EPL Talk » Richard Dunne

Fantasy League – Valued Players To Buy

Kevin Coleman — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:48:52 +0000

Looking for bargain players below the top price in each position? There are some great valued players to be had if you’re looking to free up some cash for that “big” signing. Kevin picks out two from each position and tells you why you should be investing in these great valued players.

Joe Hart (BI) – Birmingham’s on loan goalkeeper has already made four clean sheets, plus gathering a number of save points. With his next three games being Bolton, Burnley and Arsenal he is most certainly one of the best valued #1’s around, at just 4.1.

Thomas Sorensen (SC)- Like Hart, Sorensen is 4.1 but has racked up the same number of points after four clean sheets, two bonus points and a number of save points to boot. Stoke’s next three fixtures are Manchester Utd, Everton and West Ham, so caution over whether or not you feel he can score points.

Richard Dunne (AV) - Dunne’s price has gone up 0.2 since his move from Manchester City, and he’s now 5.2 which is still a great bargain. He’s played two games with Villa, and has helped them to two clean sheets, as well as scoring four bonus points in these two games. Get in quickly, you won’t find many better scorers at such a good rate, his price is only going to go up and up.

Joseph Yobo (EV) – After their dreadful start to the season, Yobo price plummeted to 5.8 – like a number of Everton players. With the Goodison ship now steadied, and the trio of Portsmouth, Stoke and Wolves coming up over the next few weeks Yobo will be a certain tip to pick up some valuable clean sheet points, and maybe even a goal.

Yossi Benayoun (LI) – After a quiet start to the season, Yossi’s price went down before shooting back up to 7.6 post-Burnley hat trick. The Israeli midfielder seems to have finally secured himself a starting eleven berth at Liverpool, and his dancing feet will most certainly pick up more goals and more assists as the season goes on.

James Milner (AV) – Milner’s price dropped to 6.9, but after picking up a fantastic 14 points last weekend against Portsmouth his value will go back up to 7.0 before the week is over. Milner has taken on penalty kick duties after the departure of Gareth Barry and Ashley Young’s misses, as well as playing a key role across the midfield. Expect more goals and assists from James over the course of thes season.

Darren Bent (SU) – Just look no further. After starting the season at 7.0, Darren is currently available at a whopping 7.4 – so there’s a big chance someone else in your league has him too. But after five goals, he’s become a bit of a necessity because you can’t get a cheaper striker on such hot form. His clinical finishing is sure to continue, and his price is going to keep rising, so fi you’ve a striker around the same price no scoring goals, get Bent in.

Craig Bellamy (MC) - This is an odd one, but Bellamy has been on superb form this season despite the arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor and Carlos Tevez to City’s attack. He scored a fantastic brace last weekend against United, and with the suspension to Adebayor expect Bellamy to start the next couple of games. If he survives any FA charges after his “incident” last week, he might be a shrewd move and I doubt many other managers in your league would have him at 7.9

You can read more from Kevin over on his football site, Back Page Football, plus much more. If you’d like to get involved their, shoot him an email.

New Look Man City Shows Great Attacking Flair, Comical Defending

Dave Warner — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:23:30 +0000

For as many times as Richard Dunne and Shay Given collided today, you might have guessed that they had never played together before in their lives.

Dunne’s defensive woes today nearly overshadowed the lightning-quick start to Manchester City’s season. In the third minute, Emmanuel Adebayor served up a through ball from the center circle that released Shawn Wright-Phillips far down the right wing. Wright-Phillips then served up the onrushing Adebayor, who finished spectacularly. At that moment, it seemed Man City would be worth every penny they spent.

It would be another 89 minutes before Man City would score again and clinch a 2-0 win. As you would expect, Blackburn Rovers refused to lie down on a soggy day at Ewood Park, but this game proved to be as much of an indictment of Blackburn’s finishing as Man City’s defensive issues.

The attacking pressure from Sam Allerdyce’s side often exposed the shakiness of Man City’s backline. Blackburn’s set pieces, including a number of long throws from Morten Gamst Pedersen, kept the black-shirted Citizens scrambling for clearances. Shay Given remained solid in goal, and Kolo Toure did fine work in one-on-one situations, but Dunne’s mistakes — including a very fortunate non-call for a handball in the box at the end of the first half — highlighted why Man City is pursuing Joleon Lescott so doggedly.

Blackburn controlled the tempo of the game for much of the first half. Mark Hughes’ side, however, looked stronger in the second half and showed glimpses of great attacking prowess, serving up classy through balls and attack runs that put players in great position to score. The pace of Craig Bellamy up front and Robinho and Wright-Phillips on the wings put the screws to Blackburn all day, while Gareth Barry looked strong in a more defensive role, Carlos Tevez threatened to score just moments after he replaced Robinho in the 68th minute, and Stephen Ireland’s late game-clinching goal was top shelf stuff.

