Gameweek 5 Season 2012/2013

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

GAMEWEEK 5 REVIEW OF NEW CORK COSMOS

While a lot of us all have the same big names, our selection of the mid price players is really coming to the fore and this week I had some poor results.  I got 36 points (somehow the 4 points for making a transfer didn’t seem to get taken off?), with 6 players getting 2 points or less. The igmony of getting zero points only went to Williams of Swansea.

Got the captain right? Nope, as I said in last week’s blog, I was gonna with one of my two new recruits to hopefully offset the 4 point outlay, if’d gone with Berbatov (8 points) rather Morrison (3 points), I’d have have 5 points better off.

Got the keeper right? Nope, if I’d gone with Cech, I’d have had a 6 point swing.

Got my subs decisions right? Can’t complain, the total haul of my subs bench was just 2 points.

LAST WEEK’S TEAM

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS

… the highest scorer of each gameweek in our league is invited to share a few insights into what got them so many points… last week’s highest scorer was Cormac Gahan who got 76 points, which for context was 81% of the average score on top of the average score, which was 44.* (I need a better way of figuring and wording that, any ideas) And it brought him to 7^th spot.

Making Lambert captain was definitely the key move for my team last week. Really ‘Man bites dog’ had been struggling in recent weeks. Normally I make quite a random captain choice but last week I chanced Lambert for the following reasons: (i) Southampton have already scored a tonne of goals despite playing against some of the leagues toughest defences, (ii) Lambert had already scored two, (iii) most importantly Southampton were desperate for a home win and against Villa they had a good chance. Also the other captain choices were tough calls; Hazard playing against a tough Stoke team and RvP away to Liverpool. So really it sounds like I know what I’m doing but it was down to luck in the end I guess (it usually is) – but I think Lambert is a good call for the time being.

Also I’ve just played my wildcard and brought in Baines, RvP, Hazard, Ben Arfa, Cazorla, Michu – all of the usual suspects. So Baines, Ben Arfa & Cazorla also did well for me. Since everyone’s team is now quite similar captain choice is going to be important. Some of the players in my original team are now starting to deliver (like Bale and Cole) but I couldn’t wait too long to get RvP and Hazard in because prices were going up all the time – so I got rid of them. It’s going to get more interesting now as players are rotated for Champions League games and who knows who Mancini is going to start in any given premiership match.

  

WHERE AM I?

That 7^th place Cormac now holds conviently (as a link in this article, but not for New Cork Cosmos) is where I stood last gameweek. I currently hold 10^th position, thus I have have dropped three places in the league and 57 points off the top.

In the BOTNB league, I stand in 7th position with about 30 points to gain to get back on top, but I’m looking at the squad I have I don’t feel very confident, it needs a bit of an overhaul, which I have started this week.

TRANSFERS

On Sunday night, I decided to act and make three transfers that I had planned to do soonish, mainly because I feared price rises during the week would get me in trouble, which I feel vindicated by as the three have collectively risen by .4 million over the course of the week. The three in were Howard, Baines and Fletcher (of Sunderland), and out went Cech, Kaboul and Graham.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

Well I go by the theory, never buy a player if you don’t wanna use him, so that makes my goalkeeper decision pretty easy, even though it would have been anyway (Howard at home to Southamton (though the afore mentioned Lambert is a worry) versus Jaaskelainen at QPR.

My usual trick of keeping defenders on the bench (it’s not really a trick, it’s just what keeps happening) means I just had to pick between Michu and Morrison. Since the latter is orange and physioroom.com says it’s a hamstring injury; I’ll go with the Swansea man.

Here’s the screenshot.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

AMACH!

At the Arena Franklin (home ground of New Cork Cosmos), someone who might be heading for the door is Williams at Swansea, I fear they have lost momentum and might take a while to rebuild defensively. but they do have two fine home fixtures in GM 7 & 8, perhaps I bide my time and make no transfers next week so I can swap two out at no points cost. Kolarov has lost .2 in value though, and I can’t seem to rely on him playing at moment either.

Also collateral damage could be required for my bank balance to improve for future transfers and therefore Tevez may have to go…

ISTEACH!

… mainly cos of Manchini’s squad rotation between Champions League and Premiership, and also because of his price. I keep coming back to the idea that bringing in Crouch (6.5) or Bent (8.2) [quite a chunk of change of price difference] would give me forward options of three players who will always start – along with Berbatov and Fletcher.

