Gameweek 13 Season 2012/2013

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

GAMEWEEK 12 REVIEW OF NEW YORK COSMOS

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

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

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

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

Alternate Selection Point Swing – 14 points.

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS

… the highest scorer of each gameweek in our league is invited to share a few insights into what got them so many points… and this week it was Peter O’Sullivan, who got a mammoth 101 points, which has shot up up to 14th in the Back Of The Net Boy League. I didn’t give him enough notice to submit his words to the blog this week to be fair, but here is a screenshot of his team last week.

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

TRANSFERS

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

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

THIS GAMEWEEK COMING UP, WHERE’S THE DRAMA.

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

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

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

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

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

BET OF THE NET BOY

This week I will do an treble of

Everton to win both halves against Norwich – 13/5

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

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

Which all adds up to about 26/1

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

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

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

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

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

ISTEACH!

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

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

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

CAPTAIN’S CORNER 

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

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

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

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

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

 Game Week 13 Choices               Game Week 12                                       Game Week 11

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

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

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

Gameweek 12 Season 2012/2013

Gameweek 12 Season 2012/2013

Yo yo, been working for the Cork Film Festival all weekend, managing the Triskel Arts Centre, like a boss… so I’ve not really been able to see any sport – I argued to watch the Ireland match on big screen but apparently som “director” of a “film” was in “attendance. Bullcrap.

Anyway that has led to me only reading scores and goalscorers, saw no action to base any form on. I read about Rahin Sterling making a mistake early but had the “moral courage” to not shrink but rather react to his own mistake. While Rodgers keep saying he’ll use Rahim sparingly, he has established himself. Liverpool love a terrace homegrown hero… actually this is supposed to preamble; let’s say we preambled and get on with it.

GAMEWEEK 11 REVIEW OF NEW YORK COSMOS

Wahey 61 points last week, which was better than 8 of the teams above me in the BOTNB league. Also 20 points better than the average, I want to start getting at least closer to the highest score than the average from now on, would certainly lead to gameweek on gameweek progress.

Got the captain right? Only 3 of my team got more than RVP’s undoubled haul, but if I had Berbatov wear the New Cork Cosmos armband it would have been a swing of a whopping 11 points,  which would have made me the third highest scorer in our league.

Got the keeper right? Nope, 6 points difference. If I’d got that right, I’d be the top score in our league this year.

Got my subs decisions right? Morrison got 10 points, 8 better than three of my selected midfielders.

Alternate Selection Point Swing - 25

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS

… the highest scorer of each gameweek in our league is invited to share a few insights into what got them so many points… and this week wasn’t it only the captain of Captain’s Corner… which cemented his 2^nd place and certainly reenforced his pedigree for his afore mentioned role.

Darragh's Team Last Week

Well if you’ve read any of my captaincy articles, you’ll know that I have a slight penchant for statistics. My big point pre GameWeek 11 was that I had 122 reasons to like Everton against Sunderland. Up to that date, Everton had 122 more attempts on goal than the Black Cats. Fellaini did not disappoint with his bombastic 13 points although Baines’ haul of just 4 points justified my decision 2 weeks previous to transfer him out.

My defense had a fantastic week. Coloccini’s red card against Liverpool in GW10 forced me to ditch him and I brought in the cut price Gorkss for a measly 3.9. My mantra for the season thus has been to spend miniscule amounts on my backline as clean sheets appear near impossible to predict (Everton-Sunderland case and point).

Even though I had a relatively successful game week, my midfield trio of Cazorla, Hazard & Bale, coming in at a whopping 29.7 million, managed a haul of just 6 points between them. I had penciled these heavy hitters as being ‘fixture proof’ and I’ll continue to keep the faith, inevitably to my detriment.

So what basically made my gameweek was Dimitar Berbatov. To tell the truth, I was the *this* (can you tell how close my index finger and thumb are?) close to making a Berbatov to Ba transfer last Friday night. I’m hugely against 4 point hits in general but my gut was telling me to make the switch. So, I decided to do my usual stat marathon and ended up pulling up some amazing pro-Berbatov stuff. A quick synopsis of these shows that despite playing 300 minutes less than Ba, Uncle Bulgaria has received and distributed more passes in the final third and has a higher *ICT threat index rating. Had I made that transfer, I’d be 18 points worse off. Lucky boy……

TRANSFERS

I was thinking of holding off this week to double up new week; or else do the Hazard downgrade to Mata (a marginal downgrade - but I have four players with yellow marks over their name, which is playing with fire – a yellow fire.

Afraid even though I only signed him 2 or 3 weeks ago, Morrison will be shipped out (1) he is yellow marked and (2) away to Chelsea and home to a slightly resurgent and definitely stingy Sunderland doesn’t look to great. Bringing in Sterling for the reasons I mentioned at start, who has played every game thus far in the league other than the opening fixture.

