Week 19 - Saturday
Yes, I've had a bad day, no I didn't get a goal, yes I've dropped out of the Top 2000, no I didn't have Anelka, Lampard or Rooney, yes my girlfriend just made just me watch "The Proposal". But the week is still young...
I knew today would hurt. It wouldn't matter how my double gamers performed, we had 3 of the big "single gamer" games (if that makes sense), United, Chelsea & Man City...my main fear being Rooney, Anelka, Tevez & Given. I'd go down in the rankings without question...but how badly?
Rooney - 17.5 points, I'll take that hit, not too bad.
Anelka - Nightmare; he had a blinder, top scorer with 36 as Sunderland wilted. Those of you who read my facebook post last night will know how close I was to bringing him in. Frustrating.
Tevez - Like his team, toothless, 1 point.
Given - Zero, but could've been worse given (pun) the result.
Not great, but not terrible. A City clean sheet + Tevez goal could've really hurt in the late game. But it didn't happen, and they're gone now. Time to move on.
I picked up 38 points thanks to 11 from Bale, 9.5 from Kranjcar, 8.5 from Defoe, 5 from Auerlio & a load of rubbish from N'Gog & the benched Aquilani. By the way...N'Gog's performance is one of the worst I've ever seen from a Premiership player.
So I'm now sitting in a miserable 2,122th place, my lowest since Week 2...BUT, I still have 16 players to play this week, including 5 for Arsenal tomorrow in Almunia, Verm, Nasri, Arsh & Eduardo & then those 5 + Bale, Kranj, Defoe, Aurelio, Aquilani & (cough) N'Gog (cough) to play again in midweek, so it could get better! It has to if I want to progress to Round 3 of The AM Challenge.
Some random observations from today; Chelsea are very good whenever they're considered under pressure, Sunderland are in dire straits, Wigan are irrationally unpredictable, Wolves are back in trouble, City are not as good as people thought they were, Everton are on the up in the past week (and as if by magic, Toffee Dave returns, good to have you back mate ;), Spurs can't finish teams off when faced with 10 men behind the ball (and Superman in goal), United always find a way when Rooney is busy but Burnley were a tad unlucky, Liverpool & Stoke are currently in the bottom five teams when it comes to "quality of football" (that was a BAD match), but Liverpool deserved a penalty & Kuyt should've won it at the end.
Now on the barndoor there was a lot to consider. I'm sure you'll join my in saying THANK GOD it's back to a single week! The best fixture clearly falls to Man Utd, home to Hull, but there's worthy mentions to Everton, Chelsea & Spurs.
My Barndoor team currently = Van Der Sar, Vermaelen, Bale, Salgado (filler), Aquilani, J Cole, Modric (is God), Lampard, Kalinic (filler), Rooney, Anelka
Anelka & Rooney stay, but I'll need to find some cash to do some upgrading on Salgado & Aquilani, which might mean Lampard goes. I'd also like Evertone players. Strangely, Kalinic may stay as a filler. At under £3m, 1 SOT returns his value...surely he can manage that at home to Wigan?
How's it all going so far? Who's left? I'd like to see all your barndoor teams. Are you confident of progressing to the next round of The AM Challenge?
Cheers,
AM
45 comments:
Currently on 50 points, but it is early days.
Have BD'd Valencia, Lampard and Donavan; disposing of Arshavin, Nasri and N'gosh.
A half decent day for me with 79 points, unfortunately everyone elses phantom points kinda took the shine off my Anelka performance and i didn't get enough of a lead from my single gamers to warrant having them. Still, i have Milner, Verm and Arshavin to look forward to tomorrow. Then 7 play again midweek.
I absolutely messed up on the barn door, missing all the Man U players, but did manage to pick up a couple of Everton guys that i think will do well.
So here it is so far...
Given
Verm, Alexander, Bale
Modric, Lamps, Dunn, Bily
Anelka, Donovan, Diamanti
Actually, now i've written it down again, i quite like it. I just wish i could somehow get Valencia in without unbalancing the whole thing.
I've picked up Diamanti as he's not only away to Portsmouth next, but has a nice double home game week coming up.
Lamps was obvious and also with a double week on the horizon.
Donovan looked great, and was taking set pieces, whilst Bily looked back to his dangerous self again.
Dunn is consistant and at home to Wigan.
I'd love to have Rooney, but i just don't want to go into getting a ton of fillers for him. As far as i can see, every player apart from given has a decent chance of making their value or more.
Valencia is a more realistic target for me, but i don't want to drop anyone for him now.
