Berba or Fletch

SpaceCowb0y

Can see a lot of people (myself included) finally changing their 3rd striker option this week. Most of the talk on the various threads is about Berbatov and Fletcher at the moment so just for my own curiosity i thought a poll to visually see exactly who people thought was the better option would be good...

before i more then likely use my free transfer to bring in the winner of course ha!

darego

has to be fletcher :]

Dempsey

I voted Fletcher because I have Fletcher

I believe he's central to how Sunderland attack much like Adebayor was for Spurs last season. I think he'll prove to be a great mid range option

Berbatov I think will be more hit and miss but probably end up with near the same points total but FF players like their choices to consistently bring home points rather than be getting through a couple of 2 point GW's for a big haul.

Dearg81

Baffled how people rate Fletcher above Berbatov, there is no comparison, hes a different class. Berbatov was top scorer in the league with limited appearances 2 years ago. Can you expain your choice?

darego

Dearg81 wrote: »

Baffled how people rate Fletcher above Berbatov, there is no comparison, hes a different class. Berbatov was top scorer in the league with limited appearances 2 years ago. Can you expain your choice?

berbatov now plays for fulham, who are a championship side away from home on a good day :pac:

Dearg81

darego wrote: »

berbatov now plays for fulham, who are a championship side away from home on a good day :pac:

This plays in his favour as they will need to attack to get results and has nothing to do with Fletcher.

carlcon

Dearg81 wrote: »

Baffled how people rate Fletcher above Berbatov, there is no comparison, hes a different class. Berbatov was top scorer in the league with limited appearances 2 years ago. Can you expain your choice?

Agreed. The argument that Fletcher is in a better team is debatable, but as for who the better striker or better FF player is, Berbatov is twice the player Fletcher is.

Rayne Wooney

darego wrote: »

berbatov now plays for fulham, who are a championship side away from home on a good day :pac:

And Sunderland arn't? They lost 10 away from home last season..

Berbatov is now the main man at Fulham and I think he will take that as a challenge and bring more consistency to his game

I want to bring in Berbs. I really do. But I'm not sure given that Petric wasn't on the teamsheet today, anyone know why he wasn't available to play? Injury some webpages are saying?

I know he's going up tonight but I can afford him at 7.0 for Fletcher if needs be. I think I'll wait this one out.

Lemlin

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

darego wrote: »

berbatov now plays for fulham, who are a championship side away from home on a good day :pac:

And Sunderland arn't? They lost 10 away from home last season..

Berbatov is now the main man at Fulham and I think he will take that as a challenge and bring more consistency to his game

How many did they lose after O'Neill came in though? Sunderland were a very different team after his appointment.

There's no doubting Berbatov is a great player but he's inconsistent and playing for an inconsistent team. It's a poor match.

Sunderland have creative players like McClean, Johnson and Larsson whose job will be to get the ball into the box to Fletcher.

He's the main man, lone striker at the club, and I think he'll do well. He got a decent haul last season at Wolves and Sunderland are a far better team.

As someone said above, this is about FF points and not about who is actually the better player.

Dempsey

carlcon wrote: »

Agreed. The argument that Fletcher is in a better team is debatable, but as for who the better striker or better FF player is, Berbatov is twice the player Fletcher is.

Your ManU tinted goggles are clouding your judgement here. Whats being twice the player, which i dont agree with, got to do with anything? This is about FF points and even in Berbatovs best season, he was a FF nightmare much like Gareth Bale is which you have labelled poison several times for the same reasons.

anirishlad

Why not have both? Already have berb and plan on bringing fletcher in for
Dzeko.

Lemlin

anirishlad wrote: »

Why not have both? Already have berb and plan on bringing fletcher in for
Dzeko.

Most people see Tevez and RVP as undroppable at present.

Dempsey

anirishlad wrote: »

Why not have both? Already have berb and plan on bringing fletcher in for
Dzeko.

What were you doing with Dzeko?! He was sooo last season! :pac:

anirishlad

Dempsey wrote: »

anirishlad wrote: »

Why not have both? Already have berb and plan on bringing fletcher in for
Dzeko.