In midfield Cazorla is really ringing my bell, and everyone elses of course, but he is quite pricey. A lot to ruminate upon, especially when I read articles like this about two other options… www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2012/09/27/versus-steven-pienaar-marouane-fellaini/

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

As I’ve spent 8 points bringing in three players this week, logically if I captain one and they perform then they’ll cover the points outlay. So it’s a toss up between Baines (at home to Southamton) or Fletcher (at home to Wigan). And to be honest I’m quite torm, both visiting teams are equally poor; both players are in good recent form and neither played during the week in their clubs whatever-it’s-called-now cup fixtures. I think I’ll err towards Baines, mainly because if he does well (ie keep clean sheet) then Howard will to. But perhaps that putting to many eggs in one basket. I may change my mind to Fletcher in the morning. We’ll leave the captaining to the expert…

Drum roll it’s……. Captains Corner

sorry folks Captains Corner isn't able to join us this week as he is training his replacement before he goes travelling. Indeed we will be bringing in a new Captain next month.

Woah it’s like we’re starting all over again, due to a variety of reasons the last two blogs just haven’t happened, travelling and timing has not helped but a general laziness on my part has also had an impact.

Gameweek 3 & 4 review

There has already been a huge bunching up of big hitters, RVP, Tevez, Hazard etc and it has made things kind of boring as most people have the same 4 or 5 players already. Hopefully there’ll be a few cats among the pigeons (a black cat called Fletcher perhaps?) soon. A lot of people had a poor gameweek 4, with 40 points being the average score (I got exactly that myself), and our leader in the Back Of The Net Boy league, Michael Daly, getting a ‘mere’ 61 points, [fair dues to Gilbert who managed 64]

The team I selected only had one mistake where Cech got 3 points less than Jaaskelainen, those tiny margins are what could make me kick over a table at the end of the season; and disappointingly the player I transferred out (Sigurdsson), did better than the player I transferred in (Kagawa), who didn’t play at all.

WHERE AM I?

In the BOTNB league, I stand in 7th position with about 30 points to gain to get back on top, but I’m looking at the squad I have I don’t feel very confident, it needs a bit of an overhaul, which I have started this week.

TRANSFERS

Much to my chagrin I decided to get rid of Torres and bring in Berbatov, mainly because I reckon the Bulgarian is going to play every game possible (and he’s already fitted in well); I anticipate bringing in Fletcher next week, for same criteria.

And I got rid of Joe Allen, I was stupid to bring him in, wrong position to get fantasy points, and I’ve brought in Morrison at WBA, he’s hit good form already.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

Due to my two dud defenders, which I explain in next paragraph, I only really had to decide which player to drop, by virtue of having signed two players (Berbatov and Morrison) they will definitely start so only question was who to drop between Graham and Tevez, so I’m going with the latter to partner Berbatov (old friends from their Old Trafford days). Keeperwise I’m going with Jaaskelainen, mainly because Stoke and Chelsea will probably lead to some sloppy goals being let in by the Blues; but also in the classic fantasy football mindset that IF he keeps a clean sheet it will mean Fletcher won’t have scored - ergo my competition who have signed him already will be lose point and his value could go down so I can sign him cheaper next week.

GOING FORWARD / WHO YOU LOOKING AT RONAN?

I think I’m gonna end up making double transfer next two weeks, I have two defenders I am constantly not using Kolarov (due to Manchini’s rotation and Man City’s less parsimonious defence) and Kaboul (due to his long term injury), so that’s dead space. And I might just squeeze a few quid, so I can also bump up to Santi Cazorla and Fletcher somehow.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN {might change mind last minute in the morning}

I’ve spend 4 points bringing in Morrison this week, so I’ve decided to captain him. He looks like he could thrive at home to Reading.

Drum roll it’s……. Captains Corner

Tough choice this weekend, no obvious standouts.

RVP@Liverpool - Very frustrating week against Wigan last time round with reliant robin only getting a 20 minute run out and a single point in a 4-0 win. He took a slight knock in an international so this was precautionary. Expect him to start at Anfield. Tough match though, Liverpool usually step it up a notch against Man U so I don't expect a goal fest. Still, he's probably the best of bad bunch of captaincy options.

Hazard@home to Stoke - Hazard looks the only reliable choice from Chelsea; Torres's place looks in doubt. He turned up a blank in a hard fought 0-0 against QPR who had something to prove, I expect a better showing here.

