Here’s a fantasy premier league catch up on one of the more eventful pre-seasons with Paulo Di Canio’s Sunderland.  We’ll be looking for form and budget players, value and line up issues. 

By the way if youre wondering why I’m concentrating on some of the lesser teams (no offence to any supportsers) its just to cover the big teams at the end of their pre-season as its these teams which, generally speaking, have the most selection issues

Background 

Last year Sunderland finished the season with Paulo Di Canio in charge and narrowly avoided relegation.  A typical lineup in between sending offs would have been something like

Mignolet – Gardner Cuellar O’Shea Rose – Johnson N’Diaye Larsson McLean/Vaughan – Sessegnon – Graham/Wickham 

Over the pre-season things have gone fairly mad.  The following players of note have gone CB Bramble,  CB Kilgallon,  GK Mignolet,  RB Elmohamady,  FWD Danny Graham,   CM N’diaye and LB Rose 

Coming in of note have been the following players:

Cabral (£4.5m)  is a 24 year old Cape Verdean footballer who also has Swiss citizenship. He plays as a defensive midfielder or centre back.  He has signed on a free transfer from Basel where he has played the vast majority of his career

 Played 99 games for Basel in the Super league between 2007/2013 with 2 goals 1 assist.  Last year he played 27 games for 1 assist

 Modibo Diakite (£4.5m) is a 6 foot 4 inch 26 year old  French centre back of Mali extraction who has played his entire first team career at Lazio 

65 games for Lazio over 6 seasons between 2006 and 2013 in Serie A with 2 goals and 1 assists.  He didnt play at all in Serie A last season due to a contract dispute.  The previous season he played 25 games for 1 goal and 2 assists

Valentin Roberge (£4.5m) is a 6 foot 2 inch 26 year old French centre back who has played 2 seasons for Greek side Aris  Thessaloniki and most recently 3 seasons for Maritimo in the Portugese Primera Liga

 77 games over 3 seasons for Maritimo between 2010/2013 in the Portugese Primera Liga for 2 goals and 1 assist.  Last season he played 25 games for 1 goal.  Maritimo finished 10th out of 16 games.

David Moberg Karlsson (£5.0m)  a 19 year old 5 foot 10 inch Swedish striker who joined  from Swedish Club IFK Goteberg for £1.54 million

10 games for 2 goals and an assist last season

Eamanuele Gaccherini (£7.0m) is a 28 year old 5 foot 6 inch Italian international attacking midfielder/winger who has transferred from Juventus  for £6.6m.

17 games last season for 3 goals and 3 assists

Jozy Altidore (£7.0m) a 23 year old striker who arrived from AZ Alkmaar for £8.8m. 

33 games last year for 23 goals and 5 assists.  goal or assist every 101 minutes – very impressive.

Vito Mannone (£4.5m) a 25 year old GK who played 9 premier league games for Arsenal last year. 

I ranked Sunderland as having the 9th best fixtures in my fixture ease table for the 6 games after and including GW1 (see link below).   So the fixtures are ok but not great.

Here’s the first 6:

Fulham H,  Southampton A,  Crystal Palace A,  Arsenal H,  WBA  A,  Liverpool H

Sunderland took part in the Asia Cup so lets look at the 2 fixtures that Cup  involved

Sunderland 3 Spurs 1  

Sunderland: Mannone, Gardner, Colback, O’Shea (c), Brown (Roberge, 77), Cabral, Larsson (Ba, 62), Johnson (Moberg Karlsson, 62), Giaccherini (McClean, 78), Sessegnon, Altidore (Wickham, 74).

Subs not used: Vaughan, Mandron, Cuellar, Westwood, Pickford.

Goals:  Cabral Brown and Moberg

Sunderland played 4-4-1-1 continuing the ridiculous situation when 2 midfielders play RB and LB.  How do you sign 3 defensive players and no FB’s?  Sessegnon played behind Altidore and on the flanks were Giaccherini and Johnson with Cabral and Larsson CMs.

Played in torrential rain, interestingly it was young Moberg Karlsson as sub who impressed the most.  Altidore had a host of chances but didnt score.