What were you doing with Dzeko?! He was sooo last season! :pac:

Thought it might pay off when aguero got injured, it didn't :P

orkkukunkku

Does Fletcher take penalties? If not then ill take berba.

Dearg81

Lemlin wrote: »

How many did they lose after O'Neill came in though? Sunderland were a very different team after his appointment.

There's no doubting Berbatov is a great player but he's inconsistent and playing for an inconsistent team. It's a poor match.

Sunderland have creative players like McClean, Johnson and Larsson whose job will be to get the ball into the box to Fletcher.

He's the main man, lone striker at the club, and I think he'll do well. He got a decent haul last season at Wolves and Sunderland are a far better team.

As someone said above, this is about FF points and not about who is actually the better player.

Good points about Fletcher but I disagree that Berbatov and Fulham are a poor match. Fulham tend to rack up the goals at home when they are on form and now Dempsey is gone there is a good chance that Berb will be their main man and score a large % of those goals. He's also on pens and I think Larsson takes Sunderlands. I do think Berbatov does tends to score most of his goals at home though so I can see why you would label him inconsistent, I might have to get a decent 5th midfielder to rotate with him from a FF perspective.

I also think O Neills sides tend to protect their lead when they go infront rather than push on looking for more goals but that's just my own opinion. I don't really rate Fulham but they always try and score goals.

manual_man

i have a feeling Fletch will outscore Berb over the remainder of the season. Berba is a class talent, always has been, but now he's playing with Kacanicliks and Sidwells as opposed to Scholeses and Giggses, also he's relatively old for a striker, by premiership standards. I wouldn't take too much heed from 2 goals on his debut, he obviously had a point to prove, it was at home to WBA, and the 2nd goal was playing against 10 men. Not getting carried away. Fulham are terribly inconsistent. And let's not forget they lost their 2 best midfield players. Fulham will struggle. Sunderland may not be a very fancy team but they're effective, Adam Johnson was a great signing and they'll undoubtedly create more chances, and i can see the unassuming but effective Fletcher sticking alot of them in the back of the net. That MoN spent £14m on him says alot, he's rarely wrong when it comes to players

In summary: i hope alot of people plump for Berbatov

Devia

Dearg81 wrote: »

Baffled how people rate Fletcher above Berbatov, there is no comparison, hes a different class. Berbatov was top scorer in the league with limited appearances 2 years ago. Can you expain your choice?

Berbatov was playing for the best team in the league and on the receiving end of the best service in the league. You can't really use that to compare to Fletcher who has only featured in rubbish sides up until now.

At the moment I'm considering having both in my team. Can't afford RVP without sacraficing my midfield and bench. If I had to pick one though I'd probably go with Fletcher. Main target man at the club, younger player, hungrier for goals and playing in a side which I think will score whether they win, lose or draw.

remoteboy

Don't mean to go off-topic but what about Crouch for 6.5m. Pretty consistent points scorer for Stoke. 24 already.

Lemlin

Berba has 31k transfers to Fletch's 7k so looks like Berba is winning this one.

S.M.B.

Berbatov for me anyway and that's why he found his way into my team during last weeks wildcard.

The merits of Fletcher depends on how you interpret a few keys stats from Fletchers performances to date.

Goal Attempts: 3
Shots on Target: 3
Goals: 3

Consistent? Predatory? Lethal?

or

Lucky? Unsustainable? Worrying?

Blatter

Don't really buy the ''Berbatov had greater service at United, he won't do as well for Fulham'' argument. I always felt that Berbatov was a more dangerous player in an inferior Spurs side than he was at United. He's the type of player that thrives when the team is built around him imo. I don't think it's any coincidence that his best spell for United came during a period when Rooney was injured/woefully out of form/had contract issues (first half of the 2010/11 season). The rest of his time at United was very meh as he was usually second fiddle to Ronaldo and Rooney.

Lemlin

Just looking over Fletcher's past career stats. In fairness, 22 goals and 5 assists in 61 games for a struggling Wolves team is a very good return.

