A terrible week at Len Rovers HQ, getting only 41 points was 10 worse than my previous worst. I need a flash out of the blue to get me out of this mid table mire. And still my son’s novelty team is doing better than me. Have I already started to have father/son projected goals issues.
Vindication
I’ve pretty much nothing to blow my trumpet about from the previous game week. Vidic scoring a goal was handy, not that I expected. But conceding 3 goals was mental. I had what I considered a terrible week, until I saw the other scores on Tuesday and very few people in the Back Of The Net Boy did much better. I got 41 points (worryingly I made 16 points worth of transfers and it didn’t seem to come off my score – if I win this league by 15 points, will I just be like Henry?
D’oh
My main regret this week was the fact was the Man Utd Everton result. Three of my back 4 (Howard, Vidic & Evans (suffered (bar the Vidic goal). Newcastle losing didn’t help; I’d Carroll as my captain. Maybe cos I was at a music festival for the weekend, my team were a lot more lax than they’d normally be when I’d be keeping a close eye on them in Cashman’s Pub on a Saturday.
Hunch
This is not too imaginative, but Drogba is gonna be my captain. He didn’t play yesterday in Chelsea’s goal rout, so he’ll be hungry to get some glory back on his shoulders (is that a phrase? Did I just make up a cliché?). He’ll be at home to Blackpool and I can imagine him like a bad guy in a James Bond film where the underdog hero (Blackpool) is brought to his lair (Stamford Bridge) and the bad guy (Drogba – you’re getting this metaphor yeah?) does the whole I’ve been expecting you shtick… Hang on the underdog always wins yeah. Oops. Ashley Cole was also rested in champions league. So he should play on sat, I’m wary of the Liverpool v Man Utd game, or more specifically Torres v Vidic. It’s been a torrid challenge for Vidic last few seasons, and considering all the flack Torres has got and the fact he didn’t play last night means he could just be primed to explode. That match also signals the return of Joe Cole after suspension (remember he scored the goal last season to essentially win the league for Chelsea)
I’m interested to see if Gareth Bale plays against Wolves at home. Spurs need to pull their socks up in Premier League of course, and Modric is injured so a left handed attacking role could be ripe for the young leek eater but has his kettle boiled over? (it this metaphor the kettle is his form)
Transfers
I’m not gonna use any transfers this week (unless an injury gets announced tomorrow). I’m fearful of less than 10 or 11 players in my team actually making appearances at weekend (Arshavin played last night for instance and the next game is a tough match in stadium light, so Wenger might play all his midfield bruisers instead… Hang on). But it’s a risk I gotta take, because my virtue of saving this transfer, so I carry it over to have 2 next week. After another hectic champions league week, we might have a few knocks etc.
But if I was gonna sign anyone, it’d be Fabregas because like the which ever woman the Kings of Leon wrote that song about, his Sex Is On Fire (but in this case his Sex is his match fitness and form)
Theory/Selection
I just realised, Liverpool and Man City play tonight, I might not be able to do a full blog tomorrow (I have meetings all day with people who put on arts and theatre festivals. Can you believe “they” have no interest in soccer, specifically notional games like this? Philistines. Anyway there might be more knocks or injuries after. I’m hoping Man City play well tonight and win handsomely, so they’ll be lax against Wigan, so Cleverly (4.5 folk, got an assist in the 14 mins he played on his debut) might make something happen.
Arrgh Carroll & Nolan away to Everton, they’ll be on a high after last week’s result; that’ll be another travesty of Len Rovers.
Drogba captain is a shoe in though
My Team this week
1: Howard Newcastle (H)
2: Samba Fulham (H)
3: Evans J Liverpool (H)
4: Vidic Liverpool (H)
5: Cole A Blackpool (H)
6: Nolan Everton (A)
7: Arshavin Sunderland (A)
8: Cleverly Man City (H)
9: Bale Wigan (H)
10: Malouda Blackpool (H)
11: Drogba (C) Blackpool (H)
12: Jaaskelainen Aston Villa (A)
13: Konchesky Man Utd (A)
14: Doyle Tottenham (A)
15: Carroll Everton (A)
Keeping An Eye On
Torres & Cole, if they start to sparkle might be time to move to them; next two matches after Man Utd game are two home matches in Sunderland and Blackpool
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Guest Blogger For Fantasy Football
A good good friend of Back Of The Net Boy has written this week's blog. Even though he works for the company known as anti-beamish, he's a good guy and knows his stuff
Here you go, edit away if you like.
