Week 17 - Monday
...probably not, but it's bloody exciting!
The day started at White Hart Lane - 2-0 but it should've been more. I saw our English contingent of Lennon, Huddlestone, King, Dawson & Defoe totally dominate a poor West Ham side who were unlucky to pick up injuries to 2 key men inside the first 20 minutes.
The return of Modric is a welcome one, and I had to be impressed that we played so well whilst boasting a bench of Hutton, Bale, Bassong, Jenas, Kranjcar & Keane. Strong squad, playing well; it's a good time to be a Spurs fan. Note to all managers - Gareth Bale will now replace Assou Ekotto who is off to the ACN, and Bale is priced at just 2.77. A fantastic filler to have if you're in need of the money elsewhere.
Chelsea found a way past an increasingly impressive Fulham, with Drogba infuriating those of us who dropped him. Chelsea really aren't playing well at the moment (since Essien was injured), so who knows what they'll do without him & Drogba. Bad news for poor John Pantsil, who could be out for the season with a knee injury. Great shame as he's been superb for Fulham.
Blackburn & Sunderland played out an entertaining 2-2 draw, with Andy Reid missing due to injury & Bent seemingly back in form with a brace. Everton grabbed a much needed 2-0 victory over a Burnley side who continue to struggle away, with a match turning cameo from James Vaughan. Fantastic points for Heitinga holders.
Stoke lost at home & Tony Pullis will be starting to worry about their form. No such worries for Alex McLeish as Birmingham go 11 unbeaten thanks to Jerome. Finally, The Carlos Tevez Show went to Wolves and did the business again - he's in the form of his life & City get back to back clean sheets...Mancini has made a difference already.
I did okay yesterday - I only had 4 players; Alexander, Faye, Given, Etherington, but they grabbed me around 45 points to move me to 120 for the week, up 200 places with 14 players still to go. I need goals from Klasnic & Eduardo to make up for Santa Cruz (worst Father Christmas ever) & dropping Rooney, Defoe & Drogba. Points from Matty Taylor, Arshavin, Vermalen & Steinsson would also be welcome in the next 2 days, then we have the triple gamers playing again, so I think 250 points for me is realistic.
So far for Week 18 I've got Fabregas, Bale, Petrov, Tevez & Bent in...Sturridge will probably come in too, Santa Cruz has gone & Fabs will go for Arsh if he remains injured.
Let me know how you got on yesterday. Is your Week 18 team starting to take shape?
Cheers,
AM
27 comments:
133 points with arsh. verm almunia n klasnic stil havin 2 games to play n etherington, o'hara, duff left with a game each...santa was diapointin..dint xpect him not to make the bench atleast...guess m xpectin bout 220 this week..
116.5 points so far. Chucho the big disappointment. But then again, he was robbed of the MWG against Chelsea. I have now dropped out of the top 1000. I'll be happy with anything over 200.
thx for the tip about Bale. bargain, although think i might leave til after the liv'pool (A) game. g neville is really cheap & i picked up rafael on the BD for just 6.50 ish, but you never know who's 1st choice for that spot. S.P.
AM
Can we get some of your in depth analysis on the Drogba void?
What do you think of Sturridge? The starting striker for the team at the top of the table for only 6.64?!!
Value?
Waste of a striker slot?
Help?
Please?
Is it worth pointing out that man city deliberately picked the time to sack Hughes to give the new manager an easy run? have they actually got considerably better or are they just playing worse teams? Tevez was starting to play a lot better under Hughes, and he has been the only improvement as far as I can tell...im not convinced. Frustrates me to see the majority of the media go on about justification after mancini wins the easy games selected for him. Would hughes really have done worse? Winning these two games is the very least youd expect from a team of that price...but no, theyre now "realising their potential" after winning two easy games, and mancini is a genius. bloody ridiculous. Sorry just venting at the media crap ive had to listen to recently!
Joshtottenham
Joshtottenham,
You got it exactly right.
Sean - I think Chelsea will miss Drogba badly but I expect they will keep grinding out results.
One of the keys to the success Chelsea have had in the past 6 months has been the Drogba & Anelka partnership. Anelka does all the running down the channels, pulling defenders out of position & creating the space that allow Drogba to be so devastating.
