Fantasy Football 2011-10-28

Game week 10

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 30 // Average Score on site – 36

Highest Haul – 6 // Lowest Haul – 1 // Average Score Per Player 2.7

Accrued Score – 385

Place in my own fecking league – 62, down 7 Places

Points Off the top - 106

*****

State Of Play

Remember the pictures of Alex Ferguson chewing gum at weekend watching united go 5 and then 6 down; 3-1 was a bad enough score but at least they were coming back from 3-0 down ergo slight improvement (like barcaRONAN fortune’s so far) and then pow pow pow they feck up and it’s awful again; like my team selection last week. WTF, I’ve only 30 points from last week. We all know the Manchester Derby was an aberration but Chelsea/QPR and Liverpool/Norwich threw a few cats among the pigeons, indeed even Wolves conceding two and dragging two back was almost against their run so far this season.

*****

Vindication

Nothing to mention, it’s just been a bad week. The closest I get to vindication is schmindication.

*****

D’oh

Errah, everything, I anticipated a Man City shut out, by that I meant 0-0 or a sneaky 1-0 to win, as opposed to 6-1. Fecking hell, and Rooney didn’t get the assist or goal!

Here’s the screenshot of my team from last game week.

*****

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

Mick McCarthy called Wolves fans “fuc*ing idiots”, but Alex Ferguson called his players that following their implosion last week. SO will they launch right back onto tracks, they play at Goodison Park this weekend, so could Rooney end up coming home to roost?

*****

Transfers/Theory

First of all I want to throw a bit of “fu…c….k YOU” to Alan Hutton for injuring Shane Long, for both Irish reasons and the fact that he’s my 15^th man.

Maybe the lack of success is just numbing me; or it’s the fact I write this Friday afternoon/evening every week but I keep just hitting a wall, feels like I’m just covering holes in the squad.

Okay, 2 transfers this week, and I was bigging up this idea “ I think I’m gonna ship Rooney out next week, and bring in either RVP, Sturridge or Torres, and with a few shekels saved bring VDV too.” last week

But cos of realising Johnson just has to go at the back and I want to replace Long, I have brought in Bassong as I identified last week, and I’ll bring in Bendter too; the not-as-great-as-he-thinks Dane, has three home games in next four, he’s a guaranteed starter and I just need a break.

It leaves me with a million and a few pence in the bank

*****

Selection

Same plan as usual playing all my players who are at home and adding in Rooney, Aghbonlar and Arteta. Nothing clever there, Houlhan set as 1^st sub. Mata as captain and barcaRONAN debutante Bendter as vice captain.

My Team this week

*****

Keeping An Eye On

Cleverly might come in next week, I doubt he’ll play at Everton since he’s just coming back from injury etc and Houlahan just isn’t really doing it for me. And Torres.

*****

Captain's Corner with Phergal

City @home to wolves. Massive potential for goals here. A second string city team put 5 past them in the carling cup mid week. The danger here as always with City, is rotation, especially with a big Champs league match against Villarreal next week. Balotelli and Aguero were rested in the Carling cup so look likely for starts. I wouldn't be too confident of minutes, but against wolves, they shouldn't need too much to grab a goal or two.

Spurs @Home to QPR. QPR shipped 6 in their last away match against Fulham, although got an unlikely 1-0 win against Chelsea last week in a bad tempered game. Spurs should be good for a few here. VDV is on amazing form; if you have him, captain him. Failing that, Adebayor is a good shout.

Everton@home to United. Look for United to bounce back and make a statement here after last weeks drubbing to City. Rooney and Nani look good.

Chelsea @home to Arsenal. Arsenal are looking a bit better now, but you'd expect a Chelsea win with Arsenal still nervy at the back.  Torres is back from suspension and scored a brace against Genk in his absence. I fancy him for a goal or two here, and with a mere 2.8% ownership, could be a massive differential. I like in form Sturridge here too.

Fantasy Football 2011-10-21

Game week 8

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 45 // Average Score on site – 34

Highest Haul – 11 // Lowest Haul – 1 // Average Score Per Player 4.1

Accrued Score – 355 (inc gameweek 1 score)

Place in my own fecking league – 55, up 10 Places

Points Off the top

State Of Play

I feel like a spin-doctor working for an ailing administration but here’s this week’s silver lining! Only 13 managers of the 54 ahead of me in the Back Of The Net Boy league did better than me. So at least I’m going up my own league.

