Fantasy Football Preview Week 30

Fantasy Football Preview Week 30

Okay, we’re really getting into the throes of the season now eh? Players dropping out dues to injuries related to tiredness, managers getting under pressure, ref getting under double the amount of scrutiny. And we start separating the wheat from the chaff in beloved Fantasy Football.

State Of Play

I’m only 70 points off the top now lads! I managed 60 points when the average was 36 and jumped another 2 places. It would have been one more if not for alphabetical order being kinder to Colin than me.

Vindication

Well baines was my highest performer and I had captained him so that’s good. Funnily enough no one scored that highly for me, but a lot of competitors had backed the wrong horses (let’s hope that form continues, both here and for Cheltenham!)

D’oh

As I said noone really performed, too many players got 3s & 4s. Particularly my double gameweek players.

It’s been a bad gameweek for injuries for me too, Nani & Schezney out for next 6 weeks, so they both have to go, which postpones any tactical changes I had planned to make.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

According to the always handy www.physioroom.com, Man Utd’s injury list has swelled to 10 players out, that’ll have obvious knock on effects on clean sheets. How many more players will be gone (and his stands for all the clubs) after the two internationals between now and next gameweek.

Is this the time for Arsenal to go into overdrive, I decided after Barcelona match that I’d like to Arsenal win the league, but my emotional priority is Len Rovers in out league.

Is this the time to get on the West Ham roller coaster, they are in startling form but there fixture list is horrendous, Spurs, Chelsea and both Manchester teams await in their next 6 games

Can spurs keep their eye on the ball on both fronts. They have the squad to do it, defoe scored his first goals in ages against Spurs, he’s always a fits and bursts striker but can he even be assured of a starting spot anyway?

And is Liverpool, the Suarez show, mister 5 yard hatrick Kuyt AND Carrol to start playing now. Carrol the Geordie could make his full debut against Sunderland

Transfers

Schezney is out for what seems rest of season, and with Hart @ Chelsea, I want to use another keepers. Now I now Chelsea parked the bus at arsenal early this season (if memory serves they didn’t have a single shot, or bother to try), so we can assume that’s what’ll happen at the Bridge this weekend, however Chelsea should be capable of unlocking that defence better than the Arsenal tweeners, due to the fact the pensioners have more than one way of trying to score a goal. And Torres needs to explode soon, scoring a few goals to help The Old New Money leapfrog the The New New Money.

So I’m bringing Howard in, as he looks like he has a relatively easy run of fixtures (the caveat of Everton being terribly unreliable this year hovers over me though). As  a result of that I need to lose an Everton outfield player, so dropping Beckford (whose form this year has encapsulated Everton’s this season) and brining in Van Persie. The reasons are pretty much all here - http://fantasy.premierleague.com/M/pundit.mc

I expect to play my wildcard for next gameweek, as I anticipate injuries from them to buck a few teams up. I have a premonition Spurs will lose a player or two for a few weeks, perhaps Modric or Saint Van Der Vaart.

Also I am biast, but I want a Wolves resurgence happening soon.

Theory/Selection

I’ve hummed and hawed about this and to be honest not sure, and not sure about captain either. I’m veering towards Downing but Nani is in good form and I see any goals against Bolton as a cross or break away. Actually I will go with Downing, cows (a) I need to stick with my differentials policy to catch up on people ahead of me and (b) Pherg also highlights him as a pick of the bunch

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

More so the injuries next week more so than a specific player

Captains Corner with Phergal

truely awful week last week, finished on 24 points. everyone else seemed to be doing bad tho, so not too disappointed. went from 2nd to 5th in my most competitive league.

some big name injuries this week to add to your woes; nani, fabregas, arteta etc. so they'll be a lot of point deduction transfers shipping them out i'd imagine. try to field an 11 without a points hit and give yourself a 4 point head start on your rivals.

anyway, i like two matched this week, first is man u @home to bolton. i finally got rooney in for berba and will be captaining him myself, murphy's law will apply i'm sure, with berba getting a hat trick. so captain berba and reap some of my misfortune. *sigh*

i like villa @home to wolves, bent, young and downing look nice pics.

i'd be a bit nervous with arsenal away to west brom. no fab, and a RVP not fully fit but who knows, they might bounce back after their exit from the champions league, especially with united tantalisingly close. nasri maybe and rvp if he plays.

Fantasy Football Preview Week 28

Fantasy Football Preview Week 28

Not too shabby I though to myself after the dust settled on Chelski v Man Unsecure-without-Vidic&Ferdinand-playing-together (remind anyone else of a Lethal Weapon style scenario [thinking about that it makes Raphael a Joe Pesci character, or would that be Johnny Evans}). You see I scored 60 points, 17 more than the average. But I think people who have lost interest and don’t tweak their teams anymore, so they have maybe 4 or 5 injured players etc, are skewing the average

State Of Play

I jumped a mammoth 2 places. TWO baby!!! The people ahead of me all got in or around 60 as well ya see.

Vindication

Hmmn, going by the concept of vindication being hunches paying off, nothing is vindicated except the groundbreaking decision to but Nani as captain. I suppose a differential of playing Vela scoring a goal helped since only 0.7% of people have signed him.

