Back Of The Net Boy

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Friday, February 8, 2013

Gameweek 26 Season 2012/2013

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Hello ladies and gentlemen... ok, let’s be honest… Hello gentlemen!

So I’ve decided to separate how New Cork Cosmos get on from Back Of The Net Boy activities and now I can report on both individually; at BOTNB HQ we had another good week. When you start podcasting and tweeting etc it’s a new step, obviously Darragh and I have tremendous support and feedback from our friends, who we met ye in ACTUAL PERSON before you joined our league/pages or else yer friends of friends, but now we’re starting to have 4th and 5th degree of seperation listeners/followers whatever you call it, it’s certainly lit a bushel under my arse-i-cles, so we have a lot of ideas about how to keep furthering our scope. As ever any feedback ye have is more than welcome and if you can help spreading the word, pages, tweets, podcasts and maybe reviewing us on iTunes etc, all very helpful.

But when we get to WCC stuff, things are a little less inspiring, I fluked a misleading high score due to my flukiness of vice captain coming in place of Remy. I heard an interesting line about Eamon De Valera, and how we should “forgive people’s natural mistakes”, and I think that was the fantasyfootballdeity did by taking care of on that front, all that helped me do a little bit better than all the leaders of the BOTNB league, but it feels like I didn’t earn it. (but I’ll take the points, don’t’ worry about that)

REVIEW OF NEW CORK COSMOS IN GAMEWEEK 25

So I’ve had two good game weeks in a row, third GM in a row that I haven’t dropped places and in fact ga..gai… gained (what is that word, I haven’t said it in months) points on those ahead of me. Now Fellaini got about 40% of my points, and there were just enough bonus points, assists, clean sheets and goal ammassed by his NCC teammates to scrape a slightly better than good score together.

WHAT’S THE POINTS?

Points scored last week - 75 Points

Average points scored in that week - 44 points

Points off the top - 282 points, closer by 14 points to top spot.

Position in BOTNB League - 52nd (9 places higher up the table, 2 places of

being back on the first page!)

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… Gameweek 25’s highest scorer had a 85 point haul from David Neville. What follows is his thoughts on what got him such an impressive haul...

Dear fellow fantasy football fans (and nerds, you know who you are, Darragh),

Well well, in the middle of an admittedly poor showing from me this year I am humbled and honoured to be writing this piece as this gameweek’s top scorer (yippee), although it was a close call with a good few people with scores not far off my total of 85. A lot of us did well this week due to 4 of the “POWER 5” midfielders doing the business as well as plenty of clean sheets being available, going against this season’s trend and also my penchant for Goals Galore coupons (Swansea…grrrr). I took a 4 point hit this week, bringing in El (wundergoal) Kün for Džeko which didn’t work out too well (-2 overall) but I’m still confident that it will pay off in the coming weeks as I figure the little Argie will be my main differential from those around me. The main and obvious reason for my little bit extra this week was Mr. Screech himself being handed the armband ahead of a few other good options and duly bagging twice against the indefensible Villains. My decision to stick with Benteke, for now anyway, then topped me up nicely. Looking forward to next week I only have 2 players (at the time of writing anyway) playing twice but in year’s past I’ve usually been let down by investing too heavily in double gameweeks so meh to that. It’s not as if I’m in a title race anyway. That fact is as sure as the HT/FT result in a Turkish 2nd division game these days. I’ll go back to my mid-table mediocrity now.

Yours in virtual sport,

D

Screenshot of David’s team from GM25, I’d like to point out that he also only had 3 players from the dreamteam, kudos sahr.

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TRANSFERS

I actually did something I rarely do and made a transfer Sunday night, Wilshere was pointed to the exit and I brought in Sissoko. So in that respect, I should probably just leave my team at that, but I must admit I have a trigger finger at moment. A lot of the things I was thinking of was dealt in the podcast, but it mainly was trying to decide if it was worth losing 8 points and Walcott to bring in Suarez (double game week etc) and a cheap midfielder, but our captain, @darraghFPL, pointed out I could just sneak Lampard & Sturridge and that really is a fascinating idea.

But I think, I’ll just keep with what I got, (1) to spend 4 points is one thing, 8 seems a bridge too far especially since getting in an attacking Liverpool player would be at the expense of a good Davies performance at Anfield. (2) I'm kind of happy already with what I got.

KEEPING AN EYE ON

Samba & Caesar at QPR, Wilson at Stoke… and the Real/Utd result at midweek, I am considering that gettign rid of RVP will be neccesary for me to make any real gains on my peers, since the fact we all have him is just frankly boring. And RVP/Walters out would get me Lampard & Aguero in. Even as I type that I think I might do that tonight when I get home from pub if I’m feeling brave.

