3 Aguero Replacements Hit Big Points: GW4 Review

Big Rom is back

It seemed from the early kick-off on Saturday that the best replacement for the suspended Aguero might be his direct replacement Kelechi Iheanacho. The Nigerian livewire was on hand to score and assist for Pep's team against Mourinho's United. Man City have certainly been in good goalscoring form this season, so Iheanacho could be in the goals next week too.

On Sunday Diego Costa bettered Iheanacho's 12 points with a 2 goal haul despite once again causing controversy. It is debatable whether he should've been on the pitch, but there is no denying Costa is in good form. That's now 4 goals in 4 games for the Chelsea striker. His underlying stats are also comparable to Aguero. Only Ibrahimovic and Aguero have more shots on target per game so far and only Antonio has had more shots inside the 6 yard area.

Lukaku had the last say on Monday night. Lukaku ended a 10-match goal drought with aplomb. A hat-trick was one way end his barren run. Little more needs to be added on who leads the race as the best replacement for Aguero.

Last Season's Bandwagon Buys Back In Business

A Firm option

Dimitri Payet, Firmino, Dele Alli and Michael Antonio have all finally got going after slow starts. They were key players last season in FPL as some of the highest scoring midfielders. Payet has struggled with muscle tightness after a busy schedule in the Euros, but marked his first start of the new season with two assists against Watford for his teammate Antonio to score two headed goals in a fine first half performance. Antonio has started two of the first 3 games at right back, however West Ham co-owner David Gold has confirmed that Antonio will be deployed as a winger from now on after the signing of Alvaro Arbeloa on deadline day. When Antonio has started on the right wing this season he now has 3 goals in 2 games.

Dele Alli's 10 goals and 12 assists last season at a start price of just 5.5 made him a vital asset. This season his price has risen to 8.5, which is considerably less value. Nearly 200,000 managers have deemed this too expensive and sold Alli since gameweek one. The Spurs attacker's price has dropped as a result to 8.3. Now he looks like a better option after scoring at Stoke, if he can keep his place. His goal threat is certainly a strength, with 2.8 shots on goal per 90 mins so far, and 1.3 in the box.

Firmino was Liverpool's top scorer with 10 goals in 2015/16 and a must-have out-of-position mid. Firmino disappointed his owners with just 2 points in each of his first two games. A brace against Leicester this time round has increased his appeal at a slightly nicer price tag of 8.4, so he will be one to bare in mind this season as a midfielder with an eye for goal. At times in the game at Anfield he was playing in a more advanced role than striker Daniel Sturridge.

Kyle Norbury,

Stoke fan and fantasy football nerd,

Follow me, Kyle on Twitter: @SCFCNerd

Best replacement for Aguero?

Aguuuuueeeeerrrooooo... NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

That is the reaction of the FPL community to Sergio Aguero after the first three gameweeks. After a blistering start to the season, scoring 3 goals and picking up 6 bonus points in his first two matches, it wasn’t long before Aguero’s price rose to 13.1 and all those managers saying “I don’t need Aguero” realised how wrong they were, with his ownership rising well over the 50% mark. However, the Aguueeerrroo!!! soon changed to NOOOOO!!! when he elbowed West Ham defender Winston Reid in the face and was handed a 3 game ban by the FA, meaning that he will miss the next two league matches.

So what do we do with the heaviest of the heavy hitters whilst he’s out? Do we keep him on the bench for two gameweeks or transfer him out with a plan on how to get him back in? Currently priced at 13.0, this amount is far too much to keep on the bench, even if it only is for two weeks. Furthermore, with Aguero’s price expected to drop at least a further 0.2 over the next few weeks, the smart move is definitely to take him out now and buy him back for cheaper later.

So, now the question is who do we bring in for Aguero? I have two words to answer that question.

ROMELU. LUKAKU.

Lukaku and I have a bit of a love-hate relationship, similar to that which the majority of the FPL community has with him. One week, it’s LUUKAAAAKUUUU!!!! and then the next week he’s anonymous, hence the names LukakuWHO? and BLANKaku. There is not doubt that Lukaku has all the attributes needed to be a top class striker (strength, pace, power, heading and a great shot), but he has been plagued by inconsistency in his career to date. However, for some reason, I still believe in Lukaku and am confident that he is the perfect replacement for Aguero.

