PLFantasy

So here is the final team previews, brought to you just one day before the start of the new season (apologies for cutting things a bit close). I will post later tonight a review of all the last minute injury news, as well as tweeting them tomorrow morning before the 11:30 deadline. Today's previews lack the star power of yesterday but plenty of bargains can be found, and each team has something to offer Sunderland Projected Team: Fulop, McCartney, Collins, Ferdinand, Bardsley, Richardson, Cattermole, Cana, Malbranque, Bent, Jones After being given a substantial war chest by the board, Steve Bruce has spent very well on Weirside and his team look stronger than they ever have. It would not be surprising at all to see Sunderland pushing Fulham and West Ham for top half spots rather than scrapping at the wrong end of the table. At the back the team is largely unchanged, which is disappointing for a team who ranked just 13th in total defense (16th home, 12th away) last season. Paolo de ...

This category is always a tough one, though because we only need three strikers, the need for budget strikers is not so important. That being said, in recent years, premium strikers have not proved to be great investments, and so money saved here can allow extra to be spent on the big name midfielders. A quick look at the value (2008-09) of the big name midfielders and forwards illustrates this point well: Further analysis on where best to spend your money will be done in a later post, but for now, the main point is that top line strikers can be very hit and miss, and so bargains can be extremely valuable if selected well. Without further ado then, the best bargains I like for the upcoming season are as below (a budget of 5.5m has been set): Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (5.5m) Wolves The England Under-21 international will get his chance to shine in the big leagues this year, having led the Championship in scoring for the past two years (with 23 and 25 goals respectively, including this absolut...