Injury Update 23/11/09
Things just don't get any better for Liverpool, do they?
Rafa Benitez has taken an 18-man squad to Hungary for their rather important Champions League game agaisnt Debrecen on Tuesday, which the maths enthusiasts among you will realise offers them absolutely no room for manouvre.
Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Yossi Benayoun and Dan Agger (despite his head injury suffered against Manchester City) have travelled, but Fernando Torres and Albert Riera have stayed at home.
It's not entirely clear at this stage why Riera has not even made the trip, as the Spanish winger was on the bench for the City game at Anfield, but that inclusion was ahead of schedule after his hamstring injury suffered against Birmingham.
Possible reasons/ill-informed speculation whistling around the F365 office are that he tripped on his way to the bench on Saturday, or that he suffered a bad reaction to the horse placenta massage he was 'treated to' in Serbia last week. Obviously, like proper journalists, we'll let you know when we find out.
Edit: Apparently Riera has stayed at home for 'further treatment' on that twangy hamstring. Told you we'd let you know.
Another man who is closer to Stanley Park than the Hortobágy national park (thanks Wikipedia) this week is Ryan Babel, whose ankle was crunched at Anfield on Saturday.
Speaking of mischiefs suffered in that game, Manchester City captain Kolo Toure was forced off the pitch at half-time, but don't fret City fans - he's on the mend.
According to the City website, the club's medical staff have reported that Toure has made a 'good recovery' since Saturday, and it's not expected to trouble him for too much longer.
While we're on the City site, Martin Petrov may well be back in training by the end of the week, after he strained knee ligament while away with Bulgaria, and Sylvinho will be back breathing down Wayne Bridge's deeply average neck after his calf problem was declared done and dusted.
The next big game in that fair city will be the Merseyside derby next weekend, and Everton could have Steven Pienaar back for that one.
Pienaar has been absent since the end of September with a knee knock, but David Moyes said today: "Steven is the only one who is near coming back. He will hopefully train this week and we'll take it from there."
Here's a thing - some positive injury news from Arsenal. Seriously.
Having missed the defeat at Sunderland with a foot problem, Kieran Gibbs is back in the Gooners' squad for their Champions League game against Standard Liege on Tuesday.
Down to the south coast now, and you may have spotted that David James missed Portsmouth's defeat to Stoke after some discomfort in his calf during the warm-up at the Britannia.
Paul Hart played down the injury, but Pompey are obviously a bit worried about it - they have recalled Asmir Begovic from a loan spell at Ipswich, despite having Jamie Ashdown and Antti Niemi in their goalkeeping ranks.
Danny Murphy and Andy Johnson could face Blackburn on Wednesday after Fulham boss Roy Hodgson confirmed the duo have come through training 'totally unscathed'.
The Cottagers have been without midfielder Murphy for almost two months after their captain sustained a knee ligament problem.
Centre-forward Johnson has been missing for more than a month as a groin problem has kept the former Everton man on the sidelines.
But the pair have returned to full training and Hodgson is considering their selection as he prepares a side for Blackburn's arrival at Craven Cottage.
Cheers,
AM
27 comments:
What's telling here is the extent to which teams are lost when their key players go down. Liverpool is at sea without Torres. Ngog was completely useless against City last week. If Gerrard is out too, Liverpool is mid-table at best. Gerrard has to be iffy until his groin is resolved. As said before, as Torres is finding out, groins and/or "sports hernia's" are very tricky.
After watching Arsenal go down to Sunderland, I feel an eerie similarity. Eduardo looked like Ngog, totally useless. Granted they lost two strikers, but they are in trouble. Arshavin, Walcott and Rosicky will have to get forward and score. Those aren't bad options, better than Liverpool's-where was that blonde twat with the pony tail anyhow. Voronin? But they too are all sick list.
On the other hand, I hate to say, is ManU. They lose Berbatov and barely miss a beat. City loses Robinho and they may be better. I don't think Chelsea will miss Drogs when the ANC rolls around.
I realize that this has been done to death in the British press and everywhere else. But Liverpool and Arsenal are going to have to spend money in the January window for strikers if they are going to get back into Europe. I don't have a clue as to who might be available. Any speculation on the subject???
Looking ahead. Tomorrow. Almost everyone has at least 5 DG'ers. Most of us have both Scwartzer and Zamora. Speaking of useless twats last week. They can't do any worse can they? Then many of us have two more all time sick-list candidates, Dunn and Bullard. (add Duff for some). All are scary from an injury standpoint.
Point is injury has become the deciding factor in this year's edition of Fantasy Football. Predicting who plays and who sits maybe the deciding factor by the end of the season.
