Week 30 - Weekend Review
Full credit to Portsmouth - what they've achieved is fairy tale stuff, they weren't overawed & they made life very difficult for Spurs. I could use the pitch as an excuse after Michael Dawson slipped at the crucial moment, I could use the referee as an excuse after he disallowed a perfectly good Crouch equaliser...but I can't be bothered; we lost to a team of players who have had far worse happen to them over the past 12 months & will spend next year in the Championship - their fans deserve some success.
Before I start crying, lets move on. In the Premiership, the weekend started badly for many of us on Saturday as Hull were embarrassed by a Burnley side who had lost 12 or their last 13 games & taken just 1 away point from a possible 45 all season. The 1-4 scoreline left Myhill with -8 & Jimmy could only muster 4 points, but some people got lucky with as their filler Kevin Kilbane popped up with his first goal for the club.
West Ham gave their battle against the drop a huge boost with a 1-0 home victory over Sunderland, Ilan scoring the only goal. Decent clean sheet points for the Hammers defence, but not a lot for Sunderland, as I'm sure Darren Bent moves closer to some people's "dead to me" list.
Sunday was the day of the goalless draw, as Wolves v Stoke, Blackburn v Man Utd & Liverpool v Fulham all ended 0-0. Clean sheet points but nothing else, as United's draw moves Chelsea within touching distance of the title. Torres proved a complete waste of £19m as he failed to make the Liverpool squad, with suggestions his knee injury will require surgery if he's to make the World Cup.
Now comes to the game that did have goals, & I'd like people to clear up some confusion I have. Man City beat Birmingham 5-1, with the BBC reporting that included 2 goals for Adebayor, 2 for Tevez & 1 for Onuoha. However, other reports I've read have it down as 2 to Onuoha & 1 to Tevez, which seems to be the direction Yahoo have gone in. Adam Johnson weighed in with another great haul but Garrido was disappointing for me.
UPDATE - Yahoo seem to be in the process of correcting their mistake, Tevez's 18 points has been changed to 30, Onuha's down to 17.5, Johnson down to 11.5
So with that correction I'm left on 45 points with Bale, Malouda, N'Zogbia & Bendtner to go in midweek. If I could get up to 70-80 points I'd have to take it after the start I had, but I'm sure I'll be slipping out of the Top 400 & out of The AM Challenge with a score like that.
Week 31 is a double for Aston Villa & Hull, with Sunderland, Birmingham, Arsenal & Liverpool having the pick of the single games...
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Birmingham v Hull, 15:00
Blackburn v Everton, 15:00
Fulham v Wolverhampton, 15:00
Man City v Man Utd, 12:45
Stoke v Bolton, 15:00
Sunderland v Burnley, 15:00
Tottenham v Chelsea, 17:30
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Portsmouth v Aston Villa, 16:00
Wigan v Arsenal, 13:30
Monday, 19 April 2010
Liverpool v West Ham, 20:00
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Hull v Aston Villa, 19:45
I didn't do any barndoor work over the weekend, but at this stage of the season I'll have my eye on as many Villa players as possible (and maybe a couple of Hull) - Friedel, Dawson, Milner, Young, Bullard, Agbonlahor, Carew are all possibilities.
How are you getting on so far? Any barndoor work?
Cheers,
AM
43 comments:
I had a terrible weekend, my Team was relegated, my YFF Team might aswell have been, now my beef, I chose Torres simply to keep up with everyone else, why didn't I trust the instinct thats served me fairly well this season, which leads me to the next bit, I had Onuha, I bloody did, but again went with detail (Gaurdian Teamsheet) and dropped him for Garrido, why do that! add to that me dropping Tevez for HotRod as I expected City to do a Spurs (sorry A_M) and fluff their lines, but for me City's consistency is what begrudgingly makes me think they will nail 4th and deserve it.
Liverpool have lost the plot, new owners or not.
Next week I have
Freidel, Bale, Dunne, Hutton, Bullard, Young, Milner, Reid, Bent, Agbonglahor, Bedntner
But likely to drop Bedntner and looking to upgrade Reid and maybe move Hutton for a Hull defender.
