Fantasy Football Insider – Gameweek 23: Go with the ‘Pools for double your points

In the first insider of the New Year, JOE advises managers to have a gander at players from Liverpool and Blackpool, who both have five games in the next three weeks.

By Conor Heneghan

So how was Christmas for you? Did your team gorge on points like the average man does on turkey, chocolates and booze over the festive season, or was your selection as starved for points as the television schedule was for anything half decent over the last couple of weeks?

Squad rotation utilised by most Premier League managers made team selection very difficult, but the more astute managers would have spotted the potential to pick up points given that there were three gameweeks over the Christmas period.

Even for those of us who couldn’t have been bothered to take the time to make changes (frankly, the lack of opportunity to change between Gameweeks 19 and 20 was a little ridiculous), there was plenty of points on offer considering the displays of some of the more established fantasy football points scorers.

Van der Vaart and Bale enjoyed a productive festive period

Tottenham duo Rafael van der Vaart and Gareth Bale certainly made the most of things over the festive season. The Dutchman totalled 25 points after two goals and an assist over the three games, while Bale scored 21 after two goals for Harry Redknapp’s side.

Further north, Mario Balotelli’s hat-trick against Aston Villa (granted, he didn’t do a lot else) returned 17 points, while a return to form for Dimitar Berbatov saw the Bulgarian notch 22 points thanks to three goals.

The Champion J-League (in association with Champion Sports)

Shane Halligan’s Hal’s Allstars managed to dismiss all doubts about their ability to cling onto the leadership of the Champion J-League to claim the halfway prize with a degree of comfort in the end.

Shane has retained the lead after the New Year fixtures and shows no signs of letting go of the top spot. He is currently 19 points clear of Keith Donnelly’s UpDown FC, with Martin Kelly’s Scouting for Goals, John Murphy’s Team of Gary Breens and Jason Anglim’s The billy danglers making up the rest of the top five.

None of the above teams were the highest scorers in the month of December, however. That honour went to Niall O’Sullivan’s Wet Dream Team and Niall is the latest winner of a Premier League jersey of his choice.

The J-League Top 5:

1. Hal’s Allstars – Shane Halligan: 1090 points
2. UpDown FC – Keith Donnelly: 1071 points
3. Scouting for goals – Martin Kelly: 1062 points
4. Team of Gary Breens – John Murphy: 1061 points
5. The billy danglers – Jason Anglim: 1059 points

What to look out for this week

What to look out for this week

January is an extremely interesting month in fantasy football terms because there are two gameweeks where some teams will have two games to acquire points, while there is also the introduction of an additional wildcard from Gameweek 23 to Gameweek 27 to allow managers to tinker with their sides during and after the January transfer window.

The wildcard doesn’t come in to play until the weekend after next, however, but players from both Liverpool and Blackpool are worth a look this week with both sides in action twice. Bear in mind that both these sides have double gameweeks again in Gameweek 25, so anyone you get in need not be just an impulse buy.

It may not all be rosy in the Anfield garden at the moment, but both Steven Gerrard ( £11.3 million) and Fernando Torres (£11.8 million) looked sharp against Bolton at the weekend and should have ample opportunities to rack up big scores against Blackburn and Blackpool. Joe Cole scored his first Premier League goal for the Reds at the weekend and although I personally don’t see him going on a run of goals after breaking his duck, if you do he can be snapped up for £8.3 million.

Charlie Adam has scored a massive 25 bonus points so far this season

From Blackpool’s perspective, Charlie Adam (£5.4 million) is the obvious choice after overcoming a mid-season lull to score 13 points in his last two games. Other Tangerines worth considering are one of JOE’s favourites, Luke Varney (£4.6 million) and goalkeeper Richard Kingson (£4.0 million), who has made an impressive 37 saves since taking over from the injured Matt Gilks in mid-November.

JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:

Top Dollar: Dimitar Berbatov (£9.3 million). There’s rumours that Wayne Rooney will be left out against Stoke this evening, so the goalscoring onus falls back to the lazy Bulgarian, who has enjoyed a scintillating return to form of late, with eight goals in his last four games.

Mid Range: Gareth Bale (£7.3 million). The hype about Bale this season has been ridiculous, but the flying Welshman has been, eh...flying recently with two goals and three bonus points in his last two games.

Bargain Basement: Charlie Adam (£5.4 million). Takes most of Blackpool’s set-pieces and already has three goals, four assists and a whopping 25 bonus points this season. With two games this week, Adam is almost a must-have.

Irish Pick: Ciaran Clark (£4.4 million). Clark should surely be given a start for Aston Villa against Sunderland after an impressive showing against Chelsea which saw him score his third goal of the season in a dramatic finale.

Captain’s Pick: Steven Gerrard (£11.3 million) Liverpool will need to drastically improve their away form if Gerrard is going to pick up some points in their two games on the road against Blackburn and Blackpool, but the Reds’ talisman was excellent after coming on against Bolton and should be fresh having missed most of the last two months through injury.