Berbatov@Wigan - Berba returns to the captaincy corner! Great first run out against West Brom, grabbing a brace, but the old Fulham away from home caveat remains.

City @home to Arsenal - Should be a great game. Arsenal just look better and better with Cazorla pulling the strings and Podolski putting away the chances. They have the momentum here to pull off a win I think. City are leaking goals at the moment, 6 so far this season. Tevez, Podolski and Cazorla and decent picks here.

Gamble pick - Maloney @home to Fulham.

ah, here I am sat in a costa coffee in the Mile End area of London being an e-migrant; looking at other people with iPads and laptops and I can only guess they are tweaking their fantasy football teams or writing blogs on such subject too.

I wrote that paragraph and then had to go to my buddy's house to be let in and nap on the couch; now I'm in yet another shite bar in this City; shite pissy ale with sky sports news on with no sound on about 7 screens [I just counted, it is indeed 7]; so on one of the busiest weekends in the fantasy football's  season's calendar (transfer weekend see, a mini whirlwind of players coming and going  - be it lesser value squad players moving to new clubs in which they''ll start (Johnson at Sunderland etc) and players from lower of foreign league (Jarvis at West Ham etc)

So bearing all this in mind, it makes complete sense that I make my changes and post this content a day earlier than usual (I am performing at a festival in Dorset tomorrow, so I just gotta do it tonight). By virtue of not having my normal laptop with me my previous fils aren't with me either (Seriously London's wi-fi situation is piss poor too, in terms of the ratio of pubs and cafes  having it for free customer's use  to not having  not) ANYWAY!, so I have a screenshot of last week to work from, and then logging into make my changes via my iPhone and using roaming data charges, seriously W.T.Fuck.

I haven't really had a chance to look through the fantasy football scout page; messageboards or indeed fellow manager's teams.

So anyway, to quote one of many favourite Arab Strap songs...  here  we go....

STATE-OF-PLAY

I had another good week, 30%-ish better than the overall average score, a good start is one of the many things I didn't manage last season. 5th in he botnb league already

GAMEWEEK-2-TEAM



WAHEY!!!

I was sure I logged in and captained Graham, but instead I went with his teammate Michu, which was handy extra 2 points for my team... I didn't really have any major curveballs selections last week.

All three of my strikers scored  and/or got assists, so that was a rare bonus, them and Michu's double points accounted for 51 of my points

BOO HOO

Which therefore means my other 7 players got an average of just les than three points, ergo I actually made more bad than good decisions. And if Torres (my captain for GWone) was still holding the armband I would have gained an  extra point; those are the margins lads, those are the margins.

PLAYING FOR HIS PLACE

It's still a tad early to be saying players are out of form, while in essence they are still finding their bearing, but even with that in mind  Sigurdsson is already looking like he'll be culled in ruthless fashion soon by me; but it will be interesting to see how Spurs bonanza of new midfielders and forwards work around him.

KEEPING AN EYE ON

Spurs and QPR have both added a lot of new faces, and the monobrowed Boswinga at Loftus Road is particularly tickling my fancy. Both Fletcher and Jarvis are both intriguing me too.

TRANSFERS THIS WEEK

pretty simple I got rid of Guthrie (not playing this gameweek/2 potentially tricky fixtures in following 3 GWs), and brought in Kagawa as he seems to be the one to step into Rooney's boots (I do somewhat fear that he and RVP might also get their Man Ut debut 'groin strains' to prevent them playing for their countries next week though).

I hd stockpiled by transfer from last week, so to have a second and decided to get rid of Mata (not playing this GW either, and to be fair Hazard seems to be a 'must have' player already, so I'd need to get rid of a third Chelski player anyway. I brought in Allen, a cheap, seemingly first team player at Liverpool already. Long term Back Of The Net Boy league member, Darragh, has made some points already about why it was a bad idea (in fantasy terms anyway); and I must admit he's right. But transfer was made, the silver lining is that I have a few million in bank now, so that could be handy next transfer, to allow for a serious upgrade if needed.

SELECTION THIS WEEK

Very easy, only one of my keepers are playing and I seem to have only 12 outfielders available, I went with the simple idea of dropping the defender playing away (Haangland @ West Ham) but for some reason I don't think Kolarov will be selected anyway so my Fulham boy might get automatically selected for me anyway.

