We roll out the next instalment of our weekly article for Members tonight, offering an in-depth statistical analysis of the main captaincy contenders for the set of fixtures ahead. With Luis Suarez topping the Captain Poll, we assess the Everton defence ahead of the Anfield Merseyside derby. We also dig deep into the data of Eden Hazard and Samuel Eto’o ahead of the home game against West Ham, whilst Sergio Aguero and Wayne Rooney’s prospects are also discussed, with the latter now back in full training ahead of Cardiff’s visit on Tuesday evening:
will try again
boruc mannone
ivan evans mertesack coleman gabbidon
mata cazorla yaya januzzaj mutch
suarez aguero jrod
good to go or try get haz/oscar bony giroud adeOpen ControlsDowngrade your def and upgrade your mid. J Rod is a good pick but have you thought about what you would do if you wanted rid? It would cost you a hit and another downgrade elsewhere to lose him
Open Controlsyea true just not sure what to do tbh had lallana in my team this yr did well and jrod only 9pts off him could do caz jan to ramsey eriksen then
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I'm not sure about Cazorla only because he seems prone to rotation. With Mata gone Oscar could be in for some big points. Bony over JRod is an option as well if you have the money.
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Nah, maybe if Haz gets to 11m. But with budget/mid-price performers elsewhere you ought to get Haz in.
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Am I the only person getting Lallana in on WC?
Open ControlsLallana or Eriksen. Torn between the two
Open ControlsWhen it's so close, I usually go for the cheaper one
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Anyone watch the Liverpool cup game? Did Flanagan look alright when he came on?
Open ControlsI can't say I like his haircut much, but at least he had shaved.
Open ControlsPresentation is important. Does he floss?
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he looked poor to me, but A he always does to me, a genuinely hilariously limited footballer, and B it was expected just after injury. he does a job and i can see rodgers calling on him to do another job
Open ControlsSome threat going forward and extremely cheap. Limited defensively perhaps, but he's not as bad as you're making out. I hope ;). Not the three or four times I've watched him, anyway.
Open Controlsi think the opposite, hilarious on the ball, bit more solid defensively. he's a sponge who rodgers can ask to do anything and he'll do it for him.
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How important is Lovren to Saints clean sheet chances? They have the lowest shots conceded per game and with Wanyama back, I'm thinking to go with Shaw or Yoshida.
Open Controlshe's definitely better than their back-up options
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a) AJ and Puncheon
b) Ramsey and Noone
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AJ, with his away fixtures do you play him every week or try and rotate him? If so, maybe rotate with Zaha?Open ControlsMy team is rockin for this gameweek:
Mannone
Azpil Kosc Ward
Hazard Ozil Mata Silva
Suarez (c) Kun Ade
😯Open ControlsBen Turner at Cardiff, looking like he's lost his spot? Who should I turn to as cheapie bench spot?
Kos - Azpi - MOlsson - Burner - Ward
on WC.Open ControlsDepends how cheap, Collins or Theophile? Bruce is popular.
Open ControlsWell, cheaper the better. Will Collins retain his spot now that Tompkins is back? I already have Adrian. And is Bruce going to be fully nailed on?
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think so, ive ditched him. def not nailed on aymore
Open ControlsAny thoughts on Fabio Da Silva now that his transfer to Cardiff appears imminent?
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Well in forty minutes I will have to decide whether to commit myself to going without Aguero for the next 2 GWs.
Open ControlsYeah. Only makes sense if there is a significantly better striker over those 2 GWs. Not really sure about that. Already have Bony.
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Main argument for next 2 GWs (tot CHE) is price imo. After that, pretty impossible not to own him.
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Anyone else wanted to save WC for next week, but must activate it now because of injuries and transfers? I'll end up losing money on WC.
Open ControlsNeed to go to bed, final request for advice on my low-tv WC:?
Adrian/Mannone
Distin/Azpi/Kosc/Bruce/Ward
Noone/Oscar/Mata/Eriksen/Ramsey(AJ if not fit)
Bony/Aguero/Suarez.
