Antonio: stick or twist?

[The Libero]

8 goals and 7 assists last season, 5 goals in the first 5 games of this season and now two blanks with West Ham playing iffy, but Palace(A), Sunderland (H) and Stoke(H) in the next 4 game weeks.

Is it too much of a knee jerk to ditch him after a couple of blanks or are there better options in a similar price range? I have £0.4m in the bank so can go up to £7.7m which brings in the options of Son, Walcott or Cazorla, or if I wanted to downgrade to free up funds elsewhere, Chadli or Milner.

My most likely choices there would be Son or Walcott....both in form: but are they worth swapping Antonio for?

[Beerfuelledman]

He's isnt going to score every game. Slightly more concerning is West Hams poor form, though Payet seems immune. He's a hold for me atm.

[Aar0n_28]

I'm holding. More likely to cash in and ship Capoue out as it stands.

[cesc408]

Likely to keep for the next 2 games.

[yttod1010]

Out but only cos son looks electric at the moment ...oh and West Ham are pathetic ,points look unsustainable in a very poor side

[Mike1989]

As long as West Ham deploy him in an attacking role, he is worth keeping in your side. The same goes for Payet. The way West Ham are set up this season is they are likely to concede a fair amount of goals unless the Boro game is a turning point for them, and as such, they are going to be chasing games or need to score more goals to get results. So as long as they continue to use Antonio in an attacking role keep him in your side. That said, if they move him back to wing back - they shouldn't considering they have Byram and Arbeloa to rotate around at RB - then you might decide to transfer him out. I don't think this will happen, but do have Lanzini and Zaza on the bench who could come in, also Ayew is progressing and could return soon, these could all factor into Antonio's role and might put him back at wing back.

It's worth monitoring, but he's in my side for now.

[Weisenwolf]

I'm sticking.

[DanCaek]

I think that's a valuable midfield position now, and not convinced Antonio will come out as the best option. Not exactly a pressing issue though.

[Carlos Kickaball]

I'm holding, he started upfront, is still playing well, and has a couple of good fixtures coming up. I could be tempted to a switch to Son, but he's been recalled to the South Korea squad apparently, and they're playing in Seoul and Tehran over the next fortnight, hardly great preparation for a game away at the Hawthorns.

[Kenzo]

The form that Spurs is in now, I am swapping for Son. The whole Spurs seems fixture proof for now.

[wahine]

stick for now , eventually would like to turn Antonio/Ozil into DeB and someone else, just working on funds for the next couple of weeks.

[Hotstepper]

I'm holding, he started upfront, is still playing well, and has a couple of good fixtures coming up. I could be tempted to a switch to Son, but he's been recalled to the South Korea squad apparently, and they're playing in Seoul and Tehran over the next fortnight, hardly great preparation for a game away at the Hawthorns.

That's exactly what I wanted to know. Move for Son on hold in that case.

[Stemania]

The Iran game is on the Tuesday though so plenty of time to get back. Not as bad as say Sanchez with Ecuador and Chile on the Wednesday, and we'd expect him to be fine. If Son plays as the OOP striker again it's pretty hard to bet against him, though since Antonio has the same possibility I may end up keeping (I think Walcott would be my preferred destination anyway).

Very strong price point this one, really could do with Antonio keeping up with the Walcott/Son/Lallana trains (and that's after Barkley, Tadic etc have disappointed us at various point of the season). Can't say I've ruled out a very rare move to 352 picking two of them and selling benchman Capoue.

[Paulista]

they're playing in Seoul and Tehran over the next fortnight, hardly great preparation for a game away at the Hawthorns.

On the contrary, a hot, humid, and hostile Tehran is perfect preparation to play against a Pulis defence

[Resonare]

I'd rather have Son/Liverpool mid as my 3rd mid right now. Other than SUN, West Ham's fixtures don't look that great at all and they've hardly been producing the upsets against the big teams they did last season.

[sunbather]

I'm sticking for now since I'm prioritising my shite defence first. Also not in too big a hurry to drop him anyway. 5 goals in 7 games for a 7.3 mid is good, only two blanks and has Palace and Sunderland up next.

[Mav3rick]

I'm sticking, although I was on board at 7.0 so I can handle one price drop anyway. GW7 wasn't great from him, but I'm not convinced that playing up front really helped his game.

The reason that Antonio has scored so many goals this year is that he's getting a good proportion of his efforts on target from inside the 6 yard box (he's had 6, the next best players have only 2). Watching the Middlesbrough game last week, those types of chances just didn't fall for him (he was close a couple of times though), but if Payet's delivery can find him once or twice a game in those positions, he's pretty likely to convert. It's interesting when you look at his expected goals (xG) - because the chances he gets from close in are such golden opportunities he's really doing well on that particular metric. Better even than Walcott or Son who have more shots, but each one isn't as likely to be scored as the close range attempts that Antonio gets.

I think I'll be watching to see if teams have worked out how to stop those types of chances (from memory of the game Middlesbrough didn't really, there were just some marginally long passes/crosses that Antonio couldn't quite reach). If those close range chances dry up, then that's definitely a time to sell.

[blahblah]

I think you'll find that he gets his head on the end of Payet's crosses

Well got

[Weisenwolf]

Yep; he's still got legs (and a head )

[Carlos Kickaball]

The Antonio drop hasn't hurt me, as I bought him for 7.2m; would have loved to have got Son's price rises and he has looked effective recently, but the recent press conferences have made me pleased with my decision to be cautious to rush Son in. I guess we will all be waiting to see where Antonio starts at the weekend, and also if he can do anything!

[The Real Slim Shady]

Did he start at LB last game?

[TheBigLewandowski]

Tempted to give him one last game at home to Sunderland.

[cesc408]

Gone this GW for me.

[elvushi]

One last GW for me then likely swap for Lallana.

[Blue Fire]

Will probably hold onto him for this week

[tommyk7]

Home to SUN last chance

[Hotstepper]

Home to SUN last chance

Same

[Aldershot Rejects]

Would love to keep him but his price drop and Walcott rise may well push me to make the transfer tonight unless someone can convince me to get rid of Firmino or Sterling instead.

[MoSe]

predicted to drop tonite, at this rate
sticking would mean to give up 0.1m for me
it might be irrelevant, or it might price me out of some option should I trade him out the next gws

I'd ride a value loss if I'm confident I'd stick mid-term at least, but if I have in mind to trade out anyway, a drop might be the trigger

[jacksosi]

Yep, and with Walcott rising too, I've jumped ship, hopefully Payet gets all the points this week