Despite only starting 1 PL game and 1 EFL Cup game so far this season after returning from the Euros fatigued and with an ankle injury, his underlying stats in his limited game time are very good. In his two starts for Everton this season, he has managed a shot every 20.0 minutes and a shot assist every 45.0 minutes. This highlights his attacking potential. Although he stated in a recent interview that he is not 100% fit but almost there, his attacking stats are still good enough to rank him 2nd among all forwards for shot frequency this season, just behind Sergio Aguero. More recently, he netted a brace for Belgium in their World Cup qualifier against Cyprus, which indicates that he might be hitting form at the right time.

In addition to his excellent attacking stats so far this season, Everton’s extremely favourable fixtures provide Lukaku with a perfect opportunity to announce himself as a heavy hitter. Here is how Lukaku performed against his next 8 opponents last season:

Opponent	Starts	Shots	Goals	Chances Created	Assists
Sunderland	2	7	1	5	2
Middlesbrough	1	3	1	1	0
Bournemouth	2	6	2	3	0
Crystal Palace	2	5	1	4	0
Man City	4	7	1	2	0
Burnley
West Ham	2	10	2	2	1
Chelsea	3	7	2	0	0

These stats are a reminder of what a prolific goal scorer and potent attacker Lukaku can be.

Bringing Lukaku into your FPL team to replace Aguero will provide excellent options to FPL managers. His fixtures provide good short and long term points potential. This is because if Lukaku does not perform over the next few fixtures, managers can do a straight swap and bring Aguero back in for him in GW6. However, if Lukaku hits form, managers may not want to take him out. This provides a chance to downgrade on other heavy hitters such as Hazard or Ibrahimovic if they lose form and then upgrade a mid priced forward to get Aguero back in.

Additionally, there was much speculation over the transfer window that Lukaku would be leaving Everton. However, Everton refused to budge from their asking price of £75m and a move never materialised. Despite all the transfer speculation surrounding him, Lukaku has committed his future to the club and promised to score goals. This may boost his appeal as he will no doubt aim to prove his large price tag this season so that bigger clubs like Chelsea or Manchester United will have no choice but to fork out the cash to land an in form unstoppable Lukaku. Therefore, the fact that he is fully focussed on the club and scoring goals to prove himself bodes well for FPL managers.

Overall, it is clear that Romelu Lukaku is the perfect replacement for Aguero. This is because of his extremely favourable fixtures, past history against his upcoming opposition, current attacking form and the fact that he has a point to prove this season.

So now it’s over to you Romelu... 

By Sebastian Candido

Twitter: (@sebcandido)

Aguero-less Strategy

With Sergio Aguero out for 2 Premier League matches due to the the FA's ruling, many managers owning him will have to make the decision on whether to keep him or to sell him for the time being. Here are my thoughts on some options that you could do to handle the Aguero situation well.

Firstly, if you plan on using your wildcard during the international break between Gameweeks 3 and 4, then you should not have a big problem with Aguero getting banned. Simply have a little cash set aside for you to bring him back into your team in the coming weeks.

Naturally, many who own Aguero but not Ibrahimovic would lean on to taking in Ibrahmovic immediately. He has done well but currently is priced at £11.8. That is a £0.3 increase from his original price. If you spend on him, you may not have the resources to get him back in the coming weeks. 

Next, if you are thinking of building on your team value then the go to forwards for these 2 upcoming Gameweeks are Romelu Lukaku and Harry Kane. Why so? Well, this is because many managers are transferring out Aguero and his price has dropped to £13.0 from £13.1. This will drop further in days to come. Therefore, there is not much use of keeping Aguero on your bench as he depreciates.

Everton will be playing against Sunderland (A) and Middlesbrough (H) and as of now Lukaku is priced at £9.0. His price will set to increase when he does well and when even more managers take him into their team. It is the same for Harry Kane, Tottenham face Stoke (A) and Sunderland (H) and although Kane has not started scoring yet, he is at £10.9 right now and Spurs will look to make the most out of these 2 fixtures to try to straighten out their season. These are great opportunities for them to have their price to increase. 

