Fantasy Football: Top 5 stay aways
The Premier League season starts this weekend and that can only mean one thing: yes fantasy football starts once again.
All over the country people are worrying, shaking with fear and losing sleep over who they should pick, who is going to be a bargain and who will be worth those precious double points as captain. Friends will go head-to-head against one another, colleagues will play for office bragging rights and family members will fall out with each other. But when it comes down to it, we all love fantasy football.
Continuing with the top-five theme, today we’re looking at the top five players you should be staying away from, at the start of the season at least.
1- Fernando Torres, Liverpool - £11.5million
Now we’re not saying Fernando Torres is a bad player, far from it, but you have to admit he hasn’t been the Fernando Torres of old lately. He was injured for much of last season, a trend that could continue this year. Torres was awful for Spain during the World Cup and in the final pulled up with a muscle injury. At the moment there is no evidence to suggest he has put his injury troubles behind him. His form in the world cup was very worrying and for £11.5million you should be staying away, at least until he can prove his fitness and finds his form again.
2- Brad Friedel, Aston Villa - £6million
Now £6million doesn’t exactly represent bad value but for a keeper that’s pretty expensive. And there could be bad times ahead for Aston Villa. With Martin O’Neil leaving the club and the likely departure of James Milner, Villa could struggle – especially if a new manager isn’t appointed quickly. And if they do struggle, Friedel will suffer the most. He earned 161 points last year, mainly through clean sheets, and with the club seemingly worse off than last season, it’s hard to imagine him accumulating as many points again.
3- James Milner, Aston Villa - £9million
James Milner was the third highest points scorer from midfield in fantasy last season, but it’s highly unlikely that will happen again this year. It’s no secret Manchester City want the England International and if he leaves for City, will he have as big a role for the Eastlands club as he did for Villa? It’s doubtful. And without Martin O’Neil managing at Villa, if he does happen to stay it’s unlikely he will play as well as he did last season. All signs point towards him having a worse season and at £9million it’s not worth it.
4- Joe Hart/Shay Given, Manchester City - £6million
Why would you pick a keeper that isn’t assured to be number one next year? Added to that Manchester City leak goals, so you’re not going to be picking up that many clean sheets. Give it a couple of weeks before you pick either of these two. You never know, one of them might move to a new club.
5- Craig Bellamy, Manchester City - £8million
There are constant reports that he’s unhappy at the club andthat he hasn’t talked to manager Roberto Mancini for nine months. He threatened to retire from football earlier in the week if he wasn’t selected for City’s 25-man Premier League squad. If you spend £8 million on him, you are taking a really big gamble.
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