Williams at Swansea out too, as three of next 4 fixtures he also looks like conceding, to replace him I’ll bring

THIS GAMEWEEK COMING UP, WHERE’S THE DRAMA.

QPR v Southampton is a battle of beleagurement.

Arsenal v Spurs will be a goalfest (one hopes)

Newcastle v Swansea will be the match I look forward to seeing most

Followed by Liverpool hosting Wigan. Where my boys Sterling and Maloney better get goals, assists and no cards.

Man Utd at Norwich and Chelsea visiting WBA mightn’t be routine wins but I expect both of the bigger teams to concede and ultimately prosper.

West Ham v Stoke will probably be one of the highest amount of bookings in one match. 8 or more perhaps.

The rest don’t particularly interest me (ie I'm in a rush and want a nap)

BET OF THE NET BOY

New occasional feature, will do an combiation of

Arsenal v Spurs to be 3.5 goals or more, (5/4)

All 4 teams to concede in Chelsea and Man Utd games (4/7 & 8/13 respectively)

And more then 7 bookings (30 points) at West Ham game (11/10)

Which all adds up to 12/1 – worth the price of a pint

On the side Stoke to miss a penalty is 22/1 – worth a quid

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

I’m spreading my bets here, so will have a West Ham goalkeeper and a Stoke striker, if one performs the other will just get me a point or two, unless Crouch score and Begovic saves a penalty. I will also have a West Ham midfielder and Stoke defender. I can’t see the game being a cracker of a game, or a goal fest. I am putting Collins as my 12^th outfield player too, just to keep it 2 v 2.

Benching (or keeping him on the bench morelike) Williams as he is away at Newcastle, and Michu. Even though I just realised I’ll swap him with Collins. More likely to score than Collins a clean sheet I’d say.

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

Interesting to see if Robbie Keane moves back on loan, could be a great burst of new patriotic points. From a former Villa striker to a new one, Christian Bentenke, who has started 9 and came on 2 mateches in premier league so far this season (ie all of Villa’s game and garnered 2 goals and the same amount of assists, not amazing BUT a tough run and after their next at Man City and hosting Arsenal they have quite a promising run, so gameweek 14, I forsee getting him (perhaps).

ISTEACH!

Possibly a Sunderland defender next gameweek as they have three favourable home fixtures in the next 4 games (as of next week) AND a double game in GM  16.

Howard out in GM 14, a run of 4 fixtures where they probably will at least concede at 3 of the 4. Probably Begovic in, as I’ll need as West Ham play the top two in league (as it stands) in GM 14 & 15. Mignolet is also an option for same reason as previous paragraph.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Might be bolting the door after the horse etc but will captain Berbtov (just a thought if he’d gone to Everton, not there was any speculation of note, you could rely on a headline that would have been Berbatoffee) – one attacking player I have who is at home. Also he is rested after not playing during midweek.

CAPTAIN’S CORNER

Looks like I’m back in a job. RVP’s tally of a meager 5 points means that once again we can look elsewhere for captaincy. However, the general consensus still seems to be that the Dutchman should be awarded the armband for GameWeek 12. Ignore the little yellow ‘i’ above his name as Manchester United’s physio team seem to have a miraculous knack of repairing injuries on the Friday after an international friendly week. Still, Fantasy Football Scouts captaincy poll has van Persie streaking ahead on 40% with the majority of voters sighting his favorable fixture as the primary reason for captaining him. But just how favorable is Norwich City? Not very anymore as Chris Houghton has remolded the crumbliest flakiest back four in the Premier League insofar as they’ve conceded just once in four games and kept two cleaners in a row at Carrow Road. Lest we not forget that Hernandez’s brace last weekend means “he’s picked himself” so rotation poses a threat, albeit a miniscule one.

Coming second in the poll is Luis Suarez. And this guy’s stats are scary. (Deep Breath) His 120 touches in the opposition’s penalty area blow away his competitors, equal to RVP and Ba combined. The Uruguayan’s 44 shots in the opponent’s area are also identical to RVP’s and Berbatov’s attempts (25 & 19 respectively) and he is involved in a whopping 71.4% of Liverpool’s goals this term. His ICT threat index rating* of 192.5 is 25% higher than any other player in the Premier League and the icing on the cake with Suarez has about a 0.0000000% chance of rotation. Just as with Fellaini last week, the stats continue to look kindly on Liverpool regarding their opposition as Wigan have conceded 25 ‘big’ chances so far this season, the second highest in the league. Oh, and he just notched a goal and two assists for Uruguay on Wednesday night. Form indeed.

