Fantasy Football 20121-1-13

Game week 21

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 48

Average Score on site – 54

Highest Haul: 12 – Friedel/Bale

Lowest Haul: (-2) – Jones

 

Average Score Per Player 4.4

Accrued Score – 855

Place in my own fecking league – 75, down 11 places

Points Off the top – 288 

State Of Play

Happy 2012 BOTNB-ers; it’s a brand new year and all that, so a new leaf and all that jazz, and looking at the world with new eyes, give everything a new chance etc. (my annual attempt to like Olives for instance), so while the FPL doesn’t have a winter break alá Serie A, or even break into two mini seasons alá South American leagues; I am treating this second half of this season as a new attempt for at least getting barcaRONAN back on track, out with Ronan Warnock and in with Ronan Hughes.

But just before the new Ronan bright start…What FUNKER got 142 points last week, seriously 142 points, that’s over 300% better than me, 322% to be specific. Seriously 142. Last week’s particularly bad haul is mainly due to me being such a good father, let me explain, I had the heir to the throne on New Years Eve/Day and was playing with him during the day, in my head the deadline for transfers was in the evening, as opposed to earlier. A bad father would have checked at the expense of quality time with his child… ergo all the childless people at the top end of the leader board… take a look at yourselves. In short, I didn’t get the chance to take Walker off the bench, all 13 beautiful points of Kyle Walker thanks to Josh McEchran playing 8 minutes.

So anyway, last three gameweeks I did around the average score, so there you go.

Vindication

Once again, in last three gameweeks I did around the average score, so there you go.

D’oh

Thirdly, in last three gameweeks I did around the average score, so there you go.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky have spotted it.

Okay, it’s been such a hectic few three game weeks eh? In summation, everyone is in some kind of crisis: every second person is a racist/criminal, and every other person is a victim. Form went out the window, but it didn’t in other ways coos the bad teams are getting worser. and the good teams are staying topular (I just coined that word! – Boom). SO there you go a few sentences of waffle that all can be used to back up any opinion I’ve read about last few weeks of games.

The two main things that are looming now are The African Cup Of Nations, a fair few notable players are missing Toure, Toure, Lally for instance. (Hardy Harr) and the Transfer Window; will QPR shore up massively? the unfairly maligned Alex (who has a great free kick technique straight from the primary school playground) seems to be on his way, as well as Samba, could be a tasty pick up there.

A lot of chatter that Carroll is on his back home, but it seems very stupid since they are missing Suarez as well. In fact chatter is the operative word, since the transfer gossip goes into overdrive, I certainly will hold my winter transfer window wildcard back for at least one more game week, if not two.

The trio of MSLers, Donovan, Henry & Keane could be telling too. Is it just me that really wishes Arsenal were playing Villa in next few weeks, Given & Dunne lining up against Henry would be very fun to watch.

Spurs are really really on a roll at the moment, in one way I’m not even that excited about this game week, cos the Man City Spurs game next week could be very interesting. It’s quite possible by end of game week 22, there will be three clubs tied on points at top of league. Reminds me of the Norwich/Villa/Man Utd run in oh-so-many years ago. But Man United are at Arsenal the same weekend, so it could be all up in the air.

Anyway, did I really nail my colours to the mast on any particular point there? No.

Did I make a good gag about the Touré brothers? Yes. In my book, or in this case, blog.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

As I intend to use my wildcard either next week or following, I’ve made two short-term transfers. I brought Sessegnon and Samba in, two players whose values I anticipate to rise, building on good form for the former, a move to a better club/tighter defence for the latter.

The wildcard will swap out plenty of players, certainly bringing in a new goalkeeper for Begovic for instance. As you can see from my selection it kind picks itself, a wariness of a Stoke clean sheet at Anfield means I have Huth on the bench, Josh McEachran is supposed to be on loan at Swansea already, so that’s annoying.

Re: Captain, I may well swap Bale in as my captain, but I wonder will Harry rest him to prep for the City match?

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Pretty much everyone is on the watchlist again.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Well the Christmas madness is over, I had a fairly bad few weeks from not paying attention to the packed fixture schedule. I forgot to get Everton and Spurs doublers in which didn't turn out to be too bad, and transferred in Ba only to remember he's off to ACON for the next few weeks. Wildcard time!