Lastly. Next week, 1st blush. In reading the last thread, I can't believe no one mentioned BD'ing Fulop. Gordon is gone for the year and Fulop is in. Sunderland looks really solid. I got him at 4.4 vs 7.8 (?) now. I have so given up on Given (lame attempt at humor intended). City made a huge mistake getting rid of Dunne for Toure. Given is great but his defense sucks.
So I am sitting on my ass, doing nothing, waiting to see who gets injured in the mid-week CL matches. I bet Gerrard goes down again. Arshavin too. And we are all left trying to figure out what the f*ck is going on.
Here's hoping Zamora pulls a Defoe tomorrow. LOL.
chris m
velvet underground allstars
chris m, get a life beyond fantasy football
Anon - Stop bitching about other peoples comments, especially good productive ones.
And if you really have to do it, be brave enough not do it anonymously...
Oh look, it's the anonymous "get a life" troll again. If you don't want to read messages from people who think too much about the Premier League and fantasy football, you're in about the worst possible place you could be. Perhaps you should instead frequent a blog devoted to tatting or taxidermy or particle physics or paragliding or thrilling Icelandic sagas or ...
Making these infantile, knee-jerk posts is the best use you can find for your time, and we need to get a life?
hey anon I will be glad to compare lives anytime. Post your CV and your real name and I will do the same. You could even google or bing the hell out of me. It would be fun.
anon...... shut it!
I'm trying to understand how a person that visits a fantasy footie website to anonymously criticize folks who post comments on the site is somehow less pathetic than those posters.
Look, anon - you had Kirkland in goal last week. Maybe you had Keogh up front and Mendy in MF as well. Fine. I get it. Get over it. It's a long season.
By the way...did everyone see the story on Wigan's players agreeing to refund the tickets of the team's fans that traveled to yesterday's game at WHL? Classy, unprecedented move. What does the visiting team typically get allotted - 5,000 seats? At, say, an average of £25/seat, that's some serious cabbage.
66 points over the weekend with 9 DGs to go.
Next week
PRob
Alexander Wes Brown Heitinga
Dunn Valencia Cole Ireland
Drogs Roberts Bent
with 1.9 left in the kitty.
I'm looking at both Manchester teams to have big performances along with Blackburn.
Thoughts, suggestions?
Wes Brown will be benched if O'Shea and Evans recover. (And they will)
Because of a really rubbish week the week before which saw me drop 4 places in my private league there was a slight touch of desperation in my picks for week 12, decided to go with ALL DGs, currently on 79 points with obviously 11 more to come in, surely cant double that can I?!
c"mon Robbo dont let me down !
Chis m, did you have a team in fantay f1 this season? i belive there was a team called velet underground in a private league i was in.
It's funny isn't it - after weeks of only having to post a full team to be almost assured of 100 points,suddenly the last two weeks have seen the points almost completely dry up(Defoe and Lennon notwithstanding, of course).
Any thoughts on why the sudden sea change? Have the defences suddenly got better or have all of the banker points scorers gotten injured at the same time?
Paphos Toffees
62 points so far, with Saha, Paintsil, Heiti, Dempsey, and D. Dunn to play their 2nd games.
Hoping to at least break 80, hopefully 100 but thats a long shot imo.
@ marhawk-no. my private league is from the usenet group rec.sport.soccer an arcane old school newsgroup.
To the anonymous poster: I saw a similar comment last week & i'll assume it was also from you.
If that's your attitude then I'd rather you stayed away from this blog. Chris has been one of the best contributers from the start & for someone to come on to a FANTASY FOOTBALL WEBSITE to slag someone off for writing an excellent post with his opinions on FANTASY FOOTBALL is simply idiotic. I echo everyone else...what the hell are you doing here if you don't want to read about fantasy football?
AM
Darren Bent *might* be out for up to three weeks with a hamstring injury. He underwent a scan yesterday, the results of which have yet to be announced:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/s/sunderland/8376217.stm
No Givet on wednesday according to Blackburns website =(
Drake
Crap. I almost replaced Givet with Emerton but didn't. I had to make so many late changes to my line-up that by that point I just had to hit "Save" and walk away.
This round will be tricky with the holiday here on the left-hand side of the pond. I don't know how much time I'll be able to spend on my next two line-ups. Plus, Yahoo's recent spate of competence has been a double-edged sword. You have to be quick on your feet with the BDing.
Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in few quiet, sane rounds before the sheer unbridled insanity of the holiday fixtures.
