Picking Your Team

I posted some of this information up last July when I first started the blog, but I thought I'd revisit it, add to it, and re-post for any new managers, or anyone who's simply forgotten it all from last year! It's some basic methods that have worked for me and many others for seasons now, so it's only fair to share...(also check out "The Rules" on FantasyEPL)

Firstly, I've posted the scoring matrix above (click the image to enlarge it if you can't see it clearly). You cannnot be successful in this game if you don't know what players score/lose points for. It amazed me last year when one of the guys in my private league (for 5 seasons) had only just realised defenders don't lose points for conceding goals, so he would never pick defenders playing tricky games, even as fillers (more on this later). Not knowing the scoring system can cost you dearly.

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Join The Blog Leagues!

AM Blog League One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight is open for business! THIS IS THE FINAL BLOG LEAGUE!!!

Apologies for those who wanted to be in the one of the first 7 leagues - no matter what time I put the leagues up it will be unsuitable to some time-zones in the world, and I also didn't expect them to fill up so quickly.

Unfortunately my main team can only be in the first 3 leagues as I'm already in my own private league + Jeremy & Neal's private league, which = 5 (maximum). The 5 blog leagues that follow will be on my 2nd Yahoo ID, meaning you won't get to challenge my team directly, but you'll get a place in the Cup competitions.

The team I'll be running in leagues 4 to 8 will be AM Blog Team [AM.Blog], which is the team I want us to pick as a group each week via discussions in the chat room on Friday nights/Saturday mornings. More on that later...

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Fixed!

Good ol' Yahoo, why did we ever doubt you? :)

Due to a data error, the initial player salaries for this game were drastically incorrect. This problem has been corrected, and in the spirit of fair play, all teams filled in prior to the fix have been cleared out. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

...so the 2010/2011 season is good to go - big thanks to Yahoo for sorting it so quickly!

Expect the details for the first few Blog League to begin appearing on the blog and the facebook group throughout the day...

Cheers,
AM

Yahoo 2010/2011 Season Is Here

So Yahoo Fantasy Football has finally returned for the new season, and we should be delighted...but at the moment, I'm not. The player prices are well and truly screwed, with players like Rob Green and David Bentley priced at 43.31 & 40.35, Malouda & Lampard under 9.00, while Edwin Van Der Sar & Jermaine Defoe are priced are just 1.00!!!

It appears we find ourselves in a warped pre-season barndoor situation, able to grab unbelievable bargains at will. However, as I wrote on my Facebook group just now, I'm guessing (praying) the prices are just an initial launch bug (it's only been up for 30 mins after all), and hopefully they'll sort it out...but you have to question why the game was launched when it isn't ready?

Lets be honest, if people are lucky enough to be online now and are able to fill their teams up with players at £1m & then their prices shoot up in the next few days then it makes the entire game pointless for everyone. Even if they don't change the prices and everyone is free to grab the bargains, the current curve of player valuation is ridiculous & doesn't make for a realistic competition.

If things were to stay as they are, I'm sure I wouldn't be alone in saying I'd almost certainly stop playing the game. However, I'm confident Yahoo will have it in hand and that all the prices will be adjusted shortly for all players, even if they are already owned (not sure how that would work though - "master reset"?) so we can all start the season with a clean slate.

Blog League details will be up tomorrow once the situation is a bit clearer!

Cheers,
AM

p.s. Bale is still a defender...woohoo! :)

Transfer Stalemate?

Three of the longest transfer sagas this summer appear to be are winding down, with the majority of the UK media reporting that Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas and James Milner are all set to stay at their current clubs despite the tapping up efforts of Manchester City & Barcelona.

As we all know in football, nothing is certain, but it appears that the "financial heavyweights" have been priced out of moves, which is no bad thing in my opinion - I reckon all three would be making the correct decision by staying put for the forthcoming season.

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Good News!

It appears our concern (admittedly started by me) that Yahoo may not run a Premier League Fantasy Football competition in 2010/11 were unfounded! Comments from Jeremy over on FantasyEPL suggest that the new season is just around the corner, and believe me, they know people who are in the know... :)

This is great news, and has me even more excited about the coming campaign, so I thought now was as good as time as any to suggest once again that you join our Facebook Group if you haven't already...I will be announcing the details of the first few Blog Leagues to our existing Facebook members slightly before providing the details on the blog, so if you're a Facebook user it would be a good idea to join up! Its also handy as it allows me to send out message to all member about any planned cup competitions I may choose to run, and you'll be notified via your news feed when I publish a new post.

My hope is to get to 1000 members this year - lets see if we can!

Cheers,
AM

Liverpool sign Joe Cole

From BBCSport

Liverpool have signed Joe Cole on a four-year deal - subject to a medical - following his release by Chelsea.