Risks are Villa's season is over, oh actually there is the Europa league to play for, thats good. Sunderland already at their end of season party.
Jensen - cuellar - dunne - salgado - arteta - AJ - A.Young - Downning - grella(filter) - Tevez - carew
rate my team, plz !!
Wouldn't fancy Jensen, Salgado, Arteta or Grella next week, a few too man fillers maybe?
I would go Gordon, Hutton, Aquilani, Andy Reid etc etc
"Friedel, Dawson, Milner, Young, Bullard, Agbonlahor, Carew are all possibilities."
Dawson is injurie =.='
@alex :
Blackburn too strong in their home, Salgado always score 10+ points @@ , and Grella at 2+
Arteta(7+)
and no more money for GK...
Gordon..hm.. maybe...
Salgado's average of 4.12 may counter the 'he always gets 10' argument.
Am just not a fan of Blackburn and would expect Everton to roll them over, though you may as you have Arteta?
54 points with zhirkov, ferreira, insomnia to go, i was on the 'lucky' bandawagon with torres,myhill, bullard
next week im keeping bullard, picked up milner & agbonlahor, but what to you guys think about torres, will he play? good suggestions are welcome, also i reaaly like to know, is joe hart still missing? then birmingham goalkeeper would be 2~ something
I doused the barn door with gasoline and burned it to the ground after the last two weeks. So very very frustrating..........
i gutted useless torres...i dont kno y i went against my 3 season philosphy...never pick liverpool players...i barn door carew, young & gabby..i am second in my league down my 60 poins...i need to make up ground this weekend
@anon 1:41pm
Bir'Mai taylor is sub for joe hart
when Bir face Joe hart owner (MC), Joe hart cann't play, next week. Hart is start!
disappointing wk for me too, as i had a similar team to AM.. myhill, bullard, torres etc. who'd have expected burnley to hit 4 past myhill ? . let down by torres again... he's officially now as injury prone as van persie- he's a doubt for every single game whether it's reported or not. thankfully some of my cheaper buys salvaged a bit of pride, elokobi 9.50, late switch to altidore got me 8 pt's ( another double your value returns !) & da costa of w ham clean sheet too. only 2 more to come nzog & bentdner. would now be happy with 65pt's +
S.P.
66,5 points with Bendt, Bale and Melchiot to go. I am quite satisfied with the points (had Myhill). Foley (13), AJ and Tevez were brilliant.
I only picked up Gordon and Bent for now. Will try to put in a Villa player or two. Not too fond of Villa since the last doubleweek.
AM - I, too, think that loading up on DGs, esp.Villa, is the way to go this week. But...you HAVE TO have some of the single-gamers like Tevez, Bent and (maybe) Etherington or someone from Bir.
I'm currently on:
Gordon
Bale,Warnock,Faye
Bullard,GBoateng,Milner,Young
Tevez,Bent,Carew
(1.5m left)
What do you think??? Any suggestion???
Great! Fucked up myhill + Torres no show....and guess what?
Malouda might be rested!!!!!!!
http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~2022301,00.html
85.5 with kirkland,bale,scharner and rosicky to go. if i break 100 i'll be reasonably happy,as like around 20% of people playing this game,i was stung by torres. have a feeling drogba's going to hammer in a few midweek,which will cancel out any advantage i've gained in my private group
67pts with Bale, Melchiot, Malouda, N'Zgobia, Bendtner, seems like its much better than a lot of managers this week.
@Anonymous 7:05pm: Malouda was always a rotation risk due to the FA cup Semi Final on Saturday and the League Game on Tuesday. However I feel he will still play some part if not start. Articles I have read indicate Drogba, Joe Cole, and Deco the likeliest to be rested. Also Chelsea must now focus on the league because the FA Final will be played after the last league game. All is not lost.
My BD team:
Gordon
Bale, Foley, Jags
Malouda, Ashley Young, Adam Johnson, Bullard
Bent, Gabby, Bendtner
Dropped Tevez, might have been too hasty given Utd's dip in form and Tevez's current form. However needless to say the Manchester Derby will be a fiery one with Utd trying to claw out a title and Citeh getting a choke hold on 4th. Could be 3-4 or 1-0 with a Red Card here or there.