Sod it, i think i'll just ignore the best match-up and go with my gut :P
And AM, you'll be alot happier tomorrow, i'm sure an Eduardo brace will help erase the memory of that prat Ryan Reynolds prancing around with his shirt off (yes my GF made me watch it too haha).
I thought I had it bad -- 36 points -- but..."The Proposal"?! Ouch. I don't feel so bad anymore. Thanks, AM!
looks like I didnt do too shabby with 117 points... anelka, rooney, modric and valencia did me well... and I've still got 7 players to go (well technically 6, arshavin plays twice)
i'm going to wait until tomorrow to do any team shifting, but as it stands my team would be pretty good next week:
kirk
g.alex / bale / cuellar (i'll probably change him)
arsh / valencia / modric (big discount) / kranj / aqua
rooney / anelka (both huge discounts)
good week so far, with 73 pts and 15 players yet to play
as of now, my BD team is ...
van der sar
verm / bale / distin
lamps / ballack / belletti / bilya
anelka / donovan / saha
i really liked what i saw from chelski and everton today. and everton has sunderland next!
I got 97 points and still got arsenal players + the double gamers. Hopefully I make it through to the 3rd round of the challenge cup.
79.5 points so far with Rosicky, Sagna, Vermaelen to go tomorrow and then those three again midweek plus Bale, Modric, Kranjcar, Aquilani, Defoe, and N'gog. So 12 player games left for me.
On the BD, I let go of my Given discount (as soon as Saha finished the penalty) to pick up Captain Kirk (deathly afraid of this move but wanted extra cash). Here's my BD team:
kirkland
verm / bale / evans
kranjcar / modric / lampard / valencia / mokoena
anelka / saha
If possible I'll try to upgrade kirk and or mok, but I've a long way to go to afford anyone better. I may have to drop lampard...
-lfcinpa
Evening gents...first post since returning from Barbados (where the living is much more civiized than these northern climes, believe you me).
Solid first day of the partial double week for me with 78 points and 13 players yet to play. The watershed decision for me was spending big on a single game stud, namely Senor Lampard...I'm glad I stuck to my guns and followed through on spending nearly 19 million on him with so many attractive (and cheaper!) double gamers. Unfortunately (and really, I shouldn't be complaining), I came very close to fielding Anelka which would have been even nicer...still, have to be happy with Lamps' performance (the late goal in particular!).
I'm elated that I have Modric at 6.98...he looked really sharp today and was unlucky to not score a brace (have you ever seen a 0-0 game that could have easily been a 8-0 game??). I can only cross my fingers and hope that Harry does not platoon the Croatian Assassin when Lennon recovers. Talk about an embarassment of riches: Modric, Kranjcar, Palcios, Huddlestone, Lennon, Jenas, O'Hara, Bentley. That is in-sane.
I cracked a rib body surfing in the Carribbean (really painful) and exacerbated my injury when I let out a blood curtling scream when Kuyt's header glanced off the woodwork...how amazing would that have been to get 12 points in the blink of an eye after a embarassingly quiet day at the office for the Dutchman (I honestly can't remember the last time a player played 90 minutes and returned ZERO points). I cannot believe the lack of luck going the way of the Reds these days.
Hoping for big things from Rosicky tomorrow and mid-week...I picked him up late last night after learning that Ramsey and Denilson were both out of contention. I don't think many managers have him so, aside from Lamps (and Steinsson), he could be my difference maker this week.
I have not been able to seriously BD for just about a month now...family birthdays, holidays and vacation have cramped my style. Before I left the house today prior to the 3pm (UK time)games, I did buy Anelka, Van der Sar and Landon Donovan. I am going to try to hold on to Lamps and Anelka for next week and pick up Giggs or Valencia as well...I can actually afford to do this pretty easily with Donovan and SEB or Kalinic up front. If it is confirmed that Bale will start another week for Spurs, I can stretch my funds even futher with him on my side at 2.67.
May the Graham Alexander-era rest in peace...the man served me well.
welcome back dr.teeth
i'm with you on rosicky. also got the exact same barndoor picks, though i already had anelka. giggs wasn't even on the bench today. maybe sir alex saved him for carling match against city on tuesday in which case he won't play next week's match?
I have 64.5 points with 4 players to go tomorrow and 9 mid-week. Trying to read Rafa's mind made my head hurt, so I passed over Aurelio and put Corluka alongside Bale. Working out so far. I was considering replacing Tevez with Anelka but went with Defoe instead. Not working out so far. I went with Diaby rather than Valencia, which I'm sure I'll regret as I always do anytime I pick an Arsenal MF or Fwd.
