Fantasy Football Week 27

(sorry folks i've made a haimes of today so I just can't get a blog done)

so I'll just be posting Pherg's captain corner

just a note on fixtures before the captaincy corner. very tricky few weeks coming up folks, what looked like a lovely double gameweek in gw27 is now fraught with tricky decsions. birmingham, arsenal and spurs offer excellent double gameweek options that people were looking to load up on players and even use their remaining wildcard to max on on those teams. However, due to cup fixtures these three teams now have no fixtures at all in gw28, so you could be left quite a few players short after that. My tactic is the have the minimum amount of players from these clubs while allowing myself a full 11 in gw 28. i.e. gw28 bench will take three arsenal players, and a single transfer will allow me to get 11 starters. so be carefull, i recommend studying the fixture ticker over at www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk before making any rash descisions. also be aware that you have to use your second wildcard before gw27 deadline or you will lose it.

annnnnnnyway, captains. quite open this week. city @home to westbrom looks saucy, tevez and dzeko look set for a few, good picks. arsenal away to newcastle looks good, i'm captaining RVP myself, fab really hasn't showed to much points scoring potential this year. man u away to wolves should also turn up lots of goals, rooney bagged his first brace of the season last week, so now it's a coin toss between him and berba. berba seems to be inconsistent, nothing for a few weeks, then 2/3/4 /5 goals in a single game. I'd pick rooney in this match. those goals will have done wonders for his confidence.

the other interesting game is chelsea at home to pool. will torres start for chelsea against pool? could be very interesting. his replacement on the other side suarez scored on his debut, i'll be watching him carefully. looking for a captain from this match tho? lampard.

gamble picks? n'zogbia @home to blackburn, bent @home to fulham

Fantasy Football Preview Week 25

Fantasy Football Preview Week 25

Wow, I managed a good 119 points, then mister Pherg went off and demolished me, or is it smashed me, transfer window closed last night.

State Of Play

I jumped 20 places this week, BOOOOOOM!

Vindication

I’ll just post my latest points screenshot, backed a lot of the right horses in last week. Vindicates using the wild card I feel.

D’oh

3 players got me 3 points or less, which was the difference between me & Pherg, who I will now try to beat week on week for rest of season. For personal pride

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

Hunch, gotta be bringing in Carlos Vela, on loan at WBA, he should play each game and 4 favourable fixtures in next 5 (inc one double gameweek) – Wigan, Man City, West Ham, Wolves and Stoke.

Aston Villa have been a bogey team for Man Utd at Old Trafford in last few seasons (remember Macheda bursting on the scene, to rescue them on one occasion). So there might be some craic there. Villa have won their last 3 games and if Bradley does play he’ll have the bit between his teeth (today he says he wants to emulate Roy Keane in the premiership) to make his mark in the stadium of dreams.

Return of Joe Hart to Birmingham, the club where he made his name in the premiership, will he show them what they’re missing (I hope he does, as you’ll see) or will Ben Foster, Hart’s main rival for England Jersey for next 10ish years, show him a trick or two? [in retrospect that makes no sense, will Foster have to score a goal from a kick out or something? Or maybe an injury time equalizer? I love them]

Nothing else exciting really, except will Robbie Keane make an immediate impact? Will Adam lose his focus after being made stay in Blackpool? And will Spurs like it up ‘em up North in Blackburn.

Transfers

Carroll is plummeting in price due to his injury, so I decided to get rid, but once again he is so popular I have get lesser picked players as it’s my only way to actually overtake people, (a risky approach, but feck it, my chance of winning is gone) So I went with Vela, for the reasons I gave there, Vela is also 1.4 million cheaper so gives me a bit to play with. I prefer doing two every second gameweek, but for reasons explained in next section I felt I had to make a transfer today.