Anyway, it's wide open for likely high scoring players this week. I'll start by mentioning again the excellent FPL site www.totalfpl.com, they have an excellent weekly article which brings together bookie odds on players most likely to score and most likely to score more than one. Kind of takes the fun out picking a captain but it's a great starting point and useful if you can't decide between two players.

Spurs @home to Wolves - Spurs are on form and fans are talking in hushed tones about a possible title push. Stranger things have happened. Bale is on form and is an excellent choice, although capable of big scores he isn't as consistent as say Silva, but this looks like a good fixture for them. VDV too if you have him. Adebayor hasn't been scoring as freely as owners might like but it's as good a fixture as any for him to bag a goal or two.

Man U@ Home to Bolton - Man U put their recent woes somewhat behind them with a great win against City in the FA cup. United scored 5 early season away to Bolton and look good for a bagful here (mental note: must reuse this as a pun when they play West Brom next). Valencia should be considered here as well as Nani, both are likely scorers/assisters. Rooney as usual and his likely partner up front Welbeck are good as well.

City away to Wigan - City are going through a difficult spell and their squad is starting to show a lack of depth, captain Kompany serving a ban and Balotelli and Silva doubtful. I wouldn't be counting on too many goals here; Aguero is the only one I’d consider here for the armband.

Arsenal away to Swansea - I don't fancy too many goals here to be honest. RVP is always a good choice.

Gamble picks - I fancy a few goals for on the rise Sunderland against Chelsea, Sessegnon and the latest boy wonder McClean.

Fantasy Football 2011-12-16

Game week 16

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 30

Average Score on site – 50

Highest Haul: 7 –Van Persie (who was also my captain, so that became 14)

Lowest Haul: (-3) – Clichy

 

Average Score Per Player 2.7

Accrued Score – 637

Place in my own fecking league – 70, down 11 places

Points Off the top – 214 (20 points dis-improvement – [what’s the correct word?])

State Of Play

Due to me minding my language around my son I’m gonna say through gritted teeth, “Oh deary me” ála Mrs Doubtfire, but in my head I’m ranting and seething more like Robin Williams did in his insane cocaine years. I was gonna go on A World According To Garp thing, but in truth I can’t really remember the build up to the ending, so he might actually have done something horrific himself. Anyway this is the kind of rambling writing that wins me no awards, back to incisive writing about my thoughts on a game that wins me no points. I really have done bad since I started this blog, I used to be a condendah.

So while the previous game week was my best in months, but sure as night follows day, this week was one of my worst. Jeez. Left (back), right (back) and centre (back), I was left down, as well as midfield etc etc. Other than Van Persie, (and even he had a poor week by his exacting standards) and to a lesser degree Walters, no one contributed.

Vindication

Nothing

D’oh

Everything that isn’t covered in the Vindication section, crushing. If it wasn’t for the fact I’ve been listening to documentaries about country and western music for last few hours, I’d feel worse.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky have spotted it.

I realise I consistently have gone astray from the title of this subsection. SO will try and steer back and more pertinent to my team, I can’t solve all these problems in one week, will limit myself to 2

PROBLEM

Bendtner – They always say when a new manager comes in you should make sure you catch the manager’s attention, but not like this you knobhead - http://www.football365.com/news/21554/7380617/Bendtner-And-Cattermole-Are-Bailed-After-Arrest

Now while a part of me sees Sunderland becoming a solid team very quickly with winter flaking in the crosses for the Dane to take those chances, I just can’t see it happening right now. The wildcard in Jan is ahead of us though.

SOLUTION

Sturridge in, baffling to see they are only .6 apart in price. What with Anelka gone, Drogba leaving soon for African Cup of Nations, and the natural urge for English players who have not cemented their place in the Euro squad. 

PROBLEM

My goalkeepers, without noticing I’ve kind of painted myself into a corner with two, what I’d call, handy second choice of keepers,

SOLUTION

Immediately Vorm looks great buy, but will hold my wick in that department

PROBLEM

My Man City defenders, both woefully underperforming, Clichy in particular, both need to go, but to be fair there are no notably performing defender this season (the Newcastle bubble seems to have burst)

 

SOLUTION

On my poking about, I see Man Utd have a new defender option at 4.5 million in a fella called Ezekiel Fryers, now while that’s a character name you’d except in something like Oz or Sons Of Anarchy; he’ll have do a little bit more than that. But my actual solution is explained a little further down.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

DO you look at your squad and think to yourself, “how is this adding up to 100 Million!”, I have only two what I’d call high cost players (RVP and Bale) and the rest are mid to cheap ones. I certainly have back the wrong horse with all of them (perhaps excluding  Walters, who at 6.3 is bubbling away under the whole)

Due to needing to shave a few quid here and there, I swapped VDV for Bale; simple decision really, over Christmas rush, VDV is unlikely to play all the games, and once again while admitting my blind spots Bale is out performing VDV.

