Gameweek 13 Season 2012/2013

Hello everybody, I woke up early today, yet I’m only getting round to this now.  I’ve had a lazy week, but it’ll be slamming busy for next while what with 2 gameweeks in next 7 days, which I’ll need to pick up on, as you will see.

GAMEWEEK 12 REVIEW OF NEW YORK COSMOS

40 points this week, with an average of 52; which is my lowest percentage return. Six players getting 2 points or less, including -3 fron Hangeland.

Got the captain right? Oh boy did I not, my vice captain got 9 points more Berbatov.

Got the keeper right? Yes, with a 2 point swing in my favour.

Got my subs decisions right? I guess, 2 of them got 2 points, Collins got nada.

Alternate Selection Point Swing – 14 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… and this week it was Peter O’Sullivan, who got a mammoth 101 points, which has shot up up to 14th in the Back Of The Net Boy League. I didn’t give him enough notice to submit his words to the blog this week to be fair, but here is a screenshot of his team last week.

LAST WEEK’S HIGHEST SCORING TEAM IN BACK OF THE NET BOY LEAGUE

TRANSFERS

Well this is pretty routine, Hangeland is gonna get got; he is missing for next three games and that’s a tad long too be holding up a spot like that, he’s already dropped .1 in value, as I did say last week it was gonna be a Sunderland defender coming in; I’ve decided to take on Bardsley, he was first choice all last season and is only now coming back from injury - he played his first full 90 minutes last week. Hopefully he’ll give me some differential as he is only owned by .1% of my rival managers; and at 4.8 he is quite a bargain.

Really was thinking of swapping Hazard for Mata, mainly because of the simple Spanish connection, the trio being completed by Benetiz and Torres. But for the 4 point loss, I’ll just leave it off. As perhaps there’ll be som equick changes needed for the impenidng gameweek next Tuesday/Wednesday.

THIS GAMEWEEK COMING UP, WHERE’S THE DRAMA.

I think the Drama is all about the new managers, what is going to happen, will Benitez change the Chelsea attacking style? – I, for one, can’t imagine him being hired without that having come up in the negotiations. His immediate task of Man City will be very interesting to see, wonder will all the time he has blogging and whatnot have given him the chance to out-think Manchini, I wouldn’t doubt he would. And if Torres scores, you can be sure, I’ll be bringing him in ASAP.

Also who will take over at QPR? Hughes just got let go a few hours ago, so no time to make any proper predictions.

Europa League Shirkers – I think it’s safe to say that Chelsea and Man City’s owners do not give a singular shit about the Europa League, except perhaps winning the final and the co-efficiant points for future seeding. Now it’s in Man City’s hands to finish 4th and have a clear run at the Premiership (and that will have an impact on fantasy footbal strategy I’m sure) where as Chelsea are 6 points ahead of Nordsjaelland for the wooden spot. So not only would the pensioners have to lose their game, but they’d have to also get 4 points deducted somehow. But how could they possibly manage their team’s behavior to be so demonstraveily vile to be justify losing points. I can’t imagine a single thing they could do to look bad enough to deserve points deductions… think ronan, think ronan…

Spurs v West Ham – that stadium thing is still rumbling on? Can we call this an Olympic Challenge? Please? Well I’m going to anyway… this game could be a marathon encounter with ehmmm sprinting and diving… ehm… you see what I’m trying to do here.  Sam v AVB will certainly be a clash of character.

Return Of The Rodgers – This time it’s personal (ie league points to be won), I’m going to be playing both my midfielders involved as it defo won’t be a chanceless draw… I have visions of Rodgers showing his team the tape of this game next week saying, “THIS IS WHAT I MEAN!”.

BET OF THE NET BOY

This week I will do an treble of

Everton to win both halves against Norwich – 13/5

Man Utd to score more than 3.5 goals against QPR – evens

Sunderland to score in both halves against WBA – 13/5

Which all adds up to about 26/1

… worth the price of a pint? Yes, 3 quid down.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

This week is pretty straightforward, the only decision is to play Berbatov or Sterling. I’ve went with the latter. And the ‘which of my two defenders will I not play? question’ is answered by leaving Mister-Autobiography-Williams on the bench and Collins at White Hart Lane. Keepwise, it’ll be Howard at home to Norwich.

