Saturday 23 January 2010

Week 20 - My Team


Robinson

Stearman  Vermaelen  Bale

Bilyaletdinov  Lampard  Aquilani  M.Taylor

Anelka  Kalinic  Rooney

For the first time in a long time, I really like my team this week. I feel I've got a good balance, set piece/penalty takers & attacking players from teams due wins.

As I'd mentioned earlier this week I let Van Der Sar go after grabbing him on the barndoor last weekend - I have no luck when I spend money on keepers so instead I've gone with Paul Robinson for Blackburn at home to Wigan. He cost me just over £2.5m & I fancy Blackburn to win the game so I should get positive points from him. The £5.5m I saved by making the switch was vital to building the rest of my team.

I have a very economical defence, obviously keeping Vermaelen & Bale at huge discounts. The final spot went to Richard Stearman, costing me just £3.3m. The England U-21 International has been excellent for Wolves this season but we saw his price nosedive after his red card last weekend. Luckily, he'll serve his suspension in the FA Cup today & be available for their game vs Liverpool, so again he's another I'd expect to return more than his value as he tend to get plenty of tackles/blocked shots in.

I'm really pleased with my midfield: Bily should have plenty of opportunities for shots on target at home to Sunderland as he floats about in the space just behind Saha & Aquilani has been pushed up to play the Gerrard role behind Kuyt for Liverpool, so at just £3.60m vs Wolves I think he could prove one of the steals of the week.

I brought Lampard in on the barndoor with one eye on Chelsea's double week in Week 21, but I still expect a good points haul from him at home to Birmingham; he rarely disappoints at home with the number of corners/free kicks/penalties they're awarded. My final spot goes to Matty Taylor, who is involved in everything good Bolton do & like Lampard will get all set pieces. I feel they could give Burnley a bit of a beating in midweek so I'm hoping for a really solid performance from him.

My front line contains the 2 big guns - Rooney & Anelka. I had to pay close to full price for Rooney (20.01) so I need at least a goal from him vs Hull today, but I grabbed Anelka for £15m. The final spot goes to  Kalinic, who seems to be finally settling in at Blackburn after a very slow start & was too cheap to turn down.

**UPDATE - About 20 minute before deadline, some news filtered through on the Chat Room with quotes from Ferguson saying he might rest Rooney vs Hull... but after discussions with the guys I decided that I would keep him anyway. If he gets a zero a lot of us will all be in the same boat, but if I drop him & he scores the damage would be far greater. Plus, it was too late to start messing with a team I was very happy with. Fingers crossed he plays!**

That's my team...good luck to everyone, especially those of you left in The Blog Cup 4th Round.

Let me know your team & any barndoor ideas!

Cheers,
AM

80 comments:

Anonymous said...

very very solid team there A-M! good luck!

init said...

AM - like the reasoning behind Rooney. I went the other way and changed him but it was a gamble!!

Unbelievable that you have managed to get Anelka, MTay, Lamps and Rooney. Good thing about your team is that the 'fillers' Aqua Kalanic and Stearman aren't really fillers...

Jussi
Bale/Verm/Stearman
Aqua/Valencia/Pienaar/Modric/Fab
Lando/Saha

Don't like my team at all, but you never know in this stupid game!!

Anonymous said...

very solid team AM...

please comment on my team:

Kirk/
Alexander | Verm | Bale /
Kranj | Valencia | Aqui | Bily /
Tevez | H-Rod | Anelka

- Aji

mudwalkerz said...

VDS
Verm/Tomkins/Distin
Modric/Valencia/Beletti/JCole
Rooney/Anelka/Donovan

Already dropped distin and valencia for doublegamers. Had already Tomkins, Beletti, JCole and Anelka at bd prices with the eye on that.
Think Ill keep VDS at 8 something.. Not sure yet what I will do with Modric and Donovan.

Anonymous said...

my team is..
robinson
zabaleta(4m) bale(2.6m) ferdinand

bily fabregas(17) taylor(14) valencia

diamanti klasnic donovan

Jojo said...

Here's mine:
Capt. Kirk
Verm Bale Ferdinand
Taylor Belleti Valencia Modric
Anelka Berba Donovan

Good luck everyone!

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

are you in love AM <3 ??? wif yo squad dat is?

mines =

CECH
BALE STEINSSSON BAINESSSS
FABREGASSSS AQUA MODRiC MTAY
KALiNiC KLASNiC DONOVANNNN

cheersssssssssssssssssss

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

[Duff Schwarzer hangeland upson] 4 players worth BDing for the double

Mike B said...

