Fantasy Football 2012-2-24

Game week 26

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 32

Average Score on site – 41

Highest Haul: 6 – Bale (He was my captain, so that was 3 points doubled)

Lowest Haul: Huth – -1 point - Onouoha

 

Average Score Per Player 2.9

Accrued Score – 1070

Place in my own fecking league – 77, down 1 place

Points Off the top – 379

State Of Play

Well I scored 32 points this week, which is the age I turned this week. So based on these projections in the year 2122 I’ll be on fire in fantasy football again.

Vindication

Like Edwin Starr sung of War and what it is good for, absolutely nothing

D’oh

I think my main d’oh is the gamble I took on a QPR revival; Kenny and Onuoha have let me down. Both their days seem numbered.

Did I get the Keeper right? Subs in general?

No, Ben Foster got 2 points more than Kenny; and yes. I’m surprised to be honest that bridge hasn’t been playing, I assumed he’d be in from the off as he was fit.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

So I suppose the big thing is Mister Adebayor returning to the Emirates, this time in a Spurs Jersey, as we all remember his sprint when he played for Man City towards the Arsenal fans after scoring, he has an eye for drama already.

Also the shambles of Wolves look like it’s going down the swanee fast. So the best option is deemed to be the assistant to the manager who you weren’t happy with it. Saying it was too expensive to pay 2million pounds for Poyet could seem chicken feed to the losses of going down.

What are the odds?

No interesting odds stand out (Man City and Chelsea both being very odds on to win at home, funny considering just how bad Chelsea were at home to Birmingham). Also I’ve heard and read a few places that this is the first time in nearly 20 years that Spurs have gone to play Arsenal and be the favourites as visitors, if they are favourites it is by the tiniest of points. So this is new section I added last game week is pretty pointless this week.

Transfers

2 free transfers to make this week, but making 3. Basically I had to wave bye bye to Kenny and unfortunately cos he was so cheap I had to shake a few quid elsewhere. I also wanted to get rid of Bridge since he hasn’t been performing either. I decided that since Huth is suspended, I didn’t wanna keep Suarez (Since he’s not playing anyway), otherwise I’d have 1 player on my bench. I needed to get rid of one of my big money people, so Suarez just drew the short straw, to replace him I brought in Crouch (3 million cheaper), who is fresh from not playing in Europe, and has two home games in a row coming up. That opened up the funds to bring in Richards in defence (two home games in a row, and a good looking run of fixtures) and then to complete the circle, I brought in Krul at Newcastle to become my new goalie. He makes his debut this week, at home to the toothless Wolves.

Theory/Selection

Right, so my three defenders who are playing at home are in [ideally I’d like to play 2-5-3!, but the rules are de rules], by de facto wanting to use all three strikers, all playing against opposition I could see them scoring 1 or 2 against; so the only real decision to make is which 4 of my 5 midfielders. Because of the strength of Blackburn, I can see Silva being rested or put on the bench, but I’d be a fool to not play him, but if he comes on for just 8 mins at the end….

Ok as much as I wanna play Walters, right now I can’t justify dropping Dempsey or Sessegnon, as it stands I’m going to leave it as I post here.

My Captain, My Captain.

As I touched on, Silva is almost too good an option! If I captain him and he only plays a few mins I’ll go spare, but what with it being a Saturday game Manchini might go for the jugular, so Man United are under pressure on the Sunday. With that in mind, Silva will be my captain. Ba will be my viceman. But don’t think I don’t see you hopping up and down with your hand up Gareth Bale.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

-     Stockdale has been very impressive for Fulham (there were whispers of him being brought in as England keeper, sometimes you just need to be English to be linked with that squad!), and while Schwarzer returned for last two matches after his injury spell; I can easily see Jol easing the latter out. They have some very favourable fixtures coming up so it could be a factor.

-       Cleverly at Man Utd, has been looking very fresh and I think he’ll end up shadowing Scholes for rest of season (I imagine a chain of events where Scholes is like Danny Glover, and young Tom is Mel Gibson)

Captain's Corner with Phergal

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

Injuries starting to rear their ugly head again, the highly owned Valencia, Rooney, Assou-Ekotto all doubts this weekend, causing most of us major headaches. Some very captain friendly fixtures this weekend, let's have a look.

Newcastle @home to Wolves - Sad to see Big Mick get the sack and all the best to him. This leaves Wolves managerless but with the well respected Terry Connor being promoted to caretaker manager after 13 years as assistant manager at the club. I hope he does well and gets made permanent. But anyway, Wolves still look dodgy and Ba will be picked by a lot of teams this weekend, supported by the return of the excellent midfield pairing of Cabaye and Tiote. 

City @home to Blackburn - City have big players returning too with the Toure brothers looking for starts. Ya Ya will give a lot of stability in the centre, leaving Silva and Aguero to get forward much more comfortably. Aguero should do well, although he "should" have done well in plenty of recent games too, it's last chance saloon for him here for a lot of us, I actually got rid of him for Rooney last week, no doubt this will backfire badly. :(

Man U @Norwich - Not a very convincing display from United last night against a poor Ajax side, but despite Ferguson saying otherwise, it can't be a big priority for them. Rooney is a doubt with a throat infection, must be that cigarette he had on holiday last year. Valencia's only gone and done his hammy too, and with Nani not really producing the pickings are slim. Young?

