Week 10 - Saturday
Milner is injured, Diamanti was on the bench & could be again vs Villa. Milner, Dunne, Sidwell & Friedel provided 3.5 points between them, with Young & Agbonlahor not much better. The only bright thing is Milner is probably out of Wednesday's match, meaning Ashley Young should be back on all set piece & penalty duties & with only 2% of manager owning him (opposed to 8% owning Milner) I really need him to put in a big performance. At least I didn't have Cueller! However, I did say that by picking so many double gamers
...I think I'm putting myself in a position to almost guarantee a 100 point week which is exactly what I need to get back on track.That looks likely.
Anyway - the day started terribly with Spurs' 3-0 embarrassment at The Emirates. For 40 minutes we matched Arsenal, but there is no excuse for the pathetic collapse after the 1st goal went in. To add insult to injury, Fabregas scores but as I said in my post yesterday morning:
I think Fabregas could have a 20+ point week but I'll get no joy from him scoring those points vs Spurs. He was the first player I dropped and no matter what he does today I'll have no regrets over this decision.What I do regret is jumping off the Van Persie wagon after backing him 3 times this season at all the wrong times. I've splashed the barndoor cash to get him in vs Wolves but it may be too late as typically he'll have a poor week when at £21m I need at least a goal and assist to repay my faith.
Of course we all (well at least 50% of us) have Drogba to thank again with another monster 28.5 point performance including a goal and SIX shots on target. He has now hit 30 shots on target, which is 11 more than any other player on the game. He's in the form of his life, simply unplayable.
But my big bonus this week was Graham Alexander. As I wrote yesterday:
Gary Alexander has a chance of a clean sheet at home to Hull & seeing as it's 100th game for Burnley wouldn't it be nice if he popped up with a penalty to celebrate!He did exactly that, but even better was to come as he scored a 2nd to amass 31.5 points. Take those points out of my team this week and it is a very average week, especially with the points coming in for Fabregas, Van Persie, Lampard, Rooney etc - all players I didn't have.
Moving on, my initial reaction when I saw Billy in Everton's starting line-up was one of horror & that was only increased when he scored right on half time. To add insult to injury, it was against my keeper, Brad Friedel. However, when dropping Billy at 4.71, I bought O'Hara at 5.7. That meant I couldn't afford O'Shea, so instead went with Alexander. Billy returned 9.5, O'Shea 10. O'Hara returned 11.50, Alexander 31.50. Funny how these things work out, but it was exactly the luck I needed this week.
That was pretty much my week, although I'll mention how terrible Liverpool were as they lost their discipline & crashed to Fulham with Benitez making some extraordinary decisions. Anybody who knows anything about football wasn't fooled by their victory over United last weekend and they looks like a side on their knees at the moment. If they go out of the Champions League this week then they are in serious trouble. It makes their decision to field a weakend side in the Carling Cup even stranger seeing as was likely to be the only competition they could've won this season.
Also a special mention to Portsmouth who have really deserved that win. They've been playing well and this result was on the cards. I f you had Dindane then you are a very lucky person. 47 points! How inconsistent are Wigan!?
On the barndoor I brought in Van Persie but couldn't afford Fabregas. I'm going Robbo in goal, O'Hara, Drogba & Vermaelen will stay & I like Torres but him & RvP eat up too many units. Nelsen will be in defence along with a Liverpool defender (possibly Kyrgiakos), I wouldn't mind David Dunn in, but I also quite fancy Man City to hammer Burnley so it's possible Torres or RvP go for Adebayor or Tevez. That'll free up points for players like Etherington, Petrov or Benayoun.
Finally, Blog League 6 is filling up quickly with only 30 spaces left, so if you don't have a space in one of the leagues yet then be quick as this is definitely the final one. Details below:
Group ID: 23246
Password: yahoo
How did you do this week? Who have you got left to go? Barndoor?
Cheers,
AM
29 comments:
Friedel
Vermalen Cuellar (Ouch ) Alexandar
Sidwel Milner Young Muckena
Drogs Muckena C.Cole
Points at moment 109
Mixed week so far
Had to put muckena in to allow me keep RVP (hav had him a while )
More disapointed with my villa players
5 players = 3.5 points ??????
But am happy wit strike force and Alexandra
picked up Fab/Almunia?/Dindane?
