Fantasy premier league match analysis GW10 – Sunday

Here’s my fantasy premier league match analysis for GW10 Sunday.  I’ve covered Everton v Spurs and Cardiff v Swansea concentrating on line up issues and player analysis

Line ups and ratings from the Daily Mail

Everton 0 Spurs 0

Everton: Howard 6, Coleman 7, Jagielka 6, Distin 6, Baines 6, Barry 7, McCarthy 8, Mirallas 6 (Deulofeu 63mins 6), Osman 7 (Barkley 63mins 6), Pienaar 6, Lukaku 6 (Jelovic 84mins 6)
Subs: Robles, Oviedo, Naismith, Stones.

Yellow: Howard, Mirallas, McCarthy, Lukaku

Spurs: Lloris 6, Walker 6, Dawson 6, Chiriches 7, Vertonghen 7, Sandro 6 (Dembele 60mins 6); Townsend 6, Holtby 6 (Eriksen 85mins 6), Paulinho 6, Lennon 6 (Sigurdsson 67mins 6), Soldado 6
Subs: Kaboul, Lamela, Defoe, Friedel.
Yellow: Paulinho

Lineups: The news of the day was that Barkley dropped to the bench for Osman, who in last weeks game came on for a goal and an assist. Other than that no surprises for Everton.  For Spurs they were exactly as expected with Holtby getting the nod again over Eriksen.  Townsend and Lennon flanked Soldado.
The Match

Are Paulino and Soldado adequate replacements for Bale? They were the only 2 new attacking recruits bought from the Bale money who started.  Definitely not on todays performance and every poor attacking display just reminds everyone that Chadli, Lamela and Eriksen have a long way to go before justifying the outlays on them. It maybe that the 3 of them will come good and Spurs will be a better team without Bale but all I can say is that it’s a good thing Spurs are defending so well  as AVB would really be feeling the heat without the clean sheets and Soldados pens.   Conversely if they could have kept clean sheets last year like they have so far this year then who knows where they would have finished with Bale winning games singlehandedly for them. Despite Everton having more possession this is a game Spurs should have won and would probably have won last year with a bit of Bale magic.
Player comments

Defences

The Spurs defence was again exceptional with excellent stats. Evertons weren’t as good but certainly nothing to worry about. After a spell of 4 games its now 2 consecutive clean sheets for Everton (albeit last week was assisted by a Benteke penalty miss)

Barkley

Had less than 20 minutes which is bound to involve a wave of selling by fantasy premier league managers this week. The first signs came last week after he was subbed. I think with other budget buys available at the moment there is some sense in selling. My intention at the moment is to sell Barkely and keep Januzaj and R Morrison as my rotating cheapie midfielders.

Mirallas

After a good run where fantasy premier league managers must have had confidence that the underlying stats could be turned into goals and assists Mirallas had a quiet game with no returns and very little underlying stats. Like everyone in the Everton team this has to be looked at in the context of the opposition defence which,  in my view, is the best in the league

Lukaku

The same context has to apply to Lukaku who literally had no attacking output whatsoever even though he had more pen box touches than any other player. Its only his 2nd blank in 6 games with Everton so its certainly shouldn’t change peoples mind over him.  Went off with an injury after the clash with Lloris which shows how hard his thigh must have hit Lloris.  How the GK stayed on is beyond me

Pienaar

After his scoring return as sub he’s followed this with 2 blanks and today there was little attacking output as well. Not worth investing in at the moment for me

Holtby

Probably had the best underlying stats of any player on the field.  The fact is though is its still 3 games started with no returns and its hard to see that continuing without Eriksen been given another try.  Not worth fantasy premier league managers investing in my mind

Townsend

For me its hard to fathom the mini bandwagon that’s going on for Townsend. He can create assists with his shots from outside the box and today he certainly did do a lot of shooting from distance.  However,   today was also typical of the reasons why  he’s only scored 1 goal and 1 assist in 9 games.  Even then he goal he scored,  I think even he admitted he didn’t mean it.  Too often though your’e hoping to get returns from him crossing into a box where Spurs just aren’t getting the numbers there. Not for me without some more consistency.

Soldado

Prior to today it was 2 goals and 2 assists returning in 3/4 games. He was very quiet though today. I’ve said in previous posts that I think he will score goals, given is record in Spain plus the fact that  he has pens to supplement the returns.  However, at the moment  he is surrounded by great alternatives for our fantasy premier league forward slots which is why I would sell if I still owned him

Cardiff 1 Swansea 0

Cardiff: Marshall, Theophile-Catherine, Taylor, Medel (Kim, 88), Caulker, Turner, Cowie, Mutch (Gunnarsson, 54), Odemwingie (Campbell, 75), Whittingham, Bellamy
Subs not used: Hudson, Noone, Maynard, Lewis
Goal: Caulker 62
Booked: Whittingham
Swansea: Vorm, Rangel, Taylor, Shelvey, Chico, Williams, Dyer, Britton (Pozuelo, 71), Michu (Bony, 65), De Guzman, Routledge (Alvaro, 81)
Subs not used: Amat, Tiendalli, Canas, Tremmel
Sent off: Vorm
Lineups: No Kim in the lineup after last week or Gunnarson or Campbell. For Swansea Michu played up front with Bony and Alvaro on the bench.

Player comments:

Defences

A tight game without many chances and both sides had very good defensive stats.

Whittingham

One of the more popular cheapies due to his penalty responsibilities and set piece involvement. This has been diminished by Bellamy’s involvement in corners and free kicks.  Had a quiet day with only a couple of shots from outside the box to show for his day at the office.   Looking a little more deeply he did in fact have the deepest average position of the midfielders for Cardiff and didn’t have 1 pen box touch. At £5.1m its questionable whether he’s worth having given the alternative cheapies at the moment. It’s now no return in 4 and only a goal and an assist in 10 games

Campbell

On for the last 20 minutes or so and had more shooting impact than most in that time. Would have broken his duck but for the foul by Vorm which lead to Vorm’s sending off.  Doesn’t change anything as as far as fantasy premier league managers interest as amazingly he hasn’t returned since the day he got 2 goals and an assist in GW2 against Joe Hart (sorry I meant City). Don’t go anywhere near him with the other forward options.

Michu

Another good fixture, another blank. Its now no return in 5 and 2 goals and an assist in 10 games. At least when he had a dry spell last season he continued with good shooting stats but now even this comfort has dried up as he had a very quiet game apart from 1 good chance and a shot from distance saved by Marshall. Apparently he taken off with 25 minutes or so to go with an injury rather than tactical and now looks to be out for a couple of weeks. The fixtures to come are Stoke H which it seems he will miss and  the Fulham A  and this must be the only thing that will keep fantasy premier league managers from pushing the transfer button tonight if not already done so.  I have a couple of other things to sort out so I wont be selling him and will just live with the price drop but he’s definitely a sell its just now or whether you take the pain to see if he’s fit for the Fulham game. Fulham are always a good points prospect even for the most out of form player.

Dyer

A good performance with reasonable shooting stats in the context of the game. Shouldn’t really change fantasy premier league managers view of him though as he hasn’t scored in 5 and has merely 1 assist to his name in 8 games

That’s it, hope you found the commentary on the fantasy premier league gameweek interesting

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