I'd say this week, I'm 85% happy with my team, and I'll be happy with a 55/60 point haul. There's no player that I am worried about their fixture this week; and hopefully my selected 11 do all play then none of my own team will be playing each other ergo losing points for when when other does well.

For my captain, Mr Tevez gets the honour this week, Green has been playing badly in front of a shaky back four and if Caesar does replace him then it'll be a keeper unfamiliar with the defending style and moves of the players in front of whom; neither of which is an ideal way to visit Man City.



CAPTAIN'S CORNER

Could this be the most one sided captaincy choice of all time? Polls around the various FPL sites point overwhelmingly to one man - Carlos Tevez. Indeed it's a brave man not to captain him. 18 points from 2 games and a very fantasy friendly home fixture with QPR who have leaked 6 goals already (albeit 5 in one game). City don't quite look at the races yet either though but you'd fancy at least two goals for them here.

The old differential question then, raises it's head again. If you are doing well it's wise to stick with the obvious choice - if he doesn't do well, the majority are in the same boat, but if he does, you don't make up much ground against the masses. So let's take a look at the other candidates.

RVP away to Southampton - RVP is a HUGE differential this week. His 13.2m price means a lot of people are resisting the urge to decimate their team to get him in so he's at a meer (for him)  23.5% ownership versus Tevez who is at an amazing 39.4% at time of writing. He's most certainly the main man now with Rooney out for two or more months and with Kagawa providing the service and a goal already under his belt, you'd fancy him for a goal here. And we all know he's liable to go on a rampage at any time against any opposition so could be posting a big score as well.

Spurs at home to Norwich - This should be a great fixture for Spurs captaincy options, but they are yet to show us they can mount a serious top 4 challenge this year and the team is still very much in transition - lots of players to offload, and more to come in. Adebayor should start and is a good pick. Bale too but after two blanks, i wouldn't bet on him.

Newcastle @home to Villa - Look for the Toons to bounce back after the Chelsea defeat against a pretty awful Villa side. Ba, Cisse and Ben Arfa are your picks here.

Gamble pick - Has to be from the Arsenal Liverpool game, how about Cazorla?

Fantasy Football 2012/2013 - Gameweek 2

Heya Folks and Folkettes

So a strange little chain of events today, I assumed that as the heir to my throne was having his afternoon nap (why don't we adults continue that part of a daily routine) today in my folks house that I could research (yes I research-ish) for the blog and then type it up; but alas my dad is off up the country and he brought the Internet dongle thing with him. 

Now where I grow up has a lot of things to be said for it, but it's phone reception is not one of it's strong points. No 3G, barely two bars of just phone reception IT'S LIKE LIVING IN THE THIRD WORLD. 

Anyway so I'm on bus now after putting him to bed and I'm doing an Ringo: Music Bingo gig at 9. Sp basically I'm typing my element of this week's blog on my iPhone's notebook yoke, and therefore won't do all my usual sections as I don't know the figures and stats; and will quickly upload in the ten minute window between my sound check and gig start.

Captain's corner returns and we have a new section too 'the secret of my success', where the highest scorer in the back of the net boy league in the previous gameweek will be asked to say a few (or many words), I'll be asking different people, no pressure though. If yer not into it do be it.

Gameweek 1 review

STOP THE PRESSES, I think I got a better score last week than week for last two years. 92 points, get in. Throw in the 25 extra ones I could have got of I did honours maths and I could top of our league but that position goes to Michael Daly (current leader of the Back Of The Net Boy league), who is writing the first Secret Of My Success...

... "Ah yes 'The Sweet Smell of Success' indeed. Here I am sitting proudly on top of the mini-league just like Michael J. Fox lying on top of the effervescent spurt of champagne from the poster of the film of the same name as this section and what a wonderful view it is up here! Alas, experience tells me to enjoy it while it lasts as 'La Maîtresse de la Fantasie Foot' is a fickle little wench indeed. I would like to attribute my stellar score this week to a number of factors such as good breeding and a moderately healthy diet but easily the most significant ingredient in my recipe for success was the fact I didn't go out and get arse-faced Friday night and hence did not drunkenly make last minute 'improvements' to my squad. Had I done so I may well have replaced Hazard with Cazorla and made Podolski captain. I have vowed to learn from such bitter experiences as happened last season on numerous occasion and so far, so good. Other than that - Hazard looked really good from what I saw of him in France and himself, Ivanovic and Torres looked shoe-ins for game time in the double gameweek so I got them in. Petric, who also performed well for me, has been banging them in a lot in pre-season and I quite like the look of Fulham under Jol so I got him in too. The downside of my gameweek is I now need to address Chelsea's and Reading's blank in two weeks time and offload some of those players who will miss out. My hunch over the next little while - Sunderland's defence and Newcastle's midfield look ripe for the picking and Kagawa and Cazorla will surely deliver the goods sooner rather than later..." 

