Fantasy Football 2012-2-24

Game week 26

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 32

Average Score on site – 41

Highest Haul: 6 – Bale (He was my captain, so that was 3 points doubled)

Lowest Haul: Huth – -1 point - Onouoha

 

Average Score Per Player 2.9

Accrued Score – 1070

Place in my own fecking league – 77, down 1 place

Points Off the top – 379

State Of Play

Well I scored 32 points this week, which is the age I turned this week. So based on these projections in the year 2122 I’ll be on fire in fantasy football again.

Vindication

Like Edwin Starr sung of War and what it is good for, absolutely nothing

D’oh

I think my main d’oh is the gamble I took on a QPR revival; Kenny and Onuoha have let me down. Both their days seem numbered.

Did I get the Keeper right? Subs in general?

No, Ben Foster got 2 points more than Kenny; and yes. I’m surprised to be honest that bridge hasn’t been playing, I assumed he’d be in from the off as he was fit.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

So I suppose the big thing is Mister Adebayor returning to the Emirates, this time in a Spurs Jersey, as we all remember his sprint when he played for Man City towards the Arsenal fans after scoring, he has an eye for drama already.

Also the shambles of Wolves look like it’s going down the swanee fast. So the best option is deemed to be the assistant to the manager who you weren’t happy with it. Saying it was too expensive to pay 2million pounds for Poyet could seem chicken feed to the losses of going down.

What are the odds?

No interesting odds stand out (Man City and Chelsea both being very odds on to win at home, funny considering just how bad Chelsea were at home to Birmingham). Also I’ve heard and read a few places that this is the first time in nearly 20 years that Spurs have gone to play Arsenal and be the favourites as visitors, if they are favourites it is by the tiniest of points. So this is new section I added last game week is pretty pointless this week.

Transfers

2 free transfers to make this week, but making 3. Basically I had to wave bye bye to Kenny and unfortunately cos he was so cheap I had to shake a few quid elsewhere. I also wanted to get rid of Bridge since he hasn’t been performing either. I decided that since Huth is suspended, I didn’t wanna keep Suarez (Since he’s not playing anyway), otherwise I’d have 1 player on my bench. I needed to get rid of one of my big money people, so Suarez just drew the short straw, to replace him I brought in Crouch (3 million cheaper), who is fresh from not playing in Europe, and has two home games in a row coming up. That opened up the funds to bring in Richards in defence (two home games in a row, and a good looking run of fixtures) and then to complete the circle, I brought in Krul at Newcastle to become my new goalie. He makes his debut this week, at home to the toothless Wolves.

Theory/Selection

Right, so my three defenders who are playing at home are in [ideally I’d like to play 2-5-3!, but the rules are de rules], by de facto wanting to use all three strikers, all playing against opposition I could see them scoring 1 or 2 against; so the only real decision to make is which 4 of my 5 midfielders. Because of the strength of Blackburn, I can see Silva being rested or put on the bench, but I’d be a fool to not play him, but if he comes on for just 8 mins at the end….

Ok as much as I wanna play Walters, right now I can’t justify dropping Dempsey or Sessegnon, as it stands I’m going to leave it as I post here.

My Captain, My Captain.

As I touched on, Silva is almost too good an option! If I captain him and he only plays a few mins I’ll go spare, but what with it being a Saturday game Manchini might go for the jugular, so Man United are under pressure on the Sunday. With that in mind, Silva will be my captain. Ba will be my viceman. But don’t think I don’t see you hopping up and down with your hand up Gareth Bale.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

-     Stockdale has been very impressive for Fulham (there were whispers of him being brought in as England keeper, sometimes you just need to be English to be linked with that squad!), and while Schwarzer returned for last two matches after his injury spell; I can easily see Jol easing the latter out. They have some very favourable fixtures coming up so it could be a factor.

-       Cleverly at Man Utd, has been looking very fresh and I think he’ll end up shadowing Scholes for rest of season (I imagine a chain of events where Scholes is like Danny Glover, and young Tom is Mel Gibson)

Captain's Corner with Phergal

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

Injuries starting to rear their ugly head again, the highly owned Valencia, Rooney, Assou-Ekotto all doubts this weekend, causing most of us major headaches. Some very captain friendly fixtures this weekend, let's have a look.

Newcastle @home to Wolves - Sad to see Big Mick get the sack and all the best to him. This leaves Wolves managerless but with the well respected Terry Connor being promoted to caretaker manager after 13 years as assistant manager at the club. I hope he does well and gets made permanent. But anyway, Wolves still look dodgy and Ba will be picked by a lot of teams this weekend, supported by the return of the excellent midfield pairing of Cabaye and Tiote. 

City @home to Blackburn - City have big players returning too with the Toure brothers looking for starts. Ya Ya will give a lot of stability in the centre, leaving Silva and Aguero to get forward much more comfortably. Aguero should do well, although he "should" have done well in plenty of recent games too, it's last chance saloon for him here for a lot of us, I actually got rid of him for Rooney last week, no doubt this will backfire badly. :(

Man U @Norwich - Not a very convincing display from United last night against a poor Ajax side, but despite Ferguson saying otherwise, it can't be a big priority for them. Rooney is a doubt with a throat infection, must be that cigarette he had on holiday last year. Valencia's only gone and done his hammy too, and with Nani not really producing the pickings are slim. Young?