Anelka will continue to do this (once he returns from injury) and that should mean Sturridge gets goal scoring opportunities. Until Anelka returns I expect players like Lampard, Ballack, Deco, Malouda, Joe Cole etc to create chances & I'm sure Sturridge will be capable of returning his value via shots on target & hopefully a goal or 2.
At 6.64 he's not a huge risk & the price means you'll have extra money to spend on premium players like Fabregas/Tevez etc.
Josh - I see what you're saying mate, the media do jump on anything like this & I'm not sure they'll finish any higher than 5th.
I didn't think sacking Hughes was the right thing to do, but the one thing Mancini has done that Hughes couldn't do is get the team defending as a unit (2 clean sheets in a row) despite missing 3 key defenders.
I agree City should be winning these games comfortably with their squad/spending, but they were drawing them under Hughes (Burnley at home, Fulham at home, Hull at home, Wigan etc) & they were appalling at Spurs 2 weeks ago.
It's a slightly exaggerated comparison, but when Redknapp came in last October we all knew we had a good squad, yet Ramos wasn't getting anything out of them, we were a shambles & in real danger of a relegation fight. All Harry did was come in & get the players organised & the confidence flowed from there.
City weren't in the same mess under Hughes, but they weren't really improving & the were shipping goals for fun. If Mancini can get City organised (so far it looks like he's improved things defensively) then maybe City can finish top 4, but it's early days.
Cheers
So you are all confident that Chelsea will continue to play with 2 players up front? Because they might very well go with some kind of 4-5-1 with Anelka as the lonely striker. Ancelottis Christmas Tree anyone?
Good point Naning, but Anchelotti has always played 4-4-2 throughout his career. If Sturridge can't get a game when Chelsea lose both Drogba & Kalou then he'll never get a game! I think he'll play vs Hull & if he does well he'll keep his place. If he's shite then maybe they'll go 4-5-1 :)
No, Ancelotti has rarely played 4-4-2 with Milan. I should know. It's my team. Berlusconi yelled at him several times for playing with 1 attacker up front.
Sad news: Edwin van der Sar is on leave indefinitely after his wife suffered a brain hemorrhage.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5807970,00.html
Hey Naning, sorry my mistake. I always thought he'd played 2 upfront with Milan.
He did sometimes(Shevchenko-Inzaghi). But he is famous for his christmas tree(4-3-2-1)-formation.
An annoying week so far. My unwillingness to have any ManC player because of the change in the manager position, which I didn't know how it will effect the team, cost me a lot. No Given, no Tevez. Heitinga was fantastic, Robinson did plenty, and so far so have Rooney and Vermaelen. Bily was great on his second match, but only on this one. Bassong and O'Hara only played one game, while Arshavin and Nasri didn't really show up against Villa, though I expect them both to be better against oppositions like Pompey and Bolton. Dempsey was also dissappointing with 11.5 points from 2 games, and I hope he'll blow up against Stoke.
On BD I've done a major mistake. HUGE. I had Bent on discount from Saturday on less than 11mil, but then dropped him later on the half-time of the Chelsea-Fulham match for Zamora. Zamora looked good and got an assist, while Bent wasn't scoring. Yet. I was worried that the prices flactuations during the Spurs-West Ham update will limit me from buying Zamora, so I dropped Bent for him. I hope Zamora will do well home to Pompey so I won't have any regrets.
I changed my teeam a lot, leaving only 4 players from before - Arshavin, O'Hara, Rooney and Vermaelen. Baird and Zamora came from Fulham (home to Pompey), Eagles and Mears came from Burnley (home to Stoke), Given and Petrov cane from ManC (home to Blackburn) and I just couldn't ignore Sturridge against Hull, right?
I'm able to switch Mears and Zamora with Bale and Bent now, but I have to see first which striker has the better form. If Zamora does well in the cup and against Stoke, he might be just as good as Bent for next week, especially home to Pompey.
Given
Vermaelen Baird Mears
O'Hara Arshavin Eagles Petrov
Rooney Zamora Sturridge
Any advices?
SF
@AM and Naning: Yahoo, Fantasy Football Scout and SkySports ran an article where Ancelotti explained his plan to deploy Anelka as a lone striker with Joe Cole, Malouda, Ballack, and Deco on the flanks (combination of course) and Lampard heading the midfield. Wish I had the link but definately read the whole article. Now with Drogba leaving and Anelka injured, its likely Ancelotti will stick with 2 at the front for the time being. Just my two cents!
