General Chat 2021/22

Looks solid, seeing a lot of folks wildcarding to that team!

Just playing devils advocate, would you consider one of Kane / Lukaku as a placeholder for Ronaldo?

Could be Ron gets subbed on for the newcastle game

Just people fiddling around with Wildcard drafts I guess?

I’m thinking I’ll go 1 premium striker and a more balanced team. I can get there with a minus 4. 2 premium strikers would require a wildcard on a team doing well that I’m happy with!!

Ronaldo for 4-6 then get in Lukaku. If Ronaldo is red hot I’ll just wildcard gw 7 to fit them both in.

The IB complicates the price lock on Ronaldo.

See note 12 at the bottom of the price changes page.

Cucurella, Brighton's new signing is down as a 5.0 DEF. He only played 1 game at LB last season in La Liga, 33 at LM and 3 as a LW. 3 goals & 2 assists in a team that struggled for goals.

Played 1 game as a LW this season too. Could be one to watch.

Yeah, saw that too.

I don't think he'll rise before GW4 but It's just my opinion.

There'll be some who are more itk on these things and might have data from previous years.

I'm sure it will be a talking point in the FF arena over the coming days.

I won't have him for the coming GW. Have Lukaku Antonio and Jesus atm.

Even coming on to face a tired Newcastle defence, Ronaldo could grab two goals. I think he's a more explosive player than Rom (famous last words!) and Kane is generally a slow starter each season and was late coming back.

I also don't like planning transfers ahead as you never know what will happen in the meantime.

Yeah I think this is a great point - United's penalties have been incredibly and probably unsustainably high since Bruno joined, even with last year's more permissive rules, that's why I decided to go without Bruno this season. Only 9 goals last season not from the spot for Bruno - that means remarkably Bruno already scored a third of his non-pen goals after match 1 this season!

It's going to be an interesting one to watch, as Bruno's penalties are superb, only missing 1 for United so far (out of 21 taken). Ronaldo is a very good taker, but I actually think Bruno is better - Bruno's conversion rate is 93% (41/44) versus Ronaldo's 83.73% (139/166). That's what I would call a superb penalty taker (top 5 in the world currently for sure) versus a merely pretty good one. Obviously it will be tough for Bruno to keep up 93% over Ronaldo's sample size, but 44 penalties is not insignificant and honestly the way he takes them, I would fully expect him to stay above 90% after 100 penalties.

What's the point of all these stats you might say? Ronaldo is Ronaldo, he'll definitely take them.

I just point it out as if I were Solskjaer I would certainly want Bruno taking my penalties. I also think it's important to point out as Bruno will rightly feel aggrieved if he's taken off them - not even from a personal perspective, but because the guy has an insane competitive streak and wants to do everything to win. If he genuinely felt Ronaldo was a better taker, I'm pretty sure he'd give them up - I don't see an ego with Bruno, but I do see a tenacious player that wants to do everything to win for his team. He may rightly see Ronaldo taking penalties as the sub-optimal play for his team. You also have to factor in that Bruno is United's future - I could easily see United still floundering outside the top 4 now if he hadn't joined - his talent, and more importantly mentality, has turned United around imo. I think they would want to be very careful about risking that for a player in the twilight of his career who will only offer a couple of seasons.

If Solskjaer is truly in control of this team, and if Ronaldo has joined to win trophies and help the club that he loves, then it's a no-brainer that Bruno should stay on penalties.

It's one reason I think I'll be holding off on Ronaldo for now. I don't think it's beyond the realms that Bruno stays on penalties or that they're shared in some way.

When Ronaldo signed, Bruno tweeted a cartoon picture of him watching United as a child in a jersey with Ronaldo on the back.

Ronaldo is his international captain. Both are on the pitch for Portugal and Ronaldo takes the pens.

If it was any other player, it would be up for debate but I believe he will hand over penalties to Ronaldo.

Also, it's not really fair to compare statistics when Ronaldo has taken 75% more penalties. Ronaldo has also taken them in high pressure situations like CL finals.

I would add that it's probably more than those 45 points that would be taken off as he probably got 2 or 3 bps every time he scored a penalty. It's probably closer to 63 to be taken off.

Had a quick look there at the Portugal fixtures over the summer and Bruno's minutes were reduced a good bit, before eventually being dropped. Ronaldo played 90 mins every game, bar being subbed off while winning in a warm up game. Coincidentally this was also Bruno's only Portugal game in over a year where he scored or assisted.

I'm not sure if a lot can be taken from this as it is International football, but I think I would be watching their first start together before settling on which one is worth having, or even both. Obviously Bruno won't be dropped for Man Utd but his positioning might change, or the influence over the team might be reduced. United might play more direct to Ronaldo instead of through Bruno, or possibly even play through Shaw to whip in crosses to Ronaldo.

Yeah thats true about the bonus points and of course for those who captain him when he gets them its even more points gained. I love bonus points on a captain, it is pure gravy and it can give you an extra 6 points on top of an already impressive haul.

Im interested to see what happens Shaw myself and if his points might go up with the addition of Ronaldo. Shaw has a superb cross on him and we all know that Ronaldo has an unbelievable spring in his jump and he is a superb header of the ball.

Again, Bruno is hooked on 60 mins after a poor performance while playing in the same team as Ronaldo. A sign of things to come, in terms of output?

For anyone worried about Ronaldo not starting against Newcastle (seen a lot of talk about this on twitter & reddit) , he is suspended for Portugal's last game against Azerbaijan which might mean he comes to Manchester a little bit earlier than expected and starts training with the team

Bizarre stuff altogether!

Its a very good team, very similar to my own but I would make one change . Ings to Calvert Lewyin or Bamford. Villa look very disajointed and their fixtures are terrible for a while