One to watch: Antonio Valencia

-
Valencia has been very quiet of late, earning just 10 points in his late 4 outings. However, these games included trips to Liverpool, Portsmouth and Fulham who have three of the best 7 home defenses in the league. Previous fixtures had seen Valencia notch 27 points over the same period when the opposition was Hull, Sunderland, Spurs and City.

A quick look ahead sees games against Stoke, Newcastle, Everton and West Brom who all rank in the bottom 5 in total defense this season. This will hopefully see Valencia (and in all likelihood Zaki) return to top form and he should be a good producer for the next month or so.

Valencia is being sold right now (-35000) in the past few weeks so his value could fall to 6.1. However, even at 6.2 he could be a great replacement for the slumping Denilson, Ireland or Downing.

Comments

Ollycee said…
I agree with you Chris, I have kept hold of Valencia and am expecting decent returns from him over the next few gameweeks. Im a fan of his and I think he links in well with Zaki (who I have also got!)

If he doesnt produce soon though I may look to upgrade him to Modric or Bentley instead of another midfeilder.
November 7, 2008 at 6:50 AM
Chris said…
My thought exactly ollycee. I have stuck by Valencia due to this decent run of fixtures coming up but if he doesn't start producing soon I like both Modric and Kranjcar as potential replacements.
November 7, 2008 at 1:11 PM
Ash said…
Great shout Chris!

Like I said, I'm manouevring to get Lamps back, and at the moment I've got Zaki as captain!

Valencia is one of my favourite players and I loved him in the World Cup.
November 8, 2008 at 12:20 AM
Unknown said…
Awful gameweek so far. Traore benched, Cpt. Ronaldo 2, Zaki 2, Arteta 2, Turner 2, Defoe 2. And Wigan can't even beat Stoke at home. Sheesh.
November 8, 2008 at 11:48 AM
Unknown said…
Well, things looking up a little. Defoe with a late penalty, and Agger set to start. (I feared the worst, at home to WBA.) Perhaps all is not lost afterall...
November 8, 2008 at 12:01 PM
Ollycee said…
Maybe I spoke too soon about Valencia, im already looking to replace him next week, I think two Wigan players in my side is two too many! What is everyones opinion on the best possible replacement for Antonio in the 6 - 7 million pound category? Modric? Kranjcar?
November 8, 2008 at 4:25 PM
Chris said…
Ive had a disaster of a week and ive come to the same conclusion at you ollycee. With Zaki and Valencia I am too reliant on a team that is not playing well right now. I think I might sell Laursen to free up some cash to allow myself some wiggle room.
November 8, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Unknown said…
If you got Zaki at 6.0 (or close), I think he's a must-keep. (Especially with 4 pretty friendly matchups over the next 5 weeks.) There simply aren't any better replacements at that price. Being an unknown, everytime he doesn't score for one game, people lose faith! Kinda silly, really.

Also, Koumas has played the last couple of games. Zaki should definitely benefit from his passes/crosses once he finds his range. (A little "rust" resulting in a few too many stray ones so far.)
November 8, 2008 at 7:50 PM
Chris said…
jay - you're right with Zaki, there are no replacements who even come close for that kind of money. you can't even guarentee 90 mins of football with most of them. I'm gonna keep Zaki and consider Valencia's future, though I am a fn of his. I like Kranjcar as his replacement.
November 9, 2008 at 5:55 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pushing the Panic Button: Gameweek 15

-
Image
Powered by Tableau The above visualisation is going to form the centrepiece for a new regular post (probably bi-weekly) which is kind of the opposite of the fanning the flames piece. Rather than focus on players who did well this week, we're going to look at players who didn't, and particularly those who haven't for a number of weeks and identify whether, yes you guessed it, the panic button should be pushed. Before we get into specific players, a quick review of what the table above shows: Goals xG - This is the expected goals a player should  have scored in a given week based on the number of shots he took (inside/outside the box), his historic skill level regarding hitting the target and the league average rate of converting shots on target (SoT) to goals. This metric gives an overview of the chances a player is receiving, along with the quality of them and the way he is converting them. Pts - simply the points scored by the player over the last five g...
Read more

Demba Ba and transfer planning

-
Image
I try not to get involved in too much "will-he-won't-he" speculation in these pages with, for example, the weekly statistical rankings being provided regardless of rotation risk. I'm not saying, of course, that this shouldn't be a factor, only that I'm in no position to offer a worthwhile opinion, other than collating other news stories (which are often based on nonsense quotes from managers anyway). There are plenty of other sites who offer opinions on whether Tevez will play or if Vidic has recovered from injury but in almost all cases it's pure guess work and so I try and stay away from such discussions. With that in mind, my initial reaction to Ba's move was negative. I have no idea whether he will play every week at Chelsea, and while you'd think it would extremely odd for a player to leave a good team to go and ride the bench, other players have done the exact same thing before. All I therefore see is a player who has gone from being the e...
Read more

Dousing the fire, fanning the flames: Gameweek 4

-
In the first of a new regular series, we're going to look at the week's top fantasy performers (purely measured by fantasy points) and look at the evidence as to whether their success is sustainable or whether the inevitable hype needs to be ignored. Where possible I will draw on the available stats but I'll also add more subjective comments regarding a player's future playing time or other possible risks. Without wishing to be negative, more often than not we're going to be dousing fires here as you don't need me to tell you after yet another Carlos Tevez goal that he's a good player. I'm also going to stay away from defenders who purely earned their points from defensive means as the sustainability of those is a whole other ball game that needs more than just a line or two per player. Each player has been assigned a 'Buy', "Hold' or 'Sell' status. These don't necessarily reflect what I would  do, more what I believe to b...
Read more