As the season ticks on, we're starting to get a bit of data to work with, albeit sometimes in small samples. This season I am not working with a relatively complex player model but am really interested in trying to "play the fixtures" as much as I can. A couple of sources of frustration, therefore, have been as below: 1. Sites which provide the difficulty of fixtures often seem a bit simplistic. For example, the Premier League site shows Wolves as an average "3-rated" opponent, both at home and away yet the reality is more complicated. While at home they have been very solid defensively, with an Expected Goals Conceded (xGC) of just 4.71 in five games, which ranks third best, yet on their travels they have surrendered 7.94 xGC, which is the third worst . Even more confusing is that most sites ( though not all ) don't distinguish between attacking and defensive fixtures, so facing Leeds at home is presented as an easy "2-rated" fixture when in reali
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I know you're not a big fan of dropping 4 points consistently, but I did it last week to get Rooney in my team and it didn't cost me too much.
This week I think everyone needs to jump on Valencia before his price skyrockets. He's a steal at 7.5, but the problem is I don't want to give up any of my high prices mids (Bale, Silva or Dempsey).
Would you:
A) Swap Cabaye and Kompany for Valencia and N. Taylor (4 point hit)?
B) Swap Dempsey for Valencia (no hit)?
Dempsey has Norwich at home next week.
My team after option A:
Vorm Mignolet
Simpson Enrique N. Taylor Evans S. Kelly
Bale Silva Surman Valencia Dempsey
RVP Rooney Ba
I wouldn't touch Kompany; City will have several more CS on the run-in. If you want Swansea coverage: S.Kelly > Caulker.
Instead of Valencia, I would do: Cabeye > Sigurdsson. Since joining the Swans in GW 21, Siggy has scored 63 points, which puts him second in scoring behind Van Persie's 72. He has scored double digits three times: 13, 15 and 16... all on the road. During that same period, Valencia has scored 47 pts and missed three games.
I feel like Valencia is going to tear it up this week though, and is a must own on the run in.
Utd are hitting form and he seems to get points when they score.
Was trying to change my team before the prices update, but the site won't let me in.
Bastards.
Why all this Silva hatred? Surely he's still worth holding?