Fantasy Premier League 2016-17: Players to watch out for 1
English Premier League starts in a few days and it's that time of the year again when I make my FPL (read title) team. This year is expected to be quite exciting. We have new defending champions, Leicester City who will be looking to maintain their presence in the top quarter of the table. The Manchester clubs have new coaches and reinforcements in their squad and the same can be said for Chelsea. Other major clubs - Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs - all seem to be working hard to do better than last year. Other mid table clubs - West Ham, Everton and Southampton - must be fancying their chances of a top 4 finish after Leicester's title win last season. In conclusion, this season's going to be one hell of a ride and to be honest, I'm confused as f**k when I try and pick my FPL team.
That said, I have decided to write a series of blog posts on players to watch out for this season. In each blog post, I'll pick a few players that I find exciting or worth mentioning. In each of these posts, all the players will belong to a particular position set of positions - Goalkeepers, Defenders, Midfielders and Forwards. I'll give preference to new entrants to the league this season since it's slightly difficult to gauge their performance before the season begins. I'll also give a little extra focus on the first 3 Gameweeks since I usually pick my first team based on these fixtures. In case there are more people that I find worth mentioning, I'll mention them briefly towards the end. In this post, I'll talk about 3 Goalkeepers that I find worth looking at.
Till now, six goalkeepers have been a part of the transfer window in the Premier League. Out of these, four significant goalkeepers that have caught my eye.
However, he faces competition within the Crystal Palace squad from 3 other keepers - Hennessey, McCarthy and Speroni. Hennessey was the first choice keeper for Alan Pardew last season. It doesn't seem to me that the situation will remain the same this season. On top of that, Palace has an easy draw for the first 6 weeks, except for the clash against Spurs in the second week. Looking at all this, Mandanda makes for an attractive purchase at just £4.5 on FPL.
Karius is a young German player but even at the age of 22 years, he has about 5 years of experience in top flight German football. On top of this, there is the country and club connection with Klopp. He is likely to replace Mignolet as Klopp's first choice keeper. Mignolet will have to pull up his socks and dish out performances far better than the ones he produced last season if he wants to be of any relevance at Anfield in the future. That said, Liverpool has a tough set of fixtures for the first month of Premier League action. They will be facing Arsenal in the opening week, followed by Spurs, Leicester and Chelsea from GW 3-5. Hence, I would be cautious before picking anyone from Liverpool defence and goalkeepers, at least for the early phases of the season.
Everton, on the other hand, have been plagued by a weak defence over the last two seasons. Needless to say, Koeman was just the man that they needed for the job. The Dutch manager has begun the process of strengthening the defence by signing 2 keepers - Chris Renshaw and Maarten Stekelenburg. The former is a young 18 year old from Oldham and is likely to be Koeman's second or third choice keeper. Stekelenburg, on the other hand, will be playing under the Dutchman's leadership for the third time and is likely to be his first choice keeper. They were together in Southampton last season where Stekelenburg was on loan from Fulham. He got considerable playing time when Southampton's keeper, Fraser Forster, suffered an injury that kept him out for a few months. Needless to say, Stekelenburg's performance left an impression on Koeman. He was Koeman's first signing as manager of Everton.
Stekelenburg is priced at £5 in FPL. If you exclude Spurs in the first Gameweek, Everton have easy fixtures from GW 2-7. During this period, you can easily expect Stekelenburg to get a few cleansheets under his belt. This should make him an attractive pick for the GK spot for a lot of teams.That said, I have decided to write a series of blog posts on players to watch out for this season. In each blog post, I'll pick a few players that I find exciting or worth mentioning. In each of these posts, all the players will belong to a particular position set of positions - Goalkeepers, Defenders, Midfielders and Forwards. I'll give preference to new entrants to the league this season since it's slightly difficult to gauge their performance before the season begins. I'll also give a little extra focus on the first 3 Gameweeks since I usually pick my first team based on these fixtures. In case there are more people that I find worth mentioning, I'll mention them briefly towards the end. In this post, I'll talk about 3 Goalkeepers that I find worth looking at.
Goalkeepers
Till now, six goalkeepers have been a part of the transfer window in the Premier League. Out of these, four significant goalkeepers that have caught my eye.