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

Noone specific, but Howard, Williams and Crouch  might all start feeling a little uncomfortable.

ISTEACH!

Mignolet, Torres/Mata, Bentenke. No major curveballs.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

I feel bad for anyone writing a column especially about who to captain this week since a fully rested RVP is playing at home to bottom of the table, rudderless QPR. That is my answer… Vice is Crouch at home to Fulham, who are missing their leader in defence.... and now over to Darragh

CAPTAIN’S CORNER 

   Well another week, another lesson learned. I highly doubted any RVP returns at Carrow Road and I consistently alluded to Suarez’ mind-boggling statistics but failed to pull the trigger on transferring him in. Instead, 10 man Fulham failed to take advantage of a sub-par Sunderland side and Berbaflop failed to build on his previously scintillating form.

This week could prove to be an easy read for 36% of fantasy owners out there though, as Van Persie appears to have a cricket-score potential fixture against an abject QPR side this weekend. Without a permanent manager as of yet, I fail to see any reason why the R’s will start playing for any purpose at Old Trafford. If you’ve opted for United cover (and you really should have United cover with their upcoming fixtures) through the Rooney and Valencia routes, both offer large upside for this fixture, but Shrek has a slight edge with his hot streak of assists looking to continue as he feeds RVP. He also miraculously appears to have retained spot kick duty. Sigh…..

Aside from van Persie, I found a few interesting candidates to provide differentials, particular for those who don’t have and cannot afford the Dutchman. Southampton, after a moral boosting away win last weekend, finally looks able to start Puncheon above their weight with fantasy returns. A highly intriguing prospect is Ricky Lambert. His goal in their last outing was of obvious importance though his threat index rating of 23.6 was the third highest of the GameWeek (behind Tevez & Suarez with 26.2 and 24.0 respectively). Furthermore, Lambert is playing a Newcastle side making the long trip south that’ve kept just one clean sheet all year and zero away from home. Here’s another rib tickling statistic for Lamberts captaincy merits. Newcastle have conceded a goal in each of the last four GameWeeks to the striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The last front man to do so against Newcastle was Michu. This consistent fantasy nugget has seen Laudrup continuously push him further up the field to the point where he now plays higher up than any other Swan. Liverpool have indeed tightened up at the back in recent weeks but this is still a side that have leaked an average of 1.9 goals per away fixture this term.   

Rounding off my top five this week is Eden….I mean Juan M…..wait, Fernando Torres? 99.9% of the time I rely on stats but this one time, I’m using my gut. Benitez and his man crush on Torres may be just the kind of confidence boost needed for El Nino. I have absolutely zero statistics to back this up, and I’ve already scribbled the opening paragraph of next weeks blog berating myself for choosing him. As for my punt this week, I’m going to go for Christian Benteke of Aston Villa (0.4% Ownership). The Villians have been urine poor in front of goal this term and Lambert appears to have lost faith in perennial goal hanger Darren Bent. Furthermore, the last 4 GameWeeks have shown the Belgians potential. His ICT threat rating is above RVP’s and just behind fantasy slobberknockers such as Suarez, Tevez and Rickie Lambert. In categories such as penalty area touches, blocked shots and headed chances, he ranks 3^rd, 4^th and 4^th in the league respectively. Oh, and he is also involved in 75% of Aston Villa’s goals.

 Game Week 13 Choices               Game Week 12                                       Game Week 11

1. R. Van Persie                  Luis Suarez (11 pts)                         Sergio Aguero (9 pts)
2. Rickie Lambert             Dimitar Berbatov (2 pts)             Marouane Fellaini (13pts)
3. Michu                              Nicola Jelavic (2pts)                      Leighton Baines (4pts)
4. Wayne Rooney               Carlos Tevez (19pts)                            Eden Hazard (2pts)
5. Fernando Torres            Marouane Fellaini (4pts)                       Peter Crouch (5pts)

The Punt: Christian Benteke        Adel Taarabt (5pts)                           Charlie Adam (9pts)

Total Score:                         43 points/7.1 points per player    42 points/7 points per player