My BD team thus far:
Given
Vermaelen/Bale/Bassong
Eagles/Modric/N'Zogbia/Valencia
Rooney/Eduardo/Anelka
SeaBass is really just a placeholder at this point. Eduardo isn't likely to stay either, especially if he underperforms for me this week -- again.
I got a poor 37.5 from Bale Corluka Given Billy Crouch which hurts when I still have Drogba. Ah well
Van der Sar
Verm, Melchiot, Corluka
Billy, Taylor, Lee, Modric
Drogba, Klasnic, Diamanti
97 with 3 arsenal players to go.. another 8 in midweek.. anelka and vds done well for me, while i'm a little bit dissapointed with aquaboy(dropped already).. also good bye for g.alex..
i bd valencia, belleti, bily, donovan, berba and evans..
SM
82.50points for current point
Thanks to Myhill (29point), a great risk on this Kepper! Saved 11 ball from Spurs.
Left Nelsen, Arshavin and Nasri
Midweek still having Bale, Degen, Nasri, Arshavin, Kranjcar, Aqualani and Defoe
But,
A nightmare for me!
I had no time to barndoor ANELKA
A sad news for me
Just Barndoor SAHA with dropping Tevez
Whats with everyone's craze about Elk and FatLamps ?!
Points chasing at its finest! :/
Come on people! Aren't we supposed to see the match ups?!
Chelshit are playing BIRMINGHAM!
[Read that twice]
Now temme.. Before Chelsea put 7 in, would you have honestly considered Chelsea players?!
Most of them did the same thing with Tevez..
Ok,maybe he did pay off for the past 2-3 weeks but once faced with strong opposition Citeh slumped!
And AM.. what about Bolton playing Burnley at home?!
Ah well.. do what you want people.. : )
My early BD team -
EvdS
Verma/Bale/(The Greek/Degen)
MattyT/LcY/Billy/(Aqua)
Rooney/Saha/(Diamanti)
GK:
EvdS:
Whooping 18 points! And against Hull? he's MUST have! And the ManU defence is improving a little bit! Just a little bit : ) So even though Hull have got Hunt, i assume he's just gonna score plenyt o' phantoms(SoT,CW,FW..) and thus help EvdS to increase his own phantoms! : )
DF:
Verma:
Do i have to explain?! : D
Bale:
Attacking,cheap,plays down the wings,fast and can certainly kick the ball! : )
Kyrgiakos/Degen :
The Greek is in as i guess Rafa wouldn't drop him after the goal (even if it was a sloppy one).
Although i might stick with Degen, that is depending on who plays Spurs and if both play, who plays better! : )
Although Degen is not as good a phantom scorer(lack of an appropriate word) as the Greek, he was played on the Right wing, so if he continue there against Spurs then i'd drop the Greek! : )
MF:
MattyT:
He is consisntent,easily gets 10 even against teams that play well. So he just HAD to be in my team considering they are playing Burnley (whose away record as you all know is unmatchable! ;)
Lee Chung Yong:
He has showed he can score goals. And again, he is playing Burnley!! : ) Although he has to score a goal to earn points,@8 he's a risk i'm willing to take!
Billy:
Billy is just Billy! : ) He is consistent, fast, skilfull, and has an awesome left foot! Need i say more? :)
Aquaman:
I'm as of now not sure what i can do with $4.xx so i just left him as it is. Unless he proves he's good and shows some excellent stuff against Spurs, I would drop him for JsPark! : )
FW:
Wazza:
One goal, One assist and 7 goals in the last 8 games! And now he plays Hull, its just a disaster waiting to happen, i bet! But i hope not.. He better score some goals to repay my faith in him! : )
Saha:
Everton are playing Sunderland who just got thumped! And he is a great forward.. So atleast one goal from him this week!!
Diamanti:
West Ham are playing Pompey and all Diamanti need is a dead ball to whack it into the net!
Although, depending on how he plays today, i might drop him for Kalinic and bring in Modric!
Just my 2 Cents.. : )
Cheers,
-Tekno-
Good responses guys, glad to see many of you are doing well...hoping I'll fight back as so far it's been another average week.
Tekno - I imagine the reason many people are picking up Lampard & Anelka is because Chelsea have a double week in Week 21, facing Burnley & Hull. Birmingham at home isn't the worst fixture to have in Week 20 & hopefully we'll reap the benefits in 2 weeks time when others can't afford them.
