FPLZ 2012/13 Season Preview: Liverpool F.C.

Liverpool F.C.

The Reds with their kit by new sponsor.

You can download the full analyzed squad data here.

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Last Season: Worst Yet
It was indeed quite surprising that Liverpool had undergone their worst ever Premier League season last term under the management of the legendary Kenny Dalglish. Terribly overpriced purchases, coupled with stubborn tactical approach (reluctance to start in-form Maxi Rodriguez regularly) has led to such a catastrophic season. Luck did not go in their favour neither, as they hit the posts and bars so regularly as if they were the "goals".

This Summer: New Manager, New Hope
Brendan Rodgers becomes the new Liverpool manager after such a successful Premier League debut season with Swansea City. There are more outs (Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez, Fabio Aurelio and the latest, Alberto Aquilani) than ins (Fabio Borini) currently, with the negotiation to buy Clint Dempsey fails to reach a consensus.

Upcoming Season: Tiki-Taka Transformation?
It is expected to see Rodgers blending his trademark continental football style into the team. However, things can be tough with majority of Liverpool team so used to English style of football. Nonetheless, tiki-taka should be rolled on easier with one or two more additions to the squad.

Suarez: Ajax vs Liverpool.

Hoping for A Better Year: Suarez (FI: 0.421)
Not quite a fine season for Luis Suarez (£9.5m) with only 11 goals - I would have expect the Uruguayan who has just signed a new contract with Liverpool to have at least a 15-goal season.

Still, fantasy committee are putting good faith on him by tagging him £9.5m this season. He should improve though, as I believe the tiki-taka approach should fit him better. Hopefully he can achieve a 15 goal o even 20 goal season then.

Gerrard's historical P90.

Back to His Best?: Gerrard (FI: 0.347)
Steven Gerrard (£9.5m) has been mediocre for the past few seasons due to a series of injuries and tactical failures, but signs do indicate that he is returning to his best.

Gerrard's P90 last season wasn't that bad actually - 5.54 was his third best over the last 6 seasons. Sure, injuries are limiting his playing time, but if he can stay fit this season, you can be hopeful of a solid season from the skipper, especially when he has done so well in the Euro tournament.


Rodgers' Choice: Borini (FI: N/A)
It was quite a long time before Rodgers acquired his first signing at Liverpool, and that lad is Fabio Borini (£8.0m), someone Rodgers had known long enough. The gaffer first worked with the Italian when he was an youth team coach at Chelsea, then at Swansea where Borini joined on loan.

The understanding is there between the two, so one would expect Borini to click instantly into Rodgers' system. Still, it remains to be seen whether Rodgers has the players to unleash Borini's potential.

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Brendan Rodgers: The Winners and Losers Under His Management?

Meet the new Liverpool gaffer.

Overview
Clearly Brendan Rodgers has taken the tough road to join Liverpool in his attempt to bring the old brand of football back to where "it's supposed to be". FPLZ analyzes the impact that the new Liverpool manager is going to bring to the players, especially in fantasy terms.

Out of the Topic: Public Relations Management
It's good to see Liverpool is not taking in another Roy Hodgson - a manager who is so poor in handling the players, the fans, and the press. Rodgers gives Fenway Sports Group a complete different package from the current England national team manager - not only the very different style in tactics, but also his much more superior PR management. For example:

“I know there are three types of supporters at every club,” he said. “Number one is those who, no matter who the manager is, they love their club and they will love their manager because Liverpool is their life and their passion. The second group is supporters who will accept you but to earn their real respect you will have to be successful. That’s fine.


"The third group are the critics and you never change them ever. Ever."


"I only want to work with the people who love the club. I have always had good relations with the media and with the supporters. I’m open and honest. I understand that not everybody will want me here. But that’s part of the dance.”


It remains to be seen how well would he cope with the constant high expectations at Merseyside, but at the moment, he has shown good degree of charisma and has definitely earned my respect.

Tactical Analysis
Tiki-taka was the famous brand Rodgers has established at Swansea, and thanks to such style of play he had managed to win against the big teams such as Manchester City, Arsenal and also Liverpool. It was indeed quite surprising that he actually led Swansea to beat Arsenal via an even more "Arsenal" way.

