PLFantasy

We've already talked in some detail about specfic players to target this week , with the below data supplementing that analysis: Clean Sheet Forecast Data Learn About Tableau Attacking Forecast Data Learn About Tableau Individual Forecast Data Learn About Tableau

It's been increasingly hard to differentiate our teams of late, and those who tried to do just that without van Persie these past couple of weeks were burned with a couple of 16+ point performances. All is not lost though, and the fixture Gods have dished out one last chance to gain some ground on your opponents, or, one last offensive to repel, depending on your position within your respective mini-leagues. That position is going to dictate your strategy and so we need to dig a bit deeper than simply trying to maximize the points in the '36' column on the forecast charts (if indeed you believe any of the forecast on this lowly blog). First then, let's look at the main options, their forecast points and ownership numbers: The first obvious point is that not all double gameweeks are created equal and some caution should be exercised about piling on players from Chelsea, and to an extent Swansea, given the relative strength of their opponents in gameweek 36. Ma...

Clean Sheet Rankings Learn About Tableau Attacking Rankings Learn About Tableau Individual Rankings Learn About Tableau

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...

<a href="#"><img alt="Weekly Rankings " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/We/WeeklyRankings36/WeeklyRankings/1_rss.png" style="border: none" /></a> Powered by Tableau Needless to say, this week is dominated by the double gameweeks, though I don't think they will all produce the bounty of points some expect. I am going to avoid dwelling on the obvious matchups as, for example, if you own Tony Hibbert you are obviously playing him, you won't consider captaining him and few will be considering transferring him in, so there isn't really a decision to be made there. Instead, I will focus on the top end of the market, which is where you will want to direct...

As I'm sure everyone is aware, we have a couple of double gameweeks on the horizon, along with some gameweeks in which teams currently have no fixture. The affected teams are: Arsenal - No game in GW29 Everton - DGW28 (Tot, @Liv), No game in GW29 Liverpool - DGW28 (@Sun, Eve) Stoke - No game in GW29 Tottenham - No game in GW29 Double Gameweeks Starting with the double gameweeks, the message is one of restraint. Both Merseyside clubs have a tough fixture list in GW28 while Everton's situation is further complicated by their lack of fixture in GW29. Everton have been in decent form of late, particularly at the back making Distin and possibly Hibbert interesting plays, though I'd suggest you'd want to be picking them up with a freebie rather than paying for them as neither fixture looks particularly attractive. That said, the fixtures after the off week in GW29 look good and they will of course get another DGW in the future to make up for that week off. If H...

Captain Picks Barring transfer mistakes or an act of God, you own at least one or two Spurs players and will surely captain them this week. Therefore, in the interest of time I am going to skip over the other candidates and focus on Redknapp's big three: Gareth Bale - leads the trio in points to date but has suffered badly from inconsistency with too many two or three pointers so far this year (9). However, his last four home games have given him 4-13-11-14 points which more than hints at the upside the young Welshman brings. His 40 shots ranks 3rd among all midfielders (Dempsey and Sinclair) and his 44 key passes can only be topped by Mata (45). Both opponents have tightened up of late but the likes of Tony Hibbert haven't faced anyone of Bale's quality for a while. His threat from set pieces is limited but his style of play tends to lend itself to bonus points so if he scores, he is likely to rack up 2 or 3 bonus points too. Summary: Rarely rested, high upside bu...

Clean Sheet Rankings (clean sheets kept - opponents failed to score in parenthesis) Chelsea (10 - 8) Man Utd (9 - 4) Stoke* (2 - 4) and (5 - 6) Fulham* (3 - 3) and (8 - 5) Liverpool (7 - 4) Aston Villa (6 - 8) Tottenham (5 - 7) Sunderland (7 - 8) Blackburn (6 - 6) Wolves* (3 - 6) and (2 - 3) Man City (4 - 4) Blackpool (0 - 6) Wigan (3 - 3) Bolton* (5 - 2) and (0 - 3) Arsenal (4 - 3) Newcastle (5 - 0) Birmingham (3 - 1) West Brom (0 - 4) Everton (3 - 0) West Ham (1 - 2)  * = double gameweek Attacking Rankings (expected goals in parenthesis) Chelsea (2.48) Stoke (2.44)* Fulham (2.36)* Tottenham (2.21) Bolton (2.07)* Arsenal (1.94) Man Utd (1.64) Liverpool (1.62) Wolves (1.60)* Aston Villa (1.50) Blackpool (1.44) West Brom (1.39) Newcastle (1.21) Man City (1.15) Blackburn (1.13) Everton (1.07) Wigan (0.92) Birmingham (0.89) Sunderland (0.82) West Ham (0.75)  * = double gameweek   Captain Stats The stars seen to have aligned f...

Is your season slipping falling away like a North London club with all the promise seemingly doomed to result in nothing? Are your loyal fans starting to turn on you after you once again handed to the armband to the slumping Drogba over the red-hot Van Persie? Is your loyalty to the increasingly leaky Sunderland defense causing murmurs in the stands that you've lost the confidence of the board? Well, unlike our real manager counterparts, fantasy managers have a golden opportunity this week to turn things round with three double gameweeks and 5 teams out of action. Hopefully you made some preparations for this week and so you're not sat holding Tevez, Davies and Jones as your talented but absent front line. Even the best planning though may have left you needing a quick fix so I urge you to take a peak here for some ideas of some one week mercenaries to fill out your match day lineup. Before settling on transfers though, we of course need to know who are the best plays of th...

