The main man in the United attack in the absence of RVP, Wayne Rooney is in form and facing into a kind-looking run of fixtures between now and the end of the season.
Gameweek 32 review
Gameweek 32 proved a particularly profitable week for teams wearing red as players from teams with some sort of rouge on their home kits took up nine of the 11 places on offer in the Dream Team this week.
None of those nine players were the highest scorers, however, with that honour falling to Swansea’s Jonathan de Guzman after his brace of goals against Norwich, for which he also collected three bonus points for a 16-point total.
England strikers Wayne Rooney and Jay Rodriguez were next best with 13 points after both scored twice against Aston Villa and Newcastle respectively, with Rooney’s team-mate Juan Mata amongst a quintet of players who scored 12 points alongside Jon Flanagan, Joel Ward, Andy Carroll and Adam Lallana.
Glen Johnson brought Liverpool’s defensive representation to two after 11 points for his efforts against Spurs, with the Dream Team made up by Cardiff’s Jordan Mutch and Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.
J-League
It’s all coming up Curran at the top of the J-League this week after long-time leader Barry Curran was joined in the top two by his namesake James Curran, whose ^ Thank Youuuuu ^ side rocketed into second place after a mightily impressive 77 points this week.
We’re not sure if James is a relation of Barry’s but Fantasy Football knowledge certainly runs in the blood of both and with only 19 points separating them, Barry now has huge competition to keep him on his toes between now and the end of the season.
Outside of the two Currans, Adrian Marnane’s Michu at De Gea Bar stayed in touch in third with a respectable 57 points, which was enough to keep them eight points ahead of Paul McInaw’s Poppycock Wednesday in fourth.
Meanwhile, Eoin McGovern’s The Special 11 made what could be well be their first appearance in the top five this season after an above average 68 points put them into fifth and within three points of Poppycock Wednesday one place above.
J-League Top 5:
- Gambitbeer – Barry Curran: 2,165 points
- ^ Thank Youuuuu ^ – James Curran: 2,146 points
- Michu at De Gea Bar – Adrian Marnane: 2,135 points
- Poppycock Wednesday – Paul McInaw: 2,127 points
- The Special 11 – Eoin McGovern: 2,124 points
Over to Roo for the home straight
Has Wayne Rooney had a good season this season? The jury seems to be out. For some, he has justified his bumper new contract by being the one shining light in a very dark season for Manchester United while for others, he has been slightly better than mediocre and has been richly rewarded for playing both United and Chelsea to a tee before the start of the season.
Looking at it purely from a stats perspective, however, Rooney has had a very good campaign to date. Nobody would argue, for example, about Daniel Sturridge’s excellence this season but Rooney has allotted only three points fewer than the Liverpool striker in Fantasy Football terms so far.
Rooney’s 15-goal tally in the league is already better than in five of the last seven seasons and if he manages two more assists between now and the end of the season – he currently has 12 – it will be the highest amount of assists he has managed in the same period.
Rooney’s detractors will point to the fact that he’s been a bit of a flat-track bully this season and the majority of his goals (11 of 15) have come against sides in the bottom half of the table. Thankfully for Fantasy Football managers, that’s pretty much irrelevant as far the rest of the season is concerned as three of the six teams United face in the run-in are currently in the bottom half and two of those in the top half – Newcastle and Southampton – are positioned below United as things stand.
Another reason why managers might be tempted by Rooney is that, in the absence of Robin van Persie, he is likely to play as a lone striker up front and thereby likely to get more goals; indeed, since RVP’s injury last month, he has bagged four in three league games.
At £11.5 million Rooney is far from cheap and getting him into your team might require a transfer or two and a squad reshuffle, but with United’s run-in looking reasonably kind and things seemingly picking up a little bit at Old Trafford, it could be a sh-Roo-d move at such a crucial stage of the season.
JOE’s Fantasy Football Picks:
Top Dollar: Wayne Rooney (£11.5 million). Four goals in his last three games and six goals and 50 points in total in his last six games, Rooney is one of the traditional spurts that make him nigh on a cast-iron choice for Fantasy managers.
Mid-Range: Christian Eriksen (£6.5 million). Was as poor as the rest of the Spurs side against Liverpool, but prior to that he was responsible for two goals, an assist and 18 points against Southampton and has every chance of making a positive impact when struggling Sunderland visit White Hart Lane on Monday.
Bargain Basement: Joel Ward (£4.3 million). Crystal Palace might be stuck in the middle of a relegation battle but they don’t concede an awful lot of goals and after his assist against Chelsea at the weekend, Ward is probably the pick of the Eagles’ rearguard at the moment.
Irish Pick: Shane Long (£5.7 million). Long is not the prolific type but he’s been in good form since moving to Hull City and is due a goal against Swansea this weekend having only struck once in his last seven games.
Captain’s Pick: Luis Suarez (£13.2 million). With that four-game ‘drought’ of a few weeks’ back well and truly behind him, we don’t see much point in taking the armband off the Player of the Year in waiting at this point.