I tell a lie, I just spotted Vela hasn’t played in premiership for about 16 games, his fitness might be a little off so I’ll go with Odemwingie

Theory/Selection

Hmmn, both my keepers playing away from home (not in that way m’lord - Libel Ed), so will go with Hart due to Friedal being @ Old Trafford and I’m banking on Nani to perform and get an assist or goalNasri is injured and I’m dropping Walker, for same reason as Friedal (doubt he’d be played anyway). So that only leaves just one player selection, so will drop Coleman as he will be away at Arsenal and I have Van Persie playing, having said that I have Bent and two United Defenders, so if he scores I will in fact lose 4 points, unless utd have already conceded, and then it’ll just be two. Gooood gawd I love the numbers involved with each permutations, if they bring in fractions I’ll go mental!

Will captain Van Persie the man is in form, they are playing at home. Fingers crossed, even though I keep glancing at Dempsey and home to Newcastle, they are in flying form after walloping Spurs 4-0. Fuc* it, I’ll go with the yank. Have to go for non popular decisions.

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Here are all the players I’ve written down who moved in last few days, (notice dearth of defenders), who will be all quite cheap. The club in brackets are the ones they’ve just joined

Davies (Birmingham), the well respected defensive central duo at St Andrews has been broken up (Dann is out for rest of season), will Davies step in smoothly? If so, he would be a very tasty acquistion. [***, to be fair it’s obvious is any of these tips work out they’ll be a tasty acqusition, so let’s take such sentences as read in this section, m’kay?]

Bradley (Aston Villa), he impressed at world cup, and Petrov and him could form a very good driving midfield

O’Hara (Wolves), has another loan move from Spurs, he certainly impressed at Portsmouth last season. He must be hungry to play second half of season. Does the revival Wolves hope for revolve around him?

Reid (Blackpool), obviously signed to replace Charlie Adam who didn’t move in the end, so let’s see what transpires, certainly fits in with Holloway’s vision.

Ireland (Newcastle) – the Geordies need a new messiah, is this going to be him? Or just a very naught naughty boy. Leaving obvious hair (or lack of) difference aside, Ireland is not any sort of positional replacement for Liverpool’s new number 9, but still is he there to show what Houllier said is right or wrong.

Bentley (Birmingham) – another right sided Spurs midfielder who wants to shoe ‘Arry what’s what.

Cruz (Blackburn), El Hadj Diouf has snuck off to Rangers for the rest of 2010, so Cruz is clearly the senior striker already. They always say never go back, but since he barely played for Man City, does it even count as leaving in the first place.

Keane (West Ham), this is probably green tinged glassed more so than analythical insight. But I hope he does well and if so he’s only 4.8. He plays Liverpool in 3 gameweeks time, there’s some carrot for performance.

Vela (WBA), I covered him earlier.

Sturridge (Bolton), was supposed to be the next big thing at Stamford Bridge and has found himself to be 5^th choice striker, poor poor lad. Except he’s a millionaire, poor poor lad. I’d like to see him step up and work off Davies (Elamander seems to have gone off the boil and back to the simmer we know for last year and a half)

Gudjohnson (Fulham), proven goalscorer goes to club struggling to score goals. 4.8 Million

Captains Corner with Phergal

wow, what a gameweek last week, berba, torres, adam and dempsey all delivering massive returns as predicted. i hope you took my advice!

anyways, no doubles this week. lot of interest in arsenal for captain picks this week, RVP and Fab are the most likely options. they're at home to everton which doesn't feel like the right match to pick your captain imo.

torres was my pick until yesterday. i still have him in my team but will wait until he settles into the chelsea set up before giving him captaincy's. suarez looks to start for pool @home to stoke, but again, who knows how he'll do.

berba is my pick this week, at home to villas and in wicked form. he looks like the main man for united now, with rooney sometimes playing deeper on the left.

i like odemwingie at home to wigan this week. looks like he's due a goal and is also capable of scoring two. i brought him in for varney this week.

adam is still a blackpool player despite a renewed effort to bring him to anfield and looks like a great pick at home to west ham. although he is said to be upset at blackpool for not going for the transfer, so who knows.