The re-scheduled games are now settled and the final season run in is mapped out. Eight DGWs remain with GW33 looking like the last chance to make serious ground on your competitors as five teams have a blank while three teams enjoy the double. Obviously DGW candidates are going to be highly rated each week but which of the remaining doubles have the highest upside for defenders and attacking players? Defensive Rankings Chelsea GW33: @West Brom, Birmingham Arsenal GW33: Liverpool, @Tottenham Wolves GW34: Fulham, @Stoke Stoke GW34: @Aston Villa, Wolves Fulham GW34: @Wolves, Bolton Man City GW36: @Everton, Tottenham Tottenham GW36: Blackpool, @Man City Birmingham GW33: Sunderland, @Chelsea  Bolton GW34: Arsenal, @Fulham Attacking Rankings Chelsea GW33: @West Brom, Birmingham Man City GW36: @Everton, Tottenham Arsenal GW33: Liverpool, @Tottenham Tottenham GW36: Blackpool, @Man City Stoke GW34: @Aston Villa, Wolves Bolton GW34: Arsenal, @Fulham Fulham GW34: @Wolves,...

Barring any unseasonable weather this is likely to be the last significant double gameweek of the season so you better make it count. I won't re-tread much covered ground here but I would urge, if not demand, that you trundle over to the double gameweek analysis posted earlier in the week. Clean Sheet Rankings (Team clean sheets - opponent failed to score) Arsenal (4 - 5) and (4 - 5) Birmingham (4 - 5) and (4 - 3) Liverpool (6 - 6) West Brom (1 - 6) and (1 - 5) Blackburn (5 - 3) Man Utd (7 - 4) Stoke (2 - 4) and (2 - 2) Sunderland (7 - 2) Blackpool (0 - 5) and (0 - 2) Tottenham (1 - 2) and (1 - 0) Newcastle (3 - 3) and (3 - 4) Chelsea (3 - 2) Fulham (6 - 5) Bolton (3 - 3) Everton (2 - 3) Wigan (3 - 1) Wolves (1 - 2) and (1 - 3) Man City (4 - 0) West Ham (0 - 2) Aston Villa (0 - 0) Some will no doubt take objection at not ranking all the DGW teams at the top but, for most, the fixtures are just too tough to justify such a ranking. If your plan is to take t...

Before we get into the full rankings for the week, I guess that most will be more concerned with the double gameweeks and so this piece will focus exclusively on them, and who ranks best on the teams with two games. Defensive options With defenders, I would be careful before throwing too many eggs into the DGW basket as the fixtures generally aren't that strong and the majority of the teams have at least one game where a clean sheet looks very unlikely. Now, earning 4 points just for showing up is a plus, but I wouldn't be paying 4 points for many defensive starters this week, and your free transfers can probably be better used elsewhere. 1. Arsenal By far the strongest defensive option for the week, Arsenal face sides who score just 0.75 GPG (Wolves) and 1.00 GPG (Stoke) away from home while they themselves boast the 6th best home defense. Two clean sheets in the last three home games and four in a row overall seemed to mark the return of Arsenal as very useful fantasy u...

This could be a big week for our fantasy teams as the double gameweeks start rolling in , new arrivals start playing and the teams start to sort out who are contenders and pretenders. Plenty of owners will be looking to play their wildcards this week so I thought I should get the weekly rankings up as soon as possible which along with the aforementioned double gameweek analysis, should give everyone plenty of food for thought before they plan their final assault on the league table. Along with the standard weekly rankings, I have included the rankings for the next 6 weeks and the remainder of the season. Clean Sheet Rankings (GW24) (clean sheets kept and opponents' failed to score in parenthesis) Man United (6 - 3) and (3 - 0) Arsenal (3 - 5) Fulham (4 - 3) and (3 - 1) Everton (3 - 6) Blackburn (4 - 5) Blackpool (0 - 4) and (0 - 3) Liverpool (2 - 1) and (4 - 4)  Wigan (3 - 2) and (2 - 5)  Aston Villa (4 - 3) and (0 - 3) Wolves (2 - 4) Man City (4 - 3) Bolton (2 ...

Last week made waves in the fantasy league for all the wrong reasons. One team in my mini league scored zero as his only two starting players were Phil Neville (2 points) and captain Darren Fletcher (-2). Those with Tevez will have fared better, especially if they captained him, though points elsewhere were hard to find. While embarrassing to score down in the 20s, chances are you only lost a few points on your competitors. This week is more important. Playing double gameweeks well (or poorly) can make or break your league and with four of the best fantasy squads around playing twice, there could be some very large scores around this week. Man United, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, Bolton and Hull all play twice and some fantasy value can be had from each of these squads * For United I think Rooney and Valencia are incredibly good starts this week and are close to being the pick at each of their respective positions. Defensively, United are hard to judge but I am confident Brown will play ...

It's time for the ice to hit the fan. Two more games have been added to this week's schedule to give six teams a double gameweek including the fantasy filled squads of Arsenal, United and Spurs. Here's the fixtures along with the average goals conceded by the opposition: Man United: Burnley (3.10), Hull (2.60) Arsenal: Bolton (2.10), @Bolton (1.88) Tottenham: Hull (2.60), @Liverpool (1.10) Liverpool: @Stoke (1.20), Tottenham (1.40) Bolton: @Arsenal (1.40), Arsenal (0.90) Hull: @Tottenham (0.80), @Man United (0.80) United and Arsenal are clearly great plays while Liverpool and Spurs remain very solid options. I like Liverpool longer term due to their good fixtures from weeks 23-30 so Torres and co might be good buy low options. Defensively, United look by far the best play though again Arsenal and Liverpool are solid plays. The fixtures are averaging goals scored by the opposition are below: Man United: Burnley (0.80), Hull (0.70) Arsenal: Bolton (1.60), @Bolton (1.25) Liver...