(Ronan: Thanks Michael, personally speakign I hope you don't write this section too often this season! It would scupper my winning of the league)

This week's transfers, as I said last blog I'm not making any this week as I've 4 Chelsea/Reading players and none of them play next week. 

On the radar - Obviously that guy Hazard and I wonder about the Ivanovic situation, Chelsea bought a new right back today so I wonder will the Serbian not be on the right flank bombing forward as much?

Intrigued too by QPR's signing of virtually an entire new back five, I don't know what prices and of them are because as I said I have no Internet access. (This is the closest to being a contestant on blind date I've ever been, I'll post this and then see what I could have written about!)

This Week's Selection, due to my amazing thinking-ahead-abilities, my subs from last week all come in and Collins, Hangaland and Guthrie all get benched. Pretty simple

I haven't decided on my captain, no one obvious candidates on paper so will stick with Torres (I might change my mind - actually maybe Danny graham... Hmmn)

[ Addendum, decided to go with Michu as captain / and Kaboul is out injured, eek ]

And on that topic here is Captains Corner

Very tough choice for captaincy this weekend, let's take a look at the main candidates.

United@home to Fulham - United got off to a bad start against Everton on Monday which to be fair was always going to be a tough match. But United didn't look at the races at all. Rooney looked dare I say it, unfit, Nani and Evra were pretty awful and there's a serious centre back shortage which requires Carrick to fill the role. RVP came off the bench in the second half but worryingly for his owners, appeared to be playing off the right and taking corners. He'll surely get a start against Fulham where you'll expect the usual United bounce-back after a defeat. Kagawa showed great promise though, easily the best United player on the pitch after maybe De Gea, and he'll be crucial this year. So two decent picks there.

City away to Liverpool - Disaster for City as Aguero went off with a knee injury against Southampton, but it doesn't look as serious now, with City (perhaps optimistically) aiming for GW4 for a return. Regardless, Tevez's stock has risen now and he looked very sharp in the 2-3 win, even being graced with the honour of a "slimline Tevez" tag from sky sports. Silva however didn't look great at all, his awful penalty being symptomatic of his whole game. Yaya continues to impress, popping up all over the pitch in a classic box-to-box role. They play a Liverpool side at Anfield coming off a terrible opening match against West Brom. Rodgers must be feeling the heat already, perhaps he'll try and close the game down and frustrate City? Difficult to know.

Michu - Swansea are showing no signs of a decline in style with new manager Michael Laudrup with an impressive 5-0 victory at Loftus Road. Michu looks the real deal, filling the Siqurdsson shaped hole perfectly and grabbed two goals for himself. Swansea have West Ham at home, a decent shout for your pick.

Spurs@home to West Brom. Decent fixture on paper but AVBs Spurs sides look like they need time to gel. VDV and Sigurdsson look like they'll be stealing minutes of each other so Bale is the only pick form the midfield. AVB wants to use him further up than last year though in a front three making him a great prospect. Adebayor transfer is confirmed now as well, he's a great pick too.

Gamble picks - Ba away to Chelsea. You heard it here first.

- Business resumes next week folks; hope ye have a fantastically good weekend 

Season 2012/2013 Gameweek 1

Wahey, finally that pesky stoooopid Olympics is over, and those athletes with their “training” and “dedication” and that bullshit can feck off, and it’s back to the real world of competition with laptops and statistics. So this is the 7th year of our own little back of the net boy fantasy football league, and it’s grown year on year, last season it stretched to two pages!

A good start is half the battle and in fantasy football terms, of course that means our team names. We’ve got some crackers already, my own personal one New Cork Cosmos isn’t my best work but it holds its own; as ever there are a few names/references that I don’t get but I’ve got 8 months to work them out.

So before I look at the upcoming season, let’s look back at the last season…

For me last season was a series of kicks in the balls, as my blog got better in terms of wordplay and pithiness my team decisions just blah blah shittiness.