Back Of The Net Boy Gameweek 24

***

due to me not gettign my ass in gear and writing a blog before I got my son for the weekend, all of this week's blog is a Captain's Corner Special, courtesy of The Pherg

****

 

so it's do or die time, huge double gameweek this weekend with villa, blackpool, fulham, liverpool, man u and wigan all playing two matches. many will be tempted to use the wildcard to pack their side with as many doublers as possible.

i've managed to squeeze 9 doublers in my side this week with only a four point hit so am saving my wildcard for GW 27 to get a jump on my league rivals. i reckon a lot will have used their wildcards this weekend and i can hit them hard gw 27 when there's not only a bunch of more doublers, but even a triple from birmingham!! has a triple gameweek happened before? let us know.

so my advice is save your wc if at all possible.

if you are intent on using it, man u is the obvious target (@home to birmingham, away to blackpool) and anyone that's still playing the game seriously will have the full quota of 3 this week. you'll want a defender, vidic is the best choice, rafael of course is on a red, rio and evra your next targets. i assume everyone reading this has nani in their squad and for a striker, rotation is a possible issue, i went for berba, lots will be gambling on rooney aswell. my ideal preference would be nani and two defenders if you can manage it.

next nicest choice would be fulham (@hom to stoke, away to pool) and liverpool (away to wolves, @home to fulham). torres will see a lot of transfer action this weekend, how many times has he burned us tho? dempsey and hangeland are good picks for fulham.

all the other doublers aren't that appetising tbh, adam and campbell from blackpool maybe but the fixtures are poor: @home to sunderland and man u so don't go too mad.

newly transferred bent looks like a great pick for villa (@hom to city, away to wig), proven consistent premier league goalscorer now will be getting excellent service from the like of young and downing.

so captain picks? mine is hovering between nani and torres. the dilemma here is nani is very much a "safe" captain choice that the vast majority of serious players will be captaining so if he does well you won't be making much ground. someone like torres who is quite capable of scoring 2/3 goals in a game if he's feeling good is a massive differential that could see you catapulted up your leagues. but how many times have we been burned by him? do we want to go through that pain again? so much pain.

other picks would be bonus points machine adam, vidic/evra/rio for united, or even a singler if you really want a gamble: RVP or tevez.

good luck!!!

Fantasy Football Preview Week 23

Fantasy Football Preview Week 23

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, it’s been nearly a month and 5 gameweeks since the last blog and we’ll tear into this one right now.

State Of Play

I’m 32^nd, a derisory 102 points off the top. I genuinely can’t work out where the points differentials are coming from. Maybe a surge will hit soon but I can’t see it to be honest. But onward “ever forward” is Len Rovers motto. I got 21 points more than the average last week, but still so did everyone in the top half of our league. Number one spot was recently taken over by Cian Walsh with his team One Horse Race, which the Back Of The Net Boy league clearly isn’t.

Vindication

Nowt to be referring to since so much time has past since the last blog.

D’oh

D’oh

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

Okay there’s a lot of derbies this weekend, and as usual ‘form goes out the window’. Sunderland must be gunning for revenge from their drubbing at St James Park, and Newcastle look like they’ll be toothless without Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi. I’ve been saying for a while that Craig Gordan is the man to look out for and I think he comes in this week. However I intend to play my wild card soon, so I might wait till then.

Birmingham and Aston Villa looks like it’ll be low scoring, but I’m tempted by David Bentley. He has form with Derby Drama (remember his equalizer in the 4-4 draw for Spurs against his former club Arsenal). I wouldn’t touch an Aston Villa player for love nor  money at moment.

 

And the Merseyside Derby, hmmmn, what can happen there. A torres hatrick?  Liverpool to lose 4-0? Equally plausible.

Obviously most eyes will be at White Hart Lane for the visit by Man United. I don’t expect either team to keep a clean sheet. So I’ll be rotating Vidic out, and let’s look at Berbatov eh? Returning to his old haunting ground. He’s in the best version of his form ever (exquisitely up and down!).

