Manchester United Sets Line-Up for Blackpool

English roundup-Ferguson set to ring the changes - Yahoo! Eurosport

"There are players who need a game anyway. Darren Fletcher, Paul Scholes and Anderson will all play. So will (Dimitar) Berbatov, (Patrice) Evra and (Edwin) Van der Sar."

Other news at the link. And do yourself a favor and read, and follow, Fantasy Football Scout on Twitter. They're killing it today!

Van Der Saar denies injury worry

Warming up, just in case.

Van Der Saar denies injury worry - Yahoo! Eurosport

Edwin van der Sar has played down fears he suffered a recurrence of his groin injury during Manchester United's Champions League win at Chelsea...

However, the former Ajax man, United's shoot-out hero in the final against Chelsea three years ago, insists it is not a serious problem.

"When I dived to save a shot from Torres, I went 105% for my take-off," he revealed. "My calf gave way a little bit and I ended up with cramp.

"I didn't train a lot in the last couple of weeks, so maybe it was a bit of tiredness or something."

We probably won't have any good information one way or another before kick-off, but I wouldn't be too surprised to see Kuszczak play against Fulham this weekend. And at 4.97, it might be worth the gamble. The American options at that price range scare me. So maybe this is the way to go.

Your thoughts?

Thursday Thoughts

Is that the worst title for a post ever? Alliteration aside (Oops... I did it again), there's just no excuse for it. So let's forgo the usual long preamble (sorry, Neal) and just get into it, shall we?

Update: The Season is Live With Sane Pricing and Cleared Out Rosters...

For all those of you who rushed to create a team of Galaticos for under 60.00 yesterday, I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted.  Yahoo! reset everyone's rosters at the same time they re-adjusted prices to better reflect reality from last season.  As you confront this new reality and start piecing a roster together that doesn't include Rooney, Gerrard, Lamps, Cesc, EvdS, Bale, RvP, Elk, and whichever other defenders you filled in the rest of the places with I'll give you my first few observations...

The new guys will obviously be important in getting you to a few premium proven commodities: Koscielny, Chamakh and Silva are the only three obvious ones who are in the system so far but I'm sure Citeh will contribute one or two more options before the season starts.  All we have to do is figure out who Citeh will start in central defence - Toure? Lescott? Boateng? Onuoha? Richards? (I'd assume Toure and Boateng but who knows really).

IMPORTANT: New Season Has Started - Bargains Available

UPDATE: Y! has hit reboot and the game now has the proper valuations. You'll have to start over building a team, but at least you'll be doing it for real this time.

http://uk.premiership.fantasysports.yahoo.com/football/

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I'll make this quick since there is quite possibly a time-sensitivity to this information.  The new season of Yahoo! Fantasy Premier League Football has been opened up.  We look forward to everyone joining in on both the game and all of our fun over here at the blog. 

The most important thing for you all to know is that the prices are a bit crazy right now.  Here are the most obvious bargains if you don't want to search yourself...

1.00 - Friedel, Hart, Given, van der Sar, Defoe, Dempsey, AJ, and others
3.93 - JT, Gerrard
5.35 - Vidic, Verm, Bale
Under 10 - Elk (7 and change), Lamps (8 and change), RvP (8 and change)

Those are just some of the names out there available to you at incredibly cheap prices.  I have written to the guys who run the game at Yahoo because this is potentially setting things up for a very ugly year of fantasy football if some people get in on the low prices and others don't.  I don't know what they'll do about it but my first action was to build the team I wanted with the crazy prices.  You know, just in case.

Plenty of season preview materials to come between now and the start of the season.

Cheers - Neal

Van der Sar hoping for Bolton return

Edwin, give us a wave

from Yahoo!UK/Eurosport:

Edwin van der Sar is certain he will be ready for Manchester United's Premier League clash with Bolton on October 17.

The 39-year-old has been out of action since breaking a couple of fingers in a pre-season encounter with Bayern Munich in July. However, the former Holland skipper returned to action in Tuesday night's reserve team triumph over Everton at Widnes.

"I will be ready for Bolton," he told MUTV.

"I feel good and I haven't had any reaction. The match is still 10 days away so I have more training to do, then I will be ready for my first start of the season."

So be sure to ship out Foster if you're still on him.

FANTASY ALERT: Down Goes van der Sar!

In what could be the most significant news of the late summer thus far - yes, bigger than Alonso to Real - EvdS is apparently out for approximately 8 weeks with a broken finger suffered in a penalty shootout yesterday against Bayern Munich.

The big question for fantasy managers is which back up keeper will be in line to replace him for the first chunk of the season. Both Foster and Kuszczak are listed at 6.34 so there's not a price advantage in one vs. the other getting the job - we just need to know which one it is going to be. If I were guessing, I'd assume it was going to be Foster since he seems to be the likely long term replacement for EvdS. Adding to that theme, Kuszczak didn't exactly grab the job by the throat last season when he had a chance with EvdS injured or resting.

Follow this space for news about EvdS's replacement as it comes in and rest assured that you will want to pick that keeper up. Just think, that's another 8 or so to spend on outfield players - right now that's getting me from Frazier Campbell to someone who might actually do something for me (Rooney perhaps - at least for Week 1; after that probably Arshavin or Nando).

Foster Suffers Cruciate Blow

Ben Foster's hopes of ousting Edwin van der Sar as Manchester United's first-choice keeper next season are in tatters after it was confirmed the England international requires surgery on a cruciate knee ligament injury.

The 24-year-old had been suffering knee problems during the latter half of last season, which he spent on loan at Watford.

And he pulled out of the England B international with Albania at the back end of last month to undergo tests.

Now Foster's worst fears have been realised, with United releasing more specific details of an injury which will keep sidelined for months.

"Ben Foster has a cruciate ligament injury in his right knee and will require an operation in two to three weeks' time," a United spokesperson told the club's website.

In a statement, the club said: "The injury was then jointly assessed by United and England's medical staff after the goalkeeper reported for international duty at the end of May.

"While the Reds' medical staff have not put a timescale on the 24-year-old's return to action, he is likely to spend a lengthy spell on the sidelines."

It is almost certain to be the early months of 2008 before Foster is in action again.

Foster Injury Worries

Just as soon as I start penciling in my line-up for the upcoming season with Ben Foster as the backbone of my defence as ManYoo prepare to defend their title Foster goes and gets himself hurt. According to reports Foster has already had arthroscopic knee surgery (I believe it's called keyhole surgery over there) since the end of the season and he's apparently in need of more serious surgery before the knee is actually on the road to being 100% again. Looks like SAF is likely to feature EvdS for at least the beginning of the season if not the entire season.

Looks like the quest for a cheap goalkeeper will have to continue.