Fantasy Football 2012-1-31

Game week 23­

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 56

Average Score on site – 33

Highest Haul: 28 – Sessegnon (14, doubled as he was my captain my captain)

Lowest Haul: Walters got me 0,

 

Average Score Per Player 5.05

Accrued Score – 982

Place in my own fecking league – 71, up 5 places

Points Off the top – 302 (This is just getting embarrassing) 

State Of Play

My iphone is not keeping it’s charge for more than a few hours anymore; I can’t seem to shift the weight of my belly; I really need to learn to drive… so it’s not just my fantasy football team and it’s awfulness that is resting on my mind

Vindication

Wahey, other than Dempsey or Zamora I picked the best performing player of the gameweek as my captain, Sessegnon!

D’oh

7 fecking players scored 2 point or less. While I despair, unlike Craig David, I’m not walking away.

Walters missed a penalty; Jones came off after about 20 mins,

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

As I write this, there is 8 hours left in the transfer deadline, yet the deadline for this gameweek in 5ish hours. In my head I was preparing to use my wildcard this gameweek, I really am letting small details slip. It doesn’t feel like there will be a flurry of moves over the course of the day (except perhaps QPR, who are linked with any footballer that is out of his house at moment. Ronaldinho?) Anyway as I said, I intended to use my wildcard this week, so I immediately swapped Jones out the night he was injured for Smalling, so I didn’t lose out in his price drop. Why I signed a United defender I don’t know, as they have Stoke this week and then Chelsea and Liverpool.

Funnily enough, with all the mild hysteria about Newcastle missing Ba when he was the African Nations Cup… well he’s back now, and brought his fellow countryman Cisse along with him. The Guardian’s German soccer columnist Raphael Honigstein, has stated that he thinks he will make an immediate impact and is perfectly suited for the premier league, but at 7 million I’ll wait to see if he’s being played from the off, or is really bought as the replacement for Ba, who seems destined to leave before at the end of the season (and who knows maybe before midnight DUH DUH DUH)

Transfers/Theory/Selection

So I can’t decide anything, double guessing and all that, so I’m just walking away this week, swapping my keepers and that’s it. I’m almost fearing that I do okay this week, which would mean me doing virtually nothing is better than me trying at all.

My Captain, My Captain.

Even though he has an orange mark against him, I’ll captain Bale at home to Wigan, who he could devour, followed by Sessegnon at Sunderland.

My Team this week

  

Keeping An Eye On

- QPR, both their transfer spend and their starting line ups.

- Everything else, I just can’t see wood from trees this week. I’m gonna use the transfer deadline as an excuse.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

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

Due to unexpected, but pleasant chain of events, I need to go into town now, so Captain’s Corner will be posting

Fantasy Football 2012-1-20

Game week 21

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 41

Average Score on site – 48

Highest Haul: 12 – Van Persie (6, doubled as he was my captain my captain)

Lowest Haul: 2 players got 2 points for appearing, 2 others got none as they didn’t play at all.

 

Average Score Per Player 3.7

Accrued Score – 896

Place in my own fecking league – 77, down 2 places

Points Off the top – 297 (I forgot to carry a one, so I thought for a second it was 197, then got a second kick in balls when I checked my maths) 

State Of Play

For all my blah blah, it’s the same old blah blah in last game week, with all my planning I managed to put together a team that only 9­ players appeared for the clubs (as a direct result I can’t make fun of Newcastle replacing a striker who is at the African Nations Cup with another strikers who is… also at the African Nations Cup).

To be honest I am feeling so bad about this game*, if I was shit at the start it’d be fine, but when I started I was great at it, and with the same skill set I am being overtaken, it feels like I’ve the fantasy football equivalent of the career arc of Lee Sharpe. Boo Hoo. Like if I was clutching at straws, making half decisions then I’d understand, dang. Maybe I should pretend that I am letting a child make my decisions?

Maybe it’s a young man’s game… Maybe I’m like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon, just winding the clock down, I need a Mel Gibson character element in my life, any offers?

* = (I know in real terms this game isn’t that important, just in case my mum reads or anything, I am genuinely okay!)

Vindication

In Microsoft Word, you can set phrases/words you use a lot to be triggered by certain keystrokes, I better set one up for “I captained Van Persie, and he got me a large amount of this week’s points.

D’oh

Not managing to pick an entire team that played is a definite black mark on my journal. Getting notes sent home to yer folks was always worst on Fridays.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

Remember when David James played spending too much time on the Playstation for his clumsy decisions, well De Gea has gone one step more with the need to get laser eye surgery! Serious? This is up there with the signing of Bebe. In the last 8 or so years, Ferguson has signed a helluva lot of duds, but any scouting report that mentions a goalkeeper that has vision problems should set off alarm bells. I do remember a taxi driver telling me that Brian O’Driscoll was a better player before he got his laser eye surgery, because before that he went for space that he was misjudging and got trickier tries and whatnots. But then again he was a Taxi Driver, and they will say anything with no fear of the conversational consequences.

