Monday 20 September 2010

Week 5 - Sunday

A post about yesterday's games as we await Yahoo to fully update the Week 5 team totals/rankings. Once things are finalised I'll be able to calculate the 1st Round results of the Blog Cup to see who made it through to the second knock-out stage!

Sunday started with a marvellous performance from Dimitar Berbatov in the early kick-off, as his hat-trick (including a quite spectacular 2nd goal) gave Manchester United a deserved victory over Liverpool at Old Trafford. People may point to the John O'Shea incident as the turning point, but the facts are Liverpool mustered only two attempts on target in the entire game - Gerrard's penalty and free-kick that brought their two goals - so I feel the result was fair given the overall performance of both teams.

I'm yet to see any highlights of Wigan v Man City, but it sounded like a comfortable 2-0 victory for Mancini's men with Tevez running the show. Adam Johnson was unexpectedly left on the bench to annoy many fantasy managers and apparently Wigan failed to threaten Joe Hart's goal. City up to 4th.

The final game was Chelsea's 4-0 canter over Blackpool. Malouda (2), Drogba and Kalou chipped in with the goals, but had they been more ruthless it could easily have been double figures as they cut Blackpool apart at will - Drogba and Malouda both wasteful on numerous occasions. Chelsea extend their lead at the top to 4 points but their first real test comes next weekend.

Calculating my own total, my three Sunday performers (including another handy 5.5 from Adam) more than doubled my Saturday total to bring me up to 103 points for Week 5. It's going to prove an average score with many other people having Berbatov/Tevez & City/Chelsea clean sheets, but seeing as I took another negative keeper score and no clean sheets from my defence I'm happy to break the 100 mark. Whether it's enough to secure a place in the next round of the cup we shall have to wait and see!

In terms of the barndoor I had a bit of a manic Sunday. I initially dropped Malouda to get Gerrard in but had to do some major barndoor shuffling as I quickly realised that Malouda @ 13 really is a season-keeper in his current form, so brought him back in (at an annoying loss of £0.5m). I've kept Gerrard too, so downgraded Foster to Kirkland to allow for this move, which meant dumping Dembele. To be honest it was all a bit of a shambles and I feel some of my impulses could back-fire, but I guess that's what happens when there's so many good options.

Current team: Kirkland, Salcido, Koscielny, Bale, Adam, Barton, Van Der Vaart, Malouda, Gerrard, Chamakh, Drogba.

As I said, Malouda stays but I'm still undecided on whether I keep Drogba. I know Man City away is a tougher game, but I haven't been overly impressed by City so far and I still think Chelsea will win well. However, moving Drogba to someone like Cameron Jerome would give me the funds to move Kirk (I don't want a zero) back to Foster and upgrade Koscielny if he loses his place to the returning Vermaelen. I went Gerrard over Berbatov on a personal hunch but I'm obviously missing an Arsenal midfielder which is a concern, so I'll have to re-evaluate this later in the week - loads and loads to think about for Week 6.

One final note to the anonymous poster moaning in the comments section that I stated Van Der Vaart was "definitely" out, telling me that I should "check my sources" because "how did other players in my league know he was going to play?". I usually try not to comment on this sort of thing...but on this occasion I will as it's completely unfounded.

Van Der Vaart picked up a calf injury on Tuesday and was subbed after 50 minutes. I mentioned this in my Wednesday Player Picks post, and in my Friday Update post I confirmed that he was doubtful and linked to a source in the Daily Mail. The news that he was unlikely to feature vs Wolves came from Harry Redknapp's own press conference on Friday morning. BBC Sport, Sky Sports, Football365 and every other media outlet in existence reported the same thing. For this reason I stated that I had decided not to risk him in my team - I guess other people used the information available and made a decision based on that. Sensible people do this and 99 times out of 100 it pays off (and you don't get a big fat zero for one of your players).

If people in your league kept him they either (1) decided to take the risk that VDV would play, (2) wanted to keep his discount OR (3) don't spend that much time watching football/doing research/on their fantasy team so were not aware of the injury doubt. I'll take a guess that number (3) is the more likely, as the same thing happened for a couple of people in my own private league...lucky buggers!

