634x258 Members
11 August 2014 6408 comments
Paul Paul
Share:

There may be under a week left under the 2014/15 season gets underway but for many Fantasy managers, the midfield dilemma is yet to be resolved. In the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game, in particular, the player price list has handed us numerous options to consider for our five-man midfields, with ten players coming in at 9.0 or over:

In this, our latest article for members, we take a look at four of the main contenders – Eden Hazard, Aaron Ramsey, Juan Mata and Raheem Sterling – currently on Fantasy radars.

Sterling has netted in two of his last four appearances and, after notching nine times last term, is backed by many to step up for Liverpool after Luis Suarez’ departure. Ramsey’s 10 goals and nine assists in just 23 appearances last season has catapulted the Welshman into the premium bracket at 9.0, with his strike in yesterday’s Community Shield handing us a timely reminder of his talents. Mata (9.0) has been one of Louis van Gaal’s star performers in the role in “the hole” in a new 3-4-1-2 formation, whilst the 10.0-priced Hazard, despite only returning to pre-season action last week, sits in 22% of squads ahead of fixtures against promoted pair Burnley and Leicester in his first two fixtures.

Casting an eye back to last season, then, we delve into the data and compare their respective displays. First up, we assess each player’s creativity and distribution.

Paul Is certain he won't make the same mistakes next season. Follow them on Twitter

  1. pundit of punts
    • 12 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Any Fantrax players around?

    How long does it take for them to add new signings?

    Open Controls
  2. LewanGOALski
    • 14 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    I've settled my front 8 but struggling with the back-line now :/

    DDG - Gilks
    Ward - ____ - ____ - PvA - Collocini

    A. Pieters + Naylor
    B. Clyne + Ferdinand
    C. Debuchy + Wisdom
    D. Lovren + Wisdom
    E. sth else for combined 9.5 M

    ???

    Open Controls
    1. Manchest-Hair United
      • 11 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Debuchy and Naughton. Downgrade Collo to Hutton

      Open Controls
      1. Jaws
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        Naughton???

        Open Controls
    2. Heydudes13
      • 14 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Would transfer Ward out ASAP before the drop.

      Open Controls
    3. PAIRIDAEZAN
      • 13 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Ward is injured

      Open Controls
  3. Defcons are for Kinnear
    • 12 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    😥

    Open Controls
    1. Defcons are for Kinnear
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      I think I may miss FPL this year out of respect for Ward

      Open Controls
  4. Falcon
    • 16 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    When people do a rate my team they fail to say for which GW and this season more than most there appears to be a lot of variation between GW's....for instance you might want Koscielny v. CP in GW1....but would you still want him in GW2 away to Everton?

    The GW variations lead me to believe that unless you are willing to sacrifice a lot of substitution points each week you need to think a lot more about rotating players in GK, DEF and MID with really only Rooney, Lukaku and Pelle nailed on as forwards for about the first 6 GW's

    Open Controls
  5. hammersp2000
    • 12 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Got 9mil for a def and a mid. Currently on Hutton 4.0 and s Davis 5.0 but not sure about their playing time

    should I go for 2 x4.5 and if so who?

    Open Controls
  6. Hazard for Ballon D'or
    • 11 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Is he injured or not??

    Open Controls
    1. Snikii
      • 11 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      no

      Open Controls
    2. pundit of punts
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Yes he is.

      Open Controls
    3. SUPERMAN
      • 13 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      NOT!

      Open Controls
    4. Reeker
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Well injured isn't the right word for someone who's gone into a vegetated state

      Open Controls
    5. Ginkapo FPL
      • 14 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Check twitter. Its all over there

      Open Controls
  7. samaael
    • 15 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Repost
    I thought jovetic looked better than dzeko and he played the 90. Jovetic took 5 shots and 3-4 of them inside the box. Dzeko took no shots. Seems a no brainer?

    Open Controls
    1. The Machine
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Dzeko will be invisible than suddenly score two out of nowhere

      Logic goes out of the window with edin

      Open Controls
    2. Not Irish
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      I'm leaning toward Jovetic, short term as it may be...

      Open Controls
  8. EXODIA
    • 11 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Help! RMT (& Some advice please!!)

    GK: Mannone / Myhill

    DEF: Vlaar / Felipe Luis / Geoff Cameron

    MID: Ramsey / Sanchez / Silva / Hazard / [ALBRIGHTON / EL AHMADI??]

    FWD: Rooney / Zarate / [JOVETIC / DZEKO??]

    (Planning on bringing Siggy in after GW1)

    Also, if I opt for Jovetic over Dzeko I can swap Felipe Luis for a Terry/Cahill?.. Want a Chelsea defender.

    Thanks in advance!!

    Open Controls
    1. Snikii
      • 11 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Mannone,Vlaar,Cameron, need to get got

      Open Controls
      1. EXODIA
        • 11 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        What about the other dilemmas?

        Open Controls
    2. Marty McFly
      • 13 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      I've been burnt by Silva on a few occasions. Always seems to assist the assist. Better options available at 9m IMO given you already have City coverage. I believe the extra 0.5m for Dzeko is worth it due to his proven ability at this level. Plus you can always downgrade to catch a bandwagon. Not a big fan of your defence (question marks over playing time and transfers etc), and if you have 2 non-playing defenders alongside those 3 I think it's something you should look at upgrading.