What a crazy half hour!

I ended up dropping Rooney, and did something very stupid by picking up Berbatov, who is probably just as unlikely to get on the pitch today. A sudden rush of blood to the head could have ruined my week.

With the spare cash i upgraded stearman to Ivanovic, so i hope that Chelsea keep a clean V Brum today.

There also appears to be alot of fillers in my team, but to be honest, they have as good a chance at scoring well as the mid priced players on offer.

Here's the team...

Robinson
Ivanovic, Verm, Bale
Utaka, Fabregas, Lampard, Collison
Berbatov, Kalinic, Anelka

I like them all apart from Berbs, but hey ho, we'll just see what happens shall we.


Good luck to the Rooney owners, better luck to the Berbatov owners!

Jojo said...

Which team is up for the double game next week?

Neil Tan said...

Damn............Is it true Man U game vs Hull has been postponed? :S i click the gamecast in soccernet and it says so.........

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

the teams on a double are,

@ home:

Fulham
Hull
West Ham

away:

Portsmouth
Chelsea
Wolves

thats the doubles for week 21!

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

@ Neil Tan, I dont know what you are talking about!?

Andy said...

Found myself with 10 players at 11:59am!! Bit of a shock. Sold Baird and pickedup Ferdinand at 7.64. This meant swapping Modric to Fellaini. Hope this was a good move!

CMass said...

here's my team for wk 20 :
VdS
Verm , Bale , Baird
Valencia , Modric , Pienaar , Eagles , Aqua
Elk , Lando

STM said...

Neil Tan - Man Utd vs Hull is a postponed game that is now being played today. Soccernet Gamecast set it as postponed the last time round, which is why you see it now as being "postponed". Nothing to worry about.

Anonymous said...

why the fixtures for week 21 still not update?? just west ham n wolves who play double game. do u alert with that?

Bradley said...

4 premium players but without any true fillers? That's quite the line-up AM. Here's mine:

Robinson
Vermaelen/Bale/Steinsson
Eagles/N'Zogbia/Lee/Fabregas
Rooney/Anelka/Donovan

Sadly, I missed getting Lampard on the BD, but I did manage to pick up Fabregas. Although I don't like the looks of Arsenal's schedule, you don't get to decide when a top player becomes "cheap."

Doctor Teeth said...

WHY IS CHELSEA NOT LISTED AS HAVING A DOUBLE WEEK???

Anonymous said...

Van Der Saar
Vermaelen Bale Jordan
Bilyaletdinov Fabregas Valencia Taylor
Anelka Donovan Kalinic


My team for week 20. Not too keen on Jordan but I didnt want to change my midfield, so had no choice but to keep with him.

For week 21, I have dropped Van Der Saar, Donovan, Kalinic, Valencia, Jordan and Taylor for Cech, Baird, Andrew Johnson, Ebanks-Blake, Duff and Collison. Hard to drop VDS at the discount I had, but Man U face Arsenal, Villa and Everton next, so I dont see him doing well.
Still deciding whether or not to drop Fabregas for a DGer

Cech
Vermaelen Bale Baird
Bilyaletdinov Fabregas Duff Collison
Anelka Ebanks-Blake Johnson

Anonymous said...

TEAM NEWS Man Utd v Hull
Man Utd: Van der Sar, Rafael Da Silva, Ferdinand, Jonathan Evans, Evra, Nani, Scholes, Fletcher, Park, Owen, Rooney. Subs: Kuszczak, Brown, Berbatov, Carrick, Fabio Da Silva, Valencia, Gibson. -BBC Sport

~Newbie

Anonymous said...

Lamps seemed be injuried, as well as Belletti.
lucky me. didn't have both of them, had BD Elk only. And 4 out of 4 of my Man Utd players in first team as well.
~Newbie

greginho said...

ha ha i dropped valencia last night because i was worried he would not play, i hate picking manure players and i think that pienaar will get more points. looks like i was right.

robinson
vermaelen, nelsen, bale
cesc, modric, nzogbia, pienaar
anelka, donovan, kuyt

i chose kuyt over diamanti, because west ham have 1 goal in their last 5 away games.

G said...

Quite upset - at last second dropped Rooney (at 16 units, too!) due to the Ferguson rumors. Picked up "shoot at will" Rodallega.

Rooney already scores at 8 minute mark. It's a going to be a long few days....

Anonymous said...

which team has Double games for week 21?? anyone??

