The Takeaway from GW16

No sooner is GW16 in the books than we need to think about GW17 and beyond as the fixtures come fast and furious over the next 2 weeks.

1.  Christmas came early in my FF world.  When I went to bed last night, I was hoping for a nice, average score, somewhere in the mid/high50s, given my misfiring captain, Emmanuel Adebayor.  I was hoping to keep pace with others in my minileague and stay in the 30K range world ranking.  Lo and behold, Santa left me a great big, brightly wrapped, blinking green arrow !  Adebayor and my team's latest new boy, Brad Friedel jump on 3 BPs; to go with 3 for Sturridge and Silva, and suddenly a 67 point GW was under the tree !  Saw me move to within 3 points of my minileague leader and just over 22K in the world. 

But this GW was a reminder of how consistently solid David Silva is, both in the real world and in terms of his FF delivery. A goal, his first home goal in a while, and the full 3 BPs (despite Samir Nasri being named the MOM at the game) saw an 11 pointer for the Spaniard his 4th double figure haul this year.

2.  Royston Drenthe can play.   In a 20 minute cameo, he looked easily the best player Everton has in attack.  Although his assist was a bit fortuitous, coming off a scuffed shot, he could easily have had 2 goals but for good saves by Ruddy.  He was full of movement and pace and looked to take on defenders at every opportunity.  I saw him earlier in the year and thought 'meh' - but at 5.9 with a good near term schedule, including DGW20 (SWN, sun, wba, BOL/tot, avl, BLA), he looks a very decent option for a 3 week flyer if he is well and truly over his injury.  Everton's inability to keep CSs really hurts Baines' appeal at 7.8 and Jagielka at 5.4, and with a poor attack, most will be avoiding Everton despite the upcoming DGW.  Drenthe's 20 minute cameo has me reconsidering.

3.  Fingers crossed, Evans looks a steal.  No one knows what's in SAF's mind from week to week in terms of Man Utd's line-up, but for 2 straight GWs the back 4 was Smalling, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra.  With Fletcher and Cleverly out so that Jones looks a midfield fixture, this might be SAF's default back 4.  I suspect SAF would like to settle on a fixed back 4 (as any manager would, I certainly do as a coach). If that's the case, Evans is looking like the second coming of Enrique.

4.  By the way, Liverpool defense.  Skrtel's goal will shed a little light on a pretty well-kept secret, the meanest defense in the EPL.  Liverpool have conceded only 13 goals this year, 1 less than Man Utd and 2 less than Man City.  35% of managers have Enrique but Skrtel and Agger are 6.0/5.9 and Dalglish has opted for these 2 over Carragher (as a Liverpool fan, something I think that's been long, long overdue) and with a very, very good near term schedule (aside from a trip to MNC), is doubling down on Liverpool's defense the worst idea ?

5.  What to do with Suarez ?  Despite his uncanny ability to miss chances, 27.5% of managers have kept faith.  His EA PPI and FFS/ICT numbers look good (nobody creates/takes more shots), and when you watch him you see an all-action figure who creates 3-4 quality chances a week for himself but . . . he doesn't have a single double figure GW all season.  Now the Evra and Fulham finger incidents may result in an enforced layoff but if you have him, even aside from a suspension threat, you have to look at the likes of Ba, Sturridge, Adebayor, or even Yakubu, Morison, Holt or Klasnic, and say I can put the extra cash to some use.

6.  Eyewitness says Bolton are Dead Men Walking.  My good friend Bretto, manager of ForzaInter, is in London for a Christmas holiday (jealous nashing of teeth) and he was at Craven Cottage for the 2-0 Fulham win over Bolton.  He reports that Ruiz, Dembele and, especially Dempsey, were very impressive.  Ive been bigging Clint Dempsey all year and yesterday was his 3rd double figure points haul this season.  He sits tied for 4th in midfield FF points.  Tough near term schedule, but when the schedule clears he's a guy who should be on your Watch List.

Bretto gives a picture of Bolton as listless no-hopers, however.  As a Bolton fan, that's depressing, but as a FF manager I guess the takeaway is, I might want to think about the players in my squad as starters/captain material if Bolton are in the headlights.  I really, really like Owen Coyle as a manager and hope they can win at Blackburn this week which might get Coyle's head off the chopping block.  It's probably down to whether bargain price forward  Ivan Klasnic can continue his form which sees him in the top 10 of forwards for FF points so far this year, despite serving a 3 game ban.

7.  I don't think Vermaelen's 7 goals in 2009-10 were an accident.  Man City were deserved 1-0 winners yesterday, I thought, but Arsenal were within a whisker of tieing it late through a couple of Vermaelen strikes.  Joe Hart had to be sharp on 1 and another was about 6" to the left of the post from being an equalizer.  He's got 3 goals already, and on yesterday's evidence, you wouldn't bet against him doubling that this year.  At 6.9, and Arsenal's good defensive record since he came back from injury, he might be a good transition from Baines or Vidic (if you had the Serb).  With few midfielders in the ~7.0 price range Vermaelen is that 'triple threat' (attacking/CS/BP) defender it's worth looking at if you are willing to add a defender at the cost of a midfielder in your formation.