Fantasy Football 2012-1-31

Game week 23­

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 56

Average Score on site – 33

Highest Haul: 28 – Sessegnon (14, doubled as he was my captain my captain)

Lowest Haul: Walters got me 0,

 

Average Score Per Player 5.05

Accrued Score – 982

Place in my own fecking league – 71, up 5 places

Points Off the top – 302 (This is just getting embarrassing) 

State Of Play

My iphone is not keeping it’s charge for more than a few hours anymore; I can’t seem to shift the weight of my belly; I really need to learn to drive… so it’s not just my fantasy football team and it’s awfulness that is resting on my mind

Vindication

Wahey, other than Dempsey or Zamora I picked the best performing player of the gameweek as my captain, Sessegnon!

D’oh

7 fecking players scored 2 point or less. While I despair, unlike Craig David, I’m not walking away.

Walters missed a penalty; Jones came off after about 20 mins,

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky have spotted it.

As I write this, there is 8 hours left in the transfer deadline, yet the deadline for this gameweek in 5ish hours. In my head I was preparing to use my wildcard this gameweek, I really am letting small details slip. It doesn’t feel like there will be a flurry of moves over the course of the day (except perhaps QPR, who are linked with any footballer that is out of his house at moment. Ronaldinho?) Anyway as I said, I intended to use my wildcard this week, so I immediately swapped Jones out the night he was injured for Smalling, so I didn’t lose out in his price drop. Why I signed a United defender I don’t know, as they have Stoke this week and then Chelsea and Liverpool.

Funnily enough, with all the mild hysteria about Newcastle missing Ba when he was the African Nations Cup… well he’s back now, and brought his fellow countryman Cisse along with him. The Guardian’s German soccer columnist Raphael Honigstein, has stated that he thinks he will make an immediate impact and is perfectly suited for the premier league, but at 7 million I’ll wait to see if he’s being played from the off, or is really bought as the replacement for Ba, who seems destined to leave before at the end of the season (and who knows maybe before midnight DUH DUH DUH)

Transfers/Theory/Selection

So I can’t decide anything, double guessing and all that, so I’m just walking away this week, swapping my keepers and that’s it. I’m almost fearing that I do okay this week, which would mean me doing virtually nothing is better than me trying at all.

My Captain, My Captain.

Even though he has an orange mark against him, I’ll captain Bale at home to Wigan, who he could devour, followed by Sessegnon at Sunderland.

My Team this week

  

Keeping An Eye On

- QPR, both their transfer spend and their starting line ups.

- Everything else, I just can’t see wood from trees this week. I’m gonna use the transfer deadline as an excuse.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Due to unexpected, but pleasant chain of events, I need to go into town now, so Captain’s Corner will be posting

Fantasy Football 2012-1-20

Game week 21

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 41

Average Score on site – 48

Highest Haul: 12 – Van Persie (6, doubled as he was my captain my captain)

Lowest Haul: 2 players got 2 points for appearing, 2 others got none as they didn’t play at all.

 

Average Score Per Player 3.7

Accrued Score – 896

Place in my own fecking league – 77, down 2 places

Points Off the top – 297 (I forgot to carry a one, so I thought for a second it was 197, then got a second kick in balls when I checked my maths) 

State Of Play

For all my blah blah, it’s the same old blah blah in last game week, with all my planning I managed to put together a team that only 9­ players appeared for the clubs (as a direct result I can’t make fun of Newcastle replacing a striker who is at the African Nations Cup with another strikers who is… also at the African Nations Cup).

To be honest I am feeling so bad about this game*, if I was shit at the start it’d be fine, but when I started I was great at it, and with the same skill set I am being overtaken, it feels like I’ve the fantasy football equivalent of the career arc of Lee Sharpe. Boo Hoo. Like if I was clutching at straws, making half decisions then I’d understand, dang. Maybe I should pretend that I am letting a child make my decisions?

Maybe it’s a young man’s game… Maybe I’m like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, just winding the clock down, I need a Mel Gibson character element in my life, any offers?

