fantasy premier league DGW37 – a closer look at Sunderland

Presumably you’ve all got your 3 Arsenal assets ready for fantasy premier league DGW37 and have now focused your attention on Sunderlands assets.  We look at the options within the team and their key stats to help you make a decision

fantasy premier league DGW37 – a closer look at Sunderland

Background and context

I’ve said before that while I’m a pretty conservative FPL manager, especially in relation to ownership,  I do think that double gameweeks are worth throwing the dice on and when it’s only 2 rounds from the end, meaning your team isn’t impaired for any time afterwards, then it certainly is.  I have 3 Arsenal players and intend having a Sunderland defender and a midfielder.  I would probably have  3 Sunderland players but unfortunately I didn’t have the cash to put a 3rd one in this weekend when I had the chance.

Sunderland have 2 fixtures in DGW37.  Here they are plus the last fixture in GW38

DGW37  Leicester (H)
DGW37  Arsenal (A)
GW38 Chelsea (A)

So a reasonably good fixture in Leicester first then 2 away fixtures which are as hard as you can imagine.  However, there’s good news on 2 levels:

Firstly Sunderland are 5th from bottom on 36 points, the same as Newcastle and 2 points above Hull who are 3rd from bottom.  Thats not particularly good news if you’re a Sunderland supporter but great news as an FPL manager as it means Sunderland will probably have something to play for until the end of the season and at least for the DGW37.  Secondly, the last fixture against Chelsea can be an irrelevance if you plan your team well as the Sunderland players are all fairly cheap and can occupy your bench for GW38 without being at a bank balance sapping value.  If you don’t have a bench option for GW38 then there’s some small comfort that although Chelsea probably wont want to lose their unbeaten home record this season it’s hard to imagine that some key players won’t be rested.  However many will have Leicester or Villa players in their team and they have QPR and Burnley at home respectively making them good options to step up at a cheap price (Benteke apart) when you put Sunderland players on the bench for GW38.

Ok lets now look at the players in various positions and their key stats.

Defence and GK

Sunderland are 8th in clean sheets home and away with 11 clean sheets.  Goals conceded they are in 15th but thats due to the 8-0 mauling Southampton gave them earlier in the season.  The new coach Dick Advocaat isn’t as defensively mined as Poyet but they showed their defensive ability in the win at Everton recently even if it was like the Alamo at times.  The fixture away to Sunderland diminishes the attractiveness of the double gameweek as in defence and attack it could be a nil returning game all round.  The Leicester game has potential though as despite Leicesters good form of late they are only on 37 points and anything but safe.  Personally, despite the negatives, I think a defender is worth a gamble for the DGW.

To me there are 2 options only.  1 is Van Aanholt the left back who’s got 5 assists.  Out of the likely players to line up only the RB Billy Jones has had an attacking return all season.  Van Aanholt has 5 assists.  Van Aanholt is also the cheapest defender at £4.1m.  It;s worth noting that 9 of the 10 FPL managers I follow have him in their team

The other option is GK Pantilimon.  Despite not playing the first 9 games only Burnleys Heaton has more bonus points and Pantilimon is 5th on the save count which also generates points.  Also if you discount Cech only 3 GKs have a better points per game rating. Again it’s woth noting that 4 of the 10 FPL managers I follow have him in their team

Midfielders

As far as point potential for the attacking players there’s no doubt getting anything from the Arsenal game will be difficult but the Leicester game with both sides wanting to win has goal potential despite Leicesters good recent defensive record.  How Advocaat approaches the games is hard to predict as against Everton he was very negative which went against some of his tactics so far.

In the Everton game Sunderland played 4-3-3 with Gomez, Cattermole and Larsson playing as the midfield 3.  He did change the formation later on but still for the most part have 3 forwards.  Firstly ignore Cattermole as he’s likely to get more yellow cards than points.  Adam Johnson while he has potential is a gametime risk given his off field problems at the moment and hasn’t started a game since GW27.  Rodwell is currently injured with a hamstring injury but due back in GW37.  There’s stiill alot of risk attached to that as hamstring injuries seem anything other than predictable and given the great result at Everton there has to be some doubt as to whether the team will be changed

That leaves Gomez and Larsson to compare in midfield.  I’ve altered the consistency stat from how I normally do it to only include appearances with 45 mins or more

So nothing special in either players stats although Gomez has some form stats courtesy of his 2 pens against Southampton.  That gives him a big advantage over Larsson although Larsson does have a general set piece advantage.

It’s worth noting that Gomez’s stats this season are consistent with the last 4 seasons and Larsson’s are slightly worse this season than historically.

Underlying stats show Larsson as more of an assist threat and Gomez more of a goal scoring threat.

For me I’m looking to get Gomez in

Forwards

It’s worth noting that against Everton Sunderland played 3 forwards with Danny Graham central, flanked by Defoe and Wickham.  However such was the pressure Sunderland were under that Wickham and Defoe were practically wing backs for a large part of the game.  Advocaat then changed the system and played Defoe and Graham as a central pair with Wickham behind.  It’s worth noting that Graham has only started the last 2 while Wickham only the last 6.  Defoe however has started the last 14 so has to have less gametime risk.

Here’s their stats

As for underlying stats Defoe and Graham have similar stats for shots in the box with Wickhams a little better.  In terms of chances created it’s Graham, Wickham and then Defoe

It’s hard to interpret the stats as Wickham has played a decent portion of the season out wide which makes the stats disappointing especially after the promise at the end of last season when he virtually single handedly saved them from relegation.  Defoe is the proven premier league goalscorer albeit at teams better than Sunderland but he too has been disappointing after a strong start and can blame position far less tham Wickham.  Grahams stats look surprisingly good and he looks the more likely to play centrally but it’s hard to trust anyone who’s scored 5 goals in the last 3 seasons and taken 3355 minutes to do so.  Thats pretty much a full 90 minute season with only 5 goals as a striker.

It’s hard to say who I would go for,  probably Defoe but it’s not an easy choice

Summary

I hope that helps.  I already have Van Aanholt and will probably add Gomez given I have Albrighton to play in the final game against QPR so Gomez can be benched.  The problem with the forwards is that I have Aguero and Giroud both who will stay to the end.  Even if I didn’t have to take a 4 point hit for a Sunderland forward would I do so when my 3rd forward Kane is home to Hull in GW37.  Possibly but not for a hit when it’s Chelsea in the last game for Sunderland.

I hope that helps your thinking and good luck in any Sunderland transfers you make

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fantasy premier league DGW37

fantasy premier league DGW37