It’s probably a reflection on my priorities when I spend more thinking about good lines for this blog than good defensive lines in the game (see what I did there?). My biggest disappointment this week was that James Richardson in his intro to Football Weekly Extra used the same Manchurian Candidate reference/gag I had come up with, it’s only the second or third time I’ve heard him do a joke/pun that I thought of too; he really is one of my favourite presenters/broadcasters. Anyway I better take this smoke pipe away from his ass eh? You can hear it, in his intro to the podcast http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/audio/2011/oct/20/football-weekly-extra-manchester-derby

So Manchester United’s line up at Anfield really shook things up: Nani, Rooney and Hernandez were all on the bench; a less reported thing was that the Man United bench contained ZERO defenders, which I wouldn’t do even in Football Manager. So people who captained Rooney must have been pissed off when he came on pitch and did nothing except collect a singular point.

Chelsea are steaming away without any of the press bombarding that the two Manchester teams are getting; and for now the crisis, or is it just crisis mongering, has abated at the Emirates. RVP is stats wise in the form of his career, he hasn’t been injured since January, so maybe this the time to get Arsenal players in. But now I’ve jumped about 3 sections ahead.

Vindication

Will I tell you something, it’s a sign of how poorly my teams have been doing that I forgot that players get bonus points. Well last week Jonathan Walters got an 11-point haul, which included 3 bonus points. And his goalkeeping teammate kept his net unsullied, so that was another 6 points. And Kompany nicking a goal helped make some amends for him and Clichy’s lost clean sheet bonus.

D’oh

Basically everyone and everything I didn’t mention in previous passage. Fecking 6 players on my 11 getting 2 points or less. Abysmal.

Here’s the screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

So the Manchester derby eh? This might backfire, but I need to start making ‘differential’ decisions, I’m really sure that I’m making this decision with reason as opposed to wanton trying to be different, but I’m anticipating a shut out my Man City at Old Trafford, to park ”il Bus-ino”, or whatever Italians call it. BUUUT since Rooney is in good form, I’ll be playing him.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

It’s getting stat-tastic over at http://fantasy.premierleague.com/the-scout/ and there’s plenty to ponder, so much so I’m kinda of afraid of making decisions.

In a sense I’m not making any, as I’ve decided to make no transfers, as I feel I’m just rushing them and have no real agenda/endgame in mind. I will save it to have two free transfers next week and I explain my plan in the “Keeping An Eye On” section below.

Well Given at home to WBA vs Begovic away at Arsenal. As lazy American students say to teachers regarding arithmetic, “you do the math”.

I know playing QPR againt Chelsea seems a bit silly but (A) the cliché of players playing against  their old clubs raising their game might work for SWP and (B) since a lot of rivals have Chelsea defenders in their team, I get a kind of perverse double gain if he gets an assist or indeed a goal.

While Newcastle players are catching my eye at moment, casting those ocular organs a little further show that they have Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea in gameweek 11, 12  & 13.

My subs are a process of elimination, Players with tricky away fixtures basically, am humming and hawing about Long at Aston Villa or Walters at Stoke. They are both Irish so that takes away one of my favourite decision making techniques. Since Walters didn’t play midweek, I assume Pulis will play him at Emirates, and of course sorry since I’ve Given in goal I don’t’ want Long to score. Decision made. Easy.

I might tweak the order of subs, but then I, enigmatically, might not

Mata and Agbonlahor will be my captain and vice, but I’m not sure in which order.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Walker and Bassong at Spurs, very nice run of fixtures and both seem to be first teamer for next few weeks. And Dempsey at Fulham, but I wonder if the Europa League travails will drain him of his bursting-from-midfield-energy.

And I think I’m gonna ship Rooney out next week, and bring in either RVP, Sturridge or Torres, and with a few shekels saved bring VDV too. With that in mind… Let’s have a jolly good weekend chaps (sorry spent last 48 hours in London, so have been some of their lingo, what what)

Captain's Corner with Phergal

A frustrating weekend for many last week, lots of big names coming off the bench or not playing at all. Some nice fixtures captaincy wise this weekend, let's have a look.

Arsenal @home to Stoke - RVP is on form and looks a good bet here. Arsenal will be in good form after their last minute win against Marseille. Stoke also coming off a win in Europe although with little squad rotation going on, could be tired for this difficult match in the Emirates.