* = (I know in real terms this game isn’t that important, just in case my mum reads or anything, I am genuinely okay!)

Vindication

In Microsoft Word, you can set phrases/words you use a lot to be triggered by certain keystrokes, I better set one up for “I captained Van Persie, and he got me a large amount of this week’s points.

D’oh

Not managing to pick an entire team that played is a definite black mark on my journal. Getting notes sent home to yer folks was always worst on Fridays.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky have spotted it.

Remember when David James played spending too much time on the Playstation for his clumsy decisions, well De Gea has gone one step more with the need to get laser eye surgery! Serious? This is up there with the signing of Bebe. In the last 8 or so years, Ferguson has signed a helluva lot of duds, but any scouting report that mentions a goalkeeper that has vision problems should set off alarm bells. I do remember a taxi driver telling me that Brian O’Driscoll was a better player before he got his laser eye surgery, because before that he went for space that he was misjudging and got trickier tries and whatnots. But then again he was a Taxi Driver, and they will say anything with no fear of the conversational consequences.

So I better check my watch, yep it’s crisis o’clock time in Arsenal again, or is it Man Utd right now? Maybe Man City? Chelsea has the most chatter of transfers right now, Villa Boas seems to be intent on the transformation, it is funny what with Drogba and Lampard clearly being kept for the mean time, and certainly being encouraged to leave with passivity, to be fair they are OLD (essentially my age), but to be letting Sturridge get in a tizzy over his contract seems a bad idea.

Here’s a thing about spin, Liverpool just signed the 2nd or 3rd biggest kit deal in the premiership, fair boules, it’s a worldwide free market etc etc. Yet some articles have been about why Adidas wouldn’t stump up as much as Liverpool were looking for, basically because Liverpool aren’t as successful as Adidas want them to be? Giving up following Man Utd, has definitely given me a sense of the bigger picture and how ‘the media’ projects a lot of “problems” at clubs, for every blog/newspaper/radio person giving their opinion on a problem there must be a new angle on it. Ok, I think I’m waffling at this stage

Super Sunday coming up, big big matches between top top teams, these weekends are tougher for FF managers than the fans, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if any of those big 4 scored, ergo you wouldn’t wanna use any of those teams’ defenders, but in particular the City/Spurs game, there are so many potential scorers who do you captain. With the Arsenal/Man Utd match it reminds me more of soccer in primary school, the two best players get to be captain (in this case Rooney and RVP) and then just pick teams to play with them.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

Okay, Samba still hasn’t moved which is a bollocks, as since he was “sick” last week, he might still be “sick” this weekend, why don’t they use the magic sponge on him? Or even better get some 7 up, and stir with a fork when it’s heated up. Never failed me. (interesting to see Cahill was played and made Captain at Bolton when he clearly on way out, does that mean Blackburn don’t trust Samba or Samba is of a more agitative outlook). But my other gamble of McEachran has now moved to Swansea, so surely he’ll come off the bench at least this gameweek.

Anyone notice that after watch MOTD this weekend, Swansea are suddenly brilliant? The BBC’s pundits on the top level are truly appalling. But ever see Steve Claridge on their football league show? Brilliant. So where was I? Oh yeah Swansea, I’ll hold my hands up other than Vorm I couldn’t pick any of them from a line up (police like, not a team sheet)

This week’s http://fantasy.premierleague.com/the-scout/ make a real good point about Ryan Taylor, one I certainly didn’t spot, the fact that he’d moved into midfield.

So I’ve got rid of Walker for Spurs, basically they have 3 games in last 6 weeks, that are against other ‘big teams’, so I wouldn’t’ be playing him any of those times, and I brought in the previous mentioned Taylor.

And on a similar level, one keeper of mine is Friedal and the other was Begovic, but he is second choice now, so I’ve swapped him for Paddy Kenny at QPR, for the same reason I mention later on in the keeping an eye on section. I will be swapping my two keepers every second week I reckon for next 6 gameweeks.

As you can see from my selection, I am on that tightrope of a full team, with 2 doubtfuls, fingers crossed.

