Michael Ballack came on for Deco in Chelsea’s 4-0 victory over Ligue 1 side Bordeaux on Tuesday. While the game was already decided at the hour mark, Ballack’s first appearance of the year should be a welcome sight to Chelsea supporters.
The occasionally controversial Germany captain found his form quickly after returning from injury in last year’s campaign, but the question begs itself: Where does he fit in the crowded Chelsea midfield? The red hot tandem of Deco and Frank Lampard are unlikely to be moved by “Chelse-a” manager Phil Scolari and Ballack looks like a long term substitute as it stands.
Turning 33 next Friday and at a cost of 8.8MM, he looks to be highly overvalued. However, Herr Ballack actually has a great fantasy record at Chelsea – 1400 minutes played (16 games) last year yielding 98 points (6+ per 90 minutes).
Bottom line is this: Michael Ballack is experienced, highly decorated, and will be invaluable to Big Phil in Europe this year. But until the Chelsea Physio Team is called to duty for yet another blue midfielder, Ballack will be spending the majority of his weekends on the bench picking his own all-time XI. Spend your free 8-9MM on Gareth Barry. Feeling foolish? Save up to swoop for Ronaldo (14MM) and his hair product (2MM).
Deco Owners, Beware: In the (possible but not probable) event that Scolari goes with his three attack-minded veterans (Ballack, Lampard, and Deco) and drops Mikel to the bench, Deco could see his fantasy value significantly drop as he takes on a deep-lying midfield role in front of the back four. Regardless, Deco scored only one goal in La Liga last season and only one goal in La Liga in the 2006-2007 season. Not good. Not good at all. You have been warned.
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Are you suggesting Frank Lampard is the better value despite his price tag over 1.5mm more than Deco? Where is Joe Cole in relation to this group? He’s having a fantastic season thus far and the cheapest of the Chelsea midfielders (excluding Malouda of course).
This is what I think – Lampard should be compared to Gerrard – a goalscoring, penalty kick taking fantasy point machine. Deco should be compared to Fabregas – a guy who pulls the strings, gets the bonus points, and brings in assists.
While Fabregas scored in bunches at the beginning of last year, his goalscoring (and fantasy production) faded along with Arsenal's title hopes. Deco will not score more than 10 goals this year.
J. Cole is in form for club & country and always worth a look, but his huge Achilles heel is the fact that he is rarely involved in free kicks / corners / penalties and thus needs to score from open play – denting his value a bit in comparison to Deco and Lampard.
Yeah, I’m kinda regretting jumping on the Deco bandwagon after the first week. I hadn’t seen Chelsea play yet, and wasn’t aware of where he was actually playing on the field. His early production looks kinda flukey in light of that, though he’ll still likely put up decent points. But he’s more of an Arteta than a Lampard in the long run. I think he goes instead of Barry when I bring C.Ron back in the team.
I think Ballack (once he’s back to 100%), Mikel and Deco may well be rotated one way or another. Ballack is (still) too good to just sit on the bench.
That, and Deco seems to collect a ton of cards (according to past stats), meaning he’ll miss a couple of games anyway. Ballack should also be preferred in “physical” matchups.
Anyway, I’m staying away from both.