Sitting on 58.5 pts with some Arsenal players left today - regretted not changing Given + Tevez for Kirk and Anelka as I planned :-(
And to make it worse, I had Anelka and Valencia on the BD but got distracted by my kids and forgot to save them (Anelka up 8 million, ouch).
Phil, South Africa
better to pick Anelka pre-update then to regret not being able to afford him later.
AM -
ah... Now I get it..
!BUT! what if Birmingham hold the blues off?
and their prices drop back a la Defoe?
Then it would be a total waste!
BUT.. i'm mainly ranting about it cause i had Elk @14 and then dropped him for Defoe! :-/
Oh well.. past is past! : )
Good Luck to all you guys who trust Chelshit to pull it off against Birmingham! :D
Cheers,
-Tekno-
I scored 59 points with verm, arsh, and rosicky to play today and then with 8 more gamers after that.
I kept given expecting him maybe to be a season keeper, but when I saw City's defense go to shambles yesterday i think i need to leave him even at a discount of 2.3 mil. I may put p robbo @2.57 in to have more room for my team
right now it looks like
Robbo
Verm Bale Evans
aquaman modric bily dunn valencia
rooney
1 spot open with 15.55 mil, i really like the look of the team right now, but don't know who to get with that much money? I trying not to chase points. Good luck to you all.
63 pts with 11 players still to go. I managed a 9pts per player on Saturday, not bad but...I'm somehow thin on dg's. I'm not so much optimistic for the AM Challange...!!!
I too did some bd. I know I might regret BIG TIME for not bd VdS. Kept faith with Given, completely based on next match-ups, and Mancini really knows how to hold off weak oppositions, but has NO CLUE with just a bit stronger ones. Now, VdS is out of my reach, but I just hope my faith in the Man of the Match @Godison Park pays off in the end.
My bd team:
Given
Verm,Bale,Alex(not so much of a bd,pending teamnews)
Eagles,Valencia,Malouda,Billy
Rooney,EdS,Anelka
1.5m left
Good Luck...!!!
47.50 points with Almunia, Vermaelen, Arshavin, Abou Diaby and Eduardo to go, with 10 players having a 2nd game.
On the BD, got rid of Almunia, Arshavin, Eduardo, Abou Diaby and Ngog for Van Der Saar, Anelka, Donovan, Valencia and Lee
currently 83 points and duff vermealen bale huddlestone kranjar crouch defoe is going to play again...
77 points yesterday, up from 317 to 167, 150 places... My team is: Almunia/Bale,Aurelio,Bassong, Steinsson/ Aquillani,Kranjčar,Asshavin/
Anelka,Crouch,EDS, so 5 players to go today + 10 more on midweek... Very happy... Hoping for starts from Aquilani and Crouch... Tottenham didn't win a single game(last 4 or 5) when Keane started a match...
My BD team is:
Kirkland/Bale,Evra,Evans,Alex/
Lampard,Boateng,Bily/
Anelka,Saha,Benny McCarthy
only bale,one of man utd defenders,Bily and Anelka are safe for next week, Saha is close but not sure yet...
78 points with Verm, Sicky, and Lee to play there first. Plus 3 others (besides those 3) that are DGers.
Still lost places though :(.
for the BD, added Elk, VdS, and Lando
89.5 with Almunia, Traore, Kim and Rosicky still to play.
I had N'Gog, but fortunately I also had Anelka.
Anybody know why Nasri is not even on the bench?
I got 128 yesterday to take me back upto 18th overall, girlfriend got 108 to jump from 2200 upto 8hundred and something.
Firstly, Tekno, you rant about point chasing of proven chelski players but then say you have put Kyrgiakos in, surely your taking the pish and are being ironic re point chasing?
Ok some observations, I went for half proven one gamers and half filler double gamers, more and more double gamers appear not to be paying off, with rotation you so often end up with only one game anyway from the big teams, decent double gamers are like you evertons, villas and below where you can pick their team with confidence, any of the top 5 or 6 (aware villa are around there and an exception) it's just a complete lottery, even spurs now fall into that. I would be more excited about Blackburn playing saying pompey and wigan in a double week than arsenals current fare, i mean check out todays team!?! My vibes maybe wrong and midweek the tide turns but, and no criticism to A_M picking Ngog because he plays twice and cheap is not the answer, Joe Cole could have been a cheaper option and I dare say will have got more points this week.
Now, EVS, I BD'd him, but does he mean the end to constant picking around the keepers? am not sure, I like the idea but he's still more than I usually pay and using Kirk, Myhill, PRob has been fun and rewarding and allowed spending elsewhere, so am really hung on this, I mean just look at West Hams fixtures Green looks good value, and keepers who are busy score more, and with Man Utd getting back to strength will EDS get as much action as others, guess his value will focus on clean sheets, I dont know am objective and interested to hear opinions on this one.