My Captain, My Captain.

I’ve a general wariness about using RVP for this game, and will probably fret over this all night. Similarly my other big hitter is Bale, who is fantastic but I feel Manchini will choose to favour not losing this match as opposed to winning it, so will possibly just choke the game, so will forgo Bale too. (I’m lucky I work till 2am tonight, so I can change it later), so the question is who do I go with, I need variables to start falling in my favour, so It’s gonna be two red and striped  jersey wearing me to pick between, Walters and Sessegnon, who funnily enough are the subject of a head to head in this week’s http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk. Sessegnon has a higher ICT index, but in truth I don’t really know what that means. It all points to Sessegnon, so I will err for him, with the Irish international being my vice captain.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Well everyone , but particular QPR, bringing in two centre backs, who will both be on good cash, so surely they’ll start and Mark Hughes has always built his teams on a strong defence, put in the fact Alex is a demon with the toepoker freekicks, could be quite a buy (but at 5.4, to Onuoha’s 4.6…). And they have very favourable fixtures for next few weeks.

And Stephen Ireland is really creating a positive buzz again, and once again quite affordable.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Another wide-open gameweek for captaincy, no obvious real obvious choice with some of the top teams facing each other. Let's take look.

Man U@Arsenal - Should be a cracker. Arsenal will be looking to bounce back after a 3-2 defeat to Swansea last week but more importantly they'll be looking to avenge a humiliating 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford last year.  It won't be easy though, Vermaelen and Arteta won't make this one and United have a fit Smalling and Jones for defensive duties. RVP will still be a popular choice here. For United I like Nani, he's not been very consistent but seems to score in big games, having netted against Chelsea and Arsenal earlier in the season.

Spurs @ Man City - City seem to be focusing on defending again like last season and looking more likley to grind out 1 nils. They put five past Spurs early season though but i don't expect a repeat. Aguero looks a good bet and as always Silva.

Norwich@ Chelsea - Norwich leak goals and this looks the most captain friendly fixture this week. Torres looks promising again but how many times have we been burned by him in the past, could be a great gamble but not for the faint of heart. I like Sturridge here more, he should be available although there's some rumours of tension between him and AVB but that shouldn't stop him bagging a goal here.

Other nice picks this week are Walters @home to West Brom and Sessegnon @ Swansea..

Fantasy Football 20121-1-13

Game week 21

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 48

Average Score on site – 54

Highest Haul: 12 – Friedel/Bale

Lowest Haul: (-2) – Jones

 

Average Score Per Player 4.4

Accrued Score – 855

Place in my own fecking league – 75, down 11 places

Points Off the top – 288 

State Of Play

Happy 2012 BOTNB-ers; it’s a brand new year and all that, so a new leaf and all that jazz, and looking at the world with new eyes, give everything a new chance etc. (my annual attempt to like Olives for instance), so while the FPL doesn’t have a winter break alá Serie A, or even break into two mini seasons alá South American leagues; I am treating this second half of this season as a new attempt for at least getting barcaRONAN back on track, out with Ronan Warnock and in with Ronan Hughes.

But just before the new Ronan bright start…What FUNKER got 142 points last week, seriously 142 points, that’s over 300% better than me, 322% to be specific. Seriously 142. Last week’s particularly bad haul is mainly due to me being such a good father, let me explain, I had the heir to the throne on New Years Eve/Day and was playing with him during the day, in my head the deadline for transfers was in the evening, as opposed to earlier. A bad father would have checked at the expense of quality time with his child… ergo all the childless people at the top end of the leader board… take a look at yourselves. In short, I didn’t get the chance to take Walker off the bench, all 13 beautiful points of Kyle Walker thanks to Josh McEchran playing 8 minutes.

So anyway, last three gameweeks I did around the average score, so there you go.

Vindication

Once again, in last three gameweeks I did around the average score, so there you go.

D’oh

Thirdly, in last three gameweeks I did around the average score, so there you go.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky have spotted it.