Bradley - honestly, I'm appalled by your lack of fantasy footie commitment...can't focus on player selections b/c of a little holiday like Thanksgiving? Geesh! ;)
Sitting on this team for the ocming weekend:
PRoblem
Verms Alexander Upson
Dunn Bullard Lennon Cole
Drogba Rooney Eduardo
My biggest doubt/fear is keeping Joe Cole on my side...would love to hold on to him at my price but I won't risk it if it appears that Ancelotti will not be giving him a regular place in the starting 11. Will be watching Chelsea's CL match with added interest.
Really surprised/shocked by how many managers in my private league dropped Drogba...Ionly four teams in the top ten of my league (including me) kept him on their side. I hope that bodes well going forward...after the trip to the Emirates and Citeh the week after, Chelsea have a great run of games: EVE, POR, whm, bir, FUL.
maybe the boo bird that doesn't like chris m is morreypaul from the yahoo blog. have you all seen this guy's posts?
I wish ppl devote as much time and thought at their workplace !
Thank God for not having Thanksgiving in Israel. Speaking of which, Amr Zaki is an idiot. Just saying.
Currently sitting on:
Given
Vermaelen Heitinga O'Shea
Fabregas O'Hara Etherington Dempsey Bily
Drogba Defoe
I had made all the wrong choices for this week. All of them. Anelka was disappointing, though my alternative was Rooney so it could have been worse. But 1.5p for 16.16mil in price?! That's a robery.
Givet instead of Heitinga, Hughes instead of anybody else, Zamora instead of any body else. Geovanni instead of Hunt. I did avoid Dempsey because I had a feeling he wouldn't return his price, but mind that in some stage of the past few weeks I had Defoe&Krancjar in the place of Anelka&Geo.
I don't know what to say about Fabregas, or Vermaelen for that matter. These are the players you are afraid to drop, because you know deep insdie you that the minute you will, they'll return 30-40 each. And I'm angry at the Hull website - they said Myhill was fit! I would've taken Robinson instead!
Keeping Etherington and O'Hara was a good call, when they provided almost all of my points. Yes, my friends, their 17.5 combined points gave me my current 23p score of the week, and the drop of more than 1500 places in the overall ranks. I hope I can improve from this position.
For next week - I don't think there's any better choice than Given, unless someone knows to read the future. PRob doesn't seem good at all to me. Heitinga was BDed and is able to get a CS in front of L'Pool (yes, you read it correctly). I can now be sure of certain place in Eve's starting line-up. Vermaelen stays O'Shea isn't a sure thing but he can get something from Pompey.
Etherington and O'Hara look stable, Fabregas will stay in his discount, Bily and his phantom points return, Dempsey can trash poor Bolton.
Drogba is a keeper. Defoe was an impulse. 5 goals. It doesn't happen really often, but it doesn't happen to anyone who isn't a good striker. For me it represents the return of him to shape, while Villa's defence isn't good at all. Plus I have him at 10mil discount, and just look at Spurs' schedual until they meet Villa again in February - @EVE, Wolves, ManC, @B'burn, @Fulham, WHU, @Pool, Hull, Fulham, @Brum - not really the best defences bunch you ever saw, right?
SF
i have to say i think you did a good job scaring the anonymous away. i can't believe he actually makes an effort to comment on here if he doesn't like it.
i think this blog is absolutely amazing. and the comments from chris et al are really good. keep it up!
does anyone know if paintsil will play tmrw. ive got 31 points so far. crying....
i droped drogba for week 12, and i won't put him in for week 13 against Arsenal, so if he do good i will BD him for City, and if his value won't be rising after Arsenal match i will BD him after City match... i don't think that 5M that drogba keepers have more to spend on other players till c'smas will do much diference... i've spend 60M on GK for last 6 weeks and thier output i around -5... so i will manage somehaw to squezze drog in if i need him...
71 points this week, 143th overall with 1300,00 points,32 points away of TOP 50, and 145 from the top
10 DGers tomorow - Schwarter,Hangeland,Samba,Zayatte,Bullard,Dempsey
Geovanni,Dunn,Roberts and Zamora... 4 Fulham,3 Hull and 3 Blackburn players... 7 players playing at home... I would be happy if I double my points this week... whith that much i think i would get in top 100
Acording to the independent Paul Hart was just fired from Pompey and Avram Grant is taking over... this is only rumours btw ;)
Drake
BREAKING NEWS: Pau Hart has just been sacked by Pompey. No word whether Avram Grant is taing over.
The first sacking of the EPL this season has arrived. Later than we're used to, really. Now it's really a matter of guessing - it can either mean that ManU will trash Pompey, or that the 'Fisrt Game for the New Manager' magic will work and Pompey will surprise. I'm betting on the first one.
SF
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