a comment during the end of last season when I was at work, showed Fabregas first 15 games for the last six seasons and then the stats for the last 15 games.

Its like night and day,,,Fab really does start well and then fades as the season comes to an end.

Great point Jonty, but as you rightly point out it's too dangerous to leave him out. I feel he will only get better, there is a very good chance that he will hit the trajectory of CR - maybe not so dramatic in terms of goal tallies... but sooner rather than later he will hit the 20 goal mark..

I also feel that the topic of Sterling is more important and could be a key player for the season. With Bony and Kun out for the opening stages of the season. Jovetic on his way out and Dzeko not being favored at all. I think Sterling will play through the middle, and with the likes of Yaya and Silva behind him he can and will run riot

The main issue for me is his start last season. He had a decent ownership, but nothing like the dizzying highs of 54%. Pretty sure he didn't return any kind of haul for the first few games, then scored, then was most transferred in that week but didn't return for the next 3-4 GWs so slowly got transferred out again. I got him in week 5 and had to wait about 3-4 GWs for any returns. Good job I held on to him of course but the key is he didn't kick on until around GW 8, 9 or 10 mark. Not sure if this was down to tricky fixtures, problems off the field, his poor away form at the start of last season or just plain bad luck.

Either way I'll be getting him on a just in case basis. Like Jonty says, how on earth would you cope if he slowly accumulated decent points across the first 5-6 weeks or hauled in jackpot in any of the first 3 weeks. Its a risk that can be easily avoided and a precaution which can be easily fixed with a FT, not least of all because he frees up 11.5 to work with; a handy advantage over others who can't free up those kind of funds. We can essentially make a more educated decision on who is best to use his funds for whilst pre-season non Hazard owners are trying to make that decision now.

My other issue is I never had Costa once last season but suffered minimally due to decent GWs without him when he returned big scores, a feat I am very proud of. Is he a MUST if Haz and Fab are not returning at the start of the season? Probably.
Costa may be a beast but he has very ugly lack of respect when he's on the pitch, one of many things which make me mad about the state of football today. No excuse for players to behave so poorly when you see the sportsmanship of rugby, cricket, tennis and athletics who, for the most part, have plenty of respect all round whilst footballers think the 90 mins are free pass to do what they want to get what they want. You can shake hands before and after but it means nothing if you act like a young child during the game. Can't stand it.