Rant over :)

Please let me know how you got on in Week 5! Who came in on the barndoor? Once the scores are updated keep checking back here for the Blog Cup results! Do you think you made it through?

Cheers,
AM

73 comments:

Dead Leg United said...

Mate, never deliberately take a 0 unless you're holding at a huge discount. That has to be policy.

GunnerArt said...

113 for the week here. I knew it was trouble when Rosicky stepped up to take the penalty. I really believe Arsenal would have won 2-0+ if it was not for the pk miss. Could have pushed me close to 140!

PS Adam is definitely my season keeper. In 6-0 and 4-0 rout, he averaged about 6.5 points per game, fully returning his value!

Anonymous said...

102.5 for this week..
missed salcido and VdV on the barndoor due to network problems..
What do you guys think - between Berbs and Arshavin who should I get next week?

FreezeGoldz

SY said...

How did Bale managed to get 9 successful crosses? Amazing!

Is there a way to sort players by number of successful crosses?
(I remember doing it many years back with the old layout)

Chris O. said...

There is NOT a way to sort by SC's now, is there? I really hate this layout that doesn't share all the information used to calculate points. I don't want to have to click through to an individual player each time I want to see all the point scoring.

Assistant Manager said...

Yeah they changed the layout of YFF about 3 seasons ago. Previously you could sort all players by any stat but for some reason they now deem corners/freekicks won as more important than assists/successful crosses. Crazy

pk all stars said...

berb in form arshavin not but both have a easy fixtures. drogba has two hard fixtures and his value may drop a bit in the nxt two weeks. so i may drop drogba for two weeks and get both arsh and berbs.i already got gerrard for malonda for nxt two weeks.

Anonymous said...

Hi FreezeGoldz!

Anyway, i'm really considering dropping Drogba. The cash that it frees up is just amazing (considering i've been working around a team with him in it for the past 5 weeks). Im thinking of getting Gerrard instead of him.

-Chan Kheng Song

Anonymous said...

So I guess one debate is whether Kirkland (0 at the moment) and Gerrard(335)/Berbatov (253) will score more over a SHORT period than Hart (235)/Foster (205 by the 10th place goalie VDS) plus Chamakh (272 by the tenth place forward)/Carroll? I think it will be close from week to week, but over the long haul the two top 10 players should easily beat one player and a "null" filler, like Kirkland. Stats are from last year. Also, Berbs is on a tear as is Drogba.

Here's the rub though. Drogba scored 540 last year- the highest- so his score would just barely lose to the fifth place striker (340 Anelka) and fifth place goalie (235 Hart). Games played are within a game or two.

This is over the season, not game week to game week and that's what makes this an interesting question.

BTW, I pick my players based mainly on the TV schedule in America so I can cheer. LOL Gre in the USA.

donut said...

Can't believe all this dropping Drogba talk. My view is that he is on fire and wheras wasteful against Blackpool (and I can't understand why just because a clear penalty is on 93 mins and the team is 4-0 that it's not given!!) he will rip City up...

From a blog perspective I have to warn against it, however from a personal ranking perspective please all carry on with the Drogba dropping!!

Definitely with you on the VdV issue AM - everyone who followed YFF except risk takers or insiders who actually knew the team before 12 on Sat would have dropped him...no need for you to explain yourself mate, you do a great job every week and people need to make their own decisions!!

PS don't drop Drogs!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kheng Song and FreezeGoldz :D

- GovindSai

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

will the sunday barndoor stay open through monday?...or will yahoo close it to keep the rif-raf out?

Anonymous said...

With just about 75 for wk5 i doubt my comments count but Hart- fine keeper, plus City play 3 d midfielders and will be looking to stop Drogba in particular. Against Inter i dropped him 4 same season and he scored zip, Drogba is no super man and with the kind of attention he'll get i see the points for Chelsea coming from elsewhere, Malouda or Essien, unless they get a penalty kick. Just my thoughts

Tayo Fagbeje said...