I will try and fit in a Villa defender probably at Jagielka's and AJ's expense but after what happened to Villa's CS last double will make me think hard.
Good luck guys!
thanks, now i remember hart can't play, such a shame, other goalkeeper would've been a great pick for week. i don't know what goalkeeper to go with, i ain't going to trust friedel, last time got zero or something for double week, thinking about gordon, what are the good picks elsewhere?
sitting on
Gordon
Verm/Bale/Hutton
Milner/Jummy/Malouda/Arteta
Bendtner/Bent/Carew
May swap out Malouda for Ash Young. If Arteta doesn't play this week he will also go. Got really burned by Villa last time they were DG'ers so don't really want to load up on them to much.
Sitting on 29 points (thanks Myhill) with 5 players to go. I expect to drop like a rock
for the anti salgado comment from ALEX. pay attention to this. since i picked him up i got 13.5, 7, 10 and 10 points. the games were against birmingham, burnley, portsmouth and manure. that is 40.5 points over 4 games at a cost of 4.33. all of you dumb enough to pick torres got 35.5 points for the last 4 games, at a cost 20 dollars, give or take. why would you bash a player who is averging 10 points a game over the last 4 games at a cost of 4.33?
as for the everton rolling over blackburn feeling. blackburn have allowed, 1 goal to chelsea, 1 goal to birmingham, 0 goals to burnley, 0 goals to portsmouth and 0 goals to manure in its last 5 games going with 3 ties and 2 wins. blackburn hasn't lost at home since, december 19th to tottenham.
everton has 2 away wins since december, 1-0 at wigan and 2-0 at man city. everton have 2, 2, 2, 0 and 2 goals with 3 ties and 2 wins over the last 5 games. not much of a miss match. i am calling for a 1-1 tie, with salgado getting an assist and a bunch of crosses for 10 points. he will outscore arteta and saha!
My team so far, but still working on it, is...
Gordon
Collins/Bale/Dann
Bullard/Etherington/Downing/Maxi/Petrov
Bent/Agbonlahor
Still working on it as I feel Downing/Petrov are not the wise choice of midfield from Villa...went for Collins to cover the Villa clean sheet, if any at all.
Gordon/Bullard/Bale/Etherington/Bent are keepers, everyone else is dispensable. What do you think?
I'm not in the mood to discuss my team either (49.5 points so far post-correction). I've been taking a ridiculous number of 0s and negatives over the past 6 weeks or so. Fortunately, my overall ranking hasn't suffered too badly, but clearly my decisions have been crap.
So instead, a minor observation: Has anyone noticed Ajax's current goal difference? 77. And yet, they're currently 2nd with 76 points. Apparently they need to spread their goals around a bit better (a view that might receive some support from their 7-0 victory over VVV on Sunday).
My sympathies to Spurs fans, but good on Pompey. I'm happy for their fans, who deserved better than having their club driven off a cliff. Kudos as well to Avram Grant, who's earned my respect.
So glad I junked Torres, and went for Fat Frank instead of Drogba (if he's rested)...
Currently have:
Myhill
Bale Dunne Warnock
A.Johnson Bullard Downing A.Young
Tevez Altidore Carew
Considering going with A.Dawson/Milner instead of Warnock/Carew (depending on injury situation). Carew always seems to burn me when I don't pick him, and I want at least one Villa forward.
Looking at fitting Agbonlahor in (for Altidore), switching Dawson for Warnock and Young for Richardson.
Finally, really wish I could take greginho up on the bet that Salgado will outscore Saha AND Arteta!
so far I have -4 points for the week. so far ONLY had myhill bullard and Torres 'play'..oh and Hutton. Comfortably my worst week ever. If drogba gets rested then I pretty much lost my league in just this one week. And Im a spurs fan.
DC
we can have some fun in fantasy football, can't we? i think we can make a bet. if salgado gets outscored by arteta or saha, i will, on the saturday wrap up, write that i am the worst fantasy player ever in capital letters. will you, DC, do the same if arteta or saha, doesn't outscore salgado?