Man U vs. City - The biggie, should be a cracking match. The Charity shield served up 5 goals a few months ago, but i expect this to be a tighter affair with Mancini concentrating on defending more than open attacking football, maybe a goal or two in it. Aguero and Rooney are decent picks.

Chelsea@QPR - Chelsea are looking like title challengers again and will be looking for a comprehensive win. Drogba will be the focal point of attack again with 1 match left of Torres's suspension but has disappointed owners that got him in a few weeks ago. Sturridge is in great form and will looking to cement his place on the team. Lampard looks like a great differential pick here also.

Tottenham @Blackburn - I expect a convincing win for Spurs. VDV looks good, although he isn't guaranteed the full 90. Adebayor looks a safer bet.

Norwich@ Liverpool  - Suarez. That is all.

Gamble pick - Ward possibly in a striker role again with Fletcher out against Swansea?

Fantasy Football 2011-10-14

***** sorry about bad spelling and general writing, left this very late, and I have to go to work in 3 minutes*****

Game week 8

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 50 // Average Score on site – 44

Highest Haul – 12 // Lowest Haul – 1 // Average Score Per Player 4.5

Accrued Score – 310 (inc gameweek 1 score)

Place in my own fecking league – 65, up 2 Places

State Of Play

Jeez, 1/4 of the way through the season and I’m realistically out of contention on winning my own league, 87 points of the top, which is also 20% ahead of me. But who knows I might get ahead of the curve. Having had the international break to think about this, my ruminations have let me to the conclusion of hliuhlka49Pj;jhuyUHIUNVOPJhkjhlkjljk… yep just brain wobble. In a reductive way of putting it, I’m just picking the wrong horses. Am I putting to much stock in last season’s players/clubs who were impressive. I just don’t know, in managerial terms it’s like being Steve Bruce, there is no obvious mistake or reason things are going so unexcitedly.

Vindication

The Rooney and Agbonlahor is an expensive luxery, 20% of my budget did accrue me 45% of my points; so money provides success; ergo Man City will win the league (speaking of Man Ciry, interestingly .5% of the players of this game still have Tevez in their squad, which goes to show how many people have already abbandoned their teams I reckon)

D’oh

Wolves not pulling it together, Backing The Wrong Horse (For ever after I will refer to that as simply BWH)

Here’s the screenshot of my team from last game week

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

So the Liverpool/Utd match dominates the gameweek, Rooney and Suarez in great form; both defences missing first choice players, having unfit players etc. There’s goals in this game, will it be 3-3 all; Echoing the greatest premier league game I’ve ever seen.

The bubbling under section of the season has kind of passed now, and people like Sturridge and Welbeck have really put their stamp on the season, with Torres out through suspenision and Hernadez out due to only returning from Mexico yesterday it’s probable he won’t be on bench. Two other United strikers to consider though are two very rested players in Berbatov and Owen, obviously the latter is unkileky to play 90 mins, but the fact it is at Anfield could be a great stage for a few goals.

Others, will Norwich claim 3 points at home?

Will the wheels come off the Newcastle momentum?

Arsenal have made most of this break to pull together something akin to a backbone? Ha ha ha aha hahhha ha.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

I’ve two transfers this week.

Hennessy fro Wolves is gone as my second keeper, they just aren’t keeping clean sheets so he’s pointless (no pun intended, he’s more POINTS[scored]LESS[than-I’d-expected]).. So I’ll bring in Begovic, he’s second top scorer in his position and cheap-ish, I know stoke seem to be getting hamstrung by Europa League travails, but he seems to have 5 good fixtures in next 8, and rotating him back and forth with Given should be successful

Also dropping O’Hara, essentially same reason as hennesey, and brining in Hoolahan, if Norwich come good, he could have good totals in 2 of next 3 gameweeks with favourable home fixtures.

selection: picked home players where possible and rooney.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Noone has really made me think of them, Bentner perhaps next week, however it’ll be hard to assess if he’ll bring his form from the internationals with him 10 days after.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

So the internationals are over (bring on Estonia) and we're back to the day to day (or weekend to weekend) business of picking our captain for the weekend. Let's take a look at the likely fixtures and candidates.

