Week 26 - Sunday & Monday
The 3 best goalscorers in the Premier League really turned it on: Drogba = 2 goals / 29 points on Saturday, Rooney = 2 goals / 31 points on Sunday & Torres = 2 goals / 31 points on Monday. Of course, I had none of them.
When Saturday ended I was pretty pleased with myself as I found my team sitting on 87 points & into the Top 700. However, I was aware that 11 of my players had already played, so I did write on Sunday morning...
...at the moment it appears the double load-up might pay off for me if Villa & Wigan can come up with some points midweek, but a hattrick from Rooney and/or Torres could see things take a bad turn, so I'm not counting my chickens just yet.Things did take a bad turn & it's been quite painful to watch over the past 48 hours as the goals have flown in for the the United & Liverpool hitmen. My 700th position seems a long way away, as I'm now back to exactly where I started the week, just outside the Top 900.
But this is a double week & as we all know, so much can change as a result of the midweek game. I have 8 players playing tonight: Friedel, Dunne, Figueroa, N'Zogbia, A Young, Milner, Rodallega & Carew so I hope they can bring me some bonus points to push my weekly total towards 130-140, perhaps justifying my double game gamble.
To summarise the games since my last post, we saw Man United comfortably beat a tired Fulham side by 3 goals to nil, with the Rooney brace mentioned above & a late Berbatov strike. Then Sunderland very nearly held on for 3 points against Man City after Kenwyne Jones opened the scoring, but Adam Johnson grabbed an injury time equaliser for a 1-1 draw. They probably deserved it - Craig Gordon was man of the match with a world class goalkeeping display.
Last night Portsmouth finally ran out of steam & Liverpool carved them open at will, recording a routine 4-1 win at Anfield. Torres added 2 assists to his double strike, with Babel & the reasonably impressive Aquilani scoring the other goals before Belhadj grabbed a consolation.
We have the final fixture of the week tonight - THAT game between Wigan & Aston Villa - which will round things off & allow me to calculate the results of the 4th Round of The AM Challenge.
My current barndoor team: Kirkland, Bale, Terry, Jagielka, Arteta, A Johnson, Milner, Malouda, Bendtner, Agbonlahor, Drogba. I really like it with the exception of Kirkland, but then Wigan face Burnley at home, so he's really not that much of a risk...any feedback would be appreciated!
Please let me know how your getting on & how your barndoor team is shaping up. Are you confident you'll be making it through to the next round of the AM Challenge?
Cheers,
AM
63 comments:
Morning AM - i am currently on 126.5 (thanks mainly to Drogba and Torres) with 3 to play tonight, so am hoping i make it through ...
Quick question - what are your thoughts on Zhirkov for the next game week? Currently under 5, so won't need to do much over 2 games to give back far more than his value, despite not having any CS points.
On 84 with Kirkland Downing and Aggy to play tonight. Gained 20 points on the guy I'm trying to catch to go into 2nd.
Barndoor:
Robinson
Roger Johnson, Alex, Anton Ferdinand
Downing, A-Jo, Arteta, Dyer, Larsson
Aggy, Rooney
Not sure on the defense at all. I'll probably end up changing all three and picking Robinson depends on his injury and if I have the guts to pick a goalie who's playing Chelsea. I may shuffle around and replace Larsson and go to a 3-4-3 but every time I've picked him he's delivered.
BD Team:
Turnbull, Gardener, Bale, Salgado
Arteta, AJ, Milner, Malouda
Drogba, Rooney, Bendtner
Drogba is a must have given the match ups, even though it eats away at 22mil of the budget. I can see him grabbing 3-4 goals vs BBurn and Pompey. My defense is suspect, but necessary to afford Drogba. I might change later on given team info.
@AM: your team is strong, especially Terry and Jags, i want them, but too much is spent else where. Its no coincadence that we shave many of the same players and close to the same rank,I hope Turnbull keeps some CS unlike Cech last Chelsea double.
