442 seems to be quite popular this year as a formation to use, and I'm pretty much set on it myself. The plan was to have 4 defenders from decent teams, Ronaldo with three 7-8million midfielders and then two forwards in the 9-9.5 million range. This also left scope for a strong bench.

However, in the past week or so, the fantastic value to be had in the 7-8 million midfielder range seems to have disappeared. The landscape has changed completely.

Cahill - Injured.
Gilberto - Rested for how long?
Bentley - Misses GW2
Barry - Misses GW2
Barton - Suspended
MGP - Misses GW2
Scholes - Injured for start of season
Lennon - Injured.
Taylor - The mother of all fixture starts.
etc etc

So suddenly the sparsity of fit/available midfielders in this midprice range means that really there are eff all to consider for your starting team. You now have to look at paying more for Cesc or Arteta and hope they are as good as last season, or less on players such as Nolan, McSheffrey, Speed, Downing and none of these really inspire much confidence for various reasons. One is ok, but not two or three.

So what are other people who were considering this tactic thinking now?

YI'll rotate between 4-3-3 and 4-4-2.

I'm away to experiment 5 - 2 - 3!

You missed Malbranque of your 'potentials' list.

Yeah, I've been trying that too.



Another average 6-7mil player alright.

8th highest scoring midfielder in the 05/06 season for FU. 6.5m now and playing for a much stronger team. Fit and in form .....

Its worth routing out some of the discussions on Spur's potential formation eg: TFF Forum

442 vs 433 with speculation on Robbie Keane's role, either "floating" behind front two or a return to left wing (assuming not warming the bench). The later option could eat into SM's game time. Jenas is only 0.5 more yet still provides a goal threat. Also worth considering as place appears more secure (plus I wanna keep Steed all to myself )

Tricky eh Rob? I am not letting GW2 affect my thinking much at all to be honest, and I have tended to spend a bit more in defence rather than midfield, so can't help too much in that position. Arteta was the first player on my list though, 8.5 is still good value for him, providing, of course, he keeps his form (and head!)

Will he play, though?

I think so, based on his pre-season. And at 6.5 I think he's an affordable risk, given the shortage of staff in GW2.

Following on from Flyman's tip, I'm beginning to get a bit more interested in him. He has had a good preseason, Spurs have an easy enough first three games, and to my mind he seems likely to start most games. I'd have the Spurs midfield as Lennon/Tainio, Jenas, Zokora, Steed.

But there are a lot of Spurs midfielders with Routledge, Taarabt, Murphy etc all capable of taking gametime from him.

Steed was a brilliant fantasy man at Fulham with Saha & Boa Morte. Then he had a falling out with the manager and he just dropped away (injuries, inferior teammates, etc).

I suspect Steed maybe on the same wave length as Berbatov and Keane (both clever players) and could be a good bet. But when Jol starts tinkering come European competitions it going to tougher (and Lennon gets back).

He's in my side (for now).

I think Tottingham will do very, very well this year but, like Liverpool players, a strong bench is needed to cover the fact that these players will get more rotation than a rotary washing line full of my wife's knickers in a Force 8 gale!

yeah this is where the problem lies. which is why there are good arguements for

1. players such as arteta who will be at the core of everything a top 6* team do
2. spending more on defence - since these players tend to be rotated less often and cost less




* assuming everton break the 1 good season / 1 f--k up season cyle

Spurs defenders should be a safer option

A lot of people are getting too bogged down with the fixtures and the unknowns which means players like Muntari, Petrov {both} and Milner are getting ignored - take some risks people these 3 players in particular are going to get points trust me...

I had Milner to start with, but I think he is a cheeky bit overpriced at 6.5m, but I do agree that he could well have a great season this year. Don't know about the others, though.

M.Petrov has a decent assists/goals record at Wolfsburg a few years before his Spain stay so perhaps he'll come good if he adapts but I think it's too early to snap up new players from an unpredictable side as yet. Good individual though, voted Bulgarian POTD 2006.