Arsenal @Home to Tottenham - The great Sky North London Derby is always unpredictable, i reckon it will have goals though. Spurs are possibly missing a few key players though, I'd back RVP for at least a goal here.

Gamble pick? - Mata @home to Bolton. He'll be looking to impress Rafa Benitez/Guus Hiddink/Abramovich/Sky.

Fantasy Football 2012-2-10

Game week 25­

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 30

Average Score on site –56

Highest Haul: 9 – Ba

Lowest Haul: Huth – -2 points

 

Average Score Per Player 2.8

Accrued Score – 1038

Place in my own fecking league – 76, down 7 places

Points Off the top – 367

State Of Play

Feck it, the team I didn’t do much with scored quite well. That says it all eh

Vindication

Two of my strikers scored, whoop de do

D’oh

I got a lot, A LOT of feedback last week when I explained why I got rid of RVP, and I know stand completely unvindicated, I could have been a contenda. But having just seen the new Muppets movie, the moral of any story is to try. If you try, you can’t fail. I tried to do something and it backfired, so be it, I’d rather blaze my own path than follow a well-beaten path (I really wish I was doing better though!)

Did I get the Keeper right? Subs in general?

Yes, Kenny got 2 points and Foster got 1, boo ya! Sessegnon I had on my bench and he did better than every other midfielder I had playing, same with Williams in relation to his defending peers.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

Well drama is making up early tomorrow to be at Old Trafford, that irascible Luis Suarez and that scamp Patrice Evra will be probably facing up to, I meant lining up against each other. This can’t be anything but a fiery match, Liverpool have a strong defence and Utd have been relatively potent in recent weeks, I have Suarez in my team, so I’m hoping he doesn’t get sent off. While Kenny clearly backs his man, there is a lot to be said for him not starting the game.

The Dembe squared partnership looks potent, I suppose they don’t’ need to bed in as such, due to their international background

Will it snow, will it snow, will it snow? A lot of football league matches called off already, but all the EPL matches were played last weekend, so I doubt anyway will be called off. So in many ways this is a needless sentence or two. But possibly Sunderland could get caught in the grim north, which leads us to…

McClean – What does he have to do? Trappatoni could surely have brought him into squad, like does Duff need to play a friendly game at this stage? Martin O’Neill being such a motivator will surely rile up him up after this

Harry Redknapp – So he got off, or isn’t guilty is fairer and doesn’t imply he got away with anything. Will this ‘spur’ Spurs on? He seems to have ruled out job sharing the England job with his Spurs role

What are the odds?

So 3 big games this weekend, 6 of the top 8 as the fantasy football site itself points out; bookies are always good suggestion, for instance Spurs, Chelsea and Man City all to win is 7/1, so Paddy Power must fancy Newcastle, Villa and Everton to all provide a solid game.

Just want to show you something.

This site, http://www.11kicks.com/Competitions/Premier_League/Stats,  is a bit simple to be honest, but the interesting fact that Chelsea get the most cards per game in entire league stood out to me, but also look at the assists figure. For some reason the team that has scored the most team goals has also got the most team assists too. Go figure! -

Transfers

No transfers this week, so to have two to play with next week, and a possible third and only lose 4 points.

Theory/Selection

With my ruckus of last week nothing came from it at all, keeping all those players cos I can’t be getting rid of them now! Huth is suspended so I only have 2 players to play with, since I hope Bale to have a good game, I am dropping my Newcastle defender, Simpson, and that leaves one. I’ll be honest and say I’m wary of having 3 QPR players at Blackburn, what with Hughes returning to his old club AND Blackburn coming back from that trouncing AND Yakubu returning from suspension after that great burst of goals, I would so much play Walters if I could drop Onohua, but I can’t so I won’t. Right now I fancy Kenny to make more saves at Ewood Park than Foster will at Wolves, even if both don’t’ keep clean sheets.

My Captain, My Captain.

Bale at home seems obvious enough, but Dempsey could be a good bet due to Huth being suspended, so in that order they are my captain and vice captain respectively.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

-     Gibson and Jelavic, let’s see how they do against dirty dirty Chelsea! They have next gameweek off anyway, so it’s not pressing for this week.

-       Cleverly at Man Utd, every week in recent times has had him as coming back that weekend on this generally accurate site http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php

-       McClean at Sunderland, very good chance it’ll bring him and Cleverly in next week.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

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

afraid it didn’t arrive today, we both were out of synce with our normal working weeks this week.

Fantasy Football 2012-1-31

Game week 23­

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 60

Average Score on site – 45

Highest Haul: 20 – Sessegnon (10, doubled as he was my captain my captain, Even though Bale got 15) – 20 points

Lowest Haul: Huth – 0 points

 

Average Score Per Player 5.45

Accrued Score – 1006

Place in my own fecking league – 69, up 2 places

Points Off the top – 308 (This is just getting embarrassing)  - A further 6 points off the lead

State Of Play

Feck it, the team I didn’t do much with scored quite well. That says it all eh?

