They’re undoubtedly the form partnership in the Premier League right now, but is it worth having both Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in your fantasy team?
Gameweek 9 review
It was a tale of one current and one former Liverpool striker as Luis Suarez and Fernando Torres dominated the Premier League agenda at the weekend, one for scoring a quite magnificent hat-trick, the other for a performance that heralded ‘he’s finally back to his old self’ conversations amongst football fans who have definitely had those conversations before over the last two years.
Unsurprisingly, Suarez was the top dog this week with 17 points thanks to a hat-trick and the maximum haul of bonus points against West Brom, followed by Everton’s Tim Howard on 14 points after a clean sheet, a penalty save and three bonus points for his display against Aston Villa.
The aforementioned Torres was one of three players to collect a dozen points along with Southampton’s Rickie Lambert and Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen, with Leon Osman a little further back on ten points.
Defensive quartet Michael Dawson, Laurent Koscielny, Steven Caulker and Ashley Williams all chipped in with nine points apiece and the Dream Team was completed by Andre (Don’t call me) Schurrle, whose goal against Man City earned the Chelsea midfielder eight points.
J-League
All of the top four in the J-League this week took the very rewarding decision to appoint Luis Suarez as captain for this gameweek and as a result, scoring was pretty high in the J-League. Stuart McGoldrick’s Champions 2013/14 opened up some daylight at the top of the league after an excellent 89 points, two points more than Barry Curran’s Gambitbeer in second.
Interestingly enough, both Stuart and Barry have Artur Boruc and two Southampton defenders in their squads and while it’s certainly paying off for now, whether it will pay off in the longer term remains to be seen.
Outside the top two, Paul McInaw’s Poppycock Wednesday are looking good out on their own in third place, nine points ahead of Brian Doherty’s Dynamo Dodos in fourth, while a poor week in comparison to what’s in front of him means that Martin McMahon’s Accent Centic have to be content with fifth spot.
J-League Top 5:
- Champions 2013/14 – Stuart McGoldrick: 623 points
- Gambitbeer – Barry Curran: 612 points
- Poppycock Wednesday – Paul McInaw: 603 points
- Dynamo Dodos – Brian Doherty: 594 points
- Accent Centic – Martin McMahon: 591 points
Time to load up both barrels of the SAS partnership?
While Liverpool’s current and very deadly SAS partnership is a welcome throwback to the days of Shearer and Sutton, it is also a welcome throwback to the days of strike partnerships in general.
Apart from, for example, Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie at Man United and Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani at PSG, strike partnerships in the European game at the moment are quite rare, owing to the advent of formations like 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 and the emergence of players more than capable of doing it all on their own like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Aguero.
Suarez and Sturridge have shown that they too are pretty decent as lone strikers, but as a partnership they have been on fire of late. Since Suarez’s return against Sunderland, the pair have scored ten goals in four league games (Suarez – 6, Sturridge – 4), collected two assists apiece and, between them, have picked up 15 out of an available 24 bonus points (Suarez – 8, Sturridge – 7).
You could argue that Liverpool haven’t faced much in the way of opposition in that period but West Brom looked more than decent against Man United and Arsenal this season and you can only beat what’s in front of you after all. What you can’t argue is that the Reds have looked even more potent since Suarez’s return and their scoring average has gone from a goal a game to three since he’s been back in the side.
The problem for Fantasy managers wishing to combine the two of them in the one side is their prohibitive price. Both Suarez (£11.3 million) and Sturridge (£10.0 million) are proving excellent value for money at the moment but the two of them account for more than a fifth of the total spend available to managers.
It wouldn’t have mattered last weekend when they scored 25 points between them but it is more risky against a top side like Arsenal – who Liverpool play this weekend – who might be more likely to nullify their threat. Stop Suarez and Sturridge and you basically stop Liverpool; they’ve accounted for 14 out of Liverpool’s 17 goals so far this season.
A general rule of thumb in Fantasy Football is that you should jump aboard a bandwagon while it’s hot and the SAS, pardon the inevitable pun, are flying at the moment. With that in mind, particularly for managers who have one of the duo in their side already, it might be time to take a shot at both of them first and ask questions later.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Luis Suarez (£11.3 million). Liverpool face a tough trip to the Emirates this weekend but on this form it’s impossible to ignore Suarez with six goals, two assists, eight bonus points and 46 points in total in his last four games.
Mid-range: Fernando Torres (£8.3 million). Is he finally ‘back to his best’? As it’s around the hundredth time that question has been asked in the last couple of years we have our doubts but he should have gained confidence from his role in the defeat of Man City to take into the clash at Newcastle this weekend.
Bargain Basement: Michael Dawson (£5.3 million). Dawson has played every minute in a Spurs defence that have kept six clean sheets in nine games and is excellent value at a touch over five million quid.
Irish Pick: Seamus Coleman (£5.6 million). Down to a lack of alternatives as much as anything else, we’re plumping for Coleman again after his clean sheet at Aston Villa last weekend.
Captain’s Pick: Sergio Aguero (£11.4 million). Now the second highest scorer in Fantasy Football behind Daniel Sturridge, Aguero has six goals in five league games and doesn’t look likely to stop at home to Norwich this weekend.
