PLFantasy

Oscar Wilde once wrote that "everything popular is wrong"; a point echoed by the majority of my posts singing the praises of differentiation and uncovering the next sleeper. However, the selection of your star players is equally important and with just 7 weeks to go, now is a great time to assess who will shine the brightest. I am going to focus on midfielders today (and forwards tomorrow) given that the weekly value of defenders/keepers is driven too much by the form/fitness of the squad rather than an individual's ability/form. Midfielders Four double digit million players are available in the game, and it is here that our attention will be focused. I accept that an argument can be made for, say, James Milner over Andrei Arshavin but given the difference in price it seems illogical to compare those two types of player. In order to avoid too much text and to get into the numbers I have created a quick box score to summarise each player. This will be as below: Name (Go...

If your team is based around 11 7m guys then this article isn't for you. If however, like most fantasy players you like to have a premier player or two, then read on for some thoughts on how to pick your lynch pin. The main advantage in my eyes of bringing in a premier player for your team is the fact you can captain him and bring in a unrivalled amount of points. For example, last year Lampard scored 226 points, which would give you 452 points if you captained him every week. Even at his steep price tag of 12.5m this season, a similar level of production would lead to a 0.952 PPMS and almost 12 points per game. This kind of production is just not possible from 2 or even 3 mid level players, even if you strike it rich with a cheap superstar like Stephen Ireland. Factor in the chance to find a bargain to play alongside your stud (perhaps Larsson, Jimenez or Muamba) and the choice to grab a star player appears to be made for you. But who do you take? With over a tenth of your whole b...

The new fantasy season is upon us, and a few thoughts initially spring to mind: Rule changes Not too much to note here, aside from two interesting tweaks to the rules: 1. "If you don't use your free transfer then you'll be able to make an additional free transfer the following gameweek. These saved transfers don't accumulate and can only be used the following gameweek". This allows for a build up of two free transfers for one gameweek which make double gameweeks even more valuable. 2. Creation of the 'emergency captain' selection tool. This suggests that if your captain does not play your most valuable/in form player will take the armband from him. This is not a major issue, as there are very few times when a marquee player does not play without us knowing with sufficient time to the make the adjustment. Position changes A couple of interesting classifications here that could lead to decent value being found: Andrey Arshavin (M) - Rightfully moved from a F...

One caveat before I start, you may find similar articles like this around, but rest assured I am not plagiarising, its just that there are limited issues to discuss during bye week. We don't restrict sports writers to one article about the Super Bowl do we! So, anyway, lets look at the transfers/rumours and assess the fantasy impact we might see from the fallout: Jermaine Defoe to Tottenham This one's a done deal and it sees Defoe re-united (again) with Harry Redknapp . I was astounded to read that the little forward notched 64 goals in 177 games whilst at the Lane, especially when considering he was considered third choice behind Keane and Berbatov for most of that time. I am a Defoe owner, and was set to dump him this week until this story started to break. Now I am totally unsure as to what lies in store for Defoe. Spurs have nice attacking fixtures over the next 7 games including 3 green light games. Whether Defoe will play or not depends on any issues with him resigning f...