His tiki-taka approach heavily emphasizes on small triangular pass-and-move, where there are always two players sticking around the ball holder to provide support and ensure that the ball is always under their control. This definitely is not expected to blend instantly into Liverpool's current crop of players, though there are some players who can adapt to this style at ease.

The Defence
The back line is perhaps the most prepared ones for Rodgers infusion of tiki-taka play. Reina has always been a good commander and should have no problem adapting to the new tactics; Agger will be more than happy to stick the ball to the ground; Enrique and Johnson are both fast, offensive wing backs and should also cope well. Skrtel may struggle a bit in the beginning, but with all his defensive partners more than ready to adapt, he should be comfortable with the new style soon enough.

The Midfield
In the midfield, Lucas has developed into a great ball distributor - no problem, though I don't see how a DM is going to benefit from this fantasy wise; Gerrard is always the world class player who can take on any challenges - no problem as well; Sigurdsson, if he's joining, should blend readily since he had already flourished under Rodgers at Swansea.

The Offence
Suarez is the type of player you had expect him to blend instantly into the tiki-taka system - playing with Barcelona is always his ambition anyway; I am a little bit skeptical towards Carroll's response to this new system, especially when Ibrahimovic had actually deteriorated Barca's tiki-taka play in the past; Downing, on the other hand, still gets my vote of confidence despite his poor season - his stats wasn't that bad honestly.

The Bench
Henderson will need a good time to adapt in my opinion - he's a good runner, but needs to know his direction; Adam for me is the biggest loser under Brendan Rodgers - he likes to play long balls and that violates the principles of tiki-taka; Maxi, if he stays, should fuse readily with the system as Argentinians are good ground players; while Aquilani, if he returns, may become Rodgers favourite with the flair he's providing; not to be forgotten is the returning Joe Cole who had a successful revival at Lille - he can be the important chess piece of the new gaffer.

Verdict
I believe you have gotten the idea who will become good Liverpool fantasy assets in this coming season. Agger, in my opinion, will definitely be the top gainer under Rodgers' system with increased participation in offence, while players such as Gerrard, Suarez and Downing can expect a better season ahead if the new gaffer can deliver the same thing he had delivered at Swansea in the past.

Read here for a intensive tactical analysis on Liverpool written by TPiMBW on "The Path Is Made By Walking".

Kick-Off: Gameweek 16 Fantasy Preview

Darren Fletcher is suffering from a possibly career ending
infection. No more Fletcher in the rest of this season, at least.

Overview
Clearly Darren Fletcher's infection of ulcerative colitis is the biggest news over the week as there are fears that he might have to end his career as a football player prematurely. May god bless him.

As for fantasy managers, this week or the next are one the best period to utilize your wildcard if it is still available. Plan your transfers well and you can go very far during this hectic Christmas fixtures. Good luck.

Game of the Week: MANCHESTER CITY v ARSENAL

Can Van Persie destroy
City?

City surely are looking forward to recover from their first defeat against Chelsea last week, but it won't be easy as Arsenal will travel to Etihad Stadium this week.

Arsenal has managed to close the gap to single digit following City's lost, and Wenger will hope that his squad can do some miracles away at Manchester City. Van Persie is on course to renew Shearer's record of 36 Premier League goals in a calendar year and surely will show no mercy towards Kompany and co's defence. A sure starter despite such tough oppositions.

Yet I'm pretty sure City will find any possible way to rebound from their first defeat of the season, and a victory against the Gunners will be the best way to shut doubters' mouth. In fact, almost every player of City is a goal threat and it will be very hard for Arsenal to guard Silva, Aguero, Balotelli, Yaya Toure and others all together.

It's a City win for me, though you should start all your City and Arsenal attackers with confidence.

Prediction: MCI 2-1 ARS
Pick: Van Persie, Silva, Aguero
Drop: ARS defence


Fantasy Game of the Week: QUEENS PARK RANGERS v MANCHESTER UNITED

Beware of his return.