OK for my Team as it stands
EDS
Verm Bale Evra
Valencia Modric Cole Aqua
Rooney Anelka Donovan
From Arsenal's website "Denilson and Aaron Ramsey miss the game through injury and Samir Nasri also drops out of the side with a hamstring injury."
arsenal players have momentarily gone down in price?
OK, Arsahvin got 1 point only, again!
You are dead to me.
^ even diaby( DM for most part) scored more @ 3! lol.
Thinking of adding Nelson or Samba before their price goes up. Considering next week's matchups, would you suggest replacing any of my defenders for either of them? I have:
Verm (full) Bassong (+0.90 discount) Bale (+2.65) Evans (+1.10)
Thanks for any advice.
- SK
How about BD'ing Arshavin? He's due a goal now, for a player of his calibre to be shit for so long... Lol forgive me for my sarcasm, but I really feel for all Arshavin owners. Now that I've said this he'll get a hat-trick (of course he won't) in his next game. I think by the end of the season, we'll have to use Arshavin and Mokoena as our fillers :)
To Arshavin,
What are u doing? Don't let us down again! Please
And make a nice perform in midweek game against Bolton at Home!
Good Luck for u, Arshavin!
Arshavin as filler? Are u sure?
Where is 2nd assist for Eduardo ??
I feel Arshavin is the kind of player who will do well against better teams when his other teammates have been blogged down. In that sense, I think I will stay away from him next week and add him for the AV or ManU game. Plus, he has been playing out of position so it's best to wait until he gives a decent contribution.
-SK
Bad news for both Fulham and USMNT: Dempsey with suspected cruciate ligament damage.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/f/fulham/8464490.stm
fabregas @17.51? considering he scored 25.5 this week, it's strange that his price went down from 21.xx? get him while he's down, i would guess he will be going back up shortly (if you wanted him, not sure i do)
@tekno - chelsea is the best team in the league, not sure why there would be any question about picking up their players..
" BUT.. i'm mainly ranting about it cause i had Elk @14 and then dropped him for Defoe! :-/
Oh well.. past is past! "
Just read that again!.. i was pissed coz i dropped Elk@14 for Defoe!
So i ranted and ranted and after AM replied.. i posted the above comment^ !!
Cheers,
-Tekno-
for those of you who had lampard and rooney i want to say "SCOREBOARD, SCOREBOARD" cesc outscored both of them and has another game. i kept him last week when everyone said i was crazy. the only drawback is that everyone barndoored him at the price i had him, because of some bizarre drop for all arsenal players.
the bad, now, for all of you who had anelka, especially those that dropped tevez for him, you have permission to use that same chant against me. i thought they were crazy for picking up anelka. boy was i wrong. that and diaby were the only times, that i was wrong this week.
i got 122.5 points. 90 of it from paul robinson, ryan nelsen, vermaelen, cesc, klasnic, diaby and eduardo. that second assist by eduardo is missing though. i have 8 to play, so i am hoping for a monster week!
@ bean > what the hell is wrong with you bean, why don't you want fabregas??
not so bad after the second day game.. i'm at solid 97pts with my gamble of fabregas vs klasnic both gave me good points.. now waiting for wednesday second game.. i got verm, bale, modric, fab, diaby, kranj, klasnic and n'gog to play.. i'll be happy if i reach 140pts this week..
any idea of a good bd before wednesday when their prices changes again?..
Maxer..
Foolishly I forgot about the weather. I had Benitez, so that's a 0. And I had both Rafael & Wes Brown from previous week and chose the wrong one to drop. Rafael didn't play, another 0. Benitez was a bad choice, too, it was between him and my man Landon, and who brought a great return for $8.
Other than that I did okay. Bale, Rooney, Modric, Kranj, Capn Kirk, Defoe all at or near double digits. But Ivan decided to be the only one not to touch a goal-bound ball for Chelsea. And Diaby today with a paltry 3pts, good thing he has another game to help his average.
I'm at 84 pts, which seems decent, not incredible, with 5 players still to go.
On the BD: I got the Elk and added Beletti and Upson--not sure if I'll keep the latter two. And Ivanovic's discount is a thin margin now (.4) as he's cooled off. So he may go after holding him for ages. Same with Diaby, and after Blackburn's home showing, I have to think about Kirk who is set to play there next week.
Is it just me or the points from the Arsenal game have not been added up to the total points?
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