Santa Cruz returning to Blackburn, Shaun Wright Phillips reuniting with Mark Hughes (I reckon he’ll be first teamer from the off)

To catch up on the leaders I need to start picking players that aren’t on other teams ahead of (duh)

Transfers

Got .3 million, and will be using wildcard nextweek, so will focus on that next week. I’m selling Torres (who knows what’ll happen in that match) and bringing Dzecho in. Logically I should bring Tevez in (Man City play at home to Wolves), but since so many people have Tevez I need to start bringing in differentials.

Theory/Selection

As I said I don’t fancy Vidic keeping a clean sheet, and Carroll is injured, I only need to make one decision so I will drop Baird, since Fulham are playing away. “Pretty unimaginative reasons” you say? “Guilty”, says I. Will make Vidic my 1^st choice sub.

Re: Keepers, Hart all the fuppin way.

Re: Captain, I’m going with Bent. He’s still waiting to make one huge impact since he’s come back from injury. A brace or hatrick to get revenge at Newcastle would make quite an impact. Also cos he’s at home.  I may change to VDV or Nasri though, if I lose my bottle.

 Adendum - fukc it, i've no faith in any of my defenders other than Bardsley. Might end up putting Vidic in at expense of skyrtel.

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Gordon, Bentley, Robbie Keane (he’s only 4.8 what a tasty 3^rd price striker, but it’s all based on him moving somewhere)

Captains Corner with Phergal

No doubles this week folks, so the choices are a bit more varied again.

Best fixture for captains this week looks to be city at home to wolves. Wolves will still be on a high though after their last league win against Chelsea and facing the formidable firepower of city may well park the bus. I still expect a 2-0 ish score for city tho. Tevez is the obvious choice. I’m taking a biggish gamble this week and bringing dzeko in. I may well captain him too. Big physical target supported by the machine tevez sounds good, although latest speculation seem to have him starting on the bench and perhaps coming in later.

Chelsea at home to Blackburn is usually a safe bet, but Chelsea still haven’t given us anything to be confident about, and reports have drogba on the bench and possibly malouda too. Lampard could be a nice bet here then.

Sunderland Newcastle looks to be a firecracker of a game after the last one finished 5-1 in newcastles favour. Anything is possible in this one, but expect lots of goals. nolan for Newcastle maybe or barton.

Other nice fixtures for captains are arsenal away to west ham, fab and nasri are good bets, and man u (Rooney, berb and nani) away to tottenham .

Fantasy Football Preview Week 18

Woah we’re halfway there. Gameweek 18 of a 36 game campaign

47 points when the average was 38, not bad but I won’t be getting a parade on Patrick Street cos of it.

I’m still 101 points of the top of our league

Vindication

Picking Nani as captain over Nasri was the only thing really, that could count as managerial insight

D’oh

I swear I saved my changes but somehow Coleman was my 14^th man at the weekend, his 7 points was a better haul than 8 of his team mates

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

Chelsea – United is where all the drama will be if you believe only things Sky tells you. All I see is a low scoring game with players scoring points which will take potential points off other members of your team (I still need to work out a better phrase for that!)

Stoke playing Arsenal, is the first time they’ve met since ‘that tackle”, let’s see what happens in the Emirates.

Also will the great freeze take any games off us? Blackpool are due to be at home to Spurs, but they have no undersoil heating. I only have one Spurs player, and no Blackpool ones. But I will be checking early in the morning

Transfers

Got 2.1 million in the bank, not gonna make a transfer this week so I have two next week. Interestingly I head today that the guy who is leading this game overall has only made 12 transfers all week, goes to show that making good decisions once beats weekly tinkering.

That is based on the assumption that no games have been postponed

Theory/Selection

Two simple ones, I don’t fancy Everton doing well at Man City (Everton can barely score a goal, Man City don’t seem to concede much), so I’ve put both Distin and Coleman on the bench, and also I don’t think Bolton will do well at Sunderland, but I have to play one of my two trotters so went with Elamander in my 11 over Lee.