Vindication

Sessegnon did well for me with 10 points being doubled as captain…

D’oh

… I swear I saved Bale to be my captain, who got 15 points. That cost me a swing of 20 points.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

So the transfer window didn’t really have any explosions, but I have been intrigued by Bridge to Sunderland, and Jelavic to Everton, more of which later. There’s a couple of big games this week

Man Utd v Chelsea / Liverpool v Spurs and I think Newcastle v Villa will be a good match too. Eyes towards a resurgent Sunderland visiting Stoke also.

Will Carroll continue his form, which in last two games has been positive?

Are Wolves really going down the toilet, is Mick gonna be shown the door?

Can Man City get back on track?

Transfers/Theory/Selection

(to tune of The Byrds’) this week it’s all ‘Change, Change, Change’… Or should it be ‘Winds Of Change’ (Scorpion I think) and the silent word is differentials, I’m 300ish off the top, I can’t win by using the same spine everyone has, so big changes at the Ro Camp. That said I have got the top three midfielders in the league now!

The wildcard is in folks; a reworking of my team will try and get it to add up to 98.5, so I have a bit in the bank. Okay, what has been interesting me the most is the idea of getting rid of RVP, the amount of money it would free up, but I’ll stick with him for now, the well has gone a bit dry for him recently, but he did hit the cross bar twice in his last game.

Certain teams seems to have a good run of fixtures, Wigan, Swansea, QPR and Man City in particular. While Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea all play at least one of each in next few games, so I’m gonan try and have no defenders from any of those teams. 

And the weather could, could, be an issue as pointed out by Wolfgang, so I could go through all the transfers I made but it’s a lot, here’s the main points. I have got rid of RVP, for same reason of same-spine/same-points off top anyway. Have decided to cut back all the expensive defenders and keepers, they aren’t worth it. Will as a general rule keep 2 of the 5 defenders as my 2^nd and 3^rd choice strikers.

I’ve got players from teams who have a good run of fixtures and are nailed on starters, simples policy. And this week you’ll see 9 of them are playing at home. None of these are WILD gambles, bar perhaps Onuoha and Bridge, who are both coming out of cold storage in Man City stiffs, but they are almost certain to play ever week.

It all boils down is to needing to shake things up, if I can get up to top 25 or 30 it’ll be a marked improvement on my current position and will at least prove I have some acumen. If it fails, feck it, so be it.

My Captain, My Captain.

With my head, I’ve gone for form I’ve gone with Silva at home to Fulham.

But with my heart, I’m drawn to the drama, Suarez’s return is tempting, I’m assuming he won’t start but I wouldn’t’ be surprised if he does.

As I’m sober now, I’ll go with my head, but after a pint and perhaps a dramatic American Football movie later, I may change to my heart.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

- Gibson and Jelavic at Everton over next two games, with no game in three weeks time, I”ll hold off and see

- Ba and Cisse at Newcastle, it was between them and Zamora in the squad switcharoo

Captain's Corner with Phergal

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

So we're at the business end of the Premiership, and it's getting very interesting indeed. City have started to falter and United are now level on points are closing the gap on goal difference too. Spurs are continuing their storming form and are sitting comfortably in 3rd while an intriguing battle is being fought for 4th between four clubs. Season long form often goes out the window around now, teams lose their nerve and confidence while others step it up a notch. For the FPL manager, we need to look carefully at the most recent fixtures and try to made informed decisions on current form and future fixtures. Anyway, enough of that vague generic league analysis, who gets your armband this weekend?

Arsenal @home to Blackburn - Arsenal are beginning to falter, just as they did around this time last year. They haven't won in the last four matches. This really is a season defining match. If they can't grab a win here, any hope of 4th spot becomes very slim indeed. Look for them to come out fighting. RVP as usual. How about a big gamble on Oxlade-Chamberlain?

Man City@ Home to Fulham - City are faltering too, a bad loss to Everton and a nervy encounter with Spurs. However, with Kompany back last week, look for City to be a bit more confident getting forward. Dzeko looks like a great differential this week. Ageuro is good too. But Fulham have been showing some form recently and scoring goals. Dempsey and Dembele will give City problems. Could be a high scoring match here.

Newcastle@ home to Villa - Ba should be ready to start this one, bit there's a new striker in Newcastle, Highly rated Papiss Cisse, who brings with him a remarkable record of 37 goals in 65 matches for SC Freiburg. Could be one of the best striker partnerships in the premiership. A bit unsure how Newcastle will line up though, and will both get 90 minutes? If you're looking to get one of these in, weigh up the proven premiership goal scoring of Ba versus the differential potential of Cisse.

The "big" matches - Chelsea @home to United, Liverpool @home to Spurs. Impossible to predict, but i will anyway. I fancy Liverpool to give Spurs a good test, 1-1. United should easily beat a poor Chelsea side, 2-0.