Week 8 - Sunday
My Dad is a lifelong Liverpool fan, I spoke to him last night and he believes that was the worst derby performance he's ever seen - no fight, no passion, no creativity. The fact Hodgson has suggested in interviews that he thought his team played well makes things worse. When Spurs had their disastrous start under Ramos in 2008 the board decided they had to do something drastic and brought Redknapp in after 8 games - it saved our season and I think Liverpool have to do something similar...Martin O'Neil anyone?
The second game was a cracker, as Manchester City ran out 3-2 winners at Blackpool. Ian Holloway's men can count themselves really unlucky, with two of City's goals dubious - and 'Pool were actually the better side for long periods - but in the end the finishing from Tevez and Silva was the difference. Congratulations if you picked either of these two men, or has Charlie Adam (probably the best player on the pitch)... great points all round!
We still have one more game tonight between Blackburn & Sunderland, but all 11 of my team have now played so I finish the week on 87.5 points. I'm thinking this must be an above average score as I moved up 250 places to 800th overall. I'll calculate The Blog Cup Results on Wednesday once we're sure all the points are in/all adjustments have been made.
My team for Week 9:
Kirkland, Boateng, Jacobsen, Bale, Mikel, Adam, Nani, Malouda, Van Der Vaart, Obinna, Drogba
I quite like it but I may downgrade Malouda to N'Zogbia as this will enable me to go Mikel > Silva. It's not something I need to worry about just yet, still plenty of time to think things over.
How did you do this week? Anyone left to play tonight? Do you think you've done enough to make it through to the 3rd Round of The Blog Cup?
Cheers,
AM
p.s. fast approaching 900 Facebook members - please join us as we look to pass 1000 before the end of the year! :)
44 comments:
Hi Nik & AMers!
Week 8 was one of my bad week ever in YFF as i managed to get only 63pts with Al Muhammadi to play this night. Perhaps he can perform well & scoring/assisting goals.
Look forward for your suggestion on my Week 9 team selection;
Foster
Salcido Carr Boateng
Adam VDV N'zogbia Silva
Carrol Tevez Drogba
Thanks
-MySL
end up with 101.5 with gyan asamoah to play tonight..
for week 9, maybe try to get drog and adam blackpool and need to fill up with Mr Kirkland =)
-JACK-
Re-posting this - apologies if you've already read it, but I added it to the Saturday post just as AM added his piece on Sunday.
Sunday couldn't have gone much worse for me. After moving up 450 places on Saturday, I lose 500 on Sunday. I only had Boateng yesterday so it was quite likely but I didn't enjoy seeing Tevez, Adam and Silva doing so well. It seems that City's formation yesterday left a lot of space for Adam in the midfield - why, when up to now they've been stifling the opposition there?
Saturday's change of Tevez, Adam, Salcido and Fabianski to Berbatov, Anelka, Boateng and Krul was pretty disastrous- 34 points lost there. Only myself to blame though - having thought I'd avoid Krul all week, I let myself be swayed because he looked so popular. I thought having two potential big-scoring forwards would be better than one and I thought Adam would be stifled.
So 76 points only and goodbye to the Blog cup.
One thought - why no CS for Boateng? He was subbed at just after 75 min with City still not having conceded. I thought that the CS rule applied only for the period of time people were on the pitch? No sour grapes either, but BBC text says that Ferreira was subbed at 74:53 minutes - he still got a CS though (not too unreasonably, although rules is rules)!
Maybe some more Yahoo adjustments will come later in the week just to totally annoy AM with the Blog Cup results!
great week for me . 100+ with 5 goals from cham, tevez 2, nani, & nasri. late switch from kirkland to fabianski also worked well :)). bd'ed bosingwa ,and might go anelka instead of drog's . berb's has been rubbish since i "pt's chased" him after his hat-trick. would consider dropping him if rooney wasn't so out of favour.
good info about kirkland playing vs bolton. will have to ponder that one.