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Foster and Gordon are fighting for my second GK spot like X-Factor finalists, both averaging 4points a game

Captains Corner with Phergal

On way to me, will post in comments section

Fantasy Football Preview Week 17

How are you? I had a great weekend! on a social level. Fantasy Football wise it was a bollix, going to once again to prove a good real life affects your internet life, I won’t be making that mistake again!

I left for a festival on Fri morning, so couldn’t change my captain from Nani after the Man Utd/Blackpool game got cancelled. And as a result my team was 6 points below the average score this week (average score was 43 points). And speaking of captaincy, I had the setting wrong so it went to Ashley Cole as a back up captain rather than Nasri, which cost me 28 points!!!! Fawking hell.

I am now back in 49^th place, and a whacking 101 points off the top of the table. What a disaster. I need a Christmas miracle

I only had 8 players play at all. What a kick in the love sack,

Vindication

NOTHING

D’oh

The cancelled game and me being not near a computer.

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

This weekend’s marquee fixtures are Chelsea v Spurs and Man Utd v Arsenal, which is the start of a raft of big games in next few game weeks. This is also the start of counter productive team selections for instance having Vidic and Chanukah, means if one does their job well (i.e. keep a clean sheet or score a goal respectively), While one will get 6 points the other will only get 2 points, and therefore only average 4 points which is not a good haul, and then multiply that through your team. This is where making actual calls comes into it, as opposed to just banking on the leaders. This is where I will hopefully catch up on the leaders in this league.

History has shown us that Arsenal usually fold against Man Utd & Chelsea, such as the champions league game a few seasons back at the Emirates. But to be objective the Arsenal team is not really that young compared/inexperienced to the Man Utd. This wont’ be a whitewash either way I’d say.

Similarly the Chelsea V Spurs match won’t be good for defenders so front-load those teams. I think Defoe is going to have a blast this weekend, but am reluctant to sign him.

Newcastle Meltdown? Is this on the cards? As an Irishman I want them to fail now just to show them.

But judging by Andy Carroll’s Twitter today, they’ve already moved on to liking the new manager.

 

England Goalkeeper Face Off – Remember that mistake against the USA by the English goalkeeper, Rob Green? And now his long term replacement Joe Hart? Who’ll have more to prove at the Man City v West Ham match?

Transfers

Got two transfers this week, had intended to get rid of Cole and Alex from Chelsea, but got talked into keeping Cole by Mike, one of the leaders of our league.

I want Baines but am wary of having 3 Everton defenders. Joe.ie is suggesting Liverpool are gonan come into some good form from Torres and Skyrtel. I will go with the former, and sell Alex who is out till Feb anyway, and drop Varney (Blackpool have 4 tricky fixtures coming up) and bring in Bent, Sunderland have 4 winnable matches in next 6 games as well as a game with Man Utd (who he has history of scoring against). Bent is undroppable at Sunderland so that’s a good thing to be sure of.

I will keep Van der Vaart, even though he’s injured.

I wanted to get rid of Nolan too this week as he has a knock but I’ll stick with him.

So in short

Alex out – Skyrtel In

Varney out – Bent in

Left in Bank 2.1 Million

Theory/Selection

Everton at home to struggling Wigan, so will play both those defenders. So I’ll drop Ashley Cole since he’s away at Spurs and that must have goals at both ends. And even though I just bought him I’ll not play Skyrtel, so I can play Bent at Fuham (maybe that match will be a nil all draw, but I can see Newcastle scoring as a better chance). But since Nolan is maybe not gonna play, Skyrtel is my first sub.

Will go with Hart over Jasskegglan, simply cos I just can’t trust Bolton anymore and Man City’s tight defence should be okay against the toofless attack of West Ham.

Re: Captaincy it’s Nani v Nasri, and I’ll go with the former simply cos he’s at home. No real academic insight there.

