The Boot Room: Week 4 and Free Agents

Week 4

Player of the week was Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor, who took advantage of some static goalkeeping by Paul Robinson (hate to say we told you so, folks) to bag a hat-trick. Manuel Almunia also contributed to a comfortable win for the Gunners with the best goalkeeping performance this week. The Spaniard, who has claimed he will be eager to represent England once he becomes eligible for consideration, saved all three shots that came his way.

Frank Lampard had a fine week, scoring and creating four chances as Chelsea overcame Manchester City. Lampard is in fact the most valuable player in the Roto FC game through week four, just ahead of Wigan's league-leading scorer and FIFA favourite Amr Zaki. Arsenal full-backs Sagna and Clichy are the highest performing defenders, while Petr Cech leads all keepers, having saved 11 shots and conceded just 2 goals.

Flying under the radar are the West Brom midfield pair of Jonathan Greening and James Morrison. Greening is the eighth highest performing player to date, with some superb passing at a success rate over 88%, which has created 8 chances for the WBA strike force. Morrison saw The End of his time at Middlesbrough in 2007, but has since been able to Light the Baggies' Fire at The Hawthorns. If he carries on creating chances and can add to the goal he scored against West Ham this weekend, he might just Break On Through into the public eye. Be sure to Tell All The People you know to keep an eye on his progress.


New Arrivals

With the first opportunity to make changes to teams in need of an early pick-me-up arriving with the first Free Agent claims, The Boot Room takes a look at the biggest arrivals to the player list since the draft last month:

No place to consider starting beyond the mercurially gifted, and now British transfer-record signing Robinho. Brought in to Manchester City by their new owners as an early statement of intent, the 'little Robin' scored on his debut against his former suitors Chelsea, and this combined with some crisp passing placed him in the top 30 of Roto FC's player rater for the week.

Robinho saw most of his action at Real Madrid as an inside forward, but will play in an orthodox front two for Mark Hughes' City side, a role which should help him improve on the 11 goals he notched in La Liga last season. With a lesser supporting cast than he enjoyed at the Bernabeu however, his tally of 39 chances created may drop back a little. However, if the (roughly) 1,136th man to be dubbed 'the new Pele' had produced his season stats from last year's Spanish league campaign in the Premiership, he would have ranked 9th overall in this fantasy format. If you have first waiver priority, this is a no-brainer.

Roman Pavlyuchenko is the man tasked with filling Dimitar Berbatov's boots at Tottenham, and while he will not match the Bulgarian's all-around game, he is nonetheless a predatory striker who has topped the charts in the Russian league two years running. However, the transition to English football may take a little while for the striker, who told Russian paper Izvestia of his debut:

“'I immediately realised that English football is much faster than in Russia. Our opponents didn't give me enough time to get to the ball properly. That's why I had practically no chance to score. So I'll have to keep it up and work on it. And about 20 minutes before the end, the strength started running out of me. My leg muscles felt unusually cramped up.”

The last part in particular will be a worry for prospective owners, especially as Pavlyuchenko arrives in mid-season condition from the Russian league, which runs March-November. I think Roman may be over-valued by fantasy owners seeking the 'next big thing' and suggest that, while he's certainly worth claiming, he may bring you more in a trade than in your team.

Spanish under-21 striker Xisco also scored a debut goal this weekend, which like that of Robinho was not enough to stop his new team slipping to defeat. Despite being a controversial acquisition who may have inadvertently helped precipitate Kevin Keegan's exit from St James' Park, Xisco is a talented young player who seems to have been highly rated by Deportivo fans. Like Pavlyuchenko he finds himself at a club in desperate need of a good news story, and could become a favourite amongst those fans who remain prepared to turn up on matchdays. I could see 10 goals and a decent partnership with Michael Owen.

Aston Villa completed their summer dealings by bringing Carlos Cuellar in from Rangers too strengthen their back line. The Spaniard did sterling service in Rangers' run to the UEFA Cup final last season and will bring a combative presence to the Villa defence. I see him making an above average number of tackles for a centre back, but picking up his fair share of cards in the process. He chipped in with four goals in the SPL in 07/08.

Manchester City reacted to Spurs' pursuit of Vedran Corluka by bringing in Argentine Pablo Zabaleta as well as Belgian Vincent Kompany. Zabaleta is a powerful defender who lacks the attacking prowess of many modern full-backs and will pick up too many disciplinary points to be anything more than a lower-tier option in defence. Kompany is a centre back by trade who has been used as a defensive midfielder by Hughes in his early appearances in sky blue. His eligibility for clean sheets is a nice perk, but he lacks the creativity to make a real impact, but he is a smooth tackler and comfortable on the ball; in a defensive midfield role he reminds me of Ledley King when David Pleat and Sven-Goran Eriksson used the Spurs man there. I would take him ahead of Zabaleta.


This Week

Consensus number one draft pick Cristiano Ronaldo may look to return to the Manchester United starting line-up after playing 28 minutes of their Champions League tie against Villarreal tonight. If he plays he will go up against John Terry, who is eligible to play after having his recent red card overturned by the league.

Free-scoring Manchester City take on Portsmouth, who have looked much shakier at the back than last year, not helped by the arrival of Younes Kaboul, or as they call him back in France: 'Le Titus Bramble Francaise'. Something has to give at the Stadium of Light, where Sunderland, having lost two of two at home, take on a Boro side who have lost both their away games. Perhaps a good matchup for Wigan defenders against a troubled Tottenham attack, while Liverpool's still-gelling partnership of Torres and Keane could help their confidence by fill their boots, and the Stoke City net.

By Sandy King