Will Luis Suarez’s sublime hat-trick against Norwich kick-start a prolific streak for the Liverpool forward or is he destined for more frustration in front of goal?
Gameweek 6 review
Whatever it is about the East Anglian air, Luis Suarez absolutely loves playing at Carrow Road and those of you who backed up your hunch that he would deliver the goods on Saturday will have been richly rewarded.
A hat-trick, an assist and three bonus points resulted in 20 points for the Liverpool man, by a distance the outstanding performer and that’s saying something on a weekend where there was a ridiculous amount of points on offer if you played your cards right.
Behind Suarez, both Gareth Bale and Nikica Jelavic scored sixteen points through a combination of goals and assists, Suarez’s team mate Nuri Sahin’s goal and two assists helped him to 15 points while Peter Crouch and Juan Mata were next best with 13 points apiece.
Such was the quality of the dream team this week that in-form duo Demba Ba and Steven Fletcher didn’t get a look in, with the likes of Matt Jarvis and Jan Vertonghen (both 9 points) appearing in their stead.
J-League
We said there was a ridiculous amount of points on offer and J-League leaders Breffni Blues, managed by Barry McCabe, took full advantage with a 92-point haul, his strikeforce of Suarez (captain), Ba and Jelavic scoring a whopping 69 points between them.
Thanks to that impressive score, he opened up a sizeable gap between himself and Stephen Ruth’s Man Red in second and Shane Judge’s Raving Lunatics in third, both of whom posted a highly credible 76 points this week.
Neil Cullen’s Riggins’ Rovers and Gavin Gingles‘ Meath Lovers Pizza didn’t enjoy such success but managed to hang on to fourth and fifth place regardless.
J-League Top 5:
- Breffni Blues – Barry McCabe: 469 points
- Man Red – Stephen Ruth: 437 points
- Raving Lunatics – Shane Judge: 420 points
- Riggins’ Rovers – Neil Cullen: 418 points
- Meath Lovers Pizza – Gavin Gingles: 412 points
Is it Luis Suarez’s time to shine?
In the aftermath of Luis Suarez’s sublime hat-trick against Norwich last weekend, a quite amazing statistic began doing the rounds that the Uruguayan had scored double the amount of league goals at Carrow Road in 2012 (6) than he had at Anfield (3).
The stat sums up the often frustrating time that Suarez has endured in front of goal since joining the Reds at the beginning of 2011. Loved as he is by the Kop faithful, there won’t be many of them that won’t admit he could be more clinical in front of goal – the easy chance he missed before his glorious second last weekend being a case in point.
Some forwards are judged by their goal ratio alone, but it would be unfair to apply such a judgement to Suarez. He’s so nimble, quick and such a good dribbler that he must be a nightmare for defenders to play against, not least because he tries to make them all look like fools with a nutmeg anytime anyone comes within his vicinity.
Besides, there have been a few varying factors to explain his relatively poor record, the huge ban received last season because of his spat with Patrice Evra and the effect of the hullaballoo that surrounded it (some of it self-inflicted), obviously had an effect, while Liverpool’s terrible results at the end of last season and the beginning of this campaign must also be considered.
So far this season, he’s scored nearly half of the tally he managed in the last campaign and with an assist and a few bonus points to his name, there are only five strikers with better tallies than him in the Fantasy Football stakes.
Three of Liverpool’s next six games are at home against Stoke, Reading and Wigan so it seems like a pretty optimum time to introduce him to your team, even if games against the so-called lesser teams is where Liverpool have struggled in recent years.
How they fare against them this time around could have a big bearing on the season, both for Liverpool and for Suarez.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Fernando Torres (£9.9 million). Put in a great shift against Arsenal last Saturday and he’ll relish the chance of going up against a Norwich defence that has plundered 13 goals in the league to date.
Mid-Range: Nikica Jelavic (£8.4 million). Everton players are proving impossible to ignore at the moment, particularly Jelavic, who struck for two goals, an assist and 16 points against Southampton last time out.
Bargain Basement: Steve Sidwell (£5.0 million). We wouldn’t have been his biggest fans in the past, but he’s already scored two goals in a decent looking Fulham side and has played every minute of the last four games.
Irish Pick: Shane Long (£6.0 million). Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to improve his chances of featuring against Germany, but Long notched another goal to add to the collection last weekend and has a home tie against bottom club QPR on Saturday.
Captain’s Pick: Luis Suarez (£9.4 million). After last weekend’s hat-trick, it’s hard to ignore him, even against opposition as notoriously tricky as Stoke have proved in the past.
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