Week 7 Preview
Now, Week 6. I'll get the final injury news/predicted line-ups posted much later this afternoon. I will say that I am thinking of making sweeping changes that will involve me dropping some of my big names to balance out my defence, midfield, & perhaps a surprise pick in my 3rd striker slot. It's a move that could backfire or could propel me up the table...I'm thinking of taking the risk this week, if it doesn't pay off it's still early days & I can do some good barndoor work to get ready for Week 7. I have all the changes sitting in place on my Team Page, I just need to get the guts up to click "Save"...Remember you can find my Week 6 Player Picks Here.
Anyway, the Week 7 preview is short & sweet today as I've been very busy with work. The fixtures:
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Bolton v Tottenham, 15:00
Burnley v Birmingham, 15:00
Hull v Wigan, 15:00
Man Utd v Sunderland, 17:30
Wolverhampton v Portsmouth, 15:00
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Arsenal v Blackburn, 13:30
Chelsea v Liverpool, 16:00
Everton v Stoke, 15:00
West Ham v Fulham, 15:00
Monday, 5 October 2009
Aston Villa v Man City, 20:00
Firstly, the stand out fixtures: Arsenal home to Blackburn, Tottenham at Bolton, Man Utd home to Sunderland, Everton at home to Stoke (who never travel well) & Wolves at home to Portsmouth.
There are a lot of tricky fixtures which are very tough to call in Week 7 - Hull v Wigan, Burnley v Birmingham, West Ham v Fulham, Chelsea v Liverpool & Villa v Man City.
I really feel like loading up big time on Arsenal & Spurs with plenty of Everton sprinkled in. I may also have a serious look at Wolves.
Players to watch on the barndoor...
Arsenal: Van Persie, Fabregas, Arshavin, Walcott, Rosicky, Vermaelen
Tottenham: Defoe, Crouch, Lennon, Hudd, Bassong
Man U: Rooney, Berbatov/Owen, Giggs, Nani, O'Shea/Brown, Foster
Everton: Saha, Yak, Billy, Pienaar, Cahill, Osman, Heitinga, Baines, Howard
Wolves: Doyle, Kightly, Doyle, Milijas, Jarvis, Mancienne, Hennessey
Others: Drogba, Lampard, Torres, Gerrard, Hunt, Myhill, Rodallega, Gomez, Nugent, Alexander, Jensen, Carlton Cole, Diamanti, Noble, Agbonlahor, Milner, Tevez, Bellamy, SWP, O'Hara.
Top Pick - Bit of a hunch, but Theo Walcott is back, reasonably priced & could destroy Blackburn with his pace. Saha, Billy, Defoe, Lennon, Rooney, Gomez, Kightly, Arshavin & Van Persie are all strong contenders.
Who will you be looking at on the barndoor for Week 7? Have you even decide who'll you're settling on for Week 6?
Cheers,
AM
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16 comments:
M.Richard (Shoulder problem),G.McCartney (Foot problem) & Bassong (knee) are doubt for week 6?
Any good replacement?
Rgds.
Ajani
I'm thinking of sweeping changes to AM,
currently have
Given
verm Heti warnock
Lennon JoH Millner Rosicky
Drogs Nando Eduardo
thinking of
warnock for bassong and eduardo for defoe
keeping the core of my team
or a more drastic
Gordon
sonko verm bassong
lennon gerrard Joh Rodwell
Drogs Nando Defoe
help plz... thanks
To anonymous
I think if bassong doesn't make it hutton is the perfect swap
i've just booked my tickets to go to Arsenal v Blackburn so I'm hoping Arshavin and Walcott both play and we see loads of goals!
Realistically the biggest risk you could take is dropping Drogba to stand out from the crowd, but like I say, big risk....am so tempted though, I need to stay top of the league 3
Right, this has to be the most difficult week for selection problems.
I have changed my team no fewer than 5 times so far, and have just made the most drastic changes about 10 minutes ago.
Too many players are 50/50 this week and they include Ricahrds (shoulder injury), SBass (knee injury and listed as very doubtful), Billy (will he play) among many others.
In addition, Harry has stated he has a selection headache for Spurs this weekened. Crouchie scored a hat trick in the midweek CC match, and so it throws it up in the air as to whether Crouchie or DeFoe or Keane or a mix of the 2 starts.
So, I have Given in goal with the chance of a CS. I favour him slightly over Gordon, and with better fixtures to come. His price was also attractive after last week.
Vermaelen stays and is a season keeper. Heitinga in for Richards, and McCartney in for SBass. That gives me a City and a Sunderland man at the back, and increases my chances of CS pts.
Midfield contains Lennon who I feel is certain to start, and will be dictating play. Hunt for his consistency and Phantom pts. O'Hara for the same reasons, and Pienaar just because he's good, and with a favourable fixture away at bottom pompey.
Drogba stays in. Saha makes the front line as he's in the best form of his career, and Bent rounds off for Sunderland.
What! No Liverpool players?????
I didn't have Torres or SG at discount, and including them just didn't allow me to balance the team.
Furthermore, Torres may be pulled out of the team early, as Liverpool have a Tuesday night CL match to think about.
I took Torres for their home match against Burnley, and I think he returned just 2.50 pts in that match.
I couldn't decide if the goals would come from SG, Torres, Kuyt or Benayoun, so just stayed away.
Long winded but constructive thoughts nonetheless.
@ Anon -
I took the jump :D
And im not regretting it!!
