Gameweek 5 Season 2012/2013

Welcome back guys and guyettes, hope you all had a good week.

GAMEWEEK 5 REVIEW OF NEW CORK COSMOS

While a lot of us all have the same big names, our selection of the mid price players is really coming to the fore and this week I had some poor results.  I got 36 points (somehow the 4 points for making a transfer didn’t seem to get taken off?), with 6 players getting 2 points or less. The igmony of getting zero points only went to Williams of Swansea.

Got the captain right? Nope, as I said in last week’s blog, I was gonna with one of my two new recruits to hopefully offset the 4 point outlay, if’d gone with Berbatov (8 points) rather Morrison (3 points), I’d have have 5 points better off.

Got the keeper right? Nope, if I’d gone with Cech, I’d have had a 6 point swing.

Got my subs decisions right? Can’t complain, the total haul of my subs bench was just 2 points.

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS

… the highest scorer of each gameweek in our league is invited to share a few insights into what got them so many points… last week’s highest scorer was Cormac Gahan who got 76 points, which for context was 81% of the average score on top of the average score, which was 44.* (I need a better way of figuring and wording that, any ideas) And it brought him to 7^th spot.

Making Lambert captain was definitely the key move for my team last week. Really ‘Man bites dog’ had been struggling in recent weeks. Normally I make quite a random captain choice but last week I chanced Lambert for the following reasons: (i) Southampton have already scored a tonne of goals despite playing against some of the leagues toughest defences, (ii) Lambert had already scored two, (iii) most importantly Southampton were desperate for a home win and against Villa they had a good chance. Also the other captain choices were tough calls; Hazard playing against a tough Stoke team and RvP away to Liverpool. So really it sounds like I know what I’m doing but it was down to luck in the end I guess (it usually is) – but I think Lambert is a good call for the time being.

Also I’ve just played my wildcard and brought in Baines, RvP, Hazard, Ben Arfa, Cazorla, Michu – all of the usual suspects. So Baines, Ben Arfa & Cazorla also did well for me. Since everyone’s team is now quite similar captain choice is going to be important. Some of the players in my original team are now starting to deliver (like Bale and Cole) but I couldn’t wait too long to get RvP and Hazard in because prices were going up all the time – so I got rid of them. It’s going to get more interesting now as players are rotated for Champions League games and who knows who Mancini is going to start in any given premiership match.

  

WHERE AM I?

That 7^th place Cormac now holds conviently (as a link in this article, but not for New Cork Cosmos) is where I stood last gameweek. I currently hold 10^th position, thus I have have dropped three places in the league and 57 points off the top.

In the BOTNB league, I stand in 7th position with about 30 points to gain to get back on top, but I’m looking at the squad I have I don’t feel very confident, it needs a bit of an overhaul, which I have started this week.

TRANSFERS

On Sunday night, I decided to act and make three transfers that I had planned to do soonish, mainly because I feared price rises during the week would get me in trouble, which I feel vindicated by as the three have collectively risen by .4 million over the course of the week. The three in were Howard, Baines and Fletcher (of Sunderland), and out went Cech, Kaboul and Graham.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

Well I go by the theory, never buy a player if you don’t wanna use him, so that makes my goalkeeper decision pretty easy, even though it would have been anyway (Howard at home to Southamton (though the afore mentioned Lambert is a worry) versus Jaaskelainen at QPR.

My usual trick of keeping defenders on the bench (it’s not really a trick, it’s just what keeps happening) means I just had to pick between Michu and Morrison. Since the latter is orange and physioroom.com says it’s a hamstring injury; I’ll go with the Swansea man.

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

At the Arena Franklin (home ground of New Cork Cosmos), someone who might be heading for the door is Williams at Swansea, I fear they have lost momentum and might take a while to rebuild defensively. but they do have two fine home fixtures in GM 7 & 8, perhaps I bide my time and make no transfers next week so I can swap two out at no points cost. Kolarov has lost .2 in value though, and I can’t seem to rely on him playing at moment either.

Also collateral damage could be required for my bank balance to improve for future transfers and therefore Tevez may have to go…

ISTEACH!

… mainly cos of Manchini’s squad rotation between Champions League and Premiership, and also because of his price. I keep coming back to the idea that bringing in Crouch (6.5) or Bent (8.2) [quite a chunk of change of price difference] would give me forward options of three players who will always start – along with Berbatov and Fletcher.

