Fantasy Football picks MFs and STRs

Midfield

Eden Hazard was top points scorer last season
and top bonus points scorer

Midfielders and Strikers are the most important players in the team, they are the big points scorers. Last year, Eden Hazard was the class of the field bringing home 233 points, followed by Alexis Sanchez who totalled 207 points.

Midfield is less about value, and more about accommodating as many of the big points scorers as possible, as a minimum of 3 midfielders play every week, and they get an extra point for each goal they scored.

When picking midfielders, the key is to focus on the attacking midfielders, Francois Coquelin was instrumental for Arsenal in the second half of the season, but only picked up 45 points.

Mane often plays in an advanced position,
and scored the fastest ever Premiership hat-trick
last season against Aston Villa

Players like Jon Walters and Sadio Mane at times play as strikers and so represent very good value as Midfield picks.

As with all positions, players who missed periods of last season and therefore ended up with less points, can represent good value. Examples include Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Grealish.

Alongside the key player makers for the big sides, the likes of Fabregas, Hazard, Sanchez, Cazorla, Ozil, Mata, Coutinho, and Silva. The mid-table and lower sides also have key play makers who represent good value.

Value Picks:-

Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) £7.0m - Gerrard's replacement, scored more points than Coutinho, but costs less.
Dimitri Payet (West Ham) £7.5m - 
Georginio Wijnaldum (Newcastle) £7.0m - scored 14 goals for PSV last season
Ross Barkley (Everton) £6.5m - had a broken run last season with injuries, but could hit the ground running for Everton this year.
Jason Puncheon (Crystal Palace) £6.0m - Puncheon has been a consistent points scorer over the last 3 seasons (but Cabaye, Bolasie or Zaha are also good picks).
Nathan Redmond (Norwich) £5.5m - Redmond will provide assists and goals, and Norwich have a relatively easy start (Johnson, Dorrans and Hoolahan could also be good value).

Strikers

Harry Kane was a bargain last season at £5.0m,
but is £9.5m this season

Last, but certainly not least, are the strikers.

For these you definitely need to follow the form. Strikers thrive on confidence, some strikers can't stop scoring, and then as soon as they stop can't score again. Think Michael Ricketts  (12 goals 01/02), Marcus Stewart (19 goals 00/01), Marlon Harewood (14 goals in 05/06). Glenn Murray, Charlie Austin and Danny Ings were all in rich goalscoring form at some point last season. The point is don't back players just because they played well last year, but also to transfer in the players who start to get on a roll.

Sergio Aguero maybe the most expensive player at £13.0m, but there is a reason, he is a consistent starter and performer at Man City and brings home the points.

From the Championship, Deeney (Watford) and Wilson (Bournemouth) both at £5.5m, both scored plenty of goals in the Championship, although it remains to be seen if they can achieve similar feats in the Premier League. Cameron Jerome at Norwich is cheaper, but less likely to hit the heights of the other 2, but all are worth having on the bench at least.

(Not this Pele)

Graziano Pelle at Southampton, had a great first half of the last season, but faded in the second half of the season. If Pelle starts slowly, Jay Rodriguez could be a good option, if he can rediscover his form of 2 years ago, but at £7.0m, he is too expensive to pick at the start.

New signings

I wouldn't suggest picking new signings as they usually take time to adjust to the Premiership, but the following signings are worth following, and picking if they start scoring.

Mitrovic joins fellow Serbians, Ivanovic, Kolarov,
Matic and Markovic in the Premier league

Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.5m) scored plenty of goals for Anderlecht, and Newcastle need someone to score the goals.

Joselu (£6.0m) is a former Real Madrid player and has signed for Stoke from Hannover, with former Barcelona players Ibrahim Afellay and Bojan creating chances, he could hit the net with regularity.

Patrick Bamford (£6.0m) and Conor Wickham (£6.0m) will play up front for Crystal Palace in front of a creative midfield, with Yanick Bolasie, Wilfried Zaha and Yohan Cabaye, so chances should be plentiful.

Fantasy Football Picks - GKs and DFs

For this blog my focus is on the Premier League Fantasy Football although some of the principles and players will apply to other leagues.

Fantasy Picks

When you think about picking your fantasy team, the main misconception is to buy as many players from all the top teams as possible.

Goalkeepers

Tom Heaton may have been relegated with Burnley
but he got a lot of Fantasy points

Taking goalkeepers as a case in point. Keepers get a point for every 3 saves they make and -1 for every 2 goals conceded, so often Keepers from mid-table sides that face a lot of shots, outperform keepers from the top 4/5 teams.

Indeed of the top 5 keepers, only Joe Hart was from a top 5 team,  Fabianski (Swansea), Heaton (Burnley) and Mignolet (Liverpool) were the top 3 points scorers.

However, it is not always clear from last years points, as to who the best keeper to pick is.

Take Chelsea for instance, they changed keepers during the season, the combined points from their keepers was 159 a better combined total than any other team of keepers.

Lastly, as Heaton showed at Burnley, don't discount the newcomers. Of this years keepers Boruc at Bournemouth, Ruddy at Norwich and Gomes at Watford, represent the best value. At £4.5m each even if they only warm the bench of your team, they are all going to score points. They all have Premiership experience, and all conceded a similar amount of goals in the Championship, although I think Norwich are the most defensively resolute of the 3 teams.

Defenders

Chris Smalling scored 4 goals for United last year,
but played a lot less than the other top goalscoring defenders

Defenders are key in any team, the dream is a goalscoring and assisting defender, who also keeps clean sheets. Unfortunately, these players are rare and very expensive.