AM,
I posted comment 33 on the "Week 26 - Saturday" post just a shade too early. I was asking for "our" Sunday & Monday post... Only to notice you already did what we know you for.
You simply the BEST... I must confess that some of us are getting "addicted" to this and other YFF blog sites.
Take care & best regards!
Hi AM,
One tip from you from somebody who held Kirkland for this double game week i.e. me
I am still hurting from the -12 he has given me so far.
I had AJ, Bullard, Warnock, all decent.
Some strange voice told me , take a gamble on Kirkland, which I did and was duly punished.
I am going to never touch Kirkland and Rodallega.
That was another of my double game disappointments.
I thought he has finally recovered.
Glad to see he did not make your barndoor
VT
Jon - Zhirkov is a good filler if he lets you spend elsewhere as he should play at least once, but you've mentioned the big problem...a midfielder playing in defence has no chance of clean sheet points.
Birty - I believe Paul Robinson could be out for a couple of months with his calf injury.
Kellz - if Turnbull is still set to play both games then I will downgrade Jagielka to someone like Hreidarsson to allow me to swap out Kirks. But I have a feeling Hilario (or even Cech) may return for the weekend.
Kukuski - thanks for the support!
VT - thanks for the advice...believe me I do not feel that happy with Kirks in my team for next week!
Cheers,
AM
AM,
Your team looks pretty good. I'm sure you got the Drog before his price went up. I wasn't that lucky...
Is Agbonlahor well rested now? Will he be back to the starting line up tonight? And will he return to scoring ways?
Kirkland MUST deliver the goods against Burnley, if NOT I recommend him dead to ALL...
Good luck & best regards!
I think Your barn door team is great,except terry, I m thinkinking of chelsea will conceede in both matches...my current barn door team is Kirkland,Bale,R.johnson,Vermealen,Pieenar,arteta,a.johnson,malouda,o'hara,rooney,torres...good luck to all...
Still have 6 players to go:
Dunne,Milner,N'Zogbia,HRod,Gabby and McCarthy
Hope they will give me a lot of points..
TJ
Yahoo are yet to update the fixtures correctly. These are the full Week 27 fixtures:
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Arsenal v West Ham, 17:30
Aston Villa v Wolverhampton, 12:45
Everton v Bolton, 15:00
Portsmouth v Hull, 15:00
Stoke v Tottenham, 15:00
Sunderland v Birmingham, 15:00
Wigan v Burnley, 15:00
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Blackburn v Chelsea, 16:00
Fulham v Man City, 15:00
Man Utd v Liverpool, 13:30
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
West Ham v Wolverhampton, 20:00
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Aston Villa v Sunderland, 19:45
Blackburn v Birmingham, 20:00
Man City v Everton, 19:45
Portsmouth v Chelsea, 19:45
So we have Aston Villa, Birmingham, Blackburn, Chelsea, Everton, City, Portsmouth, Sunderland, West Ham & Wolves all with doubles.
guys, what about the two remaining wednesday matches? AVL-SUN and MANC-EVE should be part of the next week right? If so, AVL should have a DG, both home, winnable. Or am I wrong?
Matus
Youre not wrong anon
They do indeed have double games
Yahoo is just slow to post them, as we've seen before...
Pauly
i just got 82 points for gm week 26 and 8 more players to be played today....kirkland, boyce, scharner, n'gbia and moreno frm wigan and petrov, milner and carew frm aston villa. I am hoping that wigan win the game with clean sheet so that my keeper and 2 def got good points at the other side n'gbia and moreno score the goals and i want milner, petrov and carew get shot on target as many as can and let kirkland put his hand on all of it so that kirkland earn very good points and villa players earn good points like wat n'gbia got in previous game...17.5 pretty high evento he lost 4-0....Please pray for me.....my godsake prediction is wigan 2- villa- 0
I am among the last commentator on your previous post AM, so I think I will repeat myself here. Btw, your team looks very strong for the DG AM
Good week for me 132 points so far thanks to my lethal forward line up of Rooney, Bendtner & Torres! Still got 4 DGers to go tonight to help me improve on my current rank of 223 ;)
As for next week my current line up looks like this
Almunia
Verm Bale Hreidarsson
Arteta Malouda AJohnson Milner
Rooney Bendtner Drogba
I had 6 DGers for next week & that's the max I could fit in as I had the other 5 on huge discounts.