AM- Feel your pain.
All will be healed with a win on wednesday lads!!!
I took Fox, hoping he'd do better. rats! But I got rid of Hutton to do so, so I guess 2.5 more than I would have had.
Jummy/Downing/BFAY/Gabby/BFFF to me are locks. going balls out on DG'ers.
once again everything is wrong about the advices of "the Fantasist", since CHOOSE 'EM = Myhill ( -9 pts ) to LOOSE 'EM = Tevez (2 goals)... as you can see here: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/fantasy-football-blog/article/26085/
...& it's been like this week after week. I think I'll guide myself from him just to do trhe opposite. What a self callled "guru" hum...
P.S. Of course he doesn't have to guess everything. But, to make any sense, he should (or must because it's his job & YAHOO's name's on it) just try to spend more than 5 minutes writing his article.
55 points with flomo, bender, sol and mccarthy to go.I hope Campbell and McCarthy score 5 goals each :P
Greginho - What position is your Team?
Having a rubbish week like a lot of others. When Kilbnae is my highest scoring player... well what else can I say!
Just a note on the fixtures that AM has picked out.
Given Liverpool's recent results and their probable lack of Torres, added to the way West Ham have been playing for the last couple of games, I would not say Liverpool is a team to be looking at.
The same could be said for Sunderland; they looked poor in their last game and Burnley will have taken a lot of confidence from their demolition of Hull.
So I would stick with the double gamers, Birmingham and Arsenal, with Stoke an outside bet.
Anyone worse than me? 38.50 with only Flomo and Moreno. Totally screwed by Myhill, Torres and Fagan. And Flomo might be rested
anon @ 9:49
Dear anon
Have no fear - FloMo won't be rested (Drogba however, may well be :); he will play like a god; Moreno will come on in the 2nd half and destroy tired Portsmouth - you'll get barrowloads of points
Stop snivelling - there are lots worse off than you - see Joshtottenham, who's on -4 for the week !!
Good luck
Pauly
@ Orange, I agree with your concerns around Liverpool, if N'gog starts they effectively throw the game and should be fined accordingly.
In terms of Sunderland, they are a different proposition at home as opposed to away and I still think it's a nailed on win. Burnley did well last week, yep, but Hull were a joke.
I don't know about you guys but I'm not liking this Fantasy season with all these double/triple gamers, it's more fun when it's single games.
Anyways, what can we do. Enough said on that topic, on to footie matters, what would you think of an offside Cattermole bet? He's extremely cheap and vs. a great opposition. I'm thinking a good gamble, leaves you spare change to upgrade elsewhere to those expensive Villa players. My question is whether he's starting and will not make the move until I know so...anyone?
@saul
I think Cattermole is a great filler but becareful as he is a tenacious tackler who can give you negative points.
teams are out.....damn...Malouda is a sub
FloMo Rested, Drogba Starting...
ALEX
i am in a comfortable 4415th position with 3074 points.
Greginho- only 3074 points at this stage of the season! I see you're having a bad season. I'm not much better, around the 3300 mark. My standards are obviously higher than yours. You should always aim for the 3500 mark.
BTW good post earlier regarding Salgado, though he wont out score Arteta, well I hope not!
SPURS DEFINITELY HAVE THE MOST DIFFICULT SCHEDULE OF ALL PREMIER LEAGUE TEAMS! SORRY AM!
Which 2 villa defenders would be the best to pick for this week?
I can afford all of them
:-)
dunne & cuellar
Well... Salgado will very likely outscore Arteta, at least for this week, no thanks to Arteta's injury. ;-)
No Arteta At Villa
http://www.evertonfc.com/news/archive/2010/04/13/no-arteta-at-villa
well anonymous, thank you for the tip. i didn't know, all i had to do was aim for 3500 points. i didn't know it was that easy. i thought i had to, actually, pick a team every week. i thought i had to watch as half of my team would get under 5 points. the guys i spent the most money on, did the worst.
Post a Comment