Manchester United - 2012/13 Season Preview

Manchester United fans cant wait for the season to get started. And for good reason ! Losing out the title to local rivals Manchester City would have hurt most supporters beyond description. And the manner in which they lost the title - it was indeed like rubbing salt into the wound. I was watching the game live on cable and that is the most disappointed feeling I have experienced in my living memory. There are some moments which are etched int he memory for ever - some good some bad. Some like Dwayne Smith smashing Ben Hilfenhaus to take 14 runs of the last 3 delivers. Some like Aguero dancing around in the QPR penalty box to win the season with the last kick of the game. :(

So what has changed between then and now ? Man City have failed to make any notable additions to their squad (which i believe will most definitely change come the start of the season)
Manchester United on the other hand have moved quickly out of the blocks - securing the play-maker Kagawa and a young prospect Powell. I havent personally watched them play for me to make any comment on how good additions they are to the squad. YouTube videos always speak the good about the player - so I am a little skeptical weighing purchases based on best moments compilation.

I hear they are also in the market for Van Persie (at 8/9 - they look the favorites with the bookies to land the Dutchman) and rumors growing strong about adding Brazilian wonderkid Lucas Moura to their squad.
Van Persie for sure would be a great addition - and strike force of Rooney and RVP is sure to strike fear in all defences across Europe.

Do Manchester United really need him though ? I have my doubts. We are already well covered in that area having Rooney, Welbeck, Chicharito, Macheda & Berbatov ( well hes still here ... ) Adding RVP hardly gives us another dimension to speak off. Moreover - having RVP might also stunt the growth of Welbeck & Macheda. Not to mention the young lad 'Keane' who has been getting wonderful reviews from the academy. So is RVP worth the 65 million pound deal ( 25 million in fees + 10 million in wages each year for 4 years ) - having no resale value ? I dont think so. He does not naturally fit into the system that we are employing right now. He also has no resale value. At 65 million pounds for the entire deal - he is expensive. He will stunt the growth of young lands coming through the academy.

Having said all of that - I would rather have Van Persie at United than see him pairing up with Aguero & Tevez & Company. :)
Lucas Moura - YouTube videos are great - and again - I would rather have him than not have him. But do we need him ? Do i think we need him ? My answer still remains no.

So who do we need ? A Modric ? A Nuri Sahin ? A Sneijder ? A Yann M'Vila ? Who do we exactly need?
My answer - Nobody. Thats exactly who we need ? We are a great squad of young lands who are hungry for success and who seem to gel very well with each other.

With Vidic coming back, and Darren Fletcher expected back sometime in December - they provide us with ample steel that we seemed to lack last season.
Cleverly should benefit from his experience of last season. With Vidic back - we might see more of Blood, Sweat & Glory from Jones in the middle of the park.
Anderson - if he manages to remain fit - he will do the running around for us.


Scholes, Giggs & Carrick 

That brings us to Scholes, Giggs & Carrick. Am i confident of going into the season trusting my midfield on these 3 gentlemen ? Absolutely YES !
Scholes - is the best player I have seen play.
Giggs - age is catching up with him but he can still do a more than a decent job in the middle of the park. He can match up to almost any of the midfielders you have in England.
Carrick - Again, fans seem to dislike him because he is not running around the park and sliding into tackles in all directions. He is more reserved, more conservative with his tackling. But i do love his positional play and I think he does a brilliant job of shielding the back 4 most of the times - atleast almost all of the time in England. Europe maybe a different story.

Defence - Well we have Evra, Rio, Vida, Rafael, Smalling, Jones, Evans - with the possibility of Baines coming in. With or without him - that gives us ample cover for the season. The best defence in England in my opinion. Much ahead of City & Chelsea.

So am i confident of this team throwing a good challenge to City and running them right till the end like last season ? Yes I Am.
Do I think United will win the premier league this season ? No i dont :)
I believe United will run them close - but i dont think we are ready to win this just yet. City are at a good age - 26,27,28 - and i think they will continue to dominate in England this season too.

For this United team, it might be a season too early. But give them one more good year - a nice tight finish in the premier league and decent run in the cups in Europe and England - and then maybe next season ..who knows :)

Predicted Finish - 3rd

Players to Watch from the Fantasy Premier League -

Rooney - At 12.0 Million - he is not cheap. But you dont expect Rooney to be cheap. He will score goals - and this a given. He always seems to go on a streak of 4-5 or 6 games where he seems like he is scoring for fun. Make sure you catch that streak. Make sure you have him as your captian for that streak. Else - you might be playing catch-up very early in the season.>

Kagawa - At 8.5m, Kagawa is a very interesting option. I dont know where he will play or how often - but he might be a very good differential. When united have a run of easy fixtures - i will try and accommodate him in my team somehow.

Vidic - Clean Sheets are always a guarantee for United. And with Vidic - you can say the same about goals too. If he chips in with 4 or 5 goals this season (which is not unheard of for Vidic) - he will be your 1 defender who carries your team on his shoulders in Gameweeks of  goal famines.

