Early pre-season squad experiments... all help, ideas and thoughts appreciated



In list format for blahblah's convenience
Robinson
Bramble
Givet
Shawcross
Malouda
Fabregas
Arteta
Petrov
Tevez
Rooney
Doyle
-----------
Foster
Ferguson
Dann
TaylorS

Nice team Iron, I won't be bothering with mine too much until a few more transfers have taken place. One thing I would look for though is 1 or 0.5 in the bank ready for those necessary early changes.

Ace reason

Robinson
Bramble
Givet
Shawcross
Malouda
Fabregas
Arteta
Petrov
Tevez
Rooney
Doyle
-----------
Foster
Ferguson
Dann
TaylorS

Your frequent use of the smiley/icon makes me think we're using it for different purposes, or that you are far too easily shocked by trivial things.

Could you please explain why some of these players shock you...

Well you didn't give any for including them

Check out the link for where I am, at the moment.

Wigan, Newcastle and two Blackburn defenders are decidedly dodgy IMHO

Yes, you have a point there.
But any serious alterations to my team will require getting rid of Fabregas or Arteta...

Which is why I am only really putting markers down, but I still think it looks OK.

My current team is VERY similiar to yours, only difference is that I'm only playing one big gun up front and use the spare money for my defense.

This is definitely work-in-progress and modifications will be made on regular basis.
Feel free to comment or take the piss out of my designs...



I'm still uncomfortable about 3 Birmingham players and Bale feels a wee dodgy, let alone picking Rooney over Drogboom...

Changing bramble by craddock isn't a good choice?

And i see better players in spite of petrov. At the same price of 0.5 less. But i enjoyed the team. Good work

The players I'm still having doubts with, and their potential replacements;

GK: Sorensen. a 4.5 keeper Robinson or Jaaskalainen.
Def: Bramble. trade up to Upson at 5.0m which I can afford now.
Mid: Bale. looking at Dempsey/Diamanti/Bilyaletdinov/Kranjcar/Flatcher...
Att: Doyle. downgrade to Ameobi.

Your ideas...

Bit early to be dotting i's and crossing t's IMHO. They are OK as markers for cash etc.

Surely getting the structure is all you\we can do at the moment?

Hahnemann is a good choice of keeper too. For me Hahnemann or Robinson.

Bramble by Upson a good move but still prefer craddock

Doyle Lovenkrands not better? I think he is gonna be the principal striker of Newcastle. But never know

I think Bale should stay in, but if you're going to move Dempsey or Kranjcar

Pulis has described Nash as third-choice and stated that Sorensen is staying.

This is my 1st draft team and my 1st year playing fpl , feed back would be good
gk.howard
d1,jagielka
d2,evans
d3,vidic
d4,ivanovic

m1.arteta
m2,moulada
m3 petrov
m4 nzogbia

st1.drogba
st2,rodallega
subs
foester , adam ,carrol, kosielny

I've heard (only from a mate in Stoke) that Sorensen may be off to Celtic - sort of sounds plausible, they've gotten rid of Boruc to Fiorentina and Newcastle refused to let Harper go.

Thnks guys.

It might be a good idea altogether to avoid any and all SC GKs until the picture is clearer there. If Schwartzer really moves then he might become a good option instead of Sorensen.

Bale still worries me. If all these new additions to Tot will materialise he'll be kept back and losses some/most of his FPL charm. Will have to see who gets more mentions in the press before season start to think of a replacement.

I'd chose Samba, over Givet. Samba is more attacking DEF, isn't he?
Rooney could miss the first match against NU?
Don't have any expencive DEF?

Well that's concrete then Pulis doesn't seem to have faith in Sorensen, theres been talk of fall outs before and remember he tried to sign David James last year when there was talk of Sorensen leaving....I may be wrong but I doubt we'll be seeing the Big Dane between the sticks next season to be fair

Pulis's quote on the subject is here, so now you can decide for yourself (if you believe him )

I find myself drawn to a couple of combinations and can't make my mind up between them. Yes I know there's plenty of time and that we'll know more before the season starts, but this is an interesting point in itself.

[Rooney & Bale] Vs [RVP & Arteta].
Huge impact last season Vs Potential huge impact this season.

What do you lot think?