Not a penny in the bank.Open ControlsRate my WC Team
Mannone/Davis
Terry Koscielny Ward(Coleman Bruce)
Hazard Yoyo Januzaj AJ(Mutch)
SuarezC Ageuro SturridgeOpen ControlsMannone/Marshall
Terry/Kosc/Coleman/Ward/Bruce
Haz/Mata/Ramsey/Johnson/Noone
Suarez/Ade/Aguero
Any suggestions for improvements. Mostly looking at bench fodder. pretty happy with my 'spine'
0.2 in bank.Open ControlsBertrand and Mata in -- we're getting the band back together!
Farewell for now, Seamus -- thanks for the three goals in six weeks.Open Controlswhy coleman?
only out this week no?Open Controls
Do we know how long Coleman is likely to be out for?
Open ControlsThanks ILB.
Was slightly worried about his price dropping as a hamstring can go on for weeks.
Had him since GW1 so would lose too much to be happy to sell him unless he was properly crocked.
Not at all sure about my team this GW.
Am really hoping Ozil can recover his high scoring habits or else he might have to get dropped for Mata...Open Controls
ciriches 5.1, why no love
Open ControlsThat's right…(insert evil laugh here)… keep selling Coleman and Lukaku people.
Open ControlsColeman, I agree
Lukaku will be under threat from Traore now.Open ControlsNo he won't. Traore is sh1t.
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Lardy
You say Gerrard won't play as deep this week but if both Lucas and Allen are out he has to play deep, they have nobody else. Fingers crossed for AllenOpen Controls- Expensive defenders: Worth the hassle?
Big defenders, fire and forget?
Some defensive stats for those thinking of going three big defenders and two bench fodder defenders.
Chelsea 6 clean sheets
2 have been at home and 4 away
Man City 8 clean sheets
6 have been at home and only 2 away
Arsenal 10 clean sheets
7 have been at home and only 3 away
Tottenham 9 clean sheets
4 have been at home and 5 away*
(Under AVB they had 5 away clean sheet and just 2 home with this horror home run doing the most to cost him his job. Spurs have not kept an away clean sheet since gw10)
Everton 9 clean sheets
5 have been at home and 4 away (Everton 1 clean sheet in the last 8 in epl)
I think this is why big defenders are not worth their money as apart from Chelsea even the big teams are not keeping cs away from home. This means you need to rotate even the big defenders to get the best out of them (Everton being the exception this year if you can class them as a big team?).
So buyers beware of the big defender if you intend to play them each gw.
Any thoughts on whether it might be worth rotating big defenders or should we neglect all big defenders and go for 5 mid priced ones that we can rotate?Open ControlsI am definitely championing the fact that big defenders are a waste of money. 5 well rotating budget mids gives you an absolute beast of a front seven.
Hull - Palace - Newcastle - West Ham - Southampton all have defenders 4.5 and under (if you take a punt on Clyne) and rotate wonderfully. They also free up a tonne of money to upgrade those mids or go for the SAS/SAR routeOpen ControlsShaw or a fully fit Winston Reid?
Open ControlsThis is pretty much what I did in the first half of the season. The question is, can the saved money actually be spent better elsewhere? I think crucially the mids have generally not been worth spending money on, making SAS/SAR possible even with good defenders.
Open ControlsWith the money I've saved using that back 5 I have a front 7 of;
Mata - Cazorla - Hazard - Eriksen
Suarez - Aguero - Rooney
I'd say that there's points to be made with that lotOpen ControlsIt looks good on paper, but given how this season has gone we haven't had a premium mid do a Bale, and there are cheaper midfield options that aren't too far behind in points.
For example, I'm actually quite comfortable going with some midpriced mids that I've really wanted to get, instead of the most expensive options. I'm also rotating two of them for better fixtures.
Hazard Mata Lallana AJ/Noone
Suarez Aguero BonyOpen Controls
It is a pity imo as I think the premium defenders should be premium for a reason but I am coming around to the reasoning that you might be right PCY.
I really thought the new bonus system would reward the top defenses with bonus points when they got cs but it has not really happened mainly due to the amount of goals the big teams score leading to all the bonus points going to the attacking players.
It seems the medium to small clubs defender who plays in a team that are scraping 1-0 and 0-0's are the ones hoovering up all the bonus. The system is terrible imo for this reason and I hope the fix it before next season starts. We need to have big expensive defenders that can score as well as midfielders (points per million) to have variety in this game imoOpen Controls
Yeah I was definitely in the budget defender camp in the first half of the season. Got much more out of rotations. Slightly revising that now based on what I see as a marked improvement in Chelsea's defending, the machine seems to have swung into motion. Also the Kolarov attacking threat is fairly irresistible, hoping it turns out like Coleman Mk II.
