Week 16 - Saturday
The day started with very good win for Pompey against a pathetic Liverpool. Unfortunately for me Jamie O'Hara only scored 3 points but I thought he was brilliant & they fully deserved their win. I cannot believe I saw a Liverpool side line up in a game against the team rock bottom with a midfield of Mascherano, Lucas, Dossena & Kuyt. No creativity, no quality, no injuries for Benitez to use an excuse.
I'll add that Mascherano had to go - there may not have been huge contact but he went in with intent...it was a leg breaker & the fact there was no real complaints from the Liverpool players tells it's own story.
From the other games there was a Villa win with few points (cheers Milner), a thrashing for Man Utd (cheers Rooney) & a fantastic win for Spurs in the snow & rain of Ewood Park (YES but -1 for Defoe was awful), Arsenal ran out comfortable winners, but the scorers were players few people would own (cheers Arshavin, although a clean sheet from Verm helped).... Almunia defied his previously poor average with 25 points after a clean sheet AND a penalty save to gather the top score of 25 points. He's still rubbish though.
I have Kirkland, Alexander, Neill, Belletti & Drogba - if I don't get 30 from those 5 I'm in for the lowest score in my entire 7 years of playing this game (49). Wish me luck...but I'm probably out of The Blog Cup already!
How did you do?
Cheers,
AM
46 comments:
I ended the day on 40.5 points thanks largely to Almunia and Vermaelen. I was disappointed with the returns from Arshavin, Sylvinho and Milner though. Still got Drogba, Ebanks Blake, Rodallega, J Cole, Bily and Heitinga tomorrow though so fingers crossed i can get up to around the 80 mark which will be huge this week due to poor performances from a lot of the usual point scorers.
Do people think there is going to be a triple game week? I hope so as i've done all my bd work accordingly picking up players from Stoke, Fulham, Arsenal and Bolton.
I ended up with a pathetic 8 points although i have 9 players to go, but watching my rank drop like that is disheartening, even if it is only temporary. For tomorrow, drogs lampard(dropped arsh for him :))lee larsson johnson ivanovic jensen chucho and j. cole. Awesome to see pompey get a win they deserved hopefully rafa gets the boot so we can see a better use of the liverpool talent. My team, chelsea, will go six points ahead thanks to the worst manu performance of the year. Good day of football. Cheers. :)
saitofall
bellamy and diaby(shold have gone with him over j cole) are the only players I bd'ed
My premium players - Rooney, Torres and Arshavin 'successfully' collected 7.5 point for me.. What a disaster.. Even M.Brown as a filler get me 7 point..
Left only 4 player today as now only managed 32 point..
Same Milner, Rooney, Arshavin, O'Hara disaster for me too. Richard Dunne salvaged things a bit with a nice 15.5 point return to get my total up to a whopping 36.5. I still have 5 guys to go, but all of my heavy hitters are through but Drogba, and he matters less than the others. Luckily everyone else is in the same boat, and I can't even kick myself because the other players I was considering, like Valencia and Torres, were rubbish as well.
24.5 points with 6 players left (thank goodness I didn't swap out Bassong after all). All of my non-Drogba premium players have gone as I too had the Rooney-Arshavin-Milner trifeca of nothingness (sadly, I dropped BFAR for Milner). Now it's up to Eagles, Larsson, etc. to salvage my week. I need at least 28.5 to avoid setting a new low for this season, the horrific 53 of only 2 weeks ago.
Among the weirdness of today, Given (who I don't have) managed to score -4.0 on a win. 3 goals conceded, a YC, and only 2 saves is a bad combo as it turns out.
Great post AM!!!!
i had baird (10.5) and vermaelen in defence (9) to get me some points. i've had reid cheap for a while and he gets points almost every week, 12.50 this time. and once i saw predicted line-ups i had a hunch that diaby could score. because he sometimes does when playing avg opposition. and im glad it paid off, got me 19.50. i got the -4 given had. he is cheaper now. and maybe mancini being an italian will teach the man city players to defend like we all know italians can.
i've got a total of 57.00 so far with drogba, rodallega and jordan to play.
been a crazy week though, liverpool losing 2-0. man utd losing 3-0. now all we need is chelsea to lose to west ham.