Probaly only keep Fab, but you never know
Teams i fancy this week
Arsenal : No brainer
City :should steam roll
Spurs : will prove a point
Pool : will try to prove a point
Chelsea :will prove they r best team in land
P.S. AM when da gauntlet is thrown down by spurs al week dat they are better than da gunners ,you are always asking for trouble, and we didnt have to make any lasange ,
Gunners for ever
130 pts.
Gordon
Vermaelen O´Shea G. Alexander
Lampard Fabregas Kightly S. Petrov Sidwell
Drogba Diamanti
Think I will hold on to Vermaelen, Lampard, Fabregas and Drogba for a while.
After I had a good week last week when most people suffered, karma decided I should take a hit this week, which i really did - 41 pts!
I took Bily out and was going to replace with either O'Hara or Kightly. I went with Kightly.
I was going for either Alexander or Wilkinson. I plumped for Wilko.
I also went heavy on double gamers and players like Diamanti and Milner didn't produce at all.
I'm hoping Petrov scores a hat-trick today to salvage something...
Looks like the double game gamble hasn't paid off for anyone....not yet anyway.
My four (Dunne, Collins, Milner, Sidwell) scoring 5.5pts.
Disappointed with 81.5 so far, still top of private group with the gap getting smaller.
Best performer in my group is the manager who didn't know about the double-gamer.
Reid was my main BD purchase.
Despite three players generating 0 or worse, I have 128.5 points thanks primarily to Alexander, Fabregas, Reid, Drogba, and Rooney. My week is essentially over given that my only DGers are Milner and Diamanti (ironically, the ones considered by many beforehand as the "must haves").
I too backed into my selection of Alexander. I wanted a Burnley player against Hull away w/ a backup GK. I couldn't fit Elliot (who wound up with 0.0) into my MF, and I was scared off Jensen, who ended up playing after all. I considered replacing Rooney with Berbatov to free up some cash but didn't. Since I couldn't afford a ManUtd or DG defender (such as Cuellar), I went with Alexander. I've had bad luck several times this season, so I'm thrilled to get some of the good kind.
I've also picked RvP at the wrong times this season. Sigh...
I had to leave before the ManUtd/Rovers match and had to rush my BD picks. I brought in Robbo, Givet, Dunn, Torres, and Didane. I probably won't keep Robbo but needed to free up cash for the rest. I highly doubt I'll keep Didane but grabbed him for the hell of it (his price has doubled since :)). I'd like to pick up a City striker (and possibly Given), although they've been rubbish of late. We'll see how they do today.
I don't have a lot of points - 85 till now:
Given
Verm, Dunne, Cuellar, OShea,
Milner, Hunt, Reid,
Rodallega, Drogba, Berbatov
With Given, Dunne and probably Milner(I am not sure whether he is injured or not) having 1 more game! The Only good thing for me is getting Berbatov at the cheapest price for him till now 11.19. If there is anybody to show some classy stuff against Cheslsea and get 20+ cause now we see that he started shooting much more than usual! Good Luck to everybody. I got Alexander, Etherigton and Dandane on the BD. They will all stay for next week cause I included Fab, Benayun in!
107 pts from Friedel, Verm, Heit, Wilko, Reid, Sidwell, Milner, Collison, Drogs, RvP, Diam.
Thrilled with the Collison pick! But that's about the only 2 gamer I can say that about.
Already changed to Given, Emerton, Dunn, O'Hara & Tevez for next week.
I have 99.5 with Given and Diamanti left.
It was kind of a mixed week. I made a plethora of Friday changes. I dropped Bily and O'hara, not being sure they would play. Swapped Torres for Rooney. I also dropped Lampard in order to afford better middies.Those Middies were Kranjcar (Kranberry, who didn't play?!?!?!) and Valencia who returned a whopping 5 pts. It was more frustrating because I really wanted Kran in there and almost went with Dempsey instead of Valencia, but that would have left me with over 1 million to spare, and for some unknown reason, I wanted to spend as much as I could...
The bright spots were that I picked up Etherington last week, and he paid off this week, 16 pts, he'll probably stay. In order to make those Middie moves I had to "downgrade" Mears to Alexander, which really paid off. Though if I had kept a lineup with Bily, Lampard, O'hara, and Etherington in midfield, I woulda amasses 113 pts or so. But at least Bily had a red card, initially BDed him but then dropped.
As for the BD, got Dindane (which was funny in that I was actually considering a Pompey striker before his hatty), BFAR, Demspey, and O'hara. Might change Rooney for Torres this week, seems to be the second best striker in the game when healthy. May drop Dindane too. I have 6.17 left to spend though, so I got some thinking to do. I left Alexander in only because I knew his price would skyrocket.
