Continuing our players to watch series, we now come to the views of Bill Edgar, a football writer at The Times and a self-confessed statistics enthusiast. We can expect Bill's submissions to be based more on hard data than the more common heartfelt prediction and as such it is no surprise that the selections below are new to our list. Bill writes:
"Having scored more than 100 goals for Manchester United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is hardly an unknown quantity, but there is a perception that he is well past his best. Yet which player scored goals more frequently than any other in the Premier League last season? None other than the Norwegian striker, who retains the coolness in the penalty area that he first showed as a United player in 1996.
"Solskjaer has been badly hit by injury in recent years and only managed to play the equivalent of just over ten full league matches last season. Fantasy managers should only attempt to draft him into their squads after careful scrutiny of the latest medical bulletins, and the striker is only just returning to training after undergoing surgery on his troublesome knee. But if the 34-year-old makes it on to the pitch, he should make it into your fantasy team.
"Shaun Wright-Phillips is another player who has already achieved fame and fortune having won a dozen England caps and prompted Chelsea to pay £21 million for his transfer from Manchester City two years ago. Yet his career stagnated at Stamford Bridge and a consensus arose that he had made a mistake in joining such a large and talented squad that meant he struggled to gain regular action.
"However, things started to click for Wright-Phillips as the most recent campaign drew to a close. After failing to play all 90 minutes in any of his first 45 league appearances for the club, he did so in six of the subsequent nine to the end of last season as he suddenly became prominent in Jose Mourinho’s thoughts.
"Furthermore, as a winger, Wright-Phillips is likely to benefit from the manager’s intention to revert to the 4-3-3 system that was ditched last season, especially if Arjen Robben’s prospective move to Real Madrid goes ahead.
"Tom Huddlestone was a regular performer for Derby County at 16 and has looked at home at both Premier League and England Under-21 level yet he remains far from a household name. The Tottenham Hotspur midfield player lacks pace but possesses most other attributes, especially an ability to deliver defence-splitting passes that has led some of the club’s fans to label him Tom Hoddlestone in honour of Glenn Hoddle, a former great at White Hart Lane.
"That skill was evident during Tottenham’s friendly victory over Orlando Pirates in South Africa on Saturday and it may be sufficient to earn him a berth in the centre of midfield despite the presence in the squad of Didier Zokora and Jermaine Jenas. If so, his assists may become a valuable commodity for fantasy managers."
And so our list thus far is as follows:
Robin Van Persie (Arsenal)
Sulley Muntari (Portsmouth)
Andriy Voronin (Liverpool)
David Healy (Fulham)
David Bentley (Blackburn Rovers)
Luke Moore (Aston Villa)
Adel Taarabt (Tottenham)
Darren Bent (Tottenham)
Michael Dawson (Tottenham)
Joey Barton (Newcastle United)
Shay Given (Newcastle United)
Kieran Richardson (Sunderland)
Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal)
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United)
Shaun Wright-Phillips (Chelsea)
Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham)
Comments (3)
I am not sure that it is right to be tipping Joey Barton given his behaviour on the practice ground!
Posted by David Kissman | August 2, 2007 6:43 PM
Posted on August 2, 2007 18:43
He isnt exactly gonna go down for that though surely, more likely community service or two weeks at centre parcs!
Posted by Steve | August 3, 2007 12:41 PM
Posted on August 3, 2007 12:41
Barton is injured anyway so i will be avoiding him like the plague
Posted by Eggbert Barwinkle | August 4, 2007 8:56 PM
Posted on August 4, 2007 20:56