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Goalkeepers, time to move Jagjhgjfasyibn at Bolton on soon. It’ll be between Foster and Gordon I reckon.

Captains Corner with Phergal

man city away to west ham probably looks like the best fixture on paper, but alas the volatile tevez is suspended this weekend. perhaps balotelli then for those who have him. still no midfielders are standing out from a FF perspective.

Everton look good at home to wigan, cahill is the man here, on wicked form, doesn't seem to get outlandish scores but a goal or assist against weak opposition is likely.

two big match ups this week, spurs at home to chelsea first and with chelsea continuing their dire form midweek in europe and with VDV out for spurs it feels like a 1-0 or 1-1 result, so avoid for captain choices.

the always entertaining arsenal united could produce a few goals, both vying for top spot. Nani and berbie as usual. Fab is likely out for this one, but nasri seems to stepping up to fill his boots recently so is a decent pick also.

although my head this week says cahill, i'm going with elmander myself, at home to blackburn and "due a goal" as they say.

gamble picks? bale or foster.

Fantasy Football Preview Week 16

Short one this week, as I am sitting in a cold room in London at 1am and I need to get up at 7am to get to a laundrette and then Bristol. Long story.

Anway, I got scored 11 points more than the average last week, YEAH!!!! The average was only 44 points, BOOOO! Five players got 6 points or more, YEAAAH!!!! Six got two points or less, BOOO!

I’m getting really pissed off with how my considered decisions keep backfiring, but hopefully toward ends of the season, I’ll get bursts of luck in my favour. Which I need cos I’m 86 points off the top of the leader board.

Vindication

Nani as captain got me 24 points, but that’s hardly like I invented mercury is it? Nothing else really paid off, other than not playing Nolan I suppose.

D’oh

Where do I start, Rafael Van Der Vaart limping off and being injured for a month? Everton conceding 4 goals?

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

There’s nothing huge on the horizon this week I feel. As I type it’s Thursday night/Friday morning, perhaps there’ll be a burst of match cancelled, but you’d like to hope all the premier league grounds have correct pitch heating now. I’ll be away from my computer from tomorrow morning on, so I’ll have to make decisions on this not happening.

Maybe Everton will have a lot to proof at Chelsea, but the pensioners will too? It’s not gonna be nil all, that’s all I’ll guess.

Somewhere else in London, Fulham host Arsenal. Mark Hughes and Wenger have previous, with the latter criticising the formers tactics. Let’s see what happens. Also don’t forget that Fulham’s keeper Schwartzer who Arsenal were apparently ready to sign at during the summer just signed a new contract with Fulham. Is he going to show what they missed out on?

To be honest I’m expecting a hotchpotch of a weekend

Transfers

Won’t make any transfers and will rollover to next weekend.

Theory/Selection

Have a lot of players against other players in my team, have two Everton defenders and two Chelsea defenders, so contrary to my previous statement, I will pray for a nil all draw. Those 24 points would be pure handy. Actually I’ll drop Coleman for fear of Everton having another trouncing.

I don’t see it happening, but perhaps Bolton will score a freekick or something via Lee onto Elamander, I doubt they’ll keep a clean sheet, so I’ll go with Hart in goal.

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Noone this week, let’s see if someone comes to light when I’m hungoveredly scouring the newspapers on Monday as I return from ATP in Minehead. Whoop Whoop.

Captains Corner with Phergal

very tricky one this weekend, dire weather threatens a whole lot of matches this weekend so pay careful attention to news reports and your emergency captain options. blackpool have said they are confident the match against united will go ahead and this is the strongest match for a captaincy this week. nani is the top pick as usual and berbie, but gamblers might want to give rooney the nod, surely (don't call me shirley, RIP leslie) he can score here.

city and bolton looks a good game for goals, tevez is my own pick here and elmander is a decent pick also.

not a huge amount of other decnt fixtures, perhaps arsenal at home to fulham, nasri and perhaps cham. i like blackburn at home to wolves, Gamst pederson or maybe samba are nice options.