Back Of The Net Boy Season 13/14 Gameweek 2

written by Ronan


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Do you remember Wenger’s face last week; imagine that as a little angel on one shoulder, and the devil is then the frustration of the fans? I don’t know how you should imagine my inner voice, but perhaps someone with an emotional gravitas, Geoffrey Rush say. SCENE SET

Inner voice   - I really have a system, I didn’t just pull it out of the air like,  what happened?

Angel            - Don’t worry, it’s not you fault, you made decisions no one died, you made 

                        them with a good heart.

Devil             - You are a c***

IV                  - woah there Devil, that’s bit harsh.

D                   -  F*** Y**, spend some money you C***

IV                  - I did, 98.5 million

D                   - … oh yeah. Can I change my opening line?

A                   - Ok

D                   - Thanks…. I still don’t like you Angel you know that yeah?

A                   - It’s ok, I forgive you

D                   - F*** you, you C***

IV                  - Ehm, for an inner voice I’m not doing much talking lads?

A                   - Sorry Ronan

D                   -  Sorry you C***….. anyway….. What were you doing game week 1 and the 

                          same mistakes as last season and the season before, you’re a disgrace…

A                   - He does have elements of a point there Ronan.

IV                  - But I said it was going to be different!

D                   - Saying and doing are two different things, like those stairs in your house, you’ve   

                        been saying you will repaint them for ages but have you actually done it?

IV                  - Good point well made. But what does it do for my fantasy team and the 

                         Back Of The Net Boy blog?

A                   - Oh yes, how about some constructive feedback and thoughts of Game week 1 Devil?

D                   - Meh, that’s pretty boring I’ll leave ye do that yerselves.

So here we are, Gameweek 1 came and went, Chelsea, Man City & Man Utd are the current 1,2,3 of the actual premiership and that is how many predict the league will finish at the end of the season too, but in the FPL it’s still all to play for etc.

REVIEW OF MoRoDon’tKnow FC PERFORMANCE IN GAMEWEEK 1

Points earned  - 73

Average           - 63

Place in BOTNB League – 50 (bottom spot of the 1^st page)

5 players got 2 points or less, pffft. The lads at the front led well with 3 goals between RVP and Soldado, and my captaincy of Hazard got me 16 points, and Ivanovic’s goal and NOT sending off earned me 15  - those 4 players earned my 75% of my points. This was a medium return as opposed to mediocre, I will need to shake a few trees (and not obvious big hitter trees to get this ship back on the road), to get to the top. So that means serious study and committed work….

TRANSFERS

There are so many balloons in the air after GM1 regarding transfers and the list of names to come up on radar is a lengthy one. I am going to make no transfers this week, not particularly to have a double for next week, just cos I will stick with my hand and see how it goes. (ie I need to head off)

GAMEWEEK 2 SELECTION

I look at my team and can’t decide what to pull at first; it’s like when you start emptying a cluttered room, where do you start? In my case I usually look, sigh, go off for a coffee and make a list.  As proffered to me on the BOTNB Facebook page I made a mistake with O’Shea, and the one match kneejerk reaction has been that Sunderland are dooooomed.

I have no reason to say that they will pull it together but I’m going to leave him in my team, as I fear more for Liverpool playing at a vexed Aston Villa ergo I leave Touré on the bench. With Anelka not an option this week R.I.P. [yes I know he has apparently retired], I have the question of whom to bench between McAuley, who will be playing at Everton with WBA or Lescott at Cardiff? Right now I will leave Jolien on, even though as I see I have one of those win-lose scenarios since I have Bellamy playing too. Perhaps I will tinker the WBA man on after all.

CAPTAIN

The SlowMotionSequenceInAnAmericanSportsMovie fan in me wants to go with Bellamy, first home game with Cardiff etc etc, but realistically it’s a toss up between my front two of Mister 14 Million and Soldado, and while I don’t think the Swansea defence is porous, I feel pensioners will try and put quite a squeeze on the game in Old Trafford, so I’m erring towards Soldado getting the armband. That might get tinkered with of course.

FUTURE TRANSFERS, ON THE RADAR

Interested in Sinclair switch to WBA (can any Irish FPL player have a single thought about any WBA player without thinking about his effect on Shane Long – I’m thinking Long leading the line and creating space for Sinclair to run into?); also on my radar is Bent at Fulham, and despite my fears at Sunderland, I’m intrigued by Altidore too.

