Tuesday 6 April 2010

Week 29 - Saturday & Sunday

Week 29 already seems a long time ago, but the long delay in Yahoo updating the points combined with my hectic Easter schedule meant I haven't had the chance to update the blog properly until now.

It wasn't a great week - 84.5 points, with 3 of my players starting on the bench, but I actually stayed in more-or-less the same position overall...312th (down 3 places), so perhaps it was around an average score.

As I mentioned briefly in my update on Sunday, it was also a terrible weekend for Tottenham as they were deservedly beaten by a Sunderland side filled with ex-spurs who were more committed to winning the game. Had it not been for Gomes it could've been worse, as he pulled off 2 penalty saves from Darren Bent, but I doubt Bent will be too bothered after scoring 2 anyway.

One thing I don't agree with is Bent running in front of the Spurs fans pointing at/kissing the Sunderland badge when he scored. We were nothing but encouraging to Darren when he was at the club, always supported him & he got a big cheer earlier in the season when his name was announced at White Hart Lane. His beef should be with Redknapp if anyone.

To add insult to injury, Man City then go & tonk a woeful Burnley side 6-1, boosting their goal difference to within 2 of ours in the process. Burnley were pathetic & it's safe to say they are going down with Portsmouth. Garrido didn't start, but lots of points for Tevez, Adebayor, Bellamy & Adam Johnson.

Man Utd v Chelsea was full of controversy, but I feel Chelsea deserved the win despite an offside winner from Drogba. United looked lethargic, clearly missing Rooney's energy & although Ferguson will moan about the officials, he should remember he's had his fair share of favours in the past, and should accept they were beaten by the better side on the day. I'm certain the title race will swing again before the end of the season.

It's a title race that Arsenal are still in after Bendtner came off the bench to grab a late late winner vs gutsy Wolves. The starting 11 fielded by Wenger was the weakest Arsenal side I've seen in the Premier League, but he managed to secure 3 points & rest players for the Barca game tonight, so you have to say he just about got it right. Nasri proved a waste but Arsenal defenders plus Rosicky & Walcott all secured great points.

Villa edged past Bolton 1-0 thanks to an Ashley Young winner, Stoke beat Hull 2-0 with Myhill handing out negative 5.5, while Portsmouth & Blackburn played out the dullest of 0-0's, with only Chris Kamara (in the video above on Sky's Soccer Saturday) providing any entertainment.

On Sunday we saw Fulham come from behind to end a run of 3 straight league defeats vs a Wigan side still deep in trouble along with Hull & West Ham. The Hammers did show fight at Goodison as they twice came behind to draw 2-2 with Everton, with Howard also saving a Mido penalty. Saha was the disappointment of the week coming up with just 1.5 points. Birmingham v Liverpool ended 1-1 with Benitez subbing Torres when the game was there to be won, much to the bemusement of Gerrard.

As I mentioned on Sunday, I'm not too keen on loading up on Stoke & Fulham for Week 30, despite their two games. Admittedly it's tempting to go for broke at this stage of the season & have 8 or 9 double gamers, but when you look at the fixtures the two teams have they don't fill you with excitement. I also have quite a few single gamers at discount with great fixtures, so I'm reluctant to switch them for the sake of it.

Currently on my page...

Given

Bale  Hangerland  Faye

Gera  Malouda  Bullard  Etherington  A.Johnson

Tevez  Bendtner

The team above leaves me £4.4m in the bank, but it's all a bit of a mess at the moment. Given will probably be downgraded to Myhill, which will leave me even more spare cash.

Hangerland & Etherington will both stay but Gera & Faye aren't certainties yet. Malouda at home to Bolton & Bullard at home to Burnley will stay & I've also brought in AJohnson on the barndoor as he's on all set pieces, facing Birmingham at home.

Tevez & Bale aren't going anywhere but I'm actually considering dropping Bendtner to try to force Torres in with all my spare cash. That may prove tricky, but surely I'm not going to consider Hugo Rodallega as an alternative, even if he is home to Portsmouth...? :)

How did Week 29 go for you? Have you got any ideas on how to approach Week 30?

Cheers,
AM

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, AM, you shouldn't go with Rodallega. He really is a dead horse. I just couldn't believe the reports today about Wenger being interested in him. Come on! He should be thinking about strikers like Dzeko or Huntelaar - just the thought about Rodallega and Bendtner playing with each other and trying to score is... horrible. Nothing less. Yet again, that was exactly what we said about Vermaelen this summer, though we didn't really know him well.

My team so far:

Myhill
Bale Ferreira Hughes
Malouda Etherington Gerrard Gera
Bendtner Tevez CCole

I have some spare cash. I'm pretty pleased with 9 spots, but I can't really live with Gera and Hughes. I would probably drop hughes for Baird, and then I can replace Gera with either N'Zogbia or Valencia. The problem with Valencia is that you can never be sure he starts, and @B'burn isn't the best match-up for him when he doesn't have a target man like Rooney to look for. N'Zogbia, on the other hand, is a certain starter for Wigan as they try to secure another season in the top flight, and with all the respect for Pompey and their fight, Wigan will like to win this game much more. And they're hosting. And Pompey are injured hard.
So I pretty much decided about N'Zogbia, the only problem is that if I drop Gera for him I will have only 2 double-gamers, and no attacker from Fulham. The thing is that with all the rotation Hodgeson is doing, there is always the possiblity that the midfielder I pick starts @Liverpool and gets rest home to Stoke. And I'm really not sure which match is more important for him - will he want to surprise Liverpool, especially if Fulham drop out of the EL, or will he want to please the home fans against an easier opposition like Stoke?

