Just in case you weren’t aware, there’s a midweek matchday this week in the EPL. Meaning that your fantasy team gets another free transfer, and it’s probably best to double check your lineup as a couple of teams are off for the week. Fulham, Stoke, Hull, and Everton don’t play this week, so if you’ve got players from those teams you’re going to want to sit them on the bench and adjust your lineup accordingly.
Also this isn’t a bad time to take a 4 point hit if you need to. If you’ve got 4 (or more) players from the teams that aren’t playing this week, dropping them till everyone on your team is actually playing isn’t a bad idea because remember, you get 2 points just for a guy playing 90 minutes so you’re only losing 2 points for every guy that you do this with making it worth the risk.
I do have one suggestion as to who you might want to transfer in this week though:
Lee Bowyer, Birmingham City, 5.0 million, 68 points: Birmingham City have very quietly climbed up the EPL table and are sitting in 8th place right now (who knew?!) and a lot of that is thanks to Bowyer, who’s scored 8 or more fantasy points in the last 4 games. He’s also a bargain at 5.0 million. He’s surely worth picking up as he’s really low risk and if Birmingham continue on the path they’re on he should still see some good points.
You read my mind; I just did my transfers before I came here and noticed that. Bowyer costs 3 less than Benayoun, but has the exact same number of points; I call that a bargain.
Good call, Adam. I took Bowyer for an extra 4 yesterday as well. Another good topic to debate: do you pull the trigger on your transfers before the values increase (usually a day or two after the games), protecting some salary cap, or wait to see what injuries or other lineup changes occur that week (in which case you often need to wait until no more than 24 hours before the weekly deadline). I gambled on the former this week.
Good question. For me it always depends on whats going on midweek. If there’s Champions League and Europa League I’ll usually wait till Thursday or Friday because the last thing I want to see is Drogba get hurt in the CL and I’ve already made a transfer so I’m stuck with someone crappy playing in his spot.
It also depends on if I have a specific target in mind, like the week Jermaine Defoe scored 5 goals I checked and he was at about 8.6m and that Friday he was at about 9. That’s a rather extreme case, but if I was after Defoe that week I would have pulled the trigger on Monday knowing he’d jump up a lot.
Finally I think it has to do with name recognition. If Bowyer was on Manchester United or was a recognizable “name” his price would have already risen 1.0m, so with less recognizable players you can usually wait till the end of the week, you might lose out on .1m but that’s not that bad of a hit to take.
I’m down to 1 United player after dropping Anderson to pick up Bowyer. This is horrifically wrong, but there really aren’t any players worth picking up.
I just dumped Kuyt today, which was my last Liverpool player. For the price (9.2), I could get Bowyer (who’s not much less productive but way cheaper) and with a saved up transfer dump Keogh for Rodallega.
So I dumped Kuyt to get a guy who’s going to play against Liverpool this week. Sums up the season right there,
As far as United goes, he rotates way too much; I’d get Giggs if I knew Giggs was going to play every game, but it’s like every second/third game…not worth it to have 7.5 sitting on my bench, even if he does score points for me when he’s in.
Exactly. The only one I have is Rooney, because I know he’s going to play almost all the time (assuming no injuries or, ahem, anger issues). Giggs would be the only other one. Everyone else is too expensive for what you get from them.
Agreed, United and Chelsea players are for the most part way too pricey, Liverpool and Arsenal players are to a lesser extent, but players like Ballack, Deco, and Berbatov are overpriced by about 3 million. Deco costs 8.4m and he’s scored a whopping 33 points this season.
I don’t mind paying 11+ for Drogba or Cesc when they put up huge numbers. But there are a ton of players for the big 4 that are horribly overpriced, like the ones you named and Berbatov (9.4, 44 points). The next tier teams have a few frustrating players, too. That means you, Tim Cahill.
My team’s tended to avoid the Tottenham, Everton, and Manchester City players entirely. They’re way too spotty.
Liverpool last season were like the opposite of United: Gerrard and Torres should be picking up points every single week, while Reina was a decent option at the back. This season, though, it’s a mess; Kuyt’s the only consistent goal scorer, and I’m using the term “consistent” VERY loosely there.
Oh absolutely. Drogba, Cesc, Rooney, and Torres (when he’s finally healthy) are worth it, but like if Berbatov played for Bolton he’d cost 6 million.
Cesc is a killer bargain, really; he just keeps scoring fantasy points. Same with Drogba (I dumped Torres for Drogba five weeks ago).
I see that a lot of people have Lampard, but if you have to pick you should always take the dude who costs less and is scoring more. I can’t see many teams affording both of them, either, so I don’t really get the strategy there.
I’m carrying Cesc, Lamps, Drogba and Rooney right now, and it makes things pretty difficult trying to juggle the rest of your bargain-bin players, particularly on a mid-week set like this with Fulham, Hull and Stoke all off. Half my team was coming from them.