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

My regret of the season will be bringing that Wisdom fella in, I just didn’t check that he was coming to cover injuries rather than on form alone. I am benching him, even though he has a DGM, as I fear he might just play 20 mins in one of the games, he’s my number 14, with O’Brien away at Villa sitting to his right. My first choice outfield substitute is Remy, but apparently he might play. Darragh suggested not playing Fellaini but I think that UTD might just have one eye on the Real game next week, and if anyone can make use of that attention deficit it could be our friend Fellani.

Here’s the screenshot.

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Here’s the thing, will I go with redemption or revelation… Right now Walters has my C, he’s not a shirker and will keep working as hard as he does and maybe his recent poor form will break at home to Reading… and my V is with Sissoko for his trip to Spurs, he could fare well there too.

Logic says Michu though, because of the DGM, I might go with that later.

CAPTAIN’S CORNER with @darraghFPL

Phew, after the senseless speculatations of gameweek 24, my revisit to the status quo of fantasy football picks returned results, despite Giroud (I’ve repeatedly mispronounced his name on the Podcast, sorry Olivier) failing to build on his recent run of form. Everton continue to prove they’re a fantasy factory for fledgling form (-1 alliteration point) as Anichebe chipped in with 11 points. That’s a point per every £0.25 million, ka-ching! And if all this wasn’t enough, its time for another double gameweek featuring the miserly Swans and the inconsistent Reds of Merseyside.

It’s with Liverpool I’ll start the breakdown. Aside from Gerrard, the main two protagonists for the armband this week are the newly forged striking partnership of Suarez and Sturridge. The body poppin’, bitin’ divin’ duo seemed to have clicked instantly but one misconception that has arisen of late is that Suarez has had to sit deeper to accommodate the new arrival. Of the four games they’ve played together, the Uruguayan has maintained a higher average pitch position in all but GW24, which was the away draw at Arsenal. As it has been the case all year, Suarez is strong the stat department. His penalty area touches (40-23), chances created (11-2) and crosses completed (7-1) are all favorable but its here where parity begins arise. They duo have the same number of attempts on goal (16) but then Sturridge beings to show his potential and value. He has a higher minutes per attempt (17.6mins - 23.7mins) and higher percentage of involvement in team goals (33.3% - 20%). In perhaps the least sophisticated but most pertinent stat, he has also bagged one more goal than ‘El Pistolero’ and comes in at £3 million cheaper. I’m body popping as I type.

Moving onto Liverpool’s twin fixture counterparts, another recent teammate comparison of late is Michu v De Guzman. Despite holding a higher average pitch position in all of the last six fixtures, De Guzman holds the edge over Michu in every a number of key categories. His ICT threat index rating is 50 points higher and he is almost twice as involved in Swansea’s attacking moves, receiving 160 passes in the opponents half and 62 in the final third, ahead of Michu’s 102 and 56 but there is a sway in the power dynamic as the Canadian trails in penalty area touches significantly (26-6). Michu has failed to score in his last six games but as I mentioned in earlier blogs, he has something in his favour. Earlier this season, he maintained an unsustainably high shot to goal conversion rate, peaking at 57.8% while the mean for midfielders in the Premier League stood roughly around the 22% range. As predicted, this slowly began to regress to the average, eventually bottoming out at his current rate of 18.1%. However, he has seen a complete reversal in recent weeks, peppering 15 shots on goal, hitting the target 11 times but failing to convert once. Like I said before, these types of stats inevitably either regress of progress to the mean and I expect Michu to begin this climb back during the double gameweek.

Outside of the doublers, there are strong fixtures for Chelski, United and the predictably unpredictable Villains. As I mentioned on the podcast this week, I’m sending out buckets of love for Frank Lampard. His 6 goals in 7 games coupled with his 3.7 shots per game show strong signs of potential against a Wigan side that’ve shipped 12 goals in 5 games. Lampard is sitting deeper than usual, playing just above Ramires and behind the three pronged attack of Mata, Oscar and the returning Hazard but his penchant for a long ranger and his place on spot kicks ensures he’s a more than palpable differential for those chasing template midfields this week.

