We begin our countdown to the new football season in earnest with a look at last season’s top performers, sorted by the league in which they were playing at the time, and using those statistics and looking at the summer each individual has experienced to try and see which players could reproduce their magical form from the last campaign and deserve an inclusion, and which may struggle and may, in some cases, be best avoided for our fantasy managers’ consideration.
The first league we will look at will be Serie A. Of the nations included in our fantasy football game, Italy were surprisingly not always necessarily near the top of individual performers, despite being one of the top leagues in Europe. However, with a grand share of world class players and plenty of flair and elegance on display, there were plenty of gems vying for a place in the league’s top five. Let’s get this countdown started, moving from fifth to first.
In fifth place, Torino midfielder Alessio Cerci did well to work his way into the list with an impressive 400 points. His value in the game for this season is €8.50m, but his value at the time was a mere €4.00m, giving him a wonderful points-to-value ratio of 100 – a real gem of an inclusion for any manager who went with the 27-year-old. He helped Torino to a 7th placed finish in the end, having arrived at Stadio Olimpico in 2012 for a €2.50m co-ownership agreement from Fiorentina. This season could be set to be a little tougher for the club, with bookmakers predicting a 9th-placed finish. His value has also more than doubled to €8.50m, and so while this is a player clearly more than capable of cutting his own in Serie A, he may not be the top pick for many of our managers.
In fourth, Juventus’ Paul Pogba showed just why there has been interest in his services from other European nations, with Man Utd and Chelsea consistently linked with the former Red Devils youth player. His value last term of €4.50m was greeted with a fantastic return of 400 points, which gave him a P/V ratio of just shy of 89 – another great deal really for anyone that sought his inclusion in their fantasy team. As far as this season goes, his value – much like that of Cerci’s – has soared, in this case to a cool €9.50m, but Pogba is playing for a side that have proven their potential to beat just about any contenders on the day. Indeed, 15% of managers have already included the 21-year-old in their squads, and so don’t be too surprised if that number increases somewhat over the duration of the campaign.
In third was Pogba’s Juventus team-mate, and fellow Old Trafford alumni Carlos Tevez, who of course also spent a spell at Man City while in England. Tevez did a cracking job in his first season in Italy, amassing 440 points from his 30 starts. He scored a solid 19 goals, and from a value of €10.50m last season he had a decent P/V ratio of 41.9. While this may not have been the best in the league, it shows a solid return for a somewhat hefty price tag – but with a year in Italy now already behind him, the Argentinian will of course be focused on building on that good start – definitely worth a consideration!
Yet another Old Lady player took second place in the list of Serie A’s top fantasy performers last season, with custodian Gianluigi Buffon returning a whopping 520 points in Juve’s title-winning campaign. 19 clean sheets from 33 starts helped this tally hugely, and of course he went on to enjoy a World Cup campaign with his native Italy, despite the Europeans falling short at the group stages alongside England. His P/V return finalised at 40, so just short of Tevez, but then again he was far from the cheapest player available to fantasy managers at a nice €13.00m price tag. This season’s valuation has gone down a bit to €10.50m, and with the legendary stopper hoping to play a huge part in what Juventus will hope is a successful title defence he will surely be one of the top contenders for fantasy managers out there to keep an eye on things inside the six yard box.
Finally, we move on to Serie A’s top performer last season – and interestingly it is another goalkeeper, with the accolade going to Roma goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis. The 37-year-old has struggled as Buffon’s understudy on the international scene, but at club level he slightly outperformed his fellow veteran with a nice 580 points. His P/V ratio was also a wonderful 82.9 – admittedly short of Cerci and Pogba, but far better than the others in the top five list. He had a value of €7.00m, and this has only gone up slightly to €7.50m – if there is any goalkeeper likely to be considered ahead of Buffon in the EFL fantasy game, de Sanctis has to be one of the top contenders surely.