S.P.
@Guy
I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter if they didn't conceed a goal while they were on the pitch. If a team conceeds a goal at point during a match then no-one from that team gets any clean sheet points. I hope that's cleared it up for you.
76.5 points with drogba sitting in my team. goodbye to blog cup.
my lineup for week 9
Cech
Jacobsen Ferreira Squillaci
Malouda Adam VdV Hleb
Chamakh Drogba Berbatov
Musteng....
@Anon at 12:16 - yes, it looks like you're right. I thought I'd seen an example earlier in the season but I can't find one (eg. Terry in week 4 didn't get a CS, subbed at 82 min, conceded at 85 min). I must have seen it in the FPL game - where they did give Boateng his CS points. It was clearly just wishful thinking!
Hi AM,
I truly agree with you to bring in Martin O'Neil for LFC. I've been a LFC supporter for the past 10 years, and this is the worst I've seen of them.
Hogson keeps telling the same thing again and again...they will bounce back... and yeah, they are bouncing backwards...
Hope the board decides something good and fast.
Truly appreciate your blog here :)
~P.K~
@Musteng- you still scored more than me and a lot of people that dropped Drogba, your score could still make the cup though i think the average for this week was over 80.
Ebi
Any thoughts on Pavlyuchenko? He seems to be ahead of The Robot now in the pecking order at Spurs and with VdV he's getting chances at goals.
J0J0
@J0J0: Not necessarily so. Spurs have a CL game to play this midweek. Crouch played last midweek for England, while Pavlyuchenko didn't turn out for Russia because of minor injury. IMHO, just a matter of squad rotation.
I'm just a point behind you, AM, with 86.5, so I'm hoping it's enough for the Blog Cup.
Overall, I took a nice jump up of about +500 to my all-time high of 1181. I'm hoping for my first top 1000 finish this season...but there is still a LONG way to go.
Don't have anyone in today's match, so maybe a slight drop today. But, overall, I'm happy. A lot to think about for the lineup for the coming week...but first, time to take in some CL...
Looking at 352 next week. I want Bale back in after dropping him and I dropped Drogs this week. So my selection comes down to Drogs and the only player left I can afford (Davies of Bolton) or put Nani in midfield which I shoulda done last week and have 11 left to spend on a striker. I prefer option 2 as I'm not as limited but you have to have Drogs versus Wolves, right?
BCB
CLEAN SHEET FACT:
If a team concede any goal during the match there will be no clean sheet point.
Example,
Terry in week 4 subbed at 82 min, conceded at 85 min.
Result + Reason: No clean sheet because it doesnt matter a player still CS when he was subbed but after that if his team concede goal then there will be no CS.
115.5 This week all thanks to this wonderful blog! Fantastic recovery from a sub par last week. Not bad for a silly american who missed the first week altogether...
Well, my experiment, I could have done passably with Drogba on bench, but not with "no show OShea" too. 65 points. Based on picking up Berbs, Nani and Ferriera versus Barton, Oshea and Drogba, I lost about 30 points. I dropped OShea and Barton anyway for Jacobsen and Nzogbia.
I ll see if the extra 4% of saved value in Drogba pays for itself next week. ( I don't think so-- Even Nani's lost 20 points would be hard to regain even over three or four weeks.) Over ten games with 4% saved value-- probably evens out.
Add......, plus Nani's value increased a couple of percent, as most will hang on to him and cut elsewhere. So I think AM was right to drop Drogba.
AM has Kirkland, Mikel, Nani and Obinna plus an extra 22.5 points tentatively for Week 9, I have Hart, Nzogbia, Carroll and Chamak to make up that difference next week. Interesting what will happen.
(Our other seven players are the same. I have .79 funds left over)
Bama in USA
AM love your blog. Kirkland adds drama. Here's why.