That means he's generally returning a goal or assist every two games.

S.M.B.

78 goals + 42 assists in 180 games is even better though.

Goal or an assist every 1.5 games.

Therefore Berbatov wins.

manual_man

Blatter wrote: »

Don't really buy the ''Berbatov had greater service at United, he won't do as well for Fulham'' argument. I always felt that Berbatov was a more dangerous player in an inferior Spurs side than he was at United. He's the type of player that thrives when the team is built around him imo. I don't think it's any coincidence that his best spell for United came during a period when Rooney was injured/woefully out of form/had contract issues (first half of the 2010/11 season). The rest of his time at United was very meh as he was usually second fiddle to Ronaldo and Rooney.

Do you not think he'll struggle for service with Dembele and Dempsey not there? Those two were by far and away Fulham's best two mids imo. I think their experience and creativity will be sorely missed. You can't overlook these things. The team around him wouldn't inspire me with confidence. Add to that he's 31 1/2 (past a striker's prime, imo), all of this sudden love smells of a massive knee-jerk to me, all after one game at home to a very poor WBA on the day. Fletcher is the much more sensible choice imo. But debate is what makes this game interesting. So i'm lovin' it

carlcon

Dempsey wrote: »

Your ManU tinted goggles are clouding your judgement here. Whats being twice the player, which i dont agree with, got to do with anything? This is about FF points and even in Berbatovs best season, he was a FF nightmare much like Gareth Bale is which you have labelled poison several times for the same reasons.

I don't wear tinted goggles at all. My hatred of half the United team is a testament to that. If anything, my fondest thoughts of Berbatov are from when he was with Spurs.

I did not label Bale as poison for the same reasons either. Bale is poison because he plays every game and only manages to come good sporadically. Berbatov is continually a creative threat when he plays. As someone said above: A goal or assist every 1.5 games.

He's substantially more likely to rack up assists than Fletcher is. Add that to his better finishing, better first touch, better awareness, and you'll have an idea why I labelled him "twice the player" of Fletcher.

Fletcher has had a good start to the season, I don't doubt that. He's not a bad player at all, I don't doubt that either. But Berbatov is just in a higher tier of footballer.

If both players play the same amount of games this season and avoid injuries, Berbatov is likely to score a handful more goals, while gathering easily 2 or 3 times as many assists. "Twice the player" is obviously hyperbole and shouldn't be taken literally, so let's just say "significantly better considering he's the same price".

Lemlin

S.M.B. wrote: »

78 goals + 42 assists in 180 games is even better though.

Goal or an assist every 1.5 games.

Therefore Berbatov wins.

In fairness though, Fletcher was playing for Wolves who were struggling to stay up and were then relegated. Berba was playing for United.

I just find Berba hugely annoying. I was laughing at Shearer last night on MOTD saying Jol must of told him to work the 18 yard box. When did lazy Berba ever do anything else?

If Sunderland are 3-0 down, Fletcher will run his arse off for a consolation. Berba will sulk for Fulham.

He's a 31 year old who turned down the chance to go to a couple of the larger Italian clubs to go to Fulham. He obviously appears to be winding down his career.

Fletcher is a 25 year old out to justify a 14 million price tag.

SpaceCowb0y

Lemlin wrote: »

In fairness though, Fletcher was playing for Wolves who were struggling to stay up and were then relegated. Berba was playing for United.

I just find Berba hugely annoying. I was laughing at Shearer last night on MOTD saying Jol must of told him to work the 18 yard box. When did lazy Berba ever do anything else?

If Sunderland are 3-0 down, Fletcher will run his arse off for a consolation. Berba will sulk for Fulham.

He's a 31 year old who turned down the chance to go to a couple of the larger Italian clubs to go to Fulham. He obviously appears to be winding down his career.

Fletcher is a 25 year old out to justify a 14 million price tag.

To be fair to him id say that was more of a " Yes im 31 now and no i don't want to pack up and move to Italy with my family who are happily settled in the UK now" kind of thing!

S.M.B.