Have swapped Sturridge for Bendtner and have decided to lose Clichy and bring in Jagielka (Norwich, Swansea at Home, then Sunderland and WBA away); Everton have a pretty sweet few fixtures coming up and hopefully they could manage maybe 3 clean sheets from next 5?

It’s a tricky one with the Goalkeepers, they are opposing each other and I’m sure they’ll both be busy with set pieces and whatnot, so I’m gonna go with Hennessey, I don’t see a clean sheet for either but what with Stoke’s bad form after Europe League matches (even though they didn’t play their strongest strongest team on Thurs, I believe. Maybe I should research that, errah). Suppose since Begovic isn’t starting a lot these days, it makes the decision a little easier.

Regarding Captain, I anticipate the Many City v Arsenal game to be very high octane, maybe the memory of both club’s more recent matches with Chelsea makes me think goals, as opposed to defensive masterclass performances. But I will veer towards Bale at home, since they are clearly playing a weaker team, and perhaps O’Neill hasn’t really sorted them out yet, and I also have Bassong in my team. Put all my eggs in one basket etc etc.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Everton’s defenders and on the same tip Chelsea’s ones. Also high functioning/low-cost midfielders who play every game (Larsson perhaps).­

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Pretty difficult one this week with RVP away to City. I still wouldn't bet against him though and no doubt he'll still be captained by many.

City @home to Arsenal - Arsenal have been tightening up defensively and City finally got beaten in the premier league so this mightn't be as one sided as people think. As I said, RVP is still a reasonable choice and the usual candidates on the City side, Aguero, Silva and Balotelli.

Man United away to QPR - United somewhat answered critics last week with 4 goals against Wolves, but come on, it's Wolves. I see United to win again comfortably though. Nani and Rooney both impressing last weekend and will have seen their ownership start to rise again. Not sure about picking your captain based on one good performance again Wolves though.

Newcastle @home to Swansea  - Ba has turned into the bargain buy of the season, he's in amazing form. Swansea is definitely no gimme fixture though, but he's as likely to score as anyone this weekend and is fond of getting more than one.

Chelsea away to Wigan - Great win for Chelsea last weekend and badly needed. Will their slump be over now? Who knows but confidence is massively boosted and Wigan won't be looking forward to this one. Sturridge turned assister last weekend, setting up Meireles and winning a penalty duly converted by Lampard who has publicly expressed his puzzlement at starting matches on the bench. Mata had a great second half and dominated the midfield, you have a feeling he'll be putting up a big score soon.

Gamble picks - Yakubu @home to West Brom, why not. Ramsey. Shit, i've jinxed it now haven't I?

Fantasy Football 2011-12-9

Game week 15

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 77

Average Score on site – 53

Highest Haul – 15 – Huth, Jones and Van Persie

Lowest Haul – 1 – Begovic, Ben Arfa, Bendtner, Van Der Vaart 

Average Score Per Player 7

Accrued Score – 607

Place in my own fecking league – 68, up twelve places

Points Off the top – 193 (13 points improvement)

State Of Play

Wahey, best week in a long while for me, 77 point haul for me. An average of 7 points per player, and with 3 of my team getting 15 points it implies I’m somewhat building back on the right tracks. Then again one of those players was RVP, so that hardly counts as insight.

On a wider BOTNB community level, the big news from the week was one of the crew getting engaged, so I wanna throw warmest thoughts towards Pat, but I will warn you about something. This league is in it’s 8th year, no married man has ever won the BOTNB league…

Vindication

As I said three players got good hauls with 60 points between them…

D’oh

… (yep you guessed it) but the other 8 got 17 between them. I have a few gripes and the main one is with the save button on the site. As  you can see from the screen shot on last week’s blog, I had Hennessey set to be my keeper, who got a good 9 point haul. Those 8 points could end up crucial.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky have spotted it.

