Fraizer Campbell denied Brighton with a late equaliser as Sunderland claimed a 1-1 draw in their pre-season friendly in the Algarve...What I'm taking from this for fantasy purposes:
Young keeper Trevor Carson had to make a superb save from Murray after Matt Kilgallon's error and the Black Cats then had George McCartney stretchered off, but Campbell provided a silver lining when he stretched to turn in Jordan Henderson's excellent free-kick.
* Carson is Sunderland's number one in Gordon's absence. Interestingly, he's listed as a defender on Y!'s Sunderland squad page. Wouldn't that make for an interesting fantasy selection?
* Last year's fantasy favorite Jordan Henderson is still on set piece duty.
* McCartney is through. He was always a decent fantasy bet, despite a penchant for the rash card (of various colors). But He can't get or stay healthy. I assume that means we'll see KRich line up at full back again this season. Sunderland are rich in the middle with da Silva, Ferdinand, Kilgallon, Turner and maybe Mensah but don't have any fullbacks beyond Bardsley.
... and the why:
Sunderland's opening fixtures include Birmingham, @West Brom, Manchester City, @Wigan before Arsenal, @Liverpool and Manchester United. Bruce will want points from those early matches and there could be bargains on the Sunderland side who were good bets for much of last season.
A keeper listed as a defender? Never even considered that would happen. Of course, picking someone like that would break one of The Rules, and in this case the rule in question definitely stands. A keeper listed as a defender would still keep or lose the clean sheet bonus but would get no points for saves. There's really no upside to it at all.
ReplyDelete@Chris
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess a defender that makes saves will get points for Shots Blocked (which, as I recall, also worth 2 points each). The upside is that a defender doesn't lose any points for goals conceded or his team losing. But of course, if his team wins or draws he doesn't get points for that either.
SF
A propos of nothing: with how the blog likes player nicknames and the return of Der Hammer, Thomas Hitzelsperger, to the EPL, perhaps one of our esteemed bloggers could be dubbed Spitzelberger ;) LOL LOL.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I want to be annoyed by that suggestion... I can't help but laugh.
ReplyDeleteThanks!