So I have Suarez in my team right? Afraid not. Money dictates the need for cheaper options up front and Dimitar Berbatov’s bargain basement 7.4m (managed to snag him at 6.9) will offer plenty of potential rewards against the abysmal Sunderland this Saturday. Fulham have been remarkably dangerous at the Cottage since Berbs has arrived. With the second most goals in the league, Jol’s side offers a variety of potential captains this weekend. Berbatov leads the way but Riise offers a potential differential as the ever blunt black cats continue to be unlucky in front of goal with just 7 scores thus far.

To keep in tune with my weekly Everton love, I’ll once again give mention to Fellaini away to Reading this week. 2 weeks ago, I doubted the Toffee’s away form and was duly punished. I won’t make the same mistake again although my faith in Baines is no more and I’ll shift my attention to the front line and in particular, Nikica Jellyvic.

For my outside punt of the week, I’ll be taking a stab on Adel Taraabt. In GameWeek 11, Taraabt actually played one quandrant higher than both QPR strikers Djibril Cisse and Bobby Zamora. Southampton seem about likely as to keep a clean sheet as Peter Herbert from the SoBL is to keep his views to himself (oh topical humour!) so the R’s seem a good bet.

One final note on Manchester City’s continuing conundrum up front. I love their fixture this week but an upcoming Champions League fixture and the fact that he played the full 90 minutes for Argentina on Wednesday night means I’ll be staying away from Sergio Aguero on Saturday afternoon. Tevez however could be worth a shout if you fancy Citeh to heap more pressure on Aston Villa after their poor start.

My Top 5 Captaincy choices for the week are:

1. Luis Suarez
2. Dimitar Berbatov
3. Nicola Jelavic
4. Carlos Tevez
5. Marouane Fellaini

*the ICT index is taken from Fantasy Football Scout. The individual index scores help to measure a player’s importance to their team and to a match (Influence), a player’s likelihood to earn assists (Creativity) and to score goals, or at least get in goalscoring situations (Threat).

Gameweek 11 Season 2012/2013

Well hulllllllo, I know what you’re thinking “woah this is a day early”, and to that statement I can only say “correct”. Basically Darragh, the new captain, and I decided to try and have it out on Thursdays, mainly to increase the chance for feedback and comments but also I kept getting caught up and only getting the blog up on Friday late afternoons and it was getting lost amongst everything else.

Now obviously we’re hamstringing ourselves somewhat with Liverpoll, Newcastle and Spurs all playing tonight in the Champions-League-Thursdays, so there might be occasional lapses with us mentioning/tipping players and they go on to get injured that night. But we’re all grown ups eh?

GAMEWEEK 9 REVIEW OF NEW YORK COSMOS

This was a very average week pour moi, literally I did 2 points better than actual average (my 39 to the field’s 37), but this average figure is based on all the teams which salso includes ‘yer man in the office who picked a team for a laught’. I’ve dropped 2 places to 20th and now stand 96 points off the top.

Overall though, I’m very unhappy with my team, seven of my team got three points or more

Got the captain right? Nope, Morrison didn’t even play. :( and the vice captain scored only one point, so that doubled to two. L L

Got the keeper right? Did I what! Jaaskelainen got me 7 points, wheras Howard  whould have scored me minus 1 points. Boom.

Got my subs decisions right? My first choice one, Berbatov, got me 5 when he swapped in for the non–playing Morrison

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS

… the highest scorer of each gameweek in our league is invited to share a few insights into what got them so many points… I didn’t get round to it this week, sorry. It was TJ Doyle though, and I can only assume he’ll say drinking the best pints of Heineken he has ever had (ie Beamish) when he was down in Cork for the long weekend is what he’ll credit.

TRANSFERS

I’ve got two free ones to make this week but I’m making three. I’ve defo got to ship out Wilson (Stoke) as he’s out for months to come, just losing value and taking up space… I need to get rid of stuttering Fletcher and I think it’s just pointless (pun intendedish)  to not get RVP back in for a while, Man Utd have an easy-ish run coming up and can take the foot of the pedal in Champions League and since he was a sub last night, he’ll surely start this weekend. 

Bringing him in, and using my little transfer kitty I’d built up, I need to find 3.1 million elsewhere in the team; the only two options I have to make such money with is Cazorla and Hazard, both have played every game thus far but the Chelsea man has scored 13 points more; while Chelsea have the slightly tougher looking next 6 fixtures, I’m gonna drop Cazorla, I don’t doubt he’ll score a few points soon but I just gotta ship him out.

