Leakier than a pair of Mikasa gloves earlier in the season, the Manchester United back four has cleaned up its act in recent weeks and their defenders are reaping plenty of Fantasy Football points as a result.
Gameweek 30 review
It seems an age ago since the last round of Premier League games so if you can’t remember what happened, Manchester United virtually made sure of the title by beating Reading after Man City virtually ensured they had lost it by losing to Everton, Villa won the proverbial relegation six-pointer against QPR and Callum McManaman escaped with a yellow card after one of the worst tackles of the season so far.
As far as Fantasy Football is concerned, Arsenal’s Nacho Monreal was the highest scorer with 15 points thanks to his goal and clean sheet against Swansea, going one point better than Eden Hazard, who claimed a goal and an assist against West Ham at Stamford Bridge.
Rio Ferdinand, Fulham defender Sascha Riether and Andreas Weimann were next with 11 points, one more than Davide Santon, Craig Gardner and Leon Osman, with Everton ‘keeper Jan Mucha, Liam Ridgewell and Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin all making it into the Dream Team with nine points apiece.
J-League
It wasn’t a vintage week of points-scoring by any means and the J-League was affected as much as anywhere else with none of the top five managers managing to break the 50-point barrier and none of the top three managing more than a measly 34 points.
As a result, there is only once change in the top five overall as Darren McCann’s Dazzleros maintain a healthy lead over Martin Hanway’s Marty’s Muppets in second, with Mickey Hanrahan’s Shawn Michaels Babes in third.
Andy Twomey’s Athrasna are a point further back in fourth, while Neill McNicholas’ 123 are the final team in the top five shake-up having displaced Neil Farragher’s Smallville Crows from the elite group of J-League outfits.
J-League Top 5:
- Dazzleros – Darren McCann: 1,887 points
- Marty’s Muppets – Martin Hanway: 1,844 points
- Shawn Michaels Babes – Mickey Hanrahan: 1,840 points
- Athtrasna – Andy Twomey: 1,839 points
- 123 – Neill McNicholas: 1,825 points
The case for the United defence
At one point in the not so distant past, Manchester United’s defensive record was so bad relative to the rest of the league that only Swansea in the top half of the table had conceded more goals than the Premier League leaders.
Now, with less than nine games to go, only Manchester City (26) and Chelsea (30) have conceded less than the 31 goals United have conceded this season with five consecutive clean sheets meaning that the Red Devils haven’t conceded in the league since the home victory over Southampton at the end of January.
Fergie said he wasn’t going to lose the title on goal difference this time around; it just seemed to take him a while to realise that the concession of goals as well as the scoring of them contributes to the overall figure in the end.
Despite their tendency to concede, United’s defenders were actually doing OK as far as Fantasy Football is concerned, mainly because they were having such an impact at the other end. Patrice Evra’s four goal haul this season, for example, is twice the amount he had managed in six previous seasons and although he’s the second most expensive defender in the league at £7.3 million, he is the highest scorer ahead of Leighton Baines.
Rafael (£6.3 million) is also in the top ten of the highest scoring defenders after three goals and five assists so far, while you don’t have to go too far down the list to find Jonny Evans (£5.6 million), who has three goals and two assists to date.
Because of Fergie’s rotation policy it is hard to argue in favour of the selection of Rio Ferdinand (£5.8 million) or Nemanja Vidic (£6.6 million) because you simply don’t know if they are going to play from one week to the next, but Evra and Rafael are pretty reliable, as is David de Gea (£5.7 million) now that he’s the undisputed number one at Old Trafford.
The Spaniard has been growing in confidence and influence at United in the second half of this season and although he has a long way to go to catch some of his peers in the points stakes, if United can keep up this new-found solid approach between now and the season’s end, he won’t be long getting there.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Carlos Tevez (£8.7 million). Although the title is as good as out of reach after defeat to Everton, we still expect a Citeh backlash against Newcastle on Saturday and Tevez has been their most potent threat up front of late.
Mid-Range: Lukas Podolski (£8.1 million). Arsenal and Reading have played twice this season and provided 19 goals between them in the two games. If that pattern continues at the Emirates this weekend, Podolski is likely to be in the thick of the action.
Bargain Basement: Jean Beausejour (£5.3 million). If you like us think Wigan will pull off another great escape or at least go mighty close, it is worth taking a punt on one or two or players between now and the end of the season, players like Beausejour who scored his first goal of the season against Newcastle but also has eight assists to his name in this campaign.
Irish Pick: Seamus Coleman (£4.6 million). Against both Sweden and Austria the Donegal man continued the brilliant vein of form he had been enjoying with his club and he’ll be looking to impress against a Stoke side in pretty crappy form at the moment.
Captain’s Pick: Wayne Rooney (£12.0 million). Scored in both of England’s games during the international break and has five in his last five starts in the league. Sunderland are very fragile at the moment and Rooney won’t have forgotten their fans’ jibes at United’s expense on the final day of last season.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
