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Here is a preview of the Fantasy Premier League of 18/19 written by @matinho! Follow him for more Football posts!
Fantasy premier league 18/19 preview Part 3 out of 3
Newcastle United
Newcastle should be happy with their 10th place last season. As promoted team with a lot of negativity between supporters and owner Mike Ashley, Rafa Benítez managed to make the best out of his squad, I think. They had the 7th best defensive record in the league, conceding 47 goals in 38 matches (for example better than Arsenal).
Last season Rafa begged the clubs board to invest in new players but they didn’t. This summer the have been some more activity in the transfer market but I don’t know if Rafa is overly lucky with his squad. Luckily for Newcastle Benitez usually makes his squad greater than the sum of its parts. Not watching their games but just judging from the results from pre-season (for example 4-0 defeat against Braga) I won’t invest my money in this teams players, at least not in the beginning of the season. Awful fixtures in the first eight gameweeks doesn’t make it more tempting to invest in their assets. Though players like Lascelles (£5.0m), Dubravka (£4.5m) or Perez (£6.5m) could come into consideration later on. Kenedy (£5.0m) as a fifth midfielder could prove good value.
Players in:Martin Dubravka (£4.5m), Ki Sung-yueng (£5.0m), Kenedy (£5.0m) and Fabian Schär (£5.0m),Yoshinori Muto (no price yet)
Southampton
Finally. Dusan Tadic is gone. Not for that reason he wasn’t good at his best but I did never get any points from him. He scored big points in two or three consecutive games in a row, I got excited, bought him, and the stopped scoring. This happened not only one and twice. Now he continues his journey in Ajax.
So Southampton is going into this season without having sold any of their star players to Liverpool, could you believe it. After being a steady mid-table team for four seasons in a row the had a really bad one last season. When Mark Hughes took over as manager in March they were in the relegation battle and it didn’t look good. However Hughes changed the system and with wins over Bournemouth and Swansea City in the last gameweeks they managed a 17th place, 3 points above relegated Swansea.
Southampton will have a run of nice fixtures in the beginning of this season – Burnley (h), Everton (a), Leicester City (h), Crystal Palace (a), Brighton and Hove Albion (h) so there could be a reason to look into their squad. For example Cedric Soares comes in at a good price at £4.5m (16.4% ownership). Austin (£6.0m) is in only 2,6 % of the teams and could be a great third forward and a real differential pick. If Austin doesn’t pick up any injuries and Southampton goes back to being a mid-table team I could easily se Austin scoring 15 goals this season.
Players in: Stuart Armstrong (£5.5m), Mohamed Elyounoussi (£6.5m), Angus Gunn (£4.5m), Jannik Vestergaard (£5.0m)
Tottenham Hotspur
Players in: None. First team players out: None.
Spurs believe in themselves, Mauricio Pochettino believes in his squad and in his players. Or then they haven’t just found the right player for the right price, yet. Their third place in the league last season was definitely a good result. Harry Kane (£12.5m) scored 30 goal in the league and managed 217 points in FPL. When you write this (30 goal, 217 points) and realizes that Salah scored 86 points more than Kane you have hard time trying to convince yourself that going without Salah could be the way to go this season. So if you go with Salah, can you also afford Kane without having a very unbalanced team? This question you will have to answer. Though I think many will go without Kane in the beginning of the season taking into consideration he’s not back in training from his holiday yet AND that i never scores in August.
Many spurs fans dreams about Spurs winning the League and rightly so. They definitely got the chance but I’m a little sceptical. Yes, their starting eleven is top top class, but what about their bench? Second striker if Kane is injured?
What about their fantasy assets? I midfield I’m looking at Eriksen (£9.5) because he’s their main playmaker andon set pieces, fully back in training and playing pre season games. Son (£ 8.5m) has been in and out in my team for the last couple of seasons and has got me a lot of points. For sure, he will be in my team at some point also this season, but not from the beginning. Defender Trippier (£6.0) is highly owned (26.8%) and will score points. He got you assists, clean sheets and bonus points and is Pochettino’s first choice but will also miss every fourth game or so when Aurier plays att right back. This is a thing I don’t like.
Watford
I have no feeling about this team. For me they could either be relegated or a top 10 team. Last year they was 14th and if you look to bookmakers they are fourth or third-favourites for relegation. At the moment they don’t have a single player who has an ownership over 5% .
