Here we look at the thorny subject of fantasy premier league injuries and who to replace for the rumoured 4 week injury of Zaha. There’s 10 possibles to consider with a table of stats, some narrative and their fixtures
fantasy premier league injuries – potential replacements for Zaha
Background
Zaha was pictured in a knee brace after the Huddersfield game where he took some fairly physical treatment as part of Wagners pressing game. There has been no official word from the club that I’m aware of and it seems that the news has been broken by Guardian journalist Ed Aarons who’s supposedly close to the club. As I write this the price change prediction site FPL statistics has him at -53% for the price drop so it seems that he will be safe for at least today. However there’s no guarantee of that. Personally I’d like to hear something from the club as although they have Liverpool this week, next week is home to Swansea which is a pretty attractive fixture.
The first place often to look for a replacement is who will take his place in the Palace team. The likely replacement for me is Andre Townsend who came on as a sub late on in the game. Loftus Cheek did play in an advanced role before Townsend came on but having played so well as a CM I would be surprised if he doesn’t stay there. In any case Palace face Liverpool so not an easy game for an introduction so I’m not really taking him as an option.
I set the price filter at £7.5m but didn’t need the extra half a million.
You may also get some ideas from my fixture ease article and the bandwagons and sinking ships article.
The options
Firstly here’s a schedule of options. It’s in a rough ranking order although there’ s enough info to make your own decision
Willian
Willian doesn’t have the greatest of fixtures and the next game away to Spurs isn’t exactly an ideal introduction time. However it’s not often you get a secure (if maybe time limited) advanced midfield option with some set piece responsibility in a (supposedly) title chasing team. For me he’s still an excellent pick despite the schedule. Hazard is supposedly back GW5 although whether he starts or not is another thing. That’s when he could lose his place although he’s really competing with Pedro rather than Hazard.
He’s one of the few players to emerge with credit from the GW1 Burnley disaster as you’ll see from Joseph Crilleys GW1 review part 1
Next 6 fixtures:
Spurs (A)
Everton (H)
Leicester (A)
Arsenal (H)
Stoke (A)
Man City (H)
Tadic and Redmond
I’m grouping these guys together because it seems like nothing has changed over the summer. Southampton produce a 29 shot game hitting the target twice. Good fixtures but you transfer these guys in hoping that eventually all those shots have to turn into something. I prefer Tadic because he plays more centrally and has a bit more assist threat but they’re both cut from the same wasteful cloth. If you’re going to gamble though you’re never going to get better fixtures.
West Ham (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Watford (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Man Utd (H)
Stoke (A)
Ramsey
Ramsey has had an injury which is why he was introduced as a sub in GW1. I generally expect him to play as one of the 2 CMs with Xhaka. The 3-4-2-1 system gives him more freedom to get forward as we saw with his goal against Leicester and the system bought the best out of him at the end of last season. Thats why the returns may look horrible but don’t reflect his potential this season. His major issue has been finishing off chances. In every season except 1 he’s has performed well below his expected goals.
Stoke (A)
Liverpool (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Chelsea (A)
West Brom (H)
Brighton (H)
Mata
Mata is an interesting one. When on the pitch last season for the price he had very good returns. His problem potentially is gametime. At the weekend he played in the 2 of 4-1-2-3. In that formation Herrera was on the bench. I think the 2nd midfield spot will be shared between him and Herrera depending on the fixture. Thats before you even factor in general rotation arising from the Champions League group stages which start before GW5. In addition to that he could be a sub magnet later on in matches as he was on the weekend. He does have good scoring potential and is a good price with good fixtures but he’s not without risk.
Swansea (A)
Leicester (H)
Stoke (A)
Everton (H)
Southampton (A)
Crystal Palace (H)
Ince
Had a fairly quiet game in the context of a 3-0 win but was always trying to get forward and the 1 chance he had was a very good one. Is a gamble due to his unknown premier league ability and that of the team. The other side of that is the good fixtures helped by Newcastle next
Newcastle (H)
Southampton (H)
West Ham (A)
Leicester (H)
Burnley (A)
Spurs (H)
Ward Prowse
Tricky one this. He’s a good price, played as a CAM and does have some set piece responsibility. How much he can produce though is questionable. He feels like his ceiling is lower than the other 2 despite the fact that last season his returns were better. That isn’t saying much. He also has to be vulnerable to Boufal if the guy can ever get his act together
West Ham (H)
Huddersfield (A)
Watford (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Man Utd (H)
Stoke (A)
Wijnaldum
Another player who plays as a CM rather than an advanced midfielder. His returns in the same position as last season were pretty ordinary but he is very home scoring biased and it’s a very good fixture next. The 2 after that aren’t so clever although Liverpool can score against anyone
Crystal Palace (H)
Arsenal (H)
Man City (A)
Burnley (H)
Leicester (A)
Newcastle (A)
Arnautovic
I’m actually a reasonable fan of Arnautovic. His returns last season were terrible but nobody at Stoke did the business attacking wise. He does get forward though and make good attacking runs. He also looks like he will have some set piece responsibility. The fixtures after this week are good. I’m just not sure away to Southampton is the ideal introduction to my team
Southampton (A)
Newcastle (A)
Huddersfield (H)
West Brom (A)
Spurs (H)
Swansea (H)
Ritchie
Had a quiet game against Spurs but an unfair game to judge him on. Was the main man with Gayle in promotion last season and has set piece responsibility and possibly penalties. I’m not that wild on his RW position as you can end up with some one who half the game is limited to long crosses as a source of points.
However how he performs is guess work really with his limited premier league track record. This should be looked at purely as a fixture play with the bonus of Huddersfield next
Huddersfield (A)
West Ham (H)
Swansea (A)
Stoke (H)
Brighton (A)
Liverpool (H)
The FFGeek view
I hate early transfers. Zaha could have been held on to for GW3 against Swansea if the injury was just a knock. I don’t like the fact that I haven’t seen anything from the club and I’d rather wait until Friday and just take the inevitable price drop. Willian is already in my team. I would miss out on Ramsey, Arnautovic, Wijnaldum and Mata in the price drop instance but I’m not that drawn to them anyway. The fixtures for Tadic and Redmond are just mind bogglingly good but doubling up on such an unpredictable attack doesn’t fill me with joy. I am a fan of Ince and his fixtures aren’t good but he is still a stab in the dark as is Ritchie who’s fixtures couldn’t be any better.
However the reality of midfielders in this price range is that there’s always some negative as they’re not £7m for nothing.
More cogitation for me.
I caught up with Joseph Crilley who said
” Having seen how they defended on Saturday, Liverpool will have to score goals and Wijnaldum offers a cheap route into their attack. 3 of their next 4 are at home and all 17 of his premier league goals have come in front of his own fans so I like him as a straight swap.”
Rob Reid (aka the FPL Vet) is leaning towards Ramsey.
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