So now I have a defender and midfielder to get with 10millionish quid. While Baird (Fulham) and Reid (West Ham) look kinda tasty at a budget price, I am going to replace Wilson with his clubmate Cameron [They are at home to QPR, which should hopefully get me the 4 points for a clean sheet that will offset the cost of his transfer].

Now going to the transfer page of the website, looking at midfielders under 6.3million, I’ve gone for Maloney at Wigan, [this gameweek he is at home to WBA and two gameweeks time, he is at home to Reading. He plays every game and he is down for taking penalties and free kicks]. I won’t lie that his pricetag is very nice at 5 million. Which means I have 1 million in the bank, in case I wanna trade up on another player soon, always handy to have that bit of security.

THIS GAMEWEEK COMING UP, WHERE’S THE DRAMA.

Champions league exploits, RVP coming off the bench to score a greeeeeat goal; Man City essentially out of contention (so they might be playing Champions-League-Thursdays themselves soon); Arsenel once again making a haimes out of holding out ofr a victory; and Chelsea buying another round of drinks in the last chance saloon? Will Chelsea be shagged for the Liverpool game?

Alldardyce returning to Newcastle and showing them what’s what? Particularly with Newcastle playing tonight as well, now I doubt the next two 11’s fielded by Pardew will be that similar but there surely will be some parallells but leaving

Atkins and Hughes are surely the most beleagured managers at moment, and yet both chairmen seem to be strongly supportive as opposed to being pleasently positive. But I think Stoke will take no prisoners against QPR, I’m looking at Crouch to shine here; and Michu to open up Southampton’s defence.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

It’s pretty straightforward this week due to not having many options. Obviously everyone I signed this week is playing; Collins and Morrison both have orange marks next to their names. I’m benching them both and putting Williams as my number 13, will give Morrison the 12 spot as he might need to come off the stage and save the day etc etc.

In terms of keeper, I’ll go with Howard as he is at home, Everton have concedeed two goals in both their last two league games, so I’m sure shoring up is very much on the agenda.

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

Noone is particular

ISTEACH!

Fellani is catching my eye (yeah what a curve ball eh?) and also Southampton players, if they are going to pull their shit together this really is the time to do it eh?

Norwich have two tough fixtures in GW 12 & 13 (Man Utd and Everton) but then have a nice run, so I think Mister Holt will be getting a call from my director of football.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

I’m humming and hawing between RVP, away at struggling Villa, and Hazard at home to Liverpool. I’ll probably decide tomorrow in case there is any injurys in Liverpool game tonight. Also Hazard might be the man to be rested by RDM since Moses has done more than knock on the selection door at this stage.

CAPTAIN’S CORNER with Darragh McHenry

Right, looks like RVP is trying to put me out of a job. Last weekend he staked a further claim for ‘auto-captaincy’. His 8 point haul actually should have been 6 points higher had his teammates finished his created chances (I hate talking about ‘missed points’ by the way). Away at Villa this week looks as if I could prove further returns but since his ownership is at a 34.2% as of writing, I’ll concentrate on the other options available to us. My focus this week is on mid-price differentials and the soon to be age old Mata/Hazard debate.

Fellaini punished my lack of faith in Everton’s away form last week by taunting me with 15 points from my bench. I shan’t neglect Screech any longer and he provides an appealing route this week. Problem is, Sunderland are solid at the back. However, The Black Cats couldn’t (insert prefered barn door, brothel adage here) so perhaps Baines offers a higher upside for this game. It’s simply amazing how high up the pitch Baines plays. If you were to divide up the pitch into 8 quadrants in either half (The 1^st quadrant being the 6 yard box and centre circle respectively), Baines on average plays in the 2^rd quadrant of the opponents half, where his nearest FF left back competitor, Ashley Cole, on average maintains a position in the 6^th quadrant of his own half. Furthermore, he whips in, on average, a monstrous ten crosses per game. To put that in perspective, that’s more than Bale, Valencia, Mata and Hazard with 9.8, 5.5, 5.0, 3.8 per game respectively. In case you’re not feeling my big ball of Everton adoration just yet, here are some more groin tingling stats. Everton have peppered 140 shots inside the box this term, 22 more than the nearest competitor (Man City at 118). The have hit the woodwork 8 times, the most in the league (seems a Merseyside club must win that accolade every year). Sunderland have had just 78 shots on goal, last in the league, drifting 23 shots away from the second last team, Reading. All in all, you could say I like Everton this week.

The Mata/Hazard question has a relatively simple answer for now I feel. If you Hazard, stick to Hazard and vice versa. If you have neither, go with Mata. Their stats are extremely similar, with Mata providing more creativity and long distance shots per game, but Hazard offering a more attacking position, touches in the box and he’s on spotters while Lamps nurses his baby cow injury. For that reason. I’ll take a slight lean on the Belgian since he offers more FF points potential at Stanford Bridge.