Rooney is due to be rested at the start of the season ; Bale is now in midfield, so he will lose points ; Rvp is fit at the moment , Citeh are rumoured to be after Arteta , but then they are after anyone who can kick a ball, allegedly

In this Striker+Midfielder combo qunandrum I decided to go with Drogba+Bale, though I'm still looking for a better option than Bale. He is fast becoming a too popular choice for my liking, which guarantees he'll under-perform FPL wise.

Thus I'm trying now all sorts of combos replacing these players:

Att: Tevez 10.5m and/or Doyle 5.5m RVP/Bent/Hernandez
Mid: Bale 6.5m Kranjcar/Bilyaletdinov/Hunt/Parker/Fletcher
Def: Ridgewell 5.0m Dann/Nelsen/Craddock
GK: Robinson 4.5m Schwartzer

Total: 32.0m

Hmm...

Well, I've managed to make some changes, the main one being ousting Malouda for Essien which freed a bit of cash for improvements, chief amongst them upgrading Doyle to Bent.

Here's my current team...



The two debatable spots are Dunn & Figueroa which are worth 11.0m together.
I picked Dunn as he seems to be in good form (managed the game and scored against Southport) and good spirits (spoke enthusiastically about improvement of Blackburn's away games this season). Figueroa might be moving to Liverpool (?) so that's a positive move for him and at that price... This change also allowed me to upgrade Robinson to Schwartzer, yet again a potential upgrading move.

So, what do you gents think of my team?

It does not look like your team for the season KO.

Que?

There seems to be more transfers being mooted this close season than I can remember, let alone the players who will not have their expected first-team slots moving on. From Citeh Ireland, Bridge and Bellamy can be expected to be a tad narked; Arsenal have gone back in for Jags; if the Jol and Ibramovich to Fulham story is correct, what about Zamora to Liverpool? If Evra or A Cole goes to Real, there is a position up up grabs. This is without Fa/FFL going or staying...........

While there may not actually be that many transfers, they could be very FF relevant

I still seem to miss something. Either I've become dumber over the summer, or you have not been taking our pills regularly
I understand what you are saying about further repositioning of players before the start of the season and that further changes will be made even to my illustrious team but all I wanted was an assessment of the squad I presented... so what am I missing?

Just repeating myself, really.

All this twitching and tweaking is a bit of a waste. Try thinking more about distribution of cash, fixtures, contingency plans for key FF transfers happening, or not happening etc.

Don't see any problem in it. This make my team looks terrible

I'm not sure Essien will get forward that much, though with Ballack gone, perhaps he will.

As for your strong forward line (which has resulted in your "weak" defense), that's fine if we have a repeat of 09/10 with lots of goals and less clean sheets than normal - but if the league goes back to 08/09 scoring, then you'll be lacking defensive players from the stronger defensive lineups...Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa etc. If Schwarzer went to Arsenal, you'd tick that box...but right now, he plays for Fulham & I think Wenger's gone off him anyway.

It's the best team I've seen posted here.

But I have few questions:

a)Is Foster as good as Hart? Hart was unbelievable last season and he earned 140 points, so can Foster get anywhere near his point tally as Birmingham could potentially suffer 2nd season syndrome (or at least be a lesser force in Premierleague)? I have a felling that we should look for first choice keeper elsewhere.

b) Perhaps drop Dunn for Etherington and switch Essien with Modric. Injury prone player + defensive midfielder for reliable set piece taker + creative force of Tottenham. I prefer the last one, but both cases still looks adventurous so early in preseason.

No 3rd Chelsea player?

Thanks for all the comments lads.
I simply love this tinkering and will no doubt continue to do further more before the season starts.
I have brought a 3rd Chelski player on board at the cost of ousting Bent for Doyle and getting also Arteta in instead of Dunn.

This is how my team looks atm...


However, I have concerns with;
1. Robinson & Foster which I'll have to upgrade when the money allows. I'd like to have at least one top flight fister.
2. I have removed Shawcross out. Icky 4 first fixtures and I'm not sure he'll have the confidence of last year.
3. TaylorS and all 3 promoted teams players will have to prove themselves first. Not in my team.
4. Both Arteta and Petrov worry me. If I'm brave enough I might change Arteta to Cahill/Nani and Petrov to N'zogbia.
5. My last worry is Doyle who can have a great season especially when Hunt is back, but I also consider N'gog is he moves to WBrom.

Fire away...