43.5 with 3 to go. Just Terrible. Now I can only hope all the remaining matches are postponed. XD
Pathetic scoring for me. 7 players of Given, Vermaelen, Sylvinho, Arshavin, Milner, Ramsey and Defoe got me just 14.50 points. I might just be able to beat my lowest points of 62.50 this season. I would need big performances from Drogba, Bilyaletdinov, Ebanks-Blake and Ivanovic. A Chelsea thrashing and CS with some goals from Bily and Ebanks might work.
btw, is there a triple week for Arsenal, Stoke, Bolton and Fulham next week? The page on Yahoo said that week 17 includes games from 26 Dec to 8 Jan, which should include the 2 triple games, but those games are not listed on the fixtures.
I really hope they do, as my BD so far are mainly Arsenal and Stoke players, and I'll be looking at some Bolton players today.
C. Kirkland
R. Dunne G. Alexander S. Bassong Sylvinho
A. Arshavin J. O'Hara S. Downing
H. Rodallega P. Crouch C. Tevez
This is my line-up, I went for peter crouch at the last minute as I had a hunch he would get in a header, didn't know he would have 2 goals :D tevez and dunne pretty helped too, 78.5 with kirkland rodallega and alexander to go, hope I can get over the 100 mark and hey all drogba owners out there maybe he'll murderbwest ham like defoe did with wigan who knows? :D
79 points from 9 players. I went up more than 1100 ranks, but I'm worried that Drogba and Bily today won't be enough to maintain this spot. Oh well.
For next week I'm still scared with Robinson in my team as a keeper. He's very cheap, but I'm not sure Given isn't a better choice. Robinson looked steady all year, not getting negative points even when he concedes 6 goals, but in last 2 matches he started to get negatives all of a sudden. I'll need to watch Wigan today, as Robinson meets Wigan away and Sunderland at home for the DG week. The hard part is that they are both very unpredictable teams. If something is predictable - Given costs 1.5mil more, concedes all the time, and right now on the worst YFF negative streak of his life.
The presence of Heitinga and Nasri worries me too. Nasri doesn't look well over the last games, and I'm not sure he'll start all 3 matches. Bily also worries me - with Pienaar and Osman back, we'll have to see. I picked up Rooney on more than 18mil, but I'm sure it'll turn out okay - even if he does get his fifth YC against Hull, he should do well against them.
If anyone knows when Bassong and Drogba are supposed to fly to Africa, please tell. They might not make it for the second match next week.
SF
Sorenson
Vermaelen Wilkinson Ivanovic
Bilyaletdinov Arshavin Song Etherington
Drogba Defoe Santa-Cruz
Did some BD for next week. I'm banking a lot on a triple week as my BD work was based mainly on it. I'm keeping Santa now and through the ACN as I see him taking Adebayor's spot in almost every game. Relying a lot on Stoke, but I dont know if it is worth spending so much on Sorenson. So far in the previous DGs, I spent heavy on GKs and Schwarzer did well but Friedel was crap. I could swop him for Given, he's cheap but leaking so many goals. Do you think they're defence will tighten under that new manager?
I missed Abou-Diaby preupdate, so now I have to settle for Song.
I really want to drop Defoe right now, but if I drop Drogba in the ACN, I think he might be a replacement with Anelka so expensive.
On the subject of Mascherano's red card, I'll accept that yes it probably was deserved, but what annoyed me (apart from our shocking performance obviously)was that Brown had earlier commited a fould on Lucas that was arguably just as bad, yet he didn't even get booked.
Oh and I'd just like to state I'm never picking Heskey again, just go and have a look at what he contributed yesterday.
Given
Vermaelen - Baird - R.Dunne
Dempsey - Arshavin - N'Zogbia - Jarvis
Drogba - Agbonlahor - Doyle
56p so far with excellent performance from my defence. Still, four players for today.
@ SF... bassong is French.
Bassong is french but plays for Cameroon.
//Drake
did really well 87 points however I am a Man U Fan and 3 chelsea players on my team today!!! I so chelsea to lose 6-5 with anleka , drogba and cole scoring
Funny after the thread the other week about people hiding when they'd had a bad scoring week that something like this happens!
I got an amazing 9 points from Saturday; before the Arsenal game I was actually in negative score (thanks Verm).
Like one of the above posters I too am relying on 'fringe' players the 'big guns' failed miserably.
So hopefully Eagles, Larsson and Hetinga all post big today and haul me out of single figures.
Did (surprisingly) well, depending on today's matches (esp Wolves-Burnley).
I scored 62.5pts, from 6 players (and yes, cheers Rooney). Almunia,Verm,Warnock,Reid(A season keeper for me),Nasri and Rooney.