TBH, the majority of that post is way off the mark and is the type bias that could really cloud a good fantasy football decision.

Lemlin

SpaceCowb0y wrote: »

Lemlin wrote: »

In fairness though, Fletcher was playing for Wolves who were struggling to stay up and were then relegated. Berba was playing for United.

I just find Berba hugely annoying. I was laughing at Shearer last night on MOTD saying Jol must of told him to work the 18 yard box. When did lazy Berba ever do anything else?

If Sunderland are 3-0 down, Fletcher will run his arse off for a consolation. Berba will sulk for Fulham.

He's a 31 year old who turned down the chance to go to a couple of the larger Italian clubs to go to Fulham. He obviously appears to be winding down his career.

Fletcher is a 25 year old out to justify a 14 million price tag.

To be fair to him id say that was more of a " Yes im 31 now and no i don't want to pack up and move to Italy with my family who are happily settled in the UK now" kind of thing!

Berbatov has one child who is two. I don't think it would have been a huge upheaval to move.

Lemlin

S.M.B. wrote: »

TBH, the majority of that post is way off the mark and is the type bias that could really cloud a good fantasy football decision.

What would you see as bias and way off the mark? For me, it's simple enough that one player is reaching his peak and the other is winding down his career.

I don't think he'd turn down the Italian champions Juventus and CL football to play for Fulham otherwise. Personal reasons is one players are fond of throwing out when it suits.

I also think that Berba quite correctly has a reputation as a player who is sulky and lazy. At times he can be sublime but he can also be infuriating.

People talk about 2010 where he was joint top scorer but what they forget to mention is that 11 of his 20 goals came in three games - hat tricks against Brum and Liverpool and five against Blackburn.

Alex Ferguson thought so highly of him that year he didn't include him in the squad for the CL final.

S.M.B.

Lemlin wrote: »

What would you see as bias and way off the mark? For me, it's simple enough that one player is reaching his peak and the other is winding down his career.

I don't think he'd turn down the Italian champions Juventus and CL football to play for Fulham otherwise. Personal reasons is one players are fond of throwing out when it suits.

I also think that Berba quite correctly has a reputation as a player who is sulky and lazy. At times he can be sublime but he can also be infuriating.

People talk about 2010 where he was joint top scorer but what they forget to mention is that 11 of his 20 goals came in three games - hat tricks against Brum and Liverpool and five against Blackburn.

Alex Ferguson thought so highly of him that year he didn't include him in the squad for the CL final.

Well your Fulham being 3-0 down and Berbatov failing to put in a decent shift hypothetical situation for one. As you say above, he may have a reputation for being sulky and lazy but that doesn't mean it's true.

Quite a few people brought Berbatov in based solely on his 45 minute cameo against West Ham when he came on at half time while being, wait for it, 3-0 down.

He ran the game in the second half and showed no signs of laziness or sulkiness. He had more passes in the oppositions half than Fletcher had in around 70 minutes of gameplay, more passes in the final third, more crosses, more chances created but unfortunately (or fortunately for me as it prevented an earlier bandwagon than I would have liked) he failed to get on the score sheet.

They're the type factors I'll be judging my fantasy football decisions on and not hearsay about a lack of drive or enthusiasm.

Invincible

S.M.B. wrote: »

Lemlin wrote: »

What would you see as bias and way off the mark? For me, it's simple enough that one player is reaching his peak and the other is winding down his career.

I don't think he'd turn down the Italian champions Juventus and CL football to play for Fulham otherwise. Personal reasons is one players are fond of throwing out when it suits.

I also think that Berba quite correctly has a reputation as a player who is sulky and lazy. At times he can be sublime but he can also be infuriating.

People talk about 2010 where he was joint top scorer but what they forget to mention is that 11 of his 20 goals came in three games - hat tricks against Brum and Liverpool and five against Blackburn.

Alex Ferguson thought so highly of him that year he didn't include him in the squad for the CL final.

Well your Fulham being 3-0 down and Berbatov failing to put in a decent shift hypothetical situation for one. As you say above, he may have a reputation for being sulky and lazy but that doesn't mean it's true.

