So it has been a long time since I've blogged about, well anything.
I thought I'd give it a go returning with a blog to coincide with the new football season.
I intend to blog in the coming week about each of the 20 clubs making up the Premier League and how they might fare this season.
However for this first blog back, my focus will be Fantasy Football, and although there is more than one variety of fantasy football, my focus is on the Premier League Fantasy Football although some of the prinicples and players will apply to other leagues.
Fantasy Picks
When you think about picking your fantasy team, the main misconception is to as many players from all the top teams as possible.
Goalkeepers
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 7 keepers, only Cech and Szczesny represented teams in the top 4. 3 were from teams outside the top 6, Julian Speroni (Crystal Palace); Asmir Begovic (Stoke) and Vito Mannone (Sunderland).
However, it is not always clear from last years points, as to who the best keeper to pick is.
Take West Ham for instance, they changed keepers halfway through the season, the combined points from their keepers was 171 a better combined total than any other team of keepers.
Lastly, as Speroni showed at Crystal Palace, don't discount the newcomers. Of this years keepers Schmeichel at Leicester and Green at QPR, represent the best value. At £4.5m each even if they only warm the bench of your team, they are both likely to score points. Schmeichel is a very good shot stopper, so will make a lot of saves, and Green has a lot of Premiership experience.
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.
Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman of Everton fit this bill last season, keeping 13 and 15 clean sheets, as well as scoring and assisting. However, this season you'll pay the price for picking them, £7m each.
So where are the value deals? It is harder to get value with defenders than with keepers. If you look at the top 10 points scoring defenders last season, with the exception of Jose Fonte at Southampton, they all played for clubs in the top 5.
Managers who favour a defence style help, so Tony Pulis at Crystal Palace, usually sets out Palace with a staunch defence, and they try to score on the counter-attack. Hangeland has come in from Fulham, and along with Scott Dann and Joel Ward, 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, Mathieu Debuchy at Arsenal is half a million cheaper than Koscielny and Mertesacker, but will like play the same amount of games and likes to push on, so will hopefully get some assists.
Midfield
Midfielders and Strikers are the most important players in the team, they are the big points scorers. Yaya Toure was the top scoring player in the fantasy premier league last year with 241 points, Gerrard and Hazard were 2nd and 3rd top scorers, so it demonstrates how important a midfielder can be.
It is worth noting Gerrard scored 13 last season of which 10 were penalties, this figure is likely to fall with the absence of Luis Suarez.
Midfield is less about value, and more about accommodating as many of the big points scorers as possible.
Some of the key midfielders, maybe those who missed periods of last season and so ended up with less points. Mata missed the first period of the season, as he was surplus to Mourinho's requirements. Walcott, Wilshere, Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain all missed parts of the season for Arsenal with injury, but remember you can always transfer injured players out.
Yannick Bolasie at Crystal Palace played very well without scoring, but could be a player, who if he gets a goal could go on a scoring run.
Ashley Young has apparently been in scintillating form for Man Utd in pre-season, so could be worth a shout at £5.5m.
Of the newcomers, Joey Barton is likely to take set-pieces for QPR, so will accumulate goals and assists, but possible red and yellow cards also.
A few eyes will be on the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Cesc Fabregas, and Anders Herrera the big signings at the top clubs. However, it is worth paying attention to the signings for teams lower down, the likes of Dusan Tadic at Southampton, and Carbella and De Jong at Newcastle, who will be their playmakers.
Strikers
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), Andy Carroll, Benjani, Roque Santa Cruz, Benni McCarty, even Michu to some extent. 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.
Some players who represent good value, Giroud was great value for Arsenal last season as he was guaranteed to play nearly every week, with the arrival of Sanchez, he maybe less of a cert, but still good value.
With Benteke and Kozac out Villa will be reliant on Weimann and Agbonlahor, both £5.5m, either worth having on the bench.
From the Championship, Ings (Burnley) and Austin (QPR) both at £6m, both scored plenty of goals in the Championship, although it remains to be seen if they can achieve similar feats in the Premier League. David Nugent at Leicester is cheaper, but less likely to hit the heights of the other 2.
I'm not convinced by Diego Costa at Chelsea and at £10.5m seems over-priced. Frazier Campbell at Palace is only £5.5m and has a lot of Premier League experience. Lukaku had a very good season last season and in 2012/13, but looked poor at the World Cup.
Long and Jelavic at Hull could prove to be good signings, but if Hull get through the Europa qualifiers, they face a heavy fixture list with a small squad, so I would avoid.
Jovetic has been in good form for Man City, after injuries in his first season, and if he starts, would be well worth having, especially if Aguero continues to be injury-prone.
Rooney and Van Persie are obvious choices at United.
Sides outside the top 4 don't rotate as much and so are likely to play more and score more points, so look out for the following:-
(Not this Pele)
Graziano Pelle at Southampton, represents their only real strike choice and has followed manager Koeman, he could prove useful.
Spurs have few striking options Soldao, Adebayor and Kane, Kane could prove good value, especially if Adebayor goes walkies, as he likes to do, especially around the African Cup of Nations.
Sunderland have a lot of strikers on paper Fletcher and Wickham, could prove a good strike force, Wickham was a key component behind them staying up.
Lastly, Zarate at West Ham could prove a good signing at £6.5m, he looked classy when he played at Birmingham City in 2008.
Well i've named most of the premier league, so you can't blame me if you fail!
All the best for the new fantasy football season.
General Rules
- Follow the Form - If a striker gets his confidence back, he may suddenly go on a scoring run, e.g. Christian Benteke went 12 games without scoring, managed a tap in against Arsenal and scored in the next 2 games.
- 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 Arsenal were keeping clean sheets, but had a spell against the top 4 sides, that involved conceding and then transferring out Arsenal defenders, when they play 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 Micah Richards could well move to a club lower down the league (especially after his penalty!), so could represent good value.
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