A quick word regarding other potential skippers. Man City are done with Tuesday/Wednesday nights. That’s obvious now. Aguero owners (only 6.4% of you) can now expect to see a plethora of FF points to reward your patience. Tottenham at home this week could well be a bounce back game after a European hangover and Aguero looked extremely sharp on Tuesday night. He is now atop my watchlist as I expect him to rekindle his form that made him so vital last season.

Stoke offer a real alternative as well. Crouch has been poor of late but Ryan Nelson looked more suitced to St Colemans Park than Loftus Road last Sunday and I can see plenty of good deliveries troubling the Kiwi and whoever his defensive partner may be. An encouraging stat to back this up is that QPR have also conceded the highest number of headed chances in the league so far (38). Speaking of Stoke’s deliveries, Charlie Adam, remember him, is my gamble for this week. Walters is no longer out of position and Adam has been tucking more into the hole behind Crouch of late. Don’t go making any crazy transfers for Champagne Charlie just yet though.

Top 5 Captaincy Choices (outside of RVP, sigh) for the week are:

1. Aguero

2. Fellaini

3. Baines

4. Hazard

5. Crouch

Gameweek 10 Season 2012/2013

Gameweek 10 Fantasy Football

Afternoon folks, it will be evening when I post this though… mainly because I lied with my ‘afternoon’ greeting at the start of the sentence.

GAMEWEEK 9 REVIEW OF NEW YORK COSMOS

Shitbags… worst week of season, staistically 50% behind everyone else, or maybe it’s 33% - The average was 45 points and I got 30 points, so I think I did 33% worse than the average. So I’ve dropped 5 places and now stand 88 points off the top, which is a drop of 24 points further off the top.

Got the captain right? Nope, Cazorla got me 3 bonus points, three other players on the New Cork Cosmo’s team could have got me more.

Got the keeper right? Nope, Jaaskelainen would have got me an extra 3 points.

Got my subs decisions right? Meh, they all got only 2 points each… but since 5 players in my first 11 got only one point. That means I would have jumped 3 places in the BOTNB league table.

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS

… the highest scorer of each gameweek in our league is invited to share a few insights into what got them so many points… last week’s highest scorer was Tom O' Mahony with Crystal Mind Palace who got 67 points, which for context was about 40% of the average score which was 45. * (I need a better way of figuring and wording that, any ideas) And well inside the top 65,000 players in the world.

I wasn't able to contact him (there a lot of Tom O'Mahony's on facebook) but here is the team he had last week...

 

TRANSFERS

Hmmn, I had a bit of bad luck (on a selfish level, it is a lot worse for the person involved) when Wilson got a very bad ankle injury (I believe it broke) in his first week in my squad. But I don’t know what I want to do this week, I was thinking about the Mata/Hazard swap but apparently Mata is carrying an injury and doubtful to play (https://twitter.com/chelseafc/status/264357484305739776 ). I am also turing of Fletcher, or more specifically the Sunderland team in general, and was htinking of bringing Cisse in, but I think I’ll err with making no transfers this week, and keep it to have two next week. 

THIS GAMEWEEK COMING UP, WHERE’S THE DRAMA?

Also because of the Champions league next week, and the exertions of some teams in the League Cup, it’s hard to rely on anything. I can see West Ham ‘nobbling’ Man City [assuming the Mancs will be keeping a flame forgetting out of the group next week], and Chelsea did play a lot of their key players. RVP playing against his old team might be a bit of a dampener what with them trying to tie up champions league qualification. I would not expect a clean sheet there or indeed anywhere other than perhaps Sunderland and Spurs at home.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

Berbatov broke a rib last week and while he played on, I wonder will he just get rested as Everton wouldn’t be afraid to ‘rough’ him up; while I did bemoan Flether earlier I will play him as a home game against Villa could be a good place to knock in a few.

What with Wilson being injured, and Swansea taking on Chelsea, it was eay to decide to rest Williams. Ergo there’s my outfield picked. Since I’m going with Collins and Nolan anway, I’ll put all my chips on a West Ham grinding out a result, so I’ll put Jaaskelainen in goal.

 

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

“Possibly Williams, possibly Fletcher.” is a direct quote from my blog last week. And it stays the same here.

ISTEACH!

Depending on Man City and Chelsea’s results in next Champions league fixtures, it could have an impact on their domestic priorities.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

There a few options and as it stands I am going with Morrison at home to Southampton, mainly for differential reasons but I have Fletcher as my vice captain and I possibly will swap them later.

CAPTAIN’S CORNER

Darragh McHenry is the new titular Captain, and feck it he knows his s-h-i-t! Socks are being pulled up in BOTNB HQ.