One more thing, with Drogba now at 19.31, I am probably holding on to him during African Cup of Nations and just take the hit. Hopefully, Ivory Coast gets owned in it, and he'll only miss 2 weeks or whatever. What are others thinking about Drogba dilemma?
was i the only one with carlton cole.
For next week:
Verm, Bassong, Heit
Billy, A Young, Etherington, & Benayoun
Torres, Drogba, Adebayor
2.72 left - Who to get/switch?
-3.5pts for Cuellar, -1 for Diamanti, 0 for Kranjcar (not played unbelievably), 0 for Milner injured, 1.5 for Dunne, 2 for Sidwell (expected), dissappointing 3 pts for Verm w/ a CS
My only bright spots: 20+ for Given (penalty saved, CS, multiple saves), 12.5 for Rooney, 10 for O'Shea, 28.5 for Drogba
My only hopes are for Dunne to score and get a CS and Diamanti start and pour 4 SOT and cross some balls.
Utterly tragic week, i'll be lucky to hit 90pts
a very sad and enraged Liverpool supporter
So I'll ask an unaksable question, what's up with Verms? Like nearly 1/2 all managers in the game, he's in my team. I'm sure some of you have him at extreme discount--I don't, I have him at 9.6 just a fraction less than current price.
There is great potential there, but he's been quiet for several weeks. The YC this week even undermined his Clean Sheet points. The other 3 ARS defendes were at 9.5 or higher. And all of them, btw are also more expensive than TV. But I don't think we are into Verms for budget reasons, but looking for a positive big point impact.
He's had 3 big weeks for the season, so we are waiting for another 20pt day. But for how long? And could we do better elsewhere in the meantime?
It reminds me of Glen Johnson, who I had early in the season and had 20+ days twice in the first 3 weeks. But since then has been crap. And he is still 3+ more expensive than TV, inexplicably. But only 7% stick with him.
I know the difference there has a lot to do with Liverpool's form as opposed to Arsenal's, but it seems like it's getting time to question (for me anyway) whether the permanent inclusion of TV is really the best thing. Even in comparison to another Arsenal defender: Clichy, Gallas, Sagna haven't quite hit the heights that TV has, but have had higher returns for several weeks.
This is a good fixture for Arsenal, so I'll be running TV & Sagna side-by-side next week, and I may keep only one going forward.
Thoughts on this? Am I the only one? Other players you have similiar concerns about?
given's points are in. yahoo is at it again and didn't credit him with a penalty save. this must be how fidan felt after the benitez problem.
Given is not credited for the penalty save! I hope Yahoo rectify this. I remembered the same thing happened to Schwarzer, but they added the points after a while.
Dare to Devil
Just to be sure I'm correct - there are others on here who think Given should have received more points? I thought so, but an new at this. Will this get fixed? Also, even though they added some of the points Given got - they did not at them to my total. Is this normal? And will it eventually get fixed???
The points get added to your total "shortly" after Yahoo show them on your "My Points" page. No telling why. The unlimited trading and phantom points are fun, but Yahoo isn't worth a cr*p at updating the game like the "official" game guys do.
wow, the chatroll is at capacity...
lots of people on this blog.
cheers AM..
Hello everybody,
I didn't pick Given this week, but feel that those who did were robbed of points.
CS = 6, PS = 8, D = 1, and 5 saves = 15
Total = 30
Can somebody please explain why Yahoo show his week 10 total as 17??????
I didn't watch the match as I was too busy on Mafia Wars, as I'm sure quite a few of you were, so I don't know who gave away the penalty.
Even if it were Given, his points have been recorded incorrectly.
Can someone shed some light on this?
Thanks.
He definately saved the penalty, its unreal even when Yahoo has a front page story saying "Given Saves City" and records Given as saving the penalty
or maybe that was a mistake, now there's no one..
anyway.