Quite a few people brought Berbatov in based solely on his 45 minute cameo against West Ham when he came on at half time while being, wait for it, 3-0 down.

He ran the game in the second half and showed no signs of laziness or sulkiness. He had more passes in the oppositions half than Fletcher had in around 70 minutes of gameplay, more passes in the final third, more crosses, more chances created but unfortunately (or fortunately for me as it prevented an earlier bandwagon than I would have liked) he failed to get on the score sheet.

They're the type factors I'll be judging my fantasy football decisions on and not hearsay about a lack of drive or enthusiasm.

Well said!!

Lemlin

S.M.B. wrote: »

Well your Fulham being 3-0 down and Berbatov failing to put in a decent shift hypothetical situation for one. As you say above, he may have a reputation for being sulky and lazy but that doesn't mean it's true.

Quite a few people brought Berbatov in based solely on his 45 minute cameo against West Ham when he came on at half time while being, wait for it, 3-0 down.

He ran the game in the second half and showed no signs of laziness or sulkiness. He had more passes in the oppositions half than Fletcher had in around 70 minutes of gameplay, more passes in the final third, more crosses, more chances created but unfortunately (or fortunately for me as it prevented an earlier bandwagon than I would have liked) he failed to get on the score sheet.

They're the type factors I'll be judging my fantasy football decisions on and not hearsay about a lack of drive or enthusiasm.

I support Blackburn Rovers so I've no affiliation or bias towards any large club. In fact, I've none towards the Premier League at this stage. The game you refer to was Berba's debut against West Ham. We'll see over the coming months if he keeps up as he's started. I'm not particularly impressed that you reckon he ran a game where the opposition were 3-0 up. Why wouldn't they let him dance around and have possession. Fulham didn't score so he was doing fook all with it and West Ham were three goals to the good. All they had to do was protect their lead, which they did despite Berba's virtuoso second half display in your opinion.

I've spent years watching him as a player and, in my opinion, the reputation of him being lazy and sulky is justified. I don't think SAF would be getting rid of him when he's only 31 otherwise. He's just spent 20 million or so on a 29 year old but allowed a player only two years older he spent 30 million on to leave for 4 million. There's a fact for you.

Some players are only coming in to their own aged 31, Drogba had some of his best years, but you'd swear Berba was 35 even the way the lads on MoTD were speaking. Fulham only scored 12 away goals last season. They have three strikers in Berba, Petric and Rodallega. My expectation is that playing time will be rotated and you could see a few games where Berba will come off after 60 minutes or so. I think Fletcher will always get near the full 90. That may be hearsay but again alot of this game is based on guesswork and that's my guess.

TBH I'm not worried about passes completed, crosses etc. It's points on the board that count. Luis Suarez is an example of a player who has plenty of shots and involvement but doesn't return points consistently.I'll be judging my fantasy football decisions on the fact that Fletcher has 22 points from two appearances for his new club. Berba has 14.

S.M.B.

Fair enough. It'll be very interesting to see how it plays out over the long term. They could notch up a very similar points total over the course of the season.

What makes it really interesting is the fact the 2 players couldn't be more unlike each other.

I still think it all comes down to a creative fulcrum in an attack minded team versus an absolute goal poacher in a more conservative team.

Only time will tell who's likely to score the most and if Fletcher begins to emerge as the obvious choice I won't waste any time jumping off the berbatov ship.

carlcon

We can add Ba to the list now.

Lemlin

carlcon wrote: »

We can add Ba to the list now.

And Defoe after yesterday.

manual_man

carlcon wrote: »

We can add Ba to the list now.

A quick look at Newcastle's upcoming fixtures and he looks very tempting. Only thing is they have a tonne of Europa league games in between, i'm thinking back to Stoke last year and how bad they suffered post-EL games

Reekwind

Does anyone have any thoughts on how likely Berba is to play? Obviously his game time at Utd was limited (for reasons that we need not go into) but I don't recall him have any major injuries during his time there

I need a striker who'll play every week - Fletcher will do that but will Berba?

