fantasy premier league new player profile – Man City’s Ederson Moraes

Fantasy Premier League, New player profiles

Ederson Moraes is a 23 year old 1.88m (6 foot 2 inch) Brazilian Goalkeeper who has signed for Manchester City from Benfica for a reported fee of £34.9m. In this fantasy premier league new player profile article, we look at the player, assessing his stats and his fantasy prospects for Manchester City with particular emphasis on fantasy premier league. Obviously the player at this stage doesn’t have a price in FPL

FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE NEW PLAYER PROFILE – MAN CITY’S EDERSON MORAES

Firstly it’s worth noting that Benfica have announced the transfer and the player has said goodbye to the club.  However Man City have yet to announce the transfer formally until they conclude third party ownership issues

There’s alot of stats, graphic and narrative so if that isn’t for you there’s a summary at the end.

STATISTICS

Here’s the stats for his last 3 years for Benfica and Rio Ave in the Portugese League and the European Cup competitions.

League stats

fantasy premier league new player profiles

European Stats

fantasy premier league new player profiles

Internationally he’s played 5 games for the Brazil under 23 team but never for the National team.

So incredible basic stats on clean sheets and goals conceded in the league last season.  Not so bad even in the Champions League.  What’s interesting is that he’s only really come to the first team relatively recently.

How they translate to the premier league is another question.




Man City defensive stats vs others

However part of the equation for a GK is the ability to get clean sheets so lets look at Man City’s defence in comparison to the other top finishing teams in order to compare defences

fantasy premier league new player profiles

So for clean sheets and goals conceded they are worse than everyone except Liverpool.

Liverpool are the only team with a worse Defence score as given by Squawka.

For potential improvement though they are last with Liverpool on saves per goal which if Ederson can improve could improve the clean sheets

Ederson Squawka GK stats vs others

 fantasy premier league new player profiles

These stats are from very different leagues so it’s hard to compare.

So what jumps out is his saves per goal ratio which is very high.  If you assume the Portugese league is weaker than the PL then this is to be expected. What is surprising given all the talk about the GK as a distributor is the length of his average pass which is far higher than expected and getting close to double Bravo’s.  However that appears to be related to a mix of long and short pass strategy by Benfica.  However given that length, his accuracy is high despite that and better than Lloris who has a similar stat.

What is also surprising is that he seems to like to catch rather than punch which is interesting and will also help counter attacks.

HIS PROSPECTS

Style of play

He’s known as someone who’s a good shot stopper and good with his feet.  He’s also a decisive interceptor of the ball looking to come off his line quickly. As you can see from the stats he likes to catch where possible rather than just punch.  His passing is excellent and he often passes long to wingers to start counter attacks as you can see from the length of pass stats.

This is what former Man Utd GK Van Der Sar has said about him

“Ederson has already shown in the Champions League that his talent is undisputed. He is always focused and has an excellent reading of the game, even without the ball. The English league is very different to the Portuguese one, with other types of players, more pressure, more intensity and with much more work.”




Stats

Firstly it’s worth noting that it’s difficult to compare stats over different leagues there.

FPL GK points come from clean sheets and save points.   Clean sheets seem a problem for City who were 7th equal on clean sheets with Liverpool.  They only kept 1 more than Middlesboro and Stoke and 2 more than Bournemouth.   However Edersons improved shot stopping as shown by his saves per goal could improve that.  His saves per goal ratio could also provide strong save points.

His distribution should help.  The long length of passing holds an impressive accuracy rate and his desire to catch rather than punch could help counter attacks.

 It’s a big if to translate this to the premier league and against superior attackers and particularly strikers.

Gametime

Caballero has been released.  It seems incredibly hard to believe anything other than Joe Hart being sold or loaned given his treatment last season.

That leaves Bravo who was an error prone failure last season with an incredibly low save percentage.

On that basis it’s hard not to see Ederson being number 1 especially with the money being paid and with Bravo’s terrible last season.

However we do have a fairly inexperienced GK who’s young and new to a very different league and country than Portugal.  He only got into the Benfica team last season and that was due to an injury to the first choice GK.

Pre-season will show more.

How did other GK’s new to the league last season work out?

Valdes for Middlesboro probably had a mixed season although he’s vastly experienced and not comparable with Ederson or his situation

Bravo obviously had a disaster

Liverpool’s Karius also had a disaster being dropped after some poor performances.  He’s of similar age but questionable as a talent comparison.

Experienced French GK Mandanda had injury problems but also lost his place

So nothing to give comfort there.

Going further back it’s worth remembering that De Gea had adjustment problems although another young GK in Courtois moved fairly trouble free

How does he rate as an FPL prospect?

GK strategy

Firstly it’s worth noting that the consensus for FPL GKs has generally been to go for 2 cheap rotations for save points.  That has certainly been the tactic among the 10 top FPL managers I have followed over the season

This season although Tom Heaton finished top points scorer with Burnley behind him the top 5 GK points scorers generally followed the clean sheet totals with the most only being 15 points behind Tom Heaton.

GK price investment

There is however a school of thought for a “set and forget” GK with a £4.0m backup.  However the issue could be rotation as none of the GK’s involved in Europe last season played every game.  Having to then put a £4.5m back up to plug that gap starts to make the GK investment look rather large.

The other issue as a prospect is price.  If you’re going for a GK in a top team then I personally would want to see some value as against a defender I could choose.  Granted a defender is probably more likely to be rotated for a European challenging team than a GK but  value would still be an issue for me.

Certainly given how Guardiola rotates his players generally and how he did last season with both GKs it would be a leap of faith to pay what will be an expensive price without a playing £4.5m back up from another team.

Given Man City’s defensive limitations unless there’s some strong defensive signings and unless his price is surprisingly attractive I just can’t see me going for him.

I’d like at least to see him looking like first choice in pre-season and see some impressive performances from him and the defence to even consider it.  Even with that starting him without a playing back up would be a very nervy process each week waiting for a Pep surprise or for him to have a form wobble and be taken out of the firing line.

SUMMARY

A young and quite inexperienced GK without a Brazil cap who’s come from a very different league

However stats are impressive and show a shot stopper with passing ability in the Pep GK mode

Should be first choice given the price and Bravo form of last season.  However no one is safe from rotation with quadruple chasing Pep

His FPL prospects will be down to price vs the rest of the Man City defence and his pre-season gametime

Difficult for me to consider given likely high price and uncertainty risk meaning a £4.5m GK back up maybe required

As ever pre-season and FPL 17/18 opening will start to give clues

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