Thursday 17 September 2009

Wednesday Round-Up

After 2 dull games involving English teams on Tuesday we had slightly better entertainment on Wednesday.

Liverpool made hard work of little known Hungarian side Debrecen, with just a single goal from Dirk Kuyt the difference. Again Gerrard played deeper allowing Benayoun & Kuyt to get forward to support attacks. I must admit, Torres looked slightly off the pace again & that’s a few games in a row now…expect him to bag a brace vs. West Ham.

Despite Gerrard playing this withdrawn role it doesn’t put me off him for Week 5. He was still involved in everything & tends to get more chances to shoot from around 20-30 yards out when playing in the centre of midfield. His set piece delivery continues to provide danger to any opposition Liverpool face, so despite his price I expect him to be in my team when the 12pm deadline passes this Saturday.

Benayoun was impressive again but you wonder whether Rafa may rotate his team at West Ham after many of last night’s side played their 2nd 90 minutes in 4 days & looked tired by the end. As we know, with Rafa, you never know.

Arsenal were involved in the pick of this week’s Champions League games as they fought back from a catastrophic start to win 3-2 in Belgium. Defensively they seem all over the place again this season, shipping 8 goals in their last 3 games, and they found themselves 2-0 down after just 4 minutes last night. However, they were able to take advantage of Liege’s negative tactics after this & eventually earned a deserved victory.

Tomas Rosicky was the best player on the pitch for Arsenal & I am now fairly confident he could start vs Wigan after he was subbed in the 70th minute. I also expect Van Persie to be back after Eduardo & Bendtner both played close to 90 minutes. Eduardo was subbed with a few minutes remaining & looked absolutely exhausted, possibly carrying a knock or suffering from cramp, so I’d be shocked to see him start on Saturday. Vermaelen continues to looks dangerous from offensive set pieces although his goal had a touch of fortune with Song clearly handballing (and possibly standing 5 yards offside if Eduardo did get the flick on) before playing the ball across the goal.

We have Fulham & Everton in Europa Cup action tonight, the last games before the Week 5 fixtures so the last real chance of any last minute injuries. Some reports this morning suggest the out-of-contract Lucas Neill is having a medical with a view to a move to Everton on a free transfer. I really dislike Neill but he is a very good defender & I must admit an Everton back-line of Neill, Distin, Jagielka, Baines when everyone is fit is one of the best in the league. Where this leaves Heitinga I’m not sure but I guess he could still be in line to replace Neville in midfield.

As promised I’ll try and go in to more detail on Player Picks later this evening but I imagine the majority of readers now have reasonably settled sides with maybe just 1 or 2 big choices left to make. Any injury news I hear will be posted up this afternoon, with Predicted Starting 11’s & the Week 6 Preview coming tomorrow.

What dilemmas have you got at the moment? Mine involves Heitinga, Sonko, Rosicky & Hunt - it's probably going to be a last minute decision again.

Cheers,
AM

6 comments:

mudwalkerz said...

not ready to jump on Heitinga just yet..might barndoor him.. if he puts on a good performance.
had Fab added for the weekend but after last night I kinda felt the need to drop him.. I know you never know with these kind of players.. but cant say they looked to go on a hot streak anytime soon..after all even Standard has been playing pretty badly lately over here in the Belgian league.

Naning said...

Right now, I'm looking at:

Myhill
Vermaelen, Warnock, Collins
MTAY, Rosicky, Milner, Hunt
Drogs, Tuncay, RVP

Other than Collins and Milner, I'm happy with this team.

chris m said...

Similar problems.

My back three, all at discounts are:

Verm/Richards/Givet

The move would be Heitanga for Givet who with Neville out looks like a sure start. Dunno want to do here. Verm is a keeper in for the season. I think everyone who had him from the start makes the same play. I just have a hunch about ManCity and Richards, he cost next to nothing originally so I am keeping him.

You are absolutely right about Rossicky. I have said so here from day one and have been a huge fan since he was at Dortmund. Problems are are obviously fitness and injury. I will field him and keep my fingers crossed.

My HUGE problem is what to do with Abou Diaby who I got stuck with on a hunch when his value went down 3 pts, fromt 10+ to 6.78 because of the OG. You are right, he looked horrible in the CL

I have in midfield right now:

Diaby/Gomez/Rodwell/ Rossicky

I have 1.48 extra pts, if I get rid of Diaby I have 8.2 to play with. Problem is no one looks any good to me. As I said before, real slim pickings in the midfield this year. I am tempted to go with Deco but who the hell knows who plays with Chelsea. I do think Rodwell looks like a surer thing with Neville gone so I am staying with him. Gomez is playing the full 90, taking set pieces, he won't sit or get subbed and he will score some points. So I am pretty set with the exception of Diaby. My front btw is

Drogs/Rooney/Torres

The later 2 seem to have come out of the CL ok. The only move here I am thinking of at all is to go back to what I started with and swap the pts from Torres for Lampard and select a cheap striker, Doyle/Rodallega etc? Torres just doesn't seem to be playing hard and is worrying too much about whether his hair looks pretty enough. (You should have seen him fussing with it in the pregame shots before the game when they were waiting to walk out of the tunnel. He clearly had other things on his mind aside from football).

So guys what midfield do you buy with 8.2 pts or millions or whatvever.

chris m
velvet underground allstars

Dave said...

@ Chris M - your front line is a powerhouse, but at first glance, that MF looks weak. As noted by others, I would watch 'Sicky for starting status. Playing a lot yesterday might mean a rest this weekend, and Wenger may not want to overuse him so soon upon return.

What about Diaby--> O'Hara, Rosicky--> Hunt ?

Fidan said...

@mudwalkerz - I play CL fantasy football and my friend believe it or not Fabs scored 12.5pts (not far away from his price in here) and the system of evaluation is identical as YFF-EPL...

I too have the doubts on Fabs/BFAY, since I can't have both. I think I'll go with either of them in midfield and either Carew/Eduardo/Bendtner(depending on starting status) in atack...so I'll have both Arsenal and Villa covered...even though I have a strong feeling one of these two will really disappoint (Arsenal being the stronger bet to do that)...!!!

Which one you think is better:
BFAY/Diaby/Bendtner or
Fabs/O'Hara/Carew

Good luck...!!!

Chris said...

i've been set on my lineup since saturday but now i'm having my doubts. i'm currently on:

foster
verm warnock sonko
lampard gomez o'hara fab
rooney drogba tuncay

after playing around with my team i've gotten rid of foster, fab and tuncay and replaced them with myhill, BFAY and rosicky. i rarely like playing 3-5-2 but with tuncay in the squad i've basically only got 2 strikers anyway. my only problems are BFAY has yet to really impress and rosicky might not even start. i would love some input. thanks

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