Random Musing of a YFF "addict"...

Have you guys noticed that Yahoo! has problem updating the scores and new prices when there are a number of huges scorers???
No issues on Saturday with average scores but the algorithm for these updates needs to be fine tuned after the Sunday games to avoid unrealistic price jumps... I trust things will be fixed shortly.
This is my educated guess; I may be wrong though.
Concerning the YFF game itself, my scores have been below average so far this season. I've so far gone for the wrong guy in every successful team. I'm confident that things will click for me SOON, hopefully from week 6.
Dearest Assistant Manager Niky Argy,
Would you be kind enough to list all kick takers per team? That would be most appreciated!!!
As for the seeming ingrates, these are people who ALWAYS blame others for their misfortunes... No explanations required for them. I agonised over VDV untill 11h58 before clicking "Save team changes" and ended up on the wrong side!!! But hey, it's just a game to be enjoyed and I'm loving it whatever the outcome. I must say this has been the most unpredictable start to any YFF season except for Chelsea winning all matches (but then who plays for Chelsea and who's rested is not obvious). Who saw Terry being rested for example???
Nik, lest I forget, YOU ARE THE BEST! Keep up the good work...
More musings on my week 6 team selection later...
Best regards to ALL!

Anonymous said...

how bout nasri?
do u think he will play next week?

ken

Arsenal_Bergkamp said...

130 week with kalou as my hunch pick, most likely to stay in the top 50 for another week.

Bded Berbartov, VDV

My current team

Cudicini/ Kos,Bale,Salci / Malouda,Adam,Barton,VDV / Drob,Cham, Berbartov

I most likely keeping 9 of my players.

Thanks everyone, especially AM, for their advices.

Kellz said...

@Tayo Fagbeje: Your in luck, visit fantasyfootballscout.com and you will see a link to all the FK takers for each team. Its a full comprehensive list with rankings of 1st to 4th(in some cases) choice for kicks.

Anonymous said...

I have a huge dilemma to consider before the barndoor closes:
Drogba/Carroll vs. Berbatov/Gerard

Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

No need to apologies AM on the VDV issue. You do some sterling work. As Donut says - people need to make their own decisions

Tayo said...

@ Kellz:
Merci beaucoup
Muchas gratias
Grazie
Ose pupo
Imela
Nagode
Danke
Thak
Or simply, many thanks!

Foxy said...

I took a risk on VDV as he will be a major player for spurs this season and dont want to
miss out on the discount. Plus why would Harry give a away team news everyone else says he won't play, wolves make plans that he not in the team. Boom Saturday 2oclock he's playing, change of plan!

Marhawk said...

@ Tayo

there is a link at the top of this page for the
FantasyFootballScout site, sure is worth a visit.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the insight. Did not take into
consideration teams keeping VDV because of getting him at good price.

Did not mean to "blame" anyone for my decision. As stated, first year player, and I must say I am enjoying myself very much. The only negative thing so far, for me, is that I see little or no humor in peoples statements and some are quick to go on the attack.....

I find little or no help within the league I joined. Did not even know (one) players name a few weeks ago and have started doing research through these blogs. Guess I got a little frustrated because I thought I had done my homework.

Thanks again

Just one more thing:

The above post was sent (BEFORE) I read your comments.

In my original post on VDV I
thought I was being quite generic in my choice of words like (could have) and (if) and (maybe).

All you succeeded in doing with your response was proving my assessment.

Anonymous said...

With just about 75 for wk5 i doubt my comments count but Hart- fine keeper, plus City play 3 d midfielders and will be looking to stop Drogba in particular. Against Inter i dropped him 4 same season and he scored zip, Drogba is no super man and with the kind of attention he'll get i see the points for Chelsea coming from elsewhere, Malouda or Essien, unless they get a penalty kick. Just my thoughts

Kellz said...