But I am having a hard time deciding between having Hreidarsson/Milner or Hutton/Downing. Which pair do you guys think will get higher points?
Thanks....
D2D
Stat Attack
Aston Villa have not conceded an away goal in the Premier League in 2010.
Villa have the top flight's best defensive record, with 21 goals conceded in 27 league games.
Martin O'Neill's last Premier League victory in March came 10 years ago, when his Leicester City side beat Leeds 2-1 on 26 March 2000.
Bojan,
Creeping statistics...
To be cancelled out this night as Aston Villa beat Wigan.
My team this week doesnt look to bad but im in need of some
changes, any suggestions would be needed as im 2nd in my league and around 200 points off first :\
Green
Bale, Insua, Campbell
Gerrard, Lampard, Dyer, Mikel, Walcott
K.Davies and Pav
im thinking of selling lampard or gerrard to get torres ( i had him this week for his 31 points :) ) unfortunately, he is now around 22 mill
cheers
sam
should I switch torres+aquilani (combined discount of ~10) for downing+gabby? based on this week's matchups it's a no-brainer, but hesitant given the huge discounts, esp torres.
Great week for me! 122 points with 6 DGs to go tonight. 200 points is not out of reach if my renaining players perform well.
@Admiral: I'm sorry to say that you are out of Europa League. The 3 DGs that you have, I have them too. See you rocking next season! All the best for the remainder of the campaign!
bengoh91
@Sam - I'd try and get some more double gamers in for next week and wouldn't stick with Liverpool such as Insua, Gerrard and Torres (I definitely wouldn't pick him up for 22) against Man United. I'd probably try and have at least 1 or 2 Villa players in there too given their matchups - both of which are at home.
BIG RON
My BD team for next week so far is...
Kirkland
Bale Dunne Jagielka
Arteta AJ Milner xxx
Drogba Bendtner Agbonlhaor
I have one space in midfield with 12 points left. Im definitely keeping Bale, Arteta, AJ, Milner, Drogba, Bendtner and Gabby but might swap the rest round closer to the deadline.
Match facts: Wigan v Aston Villa
The home team has failed to score in the last four Premier League meetings between Wigan and Aston Villa.
Only one of the nine Premier League meetings between Aston Villa and Wigan has ended as a home win.
Wigan have conceded the most headed goals in the Premier League this season (12).
Aston Villa have conceded the fewest headed goals in the top flight this season.
Only Chelsea (12) have scored more headed goals than Aston Villa (12)
Villa have kept five cleans sheets in their last seven Premier League games.
The Midlanders have failed to score in six of their last nine Premier League matches.
Wigan have scored just one goal in their last five Premier League outings.
PREDICTION: 0:0 0:1 0:2
My current BD team:
Friedel
Verm,Bale,Alex
Arteta,MGP,Malouda,AJo
Rooney,Bender,Carew
6.06m left
I'm thinking about upgrading Carew to either Milner/Gabby or drop Alex/Carew+6m to:
1. Hreidar/Diamanti
2. Jag/Gabby
3. Jag/Milner
4. Terry/Down
Any suggestion?
Cheers...!!!
Week 27 fixtures updates... 8 DG teams are confirmed...
Wed, Mar 24 Blackburn v Birmingham
Wed, Mar 24 Aston Villa v Sunderland
Wed, Mar 24 Man City v Everton
Wed, Mar 24 Portsmouth v Chelsea
10 with tuesday game...
Tue, Mar 23 West Ham v Wolves
My BD team is:
Friedel(11.97)
Bale(2,65)Jagelika(7,50)Gardner(5,55)
Belhadj(9,05)
Jarvis(8,90) Malouda(10,90) Arteta(9,01)
Bender(5,56) Carew(6,49) Drog(22,16)
For ease of reference...