Liverpool vs. Man United - Usually goals to be had in this one. 3-1 to Liverpool in last year's corresponding fixture. So hard to predict these high tension games. Gerrard is back from a long injury, could be a nice differential pick this week, but at 11m he's just too expensive. I like Kuyt in this fixture, given his hat trick in this match last year. From United, i'd be a bit hesitant on captaining the Roo this week. His recent 3 match Euro ban and messy business with his father's betting scandal will no doubt be  hanging heavy on his head.

Man City vs. Villa - Striker disarray with City atm. Tevez won't play again if Mancini has his way. Aguero is nursing a minor injury and might be back in time for the clash but Mancini has said even if he is ready he might rest him. Balotelli also is coming off a back injury that kept him out of Italy's qualifiers, he may also be in contention for a start. Dzeko seems the only sure bet and will likely play the 90. Silva becomes more attractive this weekend then, especially if he has only one striker to support, he should be playing a little further up and will have less people to share the spoils with. He is still to register any massive haul, but has been consistently getting 6+ points week in week out. a safe bet.

Arsenal vs Sunderland - Bookies and various other FF sites are tipping the Arse for a big win here. I can't see where they're coming from tbh. Sunderland haven't been great, but Arsenal have been much worse. Capable of scoring a few, but still a shambles at the back. Ramsey looks like he's settling in to a Fabregas shaped hole (oo-er!) as predicted by yours truly at the start of the season, he looks a good bet here and RVP obviously if you are backing a few goals from Arsenal.

Wigan vs. Bolton - This has goals written all over it. Bolton have had they're worst start to a season in 457 years and are leaking goals. Both teams are desperate for a win, with them both considering the other as their biggest chance of getting one. Di santo looks a good bet here. Moses for a gamble. He's had so many shots on goal one has to go in sometimes.

Fantasy Football 2011-9-23

Game week 7

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 43 // Average Score on site – 45

Highest Haul – 6 // Lowest Haul – 1 // Average Score Per Player 3.9

Accrued Score – 260 (inc gameweek 1 score)

Place in my own fecking league - 67

State Of Play

I’m beginning to ticket that the managers in the premiership wait till I post my team on this blog, and they open up the latest update in trepedation every Friday evening to see who I’ve cursed with my selection for that weekend. Last game week, only 3 players of my players did their primary task, in this case it was 3 defenders managing clean sheets. No assists from any of midfielders and none of my strikers hit the onion bag.

Vindication

I picked the right keeper out of the two choices, that’s the only thing to stand by. “It could have been worse” can never be used as a vindication can it? (no need to answer that, I know); I also put the eventual own-goal scorer Johnson on the bench.

D’oh

Once again it was just an all round shit day at the office, two point BELOW the average score is always a bad sign. I’m down to 67^th in my league. Ballllllllls.

Here’s the screenshot of my team from last game week

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

Last week’s Liverpool hunch turned out to be misguided, they showed me. I am still wary of their next two games so I won’t bring in Enrique (yet!)

I’m not bringing much to the table this week either, all my notes for this weekend (while come up with independently) are jusr rehashes of the fantasy football scout’s suggestions. The well is dry today, unlike the weather here.

The Rooney question got settled today when Alex announced his is fit. (as in Sir ALex Ferguson, not the Brazilian third choice Chelsea centre back)

Transfers/Theory/Selection

I spent 8 points, making 3 transfer last game week, and I’m gonan make no changes this week. Bascially because all my tinkering keeps backfiring, I’m just gonna leave it as is. My entire midfield is playing  away does weekend [insert obvious joke about unnamed premiership footballers here].  Everyone is saying “Nani -Captain – Nani - Captain - Nani - Captain”, but I’m just gonna hold back.

There might be a chance in direction with my thinking though as I mull over this point made here - http://www.fiso.co.uk/forum/clean-sheet-points-is-severely-under-rated-t90409.html

I’m wary of Stoke conceding at Swansea, just out of tiredness rather than on a talent level, so Huth on bench, Long is on the bench because WBA seems to be low on steam and they are away at Sunderland, who did very well when they played Stoke at home 2 weeks ago. I’m gonna with the opinion that Johnson will really shine this week as a reaction to his travails last week. I’m slightly wary of Man City conceding a goal at Blackburn, so I’ll just play one of the two. So that sets up my team.

The questions who to captain is annoying me, it’s between Rooney and Agbonlihor. I’ll go with Wayne this week.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

I’m looking at Stoke and Fulham’s tiredness levels (apparently it is the latter’s 16^th game of the season this week).

Ben Arfa, has been coming back from injury, he was in great form before his injury last season. Also Holden for Bolton should be back soon.