The idea is to increase the value of the player that you take in for Aguero during his ban and then buy him back when he is cheaper when he makes his return. That way, you get more value in your team and can invest in other areas that you wish.

Lastly, if you are using your wildcard for a later date, and cannot seem to take out Aguero without a points hit, I would say this is an appropriate time to take a hit. You should always try and field a proper starting 11 and if you can get by the week with a -4, that would not be too bad. At the maximum, if your team needs a couple changes then a -8 is the last resort. That is highly not recommended but if you face a number of injuries and also the Aguero ban, then you may look into the -8.

That is my take on the Aguero situation, personally I have taken out Aguero for Lukaku as I already have 2 Tottenham players in Lamela and Eriksen.

Written by: @FantasyFoxez

Review of Opening Gameweeks and Future Plans

After three weeks of the new season, I’m ranked 201,203rd overall with 175 points. I’m in a better position than I was at this stage last season, so I’ve got to be happy with that. I’ve only made one transfer so far, which was Deulofeu > Ramirez for gameweek two which didn’t turn out to be very exciting. I have two free transfers going into the international break and £1.0m in the bank. 

                            

                               

  Current team

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Review of Gameweeks 1 - 3

Goalkeeper/Defenders

I’m not usually a fan of doubling up in defence. This season though, I went for David DeGea and Antonio Valencia from the outset. I felt that under Jose Mourinho, United would be solid at the back. This has proven to be the case with just one goal conceded in their opening three fixtures. Valencia also managed to grab all three bonus points in the victory over Hull. Luke Shaw has performed well in the opening couple of weeks but I believe the Ecuadorian is the most valuable United defender in FPL at present. I’ll be keeping a hold of these two for the foreseeable future.

Leighton Baines brought home the points in Gameweek three after disappointing returns in his opening two games. In what could have been a huge points haul for a clean sheet and a penalty scored, Baines instead had to settle for an assist and also lost points (-2) for the penalty miss which Shay Given saved onto the post only for the ball to rebound off him and into the net. The fact that Baines took the penalty is reason enough for me to keep him in my side. The integration of Ashley Williams and the return from injury of Seamus Coleman after the break should yield more clean sheets for the Toffees.

My third playing defender has been a disaster. John Stones has returned four points from his three matches. While Manchester City have been very impressive going forward, they have conceded in every game so far. The signing of Claudio Bravo and the soon returning Vincent Kompany should shore things up at the back for City. I still believe Stones offers very good value at £5.0m for a premium defender and I am willing to stick with him for the time being despite the fact that he will lose value.

Midfielders

Gerard Deulofeu was disappointing in Gameweek one. Playing in an advanced role he had a glorious one on one chance which he bottled and was substituted after 67 minutes. I was worried about his game time going into Gameweek two so I shipped him out for Gaston Ramirez. The Uruguayan caught my eye while watching Match of the Day. He seemed to play quite far forward and bagged himself an assist and was also involved at set pieces. He looks to be a card magnet though with two bookings already and he has yet to play 90 minutes. I’m going to give him one more game to prove his worth against Crystal Palace who have been poor.

Eden Hazard has achieved 25 points in his opening three matches. He’s back to his best and he’s a season keeper for me if he continues his form. I am very reluctant to go down the Diego Costa route due to his anger issues so Hazard will continue as my Chelsea coverage.

A big disappointment for me thus far has been Roberto Firmino. Deployed as a false number nine in Gameweek one, the Brazilian failed to contribute despite Liverpool scoring four goals but he did manage an assist against Spurs in Gameweek three. I still fancy him more so than the other Liverpool options and I’ll be holding on to him for another couple of weeks at least. His points will come.

Another disappointment in the opening weeks has been Andros Townsend. He ranks highly among the players who have had the most shots without scoring but Crystal Palace have been awful. His returns should improve now that they have bolstered their strike force but he is likely to exit my squad before Gameweek four rolls around. He’s had his chance and he’s blown it.    

Nathan Redmond bagged 10 points on the opening day. Playing out of position as a striker he is great value at £6.1m. However, I am worried about his prospects now that Southampton have signed Sofiane Boufal as well as Charlie Austin and Shane Long being viable options up front. He could find himself back on the wing or may even be rotated. I’m going to keep him for now, but I’ll be monitoring his situation closely.