I have 5 more to go today; Stearman,Milijas,Eagles,Billy and Drogs...!!! I hope to break the 100 barrier.
Good Luck
best week ever... lousy for lots of people and great for me... 75 + points for Milijaš,Larsson,Mancienne and Rodallega... and if Drogba plays like Defoe,Rooney and Torres(i doubt it) i would be a perfect week
anybody know when will the PL teams with afrikan players will be released for ACN? am thinkin of picking basson and song.
On 69.5 with Rodallega, Scharner, and Jordi Gomez left to play. Looks like my Wolves gamble (Craddock, SEB, & Doyle = 44.5 pts) paid off, Arsenal (Gallas, Nasri, Walcott, & Ramsey = 15 pts total) did not. Now I just hope my Wigan gamble does. Would love to break 100 as it looks by how many spaces I've jumped that it wasn't a great weekend for most.
My side for the next game week:
Fulop
Evra/Cahill/Toure
Collison/Noble/KRich/LCY
RSC/Roonstar/Piquionne
Fulop, Collison, and Piquionne will be lucky to find themselves here come Boxing Day. All the rest seem safe, but I never know.
Hi AM
thanks for your great blog!
I have 2 questions for you which may or may not be in peoples minds at the moment:
1 When are drogs & the african players leaving their teams?
2 Is it possible that 4 teams will play 3 matches when it is not included on the Week 17 fixture List - thanks for your reply
paul
the most bad week for me. Opposite with Bojan.
I getting lower than 50point... maybe half of 50point also didn't get it.
With taking risk on Myhill (-9point), it just 22points for me in this week!
Rooney (1point), Defoe (-1point) and Milner (1point), Heskey (0point) and Nasri (3point).
Total = 4point with 5players.
It was unlucky for me. Dropped 3,000 rank.
But is still okay for me. Still having 22week for me to chase the rank into top 5,000. Hope so.
Finally, I also need to thanks for AM and others in AM's blog chat! Thank You.
Support AM's blog.
I scored an INSANE 119pts. Best ever week considering the others in competition did terribly bad (most of us imo).
Had:
Almunia
Verm,Stearman,Warnock
Eagles,Reid,Billy,Nasri,Milijas
Drogs,Rooney (who would have thought that both of them would score half of MBrown pts, arrrgh)
Anyway, good luck with you who have still players from Wig-Bolton match, and good luck next week, week that could turn around the whole season, so there is no room to press the panic button just yet...!!!
Good Luck...!!!
Anon - I believe teams have to release their ACON players after Dec 27th, but I think those playing the 28th, 29th, and 30th will wait until after those fixtures.
As for your second question, Yahoo needs to clarify which week the Jan 5th match between Stoke and Fulham and the Jan 6th match between Arsenal and Bolton will count for. This upcoming week states matches played between Dec 26th and Jan 8th.
I'm thinking now about the posibility of dropping Defoe to free up the money, as he's currently not returning the investment - maybe I'll get Benitez instead, who plays against shaky defences (Chelsea and Stoke). That way I can replace Bily (not a sure starter with all the injuries over) and Nasri (a bit out of form) with Eagles (on a great form and a sure starter for both matches) and Etherington (triple-match, great YFF player).
I'm really not sure. If Defoe has great match it'll be very upseting. Maybe if Drogba leaves before the second game, I'll drop him for Benitez? Maybe.
SF
stoke shaky def.?
if i am not wrong it is up in the hands of the federations on whether or not to strictly enforcing the 27Dec call up. Generally , if you fear, then ditch those players, there are always other players to select. Moreover as the time comes so close, i am not sure those [called up ]Africans are willing to put their feets on the line. they may want to go away unscathed imo.
That "Week 17 Fixtures" list has multiple problems. Beyond the well-discussed conflict with the transfer deadline on the "Team Manager" page, it shows the ManUtd-Wigan match as being on "Mon. Jan 28" instead of "Wed. Jan 30." If Utd really did have to play two matches on consecutive days, SAF would be spontaneously combusting right about now.
SAF would be spontaneously combusting right about now.
@Bradley , love to see that , and i do think even if it occur it is within the laws of the game where players are given 24hrs of rest in between games. And the schedule was fixed by them(managers) as well. no complaints there.
Stoke looked very shaky against Wigan, for instance. They lost the frightening environment of their home pitch, and they concede a lot lately.