I hope you have a great fantasy weekend fellas and fellettesm but not as good as me.

xR

Back Of The Net Boy Season 13/14 - Captain's Corner - Pre GM 1

written by www.twitter.com/darraghFPL 

  

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With the season still in its infancy, statistical analysis inevitably holds less precedence due to small sample sizes and the lack of clear-cut form. With this in mind, the first few weeks of Captain’s choices will unfortunately hold an element of ‘gut’ instincts. These same gut instincts last year led me to twice select an underperforming Chelsea forward, who for slanderous reasons will remain anonymous. Lets just call him “F. Torres”…….or “Fernando T.” Whichever tickles your fancy like. Moving forward, I’ve got a couple of new entries into my top as well as a long time lover who I’ve started developing a disturbing penchant for.

First off the bat, I’m not the kind of guy who’ll recommend captaining RvP. There’s already 14 million reasons to captain that guy. I’m hoping to highlight those who at least offer some differential from the 45% of players who already own the Dutchman. With this in mind, I’m opting straight away from one of the most polarizing teams in Fantasy Football. All preseason the debate raged regarding the role the fullbacks would play in Martinez’s 3-4-3 formation. Also, who would spearhead the attack, especially seeing as Kone was brought in from his former club? However, Nicola Jelavic’s strong pre-season showing coupled with a high tempo showing against Norwich has surely cemented the Croats starting place in Martinez’s starting XI. His ICT threat index rating of 112* was the highest of any player from the opening weekend, just edging out Edin Dzeko and Christian Benteke (more about those later). 

If Jelavic is to succeed, he’ll need adequate service. If only he had a dynamic left back with a high success percentage of crosses. Ahem. If Baines’ natural ability wasn’t enough, West Brom conceded the largest amount of left sided chances last weekend, tied oddly enough with Manchester United on 17 (they must miss Gary Neville). For those who read my last article regarding the knee jerk transfer of Baines to Coleman, just remember that Leighton has been the top scoring defender in Fantasy Football for three, that’s THREE, years straight. Just a lil’ food for thought for those contemplating a Toffees full-back.

Speaking of food, I’m gonna’ spank one way out to leftfield and go for an overweight Scotsman. Despite his Ralf C. Nesbitt physique, Charlie Adam offers huge upside this week. Even though he failed to get the nod against Liverpool last week, that was largely due to Mark Hughes decision to play a 5-4-1 against a possession happy ‘Pool side. This week, The Potters play a Crystal Palace side that will probably have more quality sound-bytes than points come May. 

Already entrenched on set-piece duty, the deep fried Mars bar lovin’ (my last one, I swear) will have plenty of opportunities as Palace have conceded the 3^rd highest amount of big chances from set pieces last weekend. Adam offers a succulent alternative for those of us who were starved of fantasy points on the opening weekend and I predict the game will undoubtedly offer a bucket of attacking potential for a hungry Potters side.

Finally, I’ll give a slight nod to two newly invigorated forwards who could almost be labeled “hipster” picks in the fantasy world. Roberto Soldado and Edin Dzeko had very different opening weekends, but oddly enough, the latter grossly out performed the former despite the disparity in points returns. Dzeko has been covered in my previous article, which can be found at the Back of the Net Boy Facebook page. 

Soldado on the other hand looked “sluggish” according to top top football pundit Jamie Redknapp. Soldado still managed to create the second most scoring chances last weekend (4), just one behind, eh, I’ll have to check these stats again but Iago Aspas who had five. FIVE! Soldado also faces a Swansea side who will have been undoubtedly exerted from their Thursday night Europa League tie against Petrolul. Like I said at the start, I’m going by gut at this early stage so feel free to shoot me down. Torres, he’s still good right?

Captains Choices:

1)   Nicola Jelavic

2)   Edin Dzeko

3)   Leighton Baines

4)   Roberto Soldado

5)   Charlie Adam

Back Of The Net Boy Season 13/14 Post GM 1

written by www.twitter.com/darraghFPL 

 

 

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Well, it’s as if we’ve never been away. The opening weekend highlighted its annual batch of bargain bin assets as well as its overpriced disappointments. We saw players such as Seamus Coleman, Ross Barkley, Luke Shaw and Danny Welbeck emerge while the heavily relied platoon of Hazard, Walcott, Coutinho and Lukaku have all disappointed to date (note: I’m writing this pre Chelsea v Villa). With the majority of us bemoaning poor starts and underperforming big hitters, I hope to create a silver lining for a turbulent week one and prevent any knee jerk reaction from those who may have underperformed.