Sunderland 0  Man City 1

Sunderland: Mannone (Westwood, 46), Gardner, Colback, Brown, O’Shea (c), Larsson, Cabral (Ba, 46), Johnson (Moberg Karlsson, 63), Giaccherini (McClean, 76), Sessegnon (Mandron, 88), Altidore (Wickham, 46).

Subs not used: Pickford, Vaughan, Cuellar, Roberge.

An unchanged starting line up perfromed well against City showing real determination by pressing hgh up the pitch at a good tempo considering the conditions which again were dreadful.   Larsson had a number of freekicks but failed to threaten with crosses from these deadball situations.  Giaccherini showed some nice touches and Johnson’s involvement improved in the 2nd half but there were very few clear cut chances

fantasy premier league perspective

GK/DEF

No issue here Mannone will line up as GK at £4.5m.  A home and away rotation only.  Newcastle is the obvious one to rotate with.  The defence somehow managed 11 clean sheets and were 11th in goals conceded last year so in theory a reasonable defence.  However,  the underlying shooting and big chance stats were appalling and in my mind the GK was the only reason why the clean sheets  and goal conceded stats looked respectable.  With Mignolet gone the defence is weaker and it still seems to have midfielders as RBs so only Brown potentially to make it stronger.  So you can tell then that I’m not a fan of the Sunderland defence given the underlying stats but Brown at £4.5m looks like he will start and looks value.  However,  I cant see him in my team at this moment given my lack of faith in the defence.

Midfield

Sessegnon playing behind the striker is the obvious choice for the midfield and is reasonable value at £7.0m.  7 goals and 5 assists from 2887 minutes is a reasonable return and similar to someone like Kevin Nolan but only a third of someone like Walcott which shows why the mid range midfield area is tricky this year.  Gametime is a risk beause if Steven Fletcher recovers (a big if and it seems unlikely at the moment) then will Sessegnon play?  Difficult to say although Di Canio has been priaising him.  Given the fixtures and this uncertainy plus the mid range dilemma, I will probably give him a miss 

Cabral is probaly the best 2 point bench warming reserve at £4.5m  given his starting place at the moment.  Although with 7 yellows last year he’s a little card happy

Forwards

You cant argue with Altidores (£7.0m) scoring record. 33 games last year for 23 goals and 5 assists.  A goal or assist every 101 minutes – very impressive.  However so far he hasnt been that impressive in pre-season.  The gametime risk that Sessegnon has when Fletcher returns also applies to Altidore.  However I can’t imagine that Sunderland paid £8.8m for him to sit on the bench so its possible Di Canio will play 2 strikers although that hasnt been the pattern to date with him preffering a withdrawn striker.

Fletchers (£7.5m) record of a goal or assist every 158 minutes is ok but nothing outstanding  so its possible he may not get into the starting lineup when he returns.  Given how close we are to the start of the season though its difficult to imagine he will be fit to play for GW1 anyway so Altidore in fromt of Sessegnon looks the likely lineup.  

Summary

A defence that outperfroemd its underlying stats last year thanks to an excellent GK in my view.  I cant see it perfroming as well this year esepcially with no FB solutions.  Attacking wise they should be more sucessful.  fixtures are ok and ranked 9th

GK/defence – I’m dubious about the defence but Mannone or Brown (assuming he can stay fit)  both at £4.5m seem the best bet

Midfield – Sessegnon (£7.0m) is the best bet with an ok scoring record but has gametime risk even if not immediately.  I don’t feel the mid range midfielder is worth the discount to price for the elite ones at the moment and with the fixxtures I cant see him in my team

Cabral (£4.5m)  is the best 2 point midfield bench warmer

Forward – Doesnt look like Fletcher (£7.5m) will be ready for GW1 so Altidore is your choice (£7.0m).  He  has an excellent record in Holland but has started a bit slowly.  Is he better than Kone or Berba at a similar price?  I’m not sure and I cant see him in my GW1 team

Thats it hope you found it interesting.

Here’s the link to my GW1 fixture ease schedule:

 http://www.fantasyfootballgeek.co.uk/fantasy-premier-league-fixture-ease-schedule-gw1/

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