Looks like the WAGS of the two Manchester clubs will be able to follow the goings on in the Rovers Return for rest of the season as their hubbies will be away on Wednesday nights for Europa League (even though Mrs Giggs,  Ferdinand and Rooney might be more worried cos of that). The two clubs are, stepping away from the spin and whatnot about their exits from the champions league, wounded. The players in both clubs have the mindsets of winners and will surely be hungry to get onto the field and show the world what’s what (other than Tevez obviously!). Looking to Old Trafford first, Vidic is a huge loss; as they teased out on fantasy football scout podcast, there is a school of thought that due to his loss for the rest of season United will have even less chance of keeping clean sheets so will need to attack more, and what with Hernadez’s injury, Fergie’s seemingly permanent lack of faith in Berbatov and the occasional pushing of Wayne into midfield this all adds up to Welbeck getting a LOT of game time and they have a nice run of winnable fixtures.

Moving across to the bluer part of the city, it’s not like the wagon has skidded off the road but they will surely be a mild hangover at least from the exit from the big boys league. They visit Chelsea, who are been a powerhouse of football in the last week, I am looking forward to this game as an observer.

Also how quickly will Martin O’Neill turn Sunderland around, while he was never a negative manager, he will shore it up at the back before anything. He made the lumbering seemingly ineffectual Emile Heskey shine when he had him in the past, so perhaps he’ll do the same with Bendter. But he is listed as having a knock, but surely any player trying to impress a new manager will do what it takes to get on the team sheet. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if he makes any wholesale changes.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

As I said the signs point to attacking United, so Welbeck in and Agbonlahor out. While he’s been good for Villa this season, he seems to have gone off the boil and they have 3 tough fixtures in the next six.

Not very happy with my team this week, but then again I have been in previous weeks and ended up disappointed so at least this way my expectations are lowered. I don’t like having defenders who are playing against midfielders who are also in my team (Huth versus VDV/Bassong versus Walters) but to be honest, I just to have suck it up in this instance; because I don’t have any obvious plan B even if I used my wildcard right now.

Am really looking and relooking and relooking at bringing Long in at the expense of Bendtner, and I might end up doing it when I get home tonight!

To be honest this is a hotch potch of a selection this week, I regret leaving it this late in the week to do, but it’s the kind of regret I can live with.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Sunderland and their new regime, and Chelsea’s resolve, an a certain Spaniard in their works

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Interesting times on the champs league then, both Manchester teams crashing out in the group stages, one somewhat expectedly, and one a major upset. This could be good news for Fantasy managers though, as both teams will be sure to put out their strongest teams for the second half of the premiership, hopefully making less selection headaches for us.

Man United @home to Wolves - United are in a state of disarray, no two ways about it. They've been struggling on all fronts recently and are scraping 1 nils here and there, their early season free scoring a bit of a memory now. Add to that it looks like Vidic is out for the rest of the season. There's not much to signal you to pick a player for a captain's armband, even against Wolves. Cue a Rooney hattrick. Go on then, captain him.

Arsenal@home to Everton - He's the default option now, you'd want a seriously tasty fixture or display of form from someone else not to pick Reliant Robin. Home to Everton, game on.

Chelsea@home to City - Chelsea ended a bad period with a great win against Valencia in the Champions league to get them to the next stage. Drogba scored twice and looks to have earned a few starts in the coming weeks instead of Torres. I think he's a great differential this weekend, i can't check his ownership in work but i'll bet it's around the 2% figure. I can see Mata exploding soon as well, but perhaps not in this fixture. I can see lots of goals here, Chelsea's defence is still very much in trouble and City don't seem too fond of clean sheets recently, preferring to outscore the opposition (hey phergal, isn't this the objective of every team in a match?) with goals. Aguero for City.

Gamble picks? Larrson against Blackburn, purely because i just brought him back into my own team after foolishly dropping him for Ramsey. Shit, i've jinxed it now haven't I?

Fantasy Football 2011-12-2

Game week 13

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 39

Average Score on site – 41

Highest Haul – 10 - Kompany

Lowest Haul – 0 -Van Der Vaart

Average Score Per Player 3.3

Accrued Score – 500

Place in my own fecking league – 80, same as last week

Points Off the top – 206.

State Of Play

Remember all my talk of rebirth last week? Well it’s very déjà vu now isn’t it? I’ve been losing faith in my selections, but I keep coming back to the fact that I have reasoned them out and they just aren’t working out. But someone else has said something similar to me… "We have been using a lot of players but we have to make choices based on coherence, decision making, and based on the best players”. Step on up Andre Villas-Boas.