When it comes to Fantasy Football, there have always been those polarising players throughout the history of the game. The ‘is he worth it’ slogan has perennially been attached to such wunderkinds such as skinny Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Christian Gareth Bale and this season it has climaxed with the undecided essentialness of a certain Dutchman. However, these arguments rarely if ever focus around a defender. 

That is until the past two years when fantasy stataholics fell head over heels for Leighton Baines. His price tag of £7.5 million has justifiably deterred over 75% of us thus far and given his ‘un’ point showing against the Canaries coupled with Seamus Coleman going points crazy, its easy to begin the chorus of ‘I told ya so’s’ earlier than usual. That is however, until you break the game down through the beautiful practice of statistics. Despite his low points haul, Baines touched the ball 104 times, a whopping 46 times more than his full back counterpart. This included 57 touches in the opponents half compared to Coleman’s 37 touches in the same area. Baines created 6 key scoring opportunities against the Irishman’s 2. 

Whilst many may argue this is a small sample size, it may be worth noting that 187 touches went down Everton’s left flank compared with just 104 down the right. This follows on from the Moyes era where on average 54% of Everton’s attacks came from the same flank, leaving just 46% to be divided between the centre and right areas. While Coleman’s £5 million price tag will correctly attract new suitors looking to hop on the Everton fullback’s success, it’s worth noting for us Baines owners that not too much has changed just yet.

Another fantasy protagonist this week emerged in the form of Edin Dzeko. Following in the footsteps of pre-season greats such as Mauro Boselli, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Danny Graham, Dzeko carved up preseason opponents with such gusto as to warrant a 12% ownership in the game, 6% more than Sergio Aguero. After the 4-0 tonking of Noveauchâteau, many will jump ship from the modestly priced Bosnian in favor of the proven yet vastly more expensive Argentine. Like an inexperienced teen, this premature shift could hurt you further down the line. Despite Dzeko’s 4 points being dwarfed by Aguero’s 12 beans, the former’s 14 penalty area touches was the most of any player this weekend, 6 more than Van Persie and 3 more than penalty box dweller Christian Benteke. Furthermore, he only had to wait every 11.6 mins per chance. That’s a blink of an eye compared to Aguero’s 20.7 mins per scoring opportunity. In fact, only two forwards come within 4 minutes of Dzeko’s timeframe and that’s the bourgeoisie owned Van Persie (12.3 minutes) and the cameo appearance from Laudrup’s Boy Child, Bony M (12.5 minutes). 

Before you exclaim that this merely highlights Dzeko’s profligacy in front of goal, his goal to shot conversion rating last season (14.9%) was a full percent higher than his Argentine teammate. Last but not least, Dzeko played a full pitch quadrant higher than any other forward this weekend. If he can avoid rotation with Negredo for another two weeks, and that’s a big “if”, he should average 3.2 goals if he continues with his chance per minute ratio. Just remember to tell your inner teenager, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.  

Back Of The Net Boy Season 13/14 Gameweek 1

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Hello everybody, after all that waiting it's finally back, phew I was running out of things to talk about - luckily we'll have the World Cup next summer.

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This week's blog won't follow the usual format as there's nothing to really react to.

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Right, let’s get rid of all this (Ronan wipes all his never read notes to self off his hard drive; puts never rethumbed notebooks in bin)… this year it’s going to be all about this (Ronan taps roughly where his heart is [some of exes could spit that he never knew where it was]) and this (Ronan taps the side of his nose twice and then his temple once, to those who don’t know what that sign means, it implies an innate insight).

Benjamin Franklin said that “only a fool does the same thing and expect different results”, and a greater fool than I once said “fool me once shame on me, shame on you… fool me and I won’t get fooledagain…”. 5 or 6 seasons ago I had two tremendously great seasons and I was not spending that much actual time researching my decisions whereas the last 4 seasons (about when I started this blog) I’ve spent too much time ‘half-thinking’ about it if you will. 

So with that in mind, my foolish decisions over last few years have had to be tweaked my pre season for FPL has been minimal, I haven’t checked any of the other blogs (not out of any snobbishness or competitive streak, just that hiatus I was taking) and barely looked at the Fantasy Football Scout site, just enough to get the gist of the opening fixtures really. I got to sit down with @DarraghFPL for a coffee a few days ago and that’s the first chat I had with anyone at all re this year.