@Anon 4:51pm: If your going strictly based on Match Ups then Berbatov/Gerrard is the way to go. However if you have Drogba already, I don't think its worth it to drop him, even in the situation of a "tough" matchup, Drogba will find ways to score pts. Its a tough call, I think many here are tempted to drop Malouda/Drogba, but I think many people won't go through with it when deadline comes.

Anonymous said...

I'm going for it... dropping drogs and bringing in berb and gerrard... so everyone else would probably be wise to hold on to him!

On a separate topic, I see Arsene has been charged with misconduct for doing what Fergie does every single match... he's untouchable and the only man who was willing to take him on (Rafa) was ripped apart by the fergie-loving British media for doing so.

Taf Tacklers

SfSS said...

Fabregas out for few weeks, news from his twitter page. Wasted 0.50 as AM barndooring him and dropping Maluda

Assistant Manager said...

anon @ 6:11pm - You were having a go at me because you dropped VDV claiming I said he was "definitely out" and that I should check my sources. I don't find these generic comments, they are false accusations and it really annoyed me when I read them.

Anyway, I feel I've got my point across now so lets draw a line under it. You'll find plenty of help and humour from everyone on this blog - that's why it's become so popular so quickly - but if you go on the attack then expect to get a bit of an attack yourself...we're all football fans after all! :)

Anonymous said...

Things seem to be a little out of hand concerning this VDV situation.

Truly...My intent was never to offend. I am sure it is painfully obvious that I do not understand the game and I am just working hard to become a fan, not only of the game, but also the people around it.

For what it's worth....My humble apology

Assistant Manager said...

Let's forget about it mate - we're all here to help you get acquainted with the game, that's the whole point of the hours I put in to this blog! Pop over to the chat room and introduce yourself at some point and myself or others will be happy to assist you/answer any questions you have.

Cheers

Bojan said...

three inwriten rules of YFF are:

1
2
3

Saul said...

@Anon 8:48 - Many respects for coming out and apologized for your previous statement, that's very admirable. Just in the future choose your words carefully because we as a blog respect everything AM is doing with the game, and will defend him. He, also, must defend his integrity against those who just come to the blog and bash at him...seen it many times over and over again.

Anyways I hope your apologies are sincere and hopefully we'll get a chance to know you.

Saul said...

haha Bojan, what the hell! lol

Anonymous said...

Dropped Hart and bought Foster. So I share the goalkeeper-curse with AM. Just counted - my keepers have earned me nice -32 points this season. But I decided to keep VDV. Had him at good price etc. So totally I earned 114,5 points for week 5. And barndoored Ben Arfa and Berbatov. Not selling Drogba or Malouda - for me they are the ducks who lay the golden eggs (as is Bale).
efka.

EE said...

We have to figure out this goalkeeper curse! AM--i'm a man of faith, and whatever curse has been deposited on you, I will work to lift.

I still believe in and like Foster (despite his performance this past week). Seems like he is the best gamble--has turned in some good points for his price.

I don't care much for picking Kirk. I don't know why but i feel it important to have all 11 of my men on the field trying to get points for me.

Though, you can't argue with Cech--Chelsea has conceded 1 goal??? Man City will be tough i suppose, but they come across as a pretty unstable team and I wouldn't be surprised if Chelsea tears them apart.

I don't know if the risk is worth it to pick him this week though i wonder if in six months, we are going to be thinking of those days when Cech was at a discount at 12.79.

kwyjibo said...

Thanks to Drogba + Malouda, I managed to salvage a horror week and get to 91.5. But, I'm worried that it isn't enough for the Blog Cup, since I took a major tumble in AM Blog League 1, meaning other AMers did much better than me.

Still ranked 15 in Fantasist Superleague 2...just goes to show how competitive all you AMers are! Congrats to all!

Overall, I'm hanging in there at 2741. Thanks for all your help AM, and everyone else on here.

My current BD team is:

Kirk
Bale-Kos-Mancienne
FloMa-CAdam-VDV-Barton
Drogba-ChamWow!-Berbatov

Kos may not play, and I'm still not that impressed by Chamakh, he seems to miss some easy shots. Nerves? Not too great points-wise, at least. Thinking of changing those two, but it doesn't leave much money to play with.