Barry Bannan, 5 million is a great price and he seems to be a first teamer with Villa.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

The captain is on holiday at the moment. Next week he’ll be back, rested I hope.

Fantasy Football 2011-9-23

from the team at http://www.facebook.com/BackOfTheNetBoy

Game week 6

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 27 // Average Score on site – 40

Highest Haul – 8 // Lowest Haul – (-1) // Average Score Per Player 2.5

Accrued Score – 191

State Of Play

Ah FFS what a horrible week, 13 point below the average, or 33% to show how gaping a whole that was. I’m more than half way down my own league and a massive 101 points off the top. Maybe I’m making the mistake of doing the blog to soon in the day and not looking at stuff Saturday morning but I haven’t really been caught with last minute omissions etc. Well thrice in 5 weeks, but the resulting results (that’s a valid word construction yeah?) showed it would have produced negligable returns anyway.

Vindication

Arteta got me 8, and not captaining Rooney was a good idea cos of the missed penalty… eek eek eek, can you hear that? That’s the sound of the bottom of the barrel of vindication being scraped.

D’oh

A bad workman always blames his tools eh? Well I had 11 tools on my team last week. Well 10, I’ll let Arteta off the hook.

Here’s the screenshot of my team from last game week

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

(*) – I haven’t listened to this week’s fantasy podcast, (or indeed read the Captain’s Corner’s) so if I make any major changes in the morning I’ll put them in the comments box. But I can’t imagine doing so, I’ve got clearish thoughts already.

Are the wheel’s coming off the Liverpool wagon, cases for the prosecution, (A) they seem to have no depth in full backs, (B) Stevie G is coming back, and for some reason, like Johnny Giles, I’ve never liked him. Even Kenny can’t drop him (yet), and with Charlie Adam suspended, there’s an obvious swap there. But what will it do to the balance of the team {extra subtext it would be quite a story is Lampard and Gerrard are both becoming non-essential figures in their clubs at the same time}. (C) they weren’t walloped by an excellent Spurs team, they were terrible and Spurs were quite good; can they pull themselves back from that, I doubt Kenny’s ever lost by that much ever. {will I bother researching that? No. I’m sure Pat Mulhearn will tell me if I’m wrong}.

But… Wolves at home is a good fixture I guess. But then Everton derby and Man Utd could be bad as well.

a lot of people going on about Newcastle, indeed Leon Best are the biggest price rise of last week, according to another FF site

Transfers/Theory/Selection

I’m committing myself to 3 changes so that’s gonna be 8 points gone from the team already

Okay, well Alex can go, he’s not performing well for Chelsea, and is suspended anyway. Everyone is tipping Ryan Taylor, but I’ll go with his namesake Stephen, as he seems to get more bonus points. And he is first choice player.

I really want Mata, my hunch a few weeks ago to get him looks valid, I only wish I’d jumped then. Houlahan is the one to go even though a very poor Sunderland at home could be a good un for him, Man Utd the next week means, realistically he could expect an average of maybe 3/4 points each from the two games. Mata could (hopefully) get a haul of 12/14, which would make it a worthwhile swap.

Bent out and his club mate, Agbonlahor in, at a tidy 2.3 million saving. He has two favourable fixture this week and next week, so should cover the extra 4 points I’m spending on him

Captain’s choice is between Arteta at home to Bolton, a Bolton who’ve lost 4 in a row and an Arteta who’s eager to step out of the shadow of Fabregas and Nasri; and barcaRONAN new boy, Mata, at Swansea. I’m gonna go with the latter; mainly cos it rhymes with Mata.

Reason Rooney isn’t in contention is while Man Utd mightn’t lose at Stoke, I can’t see them walloping them (the team will already have their nose out of joint since Steve Bruce, who’d know his fair share of getting his nose out of joint (yeah, that’s right, cheap dig at his shrón), managed a 4-0 win last week. Also if the oft repeated claim that Rooney scores in bursts perhaps his penalty miss will bookend his last great spell.

Having said what I said about Liverpool earlier, I still won’t play Hennessey in goal, but rather Given, who while away at QPR and while playing SWP and hoping he does well, will hopefully save a load of shots or something!

And the basic reasoning behind the rest of my team, is I’m playing everyone who’s playing at home, other than Walters (who is my first choice sub), so that I can play Rooney, who I might be a fool to not play eh?