Trying to use elements of cognitive behavioral therapy I really am trying to look at the decisions I made in 2011/2012 seasons and work out WHY I made those decisions, and learn from those reasons. Sounds easy eh! Like someone desperate for the score as it gets later in the night in a bar, my idea of success was changing the closer we got to the end of the season. It went from winning the league, then to getting into top ten, then just getting to finish on the first page and finally just to have as few girls as possible do better than me.

Of all the things I read about Chairman Mao over the years, very little has stuck with me other than the phrase “constant revolution”; and times have changed while last year I was advocating defenders being more value than strikers you can read it here -http://backofthenetboy.blogspot.ie/2011/08/fantasy-footbal-season-20112012-preview.html

But this season I’m going to bump up in midfield and attackers and see how things fare over next few weeks. For instance will Reading be porous; will Chris Hughton and Paul Lambert be able to tie things down at Carrow Road and Villa Park quickly or will there be a bedding in process: I’m intrigued about Laudrup too, his debut season mixed Swansea’s second season syndrome could make things very difficult, but I willing them on (as you can see I have three of his squad in my one); and even at the big boy end of the table seems that it will be goals not clean sheets that will

As ever I read the joe.ie and fantasyfootball scout pages and I try to not just rehash their advice and suggestions. Here are some links just in case you don’t know them

www.joe.ie/football/fantasy-football-insider/still-havent-picked-your-fantasy-football-team-take-these-five-pieces-of-advice-0027636-1  and http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/

So for this opening blog, I’ll talk ya through my team/squad selection

Goalkeepers

Cech and Jaaskelainen, pretty straightforward reasons. The latter is dirt cheap and will be playing for West Ham where I can only assume he will play most if not all the games and will take quite a few shots too. Cech, I basically brought in cos he has two games this week, and he’s always a sturdy choice, the Chelsea defence isn’t the fortress that it once was but over the next few weeks he’s as good a starting point at anyone, I’m looking towards Given and Mignolet though.

Defenders

I didn’t want to go with two defenders from any one club, so I’ve gone with varied line up, while the big money options of Vidic, Kompany, Cole, Vermalan etc are pedigree choices, I’ve went with low cost defenders Kolarov is my most expensive, seemingly Man City have been flirting with a 3 centre back, using Kolarov as a wing back, so hoping that continues it could mean clean sheets with him further up the pitch getting assists (hopefully) and he does take occasional free kicks too.

Williams at Swansea, as I said earlier second season syndrome could effect them and if so defence is usually where it crumbles first, but they have a very favourable set of opening fixtures so I’m going to hope they do well. By extension, Williams who was one of their stand out players last season has been brought in. Hangeland at Fulham, played every game of season in premier league last season; I really think Jol will lead the club to a very sturdy season this year, and if I can manage to pick a couple of defenders who have a sturdy season I’ll be happy. On that same tip, I’ve gone with Collins at West Ham, assuming they have a Boltonesque dynamic, it won’t be pretty but if he gets occasional headed goals from set pieces and they eek out the bore draws and whatnot. 

Finally Kaboul at spurs, perhaps AVB will hit the ground running with the Spurs squad (and I hope he does) and perhaps Kaboul will be a first choice player [Vertonghen looks tasty too]

But there ya go 3 defenders at 5, another at 5.5 and finally one at 6.

Midfielders

I’ve been playing more with these 5 squad places than the rest put together and my watchlist is jam-packed. Simply I put Mata in, as he has two games this week and I hope he plays both, the talk seems to be he will be the pivot this season which opens up the game to Torres and I’m buying it.

Sigurdsson was brilliant last season (half season) and has done well in pre season with Spurs, I can only assume the team will be built around him [it can’t be just money that he turned down Liverpool and went to Tottenham instead], especially now that Modric is gone (he is gone by now isn’t he?)/

I’ve brought in Guthrie, as he plays two games this week and he’s 4.5, i.e. cheap as chips. He will realistically be traded out by GW3. Nolan is also cheapish (6) and I’m pretty sure he will do well with West Ham this season, they also have a good opening run of fixtures so perhaps he’ll knock in a few goals for me. Nolan will the leader at West Ham, what he brings to the team is (to do an Alan Hansen and just say the keywords) is Experience. Responsibility. Leadership. (Alan shearer will probably say we don’t' know a lot about the lad)

 Finally I went with Michu, mainly cos I’ve read in two different articles that they think he could be the signing of the season, I am that easily led folks.

