Fantasy premier league new player profile -Ricky Van Wolfswinkel

New player profiles

Ricky Van Wolfswinkel is a 24 year old Dutch striker who has been signed from Sporting in Portugal for Norwich City for a fee thought to be around 8.5m pounds

 

Background

 

RVW as I’m sure he’ll become known as,  has played in senior football for 5 years at Dutch clubs Vitesse and Utrecht before moving to Sporting Lisbon in Portugal.  He is right footed and around 6 foot tall.  You’ll see from his stats that his goal scoring record is very good although he is more of a finisher than someone who contributes to all round play. He has played as a lone striker and most frequently is the most advanced forward.

stats

For Sporting between 2011-2013 he played 55 matches for 28 goals and 3 assists

For Utrecht between 2009-2011 he played 64 matches for 26 goals and 6 assists

For Vitesse between 2007-2009 he played 33 matches for 8 goals and 1 assist

In the Europa league he played 32 times for Sporting and Utrecht for 17 goals and no assists

He’s played 2 friendlies with the Dutch national team with no return

Fantasy premier league perspective

RVW certainly has a good goal scoring record although the lack of assists emphasises his role as a finisher rather than all round contributor. Strikers from the Dutch league have had mixed success in the premier league while success in the Portuguese league as a striker hasn’t lead too many to the UK to apply any data to that analysis.  Norwich last year weren’t much of an attacking force being one of the lower scorers in division.  Holt was out of favour for large parts of the season and attack wise Snodgrass was your only fantasy premier league option. Given the huge outlay in Norwich terms and Houghtons obvious distrust of Holt it seems likely that RVW will start from GW1 onwards. The problem will be Hughtons conservatism.  If last year is anything to go by he should play up front by himself which should see the few chances created come his way.  Snodgrass Hoolahan plus Pilkington do have the ability to create chances if Hughton adopts a more attacking approach. The fixtures are helpful at least though with Hull Saints Stoke and Villa in the first 6 games. It’s too much of a stretch for me though to think he could be in my GW1 team though.  Norwichs form last year plus the other options for the 3 forward slots make it unlikely that RVW will be joining RVP in my opening day line up

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