      Open Controls
  9. Mr_Partridge
    • 11 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Steven Taylor likely to start?? He could be a good Ward replacement if so

    Open Controls
  10. Honeybadger
    • 11 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    These Ward jokes aren't fun, the kid just died. Too soon, even for internet...

    Open Controls
  11. Marty McFly
    • 13 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Cheeky RMT?

    Foster - Krul

    Evans - Lovren - Caulker - Yoshida - Taylor

    Hazard - Ramsey - Mata - Tadic - Henderson

    Rooney - Dzeko - Bojan

    (gw2 = Henderson > Siggy)

    Open Controls
    1. FF Dirtbag
      • 14 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      On the non-RMT forum. Wow. That is cheeky.

      Don't pre-plan your transfers. It never really works like that and you shouldn't be thinking that way. Other than that it is a pretty balanced team but I think you are gonna struggle if you want to upgrade your strikers at some point.

      Open Controls
      1. Marty McFly
        • 13 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        I am keeping an eye on Siggy as he's been playing out wide in preseason. Otherwise I'd have had him in from the start.

        I'm confident that RVP and Sturridge won't do enough in the first 3 weeks to make me hit the panic button and if I wan't anyone sub 10.5m up front alongside Rooney I have the option of downgrading a midfielder and taking a 4pt hit.

        Open Controls
    2. Brotato_Chip
      • 11 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Usually see Bojan as the third striker only if a team has Rooney and Costa/Sturridge in it. Would recommend improving your team there.
      Also, don't plan that transfer...just go with the flow!

      Open Controls
  12. The Mighty I
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Begovic - 4.0
    Taylor - Bruce - Naughton - Mariappa - Van Aanholt
    Ramsey - Fabregas - Mata - Coutinho - 4.5
    Costa - Rooney - Dzeko

    Defensively very cheap and maybe too cheap, is Coutinho the odd man out in this draft?

    Open Controls
    1. FF Dirtbag
      • 14 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Defo is the weird one of the bunch. Great player but I don't see him picking up all the points. You need a stable big defender IMO.

      Open Controls
    2. jdogg
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      I like it.im going similar

      Krul elliot

      Chambers pva rio chester hutton

      Mata ramsey fabregas sterling marney

      Rooney dzeko costa

      .x

      Open Controls
  13. Michael Jordan - call me MJ
    • 15 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Are either Pieters or Barsdley nailed on?

    Seems like both are first choice but under threat from Muniesa and Cameron

    Open Controls
    1. FF Dirtbag
      • 14 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Pieters is. Cameron and Beardsley is a bit of an iffy one.

      Open Controls
    2. Not Irish
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Bardsley and first choice should never be uttered in the same sentence unless we're discussing a Championship team. I think Pieters and Cameron are the clear choices.

      Open Controls
  14. Evs
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 16 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Cracking article and analysis Paul.

    It would be interesting to see Yaya thrown into the mix.

    Also how Sanchez and the plethora of Chelsea midfield talent affects Haz eg Fabregas' second coming 🙂

    Open Controls
    1. Exilizer
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Turning and turning in the widening gyre
      The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
      Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
      Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
      The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
      The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
      The best lack all conviction, while the worst
      Are full of passionate intensity.

      Surely some revelation is at hand;
      Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
      The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
      When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
      Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
      A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
      A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
      Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
      Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

      The darkness drops again but now I know
      That twenty centuries of stony sleep
      Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
      And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
      Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

      Open Controls
    2. Mílanista
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      It would only highlight how crap that troll's attacking stats were compared to these players. Aside from the conversion one, obviously 😉

      Open Controls
    3. Exilizer
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Absolutely agree, couldn't help but think of that poem when you said second coming!

      Open Controls
  15. Willber
    • 12 Years
    11 years, 4 months ago

    Jose said today that Fab is basically Lampards replacement and, the future!! Does that mean that his points tally could replicate that of Lampards over the past few seasons, and seeing as he's a younger model with arguably more experience (team, and internationally wise) he could exceed those points and challenge Hazard?

    Open Controls
    1. Manchest-Hair United
      • 11 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Doesn't take penalties or set pieces so no

      Open Controls
    2. Wilshere Knowledge
      • 12 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Fabregas' role is markedly different from Lampsrds at his peak.

      Open Controls
    3. Falcon
      • 16 Years
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Only Lampard's replacement for the holding role that Lamps has been playing on and off for a couple of years now, not in the attacking role which was Lamps at his prime and had no equal at the same age.

      Open Controls
  16. 5678
      11 years, 4 months ago

      Anyone got a link to the scout contributors league?

      Open Controls
        1. 5678
            11 years, 4 months ago

            Cheers

            Open Controls
        2. Evs
          • Has Moderation Rights
          • 16 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Yep, but it's not started 🙂

          Open Controls
      1. The Missing Link
        • 12 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        And Terry slept with Wards wife, what a week 🙁

        Open Controls
      2. GoonerByron
        • 14 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        Does Ward being injured make Mariappa more nailed on?