@mikl-em_ love the TV nickname, though Verm is nice too. I think you've got an interesting point. It's kind of the big question with many players, do you hold on to them even with a few down weeks with a mind towards being there when they have a big week? or do you see a downward trend or a cooling off of points and move on? I think the one point i would make is that new players or players new to a squad typically come out guns blazing to show their worth, and inevitably cool off. it's a tough call, but i was in a similar boat with G.John in the beginning of the season as well and dropped him after two slow weeks and he's been quiet ever since. i really don't think there's such thing as a season keeper..
thanks for bringing that up, becuase i have been kind of lulled into blindly holding onto the Verm. Now i have food for thought. I imagine TV could fade back to a more conventional center half and pop in a few headers here and there, but i sense he's not going to keep up the type of huge point production he has til now.. but i have him at 6.00, so the question would be, who's better at that price?
i'm tempted by Liverpool home to B'Ham next week. i kind of feel like everyone will write them off since they are looking like total shit right now, but i could see them bouncing back and coming up huge at Anfield.. Gerrard/Aquilani/Torres/Skrtel/Kryg/ etc.. could be interesting because i feel most people won't have the guts to go with them now..except maybe Torres
I'm on 85, 91 if Given's PK save points ever come in, which I wouldn't count on. Lamps and O'Hara were my saviors. Kind of like the AM, this is disappointing(all of my many 2-gamers sucked), but I'm still almost guaranteed at least an average 100pt week with some of Milner, Sidwell, Gabby, Dunne, and Diamanti to go. I was hoping for huge double week to make up some ground, but at least the downside is minimal.
Few things
Given should have 28 pts not the 17 he is credited with, my math goes like this Saves 5@2=10, Win=4 Clean sheet=6 Penalty kick saved =8 for a total of 28.
With my no double game team, I had 102, kicking myself like everyone for dumping Bily, in my case for Kightly who had a 0.
I just checked our former leader Steve BOB FC who went nearly with a total double game team and he had 54.5 Ouch. But with Milner at 0, Diammanti at -1.0 Ash Youn @5.0 Agbonlahor @5.0 and Friedel at 0 it just wasn't on. These guys will have to come up big on Wed to return parity.
My front three, the basis of my strategy all scored Torres/Drogs Rooney. So I feel very justified not going the DG way.
Is there anyone who actually had Dindane and his 42 pts. He hasn't looked like he could throw the ball into the net for 4 feet away all year. If anyone had him and Alexander too, say so, so I can bow down in humble appreciation.
We'll see what the CL week brings in injuries, and what other teams get hit by the swine flu. This has become a sick list contest as much as anything.
ps-where is the post button on the Chat board, I can't seem to find it.
chris m
@chris m. - once you signed in, just put your text in the box and hit enter...
@chris m
Number 6 in the overall rank, "Belfast Bullies" has both Alexander and Dindane. He has 197p so far having Fabs, Lampard, Drogba as well.
And your maths for Given is wrong since Man.City didn't win today.
another average week for me.. only managed to get 77.5pts with aston villa and wes ham to play.. milner might not play due to injury and i don't know if diamanti capable of scoring big points this wednesday.. another doublegamer in my team is sidwell..
anyway, few bad decision this week are..
dropped rvp (after 3 weeks in my team and scoring very good) to filled my hunch rodallega and diamanti..
bd alexander earlier week, then dropped him for dunne then mears..
got milner instead of reid (whom i fancy a lot) even recommended him to someone here.. hopefully he picked him up..
drop billy for sidwell..
anyway,
some good decision..
dropped saha and my bd- dunne, giggs and thomas.. and also not picking cuellar.. which all can cause even more damage in my team..
holding on fab and drogba..
*only manage to bd 1 player.. rvp (sold him for $18 last week and rebuy him at $21)..
Maxer..
124 points with Giggs not playing, Diamanti riding the pine and Given not having all his points. How could Yahoo do something so boneheaded as to not award Given for saving the PK? And why on earth has GZ benched his side's only catalyst? Has it become personal?
Still not a bad week. Cracked the top ten in my blog league and now #72 of 16,670 in the Yahoo group "Fans of Other."
@Chris: 25pts for Given, game was 0-0 draw so only 1pt added for that, but seriously they better give me my extra 8pts.
107 with berbatov, rvp, alexander and brown getting me the bulk of my points (brown was a great value pick btw)
arshavin, milner, ballack, rodwell, spector and diamanti got me a grand total of 9 points so i was lucky to come out with more than 100... (its actually my best week so far!)
if only I had kept lampard from last week...
i BD'ed torres, and dropped milner and diamanti... think i'll be holding onto berbs at 11mil, even though he's playing away at chelsea next week.
i'm keeping ballack because he's generally pretty consistent, and arshavin has been quiet the last couple weeks and has a good shot at scoring vs. wolves. and if he doesn't... RvP will!
i'm relying very heavily on my forwards this week... if they don't perform i'll be in big trouble
@The Greek
Thanks for pointing that out. I feel very dumb. It sure as hell felt like they won though
:) chris m
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