The 28-year-old England midfielder left Stamford Bridge in June after failing to agree a new contract with the Premier League champions.

He was linked to Arsenal and Tottenham but has opted for Liverpool, who failed to qualify for the Champions League.

Undoubtedly a good signing for Liverpool on a freebie, and the move should allow Cole to play regular first team football - something I'm not sure he would've found at Arsenal or Spurs given the depth of attacking midfield choices in both squads. He'll bring some extra creativity to Anfield, something that was lacking last season and was likely to decrease further with the loss of the under-rated Yossi Benayoun.

What do you think Liverpool fans? Are you pleased? Where will he play? How have Liverpool found the cash to afford his wages when Chelsea, Arsenal & Spurs couldn't? Are the money problems at Anfield exaggerated?

Cheers,
AM

New Yahoo Season Close?

The Yahoo Fantasy Football 2010/2011 season could be with us any day now, with last season's game disappearing from view to be replaced with a new splash screen message overnight.

Last year the game re-opened on Friday 17th July, so I'm hoping we could be back in business by the end of this week/early next week - keep checking back as I'll be setting up the new Blog Leagues as soon as I can. My plan this season is to set up an extra Yahoo ID so I can create up to 10 Blog League, which would mean I could run a couple of cup competition with 1000 teams (provided we could fill the leagues!)

Obviously we still have a month until the actual Premier League season kicks off on 14th August, and I'm sure we'll see plenty of new signings before the deadline on August 31st, but I'm getting increasingly concerned by Man City's activity. They've already improved their squad with Boateng, Toure & Silva's arrivals and I'm sure they'll be adding to this, with Top 4 the minimum they should achieve. I can't help but feel Spurs are going to find it very tough to repeat last year's successes.

Cheers,
AM

World Cup 2010 Signs Off

Massive congratulations to Spain on sealing their first World Cup. It wasn't the greatest match & the antics of both sets of players left a lot to be desired, but the best side took the trophy in the end thanks to Iniesta's late late winner.

I enjoyed the tournament overall - it didn't have as many classic matches as we'd have hoped for, but some of the tactical battles were thrilling & I thoroughly enjoyed watching Germany grow as a team, defying pundits along the way. I was also hugely impressed by Diego Forlan who carried Uruguay superbly.

In terms of the our World Cup Fantasy Football competition, I'd like to congratulate JJOKBOB, winner of the Blog League, holding on by just 1 point from DragonLegend. JJOKBOB wasn't able to make it a double, as LeoZabalet defeated him in the Blog Cup Final - well done to all!

Thanks to all 472 teams that took part in the competition - our league finished 13th in the Overall Best League Table, which is a great effort from all the teams at the top. I finished down in 102nd place on 576 points, but I'd like to think I'd have finished a bit higher had I not missed 6 match days due to Glasto.

We can now turn our focus to the new Premier League season, and I'm hoping Yahoo will have the new game up & running in the next couple of week so we can start thinking about Week 1 on August 14th.

Finally, one of our blog regulars ToffeeDave has started his own blog for the new season, covering betting advice on everything English Premier League. Please check it out over at http://toffeedave.blogspot.com

Cheers,
AM

Viva Espana!

It's strange...I thoroughly enjoyed last night's semi-final between Spain & Germany, but the majority of people in my office today seem to think it was boring!?

I found the tactical battle intriguing, as Spain spent the first 45 minutes probing the opposition's well organised defence, only for Germany to actually look more dangerous when they had the opportunity to counter attack. In the 2nd half Spain upped their game & their football was a joy to watch, but still the Germans looked threatening when they could get the ball to Ozil & Klose.

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Dutch Make Final

The first semi final was an entertaining affair, as Holland progressed to the World Cup Final for the first time in three decades with a 3-2 victory over Uruguay.

The Dutch were in control for the majority of the game after Van Bronckhorst's absolutely stunning opener (possibly my favourite goal of the tournament so far) and ran out deserved winners despite Forlan again getting his country back in to the game at 1-1 and a brief rally in injury time after Maxi Pereira's consolation threatened the comfortable lead Sneijder and Robben had provided.

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Never Write Off The Germans

Just a quick post on the quarter finals as we approach the semi's.

How impressive have Joachim Loew's side been? They've been superb so far - even in their defeat to Serbia they were well in the game despite being down to 10 men for an hour - but I'm sure a 4-0 victory over Argentina was beyond their wildest dreams. They look solid at the back, devastating on the counter attack, should fear nobody now and I'm thoroughly looking forward to Germany v Spain. The Spanish haven't hit their best form yet but are getting results and are capable of turning it on in the big games (and Villa is on fire), so it should be hugely entertaining.

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