For the uninitiated, the barndoor (I really can’t tell you where the name came from) is the time between when the game locks down and when the points update. The observant manager can keep aware of the performance of players during this period and update their team before the new costs update. With all of the current thoughts quite rightly being based on the opening week of the season, it became obvious to me that the majority of teams will look very similar (due to the Chelsea/Reading double game weeks) and those managers who are looking to steal a march on competitors should be prepared to grab some players on the barndoor for the best games the week after.

To my mind, the stand out fixtures (obviously without seeing how teams perform week 1) are Sunderland, Swansea, Man Utd., Norwich, Southampton, Wigan, Everton and Tottenham in that order. I know that’s quite a long list and I’ll add one caveat, for those of you who like to find players that you can keep for a few weeks, I think the best teams will be Swansea, Man Utd, Tottenham and Everton as their next few matches are also quite easy. So who’s probably worth looking out for? Depending on who’s likely to play 90 minutes (should always be your first consideration) I will be keeping an eye on:

Sunderland – McClean, Sessegnon, Larsson, Bardsley, Mignolet

Swansea – Graham, Rangel, Williams, Vorm

Man Utd – Kagawa, Rooney, Valencia, Vidic

Norwich – Holt, Howson, R Martin

Southampton – Lallana, Fonte, Fox

Wigan – Beausejour, Boyce, Al Habsi

Everton – Pienaar (assuming transfer), Jelavic, Gibson, Heitinga, Howard

Tottenham – Bale, Sigurdsson, Vertonghen, Defoe (depending on Adebayor), VdV

These are obviously based on where players end up after transfers – Lloris would be a great keeper choice if he goes to Spurs and if Giovanni di Santos goes to one of the teams above, with a 90 minute position and priced at 1 he’d be really difficult to turn away.

Is anyone else looking at the barndoor yet?