Hughes deployed a 4-4-2 for this match, rather than the 4-1-2-3 I had predicted he might use, but with attacking players moving off their lines to set up opportunities, it proved effective. Regardless, Hughes clearly has the personnel to be very flexible in his lineup decisions, so we’ll likely see him use different formations to exploit different oppositions’ weaknesses — and to satisfy all the talent on his bench.

After today, however, Hughes’ biggest concern might be getting Dunne and Given on the same page. You’d think two guys who had been playing together for the Republic of Ireland for the last decade or so would have done a whole lot better than this.

Top Heavy City Struggle With Flair

Paul Bestall — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:11:55 +0000

Watching Manchester City yesterday left me in no doubt as to the scale of the issues currently affecting Mark Hughes team and the dreadful run of form they currently find themselves in. With 4 wins, 1 draw and 7 defeats so far in the Premier League, the optimism that greeted the signing of Robinho on August 31st has quickly evaporated, leaving City with something of a deadline day hangover that doesn’t seem to be clearing up anytime soon. For all Robinho’s hype and pomp, his speed and dead ball ability, he’s left the City team overloaded with attacking flair but little work-rate, a side desperate to charge forward at every possible opportunity with little thought as to the consequences of what may happen if they lose the ball. Starting yesterdays game alongside Robinho were Vassell, Wright-Phillips, Ireland and Benjani, giving City a quintet of attacking potential and that leads us to the issue at hand. Charging back to pressurise opponents is something that is obviously missing from the current City lineup and it’s beginning to show in abundance. The ironic thing in all this is that I’ve seen it all before with my team and it didn’t work then either.

Ossie Ardiles’ Tottenham team that started the 1994-1995 season had another attacking quintet that on paper oozed quality, Klinsmann, Sheringham, Barmby, Dumitrescu and Anderton. All international players, all great footballers, but it left the Spurs team top heavy and easy to pull apart. Ardiles only lasted 12 games of the 1994-95 season, fired after winning 5, drawing 2 and losing 5 and witnessing an amazing 45 goals in those 12 games. If you add in the 17 goals in 3 League Cup games, you get an incredible average of just over 4 goals a game. Entertainment by the bucket load, but unfortunately it usually benefited the opposition and Tottenham had to change tact, bringing in Gerry Francis and a more pragmatic tactical mixture.

Manchester City are currently working on the same principle of using 5 attacking players, a defensive midfielder and a back four, with full backs pushing up to fill the gaps in midfieldwhich are left when the wingers charge forward. It then leaves them open to quick counter attacks on both flanks, leaving the centre halves exposed and vulnerable, putting pressure on them and eventually leading to mistakes. When you’ve got everyone bombing forward with the ball, it’s brilliant. When they lose it with no end product, it becomes a different story.

I saw comparisons with Real Madrid’s Galactico side last week which made me chuckle no end, no offence to Manchester City and their dedicated and loyal fans but can you really compare the current City quintet with Raul, Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane and Beckham? Even with players of that ilk, the trophies dried up for Madrid because they were so top heavy and never replaced the underrated player who was the essentially fulcrum of the side, Claude Makelele. Now if players of that calibre can’t play 4-1-5 especially after Makelele left, it becomes blinding obvious that City need to be pragmatic and play a more restrained version of the beautiful game because some players look as if they’ve lost all the confidence they had and the tactics are increasing this burden on the team. Confidence is a fragile thing at the best of times, some people can seem Kevlar coated and deflect any criticism or set back and continue forward but another key component of Manchester City’s recent Premiership side looks deflated and defeated, his confidence shattered and broken.

Richard Dunne cut a dispirited and disillusioned figure yesterday, as he has in recent weeks. Since the Liverpool defeat, when City threw away 2 goal lead, the 4 time winner of Manchester City’s fans player of the year and club captain looks shattered. 2 own goals and a red card in recent matches hasn’t helped his state of mind and the tactics are pulling the relationship he had with Micah Richards to pieces. Dunne has been a rock for Manchester City over recent seasons and to see his demeanour is not a pleasant thing to see.

Mark Hughes blamed the weather for both of City’s red cards yesterday, but the referee was left in no doubt about both of them. They were stupid challenges and the players involved paid the price, the same as Assou-Ekoto, with the justified retribution from the officials. I understand Hughes stance of defending his players but tactically, City are all over the place and Dunne and Richards are the casualties of too much flair and not enough work, being left constantly exposed and unsupported.

Richards was one of England’s brightest prospects two years ago, now his potential seems unfulfilled, out of the England squad and in a leaky defence with a side on the slide. With both centre backs consistently exposed to the counter attack, teams are making the pairing look ordinary and brittle, passing their way around them with ease.

Thankfully, Hughes has received the backing of chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak today after reports began to circulate on Friday that the owners had lined up a replacement for him. Labelling the reports “rubbish” and stated that he was personally committed to him and Hughes would have money to spend once the January transfer window opens in 52 days time. Mubarak continues to support his manager in public and Hughes certainly deserves the backing of the chairman after only 4 months in the job. With some fans calling for his head already, Hughes needs his players to deliver in Sundays televised clash with Hull City at the KC Stadium to get things back in perspective at Eastlands.