Okay, it’s been such a hectic few three game weeks eh? In summation, everyone is in some kind of crisis: every second person is a racist/criminal, and every other person is a victim. Form went out the window, but it didn’t in other ways coos the bad teams are getting worser. and the good teams are staying topular (I just coined that word! – Boom). SO there you go a few sentences of waffle that all can be used to back up any opinion I’ve read about last few weeks of games.

The two main things that are looming now are The African Cup Of Nations, a fair few notable players are missing Toure, Toure, Lally for instance. (Hardy Harr) and the Transfer Window; will QPR shore up massively? the unfairly maligned Alex (who has a great free kick technique straight from the primary school playground) seems to be on his way, as well as Samba, could be a tasty pick up there.

A lot of chatter that Carroll is on his back home, but it seems very stupid since they are missing Suarez as well. In fact chatter is the operative word, since the transfer gossip goes into overdrive, I certainly will hold my winter transfer window wildcard back for at least one more game week, if not two.

The trio of MSLers, Donovan, Henry & Keane could be telling too. Is it just me that really wishes Arsenal were playing Villa in next few weeks, Given & Dunne lining up against Henry would be very fun to watch.

Spurs are really really on a roll at the moment, in one way I’m not even that excited about this game week, cos the Man City Spurs game next week could be very interesting. It’s quite possible by end of game week 22, there will be three clubs tied on points at top of league. Reminds me of the Norwich/Villa/Man Utd run in oh-so-many years ago. But Man United are at Arsenal the same weekend, so it could be all up in the air.

Anyway, did I really nail my colours to the mast on any particular point there? No.

Did I make a good gag about the Touré brothers? Yes. In my book, or in this case, blog.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

As I intend to use my wildcard either next week or following, I’ve made two short-term transfers. I brought Sessegnon and Samba in, two players whose values I anticipate to rise, building on good form for the former, a move to a better club/tighter defence for the latter.

The wildcard will swap out plenty of players, certainly bringing in a new goalkeeper for Begovic for instance. As you can see from my selection it kind picks itself, a wariness of a Stoke clean sheet at Anfield means I have Huth on the bench, Josh McEachran is supposed to be on loan at Swansea already, so that’s annoying.

Re: Captain, I may well swap Bale in as my captain, but I wonder will Harry rest him to prep for the City match?

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Pretty much everyone is on the watchlist again.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Well the Christmas madness is over, I had a fairly bad few weeks from not paying attention to the packed fixture schedule. I forgot to get Everton and Spurs doublers in which didn't turn out to be too bad, and transferred in Ba only to remember he's off to ACON for the next few weeks. Wildcard time!

Anyway, it's wide open for likely high scoring players this week. I'll start by mentioning again the excellent FPL site www.totalfpl.com, they have an excellent weekly article which brings together bookie odds on players most likely to score and most likely to score more than one. Kind of takes the fun out picking a captain but it's a great starting point and useful if you can't decide between two players.

Spurs @home to Wolves - Spurs are on form and fans are talking in hushed tones about a possible title push. Stranger things have happened. Bale is on form and is an excellent choice, although capable of big scores he isn't as consistent as say Silva, but this looks like a good fixture for them. VDV too if you have him. Adebayor hasn't been scoring as freely as owners might like but it's as good a fixture as any for him to bag a goal or two.

Man U@ Home to Bolton - Man U put their recent woes somewhat behind them with a great win against City in the FA cup. United scored 5 early season away to Bolton and look good for a bagful here (mental note: must reuse this as a pun when they play West Brom next). Valencia should be considered here as well as Nani, both are likely scorers/assisters. Rooney as usual and his likely partner up front Welbeck are good as well.

City away to Wigan - City are going through a difficult spell and their squad is starting to show a lack of depth, captain Kompany serving a ban and Balotelli and Silva doubtful. I wouldn't be counting on too many goals here; Aguero is the only one I’d consider here for the armband.

Arsenal away to Swansea - I don't fancy too many goals here to be honest. RVP is always a good choice.

Gamble picks - I fancy a few goals for on the rise Sunderland against Chelsea, Sessegnon and the latest boy wonder McClean.