Forwards

In the opening three weeks of the season I deployed a 3-5-2 formation to accommodate the two big hitters, Sergio Aguero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Both have delivered with three goals each. Aguero has been my captian pick every week so far. Now that he is facing a three match ban, action is needed.

Future Plans

My initial plan this season was to use my wildcard around about now, during the international break. This plan has changed. I am quite happy with my squad with no major issues apart from Aguero’s potential ban. I also have two free transfers to play with.

My current thinking is to make two transfers for Gameweek four. Aguero will most likely make way for Romelu Lukaku and Townsend will be upgraded to Alexis Sanchez. I’m under no pressure financially to make these moves any time soon. I’m not a fan of making transfers early, especially not during an international break when any number of things can go wrong for your players. I don’t plan on making these transfers until the Friday before the deadline when I know it is safe to do so and when I know Alexis is back from South America in one piece! My advice to anyone who is wildcarding now and dumping Aguero is to plan ahead for how you will get him back in.   

By holding on to my wildcard, it will be much easier for me to incorporate Aguero back into my team once he has served his ban. If the ban is confirmed he will miss 3 games – only two of these are league games though, so he would become available again for the gameweek six clash away to Swansea. I will most likely use my wildcard at this point but this is not set in stone.

With the transfer deadline only closing yesterday, there remains a lot of question marks at this stage of the season. We have yet to see Dimitri Payet in action for example. How will Wilfried Bony and Christian Benteke settle at their new clubs? By waiting a little longer before playing my wildcard, I will know a lot more about each player and will be better placed to build a team for the long term. Patience is the name of the game here.

My Watchlist

As I mentioned in my first FPL article, I like to keep a watchlist which I update after each Gameweek. My watchlist is made up of the players I feel have a chance of becoming a part of my squad in the near future. You can see my current list below. These are the players who I am monitoring closely and who will be in my thoughts when the time comes to play my wildcard.

 

 

  

 Written by @FPLGeneral, Two-time Top 400 FPL Manager

Gameweek 3 Review - Premium Mids Come To The Fore

After two weeks of the two biggest named strikers stealing the show, in gameweek 3 it was the turn of the premium midfielders. Alexis Sanchez was the FPL player of the week with 2 assists to go with his goal, now off the mark after no attacking returns in the first two gameweeks. While he may lose the Arsenal striker spot to Giroud or new signing Lucas Perez in the coming gameweeks, he remains a valuable acquisition in FPL for his goals record alone (16 in 2014/15, 13 in 2015/16).

Eden Hazard provided 11 points and has now scored as many goals in the first 3 gameweeks as he did in his first 34 last season as he looks to have returned to his best under Conte. His stats before last season were consistently impressive. A combined 28 goals in the two previous seasons are more than any midfielder and he also assisted regularly, with 10 in each season, and 17 the season before. At 10.1 he is 0.8 cheaper than Sanchez and 0.4 cheaper than Man City's De Bruyne, and at the moment looks essential. Fitting Sanchez, Hazard, Ibrahimovic and Aguero into one team will be the aim for many wildcarders, but a tough task.

Not that it is difficult to forget Mesut Ozil as a premium mid after the fruitful season he had for Arsenal, but his goal at Watford was a reminder of the fantasy asset he can be. His runs from midfield are a joy to watch and the way he scored with his head was perhaps a surprise, as he is not known for his goal scoring or his heading ability. He will be looking to improve his scoring record this season and not just provide assists for teammates. Mahrez to Ozil will be a popular transfer over the two week break as the Leicester winger missed a penalty and blanked at home to Swansea.

Refs Have Gone Penalty Mad!

The early initiative from referees to adopt a zero-tolerance attitude towards pushing and pulling in the area has raised a few eyebrows. It is a hot topic in the media after soft penalties were given last week, particularly in the Stoke v Man City game. Refs are continuing to give much more penalties than in previous seasons. Another 6 were awarded this gameweek, but 3 were missed, so it might be worth signing penalty takers with a good record of scoring from the spot.