Neil Tan said...

@AdmiralLord Nelson : I clicked on the gamecast 1 hour before the game started and it stated game postponed to a later date. Must be the comment left from the previous week. Sorry my bad :P Glad the game was on as i had rio valencia (doh!) and rooney (GOALLLLLLL!)

Cheers :D

Anonymous said...

chelsea double not posted on yahoo - weird

richy 'liverpool' said...

dropped rooney for berbatov, dreadful choice, also valencia on bench.. just faaaantastic!!

Anonymous said...

Valencia on the bench.. :(. Should have dropped him for Taylor instead of dropping Kranjcar...

Bojan said...

lamps isn't injured, Joe Cole came in as a tactical sub...

my week 20 team:

Cech
Bale,Stearman,Givet,Robinson
Lampard,Aquillani,Taylor
Saha,Anelka,Klasnic

BD team for week 21, for now:

Cech
Bale,Stearman,Terry
Lampard,Gera,Collison,S Hunt
Anelka,Nevland,Diamanti

Anonymous said...

^ BBC Sport's Phil McNulty at Deepdale: "Chelsea have exuded almost totally authority - although it was a worry that Frank Lampard signalled very clearly that he needed to come off. ...."
~Newbie

Anonymous said...

^ it was perhaps a precautionary change.
~Newbie

Anonymous said...

^"Juliano Belletti only played 20 minutes before injury forced him off while Frank Lampard was replaced by Joe Cole in the second half under the same circumstances."- ChelseaFC.

~Newbie

Anonymous said...

^what happen to Bily?(injury?) he was replaced by osman.
~Newbie

Anonymous said...

From the match report on Chelsea's website: "It wasn't all good news though. Neither Juliano Belletti nor Frank Lampard finished the game due to what appeared to be injury concerns, even though both did leave the pitch under their own steam."

Anonymous said...

good news if lamps injured. malouda deco jcole ballack zhirkov even sturridge will be more valuable...so many cheap midfielders...utaka@3.xx and he scored brace now

Anonymous said...

ROONEY JUST GOT HIS 5TH YELLOW. ANYONE SURE HE WILL MISS THE NEXT MATCH?

Anonymous said...

^ the bar has gone to 10th yellow if i'm not wrong.

4 goals Rooney. thanks to those who change him off. CS for Evra/J Evan/EVDS as well. lol. rooney must be world class then ;)
~Newbie

Anonymous said...

none...and he scored 4 goals...luckily did't drop him...can't decide want to keep or drop him :?

Anonymous said...

evra got subbed out late. sorry no CS!

G said...

I am absolutely TORN UP about swapping out Rooney (at discount!) at literally last second due to the SAF signalling that he might sit him. Stunned, really...

mrljo said...

congrats to rooney owners!
to bad i'm not one of them..
hopefully mtaylor and klasnic can do the same damage to burnley, but somehow I doubt it

Anonymous said...

sorry G ... that must be tough to stomach.

j said...

well done AM n all those yff managers who had rooney..wish i had him..instead i had valencia, who gave me a rely expensive 0..guess u rely cant figure out what fergie has in mind with the united midfield..BD'd rooney..i knw theyre playin arsenal next but somehow feel hel play well against them, and besides united are playin pompey next i think...

Anonymous said...

@Anon 5:01 PM, Evra completed more than 70[or was it 75 mins](whatever minutes) of match time(Evra completed 87 in the game). that is the minimum to get a CS. Hope that clears up your doubt.Cheers.

~Newbie

Anonymous said...

Yes on CS for Evra, 88th minute sub.

Anonymous said...

CS given if defender plays 70 mins...Evra gets CS.

Caleb said...

Congratulation for all Ron owner, including me! :)

I wish Myhill will go down below $5 after the update so I can get him for the DG....

Kellz said...

@Anonymous: Rooney will not be suspended, because the 5 Yellow Card rule only counts before January 1st. From now on any player will need 10 Yellow Cards to get a suspension, which would be 2 games I believe. Hope it clears it up :D

Anonymous said...

Rooney will miss the league cup match and not affected on premier league match. Am I correct??

SKT

Anonymous said...

Myhill won't drop too much thanks to Owen's many shots on goals that he saved!

Anonymous said...

HoHoHo, points in! 45.5 for Rooney!
~Newbie

Anonymous said...

myhill @6.26 with a score -2.00 . dropped quite abit from 9 odd.

Kellz said...