Vindication

Rather than saying nothing every week, I will use this space to teach you how to say nothing in different languages; ‘Nichts’ is the German for nothing. Over the course of the season, I might also move in the philosophy of nothing.

D’oh

I didn’t even field a full team, due to injuries and Jones and Drenthe not even making the subs bench. Kompany scored nearly 25% of my points. That shizzle just won’t fizzle.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky have spotted it.

Wowzers, Villa have a very very bad run for next 6 games, Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are all on the agenda. So bye bye Given from barcaRONAN.

Sunderland’s new manager might be installed by the time I post this, and to be fair to whoever takes over (it’s looks like Martin O’Neill) will have a favourable opening run of fixtures, what that will mean for Bendtner will be interesting. He did wonders with Emile Heskey eh?

Two teams who are in strange types of reeling; Man Utd, who got caught with a stunner on Wed; and Chelsea who’ve been slugged over and over recently, are in a position to ‘fight back like an animal in a corner’ kinda thing. The Chelsea visit to Newcastle could be interesting, will Ben Arfa light up the pitch? Or will John Terry just have a few words with him...

Transfers/Theory/Selection

  

I think I’ve left too much faith in both my keepers, Given goes this week, probably Begovic next week. I’m bringing in Hennessy’s from Wolves in, they are at home hosting Sunderland this week, so I’ll play him there and he’ll be syncing in and out with my other keeper for next few weeks. Also letting little Wes of Norwich leaves the Ro Camp, so I can bring in Ben Arfa, Newcastle have a lovely run of fixtures as of next week but he may nick a few points against Chelsea this week.

By virtue of playing a Wolves keeper (Hennessy) and Man Utd Defender (Jones), I’m benching my two strikers who could score against them (Aghbonlahor and Bendtner). Also benching Huth, as Stoke’s defending has been slacker and slacker and if any team the premiership can eat up the game Stoke play it’s Everton.

I’m gonna captain RVP, as well, Wigan are no great shakes at the moment and you mightn’t have heard, but he’s in good form.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Wolves, and more importantly the new Sunderland era.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Man City @Home to Norwich - Aguero came off the bench during the week so looks set for start. Balotelli looks more likely to start alongside him the Dzeko. Both great captaincy choices. Silva as usual is a decent safety option.

Arsenal away to Wigan - RVP finally turned up short last week after an incredible 5 matches on the trot with double figure scores. Rotation is very much an issue with a tired Arsenal side now and i wouldn't be surprised with RVP being rested or coming off the bench. Make sure you pick your vice captain well. Nice opportunity to make a big captaincy score here with a differential pick other than RVP in any of the other fixtures, as most will be captaining the Dutchman. Not for the faint of heart though.

Tottenham @home to Bolton - Nice home fixture for a Spurs side in flying form in the premiership, Europa loss not withstanding. Latest reports say VDV will start so is an excellent pick along with Adebayor.

Newcastle@home to Chelsea - Mata finally got a big haul last week in a Chelsea side in disarray. Torres is dropped for Drogba. I don't see many goals in this to be honest. 0-0.

Man United away to Villa - I like Hernandez here. Rooney should be returning to a front slot as well. Both great picks.

Gamble pick - Ryan Taylor, clean sheet and some bonus points in the 0-0 against Chelsea. You heard it here first.

Fantasy Football 2011-11-24

Game week 12

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 35

Average Score on site – 44

  

Highest Haul – 7

Lowest Haul – 1

Average Score Per Player 3.3

Accrued Score – 495

Place in my own fecking league – 80, down 6 Places

Points Off the top - 165

State Of Play

Right I’m in position number 80… I was born right in 1980, so this is clearly a position of… REBIRTH. This where it all kicks in folks, this is the second act… this is where Lady Macbeth has talked me into it… this is where I get back in the ring to avenge Apollo Creed’s death… this is where I start a band called Wings….

I have cunningly had a really a shit first third (turd?) of the season, so my move up a gear (or is it down a gear? I don’t drive yet… the way you go faster and when you make driving sounds you go up a pitch) will be a way clearer to spot!

Vindication

I flagged Irish strikers to be playing as well as they can and one of mine, Walters, scored and another, Long (who is a former member of the barcaRONAN team), also leapt like a gazelle to score one for himself.

D’oh

You know the way there’s 11 players in your team and I mentioned one in my vindication section? You do the math…

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky Have Spotted it.

