Season Preview - West Bromwich Albion

Quick Reminder, Real Life

The two most important words on any West Brom fan’s lips last season must surely have been: Peter Odemwingie. What a breath of fresh air in the Premier League. Odemwingie arrived at The Hawthorns and was an instant hit. The club dismissed manager Roberto Di Matteo half-way through the year in the thick of a relegation battle, and Roy Hodgson came in, steadied the shape, and guided the Baggies to a mid-table (11th) finish, but it was all Odemwingie all the time. The Nigerian scored 15 goals in 32 league games. Chris Brunt scored twice (both penalties) in the memorable 2-1 win over Liverpool as Roy Hodgson took down his old club in April, and ended the season in form as he supported Odemwingie from wide attacking and central positions. Yussuf Mulumbu was also a consistent newcomer to the Premier League and steadied the ship in midfield throughout the ups and downs while former England international GK Scott Carson (now playing in Turkey) saw a majority of the action between the sticks.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

Peter Odemwingie was so consistent, racking up 5+ points per game in the Official PL game and giving the likes of Tevez, Bent, RVP, and Rooney a run for their money on a consistent basis as the league’s highest scoring weekly striker. Brunt, Jerome Thomas, and Mulumbu took turns chipping in with reasonable scoring from midfield positions - West Brom were solid last year in the middle of the pitch - and Somen Tchoyi even got in on the scoring fun, managing 6 league goals in just 800+ minutes of action, a superb return. James Morrison scored 4 goals from midfield - a typical return for the Scotland international who is a pacy right winger and productive in ‘real life’ but never seems to have that 5+ or 6+ goal breakthrough from a fantasy perspective to set him apart from his colleagues.

Summer Changes

Baggies duo doubtful for Villa clash

Dangerous game, football

Baggies duo doubtful for Villa clash - Yahoo! Eurosport

Here we go again.

West Brom's leading scorer Peter Odemwingie and key midfielder Chris Brunt are battling to be fit for Saturday's away derby clash with struggling Aston Villa...

But the Nigeria international - on target six times this season - has been unable to train this week with a groin problem suffered during the game.

Brunt, who has been the subject of speculation linking him with a move to Liverpool, has also had a groin injury in recent weeks and has also been unable to play a full part in training.

Boss Roberto Di Matteo confirmed: "We have some problems. Odemwingie hasn't trained this week yet. He has got a groin problem. If he manages to train [on Friday], we have a chance. We have to wait and see how he is going to be.

"Chris Brunt had to miss some training sessions so we just have to manage him and Peter and hope they will be available for Saturday."

It seems like this is going to be the "news" every week for a while. Brunt has had the groin injury since the last international break but has been able to play in the matches. So I'm not worried about him. The Odemwingie injury seems new - as in recent, and different from his last knee injury - and will bear close scrutiny. Somen Tchoyi may be a good bet this weekend if Odemwingie can't make it. Tchoyi may be a good bet regardless, to be honest.

On Bale

Well, I said nice things about Spurs (deservedly) and ManYoo (also deservedly) and wasn't particularly enamored with Arsenal's performance despite their win and yet the shouts of "you're biased" still came ringing in the comments section of "First Impressions and Second Thoughts."  Honestly, I'm coming to enjoy it a bit so keep it up.  To the extent that I have time, I'll continue to discuss my (non-biased) rationale for my opinions.  The main subject of displeasure this time around was the fact that I called out Bale as still not being fantasy value on a weekend where the Bale fantasy apologists were still glowing from his 29 point, 2 goal effort.  For those who still don't believe me that you should have sold him weeks ago despite this past weekend's outburst, here are the numbers:

Since Bale's last major outburst in Week 2 (33.5 points), he has been averaging 10 points/match and has cost approximately 15.  Over the course of 11 matches, you've gotten approximately 110 points from him at the combined cost of about 165.  For those of you who had Bale from the beginning of the season, you got those same 110 points for a cost of about 132.  So, what else could you have had for your money over that stretch that leads me to believe that you should have spent differently?

Season Preview: West Brom

Overall Outlook - As Jeremy just called them in our IM stream about the last few teams in our season preview series, they are "the Darren Huckerby of teams" and sadly that isn't a compliment despite Huckerby's status as both an EPL fantasy favorite when he was with Norwich and more recently an MLS fantasy favorite in his first year at San Jose.  That said, the reference is to a player, or in this case team, who just treads water.  The players are largely the same as the last time we saw WBA in the Prem.  They are mostly veterans and there is little reason to think they're suddenly going to step up their level after being cast off from bigger clubs and finding their level at the top of the Championship and the bottom of the Prem.  Guys like Nicky Shorey, Luke Moore, James Morrison, Roman Bednar, and the like just aren't going to take you anywhere and sadly for fantasy managers, they also aren't likely to put up many exciting numbers for you.  Despite their veteran presence, you have to think this group is bound directly back from whence they came.