Here’s the first of our fantasy premier league new player profile articles where we assess the prospects of various players new to the premier league. The articles aren’t longwinded and concentrate on recent stats and their FPL prospects. The intention is to update the articles nearer the start of the season once the pre-season gives us some more data. Our first target is Memphis Depay.
Memphis Depay is a 1.76m (5 foot 9 1/2) 21 year old Dutch winger who has signed for Manchester United from PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch League. The fee is reported to be in the region of £25m. We look at the player, assessing his stats and prospects for Manchester United.
fantasy premier league new player profile – Manchester Utd’s Memphis Depay
First of all here’s some basic stats:
| Memphis Depay | ||||
| Season | Team | matches | goals/assists | Mins per Goal/Assist |
| 2014/15 | PSV | 30 | 22/6 | 91 mins |
| 2013/14 | PSV | 32 | 12/8 | 135 mins |
| 2012/13 | PSV | 20 | 2/3 | 101 mins |
| Totals | 82 | 36/17 | 109 mins | |
| Netherlands | 17 | 3 goals | ||
| Europa | All | 20 | 7/6 | 113 mins |
| UCLQ | All | 4 | 1/1 | 171 mins |
Firstly his stats last season and overall are absolutely phenomenel. Looking at Hazard and Sanchez as the 2 premier midfielders in the premier league last season Hazard scored 14 goals and 10 assists at a goal or assist every 140 minutes. Sanchez scored 16 goals and 8 assists for a goal/assit every 123 minutes. Obviously there’s a big difference between the premier league and the Dutch League but none the less still a pretty impressive start.
Memphis Depay is a pacy, skillful direct winger. He also has an extremely strong right footed shot and can score from distance. He can play on either wing but usually plays on the left as an inverted winger cutting in to shoot on his right foot. It isn’t out of the question that he could play as a CAM or support striker given his skill set. Consistency of decision making and adjustment to the premier league would be the main limitations to that though.
As for his position and prospects, pre-season and the learnings from that will be crucial. LVG played a number of formations last season so it’s difficult to assess where he will play. Towards the end of the season LVG started using a 4 man backline a bit more and it’s hard to see Depay playing wingback in a 3-5-2 as Ashley Young did. It’s more likely that LVG will play a 4-3-3 with Depay on the left. That looks the best option at the moment as it’s hard to see him thrown centrally into a 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2 depending on how you look at it.
He does have good pedigree on set pieces and we could see him being involved in direct free kicks.
It does through some uncertainty over Ashley Youngs position at Manchester United. It also could see some set piece involvement removed from Wayne Rooney and Di Maria (assuming he stays)
Interestingly Ronald Koeman gave an interview (which maybe in part sour grapes) which hinted at Dutch players difficult adjustment and the inability, especially of young players, to play every game once in the premier league. Certainly Gary Neville in comments also said similar things. That does attach some risk to his GW1 starting prospects and rotation afterwards especially with Europe again on the agenda.
His fantasy premier league classification will be crucial. He will be alot more attractive as a midfielder than a forward.
It’s my intention to update this once we get more pre-season info.
UPDATED 11/7: Depay has been classified as a midfielder in FPL at a cost of £8.5m