So I will just go through my team/squad selection, I know there’s a lot of clarifying sentences that are just redundant of a FPL blog, since anyone reading it already has more than a passing interest it might feel even patronising, but your squad for GM 1 this is the one selection you can make to truly cover 2/3 weeks of line ups, so with that in mind….

Goalkeepers

A simple decision, proven record, favourable fixture, and an ok price - I start with Jaaskelainen, whose name you’d think I’d have learned to spell by now. Since I wouldn’t be surprised if I played him for the opening 5 fixtures, I decided to save a few squid for my Number 12 by bringing in a potential points getter in GM 4&6 – step on up Allen McGregor at Hull. If the Tiger’s opening fixtures go badly I have a plan B in bringing in Vorm for GM 4. [Potential bite in arse, I hope McGregor will be their Number 1 keeper, he is squad number 1 for them and FFS site lists him as their number one, but perhaps Steve Harper will squeeze ahead of him.

Defenders

For this decision I looked at fixtures, then clubs, then defenders that seem like they will defo play (once again I know that is a pretty redundant explanation), hopefully I can successfully shuffle that deck of 5 with no transfers needed for a few GMs . I’m anticipating midfield and one striker in particular might be in for chippy-choppy time in the short term.

I’ve gone for O’Shea (Sunderland), McCauley (WBA), Ivanovic (Chelsea), Lescott (Man City) and Coleman (Everton). The perceived wisdom is that Lescott will be filling in as first choice CB while Nastastic is out, the rest seem pretty nailed on. While I’m now middy influenced by home games being better for selection in the 11 (I used to be obsessed with it) and as you will see in my selection, the 4 defenders I will be using are all at home this week, that is purely a coincidence.

Midfielders

I’ve gone for a selection of

Redemption – Downing at West Ham

Irish pride/green tinted glasses - Brady at Hull

Hometown Hero, Bellamy at Cardiff [funnily enough his opening two fixtures are both against clubs he played for before – West Ham and Man City, the latter fixture in a home game for Cardiff and perhaps that’s where there’ll be dramatic POSITIVE performance by the Craigster]

A proven big hitter - Hazard at Chelsea (yes danger of him only getting 120 minutes or less, but fuck it – I can’t decide on Man City midfield yet and Bale is INJURED at moment – the other big money option was Walcott, and I’m not averse to bringing him in GM 2 or 3.

And finally a he-was-good-last-season-and-is-a-good-priced-midfielder-to-give-me-a-million-in-the-kitty-to-give-wriggle-room-for-transfers - Snodgrass at Norwich, at home to Everton is good enough this week and assuming Martinez is bringing in a gigantesque change in style, this will open up the midfield space and perhaps Snodgrass will gain from their transitional play (in both soccer parlance and in bedding in of a new system terms).

To backtrack a little, Everton’s expected new style is one of the reasons I brought in Coleman - for his potential attacking use than clean sheets; I would not be surprised if he is brought further up the pitch, or indeed played as a wing back. The other players hovering under that place in my squad are Taarabt (who knows what will happen there, but I am certainly intrigued) and Miralles at Everton, who might also become more of an attacking player with WigErton.

Forwards

I hovered for a few moments and decided to go with RVP, mainly cos of the ‘he’ll only get too expensive if he does well’ theory. No need to even discuss him really, we all have processed that option by now.

I’ve gone out slightly on a limb with Soldado, yeah he’s in a new league (don’t know much about the lad etc etc) and Spurs seems somewhat in disarray with BaleGate and also the new players being brought in, could be as much as 3 new first XI players now and as ever that takes a little bit of time to bed in, and if memory serves Spurs had an awful start last season, but time as ever will tell. He’s got my vote anyway.

And then pretty much everyone’s punt; if hecan light up Turners Cross then he’ll do well at FPL, Anelka (am I right in thinking, once he scores for WBA he’ll have scored for the most premier league clubs with 6?)

So there we have it, 14 men, 3 of them older than me, 3 slightly younger than me and then another 8 who probably listen to post dubstep and don’t even remember AltaVista.

Here is my selection and I hope you all have a good FPL weekend, but not as good as mine.