        Open Controls
        1. Heydudes13
          • 14 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Yes.

          Open Controls
          1. Super PVA - Small Spuds
            • 12 Years
            11 years, 4 months ago

            Evidence? Reasoning?

            Open Controls
      3. amol
        • 11 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        Time to look at another CP defender?

        Open Controls
      4. Twelve years a slave
        • 15 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        The Siggi Henderon poll is by far the closest yet.
        Only about 20 votes in but its neck and neck, all the
        Others were fairly decisive

        Open Controls
        1. The 12th Man
          • 12 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          I couldn't decide so I got both

          Open Controls
        2. Snikii
          • 11 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          anyone that votes for hendo is obviously a scared non Sturidge/Sterling owner

          Open Controls
          1. The 12th Man
            • 12 Years
            11 years, 4 months ago

            I have hendo, siggy and Studge

            Open Controls
        3. The Missing Link
          • 12 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          I'll vote when there's a neither option

          Open Controls
        4. Fantasy Gold
          • 11 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          I think it's a tad disrespectful to be running a poll at this very sad time
          L:(

          Open Controls
        5. Heydudes13
          • 14 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Make a Ward memorial poll.

          We get to vote on our favourite moments shared with him.

          Whether it's his clean sheets kept.

          Bonus points gained.

          Or his warm smile he always had.

          He shall be missed. x

          Open Controls
          1. Fantasy Gold
            • 11 Years
            11 years, 4 months ago

            🙁

            Open Controls
      5. Davido989
        • 15 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        What's happened to Ward? 🙁

        Open Controls
        1. Honeybadger
          • 11 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/10/tony-stewart-kevin-ward_n_5665445.html

          Some people think it's funny making fun of a kid who just died in a tragic accident.

          Open Controls
          1. Davido989
            • 15 Years
            11 years, 4 months ago

            erm..?

            Open Controls
          2. Willber
            • 12 Years
            11 years, 4 months ago

            Indeed. Not funny

            Open Controls
          3. Super PVA - Small Spuds
            • 12 Years
            11 years, 4 months ago

            Wrong

            Open Controls
        2. Fantasy Gold
          • 11 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Cruciate snapped.

          Could be a career ender but too early to tell.

          Open Controls
        3. AarÖn Özilski
          • 13 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Injured. That's what they are saying around here.

          Open Controls
      6. AarÖn Özilski
        • 13 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        A - Mauricio Isla

        B - Ben Davies

        Open Controls
      7. bokken
        • 12 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        I have 14mil to spend on 3 def suggestions? Already have wisdom and chambers

        Open Controls
        1. The Bandit
          • 15 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          If you have Chambers you don't have wisdom 😉

          Open Controls
      8. BenjaniMwaruwari
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 12 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        Cavies worth the 0.5 over Chester the injury prone?

        Open Controls
        1. copps
          • 14 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          i dont rate hull's chances this season with europa league

          Open Controls
        2. kalmoffit
          • 12 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Yes

          Open Controls
      9. Wolverine
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 16 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        Ward 😮 he could've been killed!

        Open Controls
        1. Fantasy Gold
          • 11 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Atleast Clyne is a ready-made 5.0 replacement

          Open Controls
      10. Wirtzle Gummidge
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        A. Terry and Caulker

        B. Ivan and PVA

        Open Controls
        1. SW6
          • 13 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Well that's odd...

          Open Controls
          1. Davido989
            • 15 Years
            11 years, 4 months ago

            Drogbaaa

            Open Controls
      11. Bedciooo
        • 13 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        Help with this team:

        Mannone (Krul )

        Debuchy Vlaar Davies Wisdom (Bruce)

        Mata Hazard Ramsey Eriksen (Albrighton)

        Rooney Sturridge (Zamora)

        Any weak spots? Or improvements avail

        Thanks! 🙂

        Open Controls
        1. Sting
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          That's a weak defence for 4-4-2. I'm playing 3-4-3 and my defence is better

          Open Controls
        2. Brotato_Chip
          • 11 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Zamora is a weak spot

          Open Controls
      12. The Bandit
        • 15 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        I've joined TM's LMS league in the hope that his constant spamming doesn't annoy me as much 🙂 Pity I'll be knocked out in week one

        Open Controls
        1. Exilizer
          • 12 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Surely you can make it until gameweek two!

          Open Controls
      13. Obi Wan Elokobi
        • 14 Years
        11 years, 4 months ago

        Not sure if this Joel Ward stuff is try haven't seen anything anywhere but here so taking a guess it's the typical FFS bull****

        Open Controls
        1. Reeker
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 12 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Are you calling us liars? We wouldn't joke about this sort of thing.....

          Open Controls
        2. Fantasy Gold
          • 11 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Believe what you want.

          I am just hoping he recovers for the Euros.

          Open Controls
        3. BurnySizz
          • 11 Years
          11 years, 4 months ago

          Think the joke has gone too far and got out of hand

          Open Controls
          1. Damo.
            • 15 Years
            11 years, 4 months ago

            Jesus you're easily offended aren't ya

            Open Controls