Santi Cazorla, Arteta, Walters, Nasri, Allen and Pienaar intrigue me too though…

Forwards

Have gone with Tevez (cheaper than Aguero by 2.5, and Balotelli has an eye complaint at the moment), as he is really getting talked up by the Man City camp and Torres, as well, he could possibly come good (FINALLY!!!) he has 180 minutes this gameweek to hit the onion bag a few times.

My final striker is Graham at Swansea, once again he had a fine season last year, hopefully he continues.  Ruiz at Fulham and Lukaku at West Brom were the other options for that final spot.

My team selection is as follows,

Next week’s blog will have more of a structure and hopefully the regular readers will start contributing to it too.  

Fantasy Football 2012-4-27

Game week 36

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 63

Average Score on site – 47

Highest Haul: 26 – Rooney (He was my captain, so it was 13 points doubled)

Lowest Haul: 0 Points, Johnny Evans, nice work Mr concede-four-goals.

Average Score Per Player 5.7

Accrued Score – 1660

Place in my own fecking league – 50, up 2 places

Points off the top – 323, rose 6 points closer to the top.

Points off ‘The First Page’ – I’m on it baby! 50^th position.

State Of Play

What a midweek of Champions League football folks, so much that I’d somewhat forgotten the 4-4 goalfest at Old Trafford last weekend. Threw the cat amongst the pigeons on fantasy football to say the least, without a modicum of research I’m going to say that this must be one of the highest scoring individuals gameweeks in a very long time, that is to say many players for 12 or so points or more? Does that make sense? I’m already doubting myself.

Vindication

Leaving the captaincy with Rooney I guess, he drew nearly 50% of my points this week (41.3% to be exact, this is a game of specific margins folks). But once again it’s not like he was a dark horse. None of my squad are any sort of wild card to be fair.

D’oh

Jaysus a lot of 2s or less, 5 players just didn’t perform.

Did I get the Keeper right?

Yes, Krul got 6 compared to Vorm, or should I say DOUBLE!!! It looks better doesn’t it.

Subs in general?

Nope, Song did better than every midfielder I did play, ie all of them! And while Richards didn’t play, Cahill, did better than every defender of mine that did play.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

Jeez, are Villa gone? I’ll be honest and say I’d prefer them to go down than some of the ‘smaller’ clubs, they and Spurs seem to have essentially just given up trying to win, or being bothered to win even. Having said that I’m gonna pick up a Spurs player this week.

While the relegation battle and race for 3^rd/4^th is exciting, the drama is focused on Monday with the biggest Manchester Derby ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (or so the papers are saying)

8 teams play twice this week, so this is last chance for some of us to get that extra few points over the people ahead in the league table. Trying to work out the doubles actually cause more hassle than it’s worth sometimes, obviously players might be rested for one and general tiredness at this end of the season affects form too. I anticipate Chelsea will be looking backwards and resting players as well as looking forward to both Finals they have coming up so players will be playing for their places (other than the suspended 4!), I also assume Liverpool are only thinking of two things: (1) Their chances to play in the FA Cup final and (2) Not getting cream suits.

           

Transfers

While Cahill is injured, it Micah Richard’s I’m getting rid of and bringing in Hibbert at Everton, a few people are tipping Huth, as Stoke play twice at home this week, but Hibbert is very cheap and Everton have 4 fixtures that could bring them 3 clean sheets, possibly 4.

Well Spurs simply have to step up and win their matches, factoring that in with people playing for their Euro Squad place I am gonna bring in Lennon AND Bale, saying goodbye to Segurdsson and Valencia, I doubt the latter will play all three of the next matches, certainly not 90 minutes of all and for the former Swansea play Man Utd and Liverpool in their final 2 games of the season. Bringing players who should play all four of the remaining fixtures their clubs have imply more points being gained.

Shipping Bendter out, bringing popular boy Jelavic in. Simple reasoning Jelavic will play twice this gameweek. On a similar reason, Song is gone (away to Stoke, can’t see him doing much) and brining Fellani in, so putting a lot of faith in Everton this week, 12 points of faith.

Theory/Selection

Basically playing everyone that is playing twice, so that’s 9 of the team picked, then dropping Evans (more chance of Williams keeping a clean sheet against the already relegated Wolves than Evan against Man City) and to decide between Rooney and McClean, errah I’m going with the Shrek!

My Captain, My Captain.