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

No one in specific to be honest, more so to see if Stoke perhaps are starting to tire, might be time for Huth and Walters to head for the door? And is my Liverpool theory correct. Also will I continue my head in the sand approach to Aguero and Dzeko?

Captain's Corner with Phergal

It's quite open this weekend in terms of captaincy options, let's take a look at the main candidates.

Rooney away to Stoke - Rooney won't be the automatic choice he was other weeks, due to Stokes resilience at home. Rooney has also never scored against Stoke for what that's worth. I like this fixture though, Stoke will have a lot of the same players that played mid week and will be tired, and were also badly exposed by Sunderland last weekend. I can see a few United goals here despite the tricky fixture.

Aguero/Dzeko @Home to everton - I reckon Dzeko and Aguero will both start here, having been rested mid week for the carling cup tie. Aguero seems the safer bet. I see Everton putting up a good fight here though and City play a bit more carefully against the better teams (do Everton count as one of these "better teams" though?) so i wouldn't expect massive returns.

Suarez @Home to Wolves - Suarez has yet to produce a large return and the Pool are going though a bad patch but what better time to rack up a big score than at home against a Wolves side that are losing some of their start of season shine.

Torres/Mata @Home to Swansea - Swansea's excellent defensive record will be put to the test this weekend by a Chelsea side still in the process of settling with new players, new manager and new tactics. Chelsea put in a good shift against United last weekend and Torres's howler will have overshadowed what was actually a great performance from him. Mata looks a good shout too although he hasn't staked his claim as a regular captain option just yet.

Adebayor away to Wigan - bagged two last weekend against Liverpool, nice fixture against Wigan for him to grab some more points.

Gamble pick: Leon Best @home to Blackburn. On a great run and against relegation candidates at home.

Fantasy Football 2011-9-16 Gameweek 5

Gameweek 5

BarcaRONAN’s last gameweek Score – 66 // Average Score on site – 57

Highest Haul – 34 // Lowest Haul – 1 // Average Score Per Player 6

Accrued Score – 198

State Of Play

Jeez, my average score per gameweek is just below 50 points, so that’s not league winning form at all. On a personal level I need to d better and stop being hungover writing these blogs.

Vindication

The Rooney captaincy, what insight eh? Errah 34 points will do me fine. I picked 3 clean sheets too and I had no hunches that I ignored that came back to haunt me

D’oh

The rest of team combined accrued less points than Captain Rooney…

Here’s the screenshot of my team from last gameweek

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

So apparently there are rumblings that Torres may go to Milan (http://joe.ie/football/football-news/serie-a-giants-offer-early-chelsea-exit-for-fernando-torres-0015849-1) or is that he will be pushed. Either way the pressure on him now is immense, and against Man Utd he has the chance to bag the lead role in sky sport’s always understated highlights package at end of the broadcast.

The Spurs v Liverpool match promises to be a better game I feel, and certainly more points to be mined. I however am just coming up with no ideas beyond that, I am scratching my beard, scrolling up and down different websites, fixture lists and permutations and I’m coming up with nothing. I feel close to saying something like “is there anything to be said for another mass?” [there is never a situation where a Fr Ted references doesn’t work here at BOTNB HQ]

In short, I’ve got no hunches, no ideas or anything, so I’m gonna just hoof the ball forward and hope a gutsy Irish forward does something with it…

Transfers/Theory/Selection

So I’m buying Walters! Basically cleverly is out for a few weeks, just too long to have him warm the bench so I looked at my midfield watchlist and he appealed to me most, away at Stadium Of Light won’t be too daunting for Stoke and he’s a good chance of an assist or even a goal. And he seems to take the penalties too.

That’s it really, I fancy Given over Hennesey in goal, doubt Alex will play so put him on bench (also doubt either Chelsea or Man Utd will keep a clean sheet anyway. Dropped SWP cos I want Wolves to keep a clean sheet for Johnson to pick up 6 points for me, and then just had to pick who I felt will do least at weekend at Norwich away at Bolton looks a toughie for young Wes. (is he young?, I’m older than him I guess ergo he is young)

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Everton, there are dark clouds over Goodison at moment and the next 4/5 fixtures they have are realy toughies, Man Utd/Chelsea/Liverpool derby, so if they can weather those, maybe eek a few draws and a late win etc etc, then I see some of them joining barcaRONAN

Captain's Corner with Phergal

So it's all about Rooney at the moment as he achieved an incredible back to back hat tricks against Bolton, bringing his premiership total to 8 goals in 4 games. So do you captain Rooney all season a la Ronaldo 07-08, getting rid of a major source of headache every week (not to mention making my column redundant!) leaving you to spend more time thinking about the rest of your team? It seems like a good choice at the moment, although i would offer up my old advice from last year: safe captaincy choice when you're doing well (if they don't score big, you won't lose too much ground as everyone will have them captained), take a gamble when behind, although it's still a bit early to be getting too worried about being behind in leagues. One decent week can still catapult you to the top of your league.

