Yahoo! Premier League: PL.com, Yahoo and More

It has been a busy week in the fantasy Premier League universe. The PremierLeague.com site has launched for the 2015-16 season with a few new twists. Yahoo has provided some clarity on it’s approach to Fantasy Premier League for the upcoming season as well as given a hint about where it is likely to be going in the future. Oh, and there’s been a lot of exciting news from the transfer market too. It’s a lot to get to so let’s get started.

PremierLeague.com Launch

The granddaddy of them all is back for the 2015-16 season and, along with updated prices and new players entering the league, there are some new featuers that fantasy managers should be aware of. The game launched yesterday so everyone who has been tipped off to that fact has likely seen the three new “boosts” that managers will have at their disposal on a one-time basis throughout the season. The two original boosts, the transfer wildcard and the captain, are still around but those in charge of the PL.com game have added three new wrinkles for managers to deploy during the season in an attempt to gain an advantage – All Out Attack, Triple Captain, and Bench Boost.

All Out Attack – This boost allows managers to deploy a 2-5-3 line-up in an effort to receive points from more attacking players for the week the boost is deployed. The value of this boost is at least somewhat dubious as the change you’re being allowed to make – essentially substituting a forward for a defender compared to a 3-5-2 alignment – isn’t clearly an advantage. If you have struck gold with a Harry Kane-like bargains at forward and in midfield with players you were expecting to have on the bench most weeks and want both counting at the expense of a defender then there is a clear value. Otherwise, at least based on last seasons’ performances, outside of the top couple of forwards, defenders and forwards yield similar results meaning a 2-5-3 and a 3-5-2 aren’t likely to produce markedly different results for most people who use this boost. In fact the greater depth and lower cost of defenders is such that you’re probably better off going 3-5-2.

Triple Captain – Your designated captain receives double points in a standard week and this boost sees that the captain’s total tripled the week it is applied. The obvious time to use this boost is when a player worthy of being your captain – Hazard, Costa, Sanchez, etc. – plays two matches in a game week.

Bench Boost – Likely the most valueable of the three new boosts, the Bench Boost gives you points for your entire squad for the week you play it instead of your team only receiving points for the players in the starting line-up. There are two criteria associated with when you are likely to want to use this boost. First, you want to use it at a time when you’re feeling pretty good that everyone in your squad is healthy and going to start. Second, you want as many starts as possible over the 15 players in your squad. The schedule doesn’t forecast weeks that include multiple matches yet but cup competitions and weather cancellations will inevitably produce a few and the key will be playing the schedule to get as many players as possible in your squad with two matches to get the most from this boost. It may well make sense to use this in conjunction with a wildcard unless you happen to be able to adjust your roster with the standard transfer allocation to get yourself ready for the optimal Bench Boost week.

My Early PL.com Line-up

After a very brief amount of time poking around through players and prices, here’s what I’ve come up with for my initial squad. Please remember that we have just under a month of transfers and pre-season injuries to go before the Premier League actually kicks off so my actual season-starting line-up may or may not look much like this:

GK: Boaz Myhill (4.5) – West Brom start off with Manchester City so I’m unlikely to have Myhill starting but at a price of 4.5 and based on how he performed last season after Ben Foster went down, he’s got a place in my squad somewhere.

GK: Jack Butland (4.5) – With Asmir Begovic looking unlikely to return, Butland should be a strong bargain in a Stoke City side that should be solid-but-not-spectacular again this season.

D: Joleon Lescott (5.0) – A bummer to see his price go up and the early season schedule will likely see Lescott on the bench early but he’s another who is highly likely to be a bargain over the course of the sesason.

D: Patrick van Aanholt (5.0) – I was hoping he would come in at 4.5 but I’m bullish on his potential, especially if Sunderland improve to be the mid-table team that their budget implies they should be.

D: Cedric (5.0) – Everything everyone wrote about Clyne/Bertrand going into last season applies to Cedric this season. He should be a significant bargain and he gets Newcastle to kick off the season.

D: Branislav Ivanovic (7.0) – He’s probably going to start declining at some point in the next couple of years as a player but we said the same thing about John Terry and look what the return of Mourinho did for his career, Ivanovic should be one of the top producers again this season.

