If you’re falling off the pace in your mini-league, you’ll need to bite the bullet and take a few gambles between now and the end of the season. Here are a few tips from the cheaper end of the market.
Gameweek 30 Review
Apart from a trio of Arsenal players and Petr Cech in goals, the Dream Team after Gameweek 30 was very much a northern affair, with representatives from Newcastle, Sunderland, Manchester United, Bolton and Wigan all making the starting XI.
Make sure you commit to memory the fact that David Wheater was the highest scorer of all this week, because we’re certain that it won’t happen again. In what was a highly-charged and emotional encounter at the Reebok, Wheater got his head on two balls for two goals and the additional bonus points brought him up to 17 points for the week.
That was one better than Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse, who is more than making up for the lack of goals coming from his compatriot Demba Ba in recent weeks. Cisse’s teammate Hatem Ben Arfa chipped in with 15 points, as did Everton’s Leighton Baines, while Kieran Gibbs (13) Jonny Evans (12) and our own James McClean (12) followed closely behind.
In the J-League, there was only one change in the entire top five, with Conor Sheehy’s A Great Bunch’a Lads and Brian Duffy’s Fergie’s Fledglings changing places.
Eoin Groarke’s Sure Now fell even further behind the leaders after a fairly miserly 41 points, meaning that it’s more and more likely that the rest of the season will be a fight to the death (we haven’t decided if that phrase will be interpreted literally or not yet) between ultra-consistent front runners Neil Kelly’s The Wet Bandits and Matt Light’s Mamelodi Sundowns.
Champion J-League Top 5:
1. The Wet Bandits – Neil Kelly: 1,805 points
2. Mamelodi Sundowns – Matt Light: 1,798 points
3. Sure Now – Eoin Groarke: 1,769 points
4. A Great Bunch’a Lads – Conor Sheehy: 1,766 points
5. Fergie’s Fledglings – Brian Duffy: 1,763 points
End of season bargains
As has been evident in the J-League in recent weeks, managers at the top of the various mini-leagues will tend to take fewer risks between now and the season. Safely perched at the top with a big enough cushion between them and the chasing back, the leading managers will play the percentages – always pick a Rooney or a Van Persie as captain, select 90 per cent of the same players that populate the teams of their closest rivals – and it’s hard to blame them for doing so.
Others will delay their wildcard until the very last day of the season and then pick the exact same team as the one placed below them in a ridiculously devious way of ensuring victory, but that’s a little bit down the road just yet.
If you are one of the chasing pack, chances are you’re going to have to pull out a few stops in the next couple of months, but there are a few bargains to be had who will prove particularly valuable if you still have your final wildcard to spare.
We’ve been banging this drum for a few weeks now, but as far as we’re concerned, Jonny Evans is almost a must have in every manager’s fantasy team at the moment. The Norn Iron defender has a goal, an assist, four bonus points and 31 points in total over the last three games and although his price has rocketed up by £0.5 million in that time, he’s still very affordable at £5.1 million.
Everyone thought they had shot themselves in the foot in the middle of the season, but Arsenal are the team everyone’s talking about at the moment and rightly so. No man has commanded more inches in this column than Robin van Persie, but it’s not only the Dutchman contributing to the Gunners’ purple patch at the moment.
Theo Walcott and Mikel Arteta might score more goals, but if value for money is a concern, Alex Song is well worth considering. For a so-called defensive midfielder, ten assists is an unbelievable return and a stat bettered by only five players in the entire league. Song’s form has mirrored his club’s in that five of those assists have come in the last five games. At only £5.9 million, he’s a snip.
Up front, finally, although it will probably mean the end of Leon Best at Newcastle, the Magpies looked to have found another African gem in Papiss Cisse. With Demba Ba struggling to maintain his early season form, Cisse has picked up the mantle in some style and has carried his prolific streak from the Bundesliga to the Premier League in seamless fashion. He’s £6.9 million now, but we can’t imagine he’ll stay that cheap for long.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Theo Walcott (£9.2 million). Not the most reliable by any means, but a good man to have when he’s on form, which he is at the moment with three goals, an assist and ten bonus points in his last five games.
Mid-Range: Papiss Cisse (£6.9 million). The Senegal international has scored five goals in six games since his arrival in January, including three in his last two games (and one assist). Who needs Demba Ba?
Bargain Basement: Nikica Jelavic (£5.9 million). How Everton can be so consistently poor before Christmas and so consistently excellent afterwards over the last few seasons is a mystery, but that’s no reason not to jump on the bandwagon. The Croatian is starting to find his feet on Merseyside and is bound to add to his two goals so far in the coming weeks.
Irish Pick: James McCarthy (£5.0 million). He should be scoring more points than he is, but McCarthy has been central to Wigan’s latest surge of form and picked up an assist against Liverpool last weekend. We can only hope Trap has been paying attention of late because it would seem as if his place on the plane in the summer is in jeopardy.
Captain’s Pick: Robin van Persie (£12.8 million). Despite scoring, Wayne Rooney was a bit off-key against Fulham, even though it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he was the main man again at Ewood Park on Monday. Still, with (very small) doubts hanging over Rooney’s candidacy, it’s back to the old reliable RVP, who should get plenty of shooting practise against QPR at Loftus Road.
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