So I better check my watch, yep it’s crisis o’clock time in Arsenal again, or is it Man Utd right now? Maybe Man City? Chelsea has the most chatter of transfers right now, Villa Boas seems to be intent on the transformation, it is funny what with Drogba and Lampard clearly being kept for the mean time, and certainly being encouraged to leave with passivity, to be fair they are OLD (essentially my age), but to be letting Sturridge get in a tizzy over his contract seems a bad idea.

Here’s a thing about spin, Liverpool just signed the 2nd or 3rd biggest kit deal in the premiership, fair boules, it’s a worldwide free market etc etc. Yet some articles have been about why Adidas wouldn’t stump up as much as Liverpool were looking for, basically because Liverpool aren’t as successful as Adidas want them to be? Giving up following Man Utd, has definitely given me a sense of the bigger picture and how ‘the media’ projects a lot of “problems” at clubs, for every blog/newspaper/radio person giving their opinion on a problem there must be a new angle on it. Ok, I think I’m waffling at this stage

Super Sunday coming up, big big matches between top top teams, these weekends are tougher for FF managers than the fans, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if any of those big 4 scored, ergo you wouldn’t wanna use any of those teams’ defenders, but in particular the City/Spurs game, there are so many potential scorers who do you captain. With the Arsenal/Man Utd match it reminds me more of soccer in primary school, the two best players get to be captain (in this case Rooney and RVP) and then just pick teams to play with them.

Transfers/Theory/Selection

Okay, Samba still hasn’t moved which is a bollocks, as since he was “sick” last week, he might still be “sick” this weekend, why don’t they use the magic sponge on him? Or even better get some 7 up, and stir with a fork when it’s heated up. Never failed me. (interesting to see Cahill was played and made Captain at Bolton when he clearly on way out, does that mean Blackburn don’t trust Samba or Samba is of a more agitative outlook). But my other gamble of McEachran has now moved to Swansea, so surely he’ll come off the bench at least this gameweek.

Anyone notice that after watch MOTD this weekend, Swansea are suddenly brilliant? The BBC’s pundits on the top level are truly appalling. But ever see Steve Claridge on their football league show? Brilliant. So where was I? Oh yeah Swansea, I’ll hold my hands up other than Vorm I couldn’t pick any of them from a line up (police like, not a team sheet)

This week’s http://fantasy.premierleague.com/the-scout/ make a real good point about Ryan Taylor, one I certainly didn’t spot, the fact that he’d moved into midfield.

So I’ve got rid of Walker for Spurs, basically they have 3 games in last 6 weeks, that are against other ‘big teams’, so I wouldn’t’ be playing him any of those times, and I brought in the previous mentioned Taylor.

And on a similar level, one keeper of mine is Friedal and the other was Begovic, but he is second choice now, so I’ve swapped him for Paddy Kenny at QPR, for the same reason I mention later on in the keeping an eye on section. I will be swapping my two keepers every second week I reckon for next 6 gameweeks.

As you can see from my selection, I am on that tightrope of a full team, with 2 doubtfuls, fingers crossed.

My Captain, My Captain.

I’ve a general wariness about using RVP for this game, and will probably fret over this all night. Similarly my other big hitter is Bale, who is fantastic but I feel Manchini will choose to favour not losing this match as opposed to winning it, so will possibly just choke the game, so will forgo Bale too. (I’m lucky I work till 2am tonight, so I can change it later), so the question is who do I go with, I need variables to start falling in my favour, so It’s gonna be two red and striped  jersey wearing me to pick between, Walters and Sessegnon, who funnily enough are the subject of a head to head in this week’s http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk. Sessegnon has a higher ICT index, but in truth I don’t really know what that means. It all points to Sessegnon, so I will err for him, with the Irish international being my vice captain.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Well everyone , but particular QPR, bringing in two centre backs, who will both be on good cash, so surely they’ll start and Mark Hughes has always built his teams on a strong defence, put in the fact Alex is a demon with the toepoker freekicks, could be quite a buy (but at 5.4, to Onuoha’s 4.6…). And they have very favourable fixtures for next few weeks.

And Stephen Ireland is really creating a positive buzz again, and once again quite affordable.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

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

Another wide-open gameweek for captaincy, no obvious real obvious choice with some of the top teams facing each other. Let's take look.

Man U@Arsenal - Should be a cracker. Arsenal will be looking to bounce back after a 3-2 defeat to Swansea last week but more importantly they'll be looking to avenge a humiliating 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford last year.  It won't be easy though, Vermaelen and Arteta won't make this one and United have a fit Smalling and Jones for defensive duties. RVP will still be a popular choice here. For United I like Nani, he's not been very consistent but seems to score in big games, having netted against Chelsea and Arsenal earlier in the season.

Spurs @ Man City - City seem to be focusing on defending again like last season and looking more likley to grind out 1 nils. They put five past Spurs early season though but i don't expect a repeat. Aguero looks a good bet and as always Silva.

Norwich@ Chelsea - Norwich leak goals and this looks the most captain friendly fixture this week. Torres looks promising again but how many times have we been burned by him in the past, could be a great gamble but not for the faint of heart. I like Sturridge here more, he should be available although there's some rumours of tension between him and AVB but that shouldn't stop him bagging a goal here.

Other nice picks this week are Walters @home to West Brom and Sessegnon @ Swansea..

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.