OK, so I was one of those guys who failed to follow his own advice last week and appropriately got punted in the groin for my foolishness. The season is already showing a similar pattern to 2011/2012 as RVP looks set to reach almost ‘auto-captaincy’ with his continued impressive returns.

This week appears to be no different as Nostradamus, Mystic Meg and those fine clairvoyant chaps who talk to me from TV3 every night can see that Van Persie will bag a couple against his former club. Alas, I won’t be captaining him. I’ll start with the intangible and work towards the nerdier side of things.

We’ve never seen van Persie play against a former club (save summer friendlies) so we’re unsure as to whether he’ll step it up and play hard or his affection for his former club and manager will cause his effort to decrease. Wenger’s midweek comments asking fans to respect van Persie for moving clubs for non-financial reasons (his decline of Manchester City’s offer) shows the continued respect between the two.

My main contender to van Persie for the armband is Gareth Bale. Whilst Bale is a midfielder, his 25.6 minutes per attempt on goal passes out Van Persie’s 27.4 min per attempt. Furthermore, they are almost equal with regards to touches in the penalty area (47 to 46) and Bale has a higher accuracy per attempt, standing at 48.3% compared to the Dutch man’s 46.2%.

Where the stats really open up discussion is the teams they will be playing this weekend. Wigan have conceded 16 goals so far this term (ranked 16th) while Arsenal have let in just 6 (ranking 1st)….IT’S THE STEVE BOULD EFFECT PEOPLE! It’s extremely close between the two to be fair but I’m taking a slight lean on Papa Bale.

Other contenders this week should revolve around Sheik Man Citeh, Chelski and eh ‘The’ Liverpool. Suarez as per usual, leads the stat index in just above every area, except the unimportant column of goals scored. Still, his 99 penalty area touches are a whopping 29 more than any player this season.

Mata and Hazard seem to chop and change and the former seems to have the edge at the moment, though his 120 minutes midweek in the 5-4 sensible soccer-esq encounter against United make me worry as to how long he’ll last. Hazard looked very sharp upon his entrance and I actually prefer him for this gameweek.

Finally, City have West Ham, allowing Tevez to join Van Persie in the ‘going back to his old club’ routine. The Ajax must win game on Tuesday indicates that Mancini may want to save his best two strikers for the champions league, and Aguero and Tevez appear to be those two. Dzeko would be a seriously cheeky punt but he could offer huge returns going by recent form.

Other differentials include Berbatov (home to Everton), Holt (home to Stoke), Taarabt (home to Reading) and Cazo…..Cazor…sigh…Cazorla. Like I said last week, Santi’s away positioning is dramatically higher up the pitch playing away from home. Judging by Cleverly’s inability to pass (ref: Chelsea 28/10/2012) he could mop up a bit of loose ball. A major factor against him is the lack of finishing from the Gunners non-pineapple headed strikers (I tend to reserve special criticism for Gervinho).

Top 5 choices of the week are:

1. Bale

2. RVP

3. Berbatov

4. Defoe (5 goals again? It could happen.)

5. Dzeko

Good Luck!

Gameweek 9 Season 2012/2013

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Gameweek 9 Fantasy Football

Heya, hope yer gearing up for a good long weekend, I sat down to start writing this at 4pm and it is now 16.13, and only have I got to start typing, my fuc king computer is being such a buggy bollix, the spinning wheel of annoyance. Deep breath and exhale. This is a bumper edition this week with the debut of the new Captain’s Corner and a new contributer to ‘The Secret Of My Success’…

Gameweek 8 review of New Cork Cosmos

In simple figures – I got 52 points, when the average was 43 points. In terms of the Back Of The Net Boy league. But only four of the 12 people ahead of me scored less than me, ergo I now stand 64 points off the top spot.

Got the captain right? Nope, If I’d captained Nolan I’d have gained an extra 10 points/

Got the keeper right? Nope, Howard would have got me an extra point

Got my subs decisions right? Essentially yeah, Morrison earned 3 points wheras Cazorla got 2. That’s it

Points swing of regret = 12 points, I could have earned 2 extra points if I’d selected differently, and the afore mentioned captaincy issue. Means I would have jumped 4 places in the BOTNB league table.

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS

… the highest scorer of each gameweek in our league is invited to share a few insights into what got them so many points… last week’s highest scorer was Legend 76 who got 84 points, which for context was just shy of 200% of the average score which was 43. * (I need a better way of figuring and wording that, any ideas) And well inside the top 2000 players in the world.

