fantasy premier league tips - were new players successful last season?

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It’s easy to get excited at this time with the signings of new players. I’ve seen a lot of stuff on social networks regarding Sanchez and how he will be the first signing in their team. 2 years ago Hazard and Michu made an immediate impact. What of last year? How successful were the new players? We take a look at some of the midfielders and forwards that played their first year last season and how they got on. We’ll also look at their prospects for this season

fantasy premier league – were the new players successful last season?

Background

We all hear about the new difficult adjustment that attacking players have when joining the premier league. These mainly ventre around the pace of the game and the lack of a winter break. The number of games, the intensity of the games, the fact that there is no easy opposition and the climate are all rolled out as additional reasons for an adjustment period. Even the weather in Manchester is given as an excuse. As if!

However the success of Hazard and Michu 2 seasons ago as new players plus the desire to get in early on an unknown players makes us want to gamble on new players for GW1.

So using last year as a guide to the future lets take a look at how the new players performed last year. I’m going to put them into categories

The Successful

Incredibly no player started the season sucessfully and played through the season sucessfully. Quite incredible really and a real eye opener for this season. So here’s the most successful. However all were really only successful in patches. Certainly there was no season keeper

Mesut Ozil

5 goals and 10 assists equalled an FPL point every 15.6 minutes.

Just slightly better than more established players like Oscar and Nasri. Certainly wasn’t an unqualified success though. Started fantastically then form dipped got injured and returned less successfully. Towards the end of the season there was question marks over whether he was worth the record transfer fee for Arsenal. This all culminated in a terrible defensive play against Bayern when Flamini ripped into Ozil for his performance during the game. Certainly his consistency of returns stats weren’t great at all. It’s probably a comment on last seasons new players that I have categorised him as successful. After not playing regularly for Real Madrid its certainly must have been difficult to play 42 games for Arsenal without a winter break. While you would think he would be better off after a season, going all the way through the World Cup can’t have helped the fatigue factor

Christian Eriksen

7 goals and 9 assists. FPL point every 15.0 minutes.

If anyone will be sad to see the back of Tim Sherwood (apart from journalists) it will be Christian Eriksen. Struggled to get into the team under AVB and had some quite underwhelming performances in the rather rigid defensive minded system played by AVB. To such an extent that he struggled to get into the team. He was revitalised under the more attacking philosphy of Sherwood and had a fantastic end to the season scoring goals and dominating set pieces. Not involved in the World Cup he will have benefitted from the rest over the summer. Pochettinho again plays a more structured game than Sherwood(who doesn’t?) but they are essentially an attacking team that presses high up the pitch. Only question is his position and whether he has the work rate to fit in to the pressing game.

Bony

17 goals and 4 assists at a fantasy premier league point every 15.6 minutes is successful for the price which ended at £7.3m.

That 15.6 minutes is similar to established forwards of Remy and Lukaku. However he was another player who finished the season strongly after being a sub for the alot of first half of the season. His gametime improved like Eriksen when the manager started to play him regularly. However you couldn’t call him a success from the beginning of the season due to the gametime issues. Did go to the World Cup but wasn’t particularly successful. Transfer rumours also surround him

Arnautovich

4 goals and 10 assists. FPL point every 19.4 minutes.

Questionable categorisation given the returns but was cheap with price ending up at £5.1m. Again a player who took some time to be successful and get regular game time. However again it wasn’t until late in the season that he establish a regular place. So again not an unqualified success.

Those who had sucessful returns but struggled for gametime

Eto’o

9 goals 5 assists. FPL point every 12.9 minutes

A tough ask at an advanced age coming from Russia to the premier league. Scored in spells but never commanded a place. Returns per minute similar to Rooney and Dzeko. Released by Chelsea

Gayle

7 goals 0 assists. FPL point every 12.9 minutes.

In and out of the side mainly as a sub. Came on strong at the end of the year only. Averaged 38 minutes per appearance. Returns as above similar to Rooney per minute. Difficult to predict how he will be involved and perform this season

Schurrle

8 goals 2 assists. FPL point every 12.9 minutes.

On this per minute basis only YYT, Ramsey and Walcott had better returns. However part of the large Chelsea attacking midfiield rotation plan so never had a regular place. That privilege was only for Hazard. Very good in the World Cup but again as a sub. Hard to see that changing this season.

Deulofeu

3 goals/ 4 assists. FPL point every 15.0 minutes.

Had to be managed carefully for Martinez to establish a relationship with Barca so was never going to be a regular or over played. He then only played anything like regularly in the latter parts of the season.

Negredo

9 goals 5 assists. FPL point every 15.8 minutes.

Again similar to Remy and Lukaku. Started well but lost his place with Dzeko becoming the favoured partner to Aguero. Difficult to see this changing although didn’t make the Spain World Cup sqaud so rest may help. Sale rumours also are around.

Navas

4 goals and 7 assists. FPL point every 17.1 minutes. Similar to Lallana

In and out of the team all season but like Negredo lost favour late on. Nasri became the first choice. Again difficult to see a change. gives pace and width late in the game when City can counter attack so suits being a sub.

Brady

3 goals and 1 assist. FPL point every 17.5 minutes. Similar to Lallana.

Injured after an excellent start but never got back into the team regularly when recovered.

The outright failures

Soldado

6 goals and 5 assists. FPL return every 19.3 minutes

Had an excellent scoring record in Spain and also given pen duties. Did score a couple of pens to start with but never convinced and eventually was dropped by Sherwood for Adebayor. New manager may help him but hard to see him having the energy to press from the front like Jay Rodriguez

Paulino

6 goals and 3 assists. FPL return every 20.6 minutes.

Lost his place by the end of the season. Flattered to deceive getting into alot of scoring positions but failing to convert

So what does this mean?

Unlike the previous season of Hazard and Michu, no new player was successful for the course of the season

Very few players hit the ground running. Ozil and Negredo did but both faded

Alot had spells of good form particularly towards the end of the season

Many had gametime issues.

The above suggests caution in getting new players for GW1

If anyone disagrees or sees if I’ve missed someone then please tell me in the comments section

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fantasy premier league tips