Lemlin

Reekwind wrote: »

Does anyone have any thoughts on how likely Berba is to play? Obviously his game time at Utd was limited (for reasons that we need not go into) but I don't recall him have any major injuries during his time there

I need a striker who'll play every week - Fletcher will do that but will Berba?

As I said above, my own opinion is he'll play every week but it may only be for 50 to 60 minutes some weeks as Fulham also have Petric and Rodallega.

S.M.B.

So Fantasy Football Scout have posted a members only article on the whole Berb vs Fletcher debate.

They've pretty much reiterated all that I've said in this thread so it'll be interesting to see if we got it right in the medium to long term or not.

bohsman

Went with Fletcher for the moment purely due to Sunderlands next 2 fixtures being better than Fulhams and the dgw due at some point.

Stevecw

Went with Fletch, just reckon he will get 90 mins a lot. A decent 3rd striker for me to go with RVP & Tevez

FatRat

S.M.B. wrote: »

TBH, the majority of that post is way off the mark and is the type bias that could really cloud a good fantasy football decision.

Spot on.

Since when do us Fantasy managers worry about whether or not a players career is coming to an end? Or even how they did in previous years with different teams!!! Maybe everyone should get Torres? He's playing with one of the best teams in the league and has a magnificent record. Oh wait...... was most of that record achieved with BOTH Liverpool and Chelsea? I don't think so.


Different teams, playing with different players, and perhaps playing in un-familiar roles. It's near impossible for us ill-knowledgeable fantasy managers to be making calls on how they will perform this season. What we should be looking at, and the only thing imo, worth looking at is current form/situation at the club So here it is, in a nutshell, the only things I care about:

Fletcher:

7 million
More than likely does not take any set-pieces.
Lone striker, little/no competition for his place. Will start week in week out
Great service from the likes of Larsson and Johnson, lethal from set-pieces and them players can take them well.
Sunderland have good home/away form. Not known for scoring loads, but can very well score in either home or away fixtures.
Has scored 3 goals from play so far in 2 games against Swansea away and Liverpool at home (hardly easy fixtures). Sunderlands only goal-scorer so far. Says a lot of his importance and all of their goals will more than likely go through Fletcher in some way.

Berbatov:

7.1 million
Takes penalties
In competition with 3 other potential strikers. Will play with another striker or be rotated with another striker. Not garrunteed to start every game or play for 90 minutes.
Kacanaklic and Duff the best enablers for him. Not great enablers really.
Fulham can be explosive and score 3+ but can also finish scoreless, specifically in away fixtures, they're fairly inconsistent.
Scored 2 at home to West Brom in 1.5 games. 1 of those from play, the other a penalty. Likewise, most of Fulhams goals will probably go through him.

If you forget about the names and take the two players above as players you've never seen before, then there's your answer. If the names were swapped and the first write up was about Berba, the 2nd about Flecther I can safely say the majority would pick the 1st write up, which is Fletcher but would be Berba if the names were swapped. Penalties are the only obvious advantage Berba has. But I think Fletcher has too many advantages on Berba, so I'd go Fletcher.

SpaceCowb0y

Good post!!

Stevecw

FatRat wrote: »

Spot on.

Since when do us Fantasy managers worry about whether or not a players career is coming to an end? Or even how they did in previous years with different teams!!! Maybe everyone should get Torres? He's playing with one of the best teams in the league and has a magnificent record. Oh wait...... was most of that record achieved with BOTH Liverpool and Chelsea? I don't think so.


Different teams, playing with different players, and perhaps playing in un-familiar roles. It's near impossible for us ill-knowledgeable fantasy managers to be making calls on how they will perform this season. What we should be looking at, and the only thing imo, worth looking at is current form/situation at the club So here it is, in a nutshell, the only things I care about:

Fletcher:

7 million
More than likely does not take any set-pieces.
Lone striker, little/no competition for his place. Will start week in week out
Great service from the likes of Larsson and Johnson, lethal from set-pieces and them players can take them well.
Sunderland have good home/away form. Not known for scoring loads, but can very well score in either home or away fixtures.
Has scored 3 goals from play so far in 2 games against Swansea away and Liverpool at home (hardly easy fixtures). Sunderlands only goal-scorer so far. Says a lot of his importance and all of their goals will more than likely go through Fletcher in some way.