… “We I think I just got lucky to be fair, I picked Riise as captain, as a safe bet, because I simply couldn't see Villa scoring away from home, and they didn't!!! Riise also got an assist, so far so good. However it turns out that I really should have had Mata as captain, I'd have ended up with 92 points instead of 84. I've decided to be brave/greedy this week and play my wild card. In come Tevez, Ivanovic, Routledge, Sterling, Pogrebnyak, Baird & Demel, out go Defoe, Holt, Lescott, Williams, Cleverley, Allen and Simpson. Which inevitably means one if not all the players I canned will have stormers this weekend, I've gone with a defender as captain again this week, Vertonghen, in the hope that Southampton with be toothless at home, and there is always a chance that he'll be on the scoresheet…

Legend76

TRANSFERS

I have got rid of Kolarov and brought in Wilson at Stoke, for simple reasons Kolarov is not playing every match so it’s hard to work with AND Man City have been shakey in defence; wheras Wilson is playing every game and they seem to have a nice run ahead of them, this week against toothless Sunderland and QPR in gameweek 11. And he is only 4.5. SO I now have 3 millionish in the bank to play with.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

Pretty straightforward, not using Williams as he is away at a hungry Man City; not selecting Fletcher as I doubt they will do well at Stoke and then I had to had to decided between Nolan and Morrison, since the West Ham man did well last week I’ll keep him in the team.

I’ve hummed and hawwed over the goalkeeping slot, and while neither looks like a very likely clean sheet Howard will surely make a lot of saves and maybe he might save a penalty from a suarez dive? That’d be handy, and I am aware of how much grasping at the straws that is.

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

Possibly Williams, possibly Fletcher.

ISTEACH!

If Southampton are going to pull themselves together, as of gameweek 10 their fixtures are as favourable as they will get; playing the other two promoted teams, away at a struggling QPR and Swansea and Newcastle at home. There no easy games etc etc but might be worth looking at their strikers.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

The obvious candiate seems to be Cazorla, he’s at home to QPR and the Arsenal team really won’t want to lose 3 games in a row. The long running ‘style-rivalry’ bettween Mark Hughes and Wenger could be an issue but I’ll have to hope the Spaniard shines.

CAPTAIN”S CORNER

So our original captain after 1 and half years of being part of this blog is packing his bags and going travelling for a few months at least, so we have a new guy taking over. I forgot to ask if he is okay with me using his real name, so for now his secrecy will be kept.

… So since I’ve began playing Fantasy Football back in the heady days of 2007/2008, I’ve noticed that there are essentially two types of FF players. The ones who go by ‘their gut’ instinct and the nerdy number cruncher types. I fall dramatically into the latter of these categories. With this in mind, captaincy is as with most folk, the most perturbing of all decisions. This week appears to offer some easy routes with the armband but after going on an Opta index binge session, things became a tad murky. Santi Cazorla tops the captain’s poll on Fantasy Football Scout with Bale coming in about 9% behind. Both have tasty fixtures, QPR (h) & Southampton (a) respectively, but after a quick glance at Santi’s home form, he has yet to deliver presents for his vast amount of fantasy owners (last Santi pun, I swear). His sole assist against Southampton in week 4 demonstrates his preference to sit a bit deeper in home games, letting Gervinho and Podolski to push further on. Similarly, Bale should be looked upon with caution. His partner recently gave birth to Bale Jnr (for those who wish to see a picture of the ickle’ sprog, Google image “Monchichi”) and did not travel with the squad to Slovenia. AVB reckons he’ll play, but the gods that be at Sky Sports News think he’ll stay at home. So we move onto the outsiders. Although I have a strong fondness for the ‘Pool, Baines is tempting me more and more. Despite the fact that Everton have about as much chance of keeping a clean sheets as a 13 year old boy dreaming about Megan Fox, Baines is essentially playing as a left winger these days. Initially, Pienaar’s suspension worried me but Moyes has indicated that the workman like Osman or Neville will play left mid, both of whom will sit substantially deeper than Pienaar, affording Baines to romp forward against eh, Andre Wisdom..? Surely for tabloid pun purposes, Everton’s left flank will have a good one against Liverpool. Moving on, whilst they may not seem like ‘punts’, any of Manchester City’s forwards offer potential fantasy rewards. Problem is, who the freakin’ hell is he going to play. Conventional (Andre) wisdom suggests it’ll be Tevez and Mario seeing as both failed to start against Ajax on Wednesday night. However, given City’s predicted elimination from the Champions League, the Premiership may see more focus and Aguero is undoubtedly Mancini’s favorite forward. Regarding the usual suspects of Chelski and United, I’m just going to assume they’ll cancel each other out this Sunday. I’m weary of Hazard and Mata chopping and changing fantasy returns as the weeks roll on and RVP and Rooney may struggle against Chelsea’s stout back four….and Jon Obi Mikel of course.