D’oh

The other 9 players on my team, I had six players getting 3 points or less. Mad I really hummed and hawed between Ashley Young and Downing last Friday evening, I picked the wrong horse, there was a 6-point difference between the players

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

I guess Birmingham will have a hangover and dip in form after their amazing exercitations

 In the league cup final (maybe I say again fair play and I’m delighted Stephen Carr lifted that trophy, it will, mark by words, be a trivia question soon)

If there is going to be an amazing run of form for Arsenal, this is their moment. Similarly Everton, but their season is over now, is this gonna be Moyes’ swansong, or a chance to reboot the team for next season [if they could get past the block of their legendary shit starts to each season what could happen them).

But as a counter point, Newcastle face them this weekend (in st james park) and they genuinely have a chance of finishing 6^th, they have one sticky fixture left in their run in.

But this week in specific, Mark Sparky Hughes (well Fulham do!) plays Blackburn, the team where he made his name as a club manager, (interestingly Fulham have quietly put together the best defensive record in the league, yet two of their defenders are in the top 10 defenders)

Transfers

Decided to get rid of three injured players and take an 8-point hit, but since they are all double gameweek players, I should should should make it back

Going against my worry Birmingham will drop form; I reckon Bentley will keep his (after all he’s playing to revive his career and is ‘only’ on loan), so I brought him in for Van Der Vart

Then brought in Beckford, who is slowly finding his feet at Everton, as it would be churlish to bring in brittle bones Saha for brittle muscle Van Persie

Finally brought in dead ball Baines for Martin Kelly, who has flourished under Daglish but is out for a monthish (he’s already on my shortlist for next season. [Yep even now I’m planning]

Theory/Selection

I’ve captained Baines, as he’s playing twice and if he picks up one assist, one clean sheet and a few bonus points that should get him 20 to possibly 25 points, and it’s still and all about differentials for me if I’m gonna make up ground on the 14 teams ahead of me.

With Vidic suspended, I only have 13 players to play with anyway, by virtue of playing my 5 double gameweek players, I now don’t want Vela to score as it would prevent a clean sheet bonus for Johnson, and then I think there’s more in Downing at Bolton than his team mate Walker.

Keeper wise, Szcezesny confidence is gone (alumia played ahead of him in FA CUP), so I’ll go with the stalwarth Hart, who is at home to Wigan

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

Will the Sturridge steam roll continue, Please Deity no!!!!!

Captains Corner with Phergal

2 doubles this week, Everton and Birmingham, let's take a look at them.

Everton have Newcastle away and @home to Birmingham. To be honest I don't like this double, especially with Cahill out. Arteta then or perhaps saha, but this for me isn't attractive enough to edge out some of the single match contenders who I’ll mention later.

Birmingham have west brom @home and Everton @home. This one looks a bit better, foster or a defender could be a nice safe bet. zigic is risky.

so who else is there? Man city @home to wigan is irresistible; tevez is my pick like many other managers. dzeko still isn't giving me any reason to punt on over carlos.

The always-entertaining Liverpool man u game should give us a few goals. Rooney is in flying form; I’d pick him here. United will be looking to bounce back from the Chelsea defeat. I predict 2-0.

RVP injured has a lot of people running for a replacement. I recommend tevez if you don't already have him or Rooney if you have a bit of spare cash.

Good luck!

Fantasy Football Preview Week 28

Fantasy Football Preview Week 28

Okay the bursts of mega fixtures have come to an end and now it’s back into bleak weeks of looking at 40 or 50 point hauls eh?………

State Of Play

Or this finally my chance to pounce and make up the 99 point deficit between my team, Len Rovers, and the current leaders of The Back Of The Net Boy league, One Horse Race. [Who is not walking away with the trophy (note – there is no trophy), 4 or 5 other teams all in with a shout to win by the end of the season]

Vindication

I made a fine haul 125+ points, but only 5 players got double figures, Van Persie as captain was handy, but if I’d captained Adam I’d snuck a few more points

D’oh

By virtue of having told you 5 players of mine got double points or more, I guess you’ve worked 6 of my players FAILED.

Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative before Sky Have Spotted it

Okay Hughes returns to Eastlands, where would they be now if they’d kept them? Will he get a warm welcome, you can only hope so

Transfers

Bring Stewert Downing in for Adam, as he is suspended for next 2 weeks, part of me wanted to get Andy Reid out stupid Irish pride (but sure I don’t even like sliced pan!!!!)

Theory/Selection

Simply put will play the 10 players of mine who have a game. Nani & Vidic play twice so maybe summat will happen there, but Torres getting his groove back on his aul enemy/bitch Vidic could happen too!

My captain will be Nani and I can only hope he plays both games

My Team this week

 

Keeping An Eye On

My rosary beads

Captains Corner with Phergal

so no premier league fixtures this weekend for arsenal, birmingham and spurs. i imagine many will have lots from these teams due to the doubles last week. i had planned meticulously to have just enough from these teams to enable me to keep them on the bench and field a full 11 this week, but alas, injuries rear their ugly head again, with cahill and adam doubtful.

anyway, man u have the only double in the league this week so obviously the most popular pick for captaincy. nani is the main choice but you won't be making much ground if he delivers as most other serious managers will be captaining him. rooney could be a good shout here too.

if you want to go against the masses and make up some ground in your leagues try: DJ Campbell at wolves, tevez @hom to fulham and suarez @ westham.

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 .