This could mean fantasy players have learned their lesson from last year when Watford had the third-worst defensive record in PL and only one of their players (Abdoulaye Doucoure (£6.0m)) scored more than five league goals. Their most interesting player, fantasy wise for me, Richarlison went to Everton last week. Now they have a week left to spend that money and make me interested in spending money on their players because as it stands (even if they have three good fixtures in the beginning) I won’t have any Watford player in my team. This could of course change when the season goes on. In pre season they are yet to loose and for example Andre Gray (£6.0m) has scored three goals in four matches.
Players in: Gerard Deulofeu (£5.5m), Marc Navarro (£4.5m) Adam Masina (£4.5m) Ken Sema (£5.0m), Ben Foster (£4.5m)
West Ham United
“I’m forever blowing bubbles” West Ham have got a new manager (former Man city coach Manuel Pellegrini) and a lot of new players. They clearly want to try to do their best to become an “elite” team in Premier League and I think their fans are quite excited. The club have spent around 100 million euros on players which could be seen as a real statement: We have a big stadium, we have the players and we have the manager- let’s see what happens! And I really don’t know what’s going to happen but for sure it will be exciting to see what West Ham can do this season.
£38 million spent on Felipe Anderson (£7.5m) should mean the believe he could be the man who takes there attacking to a new level. Playing mostly as a right winger he managed to score four goals and make seven assists in just 21 games – only nine of which were starts in Lazio last season.
Another new player in with an eye for goal are Andriy Yarmolenko (£7.0m) who comes from Borussia Dortmund. In Dortmund he hadn’t the best of seasons (scoring 6 goals) but before that he netted 137 goals in 341 games for Kyiv. For sure he will score goals and bring plenty of creativity to the West Ham side.
Beside Arnautovich (£7.0), who is now listed as an forward with 26 % ownership I’m also looking at Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m). One thing with that guy that you can take for granted is that he will bring you extra point from saves. In the last four seasons he has been in top three for numbers of saves. Fantasy points in last four seasons are: 153,123,116,157. Not so bad for a budget goalkeeper,
Players in: Ryan Fredericks (£5.0m), Issa Diop (£4.5m), Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m), Jack Wilshere (£5.0m), Andriy Yarmolenko (£7.0m), Fabian Balbuena (£4.5m), Felipe Anderson (£7.0m)
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Last but not least, Wolves - EFL Championship winners 2017/2018. This is the team from the newly promoted teams that somehow stands out. Many have quite high expectations on this team and maybe rightly so. In their Championship winning season they won 30 games and lost only 7 out of 46 games. They scored a total of 83 goals had the tightest defensive record (alongside Cardiff) (39 goals conceded in 46 games) and an impressive total of 24 clean sheets. In the summer they have strengthen their team with Willy Boly (£4.5m), Raul Jimenez (£5.5m), Rui Patricio (£4.5m), Leo Bonatini (£5.5m), Ruben Vinagre (£4.5m), Joao Moutinho (£5.5m).
I can see people investing in both defence and attack in this team. Currently their most selected player is Neves (£5.0m). Neves who played his first season in Wolves joining from Porto last summer scored six goals and made 1 assist. He’s for sure a talented player and important for his team but from a fantasy perspective his underlying stats don’t convince me. For example a total of 37 chances created was only sixth best across the Wolves squad and i will look elsewhere.
The player who catches my eyes is Diogo Jota (£6.5m). Last season he was on loan from Atletico Madrid but made his move to Wolves permanent this summer. In 44 games last season he scored 17 goals and made 5 assists. His totals of 120 goal attempts isn’t bad either. He plays as an attacking midfielder, often to the right, in a 3-4-3 system. One thing you should take into consideration, regarding all promoted players, is that converting stats from Championship into Premier League isn’t a “walk in thepark”. I recommend you to be a little careful with unproven fantasy assets and to not build your team around these players.
Next season will be Wolves’ fifth in the Premier League and their first since the 2011/12 campaign. By bookmakers to judge Wolves will be a mid-table team ( if not even better) and not close to the relegation battle. This team could be one bright spark in this years Premier League.
Make sure to do your research, Managers and Good Luck!