Chelsea are travelling to Wigan but Moses has just released his floodgate, so I'm more inclined to the rebounding Man Utd as the fantasy friendly team of the week. Against QPR, it's a pretty good chance for United attackers.

Nani and Rooney both broke their scoring drought - good signs of returning form and also a signal of "United season starts at December". Both are great candidates as the captain of the week.

Fletcher's loss is a blow to United's midfield, but Phil Jones was spectacular playing at centre midfield last week and is good at least for short term. He should be able to mark the witty Joey Barton well.

It should be a comprehensive victory for United. QPR's defence is too weak to hold them off in my opinion.

Prediction: QPR 1-3 MUN
Pick and Captain: Rooney, Nani
Pick: Jones
Drop: QPR defence


Pick and Drop
Pick and Captain:

1. Ba - In full rage. Unless he can be tamed by Vorm.
2. Adebayor - Sunderland's defence is kind of sloppy and I don't think Martin O'Neill can fix it so fast.
3. Drogba/ Mata/ Sturridge - On great form for Wigan to face their execution.

Pick:

1. Maxi - Should give some hard time to Guzan.
2. Steven Fletcher - On superb form.
3. Yakubu - Should be able to pierce West Brom's defence.

Drop:

1. SUN defence  - Not solid enough to hold Tottenham's rich vein of attack.

Transfer Traffic

Green light (buy):

1. Drogba - Returns to his old best.
2. Ba - Simply unstoppable.
3. Steven Fletcher - Great form.
4. Sturridge - Cheap and consistent.
5. Nani - Rejoices with 2 fresh goals last week.

Yellow light (watch):

1. Maxi - Playing well can could book a starting place in Dalglish's XI.
2. Moses - Broke his duck and could break the floodgate.

Red light (drop):

1. Agbonlahor  - Suspended.
2. Van der Vaart - He's on the selling bandwagon.

Gameweek 16 Dream Team

Krul

Walker -- Enrique -- Jones

Nani -- Silva -- Bale -- Mata

Adebayor -- Drogba (C) -- Rooney (VC)

Subs: Vorm -- Maxi -- Jagielka -- Simpson

Unbeaten Got Beaten: Gameweek 15 Fantasy Review

Both Nani and Rooney returns with 2 fine goals each.

Chelsea 2-1 Man City
Well, no more unbeaten teams in the league after this game. Pretty shocking to see how fast and easy Balotelli scored the opener. Silva should had got a penalty but wasn't awarded. Big decision that turned the game around.

The king of all volleys a.k.a. Raul Meireles returned with a jumping tap-in. Great goal. Lampard was brave enough to take the penalty but nonetheless is still a fantasy player to be avoided with his little playing time.

Sturridge once again stole the limelight with a brilliant assist for Meireles' goal. Superb fantasy acquisitions.

Pick: Sturridge
Drop: Clichy


Man Utd 4-1 Wolves
Perfect response by United after a shocking Champions League exit. Both Nani and Rooney scored a brace to prove the fact that they are not fantasy flops, they are just out of form. And now they have found the form. Beware.

Interestingly, Valencia started ahead of Young and got 3 delicious assists. Let's see how the competition for place between Valencia and Young develop and if the former wins, he will become a great fantasy stock costing only £7.8m currently.

Encouragingly for Wolves despite the defeat is the fact that Fletcher scored yet another goal. Superb form. Mick McCarthy's ace.

Pick: Rooney, Nani, Fletcher
Watch: Valencia


Arsenal 1-0 Everton
The gunners had a hard time testing Everton's defence but Van Persie's fantastic volley made sure they took three points in front of their seniors such as Henry and Pires to celebrate the club's 125th anniversary. It certainly is RvP's era now and I can imagine the next statue to land at Emirates would be his.

I am fascinated with Walcott's growth and you can seriously see how much more he has now other than his speed. I am really in love with his vision and unselfishness.

Amazingly, the four centre backs of Arsenal, namely Vermaelen, Koscielny, Djourou and Mertesacker combined to give their club a clean sheet. Not bad.