Single games: Bolton, Hull, Fulham, Wigan, Burnley, Stoke, Spurs, Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal
Double games: (UPPERCASE = home game, LOWERCASE = away game)
Aston Villa (WOLVES, SUNDERLAND)
Portsmouth (HULL, CHELSEA)
Blackburn (CHELSEA, BIRMINGHAM)
Everton (BOLTON, @man city)
West Ham (@arsenal, WOLVES)
Man City (@fulham, EVERTON)
Sunderland (BIRMINGHAM, @aston villa)
Chelsea (@blackburn, @portsmouth)
Birmingham (@sunderland, @blackburn)
Wolves (@aston villa, @west ham)
I currently have 103 points with 5 Villa players today.
My BD team:
Friedel
Bale, Dunne, Jagielka
Arteta, Milner, AJohn, Downing
Bendt, Torres, Kalinic
I have two questions for you guys.
1. Should I keep Torres?
I can change him for Tevez (DG, Malouda, Diamanti
2. Downing?
For O'Hara, Dunn or Gabby
this is my team right now.
friedel
d.fox,muyokolo,salgado
malouda,milner,babel.a.johnson,nzogbia
drogba,bendtner
what do u all think about my team? am thinking of taking friedel out n go for a cheap keeper so i can upgrade someone but i have no idea who to upgrade.any idea will apreciate.
gasper u should have bought malouda n drogba earlier when they were cheaper.
I will def go with 9 DG-ers with Bender and Bale as season keepers... They grant me over 30 points for last 4 weeks for 8,2M spent... If they return just 16 i will be very happy... so they are safe...
Cheers AM - Robinson replaced and some juggling has happened but I'm not 100% happy yet.
Having been burnt by Kirkland on the weekend, if I were you I'd avoid him like the plague.
AM,
Any chance of a preliminary, ballpark score to get through in the AM challenge? I am making myself sick over it.
PJR - Sorry mate I wouldn't have a clue at the moment...it takes me around 2 hours to calculate the results, so I'm waiting till after tonight's points come in before I even start looking at it.
112 points with 5 DG's to go.
Current BD team:
Kirkland
Verm/Hutton/Terry
Milner/Malouda/AJ/Arteta
Bendtner/Drogba/Gabby
However, I have Aquilani @ a huge discount - BD him last night @ 3.XX now he's at 8.XX.
Do i keep him through the M Utd game instead of AJ ??? What are Liverpools following games like ?It would let me trade up Kirkland.
@Gasper - I haven't kept Torres for this week as he'll more than likely go down in price after this weekend - he doesn't score fantasy points unless he scores a goal. Trade him down & pick up Malouda who is in the form of his life and has 2 games against easy opposition coming up.
Superfly Jim
I am surprised that no one is talking about Tevez. He has two games and should be a good pick. What do you guys think?
WOW what a crock of shit this weekend turned out to be im leading my mini league but the person in 2nd place had Drogba Torres and Rooney, after yesterday i was left staring at my computer screen yelling "are you f-ing kidding me!" The only thing that may salvage the week for me is that I have 4 villa players still to go while he is done. Ive got a lot of work to do on my team before next weekend since i only had limited access to a computer this weekend.
My Barn door team is
Friedel
Verm Bale Alex
Milner A Johnson Malouda Petrov
Bendtner Drogba Carew
Alex may go if it looks like he wont get both games, the same with Malouda. Not totally excited with Petrov/Carew and ill probably downgrade Friedel to upgrade them.
C-Hawk
To AM and everyone,
WHY HASN'T S. HUNT PLAYED FOR HULL OVER THE PAST 3 GAMES? IS HE INJURED? HE IS NOT LISTED AS SO.
Any information about this would help since I've had him for a long time at a 4M+ discount. Thanks.