Just before I sign off, Rooney has never scored against his former club and Benteke has netted five times in his last five. Normally, I’d scribble four paragraphs of waffle highlighting the likely hood of Rooney decapitating Fellaini and Benteke grabbing a brace against an awful West Ham defense but I’m going with a gut feeling for the first time since the ‘Torres’ affair. I fancy the resurrection of form for the Scouseman to continue and to finally break his duck against his boyhood club. Furthermore, I’m going to back the opposing striker in the Villa/West Ham fixture. Andy Carroll’s first goal since November coupled with Aston Villa’s porous defense should enable the Hammers to heap more pressure on Lambert. Me backing the likes of Rooney, Carroll, Sturridge & Lampard? Times are a changin’…

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Friday, February 1, 2013

Gameweek 25 Season 2012/2013

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Hello everybody!

So it feels like only yesterday I was writing this last time, but in fact it was the day before last, been really productive on everything but the fantasy pitch. Our burgeoning podcast is getting good feedback, it’s still like a new born calf or some sort of animal that is taking tentative steps into the world. Thanks for the feedback again folks though, it really is welcome.

Addendum – excuse me for use of unparlimentary language but ‘Fucc You My computer, Fucc You’, this was mostly written at 11am, then Darragh et I recorded the podcast (which is available here) and the rest of the time has been lagging and all that crap since.

Don’t forget to enter our spine* competition too!

*better name imminent.

REVIEW OF NEW CORK COSMOS IN GAMEWEEK 23

From my great week** in GM23, I’ve plummeted back to normal*** with 55 points. Basically 2 of my players got exactly 60% of all my points, Walcott & Baines [two absolute leftfield choices, noone else thought of those players L ]. The rest of my motley crue did not achieve the high scores than my Tommy Lee figures of Theo and Leighton did [see what I did there? Scoring meant in two senses, fantasy football AND sexxxing with girls!] Seven of the remaining 9 not mentioned got 3 points or less, and yeah I suffered the igmony of having a player get minus points too.

The minor victory of the week was on twitter when our captain @darraghFPL giving me @backofthenetboy public advice saying to play Lambert over Davies, boooom FOUR POINT SWING MUTHAFUPPA!

(**in context to my other 21 shit*y weeks)

(*** ie shit*y)

WHAT’S THE POINTS?

Points scored last week - 55 Points

Average points scored in that week - 41 points

Points off the top - 296 points, closer by 6 points to top spot.

Position in BOTNB League - 61st (exact same as last gameweek)

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… Gameweek 24’s highest scorer had a 85 point haul from Stephen Minihane. As it stands I haven’t heard anything back from him, but it was short notice….

Hi Ronan.
To b honest I havent checkd my team in about 3 weeks and forgot their was midweek matchs until it was too late and I couldnt change the team in time ha ha. So basically chalk this week down to luck

- It all counts here Steve, well done!

Stephen’s team.

***

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TRANSFERS

I’ve two free transfers to make this gameweek, as I’ve always been a fan of drama, I really was tempted to try and bring Gallas in ASAP, especially because of his favourable fixture at home to Norwich, but the powers that be seem to have not added him yet. [as of 11am they hadn’t, it is now 5.30pm and they have]. On a similar point Coutiniho hasn’t been added and it would have been handy to bulk up with a Liverpool player or two, what with their two games in GM26.

But trying to get new blood in right now, so Remy will be the new signing here at expense of Lukaku and saving .5 million, as I said about QPR earlier they have 3 real good fixtures in next 6 and since they don’t have many option in the final third (I know @DarraghFPL goes on about Tarabt, who might also be coming in with Fellani going out next week)

That leaves me with a second transfer and 4.8 to play with it and the only choice is if it’ll be Tompkins or O’Brien at West Ham that packs their bags…. Drumroll… here comes the big reveal moment…(screen splits into two with a close up and each player)… I’ve dropped the former, and brought in Wisdom at Liverpool, but that’s future proofing for GM26 really. [I have already regretted this decision @darraghfpl as pointed out he was only filling in for Enrique, but I hope Luis gets sent off against Man City now and makes my bad decision look enlightened].

I’ve now clicked the confirm button [this was 11am time] but wondering now about perhaps dropping Wilshire or Walcott and bringing in Tarrabt, and either build up a few quid or a lot of quid. I might remember to ask Darragh during the podcast. I’m up too early to be making decisions like this.

[epilogue, have decided to keep them both, I pregret that now already, like retaliation it’s good to get yer regret in early sometimes]

KEEPING AN EYE ON

It ain’t nothing but a G thang here in our scouting department here, namely Giroud & Gouffran. But also Samba, realistically will come in next week, which could end up being a G-amba-le... #illgetmycoat

THIS WEEK’S SELECTION

Right I kind of have two awkward matches with 3 Stoke players against 2 Arsenal players and 2 Swansea players against 2 West Ham. I had some decisions to make and with @DarraghFPL's advice I went from this proposed line up

let's see next week if it was worth listening to him

MY CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

It’s time for thinking outside the box here, but looking for someone who will have success in the box, so Remy at QPR, eyes are on you. My theory is Samba gives QPR for pace at back, ergo their midfield can be more adventorous, ergo Tarabt & Remy will get more chances. QED...