#mightchange

-       well like everyone on GM1 eve, I might change everything (I even have kept tonight free to have time to change it! But Rob Heffernan is having an official homecoming ceremony on Patrick Street, so if I’m happy with my team, I’ll go to that.)

- but a potential swap within my squad is Bellamy in at expense of MacCauley, but then I’d have that trade off of points between a Cardiff scorer and a West Ham keeper, hence the selection staying the way it is for now.

Gameweek 36 Season 2012/2013

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7 points better than the average, 20 points better than the gameweek number

come on season let’s get this over… it’s all about the awards evening for us BOTNBers

REVIEW OF NEW CORK COSMOS IN GAMEWEEK 35

My hard and fast rule is that 5 points is a good return for a player, therefore 55 point return is a good gameweek? No, like love it is a more textured, layered and nuanced thing than simply saying if X is this, then 11X equals, but enough about my ex and the other ten girls I went out with (BOOOOOOM BOOOOOOM Comedy gold)… I’m trying my bestest to care enough to pull New Cork Cosmos into 42^nd position… My more personal battle is with DarraghFPL in our Michu v Toure battle (back story – difference in points haul from GM 34 to 38 will be balanced with pints, I’m on Team Touré who currently has a haul of 11 points, to Team Michu’s 5, as things stand all the pints I am buying David Neville has been offset by the Ivorian Machine.

WHAT’S THE POINTS?

Points scored last week                      - 55 Points

Average points scored in that week    - 48 points

Points off the top                               - 367 points, 14 points closer to the top.

Points off 42^nd position                      - 68 points

Position in BOTNB League                - 61st

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Bale and Bentenke got a haul of 29 between them!

WHAT WENT NOT RIGHT

But that was nearly half my points scored by the entire team, and my captains choice (Tevez) was a bad one, if only there was some fine upstanding fantasy football blogger to guide me away from such stooopid mistakes.

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

TRANSFERS

So I chopped out Fellani and Ben Arfa and brought in Lennon and Toure. Simple reasons really, Fellani seems to be playing in a deeper midfield position again; Ben Arfa is in a terribly misfiring Newcastle team; Lennon is a double gameweek and chasing the champions league spot and Touré is also DGMing. It was a choice between him and Nasri really but decided to stay in sync with that afore mentioned Touré v Michu bet.

KEEPING AN EYE ON

Noone specifically, I can’t even remember what I did this time last year, am I supposed to be planning a short term decision next week.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

Seem pretty easy really, only one option for the gloves Jaaskalineighyuinghin at home to Newcastle is way more favourable than Boruc at Spurs, for similar reason I’ve dropped my other Saints players, Rodriguez and Shaw to the bench, and the 15^th man  in over sized jackets is Turner, who is injured anyway.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Right now, it’s Bale

CAPTAIN’S CORNER with @darraghFPL

I’d almost say last week was a success. My top four selections all pulled through with scoring returns, while Aguero vindicated his inclusion over the much touted Carlos Tevez. I’m not getting too comfortable with this recent triumph however; as yet another double gameweek is crammed into fantasy football for the final time this season. As regular readers of this blog will know, I have a slight aversion to doubles as they tend to be unpredictable. Statistics are too often rendered useless and rotation becomes more pertinent than usual. This week is perhaps slightly different however. For one, it’s the end of the season and gives me a slight opportunity to reel in the 25 point lead over me in the BOTNB league. Secondly, I feel like I’ve got a good read on the rotation issues this week, and dontchaknow, I’ll share this new found wisdom with ya’ll.

With six teams playing twice, people will inevitably gravitate towards players from these sides. However, only Tottenham, Wigan and Chelsea have something to play for. The latter travel to Old Trafford in their first game and entertain Spurs for their second, hardly ideal fixtures. Wigan have by far the kindest fixtures of the three. Playing two sides that have absolutely nothing to play for in West Brom and Swansea, I’m leaning heavily toward their price friendly attacking options. Finally, Spurs first game at home to Southampton should be enough to persuade people to shell out for Bale, Defoe or my personal gameweek favourite, Jan Vertonghen.

