Stoke are a handful from set pieces, can the French CB cope?
There are plenty of teams with better chances for a clean sheet this weekend but I’m going out on a limb and selecting Arsenal’s CB Laurent Koscielny as this week’s Funny Feeling Friday despite all of the injuries to Arsenal’s defense.
This is perhaps the riskiest selection of the season for a couple of reasons. First, the bad news:
- Stoke are incredibly organized from set pieces and have skilled big men like Peter Crouch, Kenywne Jones, and Ryan Shawcross who could cause major trouble in the air from Rory Delap throws as well as free kicks and corners
- Peter Crouch scored a hat trick against Arsenal a few years ago
- Arsenal LB Gibbs is injured and will be replaced by Santos
- Arsenal RB Jenkinson is injured and could be replaced by a CB, Djourou – who will be playing out of position
- Arsenal have conceded 17 goals in the league this season – only Bolton and Blackburn have conceded more.
That’s the bad news. The good news? Stoke have lost their last two away games and Arsenal are on somewhat of a surge. Koscielny is owned by just 1% of fantasy football managers and comes in at a cheap 5.7M. He has neither a goal nor an assist this season, but seems to be settling alongside new CB partner Mertesacker. If you’re looking for a ‘funny feeling’ defensive option with more ‘offensive’ potential – pay the extra 0.4M and go with Andre Santos – at 6.1M – Arsenal’s left back and owned by less than 1% of fantasy managers, but I’ll stick with Koscielny.
A clean sheet, and perhaps a bonus point for the CB this weekend against Stoke. Call us crazy, but what’s the joy in life without risk?
Good luck to all fantasy managers this weekend.
Related posts:
Laurent Kocienlny?! You are joking right?
The bad news: he’s Laurent Koscielny.
Nice… Two Liams?!
haha
Need to go out on a limb for the effect and he looked good last weekend despite Arsenal conceding. If they keep a clean sheet, he could end up with 7. 6 + 1 BP. A great return…
hardly a ‘great’ return. a great return would be a goal or an assist.
A “Great” return for a defender is a clean sheet. That only happens (for the best teams) 1 in every 2 or 3 games.
Defenders score 1-2 goals per season. The best ones score 4-5. Most score 0.
A goal for a defender would not be great, it would be tremendous, and quite rare.
I agree. Buy the defenders for clean sheet value first and foremost. If you depend too much on the attacking points, you will get disappointed. Just look at Baines in current form.
I like the pick. Bold. Very bold. I never would have thought of an Arsenal defender against Stoke. If you pull this off, I will start to pray to you.