Player Pool

The premier league game offers us the choice from over 500 players, though as we all know a majority of these will never even catch a glimpse of Premier League turf this year, never mind play well enough to warrant consideration in our hallowed fantasy lineups.

Players are excluded from consideration for a variety of reasons: injury, lack of opportunity, an overly steep price tag or simply not being very good. This year, rather than simply having a list of players I consider 'ownable' (though don't necessarily love), I've tried to make the pool a bit more presentable. Now, I must add a caveat here as unlike the majority of information you find on the site, a number of the views taken in the below table are pretty subjective. My opinion on a player's long term playing time and/or short term fitness is based on reading other news sources rather than any 'inside' information which roughly translates to a number of them being guesses. I do my best to stay up to date, but the fitness information can sometimes be tricky to find so I recommend also looking at other sources before acting.

The chart shows all the players who I believe tick all four boxes needed for fantasy success: fitness, playing time, value for money and role. Where I believe there is doubt over any of the above, I have given the playing a half score. You can also see those players who tick three or more boxes and while you generally don't want to be holding too many of these, they are the players worth monitoring as they could become valuable given a change in playing time or fitness.

The player pool will updated on a weekly basis within the newly added page, found here.

By Team

By Position

Comments

Returning visitor to the site and I must say I rather enjoy your subjective analysis. I will refer to Nassim Taleb who explains far more eloquently than I ever could when he said “The more abundant and complex the statistical data and methods used in support of a conclusion, the weaker the result. Just as in a detective novel where the person with the more elaborate alibi is most likely to be guilty. Hard results in science rest on minimal, if any, statistics.”
Penny Parker said…
Where Michu? Did I miss him? I didn't see him on any of your new tables.
Chris said…
Thanks James. I think Mr Taleb might have been talking about slightly more complex systems than fantasy football but I take the point. I just feel that I'm not really qualified to offer subjective opinions more than any of the other sites out there. Indeed, being in Canada I'm probably more out of the loop than many of the readers.

Penny - I made a mistake in my spreadsheet. He should be there now - obviously in the ownable category.
Gummi said…
Just wanted to chime in and agree with James.

@Chris: Whether you think you are qualified or not, I enjoy reading your subjective analysis and I believe I play the game better because of it.

Don't underestimate the power of your words.
Chris said…
Gummi and James - thanks. I'll bear that in mind and maybe try and add a bit more chat to the weekly preview. I'm keen to avoid the standard rambling about Rooney being a good player but perhaps I can try and strike a balance.
Gummi said…
@Chris: Well, yes, stating the obvious is the bane of the Fantasy Premier League blogs. I'm soooooo guilty of it myself.

However, the subjective stuff can be interesting. Take an example from your Gameweek 2 preview about Rooney:

"He managed 4 shots last week (2 on goal) and his 42 touches in the final third tell the tale of a player who was involved in the action all game."

Although these are stats, your presentation of them tell a different story than the standard punditry that Rooney was just awful against Everton.

Granted, he was off pace and looked unfit. But with his involvement that you speak of and the tendency Ferguson has to play Rooney into form you have another angle on the issue.
Genevapics said…
Seriously Chris, you are a sick man! Very nice graphic display of how you see the players. Well done. Keep up the fantastic work!

ErrantBard said…
16 I think Nassim Taleb is talking about a specific field concerning applied statistical inference. In many fields, particulary biostatistics, statistical inference is a powerful tool and more data is almost always better.

But in the world of stock trading and financial statistics I would agree with him - the stock market is in principal a random walk and it's no wonder he comes to the conclusions he does.
Unknown said…
Hi Chris,

Love the blog. I have a betting preview site and we do a lot of previews on the Premier League. Would you be interested in running weekly bet tips article on your site?

Kind Regards,

Tomas

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