@SKT: Like I said right about you, Rooney will NOT miss any games for Yellow Cards until it hits 10.

Caleb said...

With Myhill price drop only to 6.26, I would definitely prefer Schwarzer @ 8.03. Since one of the match for Hull is home v Chelsea, which might come up with negative points.

Anonymous said...

Maxi Rodriguez is available for selection @4.78

Mikl-em said...

You made the right choice AM! I'm happy that I have Rooney, too. And that I have him in at 16.05 to boot.

Also the Elk at 15, and hanging on to Defoe at 12.91 (though I came really close to selling him this week).

MF: Rosicky, Kranj, Modric, and Beletti. I see that JB picked up an injury early in Chelsea's FA Cup tie, but oh well, he was <6 and I'll just hope he can recover. Rooney's production will give me some cover, too. :))

I almost sold Kranj this week, in conjunction with selling Defoe--but kept them both. If only Donovan were in as a MF, that keeps bugging me.

DF: Ivanovic, Bale, Upson. My long-term discount on Ivan is actually now close to market price, so he may not make next week. Will be keeping Upson through next week for West Ham's double (in a rare fun of games they seem to have a chance of winning).

And I kept Cap'n Kirk in goal (since I have him @1.34). Cheap goalies are insidious and addictive. I hope I don't end up regretting that big time. It's tough to give up the liquidity it gives you to add to the outfield player quality.

No BD's proper, since I didn't grab Man U players, but I've gone ahead and grabbed Stanislas & Collision + Baird. And I'm eyeing Tevez, Utaka, and wondering about when Bullard is coming back.

Anonymous said...

So far I gained 142 places in the overall ranking thanks to Rooney, and I'm exactly on AM's number of points. No thanks to Fergie, who annoyingly decided to leave Valencia - that is more than 13mil for a player by the way - on his comfortable bench the entire afternoon. So only 45.5 points from them both. To be honest, I pretty much expected this from both, so I'm not very happy now.
Add to this the injury of Belletti that I chose for my team, and it's very upsetting overall. I hope all the others, like Modric, Donovan, Fabregas and Anelka, do their job on mid-week.
The BD is awful, and very confusing to me. I understood that the WH-Wolves macth is postponed to allow Wolves to repeat their FA match, so I'm happy I didn't get of their players. Without double-week, none of them is worth it. So far I dropped Salgado (who doesn't play), Donovan (after Wigan, Everton have a nightmer February with Liverpool, ManU, Chelsea and Spurs in prospect), Belletti (injury), Modric (Brum and then Villa... not tempting), Valencia (inconsistant, tough schedual) and, yeah - Rooney.
I dropped Rooney before his match when I him for less than 18mil. And I don't regret it. Rooney earns great respect from games like that, where he scores a lot against a weak opposition, and I suppose many will like the major discount they have over him. But looking at ManU's schedual for the next four weeks, they may have Pompey at home, but also Arsenal, Everton and Villa away. Roonet the Hero got 6 points from the game at Brum, and I fear he might do it again in these matches. The next game is Arsenal, and as a Gunner myself, I won't be enjoying him score many points in this game any way, so the choice was easy. Hope he breaks his leg.
Dropping Ronney helped me assemble a team I really like. I kept Anelka and Fabregas and got in Tevez (great games ahead), Duff (scores well almost each and every game, and has 2 home games next week), Baird (2 games), Ballack (as well), Kalinic (cheap) and Aquilani. I don't really like the presence of Robinson, Aquilani and Kalinic. I guess i would keep Kalinic as he's really cheap and might score at West-Ham, while Robinson isn't the worst option, but I would love seeing Gordon's price drop after the Evreton match so I can afford him home to Stoke (a hattrick for Donovan, maybe?). Aquilani is in my team for 5.19mil as I dropped him this week for Belletti (urgh), but right know I'm thinking Maxi. He's cheaper, but he hasn't start yet for Liverpool, so I need to see what he does first vs Wolves.

Robinson
Vermaelen Bale Baird
Fabregas Ballack Duff Aquilani
Anelka Tevez Kalinic

Advices?

SF

Anonymous said...

Gordon is injured, so i would advice u go for Fulop due to the fact that he is cheap.

Anonymous said...

Gordon played today against Pompey, so I guess he'll be fit for next Monday. If Fulop played it would be much easier.

SF

Anonymous said...

CAN ANYONE CLARIFY THE SCHEDULE FOR WK21? YAHOO DOES NOT APPEAR RIGHT.

Bradley said...