I’m writing this in a rush as I have an appointment with some beer and my best friend in town, and 

I was supposed to get home ages ago, but I got stuck in a meeting… about starting a weekly 

soccer trivia quiz night in Cork City. So anyway, Champions League threw up a few things 

(1) Man United still seem averse to defending (2) Van Arsenal is leading the entire Persie FC team 

(3) Chelsea, like Bart Simpson,  are in trouble, big big trouble [actually this has tickled me today, 

the first paragraph of this article -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/24/andre-villas-boas-chelsea - they are bang in the middle of the slump yeah? They’ve lost their last two?, and 4 of their last 7?]

Transfers/Theory/Selection

With the news breaking of Anderson also being out till February-ish, Man United’s midfield options are even more limited, so it looks like Rooney might end up in the middle of the park for this weekend (assuming he’s fully fit, he still has the yellow mark against his name on the fantasy football site); and also with the inevitable need for Van Persie, I brought the Dutch man into my team… with parallel inevitably he will get injured this weekend.

I’m not gonna lie, due to this direct swap, I’m not even considering a second transfer this weekend, so that’s it, gotta make a selection out of what’s in front of me. I don’t trust Man City’s defence against Liverpool at Anfield, so by benching those two, it’s a choice of who my third man on the bench will be.

There was a few candidates, but I’ve chosen Agbonlahor on the bench as he’s away to Swansea who have been very good at home so far; but what with VDV also doubtful and Drenthe not a sure fire starter for Everton at Bolton, he may well end up turning out in the barcaRONAN jersey this weekend.

I will captain Robin Van Persie, cos feck it (1) he’s at home to relatively weak opposition, Fulham, (2) he is on fire at moment and (3) I’m never afraid to launch way too much pressure at the first chance of some good quality scoring, which explains why so many potential relationships of mine have floundered.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

I was trying to link to a youtube clip of Homer saying “can’t talk now, I’ve got a class to teach”…. But you get the gag

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

RVP does it again in the champions league, a magnificent brace to send Arsenal into the next stage. He's on fire. If you have him captain him. He looks like scoring big every week and is at home to Fulham.

Chelsea @home to Wolves - Chelsea are in rotten form and need a big win to try to lift their spirits. What better fixture to regain some intent than at home to Wolves. Torres, Sturridge and Lampard are all good choices.

Liverpool@home to City - Should be a fascinating match this, Liverpool coming off a nice 2-1 win against Chelsea against a City side who maybe lost a bit of shine losing to Napoli and putting their champions league adventure in serious doubt. Still, now they will be more focused than ever on the premiership and maintaining their unbeaten run. Aguero looks definite to start. Him and Silva will be looking to run the show here. Maybe Adam or Suarez if you think Liverpool can win.

United @home to Wolves - Once again i don't see any captain material in United at the moment. They have lost their way a bit and Newcastle are a solid side. I can see this one being 0-0. Maybe 1-0 with Hernandez getting the goal?

Gamble pick - Same as last week, Walters in tremendous form against a terrible Blackburn side. 

Fantasy Football 2011-11-17

Game week 12

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 40

Average Score on site – 53

Highest Haul – 15

Lowest Haul – (0)

Average Score Per Player 3.6

Accrued Score – 460

Place in my own fecking league – 74, down 10 Places

Points Off the top - 149

State Of Play

OLE OLE OLE OLE, after the international break it’s time for us all to get back to club level, I need to get both a better insight to Fantasy Football and a thesaurus, so I can at least say ‘I did bad” in a different way every week. I am just cannon fodder at the moment,

In a bid to inspire myself to great and better things I have a photo of my son in front of me and I am listening to this fine collection of songs…

Vindication

Nothing, now let’s just move on

D’oh

My fupping christhole of a browser, I insist that I had set Agbonlahor to captain as I said in the last blog “so Gabby gets the armband and barcaRONAN debutant Ramsey will get the vice role”, that would have made a 11 point impact on my team, wouldn’t change the world but it would have eeked me up a few spots on the ladder.

In a list of my other regrets and grievances from last week, I will refer to this (work it out yerself)….

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky Have Spotted it.

I’m wondering how much of an immediate impact qualifying for the Euros will have on the Irish players, while a lot of them hit the gargle on Tuesday night, it’s more the psychological impact I’m wondering about. Will McCarthy really push on now, and same with Coleman; and will O’Hara really go for gold and try and join the Irish squad. Also Trap said he anticipates bringing 4 strikers, so assuming Doyle and Keane are fit, that means the last 2 spots are a shoot out between Walters, Long and Cox (at his stage my knee is still at me, so I don’t think I’ll be getting a look in for the squad). And Dunne/Given, who both seem the decentest kinda guys you’ll ever meet must surely have a spring in their steps coming back into the Villa’s dressing room.