City Scoring Goals For Fun - But Conceding

Man City have started the season in fine form as the league's highest goal scoring team so far. Despite De Bruyne scoring the most goals and creating the most assists, the player who has surprisingly benefited most of the City midfield has been Raheem Sterling. Sterling has been involved in 5 of City's 9 goals so far. This has caused De Bruyne's ownership to fall from around 12% at the start of the season to just 5.5%, while Sterling's has risen to the same amount. Nolito has 3 goals and Silva and De Bruyne have 2 assists each, so the early signs are that the points will be shared around the City midfield, but De Bruyne could be a wise differential option in a wildcard team. The Belgian's stats were very good between his 2 month injury lay off, with 7 goals and 9 assists in just 25 games.

Scoring is not the issue for Man City as long as Aguero is fit, it is the defence that looks weak and seems to be leaking goals despite being in control of all the games they have played so far. Pep's side have conceded a goal in all three games, meaning John Stones, owned by 34% of managers, has failed to keep a clean sheet. This is a cause for concern going into the Manchester Derby as City are yet to be tested, with an average of 62.2% possession. Fortunately for Stones owners, the goalkeeper situation is now resolved as Claudio Bravo is likely to start in goal after the international break.

Kyle Norbury,

Stoke fan and fantasy football nerd,

Follow me, Kyle on Twitter: @SCFCNerd

DreamTeam - Latecomers League Tips

Tips for the Sun's Dream Team Latecomers £30k league.  

Starting Gameweek 4, that's the weekend after international break. 

Right, to begin with, it's totally changed from last season. No unexpected Daley Blind "Star Man" every game, or Rooney randomly getting "Star Man" against Villa when he admitted he'd had a shocker.  This season the ratings are done by whoscored.com. First tip, get to their site and see who were the top rated players from last season and who's done well at the start of this season. Look at who got the most Man of the Match awards and the top average rated overall players. For instance, you will be surprised to see that Man City's top rated player last season was Nicolás Otamendi. I'm not saying I will pick Otamendi but it's worth noting. That's a good indication of who you want. No point in having a player who doesn't get the right ratings. 

You get the basic 5 points for a clean sheet, 2 for an assist and 5 for a goal regardless of position (no extra points for a defender scoring).  Also with the clean sheets it doesn't matter if your player plays 1 minute or 90 if he's on the pitch he'll get points as if he's played the full match. Likewise when Arsenal were 4-3 down to Liverpool and if they had brought on Kieron Gibbs for the last few seconds he would have scored -3 as it's minus a point for every goal conceded after the first. But it's the ratings of 7.0+ for additional 3 points and the whoscored.com Star Man gets an additional 5. There are no points for a player starting a game. 

Of course, you really want to aim for goals and assists. I always thought there wasn't much point in having a defensive midfielder, who doesn't score or assist but Moussa Dembélé despite only getting three goals and one assist was Spurs top rated player from last season with a higher rating than Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen. So I might rethink that but I would still go for goal scoring midfielders, i.e. Hazard, de Bruyne, Mahrez types. 

You also want clean sheets and top keepers who won't concede many. But a cheaper option from a mid table side who make a fair few saves can also work like Heurelho Gomes of Watford. He actually had a higher average rating than David de Gea over the season. You also have to remember that every game counts. So a Europa league tie against some part timers could be a points fest. Same with domestic cup games.

Also this season you have three transfers per month so you can look ahead and if Manchester City play Hull, Burnley and Sunderland you can fill you boots and put in Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne. Whereas if Arsenal play Chelsea, Manchester United and Barcelona you might not want Mesut Ozil and Oliver Giroud plus if you can get two games a week out of someone then make the transfer. But you have to remember that game weeks start on a Monday so if you have Diego Costa and Chelsea play Monday night then he is locked out after that game until the following Monday. Any player who's team have played cannot be transferred even if they didn't play. 

Prices also rise and fall so if the cheap diamond you selected goes on a good run your mates will be paying more for him and you'll have benefited from picking him early. 

I'd also scan the player list for the under priced players and other players who will do well as someone else at the club is injured or the player priced cheaply at one club has moved to another. So Luke Shaw for example at £2.5m is a must have. I also think John Stones at £3m is under-priced. If Nolito carries on the point scoring form he's started the season on he'll be a must have at £3.5m. 

Finally, I would recommend scanning the fixtures and see who has extra non-league games.

Follow Dream Team Expert on Twitter for more tips!