In midfield Cazorla is really ringing my bell, and everyone elses of course, but he is quite pricey. A lot to ruminate upon, especially when I read articles like this about two other options… www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2012/09/27/versus-steven-pienaar-marouane-fellaini/

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

As I’ve spent 8 points bringing in three players this week, logically if I captain one and they perform then they’ll cover the points outlay. So it’s a toss up between Baines (at home to Southamton) or Fletcher (at home to Wigan). And to be honest I’m quite torm, both visiting teams are equally poor; both players are in good recent form and neither played during the week in their clubs whatever-it’s-called-now cup fixtures. I think I’ll err towards Baines, mainly because if he does well (ie keep clean sheet) then Howard will to. But perhaps that putting to many eggs in one basket. I may change my mind to Fletcher in the morning. We’ll leave the captaining to the expert…

Drum roll it’s……. Captains Corner

sorry folks Captains Corner isn't able to join us this week as he is training his replacement before he goes travelling. Indeed we will be bringing in a new Captain next month.

Woah it’s like we’re starting all over again, due to a variety of reasons the last two blogs just haven’t happened, travelling and timing has not helped but a general laziness on my part has also had an impact.

Gameweek 3 & 4 review

There has already been a huge bunching up of big hitters, RVP, Tevez, Hazard etc and it has made things kind of boring as most people have the same 4 or 5 players already. Hopefully there’ll be a few cats among the pigeons (a black cat called Fletcher perhaps?) soon. A lot of people had a poor gameweek 4, with 40 points being the average score (I got exactly that myself), and our leader in the Back Of The Net Boy league, Michael Daly, getting a ‘mere’ 61 points, [fair dues to Gilbert who managed 64]

The team I selected only had one mistake where Cech got 3 points less than Jaaskelainen, those tiny margins are what could make me kick over a table at the end of the season; and disappointingly the player I transferred out (Sigurdsson), did better than the player I transferred in (Kagawa), who didn’t play at all.

WHERE AM I?

In the BOTNB league, I stand in 7th position with about 30 points to gain to get back on top, but I’m looking at the squad I have I don’t feel very confident, it needs a bit of an overhaul, which I have started this week.

TRANSFERS

Much to my chagrin I decided to get rid of Torres and bring in Berbatov, mainly because I reckon the Bulgarian is going to play every game possible (and he’s already fitted in well); I anticipate bringing in Fletcher next week, for same criteria.

And I got rid of Joe Allen, I was stupid to bring him in, wrong position to get fantasy points, and I’ve brought in Morrison at WBA, he’s hit good form already.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

Due to my two dud defenders, which I explain in next paragraph, I only really had to decide which player to drop, by virtue of having signed two players (Berbatov and Morrison) they will definitely start so only question was who to drop between Graham and Tevez, so I’m going with the latter to partner Berbatov (old friends from their Old Trafford days). Keeperwise I’m going with Jaaskelainen, mainly because Stoke and Chelsea will probably lead to some sloppy goals being let in by the Blues; but also in the classic fantasy football mindset that IF he keeps a clean sheet it will mean Fletcher won’t have scored - ergo my competition who have signed him already will be lose point and his value could go down so I can sign him cheaper next week.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

I think I’m gonna end up making double transfer next two weeks, I have two defenders I am constantly not using Kolarov (due to Manchini’s rotation and Man City’s less parsimonious defence) and Kaboul (due to his long term injury), so that’s dead space. And I might just squeeze a few quid, so I can also bump up to Santi Cazorla and Fletcher somehow.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN {might change mind last minute in the morning}

I’ve spend 4 points bringing in Morrison this week, so I’ve decided to captain him. He looks like he could thrive at home to Reading.

Drum roll it’s……. Captains Corner

Tough choice this weekend, no obvious standouts.

RVP@Liverpool - Very frustrating week against Wigan last time round with reliant robin only getting a 20 minute run out and a single point in a 4-0 win. He took a slight knock in an international so this was precautionary. Expect him to start at Anfield. Tough match though, Liverpool usually step it up a notch against Man U so I don't expect a goal fest. Still, he's probably the best of bad bunch of captaincy options.

Hazard@home to Stoke - Hazard looks the only reliable choice from Chelsea; Torres's place looks in doubt. He turned up a blank in a hard fought 0-0 against QPR who had something to prove, I expect a better showing here.

Berbatov@Wigan - Berba returns to the captaincy corner! Great first run out against West Brom, grabbing a brace, but the old Fulham away from home caveat remains.

City @home to Arsenal - Should be a great game. Arsenal just look better and better with Cazorla pulling the strings and Podolski putting away the chances. They have the momentum here to pull off a win I think. City are leaking goals at the moment, 6 so far this season. Tevez, Podolski and Cazorla and decent picks here.

Gamble pick - Maloney @home to Fulham.