I BDed Saha instead of him =D
Gotta think big to win big
Decision made, am leaving my team until ive had a drink tonight then can blame all changes on being under the influence, its the easiest yet hardest week ever..these Burnleys and Hull's can spring surprises
Alex
The reports regarding Bassongs injury are very conflicting. With physioroom have him with no return date and very doubtful and then I read this on : "Bassong gets all-clear".
http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,1784_5574662,00.html
What to do. With a tight budget the only one I can trade him in for without taking apart my whole team is Wilkinson or Sonko.......Lets hope he's fit!
///Andy
Andy - how about Ryan Nelson if you're not sure? He'll be back with Givet out, he's at home & he could be in for plenty of tackles/blocks vs Villa. He's also a danger from set pieces (for assists - he rarely scores!)
AM
My team as it stands right now for week 6, including some wholesale changes
Given - great keeper, wish I had put him in earlier, but his price drop has allowed me to get him again. Good chance of a clean sheet, and could make a few saves too
Heitinga - good clean sheet chance, can't see Portsmouth scoring
Vermaelen - duh!
Assou-Ekotto - I'm an arsenal fan so picking 3 spurs players this week was tough, but looking at him, and his stats for the season: 21 passes intercepted, 14 tackles won, 6 successful crosses, 6 corners won, 7 fouls won, and he gets forward as well. he's my hunch of the week
Lennon - He will tear burnley apart I think, again a spurs player, but you can't argue with form
A Reid - never been a big fan, but he's averaging 15.17pts across his last 3 games and 9.1 pts per game this season with a good match up v Wolves
Mokoena - filler, but is getting the odd point or 2 every week
D Fletcher - last friday I tipped him to have a great match v Stoke - 2 goals and a 4-3 win against City later, i realise I should have had him for last week, but I now have him at a big discount and i'm pretty sure he'll do well against Stoke as well
Drogba - i know he's not a definite starter due to his injury but i have him at a discount of over 6 so he stays
Rooney - I have always said I will never rate him as a striker until he scores 20 goals in the league in 1 season (he is still yet to do that even after 7 full seasons!) but he has so far scored 6 goals in 6 games, and I'm sure he'll start getting assists soon too
Defoe - 3rd spurs player I've gone for, reluctantly, but he is in great form, and against Burnley he should at least get shots on goal if he doesnt score 2 or 3!
about Defoe, Crouch, Keane...Im not Tottenham fan like AM.. but well against ManU they played with all 3 I think? Keane right spot on the mf, and Crouch and Defoe up front. No reason why they should not try this again? AM? Have no room for any of them myself though heh.
Mud - Defoe will play, & I expect Crouch to keep his place after his hattrick. You may well see Keane out on the left of midfield again, although I'd much rather Kranjcar or even Bale there.
Harry have the guts to leave Keano out of base team two times in a row?
I hope I won't regret my decision to stick with half attacker half midfielder 'goldielocks'.. instead of one of the 3 Tottenham options.
from a sunderland fan forum:
“In the second half (at Burnley), and in the last half-hour in particular, we went from the sublime to the ridiculous,” raged Bruce. “I would never criticise anyone publicly, but I had a meeting with the players yesterday and I pointed out a few things that have to improve.
“And if some players don’t improve, they can’t play at this football club – it’s as simple as that. There was such a big contrast between the first-half performance and the second-half performance, and I believe the reason for that was that our mentality wasn’t good enough.
“If they’re not mentally capable, then they are simply not good enough to be here.
“We have to find a level of consistency that makes sure this club goes forward. That’s the challenge I am setting them.”
and the reply from a fan:
I think that message was for Anton Ferdinand and I can see him leaving in January. I don't think we can afford (as Castle suggested) to lose George McCartney. Not only is he a very capable left back, he is our ONLY real left back. However, the two new boys Mensah and da Dilva showed us what they are capable of last night and they looked very good. Admittedly, the Brum side was weak, but I think that any fight they had in them was quickly extinguished by the toughness of these two defenders and Henderson's early goal. Ferdinand has been suffering a few mental lapses in games extending back to last season and I expect him to give way to a new central pairing of Turner and Mensah. Bruce may also (and I think it's a good idea) rotate Bardsley McCartney and da Silva in the two full back spots, to keep them all involved. With Cana and Cattermole first choice in centre midfield and Malbranque seemingly having nailed down the right mid spot there's a three way competition for left mid between Reid, Henderson and Richardson. All three are capable of grabbing goals, but Reid has that extra bit of creativity that is providing excellent service to our strikers and I hope Bruce persists with him. Still, he's bound to end up with at least one unhappy player there, no matter what he does. Up front, Bent looks like he's having a great time and I can see him bagging a sackful of goals for us. Nice to see campbell finally get his reward for hard work last night, but Jones looks to me like he's just going through the motions - not really engaged. With this no-nonsense manager, he may find himself third in line if he doesn't snap out of it soon.
another fan suggested it might also hint on McCartney
just thought Ild post this little bit of inside view ;)
on the sunderland site no mention of any injury worries for any member.. other than a late fitness check for Cattermole.
I have a big decision to take guy, please advise:
Option A-
C. Gordon
I. Sonko
T. Vermaelen
M. Skrtel
N. Milijas
Jordi Gómez
S. Gerrard
F. Lampard
D. Drogba
Tuncay
F. Torres
Option B-
C. Gordon
G. Johnston
T. Vermaelen
M. Skrtel
N. Milijas
Jordi Gómez
S. Gerrard
O'Hara
D. Drogba
Tuncay
F. Torres
I am 0.04 away from getting given in that last change.
Essentially it comes down to gambling on Lampard, or selling him and spreading the cash.
I think Johnson is going to do a lot this weekend, Hull will be behind the ball, so can see him pushing forward and cutting inside.
Please let me know A or B
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