PLFantasy

[edit: thanks to Ben for pointing out that I forgot to include Foster's loan move to West Brom below. Replace all Myhill references will Foster but be mindful of his higher price] I've been talking about the GK combo strategy for a number of years now, though the basic premise is worth repeating. There are two main issues which give to my support for this strategy:  If you go for a 'big name' keeper you effectively burn 4.0m as you are highly unlikely to ever play the lesser player. Only in a perfect storm where Petr Cech travels to the Emirates while John Ruddy welcomes Swansea will you bench the 7.0m man. The correlation between cost and points for 'keepers (right) has never been particularly strong with low budget options showing up every year (Al Habsi, Foster) to rank close to, if not above, their expensive counterparts (van der Sar). With a combo strategy you play the best fixture each week, on the basis that if you stick to the logical projectio...

This season I have used a combination of two keepers (Hart and Sorensen ) playing the one each week with the the best matchup and factoring in Birmingham's comparative home advantage (4 goals conceded in 7 games). I think this gives you the best chance to win as regardless of how good your top 'keeper is, you must still invest 4m on a sub. So, why play Petr Cech every week including when he faces United and Arsenal when you get a pair of budget 'keepers and never play anyone in the top half of the table? Let's look at how this strategy has fared so far this season: To date I played each keeper as highlighted in green, based on the matchup rankings I post each week. This has led me to score 69 points through 14 weeks out of a possible 79. If I had simply played Sorensen every week I would have scored 64. Compare this with scores of 59 for Given (25% owned), 58 for Cech (14% owned) and 53 for Reina (7% owned) and the value of the budget keeper becomes clear. While I...