On a broader level there is the clash between Liverpool and Chelsea, with the Torres factor getting most of the red top attention, there’s also an interesting meeting of Terry and Suarez, two men who have had a problem with… how do you say it subtly… not being assholes, yeah that’s it. Terry inevitably scores goals when he’s under scrutiny (I wonder does Abromovich know this himself? God knows that he’d concoct to keep the Chelsea Skipper knocking in crucial headed goals)

Regarding my team specifically, the elephant in the room that is Van Persie (68 points in last 6 games!!! How amazing is that?), I’m giving Rooney one more chance, he didn’t play in the friendlies for England (How much does Alex Ferguson love that punishment do you think?), whereas RVP returned to England after Holland’s match at weekend, will he perhaps be benched for their visit to Norwich? The reason I think that is the Champions League is back on Tuesday. Damn it, now I’m thinking Rooney won’t play either…

Transfers/Theory/Selection

Basically, I wanted to make a change with no obvious candidates, I have the feeling Holohan might excel against Arsenal (yet another Irishman who wants to grab Trap’s eye even more than before now); so I got rid of Shaun Wright Philips; and in comes Drenthe, mainly cos the Fantasy Football Scout site are pushing him at the moment. As you can see I’ve two injury doubtfuls, VDV and Agbonlahor; The Dutchman has time on his side, as their game isn’t till Monday evening.

My selection is hotch potch to be honest, it’s all half hunches more so than ruthless insight, since Many City have conceded in last few matches, I’m gonna play just Kompany. Of the team I select I can see Huth and Walters not playing anyway. This week is probably Huth’s farewell appearance with barcaRONAN due to his very disappointing form this season.

Gonna captain Bendter for the fact he’s a nailed on starter, they are at home and I need a differential.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Scribbled in my notebook are Formica and Hoillet (Blackburn), Enrique (Liverpool), Cleverly (Man Utd), let’s see if his fitness and form is back to the start of season yet; and O’Hara (Wolves)

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Tough Captaincy choice this week. Lot of top players played two internationals the last week. There's a good article on who played and for how long at www.totalfpl.com. I can't link to it directly due to the way the site is laid out, but it's the first story in the community articles section.

Van Persie - Away to Norwich looks like a great bet for a goal or two from RVP. He was rested for a friendly on Tuesday at the request of Wenger, so looks likely to start.

Rooney - Rooney played no part in Englands internationals and is fully rested. Rooney tends to score in bursts and has been having a dry patch the last few games after his early season heroics. Away to Swansea wouldn't have a lot of goals in it i'd say. There are better choices for your armband.

Man City - Home to Newcastle. I don't worry too much about fixtures anymore with City, they're just that good. Rotation is a much bigger issue. Aguero played 45 minutes for argentina and got himself a goal. Dzeko and Balotelli are less rested, having both played 180 minutes.

Chelsea @home to Liverpool - The biggie this weekend.  Chelsea have lost their way the last few weeks. I'd almost fancy a Pool win here. Suarez scored an incredible 4 goals against Chile but fatigue could be an issue, as well as all the media and FA attention regarding the racism story. 

Van Der Vaart - Is apparently "75% fit" and in with a chance to face Villa.

Gamble pick - Walters full of confidence after Scoring for Ireland and getting to Euro 2012, he'll be full of energy against QPR.

Fantasy Football 2011-10-21

Game week 11

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 43

Average Score on site – 45

Highest Haul – 20 (Factoring in being in Captain)

Lowest Haul – (-1)

Average Score Per Player 3.9

Accrued Score – 428

Place in my own fecking league – 64, down 9 Places

Points Off the top - 119

State Of Play

Okay I write this minus a wisdom tooth and with painkillers in my system, so the pain of my shit fantasy football weeks is somewhat sated.

For fecks sake, where is going wrong, I don’t think I am making bad decisions when I click save changes every Friday evening. But then again who does I guess.

