Week 9 - Match Previews
Please remember that nothing is certain, I am not the manager of any of these team, and if the press don't know there's no way I can be certain, so PLEASE only use these as a guide.
If you have any team news you have may contradict these starting XIs then please post them up in the comments section below:-
Birmingham: Hart, Carr, Ridgwell, R Johnson, Quedrue, Ferguson, Carsley, Larsson, Bowyer, McFadden, O'Connor
Sunderland: Gordon, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Turner, Richardson, Malbranque, Henderson, Cana, Reid, Jones, Bent
Burnley: Jensen, Mears, Carlisle, Caldwell, Jordan, Alexander, Bikey, Elliott, Blake, Nugent, Fletcher
Wigan: Kirkland, Melchiot, Bramble, Boyce, Figueroa, Thomas, Diame, Koumas, N’Zogbia, Scotland, Rodallega
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, A Cole, Ballack, Essien, Lampard, Deco, Anelka, Drogba
Blackburn: Robinson, Jacobsen, Samba, Nelsen, Givet, Nzonzi, Andrews, Diouf, Gamst-Pedersen, Dunn, Roberts
Hull: Myhill, McShane, Kilbane, Sonko, Dawson, Zayatte, Barmby, Hunt, Bullard, Geovanni, Vennegoor of Hesselink
Portsmouth: James, Finnan, Kaboul, Wilson, Ben Haim, Mokoena, Yebda, O’Hara, Boateng, Smith, Dindane
Tottenham: Gomes, Corluka, King, Bassong, Assou-Ekotto, Palacios, Jenas, Kranjcar, Lennon, Keane, Crouch
Stoke: Sorensen, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Ab Faye, Collins Delap, Diao, Whitehead, Etherington Beattie, Fuller
Wolves: Hennessey, Zubar, Berra, Craddock, Elokobi, Edwards, Henry, Kightly, Halford, Doyle, Ebanks-Blake
Aston Villa: Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Petrov, Sidwell, Milner, A Young, Agbonlahor, Carew
Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Ricketts, Knight, Cahill, Samuel, Muamba, Gardner, Cohen, Taylor, Chung-Yong Lee, K Davies
Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Heitinga, Distin, Neill, Rodwell, Cahill, Gosling, Billy (PLEASE!), Fellaini, Saha
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Carragher, Insua, Mascherano, Lucas, Aurellio, Benayoun, Kuyt, Torres
Man Utd: Van der Saar, O’Shea, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra Carrick, Anderson, Giggs, Valencia Berbatov, Owen
Man City: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, Barry, Ireland, Wright-Phillips, Bellamy, Tevez, Adebayor
Fulham: Schwarzer, Pantsil, Hughes, Hangeland, Konchesky Baird, Dempsey, Greening, Duff, Kamara, Zamora
West Ham: Green, Faubert, Tomkins, Upson, Illunga, Parker, Behrami, Collison, Noble, Diamanti, Cole
Arsenal: Mannone, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Diaby, Eboue, Fabregas, Arshavin, Van Persie
You should now have all the information you need to pick your Week 9 team. As always, best of luck, and i'll be back in the morning with My Week 9 Team.
Reminder of only a few spaces in Blog League 5:
Group ID: 23245
Password: yahoo
And if you find that's full then Blog League 6 opens:
Group ID: 23246
Password: yahoo
And finally, if you're on facebook we have the Blog Facebook Group which is continuing to grow in numbers & helps me put faces to names...
Cheers,
AM
33 comments:
AM - How sure are you that Bullard will start? He'll presumably take every kick if he plays in a must win game at home, so a good pick but how risky is he?
Alternatively I like MPet for his match up but don't want to risk him (at full price) not playing.
Or it's James Milner who is at least a certain starter...? Would prefer Bullard though if sure to start...
Cheers,
OS
AM -
Should i drop MPet for this week??
So I have no free time, and after a whole week of planning the big reformation in my squad, it remains the same from Sunday, despite the thought of dropping Geovanni after his poor performance.
Given
Heitinga Vermaelen Bassong
Fabregas Boateng Bily Geovanni
Drogba RvP Crouch
In the defence are two players with probable CS - Bassong and Given. Verm and Heitinga can concede, but it's a small risk to play with them.