Berbatov:

7.1 million
Takes penalties
In competition with 3 other potential strikers. Will play with another striker or be rotated with another striker. Not garrunteed to start every game or play for 90 minutes.
Kacanaklic and Duff the best enablers for him. Not great enablers really.
Fulham can be explosive and score 3+ but can also finish scoreless, specifically in away fixtures, they're fairly inconsistent.
Scored 2 at home to West Brom in 1.5 games. 1 of those from play, the other a penalty. Likewise, most of Fulhams goals will probably go through him.

If you forget about the names and take the two players above as players you've never seen before, then there's your answer. If the names were swapped and the first write up was about Berba, the 2nd about Flecther I can safely say the majority would pick the 1st write up, which is Fletcher but would be Berba if the names were swapped. Penalties are the only obvious advantage Berba has. But I think Fletcher has too many advantages on Berba, so I'd go Fletcher.

Makes me feel better about my choice!! Thank you...(for now!)

Lemlin

FatRat wrote: »

S.M.B. wrote: »

TBH, the majority of that post is way off the mark and is the type bias that could really cloud a good fantasy football decision.

Spot on.

Since when do us Fantasy managers worry about whether or not a players career is coming to an end? Or even how they did in previous years with different teams!!! Maybe everyone should get Torres? He's playing with one of the best teams in the league and has a magnificent record. Oh wait...... was most of that record achieved with BOTH Liverpool and Chelsea? I don't think so.


Different teams, playing with different players, and perhaps playing in un-familiar roles. It's near impossible for us ill-knowledgeable fantasy managers to be making calls on how they will perform this season. What we should be looking at, and the only thing imo, worth looking at is current form/situation at the club So here it is, in a nutshell, the only things I care about:

Fletcher:

7 million
More than likely does not take any set-pieces.
Lone striker, little/no competition for his place. Will start week in week out
Great service from the likes of Larsson and Johnson, lethal from set-pieces and them players can take them well.
Sunderland have good home/away form. Not known for scoring loads, but can very well score in either home or away fixtures.
Has scored 3 goals from play so far in 2 games against Swansea away and Liverpool at home (hardly easy fixtures). Sunderlands only goal-scorer so far. Says a lot of his importance and all of their goals will more than likely go through Fletcher in some way.

Berbatov:

7.1 million
Takes penalties
In competition with 3 other potential strikers. Will play with another striker or be rotated with another striker. Not garrunteed to start every game or play for 90 minutes.
Kacanaklic and Duff the best enablers for him. Not great enablers really.
Fulham can be explosive and score 3+ but can also finish scoreless, specifically in away fixtures, they're fairly inconsistent.
Scored 2 at home to West Brom in 1.5 games. 1 of those from play, the other a penalty. Likewise, most of Fulhams goals will probably go through him.

If you forget about the names and take the two players above as players you've never seen before, then there's your answer. If the names were swapped and the first write up was about Berba, the 2nd about Flecther I can safely say the majority would pick the 1st write up, which is Fletcher but would be Berba if the names were swapped. Penalties are the only obvious advantage Berba has. But I think Fletcher has too many advantages on Berba, so I'd go Fletcher.

Good post but I do think the points I made are valid and they are things I considered when going for Fletcher.

Performances at a different club are generally indicative of how a player will perform at another. Martin O'Neill paid 14 million for example for Fletcher because of his performances at Wolves.

Torres is a poor example. Everyone knows he's been in poor form. How about Michu for example? Plenty on here had him marked from pre season because of his performances at Rayo, a club in another country.

I also think its important to note that SAF was willing to let Berba leave and it is a consideration that one player is entering the peak of his career and the other's winding down.

We'll agree to disagree on our reasons for the choice but at least we both agree on the same choice!