John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea fit this bill last season, keeping 17 clean sheets, as well as scoring 5 and 4 goals respectively. However, this season you'll pay the price for picking them, £7m each.

Managers who favour a defence style help, so Tony Pulis at West Brom, usually sets up with a staunch defence, and tries to score on the counter-attack. James Chester has come in from Hull, and along with Joleon Lescott and Craig Dawson, is valued at £5m, one of those would be worth having.

Lastly, for defenders don't always pick the best defender in a teams defence. Bonus points more often than not go to strikers and midfielders, whilst clean sheet points are the same for all the defenders as long as they play 60+ minutes. The only difficulty with this is making sure they play, Cesar Azpilicueta at Chelsea is a million cheaper than Terry and Ivanovic, but will like play the same amount of games and likes to push on, so will hopefully get some assists.

Tomorrow
Tomorrow I'll preview the Midfielders and Strikers.

Fantasy Football - top tips

It's that time again, time for the start of the Premiership season, and time to pick your fantasy football team. 

In the next few days, I will put up some top picks, but today here are some top tips on how to play fantasy football.

General Rules

• Follow the Form - If a striker gets his confidence back, he may suddenly go on a scoring run, e.g. Glenn Murray scored 5 goals in 6 games at the start of 2015.

• Follow the fixtures - Gone are the days when every team plays one game a week for 38 weeks. Postponements, European fixtures, Cup matches, all mean there will be times this season when a club plays in the league more than once in a week or not at all. Check the fixtures and bring in players who are playing more in that week. 
• Also check who teams are playing, some of the top teams get a run against lower sides, and it's worth having those players in for those times. For instance last season Southampton were keeping clean sheets, but had a spell against the top 4 sides, that involved conceding several goals when they played their title rivals.

• Follow the fitness - Have a quick check of BBC Sport the day before the games to see who is injured and how long for. Also, players who are out for 6 weeks or longer, usually take time to adjust to playing again, so are worth transferring out, don't expect them to pick up where they left off.

• Follow the transfers - The season maybe starting but that doesn't mean all the transfer business is done, key players are still being signed. I expect Man United to bring at least one more defender and  a striker.

The Weekend that was - 8-9th November

Premier League

Although, it is only November the Premiership title seems to have an inevitability about it. Chelsea winning once again and Man City slipping up against QPR. Man City were in fact, fortunate to get a point, and their form is a real concern for Manuel Pellegrini.

Chelsea seem peerless at present, and considering they have played all the top sides (Southampton excluded) they are looking runaway favourites for the title. They don't face a team from last year's top 6 until January, when they play Tottenham at the start of the month and Man City at the end.

Southampton continued their great form, beating Leicester 2-0, thanks to a Shane Long brace, it means they have only dropped 5 points in 10 games, amassing 25 over those 10 games. They have a plethora of attacking options, with Long, Pelle and Mane all able to play up front, as well as the injured Jay Rodriguez to come back.

Arsenal lost to Swansea, which puts Swansea ahead of them, and Newcastle continued their incredible revival in form, moving them into 8th, level on points with Man Utd, showing just how quickly form can turn around.

Burnley recorded their first win against a depleted Hull. It means it is very tight around the relegation zone, with the 3 promoted sides and Crystal Palace all within 2 points of each other.

Autumn Internationals

Wales failed to beat Australia again, the margin in the last 5 games totalling just 14 points

It was a mixed weekend for the Northern Hemisphere teams, Ireland and Scotland securing wins against South Africa and Argentina. England and Wales were narrowly defeated by New Zealand and Australia.

There is no such thing as a friendly game in Rugby, and these are anything but, they are especially important in the context of next years world cup.

England had the perfect start to their game against New Zealand, when Jonny May showed his blistering pace rounding both Conrad Smith and Israel Dagg to score. However, the All-Blacks are masters at turning the smallest possession into the maximum points, and at the first opportunity they hit back, with Aaron Cruden touching the ball against the minutest part of the line and then the All-Blacks accelerated out of sight.

The Autumn internationals are the perfect appetiser to next years World Cup.

Formula 1

Nico Rosberg had an almost faultless weekend and was able to beat Lewis Hamilton

Nico Rosberg beat Hamilton to pole position again, making it 10 to 7 in pole positions to Rosberg, and giving Rosberg the trophy, albeit the pole position trophy.

Rosberg had a very strong weekend, and was able to hold off Hamilton, and it was Hamilton who cracked under pressure, trying to overtake in the pit stops, Hamilton pushed too hard and nearly lost the car. Hamilton is a pure racer and continued to push, and was able to catch Rosberg, but Rosberg had enough to hold him off.

There were strong performances for Massa, Hulkenburg, Button and Raikkonen. Massa incurred a 5 second, but still had the pace to round out the podium. Button showed his race strength, recording a highly credible 4th place, showing how valuable he is to McLaren, although it remains to be seen if he will be there next year.

Button's race pace is noticeably superior to Magnusson's, however so is his wage, and with Alonso likely to join McLaren, Button may be forced out.

In many ways it was the perfect result in Brazil, especially if you are Bernie Ecclestone, as it sets up the Championship perfectly, if Rosberg wins and Hamilton is second, Hamilton wins the championship, but if Rosberg wins and Hamilton finishes lower than second, Rosberg wins,

It's been a long season, but Abu Dhabi should be a thrilling climax.