Pick: Van Persie, Arteta, Walcott
Watch: ARS defence


Liverpool 1-0 QPR
For some reason Liverpool tend to make their oppositions keeper in godlike mode. Cerny certainly is far away from Krul and Vorm's class but somehow he made sure the result was respectable for QPR. Jinx?

Suarez played a fine game as usual but his selfishness at times didn't impress me. Good goal anyway.

Meanwhile, Maxi continues to attract my attention with his poaching instinct and I for one hope that he can start all the remaining league games for Liverpool.

And Adam, as predicted, was pivotal as he assisted for Suarez's header. His fantasy scores over the past weeks are consistent as well, making him a quite decent pick for your squad.

Pick: Adam, Maxi
Watch: Suarez


Bolton 1-2 Aston Villa
Guzan played a solid game with 7 saves. A good keeper to consider for rotation strategy if Given is out for a prolonged period.

Offensive wise, Agbonlahor provided an assist but will be suspended for the next game after accumulating five yellow cards. Might just be the right time to jump across Ba's bandwagon.

As for Bolton, Klasnic scored his seventh goal of the season. A good figure.

Watch: Guzan, Klasnic, Agbonlahor


Norwich 4-2 Newcastle
Great formation by Paul Lambert as he totally capitalised Newcastle's aerial weaknesses without Coloccini and Steven Taylor in the middle of the defence. 3 goals of Norwich were scored through direct headers and another through a rebound after a header - that explains all.

While the likes like Holt, Morison and Hoolahan all got home with good fantasy points, it's quite surprising to see Crofts with double digit scores. He has never failed to record 1-2-2-1-2-2 kind of scores for all previous gameweeks he had played. Certainly needs more observations to see whether that's a fluke or a sudden burst in form.

On the other side, Demba Ba showed some great first touches to score a brace. Truly incredible.

Pick: Ba, Morison
Watch: Holt, Crofts
Drop: NEW defence


West Brom 1-2 Wigan
So the best performer of Wigan during pre-season finally broke his goal drought after attempting his 46th shot of the season. Great present to his birthday and I believe the floodgate will be lifted soon. Be aware of his performance.

I thought West Brom played horribly at home. The penalty was unnecessary and Long wasted a seriously good chance.

Pick: Moses


Swansea 2-0 Fulham
Dempsey is the man in black as his deflection caused a goal for Sinclair and his equalising penalty well saved by Vorm. Formless poor lad.

Vorm mind games certainly worked for the penalty. 1 yellow card point for 5 save points... Worth it.

Pick: Vorm
Watch: Sinclair
Drop: Dempsey


Stoke 2-1 Tottenham
Two fine goals by Etherington has notified fantasy managers that it's not only about Walters at Stoke's offence. In fact, Crouch has also been pretty consistent over the weeks, though Walters will still be my first pick of Stoke's offensive department.

The ref has pretty much gone against Tottenham and it so ridiculous to see how Adebayor's equaliser was ruled off side. The Togolese had been magnificent in the second half and it was a shame that his brilliant work wasn't fairly rewarded.

Pick: Walters, Adebayor
Watch: Etherington, Crouch


Sunderland 2-1 Blackburn
A good comeback by Sunderland to get a sweet victory for O'Neill's first game in charge for the Black Cats. Two superb goals that came from Vaughan and Larsson. The latter's set piece dominance has once again shown its value following a wonderful free kick goal which hit the post before bouncing into the net. Great one from a great player.

Vukcevic earned two 8 points in a row and is only owned by close to 0% of fantasy managers. Certainly a gamble that wouldn't cause a drop in team value at the moment.

Pick: Larsson
Watch: Vukcevic

Maxi Rodriguez Scored Another Hat-Trick

Maxi Rodriguez
Got another match ball in just two weeks.

Unbelievable. Maxi Rodriguez, the one who's on the start-sub fence for most part of the season, explodes with an unstoppable form as he scored his second hat-trick in two weeks time with Liverpool beating Fulham 5-2 on the road.

First he eclipsed Hernandez's fastest goal of the season which was just created one day before, and then he completed his hat-trick with a long range cannon. He is definitely so so confident recently.