So enough of the waffling, after my nerdiness and positioning analysis (courtesy of the comparison index on Fantasy Football Scout), I’m still going to side with Cazorla despite his more withdrawn role in home games. I realise hypocrisy is rampant right now but the thought of Arsenal’s attack facing Ryan Nelson and Stephane Mbia is too tempting. Baines will take the vice captaincy as I try to retain some element of originality. If you’re looking for a differential, look towards Stoke for the next 5-6 gameweeks, especially Crouch and Walters. Given that 32% of us have Michu in our team, his new role up front against City’s surprisingly suspect defensive unit offers a far more intriguing option than many may think. Ugh, How I miss the days of Cristiano Ronaldo……Best of luck for the game week ya’ll.

Gameweek 8 Season 2012/2013

Welcome back guys and guyettes, hope you all had a good international break.

Gameweek 7 review of New Cork Cosmos

The whole last two weeks have been ruined by the shadow of TWENTY-LOST-POINTS-FROM-KOLAROV, Damn it, I spent so much emotional energy praying that Williams or Collins wouldn’t play; and even worse Kagawa who did play ergo taking away my last chance of Kolarov playing for my team, and didn’t my new Japanese friend only go and get booked after playing 54 mins. grrrrrrr

Got the captain right? Well it’s a given I should have got Kolarov in my team and captained him, but other than that I got the second best option in my team in as captain, Morrison for WBA got 12 points, but I had given the armband to Hazard, who had got scored 9. That was the saving grace, as his extra 9 points is what dragged my team score to be larger than the average.

Got the keeper right? Yes, but only by one point.

Got my subs decisions right? Did I mention that Kolarov was sat on my bench and he could have got me 20 points.

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS

… the highest scorer of each gameweek in our league is invited to share a few insights into what got them so many points… last week’s highest scorer was John Synnott (twitter.com/Jsnotts) who got 81 points, which for context was about 175% of the average score which was 49. * (I need a better way of figuring and wording that, any ideas) And just a smidgen outside the top 10,000 scores in the whole world!

Having flirted with being dead last for most of the campaign so far I felt as though I was due a break. This is the same kind of thinking that we "The Faithful" (#LFC #YNWA #quietdesperation) have perfected in the last 22 years. So basically my tactics all season have centred around locking doors in eerily quiet stables. Last week, however, the horse remained docile and indeed thrived after my purchase of both Torres (Captain/goal/assist/3bps) and Ivanovich (goal/assist/1bp). Clean sheets for my other defenders and the previously hapless Reina also helped. The Pog, Michu, and a present from Santi rounded out the major players. There is no secret really. It's like being a goalie trying to save a penalty. Waiting to see which way he kicks it usually ends up with the ball in the net. Just occasionally however, Timofte whacks one straight at you.

John "BoriniMeenyMinyMo" Synnott

WHERE AM I?

In the BOTNB league, I have just dropped 6 positions to 13 th position and suddenly I am 74 points off the top of the league (or in other terms, Kolarov being captain plus 34 points). The overall squad overhaul I was hinting at two weeks ago is now an almost neccesity.

TRANSFERS

I have two free transfers to make this gameweek. And I wonder I’ve had Crouch and Cazorla on my shortlist for last two weeks, without even looking at anyone else, and in my head Tevez was going to be on the players going, hence freeing up some spondulas too, to free up the midfield Mr Kagawa has had to go. Even though I think Kagawa will play since Rooney, Carrick and Cleverly will have all returned a day late from Poland, so I might put a fiver on him to score in Paddypower to cover the spread.

It’s made this week’s recon a little easier to be honest. I’m happy with having three strikers that will play pretty much all the games they are available from. Listening to the Fantasy Football Scout podcast they put up a great argument for having RVP etc, the big hitters, and I may rue that decision.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

 -

Pretty simple selection, putting all my strikers on, playing Baines away to porous QPR and two other home defenders (dropping Williams, as I can’t be sure of Swansea at the moment)… I have erred with not using Kolarov though (will I change my mind!!!!) and Morrison has been moved to the bench since they are playing Man City.

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

As I mentioned already Williams is troubling me (even though apparently Laudrup has been implying that he will be going more defensive soon), and any players I change will be more down to suspensions/injuries next week. Perhaps make none next week, thus having two to play with in GW10

ISTEACH!

All the big hitters really, I have no under-the-rader people to mention.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Am taking a relative punt and captaining Berbatov, as they are playing at home to Aston Villa.

We normally have captains corner but Captain #1 is in the process of moving out of Ireland for a while so I’ve missed him this week, Captain #2 will be taking over the role by GM 10. Hopefully we’ll get a farewell column from Beta CC next week.

Have a great weekend.

r