And what better week for a "differential" captaincy choice than this weekend as Man U take on Chelsea @home? I would safely say that a huge amount of people will be captaining Rooney from now on regardless of fixtures. Against tough opposition like Chelsea (albeit a home fixture) this offers you a chance to make up some points, so who looks a good bet this week?

Arsenal away to Blackburn - Lots including my good self got burned last weekend captaining RVP against new boys Swansea, perhaps we chose to ignore the warning signals - no signs of a resurgence in Arsenal's form and a good defensive showing (mostly) from Swansea. Perhaps we read too much into RVP's 4 goals (is there a name for this in football? quadtrick, double brace?) against San Marino. Anyway, RVP has scored 8 goals in 10 matches against Blackburn and looks a good shout here even though that's what i said last week, and he was highly rated against Dortmund the other night as well.

Fulham @home to Man City - Fulham are off to a bad start and City's premiership form is irresistible. Again we're faced with the rotation dilemma. Tevez and Aguero started last week with Dzeko rested for the mid week Napoli game. Two matches isn't much to go on to try and second guess Mancini so there's a big caveat here. In my opinion Aguero is the most likely starter.

Gamble pick - Baines at home to Wigan. Expect at least 6 points with a good chance of a goal or assist.

Fantasy Football 2011-9-9

Gameweek 4

BarcaRONAN’s last gameweek Score – 54 // Average Score on site – 57

Highest Haul – 22 // Lowest Haul – 1 // Average Score Per Player 4.9

Accrued Score – 136

State Of Play

Well I always said if going into gameweek four I was in the top 1,099,133 of the league I’d be happy, and I’ve achieved that goal… who am I kidding. I’m on a train on way to Holyhead for the ferry to go to Dublin after a week sojurn in England and am just a bag of frustration looking at my notes; I sit nice and snugly in the mid table of the Back Of The Net Boy! League. 44^th ain’t worth writing home about, but technically that’s what I am currently doing.

Vindication

Other than one of the most obvious selections ever (Rooney), nothing, not a single assist or from what I can think (offline at moment) a bonus point scored by my other 10 men. [I’ve not noticed a trend in my blog where even the vindication section is me berating myself, that’s how bad things are at barcaRONAN HQ]

D’oh

If I’d captained Rooney, his points doubled would have been more than the rest of the team put together!!!!!! I keep going back to my internal argument about the difference between a bad decision and a considered a decision that doesn’t pay off. But while I ponder these philospohpical things the league is already running away from me.

Here’s the screenshot of my team from last gameweek

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

Will Richard Dunne and Shay Given bring this gung-ho spirit into Villa team and perhaps reignite things? I am sensing they will, they are going to Goodison park, where there have been a few tasty tete-a-tetes between Everton and Aston Villa in past seasons, also baring in mind that Everton are down to two fit strikers [or is it easier for us to point out when Everton don’t have an injury problem].

The pressure is on Torres now, more than ever, Spanish media agititaing for him to be dropped from the national team and AVB has said only today that he’d have no problem dropping Torres if he ‘compromises’ the team (now unless Fernando has a photograph of Lamps and the boys up to something they shouldn’t be doing on a photocopier, I can only assume Andres is talking about the continuing goal drought); the shadow of Drogba lingering on Torre’s  shoulder [clunky mixed metaphor of the week award] won’t be there this game week, due to the formers concussion keeping him out of the game. {insert laboured comedy riff about Torres getting concussion during match this week, and the physio asking him who he is and when the patient says he doesn’t know, they tell him he’s Drogba and he goes back onto pitch and scores a hat-trick gag here}

I think O’Hara will have a good game against Spurs, who’ve really not been too good to him over last 2 years. And I think the great Dane, Nicolas, who has left Arsenal to go to Sunderland, might have have roy of the rovers stuff in his boots, home debut for a struggling team against Chelsea, it’s a perfect set up for a man of such high self regard / ego.