So I calculated the average point difference between the two sets of four players above. On paper I should break even next week, .... but ONLY if your Kirkland gets his average negative 13 points- that's a little too funny to even contemplate-- that can't happen, can it?
So your choice to drop Drogba for Nani and others to gain 22.5 points was right- as long as Kirkland gets a zero or better. LOL. (I haven't looked at the game matchups of each player or how much you have in the bank.)
93.5 points this week without Tevez or Silva. Pretty happy with that return, but a bit nervous about what to do with my team for next week. I guess time will tell. Thanks for the blog AM.
What happens if I stick with Kirkland this weekend and he lets in 2 or 3 or 4 goals against Bolton? Does his value stay at 1 or go to minus something?
And if he goes to minus something, do I get that money to spend on the rest of my team?
Has this ever happened before in YFF?
My Liverpool two cents worth: Hodgson has the rest of this month and possibly November to get Liverpool moving up the table. It's worth remembering that Everton's 3 points lifted them out of relegation and up to 11th or 12th. A couple of wins for Liverpool and suddenly there's no crisis (especially if Torres scores).
In terms of shaping a new post-Rafa, post-Hicks/Gillette team, players like Maxi, Ngog, Jovanovich, and Babel are weak and consequently the squad lacks the necessary depth. Bringing in the likes of Gervinho, Affelay, Hazard, and perhaps Bellamy would add more threat.
Of course, the biggest weak link at Liverpool is loyal but over-the-hill and slow Jamie Carragher. He's had his testimonial now. It's time to put him out to pasture. Brede Hangeland would be an excellent replacement.
Happy Monday(s), everyone...very grateful for the return of Premier League action this past weekend which included lots of excitement and intrigue.
On to the main topic on all of our minds for the coming weekend fixtures: is it worth it to spend 1/4 of my entire team budget on Didier Drogba? The rationale for biting the bullet and spending large for the Abidjan Assassin is well documented...top class striker in the league who takes set pieces, corners and PKs for this team; home fixture against woeful competition; well-rested; etc. But allow me to submit the contrarian view that your funds may be better spent elsewhere on other Chelsea players this coming weekend.
Given that Chelsea has conceded two goals the entire season (and none at home), would it not make more sense to spend big on Chelsea defenders in your backline? You could buy Cech and Terry for essentially the same price as Drogba. There is a bit of uncertainty as to which defenders will start for the Blues this weekend but you could nearly buy Terry, Ivanovic and Ferreira/Bosingwa for the same price that Drogba alone would cost you (fine, Drogba + a filler). Let's take a look at the averages of Chelsea's defensive players when the team keeps a clean sheet:
Cech - 14.66
Terry - 8.2
Cole - 12.1
Ivanovic - 14.5
Ferreira - 10
Bosingwa - N/A
As you can see, a pairing of virtually any of the players listed above would equal (or exceed) Drogba's per game scoring average of 19.5. This, of course, is only half of the calculation...you also need to factor in what players you will be able to afford in the absence of Drogba. And finally, you would also need to consider that not paying for Drogba but very well mean that you are nor forced to pick Captain Kirk as your GK.
Mind you, I'm not sure that I'll follow this philosophy myself this week (my team looks pretty similar to AM's at this point)...but it's tempting to line-up differently. I suppose the one of the biggest counterarguments to the strategy described above is that Drogba could have a 30 point day even if the game ends up 3-3 (or, God forbid, Chelsea loses) whereas the averages would only play out in favor of the defensive players if they keep a CS...a relatively safe bet in my estimation but a risk all the same.
fixed DT ;)
Nice point Doc, Drogba will probably return his average every week unlike any of those combination. Very tempting for this week though, with Drogba on the barn door who could drop a few units
Nice point Doc, Drogba will probably return his average every week unlike any of those combination. Very tempting for this week though, with Drogba on the barn door who could drop a few units
I'm considering dropping the combination of Malouda+Anelka+Holden+Konchesky and getting Drogba+Brunt+Jacobsen+A filler. The first one seems more balanced and has 2 Chelsea players instead of one, but I'm not sure I want to give up on Drogba this week.