D: Hector Bellerin (5.5) – Not nearly the bargain he was over the second half of last season but still solid value assuming he keeps the starting spot over Mathieu Debuchy.

M: Eden Hazard (11.5) – No reason to think his results will decline after a summer that saw him get some much needed rest. He’s as good a candidate as anyone to be the highest point producer in the game again.

M: Theo Walcott (9.0) – With Walcott healthy again and Alexis Sanchez unlikely to start Arsenal’s first couple of matches after Copa America duty, it’s hard to imagine that Walcott isn’t a starter. Arsenal’s early-season schedule is pretty light and Walcott seems like the best path to the resulting points.

M: Christen Eriksen (8.5) – This would be Cesc Fabregas’ spot but Sergio Aguero is unlikely to be ready to start the season after the Copa America which puts Diego Costa in my squad and maxing out my Chelsea contingent. I considered Eriksen, Cazorla, and Silva for this spot and went with Eriksen despite the season-opener at United. He’s 1.5 cheaper than Silva and I’m still not sure what’s going to happen with Santi Cazorla’s playing time with Wilshere, Ramsey, and Oxlade-Chamberlain all healthy. He should start but I have this sneaking concern that, at some point this season, Cazorla becomes a reserve.

M: Yannick Bolasie (6.5) – He has looked great under good managers – Pulis and Pardew – and has been overlooked by lesser ones. Pardew seems locked in for the coming season and the thought of Cabaye spraying passes to Bolasie and Puncheon is too much to pass up at 6.5.

M: Matt Ritchie (6.0) – I haven’t seen him play but the potential for a bargain is there if he can even produce a significant fraction of his Championship statistics from last season (15 goals, 17 assists).

F: Diego Costa (11.0) – I explained my logic under the Eriksen note, he started off the season in fantastic form and assuming his hamstrings have returned to something like normal health over the summer he’s a no-brainer as your lead forward with Aguero unavailable to start the season.

F: Callum Wilson (5.5) – I’m all in trying to replicate the Charlie Austin/Danny Ings magic from last season with bargain forwards and I think Wilson has the best chance to be the guy based on his young age and rapid ascent through the professional ranks.

F: Troy Deeney (5.5) – I’m a little less sure on Deeney since he has made it to 25-years-old without someone making a “Godfather Offer” to get him to the Premier League before this season. Still, he’s not ancient by any stretch of the imagination and taking chances on he and Wilson give me lots of strength elsewhere in my squad.

Yahoo Announcement #1

Yahoo yesterday confirmed what we have long suspected. There will not be a Premier League fantasy game from the Silicon Valley-based company for the 2015-16 season. You can read more about it from our old friends at NeverManageAlone.com or see the original Yahoo Help post on the topic here if you don’t believe me.

There is some reason to believe that the Yahoo season-long Premier League format isn’t totally dead (queue Princess Bride quotes about it being only mostly dead here). You can see some of the reason for hope in this Tweet. The other reason for hope comes from Yahoo’s second recent fantasy-related announcement.

Yahoo Announcement #2

Earlier this week, Yahoo announced the launch of it’s own Daily Fantasy Game platform to compete with FanDuel.com and DraftKings.com. They were vague in the video embedded on this page about exactly what would be rolled out and when but Major League Baseball Daily Games are already live. It is a 100% certainty that an NFL game will follow when the NFL season kicks off in September as well. There’s just too much popularity associated with the NFL and fantasy for Yahoo to do this and not have NFL ready. The Premier League is a different story, my guess is that, like FanDuel.com, Premier League looks like a good idea for Yahoo but that it will be a secondary priority because the money in PL daily games just doesn’t match the league’s popularity right now for a variety of reasons that could probably spawn their own feature-length article.

Now, I’m not just announcing an uncertain timeline for Yahoo Daily Fantasy for Premier League to put something vague out there, there is a potential positive impact on the Yahoo Season Long game even if it isn’t going to come to fruition this season. Yahoo believes that their advantage in entering the Daily Fantasy Game market late is that they can create opportunities for players with teams in free season-long league to enter those season-long teams in Daily Games for money. For Yahoo to realize this advantage in the Premier League market it, of course, means that they’d have to actually have a Season-long Game available to boost trial and repeat usage of the Daily Game.

