Halfway there - A look at the first half of Fantasy Premier League

Hi again!

And again sorry for the lack of posts, I sadly haven't been able to write this blog for the last few months, but hopefully I'm back for good this time.

But as the title says, it's time to take a look at the first half of the ongoing fantasy premier league season. Who have been player with most flare and who do you want to have on your team as the second half of the season unravels.

TOPS:

There isn't too much to argue when looking for the top goalkeeper of the first half. It's of course Manchester City's Joe Hart. Hart has collected an astonishing 103 points, which is a great number for a goalkeeper. At the time of the writing Hart tied as the 7th highest pointscorer in the whole league. A definite hot tip for fantasy premier league for the remaining of the season.

When it comes to defender's though, choosing a player isn't all that easy. There hasn't been any player who has outperformed others this season. As this is the case I choose Stoke City's Robert Huth as the top defender of the first 50% of the FPL season. Other hot tips for fantasy premier league defenders include ManU's Evra and Vidic.

Midfieldels have usually been the players who dominate fantasy premier league pointswise, but that doesn't appear to be the case this season. And with the big players as Lampard and Fabregas having been injured for the majority of the time, the top scoring midfielders haven't been able the make such an impression. Even though not leading the pack, I choose Tottenhams Rafael Van der Vaart as the top midfielder.

Perhaps the biggest surprises of the season have been seen in the forwards-category. Players like Elmander, Carroll and Davies have kept the top spot for many gameweeks even though none of those players has pricetag over 7M. The last few gameweeks have put Tevez and Drogba again in the top, but the top striker of the first half must be Bolton's Johan Elmander.

That's all for now, I'll be back with the tips for the gameweek 22 of the fantasy premier league in a few days.

Best team for Barclays Fantasy Premier League Football Season 2010/2011

UPDATE 13.08.2010 As it always seems to happen in Fantasy Premier League, last minute changes do occur. Some players are not fit to play or something like that. There were too many questionmarks in my team, so I changed some players. Here is my new team. No time to explain the choices I'm afraid...

Well, good luck with gameweek 1 and remember to check that none of your teams players are yellow or red-marked!

Or at least I'd like to think so. :) As this is the team I'm entering to this season's Barclays Fantasy Football (almost probably for sure maybe I won't do any more transfers...)

I've given a few Fantasy Premier League hints in the previous posts, but this is the ultimate advice, as I'm going to give away my whole team. Feel free to take suggestions from it...

Let's start with why I chose these players and what makes this the best team for Fantasy Premier League:

Goalkeepers. I've been going on and on about Foster and my faith is still strong he's going to be amazing this season. My number 1 goalkeeper that I hope will play every game. My second goalkeeper is Myhill from West Bromwich, he's cheap, he plays, and West Bromwich is going to make few surprises this season I presume. Goalkeepers cost me £8.5M.

Then to the defence. My tip from earlier, Samba, he's there. From Wolves Jody Craddock (132 points last year, 5 goals, 2 assists, 13 bonus points) very very decent defender for £5M. And also Kevin Foley, who will be my substitute defender (means he's cheap, and probably plays for sure if Craddock doesn't) 2 playing defenders are Shawcross from Stoke and Evra from ManU. So for defence I spent £26.5M.

Midfield consists of Lampard, N'Zogbia, Bale and Malouda with Etherington as substitute midfielder. Lampard, yea you know why. He'll be the captain of my team in the first gameweek. Malouda played a great last season and will improve. N'Zogbia, Bale and Etherington are real value players, prices low, sure starting formation players who can score and assist goals. So they're in. Midfield costs me £41M

And then the forwards, tricky as ever. As I've spent most of my money now, Drogba and Rooney are out. Tevez was my hint of hints last season and finally he showed what he can do. Surely as good a striker as Drogba and Rooney, Tevez and his £10.5M pricetag convinced me once more. And then Saha from Everton. 13 goals last season and price of £8M go together nicely. My third forward is Kevin Doyle from Wolves. A forward I'll probably keep for a long time. And everytime Wolves plays against a weaker opponent he'll be a sure starting formation player in my Fantasy Football team. His price is £5.5M, great bargain material as he did score 9 goals last season. And that sums my £100M team as forwards cost £24M. 

What do you think is the best team for this seasons Fantasy Premier League?

Anatomy of a perfect Striker

Strikers are a tough breed to predict in Fantasy Premier League. While they should be scoring goals in virtually every game, sometimes they hit a streak so cold, North Pole fades in comparison. But we are stuck with them, every Fantasy soccer team must have 3 forwards, whether we like it or not. So what makes a great striker? And how to find the perfect forward for your FPL team?

Strikers are expensive, they always have been, and generally, investing a lot money in them, hasn't been a smart move while playing fantasy premier league. Except... Last season, somehing really weird happened...You just couldn't succeed without having the now so hot forwards Rooney or Drogba in your team. Perhaps you even had to have them both in some gameweeks.

So, what to expect from the coming season of 2010/2011? Are the forwards going to keep making goals like they did last season? Will the be ones like Tevez and Bent who, while pretty affordable, score two goals in one game ALL THE TIME. Who knows. But these are some attributes you want from your strikers.