The midfield seems weak - Bily is doubtful (please let the reports be true!!!), Fabregas is unexpected, KPB is unstable and Geo looked poor against Fulham. But with Fab, Bily and KPB safe in my team, and me having no money left to spend, the alternative of Reid to Geovanni seems rather pale.
Drogba is a duh. Crouch is popular - I can't count on him, but he's pretty cheap and many have him. Many in the blog viewers don't like RvP because of his 12.5p on Saturday, but he could've gotten at least 13p without a goal on mid-week, and that's when I'm counting only the SOT and the assist. Plus, and even above all, I have a strong feeling about him. I thought about putting Bent instead, but I just can't do it. He'll probably stay.
Any comments?
SF
LOL -- I saw your Eds. Note on Billy, AM. I'm with ya. I'll probably keep him too. A zero from Billy is better than a minus 1.5 from the likes of Mokoena.
QQ for the group:
Sonko, Wilkinson or Givet as my 3rd back?
billthegrunt, definitely not givet.
AM:
this is great, you are talking us all up. you made me laugh!
"By the way, if anyone fancies some last minute chat/discussion on player picks & injuries then we have a constant live "quick chat" going on over at my blog with lots of people who are in the overall Top 50 discussing options! The address is:
YAHOOFANTASYFOOTBALLUK.BLOGSPOT.COM"
you usually put something at the yahoo blog that is a simple invite, but i have never seen it so slick before. nice. everyone who is in the TOP 50 raise your hand.
@ billthegrunt - Sonko, they're playing Portsmouth.
QQ - Fabs or Lampard
2nd QQ - Jenas/Venegoor or Gomez/Crouch
anonymous,
fabs has been consistent, so that is a no brainer. chelsea may go off, but that doesn't mean lampard does.
the first option looks better with jenas and venegoor. not a lot of people are going for venegoor, the whole blog is picking crouch.
What about Malbranque now that Cattermole is out. Does that help or hinder him?
Avoiding the "outs" and the "questionables" /
"hopefuls" (except for Blini at 4.78), I'm converging upon a line-up I have little confidence in. (sigh) Then again, one of my worst weeks came from a starting XI I was thrilled with. Rolling the dice...
What I'd really like is a checkbox in the Team Manager to restrict the search results to guys who've played at least one game. When mining for
bargains, you have to wade through page after page of people who've never even made the first-team bench. (Weirdly, YFF is still listing Sheva for Chelsea.)
After much deliberation, I am basically set on the same team aI had all week, sans a defender and change in striker. I also have a pretty good idea for who I might BD for next week. Not worth dropping Billy at 4.71 when he may just miss one game...
Here's hoping Billy plays!
What I'd like to see is for YFF to make all their stats downloadable to a spreadsheet. There's software that will mine the numbers but it's too messy and complicated (at least for me).
Sonko was my first pick as 3rd back so for that reason alone he stays. Clean sheet potential is way down on my priority list for backs these days.
OK. I totally wimped out of my overly discussed obsession of keeping both Rooney and Torres, going totally against the current conventional wisdom, scoring a coup with a 4-3 shoot out with a brace each for them, having a 160 pt week, and moving back up the leader board.
This is after all fantasy football, and this particular fantasy died hard.
After spending the last couple of hours scouring every web site, totally overthinking this, I decided to play it safe. I know that Rooney will want to go but probably won't be able. I know that groins are tricky injuries and that Torres is a wuss, so even if he starts he probably won't finish.
I do think that Liverpool, with the steel of Gerrard will not get their head straight after the CL debacle and may get slaughtered. They are showing signs of disintergrating.
So this week I am putting out (not that anyone cares) but I enjoy subjecting myself to potential scorn and derision.
Given
Verm Heiti Seabass
Blini (also PLEASE) Duff Dunn Deco (this for alliteration only)
Drogba RVP Berbatov
There are two gambles here as to starting status, Blini and Deco. The others are sure things.
I considered switching formation and going with Giggs. I also considered Prince Boateng who really looks like he's heating up, and Crouch, who will try to make a statement for club and country.