Vindication

Well captaining Mata, and that it’s it…

D’oh

… because Mata got me 48% of my points this week. What a fuckbucket (I think every week I’ll come with a new way to curse the lads, at least give ye a reason to come back every week). I need Rooney to take charge more and stop being an assistant to the play, I need him to me more of a Head Master and less of a Runaí (hardy harr, see what I did there). I don’t need to need to talk you through my d’ohs individually, you can see them all here in my…

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

Questions / Hunch / Drama / Dramatic Narrative this game week before Sky Have Spotted it.

Chelsea, I think they have kept one clean sheet in last 8 games or something, will John Terry step in and just pull them together because he’s a racist, I mean because he’s a good defensive leader?

Is this season the Silva and Van Persie show? In fantasy football terms you are literally a fool if you don’t’ have one, if not both of them; Ergo I am a literally a fool (I did just lose a wisdom tooth I guess, so it’s in my nature)

I heard a good point that Aston Villa are actually more over achieving than Newcastle; just an interesting point pointing out it’s not like the magpies bought dregs of players - they all had proven qualities, just they had less famous roads than some premiership imports. Now the Newcastle momentum will be severely tested over next month and then as Paul Doyle of the Guardian pointed, the African Nations Cup will take Ba from them.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

Okay, so in short, I’ve just taken an 8-point hit and made three changes; a lot of people have been in and out of my squad for the last 30ish minutes.

Mata, my hero last week, has just felt how ruthless I’ve decided to be, as has Taylor, (anticipating a value drop from next week on) and Arteta, basically I traded down to a cheaper (and currently in form Ramsey) and Mata went too, mainly to afford VDV. Cos as I said I’m simply a fool to not have him or his Dutch teammate. I very nearly did the Rooney swap with Van Persie too, I had them swapped into my team and all, but I just don’t fancy a 12 point hit. I’ve brought in Jones too, cos Man Utd seem to be getting their shit together at the back and they certainly have a run of favourable fixtures ahead.

What with those transfers, I’ve obviously put them all in the first 11, and then with Kompany suspended, I only had 2 decisions to make (well three factoring in goalkeepers, as usual I went with the home play, Shay Given, who needs to know he was out of my squad for a while too. At home to Norwich can certainly be possible to get him 6 points). Because of Jones, and wanting him to keep a clean sheet, I’ve dropped Bendter and similar thing for Given v Hoolahan.

I’m frontloading the captains with Rooney as main and in case he gets rotated Aghbonlahor as Vice, but if Rooney is put on bench it’s probable Ferguson will give him a few mins. Okay I’ve just decided to not use him as captain, so Gabby gets the armband and barcaRONAN debutant Ramsey will get the vice role.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

No one in particular this week, nice broad view this weekend, in the words of Eddie Cochran, c’mon everybody.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

[NB Back Of The Net Boy is not responsible for Captain’s Corner spelling, grammar and basic text layout]

Blogs, forums and idle pub talk all point to one acronym this weekend: RVP. He's in the form of his life, and completely carrying a less than brilliant Arsenal team. 10 goals in as many matches so far in the premiership, and 7 in the last 3. The fixture is an appealing home game to West Brom and you'd be a brave man not to captain him if you have him. His ownership also hasn't reached Rooney type levels,  at the time of writing, he's at 17.1%, making him somewhat of a differential still. This is the time to have him when others don't and climb your leagues.

Anyway, failing that, there are some other nice fixture choices if you're a gambling man or without the dutchman.

Man U @home to Sunderland. Sunderland are in dreadful form and look badly exposed at the back. I'd back United for a few here. Rooney is the obvious choice, although on account of injuries less than stellar other options in centre mid, Fergie has employed Rooney in an unfamiliar but effective role in midfield the last two matches, posing a bit of a nightmare for FPL owners. As massive as Rooney can be in FPL, you don't want a 12.2m striker playing in midfield, but Fergie himself has hinted this is only temporary, but who knows for how long? I'd be captaining Nani here if i had him over Rooney.

Man City @QPR - Aguero only played 15 minutes against Villareal so looks likely for a start. Dzeko the likely partner up front. Both are strong options. Silva has a back problem but by all accounts it isn't too serious, but this is the kind of fixture Mancini could well rest him, just to be sure.

Chelsea@Blackburn - I fancy Sturridge to bounce back in this one. Torres too.

Liverpool @Swansea - Suarez continues to frustrate owners hoping for big hauls. The problem with Suarez seems to be around the fact that he isn't getting a lot of bonus points. Those in the know put this down to the new EA PPI bonus point system, which takes points off for missed shots which Suarez has a fair share of. I wouldn't have him as pick tbh, but felt it needed to be said.