Striker should have a Consistent playtime.
You don't want to pay a lot of money for a player who doesn't make the starting formation. Players very rarely score if given 5-15 minutes of playtime per match.

Striker should play for a Winning team.
A forward can be as talented as none before, but if he plays for a team that can't feed him the scoring opportunites he needs...He won't score many goals.

Striker should have Little risk of injury.
While every player can suffer an injury one time or another, some are more prone to loosing matches due to an injury than others.

And then, remember. Forwards are a little like goalkeepers, when they do good, they get more confidence. And confidence is good. So if a striker starts scoring goals like never before, jump in to that bandwagon as early as you can.

The last question is of course, who are these great goalscoring strikers to have in your Premier Fantasy League team? Aside from the no brainers Rooney and Drogba, I say Tevez (Manchester City) and Saha (Everton) What do you think?

11 goals for £7M - Sounds like a bargain transfer

Gameweek 23 in the Premier League Fantasy game soons unfolds and it is time think which transfers will be the most profitable. For me there is one player in specific that will make a rise to my FPL-team: Louis Saha. This Everton-forward has been playing his best season in the English Premier League with 11 goals scored. And now that it seems Everton is finally getting their team together, Saha will be getting more and more opportunities to score goals this season. £7M is truly a bargain price and is bound to be on the rise.

This week's opponent Sunderland took a devastating loss visiting Chelsea last week and has lost 5 of their last 6 away games. Everton on the other hand hasn't lost in a while, and the team has been improving their game constantly.

Another Everton player worth mentioning is midfielder Steven Pienaar, who is finally getting the hang of it. Pienaar has scored in three last games and with that has collected 29 points in the Premier Fantasy League. The South-African will surely keep on scoring goals now that the floodgates have opened. £6.3M is a price that encourages a purchase.

And remember, four teams won't be playing this gameweek in the Fantasy Premier League. Those teams are ManU, ManCity, Stoke and Hull City.

Can Anelka rival Drogba in Barclays Fantasy Football?

While Didier Drogba is playing for his country in African Nations Cup, Nicolas Anelka will be getting a lot more trust as Chelsea's lead forward. His 2 goals and 1 assist against Sunderland show frenchmans ability to decide games in Barclays Premier League. Anelka is still far from his last seasons 19 scored goals but if he keeps up with he's awesome form, he will be a serious threat for any opponent Chelsea will face this season.

Birmingham, Burley and Hull City are his next targets and Anelka surely will be the player to have in your Fantasy Premier League team. With a pricetag of just under £10M he is a little cheaper than Rooney and a good buy at least for the the next few gameweeks. What happens after that remains to be seen. While Anelka and Drogba sometimes show ability to be a really lethal attack pair, Drogba has been stealing the spotlight earlier in the season.

What do you think, can Anelka really rival with Drogba in the end of the season and perhaps top his 19 goals from Barclay's Premier League season 08/09?

Premier Fantasy League Gameweek 2 Tips

The second gameweek in this season's English Premiership Fantasy Football comes in just few days after the first, so be sure you remember to check your team for transfers and a captain change if the need occurs.

As said earlier this gameweek is a little tricky because only 12 teams have fixtures this week of English Premier League. The fixtures are:

Sunderland vs Chelsea
Wigan vs Wolves
Birmingham vs Portsmouth
Burnley vs Manchester United
Hull City vs Tottenham
Liverpool vs Stoke City

Any players that are not from these teams WON'T get any points this gameweek.

If you choose to make transfers, here are few hints who might be valuable additions to your Fantasy Premier League team: Let's start with defenders. Manchester United and Wigan are the teams you should choose your defenders from. Evra, O'Shea, Figureoa, Bramble are players that are very likely to get clean sheet points.

Midfielder choices are a little tougher task. Chelsea's season opening wasn't glamorous but I'm sure Lampard and the gang are going to get their act together versus Sunderland. Wigan's Koumas and N'Zogbia are great budget choices for your team with 5M and 5.5M pricetags.

From forwards Chelsea's Drogba might still be an advantageous play, along with Rooney from ManU. But if these 2 players are out of your pricerange, Wigan has a nice budget player from forwards also. Hugo Rodallega opened the season with a goal and 3 bonus points, and with the cost of 6.5M he might be a great player to purchase.

Which players to have in your Fantasy Premier League Team - Forwards

Buying forwards for your team might be the toughest job when creating your Fantasy Premier League team. While usually quite expensive, most of the time forwards will only get very little points. However with forwards it's very important to keep the player for a few gameweeks, changing forwards every gameweek will surely lead to situations where the player you had last gameweek scores 2 goals... I've been there, that sucks.

Again, you know the drill, 3 forwards from different price categories to have in your Fantasy Premier League team.

11.5M Fernando Torres, Liverpool
Torres is going to be very popular player, and for good reason. 14 goals last season while not even playing all games is an amazing complishment. This season Torres is probably going to do ever better so, if you can afford him, you should include Torres in your Fantasy Premier League Team.

8.5M Carlos Tevez, Manchester City
Transferred from ManU, Tevez should be getting a little more playtime in City, even with stars like Adebayour and Robinho in the same team. With this price tag, Tevez is most advantegous of the trio.

7M Carlton Cole, West Ham
Cole scored impressing 10 goals last season and is a good buy for 7M.