Steve Mandanda (Crystal Palace)
Crystal Palace have brought in Steve Mandanda for an undisclosed fee. However, the deal is worth £1.5m according to Daily Mail. Steve Mandanda is the second choice goalkeeper for the French national team as well (after Hugo Lloris from Tottenham). He has an impressive record at Ligue 1, winning Goalkeeper of the Year award last season for the fourth time.However, he faces competition within the Crystal Palace squad from 3 other keepers - Hennessey, McCarthy and Speroni. Hennessey was the first choice keeper for Alan Pardew last season. It doesn't seem to me that the situation will remain the same this season. On top of that, Palace has an easy draw for the first 6 weeks, except for the clash against Spurs in the second week. Looking at all this, Mandanda makes for an attractive purchase at just £4.5 on FPL.
Loris Karius (Liverpool)
Liverpool have been plagued by goalkeeper mistakes last season. Whether it was the Mignolet or Bogdan, both of them have had a fair share of errors to their name. Hence, changes into the squad in this department were called for and Klopp has done just that - sending Bogdan off on a loan to Wigan and by signing Laris Karius from his old club, Mainz. Liverpool have also signed Alex Manninger from Augsburg but Karius is the one who is expected to be Klopp's first choice of preference. |
| It's not just his talent on the pitch. His looks have a lot of ladies going crazy too |
Karius is a young German player but even at the age of 22 years, he has about 5 years of experience in top flight German football. On top of this, there is the country and club connection with Klopp. He is likely to replace Mignolet as Klopp's first choice keeper. Mignolet will have to pull up his socks and dish out performances far better than the ones he produced last season if he wants to be of any relevance at Anfield in the future. That said, Liverpool has a tough set of fixtures for the first month of Premier League action. They will be facing Arsenal in the opening week, followed by Spurs, Leicester and Chelsea from GW 3-5. Hence, I would be cautious before picking anyone from Liverpool defence and goalkeepers, at least for the early phases of the season.
Maarten Stekelenburg (Everton)
The other club from Merseyside has begun the process of rebuilding the team under the leadership of their new manager, Ronald Koeman. Koeman has been very impressive in the last two seasons for Southampton and he would be keen to continue that way in Everton. In 2014-15, Southampton's defensive record under Koeman was second only to the title winners Chelsea. They conceded only 33 goals (Chelsea - 32) and finished 7th. As a result, they managed to qualify for play offs to Europa league. However, a loss in the play offs ruined their prospects of playing in Europe. Last season, after a shaky few months at the beginning, Southampton were quite impressive at the back over the rest of the season and ended up finishing 6th under Koeman.Everton, on the other hand, have been plagued by a weak defence over the last two seasons. Needless to say, Koeman was just the man that they needed for the job. The Dutch manager has begun the process of strengthening the defence by signing 2 keepers - Chris Renshaw and Maarten Stekelenburg. The former is a young 18 year old from Oldham and is likely to be Koeman's second or third choice keeper. Stekelenburg, on the other hand, will be playing under the Dutchman's leadership for the third time and is likely to be his first choice keeper. They were together in Southampton last season where Stekelenburg was on loan from Fulham. He got considerable playing time when Southampton's keeper, Fraser Forster, suffered an injury that kept him out for a few months. Needless to say, Stekelenburg's performance left an impression on Koeman. He was Koeman's first signing as manager of Everton.
Victor Valdes - Middlesbrough
The last keeper that I find worth mentioning is Valdes. The former Barcelona and Manchester United keeper finds himself at Middlesbrough this season. Valdes made just 2 appearances for the Red devils before being loaned out to Standard Leige in Belgium. This season, he finds himself at Middlesbrough who are on a shopping spree following their promotion to top flight English football. Valdes is 1 of the 7 signings that they've made in this transfer window so far.At this time, it seems unclear to me who will be the first choice keeper for Middlesbrough between Valdes and the Greek keeper, Konstantopoulos. Both are priced at £4.5 and make attractive second keeper options for an FPL team. In addition, Middlesbrough have easy fixtures for the first 5 Gameweeks before they face Spurs as the first real test of their ability in Gameweek 6. Hence, keeping 1 of the Middlesbrough keepers in your team as the second keeper wouldn't be a bad option for anyone for the first few weeks of Premier league action.
Other signings
Nick Pope to Burnley from Charlton Athletic and Ron-Robert Zieler to Leicester City from Hannover 96 are two other signings worth following. After winning the title last season, Leicester will be playing in Champions league as well. The increased number of games that Leicester will have to play means that there is space to expand the squad. Zieler is one of the 5 signings that Leicester has made in this transfer window till now.Something similar can be said for Burnley. Promotion to top flight football means they need to strengthen the squad and get some more quality into the team. Nick Pope is one of the three signings they've made so far. However, Heaton is likely to remain their first choice keeper.
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