CAPTAIN’S CORNER with @darraghFPL

Yeeeesh, so that was a pointless exercise. This ‘out on a limbness’ has to stop. From now on, I’m going with bankers. BOI & AIB ain’t gonna have nothin’ on me. So my successive punts rewarded me with successive punts in the methaphorical groin of my fantasy anatomy. Ba got me a whopping point per minute return, except he played; yes you guessed it, one minute. Jelavic got the same score, but played seven times the amount of minutes. Luckily Bale offered some respite with a late equalizer but still, once bitten, twice shy.

This week I’m wildcarding, so I’m going with more chunky heavy hitters than a Junior B hurling clash. First and foremost, I’ll be making my bread and butter through the Gunners against a surprisingly dismal Stoke defense of late. But which one to go for you say? Walcott has done enough to quash the Cazorla argument but Giroud’s reemergence in recent weeks has raised a number of issues.

Most importantly, Giroud’s place in the team has forced Theo back out to the right, quelling the initial hysteria about his OoP appeal. However, the ickle’ winger continues to offer returns. And with spots so limited up front, surely he provides the best route for Arsenal attacking cover. But then numbers start to edge toward the Frenchman, particular in the last four gameweeks.

While Walcott maintains a higher ICT threat index rating* (12.5 – 11.7), but Giroud has become the focal point in Arsenal’s attack in recent weeks. In the final third, he touches the ball every 1.6 minutes compared to Walcott’s 2.5. Furthermore, his involvement of 50% of Arsenal’s goals outweighs Walcott’s 44.4%. Both numbers are impressive but Giroud costs £1.6 less at the time of writing.

And are spots *really* that limited up front? With RVP’s emergence as essential along with the dominance of Mata, Bale and Michu, considerably money has become tied up in midfield. Giroud at £7.9 offers a far cheaper route to Arsenal cover without breaking the bank and still offers substantial returns of late (6.2 point return in the last 6 games/ 12 point return in the last two). Its food for thought, especially for those of us in the midst of a wildcard.

Like I said in the opening paragraph, after last week’s sting, I’m going solid choices all the way. Mata trumps just about every Chelsea option available so I say “nuts!” to the forward line and Benitez’s penchant for rotation, he simply has to play the little Spaniard in the coming Hazardless weeks. His 26.2 minutes per chance created over the last four gameweeks is 2^nd in the league, behind only…..wait, this must be a type-o…..Aaron Lennon? (23.2 mins per chance created).

To back this up, Mata has an ICT creativity index of 216 over the same time period, ranking 3^rd in the league behind the polarizing Silva (219) and….ah this can’t be right, Lennon again (255, he’s played himself into my choices this week I guess). Chelsea also play a Newcastle side who’ve conceded 16 in 6 and Mata’s 14 point haul appears to be no fluke, especially when Chelsea plays away from their fans at the Bridge.

Its that time of the gameweek again when I give my weekly dose of fantasy love to the ever lovable Toffees of Goodison Park. Baines (woof, what a return last week), Fellaini, Jakielka and Pienaar all deserve consideration for the upcoming visit of the Villains but I’m not going to chase points and go with the tried and trusted Belgian. Without getting to in depth into the innate crudiness of the Villa back eh, 3 or 5, Everton should simply pummel the relegation candidates with ease.

Jelavic was dropped in favour of Victor Anichebe (is there a greater insult?) so more of an emphasis will surely be placed on the massive chest and shoulders of Fellaini. He holds a higher ICT threat rating of 38 over the past month, with his nearest Everton rival, Steven Pienaar, way behind on 28. His goal attemps of 2 per game is the highest of any Toffee over the same period, though every other statistic is dominated by the hunky, vinyl loving, scooter riding, fantasy demi-god Leighton Baines. Like the ex-girlfriend who keeps tagging you along though, I’ve eventually had to let Leighton go. I’m definitely not averse to a late night fantasy booty call from the Scouse full back. Sometimes I wonder If I take all this all a little too close to heart….

*The ICT threat index relates to the amount of chances and shots created and executed by a single player. It is the same system that determines the allocation of bonus points in the Fantasy Premier League.

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