Fantasy Football: A good pick for goalkeeper?
Richard Lenton is an experienced journalist and broadcaster. He was the editor of the critically-acclaimed but rarely bought Football Punk magazine in the UK, before heading to Singapore to present live football coverage on Mio TV. www.richardlenton.co.uk
Selection dilemmas
Helping you choose the right players for your Yahoo! Fantasy Premier League team
According to an interview Dutch legend Ruud Gullit once gave to British TV, goalkeepers are goalkeepers because they can’t play football.
However, these days, goalkeepers have to be as adept with the ball at their feet as they are with their hands. A brilliant shot-stopper like the former Manchester United and Australia ‘keeper Mark Bosnich would surely struggle in the current era of the ‘Sweeper Keeper’ as he could barely kick a football.
Napoli’s Pepe Reina can apparently hold his own as an outfield player in training, but arguably the best Sweeper Keeper currently plying his trade in the EPL is Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris.
The Frenchman is relatively expensive on Yahoo Fantasy Football at £10.94m, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Lloris has so far picked up 66 points; a handsome return compared to Manchester United’s David De Gea for instance, who costs £13.08m and who has picked up a paltry 23 points from the opening six matches.
Lloris has every chance of adding to his four clean sheets when West Ham visits north London this weekend. In the past dozen meetings between the two sides at White Hart Lane, Tottenham have won eight, drawn four and lost none. And, without Andy Carroll, West Ham look distinctly powder-puff in attack.
Even Lloris’s rival for the goalkeeping jersey at White Hart Lane believes that the Frenchman’s qualities make him perfect for the way Spurs’ boss Andre Villas-Boas plays.
“AVB (Villas-Boas) wants us to play a high line and wants us to attack teams,” Friedel told Sky TV.
“Hugo is very good for that style. He is a very good goalkeeper and very quick in his decision making off the line. In 10 games, we’ve conceded two goals.”
Pick of the weekend: Everton not to lose at Manchester City
Making sense of the statistics to come up with a Premier League dead cert
Everton’s last six trips to the Etihad have yielded four wins, a draw and just a solitary defeat – an incredible record when you consider how strong Manchester City have become since 2008 when owner Sheikh Mansour invested barely comprehensible amounts of money into the club.
Everton are now the only unbeaten side in the top division, having recorded three successive victories since a sluggish start to the campaign when new boss Roberto Martinez presided over three straight draws.
Martinez has changed Everton’s style of play. The Toffees have become a much more attractive side to watch, and they regularly dominate possession in matches – and ball retention will be key against a Manchester City side who were starved of the ball by Bayern Munich in midweek in their one-sided home defeat in the Champions League.
City boss Manuel Pellegrini will demand a reaction from his players following that 3-1 loss, and he will surely address his side’s defensive frailties – Joe Hart, Micah Richards and Matija Nastasić all struggled grimly against the German giants, and the latter two could well drop to the bench for this one. However, will tinkering with the back-four be enough to propel City to victory over an Everton side brimming with confidence? I somehow doubt it.
