Barclays fantasy premier league my 2nd draft team – major changes!

 

de Gea – £6.0m

In the end I thought £6.0m for De Gea and a £4.0m benchwarmer with a total investment of £10m were worth the £1m over the £9m that would have been spent on 2 £4.5m goalkeepers.  The 19 Man U clean sheets last year were just too compelling.  There is a Lindegaard risk definitely but having weighed it up Im willing to take it

 

Zabaleta £6.0m

He’s not safe when Richards returns if 4-4-2 returns to the formation of choice but again Ive decided its a risk Im willing to take in order to save the £0.5m that i would have needed to purchase Lescott.  Despite being the 2nd best team in clean sheets in my mind the underlying stats showed they were the best defensive team and representation is definitely worth it at this price. 

 

Ivanovic – £6.5m

5th best opening 6 fixtures and a double game week to start convinced me to start with a Chelsea defender in fantasy premier league.  At £6.5m they’re more expensive than I would like especially when you see they only had 10 clean sheets last year.  Im banking on this improving significantly now that the chaos of AVB has left.  Could have gone for Cole at the same price but Ivanovic’s set piece strength  and the emergence of Bertrand has made me finally leap towards Ivanovic.

 

Hibbert £5.5m

Everton in my mind had better underlying defensive stats than Liverpool Arsenal and Chelsea last year and with them having the 7th best opening 6 fixtures Ive gone for Hibbert and tried to ignore the risk of Neville at RB. Jagielka at £6.0m is definitely the safer option but just not enough funds spare unfortiunately 

  

Hazard – £9.5m

I wasn’t impressed with his first competitive game against Man City in the CS but I’ve rationalised this by saying how many would have looked good with a man down against the champions.  Fantastic record in France and unlike Mata scores and assists.  Plus I think he’s a better bet to play both games given Matas busy summer

 

Bale £9.5m

I know I know after all my raving about VDV you’re suddenly looking at Bale.  Its just that the stats weren’t that different and when it came down to it Bale seemed the safer option.

 

Guthrie – £4.5m

In my mind he’s the best filler for midfield, everyone else seems to be a yellow card magnet or be a 2 point only option.  the argument against this is that as a new signing and a free one at that you’ve got no record of appearances to fall back on.   However he seems to have had good representation in the latter pre-season games and Im confident of him being in the line up on Saturday 

 

N’Zogbia – £6.5m

OK here’s the reason why Lescott and Jagielka aren’t in the team.  i had Noble at £5m in my team to rotate with Guthrie. however, when it came to it I just couldn’t resist the transformation i’m hoping that the attacking madman Lambert  will have on Villa.  That hopefully will bring out the best in the mercurial Frenchman who is a sleeping giant in my mind.   Villa have the 3rd best opening 6 fixtures

 

Graham £6.0m

This was difficult as there were so many good options for the 3rd striker but in the end I definitely wanted a Swansea player with them having the best opening 6 fixtures of any team and although I thought Michu was going to be that person in the end Graham tearing up pre-season was just too difficult to ignore.  Doesnt have the greatest underlying stats but still scores.  A gamble definitely but I’m hoping that the   fixtures and the ability to score without shooting extensively will provide the returns 

 

  

Torres £10m

 what can I say I have absolutely no faith in the guy whatsoever, his underlying stats are quite frankly abysmal and I just sigh with exasperation whenever I see him in my team but when it comes down to it he’s the only choice for the captain in this Chelsea DGW1 since RDM’s Hazard comments and the CS fiasco.  Will be switched to Rooney for Utds 3 easy games between GW2-4    

 

Tevez (£9.0m)

Another u turn I hear you say?  Yes Yes I know but the CS, City’s comments about him Ballotellis injury and the stats not being that different meant that the £2.5m difference from Aguero was just too hard to resist (I’m weak I know!)

 

Cerny (£4.0m)

I had a long look at all the £4.0m keepers to find one I thought may take the No1 spot either through promotion or injury.  in the end i went for the highest scorer last year for the value.  I thought about Gomes with the Friedel position but didn’t want to tie up a Spurs player 

 

Pienaar (£6.5m)

It was a straight choice between  Osman and pienaar and although osmans shooting makes him my kind of player I went for the all round game of Pienaar.  Everton have 7th best opening 6 fixtures

 

Tierney (£4.0m)

This is the first of my 2 filler defenders.  Hughton has tightened up defence considerable and they seemed alot mre solid than the cavalry charge of Paul Lambert.  13th on the fixtures but less relevant when its just a filler

 

Demel (£4.0m)

2nd best opening 6 fixtures and should play. A filler really.

I hope that stimulates some thought and debate and look forward to everyones comments on my fantasy premier league team.

One point you maybe asking is why I haven’t got more Reading players. In GW3 Reading and Chelsea don’t play that means with 2 transfers and 3 reserves you can have 5 players in and have a full playing compliment in GW3.  Im only putting 4 players from the 2 clubs in so that I can afford 1 selection that doesn’t play or an injury.   

Another point is that I have kep £2.5m in the bank rather than £2m for the Torres to Rooney transfer.  This is to just avoid any rouge price changes which may prevent the transfer.  This is especially early on when the traffic on the fantasy premier league site is at its highest