It’s obvious that Bale is the best option for captaincy for this (and almost every) set of fixture but rather than ramble on about him averaging 1,624 shots a game I’ll highlight the upside of his potentially differentiating teammates. Vertonghen has been a fantasy revelation this season. For one, his average of a goal scoring chance every 89.3 minutes is the second most of any defender in the league this season…..yes, even better than fantasy wunderkind Leighton Baines (92.3 mins) and the asstacular Ivanovic (127.5 minutes). Only Glen Johnson has more attempts per minute with a pop at goal every 59.7 minutes but he has only converted 1 of these chances, or in percentage terms, that’s a paltry 1.8%.

The three afore mentioned defenders top the defender goal scoring chart with 5 goals each proving when it comes to defensive goals, its quality not quantity. Furthermore, Vertonghen has the third highest amount of final third through ball for a defender in the league with 7, one behind team mate Kyle Walker and 3 behind Jose Enrique who enjoyed a stint at left wing earlier in the season. A home game to Southampton offers a serious possibility of a clean sheet as the Saints have scored once in their past three. But let’s face it, unless you’re looking to make up a humdinger of a chasm, play it safe and captain Ronaldo v2.0. Versus his old club, fourth place on the line, something has to happen, right? (Gareth Bale to get sent off is available @ 25/1 at paddypower.com)

Elsewhere, Man City will surely garner serious attention this gameweek. Tevez is already the third most transferred in player this since Sunday but the blue side of Manchester may be slightly more preoccupied with their cup final on Saturday week. Furthermore, when Aguero and Tevez both start, the latter’s average position is a full two pitch quadrants further back than Aguero, who almost always leads the line. Last weeks game against West Ham is a perfect microcosm of the two Argentineans role in the side.

Tevez played just over a 1/10 of the pitch deeper than Aguero, touching the ball on average ever 1.2 minutes compared to Aguero’s 2.1. Tevez had 9 more successful final third passes and received 13 more passes in the final third himself. However, Aguero managed 7 more penalty area touched, 2 more goal attempts inside the box and the all important goal. What this underlies is Tevez is far more vital to the link up from midfield to the frontline but inevitably plays second fiddle to Aguero in terms of attempts and subsequently, goals.

But what about FA Cup related rotation you say? This is an issue. Mancini has come out and said he won’t rotate until second place is assured. Do I believe him? Nah, he’s burned me far too many times. One of the two will be rotated on the Tuesday against the Baggies and my inclination is toward Tevez. Aguero is coming off an injury and match fitness/sharpness is essential for an instinctive finisher such as he is. Secondly, Tevez has started the last 7 league games and is more susceptible to fatigue, though his natural fitness is clearly one of his most outstanding attribute. Still can’t decide eh? Well Aguero offers the most upside. Even with Dzeko in the side, Tevez sits deeper than the Bosnian. If Mancini doesn’t rotate, I’ll eat these words. It won’t be the first time this blog has been ingested anyway.

For my penultimate nod, I’m going for me second gut instinct in successive weeks. At the start of the season, I heavily tipped two players to tear up the FPL. One proved correct (Michu), the other not so much. The one who let me down was Martin Petric. I raved about his prowess in the Bundy league last season and his introduction to the Premier League showed promise with 3 goals and an assist in his first 130 minutes of football at the Cottage. Then Dimi Berbatov happened and poor ol’ Martin slipped down the pecking order, delving deeper and deeper, beyond the likes of Hugo Roddallega, yes the same Hugo Roddallega who averages a goal every 483 minutes of football. Petric meanwhile scores every 173 minutes, but that’s against regular competent teams. Not a team like Reading, whose top priced defender is a Lidl-esq £3.9 million and haven’t kept an away clean sheet all season long. So its time for Martin Petric to come full circle and prove that with a now crocked Berbatov, he can fulfill my prophecies of fantasy greatness. Well, for the next three weeks anyway.

Finally, 110,000 of you have brought in Romalu Lukaku this week. His upside is massive. But buyers beware. He has only played 94 minutes against sides in the top 4 this season, indicating a perceived lack of trust by Steve Clark. He is also on loan, and with the Baggies having nothing to play for, it surely offers the manager a greater scope to experiment with the players he will definitely have at his disposal next term. Having said that, the Belgians 14 goals so far cannot be ignored and his 130.3 minutes of football per goal is only bested by that Dutchman (120.6 mins  per goal). With Lukaku garnering the most interest this week, those looking for a differential may look toward the Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man-like Arouna Kone. I can’t differentiate between these two but since I’m looking to catch and not consolidate, I’ll side with the blonde one. It’s disturbing when your fantasy football decisions mirror your love life……

                     

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