Continuing the last post of mine, I noticed that if I take out Zamora and Mears for Bent and Bale, it also enables me to upgrade Sturridge to Carew, who is away to Wigan, though he isn't really a sure starter, even if he starts tonight. If there wasn't enough, that is one more thing to think about now.
SF
i have a feeling chelsea's going to play 4-4-1-1 aka JM formula.
lamps and Sturridge(anelka when he returns)
this would enable lamps to score alot(like in old days)
Here's a point of topic...why do people stay with Kirkland, instead of choosing a premium keeper that costs 6-8 mil? Sure you may have Kirk @1 mil but he will get you negative points. as for a premium goalkeeper, in example this week Given got 30pts, Joe Har (35.50), Gomes (33), Reina (30), Howard (28.50)...
now on to Kirkland (.50) and still to play Manchester United. I know I know he's used as an enabler blablablah, but he is killing your chances of you getting so many points from a keeper. A word of advice, loose him!!! If you still have him, that is.
What did Given have the 3 games before this???
Answer:
2 weeks ago: -15 with 2 games in 1 week
1 week ago: -4 with 1 game played.
Moral of this example: Goalies are risks no matter who you get. That is why having Kirkland at 1.6 isn't necessarily a bad choice. Also, don't forget getting Kirkland will give you an extra $4 to afford an upgrade somewhere else.
@anon 12:27- I see what Anon 11:57 is trying to say..Given was a bad example though. Almunia, Gomes, Hart and PRobbo are Good examples...they bring up their value and then some. Well in any case if you have Bale @2.7 maybe it's time to use that spare cash and upgrade your keeper.
186 points with vermaelen and diaby to go... hopefully can reach 220 this week..
i had wilkinson (injured in the first match against city), RSC (injured and missed both matches), LCY with 6 points from 2 matches, Tuncay with 7.5 from 2 matchces and Dempsey with 11.5 from 2 matches..
my advice: always choose the keeper with the most likely chance of CS. once a keeper concede, it become a difficult task for him to get great points(no CS/concede one goal - means a difference of 8 massive points for keeper)
anyway i never heard of a keeper with CS loses a game(-2).it is therefore no necessary to follow ONE keeper. choose the best one of the week(can be cheap/can be premium pending fixtures)
in fact i would prefer to have a balanced squad than having 'feeble' enabler(s) e.g. RSC,Capt Kirk,G Bale unless a particular week where they are involve in favorable fixtures.
just remember- they are Cheap for a certain reason.
^and to follow up my post above, let say if you are always unlucky with rotating keepers, just follow the in-form keeper(s) of the season[last resort!!!].
this season's pick- Joe Hart, Cech, Mark Schwarzer, Big Brad Friedel.
that works if you are a newbie/noob at choosing keeper. Note: these keepers are not going to be 'penny' keepers for a good reason. still i would suggest rotating keepers.
126 with 6 Ars / 2 Bol / 2 Stk - potentially 16 more man-games. i know it looks mad, but hey, it seems to work by overloading.
@Anonymous: While you make a valid point, the idea behind an enabler is to afford stronger players elsewhere, i.e Kirk for 1mil allowing a strike force of Rooney, Defoe, Torres, which if all 3 produce, the 1mil invest in Kirk, even if negative is worth it.
CS is 6 pts, and of course you cannot get a clean sheet if you lose. And you logic is a bit flawed considering Jensen "the beast" for Burnley has put up great points with no CS and a loss, so value picks exist.
In the case of Bale, hes a sure starter, he takes FK, against any opposition that will count for points.
^yes. but using Jensen is flawed. Burnley had a great home record of conceding 9 goals. adn on the road, they had ZERO win /conceding 31 goals. so like i said, it is fixture that is priority. I don't consider Jensen for away trips. i sell and get some good ones. Jensen will be classed as a mid-keeper, not really a filler as well.
P.s. i would rather go for HRod,Tevez,Bent and a premium/better keeper in a rotational keeper position. and a balanced team since there will be some left over millions.
Just sharing what i think. By all means if you have a workable model, go for it!
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