PLFantasy

Sometimes I hesitate writing certain posts as the content of them sounds somewhat obvious. That said, doubling up on double gameweek players or selling those who have lost playing time all seem self evident but are continually ignored so I guess nothing is too obvious. The chart below plots the starters from each team defence's price against their ownership, hoping to identify the 'cheap links' within a given side. The logic being, of course, that the majority of most defenders' points come from clean sheets, which are earned as a team, rather than as an individual. As with any decision, it isn't as simple as finding the cheapest defender from a team and throwing him into your side, as we also need to consider their job security, and of course their attacking potential. I'm not going to dwell on the later, suffice to say that in many cases we are often guilty of overpaying for that attacking threat, which is generally extremely hard to predict. There are exce...

Sometimes it pays to build a squad of 15 good players, sometimes you have to go with a 'stars and scrubs' approach and hope to find just enough talent at the bottom of the barrel to allow you the freedom to pack your side with Rooneys, Agueros and Silvas. So far this season, we are well and truly in the latter situation. Just look at the top 5 midfielders and forwards. The forwards are packed with 10m+ players while in midfield you have yet more 10m+ guys and then a group of players who've enjoyed one big week and then average production (good luck guessing which player that will be each week). In previous years we've had players like Charlie Adam, Andy Carroll and Steve Ireland emerge as elite options for mid-range price tags, thus freeing up a couple of million to use elsewhere. No one has really emerged like that this term, so we need to dig deeper and find some players who may not be ideal, but may have a part to play this year. I'll be honest, I'm probably ...

Two forces are currently conspiring to make squad selection as difficult as I ever remember. First is the fact that the market makers have set the prices high on a lot of players, virtually shutting down the mid-price striker market and making it almost as tough to find quality in midfield for a reasonable outlay. Second is the massive uncertainty surrounding many of the safer options from years past, whether because of injury (Gerrard, Hernandez), transfer (Fabregas) or their current situation (Drogba, Tevez, Nani). This unique situation - along with the free transfers for GW2 - is making a high number of owners gravitate towards a select few players, most of whom come at a premium. In past seasons these elite players were accommodated in our teams by supplementing them with mid-priced, reliable options like Dempsey and N'Zogbia who provided a perfect amount of security and upside for a reasonable price. Looking at the sub-7.5m midfield market now though reveals a dearth of guar...

One of my favourite ways to select defenders is to select a player from a team who is valued at a lower value than his teammates (like Armand Traore last year who at 4.5m was considerably cheaper than his Portsmouth teammates). A lot of fantasy players tend to select a particular player based on reputation even though you are really picking a defensive team, save for a extra goals and bonus points that accompany some players. Putting these aside for now, lets look around the league for the potential cheap links this year: NB. Goalkeepers do not count here as they are all generally cheaper than the defensive counterparts: Man United - Rafael (5.5)/O'Shea (5.5)/Brown (6m)/Neville (5.5m) If any of these players can lock down the position then they instantly become almost a must own player as they will be playing alongside the best defence in the league, who are valued at 8m, 7m and 6.5m but will only cost you the same as a Villa or West Ham defender. If Rafael can become an every wee...