I’ll go for Bale, two winnable games this week, certain starter for both (unless injured obviously)… Jelavic will be my vice, even though it’s a needless back up plan methinks.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Jeez, noone really, just the telly!

Captain's Corner

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

I think he’s gone to a stag. Sorry folks, we’re closing early this week.

Fantasy Football 2012-4-20

Game week 35

barcaRONAN’s last game week Score – 75

Average Score on site – 38

Highest Haul: 26 – Rooney (He was my captain, so it was 13 points doubled)

Lowest Haul: Cisse – 0 points, as he didn’t play at all

Average Score Per Player 6.8

Accrued Score – 1597

Place in my own fecking league – 52, up 9 places

Points off the top – 329, rose 12 points closer to the top.

Points off ‘The First Page’ – 27 points closer to 50th

State Of Play

To use a phrase more commonly used in NBA Jam… Boomshackalacka!!! An amazingly good week at Camp Ro, only 4 teams did better than moi in the BOTNB league this week. Hopefully we can use this as a stepping-stone and have a strong finish to the season. Can’t wait for the Euros now!

Vindication

Nothing particularly inspired to take credit for, even though overall I did very well this week, 6 or 7 prominent players all did what they are well known for doing and I managed to captain a player who did well.

D’oh

Similarly nothing to rue either, 3 players getting 2 points or less was statistically likely.

Did I get the Keeper right?

Moot point, as he wasn’t playing.

Subs in general?

Even mootier point.

Screenshot of my team from last game week.

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

Wahey! we are officially in the business end of the season that people refer to, so let’s get down to bizness. Couple of slug outs now – The Title; 3^rd & 4^th place; and the drop, and then there are the other 8 or 9 clubs who really are almost twiddling their thumbs looking at the brochures for sun holidays already.

Having said that not much stands out this week, other than two returning figures, O’Neill returns to Aston Villa as Sunderland manager, it’d be safe to say that both parties probably wish they could rewind the clock two seasons as they have been forgettable for both.

On a smaller note Darren Gibson returns to Man Utd now in the colours of Everton, Gibson was in the shadow of Paul Scholes for a few seasons and now it looks like they will be playing against each other.

           

Transfers

Making no transfers this week, the only reason would be to bring in the players playing twice this week and there isn’t a Villa or Bolton player interesting me at all. There is no point trying to be clever and get the jump on all the doubles coming up in the next gameweek yet cos there could be a bevy of injuries.

Theory/Selection

Simple really, playing as few defenders as possible (in this case benching Cahill, who is away at the Emirates, and Williams, who is away at Bolton). While Krul has an orange mark against him, I’ll go with him as first choice keeper, and finally my fourth benchee will be Song for Arsenal, my reasoning is basically that my other 4 midfielders are in better recent form.

My Captain, My Captain.

I might go with the safe choice of having Rooney as captain again, might change my mind over the course of the night though, he never really shines against his old club Everton but they are bound to be out of sorts since losing that FA Cup semi final and a visit to Old Trafford is never easy at the best of times.

My Team this week

Keeping An Eye On

Darren Gibson, on a personal note, to see if he scores a 35 yard screamer on his return to Old Trafford. But also Lennon at Spurs, who seems to be fully fit again and his return to the right wing could lead to resurgence for both Spurs as a team and him as an attacking player.

Captain's Corner

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

RVP disappointed and Rooney looked out of sorts (despite getting two goals!), and City seem to be returning to their early season free scoring form, giving us lots to think about.

Arsenal@home to Chelsea - Tricky to call this one. But i will. 2-2. RVP and Walcott for Arsenal, Drogba could well be rested here for Champions league next week, Torres to deputise. Not a great fixture for your armband though.

Wolves@home to City - This looks mouth watering. Tevez is back with a vengeance and his partnership with Aguero looks deadly. Both are excellent picks. Aguero probably the more likely to get 90 minutes and should be on pens so he's slight favourite imo. Silva is a good shout too. Oh and Hennessey's out for Wolves, uh oh. 

(I'm forever blowing) Doubles! - Villa and Bolton have doubles this week, but most will be overlooking this on account of both teams being very poor recently and much bigger double gameweek fish to fry next week. Still though, the likes of Myaichi for Bolton or maybe a Villa defender (2 home games) could be a good bet, but it's risky.

Newcastle@home to Stoke - Cisse and Ben Arfa.

Gamble picks - For the 3rd or 4th time this season, Yakubu! (Yes, I’m a terrible gambler)