Manchester City - Season Preview

Manchester City won the title last season after a very very long time as far the city supporters are concerned.
However, I dont think the title triumph came as a surprise to any city supporter...or their fans...or their players ... or their manager ..or even the pundits for that matter. Manchester city had the quality, the depth in squad -and  an able manager who was given more than an entire season (surprisingly).

Manchester United ran them very very close - up until the last kick of the season, and city needed 2 injury time goals to clinch the title for them. I was watching the game with my heart in my mouth and it was probably the most disappointing feeling the my experience of sports (you must have guessed by now which color i belong to)



People say Man City were very lucky in a lot of aspects, not least the manner in which they won their last game. However, i am a firm believer in the saying that luck wins you games - not seasons. Reflecting back - Man City scored more goals than united, conceded less goals than untied, beat united home and away, played the more adventurous football, had better quality players and more strength in depth.
They had everything that they needed to win the league and they did it. With a heavy heart, I say congratulations Man City.

What does 2012-13 hold for them ? They still have the strongest squad - and this time - with the experience of winning a premier league title (which will do them a world of good).  The only thing i thought would derail thier progress last year was ego clashes. But i think they overcame that to a larger extent.
I did not like the way Mancini & Co handled Tevez & Balotelli sagas/dramas. If I were the coach - they would have never played for me again. But then again - let bygones be bygones. I believe City will be there and there abouts come the squeaky bum time. My predictions for city this season are -

Season Finish - 1st : I expect City to win the title this season too. I cant see why they cant do it - unless they can find an excuse to fire Mancini mid-way through the season

From the FPL perspective - 


3 Key Players to Watch this season -

Hart -
He is just a fantastic goalkeeper. His reflexes are amazing and i really think he will be the England No.1 for a long long time. He is rarely injured and is guaranteed to start every single game. At a price tag of 7.0 he is certainly not cheap - but given he will play 38 games a season behind a very mean city defense - i dont see him conceding too many goals. His number of saves per game ratio is highly impressive too - and put in a couple of penalty saves he will manage this season - and u wont be far from his tally of 166 last season.





Silva -
He had a fantastic last season - notching up 184 points. And i dont think he will be any different this year. If anything - i expect him to be better. His understanding with his team mates will improve, and their understanding of his positional play will improve too. I expect city players to try and find Silva even more regularly this season. He is genuine quality. Only two drawbacks i can think of - (1) His exertions at Euro 2012 might find him starting the season rather slowly and (2) He is rather expensive at 10.0 this season.
Having said that - once he gets 2/3 games under his belt , and once we are done with the September international break - Silva will be one of the first names on my team sheet.



Aguero - 
I am always a bit skeptical of "relatively unknown/unproven" expensive imports. And i have my reasons. And I had my reasons to be skeptical about Aguero. And all of those reasons were proven false. He took the premier league by storm - scoring for fun and accumulating a lot of bonus points. His injury time winner will be etched in the memory of all city supporters (sadly it will be etched in my memory too). Whatever he does from this point on - he will be a legend at the City. At 11.5 - he is certainly expensive. But come the double game weeks and easy run of fixtures for Man City - i think he will be on most team sheets this season.

Fantasy Premier League 2012/13

Greetings.

The new premier league season is less than a month away and i cant wait for the action to get started. It just cant come soon enough for me !!! Ofcourse we had the Euro 2012 in between as a consolation, but for premier league purists - its not real football, is it ? My problems with tournaments like Euros and World Cups are many - and one of them is suddenly every Sachin fan and Dhoni fan are now arguing which team should win and why (and as if they know and understand football) ..

Anyways, enough with the distraction - its about 4 weeks to go now and I am already rubbing my hands with excitement. Maybe its the excitement - or maybe its the long wait that i have endured - or maybe it is something else - but all these thigns together have prompted me to come up with this blog - where I will vent my frustrations - and flaunt my (correct) bold predictions - for the forthcoming season.

 I am no football expert - but i enjoy watching the game, reading about the game, following the game - just everything about the game ( and when I say game - i mean Premier League only - i have no interest in international football, or even leagues from other countries - there is just another competition i enjoy which is the Champions League and for obvious reasons) Another game that i love and follow is the Fantasy Premier League - and the city gates of that wonderful game have just been opened for all of us today.

I (along with my friends who will post in subsequent blogs) plan to use this blog to cover premier league games - News, Views, Previews & Reviews .
We also plan to use this blog to write and discuss about Fantasy Premier League the game - Tips on team selections - transfers - and all other information that you might find useful if you are playing the game.

So basically, this is a rip-off of the original idea (Fantasy Football Scout) - and a poor imitation at that. But I hope you have a pleasant time reading any stuff posted here. Feel free to comment (obscene and vulgar comments are a problem for Google, not so much for me). If you have the bug of writing, please let me know and I can gladly invite you to be a co-author for this blog. I will end this post by giving out some useful links -

1. Fantasy Premier League -  Its just a brilliant game. Its free and its addictive.

2. FISO Fantasy Forum The largest and most popular forum for Fantasy Football players

3. Fantasy Football Scout -The original blog which I am so unsuccessfully trying to rip-off .


Best of Luck & Have a Great Season Ahead !!!.

By,
Nikhil Pundlik