Not considered at all were Bullard, who is still not fit and overpriced, Lampard, who I think may be done-i.e. Steven Ireland, Adebayor who is slightly injured and has little heart, and Fabregas who I think has simply come to early.
Cheers and good luck
Its time to go to my pub
chris m
velvet underground allstars
Perhaps Yahoo's obliged by their stats provider (Opta, I believe) not to make stats acquisition too easy, which would discourage anyone else from paying for them too. Just guessing...
Guardian squad sheet has Bily out, Heitinga playing MF.
LOL Gregino - that was meant to read "Top 500", but I guess dropping the zero hasn't hurt site traffic...:)
To be fair, we have 3 blog readers in the Top 10!
Cheer,
AM
AM,
that was a convenient slip, i am sure next time it will read "top 5"!
so I'm sorta wanting to have an A-Villa player this week. it's a hunch and my hunches are always wrong, but since I never learn, it all evens out.
So what's up w/ Sidwell? He seems unremarkable, and no one has him, but he's under 5 and on a likely winning side: thoughts?
Otherwise:
Jensen (Burnley@home ftw!)
Verms Alexander Sonko
Arshavin Ballack Billy Sidwell Kranjcar
Drogs Bent
I have about 1.5 left over, so there is sliver of upgrade room, so Alexander could become Cuellar (that would be an A-Ver) or I could bail on Billy (I have him @ 6.5) and bet the other way w/ Bolton's Cohen. Or drop Sidwell for M Johnson or Fletcher (tho not sure he's playing)
thoughts from all you geniuses? much appreciated, good luck all!
tamir cohen would be worth a gamble. not a single person will have him and he will earn more than his cost at home to everton.
guys need ur opinion: bassong/M.taylor OR Sonko/Lampard?????
anonymous, why bassong? go with mtay and carlisle or sonko, not bassong.
My team selection this week
James
Verm Heitinga Richards
Cesc Bily KPB Kranjcar
Drogba Agbanlahor Crouch
I know I've taken a risk on my gk but I reckon tt with Bullard returning, James will make more saves then he concedes and should he keep a clean sheet, tt will be a big big bonus!
AM what do u think?
i'm keeping bily this week.. he's to valuable to be dropped for a one week injury and to damn expensive to re-buy him later (got him at 4.71 too).. after all those tweaking and changing, i realise i'm back to my earlier monday team.. lol..
anyway, good luck everyone.. i'm leaning on drog, bent, fab, verm and my 2 secret hunches to score big this week.. while myhill, sonko, mok and rjohnson to at least get postitive..
saving my team now..
Maxer..
Anyone can comment who is more prefererable
R. Keane or L. Saha?
@SK I'd go with Keane as he's playing home to Stoke. Saha is a good option but they have many players injured and couldn't even break down Wolves.
What you guys think about a middie for less than 13.22?
I am thinking Barry/Lennon/MPet/Kranjcar or someone else maybe?
Wish I could afford MTay!
my team for next week is allready finished, but for this week still much work to do
given
verma, heitinga, bassong
giggs, lennon, m.taylor, billy
drogba, adebayor, jan vennegoor
wat do u reckon fellas?? ive been averaging round 100points past few weeks but really dnt feel it this week......
Is M.Petrov going to start?Bellamy & Ireland have back for training. Lennon,Milner good replacement?
Rgds.
Ajani
@Macunian thanks for your sugguestion. I'll take it into mind.
Myhill
Vermaelen Heitinga Bassong
Fabregas G.Barry Geovanni Kightly
Drogba Keane Crouch
Turned out to be a really tricky week, didn't it?
Decided to rely on my defence getting clean sheets (hence dropped Heitinga) as I wasn't too happy with my midfield or attack. In the end I've gone for:
Given
Verm;Richards;Ivanovic
KPB; Bily; Taylor; Geovanni;
Drog; Crouch; Rodellega
Mostly hunches and crossed fingers - oh for the days you could pick the trinity happy in the knowledge that at least one of them would give you a 30 point haul every week!
Good luck all
Paphos Toffee
Post a Comment