Gameweek 25 Preview

Another average week in the books for Pure Juice and I'm strongly considering drastic action. I'm out of the cup now and find myself 38 points adrift in my work league. I have Hart, Sorensen, Fabregas, Milner, Bent and Tevez who are all owned by at least 28% of all managers. None of these players have had much joy in the past few weeks and I particularly frustrated by Milner, Sorensen and even Bent's form. Add this to the fact that Valencia's place in the United team might be in jeopardy and suddenly my team looks weak. I think Fabregas is too good to drop while Tevez gets a double gameweek in week 26. The others are all on the block and I am looking to move to players held by 10% of managers or less over the coming weeks, ready for the late season push. For that reason I will be featuring players' ownership every time I mention them from now on.

Clean Sheet Rankings
  1. Man United
  2. Birmingham
  3. Stoke
  4. Tottenham
  5. Burnley
  6. Liverpool
  7. Sunderland
  8. Chelsea
  9. Wolves
  10. Bolton
  11. Man City
  12. West Ham
  13. Hull
  14. Aston Villa
  15. Fulham
  16. Blackburn
  17. Arsenal
  18. Portsmouth
  19. Everton
  20. Wigan
Man United are a great pick this week and I like Wes Brown (2%) as the safest and cheapest way to get access to this solid unit. Differentiating is less important for defenses as you a buying a unit more than a player but due to rotation issues, United are generally underheld and only Evra (26%) is owned by more than 5% of players. I therefore rate Brown as a buy for the week as with Ferdinand suspended for another couple of games and Vidic still injured, he should be safe for another couple of weeks. Birmingham defenders are underheld but Hart (28%) is a starter for many teams and will surely be started by most of them this week. Still, Dann (3%) and Ridgwell (3%) remain very good, cheap options and with good fixtures ahead you could do alot worse than rolling the dice with two Birmingham defenders over the next few weeks.

Despite their reliability this year, the Villa defense will make it hard for you to gain ground on your opponents due to Dunne's (41%) ownership. With a schedule that includes @Tot, MNU, Bur, Bye it might be worth ditching them now before re-signing them for the double gameweek in week 30. Everton have 3 straight clean sheets but they now face @Liv, Che, MNU, @Tot so I wouldn't jump on that bandwagon if you haven't yet.

Captain Rankings
  1. Wayne Rooney (43%)
  2. Steven Gerrard (16%)
  3. Carlos Tevez (29%)
  4. Didier Drogba (20%)
  5. Darren Bent (32%)
  6. Patrice Evra (26%)
  7. Frank Lampard (28%)
  8. Emmanuel Adebayor (3%)
  9. Cesc Fabregas (35%)
  10. Nicolas Anelka (12%)
I'm finding it really hard to recommend many captains this week, nevermind those held by less than 10% of owners. I really like Adebayor as a player than could outperform his ownership and with the double gameweek coming up as well as a good fixture this week (@Hul) now might be a good time to buy. Despite my concerns over Bent, Sunderland have the best fixture of the week (Wigan surrender 2.82 GPG on the road) and so he is a great option this week. Rooney's fixture is actually harder than you'd think (1.40 GPG) but he is in such good from its hard to look elsewhere. Arsenal's struggles last week along with another tough game this week mean that Fabregas finds himself the lowest he has been in the rankings for some time.

Differentiators
I don't like these players enough to warrant captaining them, but they might be worth a look if you are looking for someone a bit different this week. In no particular order:
  1. Cameron Jerome (5%)
  2. Sanli Tuncay (0.2%)
  3. Nani (5%)
  4. Danny Murphy (5%)
  5. David N'Gog (1%)
  6. Kevin Davies (2%)
  7. Peter Crouch (6%)
  8. Sotirios Kyrgiakos (1%)
  9. Chris Eagles (2%)
  10. Wes Brown (2%)
As always, stay tuned tomorrow and before deadline time @plfantasy for the latest injury news. Until then why not post your rotation and transfer questions below.

Comments

Unknown said…
Just a couple things Chris, whats going on with Micah Richards? I havent seen why he is out. Is he set to play this weekend? Also do you think Ferguson might sit Rooney this weekend with the upcoming games next week for United?
Unknown said…
auburn - I think Rooney is more likely to start on the bench than not. Fergie said a few weeks back that Rooney can't play every game and that he would rest players with the congestion coming up. After the Portsmouth game ManU have Villa and AC Milan coming up. It just makes sense for Rooney to sit this week.

Chris - Gerrard is ranked WAY too high in your captain rankings. Do you seriously think he will produce in a derby match against a suddenly in-form Everton? I would be amazed if there's more than one goal for either side in this game. I'm fully expecting a 0-0 draw.
Steven said…
Drogba should be #2 behind Rooney. Arsenal's defense has been anything but solid against top 4 teams
Rob said…
who should i start between the pipes this week? sorensen or hart?
Chris said…
I didn't factor in Rooney being rotated but you're all right that it is a risk. The good news is that if rested he is unlikely to play at all so will be auto subbed out if you start him.

Andrew- I don't love gerrard this week but I don't like many players. Everton are improved but still aren't a finished article and I could see a 2-1 game. If so gerrard would likely pickup a goal or assist and bonus and I think 6 or 7 points this week will be a decent effort. I agree that drogba plays well against arsenal who look vulnerable but he has only just returned from ACN and I'm cautious about going all out for him just yet.
Steven said…
FYI Chris, this is what the page looks like: http://i46.tinypic.com/npge9h.jpg

and

http://i50.tinypic.com/29ygilk.jpg

I get it at work and at home using Windows XP and 7 with FireFox 3.6
Chris said…
Thanks for letting me know Steven. I'll try and play around with the layout and see if I can fix it.

Rob - both are good options this week as Stoke have the better fixture but Birmingham have the better defense. In such instances I'll play the defense so Im going with Hart.
Steven said…
I agree on Hart as well and by other keeper is Given. Made a bold and possibly stupid move by ditching Rooney for Drogba, but as you said Chris, differentiation is huge. I'm considering a Tevez for Adeboyer swap for their double gw as well. I've always felt like Ade has better all around skill and perhaps Carlos is falling off his unearthly form.
Chris said…
Steven - I'm considering the same move. Tevez is clearly on good form but Adebayor is a more natural goalscorer and I fell he is due a run like the one that started his City career. I also plan on making the move to Drogba as Rooney is owned by almost 50% now and I need to make some ground up.
Chris said…
Gerrard with an assist and probably bonus points. I'd take that from my captain this week.

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