There was an article on Kaboul and the prospects for the Sunderland defence on FFS today, and with many of us looking to see which 4.5 is best it may be of some interest.
The conclusion seems to be that Pantilimon and PVA are the only ones safe with perhaps O'Shea the safest for gwk1 due to possible match fitness doubts for Kaboul and Coates. These doubts may be put to rest in the two pre-season games to come.
THE PROSPECTS
Kaboul’s addition, allied with Coates’ arrival, swells the number of options in the heart of Sunderland’s defence for the season ahead. The Black Cats managed 13 clean sheets last year – the same number as Arsenal – but with John O’Shea and Wes Brown also in contention, there’s a great deal of uncertainty over Advocaat’s likely starters.
Speaking to the local press, club skipper O’Shea conceded that Advocaat has a real dilemma on his hands:
“There’s a lot of competition in defence now and that’s what we’re looking for throughout the whole team. That’s how you get success. I’ve had that practically all my career and that’s how teams get better. You need people constantly fighting for places and fighting to stay in that XI. Hopefully that’s how we get better results. It’s a manager’s dream.”
For Fantasy managers, though, it’s a real source of frustration, given that all four centre-halves come in at 4.5 in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game. In addition, the arrival of Adam Matthews (4.5) places uncertainty over the right-back berth, with the summer signing from Celtic set to vie with Billy Jones (also 4.5) for a starting role. Ultimately, this leaves us approaching the start of the season with only Costel Pantilimon and Patrick van Aanholt – at 5.0 apiece – looking nailed-on for the Wearside outfit.
Certainly, the changes in the BPS will favour Pantilimon – given that the Romanian averaged 4.4 points per appearance last season, he could well justify the extra outlay. Van Aanholt, meanwhile, tallied five assists in 2307 minutes last term, with only Leighton Baines (nine) and Daryl Janmaat (six) besting that haul amongst defenders, whilst he also fashioned 17 more shots (30) than any other Black Cats backline option in 2014/15.
Given that they managed more shut-outs away than at home (seven to six), Sunderland are clearly capable of tightening up on their travels – indeed, only Liverpool and West Brom (eight apiece) managed more clean sheets on the road. Looking at the schedule, Sunderland’s kind opening batch of fixtures (lei, NOR, SWA, avl, TOT, bou) is certainly conducive to defensive returns; indeed, Advocaat’s men face just three of last year’s top seven in the first 14 Gameweeks.
Sunderland, however, only have two more friendlies before the campaign kicks-off and bearing in mind that Kaboul and Coates have yet to feature (though both are expected to play some part against Doncaster tomorrow night), it remains to be seen whether either will be fully match fit come their season opener at Leicester a week on Saturday. It may well be, then, that we won’t know Advocaat’s preferred options until a few matches into the new campaign, when all his defenders will be up to scratch.
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