Now that fantasy premier league is open and the prices are available we can turn our attention to looking for value and the best options for the newly promoted teams.  Lets take a look firstly at Hull City

Background

Hull were promoted autmatically last year.  Bruce as a manager was probably mostly noted for his 3-5-2 formation that he played successfully and for the tight nature of the team.  Certainly if you compare their goal output to the other 2 promoted teams, Cardiff and Crystal Palace their was a marked difference in goals scored.  Cardiff scored 72 and Crystal Palace 73 whereas Hull scored only 61.  In terms of clean sheets though, Hull  were  strong getting 16 clean sheets which was 3rd best in the division.  Cardiff were best with 18.  10 of those Hull City clean sheets were at home and 6 away.

Its hard to predict whether Bruce will play 3-5-2 again, he certainly didnt with Wigan or Sunderland.  Wigan he was notable for 11 clean sheets and his strong defensive approach to the game something that I believe will continue with his low budget squad.  By the way if you saw the Hull v Cardiff  on the last day of the season where Bruce played 4-4-2, that wasnt typiacal

The players

GK

In both defence and GK it would be nice to find a £4.0m defender who could be a home and away rotation option.     I expect Hull to be a good cheap option for defence this year as Bruce will try and keep it tight.  Last year Stockdale played the majority of the games towards the end of the season.  He has returned to Fulham though and now the GKs are the 2 purchases in Harper and McGregor.  McGregor is a Scottish International GK who last year  played 26 games for Besiktas and cost Hull £1.54 m so I fully expect him to start.  Unfortunately hes £4.5m so no £4.0m bargain there.  Harper who is 38 was acquired on a free and is 38 so I can only see him as back up.  He’s not currently registered with the site but I expect him to be £4.0m

Summary:  £4.5m McGregor to start without question

Defence

Last year the 3-5-2 often involved Faye, Chester and Hobbs as CBs with Elmo at RWB and Brady at LWB.  However, CB Curtis Davies has been bought for £2.332m and  Bruce old Boy Manuel Figueroa on a free.  As I said I’m not assuming were going to have 5 defeners to pick from this year.  I expect Davies and Figueroa to start given the money spent and history there.  Davies at CB and Figueroa at LB.  So in the hunt for a £4.0m  player we have 2 positions to look for now  in pre season.  We can rule out Elmo whos a £5.0m midfielder in fantasy premier league for a start.  I can see him playing in midfield for defensive purposes. 

Rosenior seems to be the only specialist RB so if Bruce reverts to 4-4-2 then we have the £4.0m bargain were looking for.  However if he were to play 3-5-2 then its a bit trickier as Elomo would play RWB and Figueroa LWB.  So our search for the £4.0m will have to focus on the CB partner for Davies. Thats not easy either unfortunately.  It seems to be between Chester and Faye.  Chester is my punt at the moment as he played the most minutes by far last year and I cant see Faye being mobile enough for the premier league

summary;  Figueroa at £4.5m is the best bet.  Need more research into pre season to find that mythical£4.0m defender.  Chester is my best bet at the moment

Midfield

Here were looking for a real midfield option at £5.0m max or just a £4.5m filler for when one of your 4 other mids is injured. I’m seriously considering 2 cheap midfielders to rotate depending on games leaving 3 quality midfieldersto play every game.  In that regard there are 2  options  1 is Robert Koren who scored 9 goals and 5 assists from 40 games last year. He also has form in the premier league getting 9 goals and an assist for WBA in 2007/08 and 5 goals and 4 assists in his last season with WBA in 2009/10.  Is he too defensively questionable for Bruce in the premier league? We’ll have to see but if anyone will play in the advanced central position at the moment it will be him.  Brady is another option at £5.0m with 4 goals and 13 assists from 32 games last year from the wing position.  Interestingly he played the last game of the season as a virtual striker  but that certainlywasnt ususal and happened when Koren was injured.

If you want to only pay £4.5m your choice is between players who will just pck up a couple of points in Stephen Quinn (3 goals and 6 assists in 42 games)  and David Meyler (5 goals and 3 assists in 28 games).  Meylyer picked up 10 YCs compared to Quinns 2 so for that I’d probably stick with Quinn

Summary:  Koren £5.0m for double cheap mid to rotate with another.  Brady £5.0m another option.

Cheap 2 pointer as the cheapest reserve possible:  Stephen Quinn

Forward  

In short there’s no one at the club worth investing now.  It seems that Sunderland and former Swansea striker Danny Graham is on his way though.  Last year he had a nightmare, no goals in 13 games and close to 1000 minutes for Sunderland and 3 goals and 2 assists for Swansea in 18 games.  For both clubs he spurned 11 clear cut chances believe it or not.  However, his first year with Swansea was more sucessful with Swansea scoring 12 goals and 4 assists in 32 games.  He’s only £5.5m and will definitely start if there are no other purchases.  Hull have a reasonable run of fixtures after Chelsea away in the first game so he could well be worth a punt to fill the cheap striker option.  Ideally though you would want a club which will play more attacking football than Hull will.

Summary:  No one at the club now.  Danny Graham could well be  an option if he joins but needs comparing to other prospects

Thats it hope that gives you some food for thought

Other new clubs to come

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