-CvB
CvB -
"Hunt has a foot problem. He was reported as a slight doubt ahead of the trip to Everton but he was absent at Goodison. Phil Brown said he has an ongoing problem and needs some rest. He failed a late fitness test ahead of Arsenal’s visit."
150 points for me this week. Hoping tonight's game ends 1-1, to limit any Villa or Wigan impact, as don't have too many players.
Moved from 4500 up to 2500, which is quality.
Everyone jumping on the Aston Villa bandwagon clearly forgot that Martin O'Neill never wins in March! Steer well clear unless it's obvious they've exorcised their demons.
drop rooney and pick drogba??huhuhu
im tired guys..help me plis!!
I'd have Drogba over Rooney this week.
I'm holding Roon as discount at 16, also got Drogs & Bendtner. Was a killer to drop TOrres after his price rise, but I have to make hard decisions if i'm gonna finish in top 1500.
Got 8 mill to spend on a midfielder, any suggestions?
Raconteur, at under 8 mil i would recommend Adam Johnson from Man City
C-Hawk
C-Hawk. I've already got AJ, had him for a little while. Got any other suggestions?
This has been a great week so far for me, and it seems at the moment a smart decision not to load up on villain. I scored 130 pts with Dunne, Nzogbia, Mccarthy to go. Hoping for possibly a 150 pt week.
My team for next week so far:
Kirk 2.10
Dunne 11.34 R. Ferdinand 6.85 Warnock 10.02
Arteta 7.90 AJ 5.84 FloMal 10.90 Downing 10.62
Rooney 16.05 Bendtner 5.56 Gabby 11.58
With 1.24 mil to spare
Im nervous about the two villa defenders but they must keep a clean sheet against wolves at home at least, right? Even if I take out warnock for Jagielka, I have no idea what to do with the extra 3.76 mil. any suggestions? I tried to take out Kirkland for Turnbull, but i am .11 short
Thanks Mike. Any clue as to whether he'll be at the Portsmouth game? He'd be a bargain to keep given his quality/Portsmouth's woes.
-CvB
Ive got 3 everton, chelsea, villa players in my team with zogbia and bendtner rounding off my team. I think they have the best opportunity for points so that's who im going for. I really wish bale would get back to the bench already because that discount is killing me. Im on 129 points with zogbia and milner to go so my prediction of 140 looks well within reach as milner should be able to pump 20+ points in next game while zogbia is zogbia, he can score 20 points in a blow out (see last game) I'll reveal my lineup a little later on. Cheers.
Raconteur Maxi isnt a bad option Rafa seems to favor him, also K Rich for Sunderland hasnt been doing a whole lot but has 2 games. Another option is instead of a mid add a 4th def like Jagielka or Hutton who have 2 games.
C-Hawk
122 with Kirkland - woohoo
The 4 DGs are now up on the yahell site.
Can anyone give me some scoop on Gardner of Birmingham. Listed as a defender but appears to playing midfield. Will he get a run out for the DGs after his previous strong showing?
Just inside the top 7,500 after being around 12,000 at the half way point. I owe most of the improvement to the advice and work of AM and the regulars here. I only discovered the site at about the halfway point in the season.
Thanks
BCB
163.5 for me, n'zog and babel turned out to be lifesavers - both had great scores given their cost, and the price allowed me to make room for torres, milner, and arsh, on top of having rooney and carew.
jensen and carlisle hurt me with a combined -7, while cuellar's 6.5 was less than i had hoped for.
In the AM blog 3 i'm #3, so hopefully that puts me into the next round of the AM challenge, which i'm still in :)
on the BD, i've currently got
kirk / bale, campbell, ferreira / dunne, arsh, milner, ballack / rooney, anelka, carew.
still pretty undecided, plenty of big games this week... looking mainly at chelsea and villa, with a couple arsenal players thrown in.
also - to all the kirkland nay-sayers, you should note that wigan plays burnley at home next week - burnley being one of the worst away teams around, and wigan will be fighting hard to stay out of relegation.
in double weeks, i prefer to get a single week keeper when possible - keepers tend to have a good chance of losing points rather than earning them, and i like them cheap to boot in order to make room for better DG'ers in the midfield and up front.
with that said, i think captain kirk at 2.1 (if you bd'ed him, 2.6 if not), is pretty damned attractive.
while friedel is probably the premium keeper of choice - he's wayyyy too expensive for me. ive found good midfielders/fwds are much more likely to have a big game than a keeper.