The burning question is whether playing one big defender all the time outscores rotating pairs.Open Controlsi think big defenders are so reliable for scores of >6 this season with the bonus point tweak, and as a result really underrated value wise. just find it so much easier to get a score of 8 from a defender (e.g a koscielny, about a 5.5mil def) than any midfielder below 9mil. the more the merrier in my mind, what you 'over-spend' (in historical terms, un-written rules imprinted in our brains due to the past patterns) in defence you simply fund with savings made in the most undernourished of areas bonus wise, the midfield
Open Controlsi bench big defenders regularly btw.
benching a 6mil midfielder doesnt seem a big deal, so i don't really think anything of benching a 6mil defender eitherOpen ControlsYep, and those defenders mopping up the bonus are those playing for teams that have been grinding out the wins of late (Arsenal and Chelsea). They don't score so many that the bonus is washed out. Also there's the attacking threat aspect that needs to be factored into the price; big defenders often have some extra attacking threat, like Terry, Mertesacker, Evra, Kolarov etc.
Open Controlsthere's nothing more annoying than not owning a player who has an assist in a clean sheet this season as it's more often than not a 12 pointer, a pretty big deal.
that's the dilemma though, the best defenders for baps are these fullback assisters, baines the possible exception as he boosts his bps so uniquely for a full back.
owning vertonghen was a weird experience, he moved to left back and i couldn't work out if it was good of bad, luckily he got a pretty fortunate assist at left back so got one of those 12 pointers, overall though i think i much prefer him at cb, he'll clean up the baps thereOpen Controls*best defenders for baps are NOT these full back assisters
Open ControlsYeah I'm not sure what to make of the which of CBs and fullbacks are better for bonus. Confusingly if you sort all defenders by BPS, CBs dominate the top 10 (8/10) but not really if you sort by bonus (6/10). Maybe because CBs get more consistent BPS, but fullbacks grab big bonus on the occasions they assist/score.
Open Controls*what to make of which
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bullshit. baines for example gets also goals + bonus and as you say almost half of the clean sheets away. merte for example you get for the bonus and the number of clean sheets it doesn't matter if they are mostly @home. terry = goals, bonus, clean sheets.
you can look at the mid priced defs and realize they don't get any more percentage of their clean sheets @home.Open Controls
I'm not gloating (per say) and I'm fully aware that it is 100% luck, but I'm so glad I dropped Coleman when on my WC prior to GW22, one of the few punty moves to actually come off
Open Controlsnot really. youl want him back when he scores at the weekend!
Open ControlsNope, Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea away, Arsenal, Man City and Man Utd home all to come. I'm happy settling my account and cashing in the profit I made from GW1.
Yes he'll definitely get some more attacking points from now until the end of the season, but in my opinion he won't get enough to justify keeping him when i could spend the money elsewhere. His injury is just the icing on the cakeOpen Controls
its a tough one....depends if you going for 3 big hitters + 1 mid priced for 2+2
Would go for ramsey if he starts todayOpen Controls
Morning Dzzz,
Decided to take the day off from work to run some errands AND enjoy building my WC team!! 😀
The addiction:)
Out of curiosity, where you guys from and what do you guys do?Open ControlsShould I just keep Coleman? Other thought was downgrade him and up JRod to Bony but defense would feel too weak..
Mannone Boruc
Kos Coleman Ward Olsson Bruce
Mata Hazard Cazorla Eriksen Puncheon
JRod Suarez AgueroOpen Controlscahill a good purchase at 5.7?
Open Controlstrying to figure this out myself. Azpi seems like too good to be true at 5.3, I feel like we could see him sitting the bench in a few weeks.
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why ramsey not goin up despite 15k in today alone
Open Controls[more owners a player has the higher the NTI target for a rise. Ramsey is still heavily owned so will need more transfers in to rise than someone who is hardly owned at all would need. Also he was probably still being dropped very recently. so although 16K put him in today, its possible that 15K dropped him yesterday.]
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probobly a high ownership amoungsr dead teams
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