Also would like to not have Kirkland, but at the expense of which player? That's a tough choice. I may hold off until Jussi comes back. He was scoring great before that stupid incident, which I hope he won't do again...

Saul said...

Alright - Points have been calculated, as well as overall rankings. I climbed 440 places to overall position 141, yay!!! (125.5 pts. for the week)

My BD team, but still messing with...

Foster
Bale/Salcido/J.Enrique
Malouda/Nani/Barton/Adam/VDV
Chamakh/Berbatov

1.97 left to spend and would like to upgrade Berbatov to Torres(home to terrible away form Sunderland).

Good luck all!

FLScott said...

@EE - Thank you sir! I've been rolling with Kirk at the 1-mark just to not loose any more points with my keep decisions. I still pulled out 126 even with Kirk and Terry racking up 0 pts., but I need a new view on things.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

New guy to the blog - great info and reports AM; early question re week 6 - solcido/manciene or baptiste/mwilson in defense; rest of team: Kirk bale malouda vdv Adam ethutu drogba berbatov dembele
Dr





Thanks

Anonymous said...

@FL IF you pulled out 126 with 9 men--then you're doing just fine.

FLScott said...

*
C. Kirkland
o Wigan
o 0.00 points

Defenders

*
G. Bale
o Tottenham
o 15.00 points
*
J. Terry
o Chelsea
o 0.00 points
*
L. Koscielny
o Arsenal
o 3.50 points

Midfielders

*
F. Malouda
o Chelsea
o 31.50 points
*
C. Adam
o Blackpool
o 5.50 points
*
S. Parker
o West Ham
o 19.00 points
*
S. Downing
o Aston Villa
o 5.00 points

Forwards

*
D. Berbatov
o Man Utd
o 35.50 points
*
M. Dembélé
o Fulham
o 5.00 points
*
M. Chamakh
o Arsenal
o 6.00 points

Week 5 total 126.00

Yeah, but I'm still about 200 of the leaders.. there's still plenty of time though.

Saul said...

Salcido/Mancienne no question! Salcido is an attack minded left back, and Mancienne is a solid filler. I don't like your other option because M.Wilson was on the bench, Baptiste I like. Just a recommendation, you're lacking players from Arsenal/Liverpool/Birminham/Newcastle...who can easily win their respective match-ups big, along with Tottenham...Get in on the action.

Anonymous said...

What do you guys think about dropping Hart(8.83)/Kompany(6.48)/Caroll(5.96) to get Kirk/Salcido/Berbatov at the current price? I am having problems deciding if Salcido and Berb will generate more points than the trio I currently have. If I do sell the trio, I doubt I can get them back for such a cheap price.

Anonymous said...

You press the confirm button, you take responsibility. I dropped VdV too, but do I complain, no, because I chose to drop him, AM didn't force me to. Stop blaming.

Saul said...

Anon 5:27 - It's water under the bridge.

Anonymous said...

Dembele or Pennant?

Maxer said...

any news on how bad is harper injuries?..

Maxer

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

nasri and arshavin on the BD?....dont mind if I do

Kendo said...

I had 0 points for J Terry as he didn't play is he injured?

Kendo

Anonymous said...

why are everyone jumping onto the berbatov bandwagon a week after he scored a hattrick?? he might grab a goal @bol but i think it is more wisely to pick players from winnable matches like ars, liv, tot or even bir and new.
Anon@5:08 - i have dropped hart for foster and carroll for vdv for week6. dropped hart for his difficult matchup plus we might able to get him back if flomal and drog (i'll be keeping both) terrorizes citeh, both are on form and unstoppable. foster vs wig @home is a great matchup and shld generate some points (i hope).
use the cash from berba to upgrade kirk to either foster or cudicini.

cheers,
MRA

Anonymous said...

re- MRA . i know what you mean & it's generally better to go for hat trick possibilities rather than just a single goal chance. but thats exactly why i'm dropping drogba for berba. berba's price must surely rocket ( when they finally do updates prices this week !) & he's clearly on great form & might just be a season keeper. drog's price is so high i can probably buy him back for about the same in future if i need to.

great to see so many am blog teams on the leaderboard -3 in the top 10. if i ever get high enough to get on there i'll def edit my team name for you ! :) whats happened to the hong kong hkkbff.net or whatever they were called ??
( just noticed 2 in top 50 of ars, but none in top 50 overall ) have they all converted to this blog now !?.