What does everyone else think about it?
SF
69.5pts and now a red card for Samba.
Doc great food for thought
Kirk
Ivanovic Ferreira ACole
Adam FloMo VDV Nani Nasri
Obinna O'Connor
If Ferreira starts he'll probably be subbed for Bosingwa
If Ferreira starts he'll probably be subbed for Bosingwa, with Fabregas back Nasri will score zip, i'll stay far away from him if i were you.
great week for me considering the low scores and not having tevez or silva 93.5 this blog did not recommended robinson unlike the others, but i had already had him in my team. i knew the best chance for a clean sheet was going to be against a banged up sunderland. i moved up 243 spots to 459th. i got no points from oshea's last minute drop and .5 for being stupid enough to pick elmander and expect anything else. chamakh was another great pick, considering how many people were against me dropping barton for him. my switch from malouda to arshavin was a push.
robinson is out for ben foster, as i will rotate the two of them for the rest of time, unless hosting a huge team like arsenal.
i went with tevez and cesc, while keeping nani. i gained even more ground on the drogba gang, having only dropped points to drogba holders last week, when he just got his cost and my bent, jara and da costa picks got 10.5 points.
i talked myself into dropping bale, not because he only got ten, but when i saw what hutton has been doing for 7.68, i know that it is possible to get almost the same production from a player 6 dollars and change less. i also put in carr, who has a chance to get a clean sheet and gets some defensive and offensive fantasy points. i want to point out that i only have one filler, silva. i have more money, but am taking a 5.09 gamble that silva can recreate the form again.
just a quick question. why does it have to be a regular for coach of liverpool. if they want to have a chance to stamp and identity and do something different, they need to look elsewhere. i don't have any specific names, right now, but the coaches in the bundesliga and the best at bringing in young talent and innovation. italy has some great innovative coaches from the medium sized teams, that have to use younger and less famous players. i don't see too many of the regular coaching circle here in england being that innovative.
Question for fellow readers. I have Nasri at 8.19. With Fabregas returning, should I still hold on to him?
no do not keep nasri
Why Salgado didnt get clean sheet points? Does a player needs to play all 90 mins to get the points?
Salgado was subbed in the 65th min.. defenders need to play at least 75mins to get the CS
anon@3.50: salgado was subbed on 65mins and didn't get the CS points while ferreira was subbed on 76mins and he get the CS points. I read someone posted before that a DF needs to play at least 75mins to earn his CS points. correct me if I'm wrong.
cheers,
MRA
why drogba's price doesn't come down even though he didn't play last weekend? would be happy if his price adjusted to 22+.
@Anon: Prices won't come down for not playing, only by entering the pitch will you see a significant drop or rise. There are slight fluctuations depending on ownership + other player price adjustments, but a player needs to play for a price move.
If he had played for 5 mins his price would have come down.
thanks Kellz for sharing. no wonder walcott's price remain @13+.
think i'll wait and decide until after the champions league game and the injury news update. there might be injuries or players being rested after CL.
until then, my current line-up
foster
boateng, ferreira, squillaci
malouda, vdv, nani, adam, holden
tevez, obinna
+2.72
thinking of swapping..
foster --> kirkland
malouda --> drogba
squillaci/ferreira --> jacobsen
comments are welcome. thanks
I'm not sure if foster worth this week as he will be facing the best away team...i think carson is the safe bet after looking at home statistics...just my thought :)
I ended up on 92 points this week which was very pleasing considering I hadn't picked up Tevez, Nani or N'Zog. My hunch on Robinson keeping a clean sheet came up trumps as he scored 15 points last night.
rooney shockwaves- wooooooooooowwwwwww !.
once a blue, always a blue ... as he once said, but which blue ? citeh ??... as someone said on talksport this morn.
S.P.
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