And on a club level, if Arsenal are gonna get their shit together, this is when it has to start; 4 very winnable fixtures in next 6 games – Swansea, Blackburn, Bolton, Tottenham, Sunderland and Stoke. Now noone expects clean sheets anymore with wenger’s boys, but Arteta is looking very tempting now (and Van Persie did score 4 goals against San Marino last week)

           

And while everyone seems to be going mad for Chris Smalling in particular, and the Man Utd rookies in general, Bolton, Chelsea and Stoke will all be tough customers in next few games so I don’t anticipate any clean sheets at all.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

I have two free transfers this week, as I used none last gameweek, but I think I’m going to make a third as well and really try and breath a bit of life in my team, Torres will be culled from my overly expensive front three, cos to be fair Bent will always play when fit, and will generally score when he plays, and for next while I can’t see Rooney being rotated out (when champions league etc starts, it might be different). I’m going to bring Long in, he’s clearly in form, pity he’s got a knock but Roy will always stick with the same team as  much as possible.

I want to get QPR player in, and after humming and hawing I’ll take SWP in over Taarabt, the latter takes the free kicks etc, but the former will be given a freer role apparently so I assume he’ll be nearer the ball too.

I’ve been mulling over Arteta v Benyaoun (both at Arsenal) v Mata (Chelsea)

I annoyingly have a lot of players playing against each other this week, ie two Man City defenders playing which means if they do well Moses, my Wigan midfielder will just score 2, but vice versa I might only get 4 points in total from Clichy and Kompany.

I’ll go with the old simple rule of picking the keeping playing at home, even though it goes against Given, I have a notion that Wolves will really stand out against Spurs this weekend, so a three wolf spine (they also play at home next week folks, if yer looking to bring any in).

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

The new Fulham signing has been tipped by the fantasy football podcast (I dunno if it was Granville or the other one, no doubt whoever it was will make sure we know about it if he is proven right! I’m really interested in seeing Bentder does at Sunderland, I will see how he does in next two games and decide then,

Kakuta, has joined Bolton on loan, now Man Utd, and Arsenal are two of the next three games and then Chelsea the following fixture (I can only assume he won’t eligible for that game), so if he shows some good involvement and is picked for all those games he can play, game week 7 he’ll be joining barcaRONAN.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

So the international break is over and the big names seem to have come out of it injury free. Plenty of nice captaincy friendly fixtures this week, let's take a look.

Arsenal @home to Swansea - There's a feeling among Gooners that the Arsenal season begins with this match, after a dismal few weeks marked by big name departures, a humiliating 8-2 defeat to United and some last minute transfer dealings. Morale will surely be up among the team (it couldn't get any worse) and you would expect Arsenal to come back with a vengeance here a bag and few goals against promoted Swansea. RVP is still remarkably uninjured and he's the best pick here. He's more than capable of racking up huge scores and will have some good service coming from Arteta, who himself could be a decent captain pick, but a new player at a club is always a gamble, even a Premier League veteran like Arteta. His returns the last two years from Everton have been uninspiring but maybe he'll discover some form with his new club, who knows.

Man City@ Home to Wigan. City are on a rampage and confidence is flowing. There should  be plenty of goals here, but with City's "embarrassment of riches" as the press like to say, there's a lot of choice for your captaincy armband. Dzeko is on fire and full of confidence after bagging 4 against Spurs two weeks ago, he seems to have established himself as City's target man. You'd have to feel Mancini would be adverse to benching a player hitting such great form, then again you have two other world class strikers in Tevez and Aguero that are almost sinful to bench. I see Tevez or Aguero as being interchangeable to partner Dzeko, but really, who knows. A safer pick may be Silva, who doesn't seem to be under any kind of threat from Nasri, and both are expected to start. Nasri has a broken hand but apparently will start this weekend.

Man United away to Bolton - Hard to resist United at the moment. Rooney is in the form of his life and you could safely captain him every week without too much worry. Young is also on wicked form but don't expect the massive haul he got against Arsenal 2 weeks ago, he should be good for a goal and assist here though and maybe some bonii.

Gamble picks -  Peter Odemwingie away to Norwich. WBA put in great performances against Chelsea and United and you feel they have to have a significant win soon. Shane Long is doubtful for the match.