My overall takeaway between these two announcements from Yahoo is that there is hope that we will see some version of Yahoo Season-long Fantasy for the Premier League as soon as the 2016-17 season. Fingers crossed that I’m reading the tea leaves correctly.

The Transfer Market – Old Trafford Exits

The obvious storyline here is that Manchester United are putting themselves in a very precarious position right now. I don’t know that anyone would argue that the ideal scenario for the Red Devils includes selling off spare parts and even making some big moves to replace high profile players who just didn’t work out. Falcao has already gone. Robin van Persie seems THISClose to joining him. Nani has been an afterthought for a couple of seasons now and has left for Turkey and Rafael seems likely to join him shortly. Certainly individually, none of those moves would be a concern and even collectively, they’re not THAT concerning. The news today has Angel di Maria leaving Old Trafford for Paris Saint-Germain. Oh, and there’s the David De Gea drama lurking in the background as well.

So, what’s the concern? That’s a lot of inbound transfer work to be done with the selling clubs holding all the leverage with Manchester United having already sold the players being replaced. There is also the fact that United had some holes to fill already before they started selling. Assuming that di Maria and De Gea do leave as reported then the list for United looks something like this:

Goalkeeper
Right Back (although Darmian appears very close)
Center Back
Holding Midfielder
Starting Forward
Reserve Forward

By waiting, United have seen Petr Cech (who, granted, didn’t seem to want to leave London) and likely Asmir Begovic removed from the list of potentially available goalkeepers. If Hugo Lloris is serious in saying that he doesn’t want to move and Spurs decide they won’t be tempted then United’s options within the Premier League are almost nil. Outside the Premier League, Ajax would have a ton of leverage to extract a huge transfer fee for Jasper Cillessen if he is the next option on United’s list.

The same holds true for other positions. Southampton don’t seem to be feeling any pressure to sell Morgan Schneiderlin for anything less than what they deem maximum value. Assuming clubs with forwards that could interest United know that there is a big wad of cash sitting around the Old Trafford coffers after an Angel di Maria sale then there’s no reason to think that United won’t be held to ransom there as well.

There is still plenty of time before the window closes at the end of August but United’s summer is starting to look more like last summer where they waited to buy. They certainly managed to bring in big names late last summer but given that Luke Shaw was something of an early bust, Falcao is gone, di Maria looks set to follow, Rojo looks like a reserve, and Blind is the Dutch John O’Shea you’d think that they’d try a different approach this summer.

Cabaye Arrives

What a coup for Crystal Palace! Yohan Cabaye should be very well rested after not playing a lot for PSG for two seasons and he joins a team that needs exactly what he brings. Palace have grit at the back in the form of Scott Dann and Mile Jedinak. They have potent wing play and speed in the attack in the form of Bolasie, Puncheon and Zaha. What they need is a creator to bring it all together which is exactly what Cabaye offers. There is still work to do in the transfer market if the funds are available – a center forward (Charlie Austin has been rumored and would be a perfect foil for Cabaye and all that speed outside), better outside backs, and a younger starting goalkeeper would make for the perfect summer. That said, Palace had a strong second half of last season without any of those things and now they’ve added Cabaye to the mix. Things are looking up at Selhurst Park.

An Underrated Departure

Steven N’Zonzi doesn’t get a lot of publicity. He plays perhaps the least glamorous position for an unfashionable club. Make no mistake, he is an excellent player and at the root of Stoke City’s solidity under Mark Hughes. His departure to Sevilla this week is a massive hole that the Potters need to fill if they are to continue to build on Hughes’ success in his first two seasons. I was hoping that Arsenal might pick up N’Zonzi as a partner/deputy for Francis Coquelin as a defensive midfielder but it’s hard to deny N’Zonzi a starting spot on a Champions League club for the upcoming season. Smart buy for Sevilla and Hughes will be challenged to find a player of sufficient quality to replace N’Zonzi who wants to move to Stoke.

That’s a lot to digest for one day, we’ll be back with more as the news continues to break.

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