The DG matches for Week 21:

2 Feb Hull City v Chelsea
3 Feb Fulham v Portsmouth

In the FA Cup today Wolves drew vs. Crystal Palace, and the replay will be 2 Feb instead of the PL match vs. West Ham, which has been postponed again:

http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19762,11065_3232663,00.html

Chelsea, Fulham, and Pompey all won their FA Cup matches, so no replays will be necessary for them.

mehicoradio said...

**** Rooney, more then likely ruined my chances at moving up at all this week in yahoo, and ****ed up my ranking in premierleague.com dropping my 50,000 places :(

STM said...

@SF - Sorry about the Belletti pick, I must have jinxed it somehow.

If it makes you feel any better, I had Valencia and no Rooney! That translates to freefalling about 1500 places!!

To make matters worse, Spurs just simply cannot buy a win at the moment... urgh!!!

bp9000 said...

No Rooney - too bad for me, dropped 210 places to 561....having van der Saar was a small consolation & Valencia was a wet blanket! Still, looking forward to the midweek games where hopefully Anelka, Lando, Diamanti, Modric, Aqua, Fabs & all my defenders can do some damage (Fabs w/ a bunch of phantom pts, Verm w/5 blocked shots in a Villa win!).

The further postponement of the WH/Wolves match means I will now drop Diamanti & Collison who I picked up - thinking Schwarzer @ 8+ is a better DG keeper than Myhill @ 6+ - I can see Chelsea going goal-crazy at Hull!

Kellz said...

@Mr. Shamoo aka BP9000: Well seeing as I have Rooney, I still managed to drop 2 places in The Twighlight Zone Group lol. I too chose Valenica as did many, I igured Nani would play, but Valencia aswell and now way would Valencia not hit 20+ in that game.

Almunia (knock on wood), Verm, Bale, Stearman, Modric, MTAY, Bily, Kuyt, and Klasnic left for me. Hopefully I can improve on my 1pt in the MOTW competition! And I look forward to being in the Premier League Competition of the North American League!

Good Luck Bag'o'Socks!

bean said...

@bp9000 - planning to drop VDS?

nandeska said...

Why do people keep asking for the correct schedules?
Don't they know how to check football websites like Soccernet, Skysports or PremierLeague.com?

Maxer said...

congrats to rooney owner.. that 4 goals is ridiculusly crazy (amidst the false report that roon will not play against hull).. i personally am very sad that i dropped him earlier last week because he's too expensive and replace him with valencia whom didn't play.. anyway 10 more players playing next few days.. hopefully they can help me gain some points for this week..

ps: some bd ideas; man city & chelsea and maybe fulham players..

Maxer..

bean said...

Roberts could be back for Rovers
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5881965,00.html
not good for us Kalinic owners

Robinho gone, soon
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5882592,00.html

Anonymous said...

@nandeska - they meant about the yahoo fantasy football schedule for the match. it's not update..

AG

bp9000 said...

@Kellz - good work on your NA League promotion to the Premiership, u certainly earned it being near-top in points for Round 2. I just hope my unfortunate decision to go Rooney-less this week will not lead to the sinking of Shamu!

@bean - Even w/ the big discount, VDS is as good as gone from my lineup. His age/recent health problems make it unlikely (in my mind) that he will make it through the rest of the year uninjured, plus ManU are away to Arsenal next week, plus ManU have 1 or 2 fewer games left than other teams, and (probably the biggest reason) the lure of DG keepers.

Afrikan said...

looks like drogba will be back for double week.

Bradley said...

Algeria knocked Cote d'Ivoire out of the quarterfinals 3-2 in added extra time:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/8477254.stm

mehicoradio said...

Drogs likely back for the double week :D. Hopefully this will be the thing that helps push me back up the table finally.

Maxer said...

great news on droba return.. now, its either him or anelka.. hmmm..

Maxer..

Caleb said...

I think those who gamble to keep Drogba @ 10.66 until the end got the winnings, as you only lose the point of week 19, while week 18 is like a "blank" week for everyone due to the weather and you may have a chance of Drogba on the bench on week 20.

Unfortunately, I sold him on week 17, which I already lost 25 points on that week.

Mandara said...

chelsea play double game on week 21 right?

Anonymous said...

@azri yup..

Chelsea, Fulham, Hull, n Portsmouth

But YFF only still line WHam n Wolves

MBasil

Anonymous said...

Now the theory became REALITY..
should us have Elk or Drogs?


MBasil

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