160.5 nice week for me and i hope i will score the same this coming week or more.
my team this week
friedel
d.fox,muoyokolo,salgado
milner,nzogbia,a.johnson,babel,malouda
drogba,bendtner
thinking of doing changes on friedel but not sure yet i might keep him.
any advice is welcomed.good luck to all managers
from supercoach
154 points for me on the week. Fantastic given only 2 double gamers.
161 points with -7 from Jensen. Thank god im not a fan of Gabby :-D
Week 27 dilemma:
1) Howard/Turnbull/Kirk
2) Gabby/Tevez
According to PhysioRoom,
Hilario : TBC
Cech: 2 weeks
Could anyone confirm me whether Turnbull will play both games?
Thanks to all and AM.
136 only for me :(
Great site AM!
Ended the week on 149.
Current Barndoor team is
Kirkland
Bale Hutton Dunne(2x)
Arteta(2x) Milner(2x) Downing(2x) AJ(2x)
Bendtner Carew(2x) Drogba(2x)
Basically sticking with bale hutton and bendtner coz got them quite cheaply and they have done very well in the past weeks of so. and
just have a gut feeling that Dunne and Drogba gonna have a good week with one having 2 home games and Drogba with 2 games with Blackburn who have an injured keeper and then with rock bottom portsmouth.
Any advices?
end up with 142.50 this week.. my current bd team:
vds(8.14)
bale(2.77)/hutton(5.28)/jags(7.50)
arteta(9.01)/milner(12.63)/malouda(10.90)/a.j((5.84)
carew(6.40)/drogba(22.16)/pavy(9.10)
0.27 left..
should i swap vds at disc for a cheap gk(james/kirk) so that i can upgrade pavy to diamanti? really like vds but considering the macth up after this which is POOLS/bolton/CHELSEA/blackburn/MAN CITY which is not easy for man utd.. any idea or suggestion to improve my team are welcome..
SM
Hi SM,
Normally around this time of the year, Man U specialize in clean sheets.
With Rio and Vidic back at Centre, you are almost guaranteed a CS.
At this discount, do not let go of VDS.
Plus pavy to Diamanti is notmuch of a upgrade, Diamanti has sort of gone off the boil and it effectively is a single game for him.
Looking at what he did against Chelsea (which was zip), no point in that upgrade.
Pavy is on fire, late season surge for Spurs.
My two bits worth, hold on to VDS and do not upgrade Pavy.
Cheers
SL
@SL: I wish you would review your facts, Diamanti was not a starter against Chelsea and therefore was given no time to do anything against them. He came in on the 84th minute and still managed something. He will be played against Arsenal and Wolves and score. You want to see what he did against his last double game? 27pts with no goals, thats damn good for a 13-14mil forward with a game against Manchester Utd. Sorry for the loss coming at the hands of Liverpool, no CS there.
H Rod.. dead to me, and i really really mean it this time, whats that 6 points in 5 games?
Thanks for the comments.
I have switched Downing with OHara, since Pompy have 2 games and one is at home to Hull.
Still pondering what to do with Torres. I can put in Malouda or Tevez. What do you guys think? I like Tevez better but I want some Chelsea in my team.
Well, Diamanti 2000x better than H. Rod :-D
Hmm for this week 27, most of the managers have the same players in MF,
Milner - Arteta - Malouda - AJ
Tevez over Gabby, what do you think??
AM, thanks for the advice. I found your blog a couple months ago and have been doing very well since. I actually got #1 in all of yahoo fantasy with 194.5 this week with your help. Cheers
Congrats drybeazy, what a great score! Glad the blog helped :)
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