Saturday, September 10, 2016

Week 4: IEFSA Fantasy League Preview


A weekend of international fixtures is not really a time of rest for fantasy managers, but a period of worry and apprehension as you wait for news of your players as they play games in far flung corners of the globe. Will they come back injury free? How many minutes will they play? Will Kevin Mirallas come off the bench for Belgium in Cyprus?? These kinds of questions have been keeping me up all night. And of course some of my worst fears were realised when my star signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan limped off after 38 minutes in a friendly against the Czech Rep. Mirallas didn’t get on the pitch against Cyprus though, so a small plus point there I guess.

In Week 3 my side picked up a tough victory against @jwl_15 to get to six points and remain in ninth place. A Cazorla goal and consistent double points hauls from most of my players saw me beat out Hazard and Fer goals, and a Courtois clean sheet, by just over six points. My lowest scoring player was Fabio Borini. The Italian played just over an hour and is now injured for three months. My most expensive forward will need to be replaced. But I don’t need to mention injury tales of woe to this week’s opponent @BenDinnery. His side currently has five players on the sidelines.
Fabio Borini is a 'Spot The Ball' generators dream


@BenDinnery’s Team


Outside the injuries, Ben’s starting side average over 12 points per player in the right combination. Injuries will restrict his options this week. But Ben loves injuries, this won’t faze him! He has come up against three tough fixtures so far and is looking for his first win of the season. Spearheading his attack will be in form Forward Diego Costa. Costa has a good record against Swansea and Ben will be hoping he can continue his good run at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday. The only other player to score for his side is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Arsenal host an out of sorts Southampton side. If these two players do score though, it will hamper his backline as he has Amat (Swansea) and van Dijk (Southampton) in Defence.

His Midfield is very Hull heavy. Livermore and Meyler are two of the handful of fit Tigers players that have made such a good start to the season. They travel to Burnley this weekend and will be facing off directly with my goalkeeper and one of my defenders. A goal from either of these players would give him a leg up in our match-up. Even if they do not manage a goal between them, they still put in a lot of work that has helped them average over 13 points per game so far this year. Speaking of work rate, his highest scoring midfielder is Stoke’s Glenn Whelan, average over 15 points a game. This weekend the Potters host Spurs.

What I Need To Happen


As I’ve mentioned, Burnley keeping Hull out would give me the advantage in the tie. I will also need my Arsenal and Stoke Players to outperform those belonging to @BenDinnery. Cazorla is my highest scorer to date and will surely get more opportunities for points against the Saints. Marko Arnautovic still has to get off the mark this season and it would be most welcomed if he did so this weekend. With Mkhitaryan red flagged with injury, I’ve drafted in Wanyama of Spurs. With lots of options in Midfield I will reserve judgement on the make-up of my three M and one OF slots until team sheets are announced.

Now I know what everyone is thinking this weekend. With Borini out injured, where will the goals for my team come from? Arnoutovic has so far drawn blanks and Pedro is struggling to get into Chelsea’s starting 11, but I have an ace up my sleeve. You see Bournemouth have secured the services of one Jack Wilshire. England’s most promising midfielder will be pulling the strings for the Cherries attack for the rest of the season. Hopefully he can return to the form of 2013-14 which saw him score three league goals…

Predictions


Four correct and five wrong for the games two weeks ago. It’s not getting any easier to predict these matchups in @THE_IEFSA Fantasy League on Fantrax. All eyes this weekend will be on the game between first placed @cjradune and top scorer (4th placed) @TomSunderland_
Follow all these guys on Twitter to keep up with the action.

Here are this game week’s predictions. Good Luck Everyone.









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