Fixtures
A key aspect of the game is playing according to fixtures and is essential if you want to top your private leagues. If you pay no attention to fixtures other than to pick your captain, you will fall behind. I tend to look for a run of 3/4 good fixtures for a team and load up on their players according to how good the fixtures are. I also keep an eye on all the future fixtures so i can have a vague plan for gradually bringing in these players in time for the good run without having to take precious points hits. Chelsea undoubtedly had the best starting run of fixtures and people that had drogba, malouda, etc. were duly rewarded. Arsenal's starting fixtures are also great and people with arshavin, walcott (now injured) will be pleased. At the moment i have loaded up on spurs players bale, crouch (now that defoe is injured) and dawson (also injured :( ) and am hoping for big returns from west brom, wolves and west ham. of course home advantage is also a huge factor, any look at stats will show you how better teams perform at home. A run of 3 home fixtures is always tempting, especially for defenders. A common tactic with keepers is to pick them according to fixtures that "match" i.e. when one plays away, the other home and you can play a home keeper every week. There's a thorough keeper combo analysis on this page: http://totalfpl.com/ under community articles, check it out.
It's quite painful trying to look at all the fixtures in one go, to spot good runs with the regular fixture tables, but luckily there's plenty of FF nerds that have done the hard work for you and made season tickers that plot the seasons fixtures and grade according to difficulty, check this before you make any changes to your team and plan early.
http://www.fiso.co.uk/forum/fpl-fixtures-and-results-grid-2010-11-t74462.html (updated weekly with new difficulty gradings based on current table standings)
Also essential to keep abreast of are the sacred double gameweeks where a team will play two matches in one gameweek. These tend to become more frequent after christmas when fixture schedules get complicated with FA cup, etc. and weather starts to cancel a few matches (remember the chaos last year?) if you spot a nice double gameweek coming up like two home matches against weaker opposition then of course try to get to that gameweek with 3 of those players. The earlier you know about it, the easier you can get these players in without points hits.
so final picks from me for good runs: Fulham up to GW11, spurs for the next few weeks, arsenal have westham (H), Newcastle (H) and wolves (A) starting in GW10 so load up on them and finally man city have decent fixtures for the next 7 weeks apart from arsenal and chelsea, but they are both at home so not that bad either.
Here you go, edit away if you like.
Fixtures
A key aspect of the game is playing according to fixtures and is essential if you want to top your private leagues. If you pay no attention to fixtures other than to pick your captain, you will fall behind. I tend to look for a run of 3/4 good fixtures for a team and load up on their players according to how good the fixtures are. I also keep an eye on all the future fixtures so i can have a vague plan for gradually bringing in these players in time for the good run without having to take precious points hits. Chelsea undoubtedly had the best starting run of fixtures and people that had drogba, malouda, etc. were duly rewarded. Arsenal's starting fixtures are also great and people with arshavin, walcott (now injured) will be pleased. At the moment i have loaded up on spurs players bale, crouch (now that defoe is injured) and dawson (also injured :( ) and am hoping for big returns from west brom, wolves and west ham. of course home advantage is also a huge factor, any look at stats will show you how better teams perform at home. A run of 3 home fixtures is always tempting, especially for defenders. A common tactic with keepers is to pick them according to fixtures that "match" i.e. when one plays away, the other home and you can play a home keeper every week. There's a thorough keeper combo analysis on this page: http://totalfpl.com/ under community articles, check it out.
It's quite painful trying to look at all the fixtures in one go, to spot good runs with the regular fixture tables, but luckily there's plenty of FF nerds that have done the hard work for you and made season tickers that plot the seasons fixtures and grade according to difficulty, check this before you make any changes to your team and plan early.
http://www.fiso.co.uk/forum/fpl-fixtures-and-results-grid-2010-11-t74462.html (updated weekly with new difficulty gradings based on current table standings)
Also essential to keep abreast of are the sacred double gameweeks where a team will play two matches in one gameweek. These tend to become more frequent after christmas when fixture schedules get complicated with FA cup, etc. and weather starts to cancel a few matches (remember the chaos last year?) if you spot a nice double gameweek coming up like two home matches against weaker opposition then of course try to get to that gameweek with 3 of those players. The earlier you know about it, the easier you can get these players in without points hits.
so final picks from me for good runs: Fulham up to GW11, spurs for the next few weeks, arsenal have westham (H), Newcastle (H) and wolves (A) starting in GW10 so load up on them and finally man city have decent fixtures for the next 7 weeks apart from arsenal and chelsea, but they are both at home so not that bad either.
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