Arsenal @Home to Tottenham - The great Sky North London Derby is always unpredictable, i reckon it will have goals though. Spurs are possibly missing a few key players though, I'd back RVP for at least a goal here.

Gamble pick? - Mata @home to Bolton. He'll be looking to impress Rafa Benitez/Guus Hiddink/Abramovich/Sky.

Fantasy Football 2012-2-10

Game week 25­

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 30

Average Score on site –56

Highest Haul: 9 – Ba

Lowest Haul: Huth – -2 points

 

Average Score Per Player 2.8

Accrued Score – 1038

Place in my own fecking league – 76, down 7 places

Points Off the top – 367

State Of Play

Feck it, the team I didn’t do much with scored quite well. That says it all eh

Vindication

Two of my strikers scored, whoop de do

D’oh

I got a lot, A LOT of feedback last week when I explained why I got rid of RVP, and I know stand completely unvindicated, I could have been a contenda. But having just seen the new Muppets movie, the moral of any story is to try. If you try, you can’t fail. I tried to do something and it backfired, so be it, I’d rather blaze my own path than follow a well-beaten path (I really wish I was doing better though!)

Did I get the Keeper right? Subs in general?

Yes, Kenny got 2 points and Foster got 1, boo ya! Sessegnon I had on my bench and he did better than every other midfielder I had playing, same with Williams in relation to his defending peers.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

Well drama is making up early tomorrow to be at Old Trafford, that irascible Luis Suarez and that scamp Patrice Evra will be probably facing up to, I meant lining up against each other. This can’t be anything but a fiery match, Liverpool have a strong defence and Utd have been relatively potent in recent weeks, I have Suarez in my team, so I’m hoping he doesn’t get sent off. While Kenny clearly backs his man, there is a lot to be said for him not starting the game.

The Dembe squared partnership looks potent, I suppose they don’t’ need to bed in as such, due to their international background

Will it snow, will it snow, will it snow? A lot of football league matches called off already, but all the EPL matches were played last weekend, so I doubt anyway will be called off. So in many ways this is a needless sentence or two. But possibly Sunderland could get caught in the grim north, which leads us to…

McClean – What does he have to do? Trappatoni could surely have brought him into squad, like does Duff need to play a friendly game at this stage? Martin O’Neill being such a motivator will surely rile up him up after this

Harry Redknapp – So he got off, or isn’t guilty is fairer and doesn’t imply he got away with anything. Will this ‘spur’ Spurs on? He seems to have ruled out job sharing the England job with his Spurs role

What are the odds?

So 3 big games this weekend, 6 of the top 8 as the fantasy football site itself points out; bookies are always good suggestion, for instance Spurs, Chelsea and Man City all to win is 7/1, so Paddy Power must fancy Newcastle, Villa and Everton to all provide a solid game.

Just want to show you something.

This site, http://www.11kicks.com/Competitions/Premier_League/Stats,  is a bit simple to be honest, but the interesting fact that Chelsea get the most cards per game in entire league stood out to me, but also look at the assists figure. For some reason the team that has scored the most team goals has also got the most team assists too. Go figure! -

Transfers

No transfers this week, so to have two to play with next week, and a possible third and only lose 4 points.

Theory/Selection

With my ruckus of last week nothing came from it at all, keeping all those players cos I can’t be getting rid of them now! Huth is suspended so I only have 2 players to play with, since I hope Bale to have a good game, I am dropping my Newcastle defender, Simpson, and that leaves one. I’ll be honest and say I’m wary of having 3 QPR players at Blackburn, what with Hughes returning to his old club AND Blackburn coming back from that trouncing AND Yakubu returning from suspension after that great burst of goals, I would so much play Walters if I could drop Onohua, but I can’t so I won’t. Right now I fancy Kenny to make more saves at Ewood Park than Foster will at Wolves, even if both don’t’ keep clean sheets.

My Captain, My Captain.

Bale at home seems obvious enough, but Dempsey could be a good bet due to Huth being suspended, so in that order they are my captain and vice captain respectively.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

-     Gibson and Jelavic, let’s see how they do against dirty dirty Chelsea! They have next gameweek off anyway, so it’s not pressing for this week.

-       Cleverly at Man Utd, every week in recent times has had him as coming back that weekend on this generally accurate site http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php

-       McClean at Sunderland, very good chance it’ll bring him and Cleverly in next week.

Captain's Corner with Phergal

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

afraid it didn’t arrive today, we both were out of synce with our normal working weeks this week.

Fantasy Football 2012-1-31

Game week 23­

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 60

Average Score on site – 45

Highest Haul: 20 – Sessegnon (10, doubled as he was my captain my captain, Even though Bale got 15) – 20 points

Lowest Haul: Huth – 0 points

 

Average Score Per Player 5.45

Accrued Score – 1006

Place in my own fecking league – 69, up 2 places

Points Off the top – 308 (This is just getting embarrassing)  - A further 6 points off the lead

State Of Play

Feck it, the team I didn’t do much with scored quite well. That says it all eh?