SF
Will be waving goodbye to the Blog Cup after scoring a spectacular 49 points this week.
Ellie
OK, I thought about it through, and I came up with this: if it becomes clear that Drogba misses Chelsea's match with Fulham, I'll drop him and Bily (and maybe Nasri) to end up with:
Robinson
Vermaelen Bassong Heitinga
O'Hara Nasri/Etherington Arshavin Eagles
Benitez Defoe Rooney
Right now I have:
Robinson
Vermaelen Bassong Heitinga
O'Hara Nasri Arshavin Bily
Drogba Defoe Rooney
I really like the first one, but I would hate to miss 2 games of Drobga before he's leaving. A huge dilemma, hope to work it out.
SF
This has been one of my worst week ever- damn 63 pts!
Given (-4)
Ivan (6), Givet (5.5), Vidic (0)
O'Hara (3), Arsh (7), Downing (6), Larsson (7.5)
Drogs (3.5), Tevez (14), Ebanks (14.5)
Working on my nxt week team:
Jaaskelainen
Bassong, R Johnson, CBaird
O'Hara, Arsh, Kranjcar, Reid, Bily
Drogs, Santa Cruz
-Kayoti FC
Bradley is right - ManU and ARS matches will be playing on 30th Dec as i found on official websites
62,5 pts with Kirk and HRod to go
as i can see most of us have a bad week
good luck to all
Rasto (mfk Petrzalka)
89.5 points and if Kirkland puts on a show (finally) I have an outside chance of hitting 100. Three goals (Bily, Milijas, Tevez) and my top scorer (Ebanks-Blake, 14.5) had an active game but didn't score.
BD'ed Santa Cruz at 4.48 but who knows when he'll play next. Hopefully the new City manager likes the look in his eye.
Another week where luck won out over research, so I'm glad to have done better than average (for a change) and moved up a bit in the rankings.
Too much research for me and not enough gut. I dropped KPB in favor of O'Hara. I dropped Larsson in favor of Bowyer. I had Ebanks in my team but let a stranger talk me out of it! I'm lovin Roger Johnson though.
Next week's team as of now. Quiet work week ahead so they're will be much tinkering :(
Kirks
Alexander Johnson Baird
Duff BFAY BFAR Diaby
Drogba Tevez RSC
with 1.86 in the kitty
BCB
Anyone know if the stats are rechecked. Jerome created with assist when clearly it was Benetiz!!!
Dave
got 39.5 points.. with kirk and klasnic to play tonight.. but it can go either way, if klasnic scores, then kirk surely get low (or even negative) points.. but if he didn't, hopefully kirk did few saves.. but i doubt it..
Maxer
did anyone notice the prices fluctuating during the BD?? i picked up denilson for 13 and his price went down to 10. not complaining ...
Ended the week on a season's low of 51, as I dont have any Wigan or Bolton players. The day started well with Ebanks and Bily doing well, but Drogba and Ivanovic disappointed
@ Anon 12:45 - the Yahoo BD has been screwy all weekend. If you kept hitting refresh, you could have nabbed many players for significantly lower prices before they suddenly updated. And then went back. LOL. SOme examples include Vidic for 9.0, Lampard(!) for 18.71, Bellamy 10.48, Kranjcar 11.61, Gomes 6.97, Bily 7.85, and others. Compare to current prices; it was more than a barn door, as they actually went cheaper than pre-update prices in many cases...It was bizarre. But lukcy if you were around your computer at the time to capture it.
@dave .... i myself couldn't believe seeing santa cruz@4.55, vidic@8.85, bassong@4.48, reid@11.37,r.johnson@8.45
I thought my eyes lied to me..I got 65 points but jumped +-2000 spot..after reading this post and everyone's comment now I understand why..Man Utd was a real disappointing team this week while everyone else is counting on them. They looked so good when they play against Wolfsburg even without their defenders. Maybe it was just a lucky night we will never know..I'm really hoping that my team get through to the 3rd round as I still have Hrod and The Amazing Capt. Kirk ..
http://www.goal.com/en/news/815/african-nations-cup/2009/12/11/1680628/ghana-to-report-fulham-to-fifa-over-paintsil-release
quote'FIFA rules state that all clubs must release their players 14 days before the start of any major international tournament. The Ghana Black Stars have a training camp in South Africa from December 27, two full weeks before the tournament kicks off in Angola on January 10.'
end quote.
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