S.P.

Bojan said...

harper 3 months out

Anonymous said...

@MRA, I dont see why playing against Bolton is not a winnable match for ManU. They should win it comfortably.

Bojan said...

places updated... prices still not

Assistant Manager said...

ALERT! If you are not in a blog league then there are 2 final spaces in blog league 5 after 2 drop-outs. If you get one of the spaces you will be included in the blog cup, but be quick as I'm putting the results together in one hour!

AM Blog League 5
Group ID#: 2923
Password: fantasy

Bojan said...

just joined in... can i be part of Blog Cup now?

Anonymous said...

aww too late, both places gone already :(

Assistant Manager said...

Yep they filled in 5 minutes, sorry.

Bojan, if you were one of the 2 teams who joined then you are in the cup. What's your team name?

Bojan said...

Jose Mourinho... I've got in somehow... Thx

Bojan said...

Kevin Davies will serve his suspension in the Carling Cup, along with Perch of Newcastle and Song of Arsenal http://tinyurl.com/2uuvqat about 1 hour ago via web

Arsenal_Bergkamp said...

Fabregas 2-3 weeks off. Possibly missing the Chelsea match on Oct 3 as well.

Anonymous said...

Is Dembele a good start this week?

I pretty much know if I drop him he will be....

Any help?

Ken said...

Just want to take a minute to thank AM for being patient, and taking the extra time to work through what started as a rough beginning, for me anyways.

I find myself reading and learning new things about this game each day and have a growing admiration not only for the sport but also the people and culture associated with it.

I am (anonymous) who started off on the wrong foot with my VDV posting.
In my (American) football "fantasy" leagues I go by The Crusher and entered the "chat" room under that name. I would, however just like to use my name from here out if that's fine.

Thanks again Ken

Dave said...

No worries Ken--it's all good. Welcome to the game and the blog!

David said...

Barn door still wide open on Tuesday--come on in all you casual players!

As a consequence of the extended BD, I'm noticing that everyone's teams look pretty much the same.

Anonymous said...

barton or arfa? gerrard or torres?

Anonymous said...

S.P - Berba surely is on form but i just don have the confidence in him returning big points every week. I already said he might grab a goal against bolton, that's just my opinion and i can't foresee the future. he score goals but not good fantasy points (barred the hattrick). Bol has not lose a game yet this season and manure are leaky at the back. i'm not against picking berba, just that i thought there are many more other better options this week than picking manure playing @bol. just my 5cent opinion, no offence. everyone should play with their guts rite? but he is a good season keeper though.

cheers,
MRA

Anonymous said...

welcome joined AM league bojan:)

FLScott said...

@Kendo - Yeah - according to Physioroom yeah,... should be back this weekend though. I dropped him,.. he hasn't helped me all that much anyway.

FLScott said...

@Anonymous 12:57PM - I'm holding on to Dembele for now, as I expect Arsenal (and him) to have some great chances at home to West Brom. Anybody else have any insight as to a likely start for him?

greginho said...

dembele plays for fulham and has a great matchup

FLScott said...

Whoa blew that one up... Need to not do three things at once - thanks greginho!

Anonymous said...

Saul,

Thanks for advice on Salcido/mancienne vs Baptiste/mwilson. Made the switch. However not sure the Liverpool/newcastle matches are absolutes. Agree that Arsenal and Birmingham should be. Dropped Dembele for Nasri; but not sure it's a wise move. Sonasri, dembele or baptiste?

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