Vindication

Sessegnon did well for me with 10 points being doubled as captain…

D’oh

… I swear I saved Bale to be my captain, who got 15 points. That cost me a swing of 20 points.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

So the transfer window didn’t really have any explosions, but I have been intrigued by Bridge to Sunderland, and Jelavic to Everton, more of which later. There’s a couple of big games this week

Man Utd v Chelsea / Liverpool v Spurs and I think Newcastle v Villa will be a good match too. Eyes towards a resurgent Sunderland visiting Stoke also.

Will Carroll continue his form, which in last two games has been positive?

Are Wolves really going down the toilet, is Mick gonna be shown the door?

Can Man City get back on track?

Transfers/Theory/Selection

(to tune of The Byrds’) this week it’s all ‘Change, Change, Change’… Or should it be ‘Winds Of Change’ (Scorpion I think) and the silent word is differentials, I’m 300ish off the top, I can’t win by using the same spine everyone has, so big changes at the Ro Camp. That said I have got the top three midfielders in the league now!

The wildcard is in folks; a reworking of my team will try and get it to add up to 98.5, so I have a bit in the bank. Okay, what has been interesting me the most is the idea of getting rid of RVP, the amount of money it would free up, but I’ll stick with him for now, the well has gone a bit dry for him recently, but he did hit the cross bar twice in his last game.

Certain teams seems to have a good run of fixtures, Wigan, Swansea, QPR and Man City in particular. While Man Utd, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea all play at least one of each in next few games, so I’m gonan try and have no defenders from any of those teams. 

And the weather could, could, be an issue as pointed out by Wolfgang, so I could go through all the transfers I made but it’s a lot, here’s the main points. I have got rid of RVP, for same reason of same-spine/same-points off top anyway. Have decided to cut back all the expensive defenders and keepers, they aren’t worth it. Will as a general rule keep 2 of the 5 defenders as my 2^nd and 3^rd choice strikers.

I’ve got players from teams who have a good run of fixtures and are nailed on starters, simples policy. And this week you’ll see 9 of them are playing at home. None of these are WILD gambles, bar perhaps Onuoha and Bridge, who are both coming out of cold storage in Man City stiffs, but they are almost certain to play ever week.

It all boils down is to needing to shake things up, if I can get up to top 25 or 30 it’ll be a marked improvement on my current position and will at least prove I have some acumen. If it fails, feck it, so be it.

My Captain, My Captain.

With my head, I’ve gone for form I’ve gone with Silva at home to Fulham.

But with my heart, I’m drawn to the drama, Suarez’s return is tempting, I’m assuming he won’t start but I wouldn’t’ be surprised if he does.

As I’m sober now, I’ll go with my head, but after a pint and perhaps a dramatic American Football movie later, I may change to my heart.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

- Gibson and Jelavic at Everton over next two games, with no game in three weeks time, I”ll hold off and see

- Ba and Cisse at Newcastle, it was between them and Zamora in the squad switcharoo

Captain's Corner with Phergal

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

So we're at the business end of the Premiership, and it's getting very interesting indeed. City have started to falter and United are now level on points are closing the gap on goal difference too. Spurs are continuing their storming form and are sitting comfortably in 3rd while an intriguing battle is being fought for 4th between four clubs. Season long form often goes out the window around now, teams lose their nerve and confidence while others step it up a notch. For the FPL manager, we need to look carefully at the most recent fixtures and try to made informed decisions on current form and future fixtures. Anyway, enough of that vague generic league analysis, who gets your armband this weekend?

Arsenal @home to Blackburn - Arsenal are beginning to falter, just as they did around this time last year. They haven't won in the last four matches. This really is a season defining match. If they can't grab a win here, any hope of 4th spot becomes very slim indeed. Look for them to come out fighting. RVP as usual. How about a big gamble on Oxlade-Chamberlain?

Man City@ Home to Fulham - City are faltering too, a bad loss to Everton and a nervy encounter with Spurs. However, with Kompany back last week, look for City to be a bit more confident getting forward. Dzeko looks like a great differential this week. Ageuro is good too. But Fulham have been showing some form recently and scoring goals. Dempsey and Dembele will give City problems. Could be a high scoring match here.

Newcastle@ home to Villa - Ba should be ready to start this one, bit there's a new striker in Newcastle, Highly rated Papiss Cisse, who brings with him a remarkable record of 37 goals in 65 matches for SC Freiburg. Could be one of the best striker partnerships in the premiership. A bit unsure how Newcastle will line up though, and will both get 90 minutes? If you're looking to get one of these in, weigh up the proven premiership goal scoring of Ba versus the differential potential of Cisse.

The "big" matches - Chelsea @home to United, Liverpool @home to Spurs. Impossible to predict, but i will anyway. I fancy Liverpool to give Spurs a good test, 1-1. United should easily beat a poor Chelsea side, 2-0.

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?