Can Maxi book a starting spot in the next season with his resurgence of form? Still looks negative for me with Carroll, Suarez and Kuyt standing firm on the trident front.

Saturday Stage

Fernando Torres

Broke his duck with a goal and an assist from the bench.

A pretty entertaining Saturday with Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool all winning their games. Here's some highlights:

Maxi Rodriguez
Only the best coach can lead a second-string player to score a hat-trick.

• Liverpool won their biggest margin game of the season after demolishing Birmingham 5-0, breaking their record of nine winless games against the Brums. Maxi, surprisingly, claimed the match ball with his wonderful hat-trick. With yet another clean sheet, you really have to admire the brain and wisdom of Kenny Dalglish. As long as he stays, Liverpool have a fair chance of winning the title next season!
• Also spectacular for Liverpool are Dirk Kuyt and Luis Suarez. Do you know Kuyt has scored 63 fantasy points from the last six games?!! That's averaging 10 for each! Suarez was not lucky for not scoring the second goal himself, but as long as he plays, he will create enough troubles for others to score.
• The Reds' arch-rivals, Manchester United, decided the game in the final minutes again as Javier Hernandez scored the victory goal. He may had blocked Nani's shot with his butt, but then, his goal compensated that. Chicharito, too good for his age.
• Of all, Chelsea fans' should be the happiest ones yesterday as Mr 50mil finally broken his duck and scored his first goal for Chelsea. A good goal I shall say. In addition, he has also provided an assist for Malouda! But will he open his floodgate now, as what he has promised?
• Meanwhile, Malouda and Lampard were on the score sheet again as they return to their prime. It will make the title race interesting if they manage to beat United at Old Trafford.
• David Luiz almost scored a long range cannon yesterday. Still, his great display - both attack and defence - earned him another bonus point.
• West Ham has made Chelsea's day tough - unlucky for them for not scoring.
• Tottenham failed to take down West Bromwich Albion and they will suffer from the consequences. Liverpool are now only three points behind and Spurs are yet to battle Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool!
• Odemwingie is really red hot now after collecting 50 fantasy points from his last six.
• Sunderland finally got their last needed victory to safety zone as Henderson and Sessegnon starred the game.
• Wolves v Fulham, Blackpool v Newcastle and Aston Villa v Stoke all ended 1-1. The only thing that concerns me though, is that Adam has finally contributed something more than two points after three average games.

Sunday Sparks

Maximiliano Rodriguez
Says welcome to fans who thank him for the decisive goal.

Here's some brief words about what happened in the past 30 hours in English top-flight football:

• Arsenal only managed to score in final minutes for a win. Quite a sad case for me as I was captaining Chamakh. Song scored in three consecutive games. Looking good.
• Chelsea wasn't much better than their London counterpart, won by the same margin. Both Malouda and Drogba are much less striking as compared to them in the first five games. Bosingwa didn't play at all, which was another sad case for me.
• Everton won Yakubu's once-in-a-blue-moon goal. Arteta and Cahill once again gained their owners six points each.
• Dempsey fired two to become Saturday's top pointer, sitting on top of fluke-goal scorer Nani.
• Wolves shocked us with a comeback victory. Adebayor goaled through a penalty anyway.
• Nani made one and fired one to give three points to Manchester United. A quite exciting match-up with Park and Van der Vaart making on-post attempts. VdV might be out for a week or two with his in-game injury. On a side note, Berbatov also lost his sparks like Malouda and Drogba.
• Aston Villa and Birmingham played a goalless draw. Awesome for Foster-and-co owners.

Kevin Nolan
Meet the king of St James.

• Newcastle thrashed Sunderland. Amazing. Nolan wore the hat but take a look at Ameobi. Two goals and two assists. Looked much better than the consolation man (he always made an assist for me when I needed it the most) two years before. However, he will need more playing time before you can consider him.
• Liverpool won a 50-50 game. Torres was lost until the moment when N'gog was brought on. The trident of the former two and Maxi was great and it was no coincidence that the latter scored. Great job by Maxi and as usual, Kyrgiakos the tower of set pieces.