The Premier League has seen many new faces from around the world arrive in recent history, making the Fantasy Football game all the more exciting, with unknown prospects and world class players combining with the talent that is already produced in this country. But do we tend to ignore the latter too much?
The big names dominate the squads, Diego Costa being a prime example, however not every choice across the pitch is as simple as this. Perhaps the home grown talent is what is lacking from our teams being the finished article. Who do we put alongside Costa? Do we plump for an Argentinian Ulloa, who is only a proven Championship striker, or do we go old-school and take a punt on Didier Drogba? What we don’t seem to consider enough is taking risks on players eligible for the Three Lions.
Saido Berahino, young English talent, has notched five goals in seven games, yet only 6% seem to agree that he’s worth a start in their team. If Falcao was in this much form, we’d be talking about it for decades. Tom Heaton, newly promoted goalkeeper, has already notched up three clean sheets; pretty solid, but only 3% does not do him justice. This may be down to the belief that players who have passed through the youth systems are not quite good enough compared to the imported talent from across the globe.
So this begs the question, why don’t we go for the players who have already proven themselves for England? Peter Crouch has the best goals to games ratio in England’s history, and has already earned himself a combined total of 28 points in 7 games, averaging 4 points a game which is twice as many you get for the generic two-pointer just for playing sixty minutes or more. Maybe we see the English players as too inconsistent. Is it down to just luck of the match-day? So far that has been the case for Jamie Vardy, an astonishing 21 points in one week when Leicester triumphed over the champions of two seasons ago. Yet we seem all-the-more confident to go for a Yaya Toure, just because of his record in one season, despite him lacking the cutting edge this year.
It will always be a long-term argument regarding whether we are under-utilizing English players, but I believe if we are in doubt, we should not be afraid to go for them.
Dean
@Dean_mancity