I would be glad to get advices, because I'm not sure, though I'm tilting towards dropping Hughes and Gera for Baird and N'Zogbia.

SF

Bojan said...

I might go with Rodallega...

Jon said...

Currently only 3 DG's - Tuncay (@1 - come on!!) and Etherington, and Duff - though i might go for Dempsey instead, depending on how Ful get on in Europe.

Agree that Myhill is the man this week - neither Ful or Stoke keepers offer much value, and Burnley look dead and buried to me.

Shiv Morjaria said...

AM, did you get that youtube clip from my wall on Facebook? I posted it about half an hour before this post.

Assistant Manager said...

Hi Shiv - no, I watched it on Saturday & had been saving it up for my review post since then.

Anonymous said...

here is my team

myhill
bale a.faye ferreira
etherington malouda n'zogbia gera
bendtner tevez fuller

haven't hit that save button yet. Myhill, bale, etherington, malouda, bendtner and tevez are staying. the rest am still not too sure yet. I'm thinking fulham will have quite a tired side after a midweek game so gera is a risk. fuller have been doing well for the past 2 weeks or so, thinking he should be doing well against a wolves side and a tired fulham side athough stoke are playing both their games away. the same goes to faye. Also thinking N'zogbia should do well against a Portsmouth side who have injuries on their side and also nothing else to fight for since they are going down.

still not entirely sure. might wait until the midweek game to convince me otherwise

Dens

TwoFace said...

AM welcome back!!

My team did ok last week with around 90 points..last minute change from campbell and robinson to given and smalling prove futile for me..

this week double game i still feel i want duff,ehtrington and dempsey in my team with 1 stoke and fulham defender to partner bale in defends..

For now my line-up is like this

Sorenson
Bale,Konchesky,Faye
Duff,Etherington,Malouda,Dempsey
Bendtner,Fuller,Zamora

bear no injuries duff,etherington and dempsey i want to be in my line-up..i'm still holding tevez but i bought him at 20 instead of 16 so i think i should let him go and bring in the double gamers..

i still feel bullard is better to have instead of malouda with the fact they will play FA Cup semis during the weekend and i'm afraid if he will get injured..instead of Bullard who will be at the heart of Hull to helpless Burnley

Not sure yet with Tevez but he could be on fire again till the end of the season..

anyway i'll wait till all European games over before deciding the rest of my squad

Anonymous said...

98.5 for me last weekend, not bad considering I held onto Arteta and Saha really disappointed. This would have been a great weekend to catch up on the competition but it looks like I'm about where I started ... 42nd in my blog league and 3137 overall.

Still it was a pretty balanced performance from those who did play, and that leaves me hopeful going into the homestretch.

Fidan said...

Hi guys!
It's been a while since I last posted. I've had a terrible run of weeks last 2 months, but I think I'm back on track now, with two very good ones.
I finished the week on 110.5pts which saw my rankings jump from 95 to 60 (overall)...!!! I hope to break the top 50 this week, and that AM...I exclusively attribute to this simply FANTASTIC blog and community you've build here!!!

OK, now!
My roster for the upcoming (double)week looks like this:

Myhill
Bale,Hangeland,Scharner
Bullard,Ether,Lawrence,Duff,Gera
Tevez,Rodallega
~2m left

I DROPPED BENDER...!!!
Lots of cons and pros on this one, so I don't think I'll argue it. I just hope I got a right timing (the opposite of a BAD TIMING, eg. NOT dropping Rooney 4 or 5 weeks ago...grrrr).

As you can see, I'm kindda heavy on DGs, but that is ALMOST certain to change. I got all of them who jumped in price this week and I'll keep them until Thursday (after the EL games). IF Fulham goes through in EL or the game goes to ET, Duff and Gera are probably going to go. If Fulham fails, Duff is def in and Gera/Lawrence may go for Dempsey and 5.55m-player...!!!

Myhill,Bale,Scharner,Bullard,Ether,Tevez,Rodallega are definitely staying. Yes, Rodallega!!! I just can see a PK or two conceded by P'mouth and Rodallega putting them away (at least one of them ;))...!!!

Cheers...!!!

Hinrik said...

I´m currently on:
Kirkland
Bale Verm Hangeland
Malouda Etherington Rosicky N´Zogbia
Bendtner Adebayor Anelka

Fidan said...

We have so many bargain players for this week around 5m:

DF: Elokobi*,Mancienne(?),Ferreira**

MF: Zhirkov*,SDavies*(?),Geovanni**(?),GBoateng*,Whelan**,Diame,JMcCarthy**

FW: Kalou(?)**,Altidore**(?),Kitson(?),Moreno**,Scotland(?)*

(?) - not sure starter (check the team-news)
* - good potential
** - great potential

Cheers and...GOOD LUCK...!!!

Fidan said...

Breaking news!!!

Stoke and Fulham lose their double fixture...!!!

Full story: http://www.fulhamfc.com/Club/News/NewsArticles/2010/April/StokeFixture.aspx

I looooooooved this news. Do you???

Cheeeeers

Ian Sanderson said...

A couple of weeks ago I slipped out of the top 2000; this week, a score of 56.5 sees me slip out of the top 3000.
My only change was bringing Dempsey in, but with the double game not happening he will certainly go.
Pleased I didn't gut my team for DGers.

maspupus said...

Fulham vs Stoke postponed ?
IS that true AM

Hinrik said...

Switched to:

Given
Verm Bale Scharner
Rosicky Deco Benayoun Malouda
Adebayor Bendtner Anelka

alan hayward said...

Anybody know when Arteta back is back? Looking online his absence seems a total mystery.

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