Week 34 - My Team
Schwarzer
Wilson Hughes Luiz
O'Hara Pennant Dempsey Etherington
Suarez Sturridge Zamora
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Good luck all!
About Me
- Assistant Manager
- Welcome! I'm Nik Argiropoulos, a 28 year old Tottenham fan from Woking, Surrey, UK. I've finished in Yahoo Fantasy Football's Top 500 every season since I started playing the game 7 years ago, with a highest finish of 60th, so I'm hoping this blog will offer some useful advice to my fellow managers.
**AM CHAT ROOM**
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Previous Posts
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2011
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April
(19)
- Week 35 - My Team
- No Update...
- Week 35 - Player Picks
- Spurs, Harry & Week 34 So Far
- Week 34 - My Team
- Week 34 - Update
- Week 34 - Player Picks
- The Blog Cup - Final Results
- Bale Wins PFA Player of the Year
- Week 33 - My Team
- Week 33 - Update
- Week 33 - Player Picks
- Week 32 - Summary
- Week 32 - My Team
- Week 32 - Update
- Week 32 - Player Picks
- Week 31 - How Did You Do?
- Week 31 - My Team
- Week 31 - Update
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April
(19)
81 comments:
wow, we have very similar teams, therefore i hope you do very well, this week ;)
Schwarzer
Luiz Wilson Salcido
Dempsey Etherington Pennant Jarvis
Sturridge Suárez Zamora
Here's hoping this DG week goes better than the last one. Good luck everybody.
are you copying me nik? :P
Schwarzer
Wilson Hughes Luiz
O'Hara Pennant Dempsey Etherington Jarvis
Suarez Sturridge
Szczesny
Luiz Huth Wilson
VdV Ohara Jarvis Etherington
VanPersie Suarez Zamora
ben foster
luiz, stearman, wilson
van der vaart, pennant, petrov, jarvis
van persie, suarez, elmander
i am hoping for another brace for van der vaart
My team>>>>
Schwarzer
smalling-Luiz-Wilson
VdV-Malouda-Dempsey-Pennant-O'Hara
Sturridge-Zamora
damm you smalling on the bench
Al
Bloody Zamora on the bench, apparently after a "knock in training". Um, when I played grade Rugby, getting a "knock in training" was a bloody requirement. Now come on Zamora, go take a shower, wash off that "I'm a woose" smell and splash a little "Harden The F Up" behind the ears and get out there.
At least every DG keeper didn't get clean sheets!
Hat-trick for Maxi?! WTF! 1.82% of YFF players are quite happy...
I'm still not going to BD him ... there is no way he can repeat that again!
@Spanner - Yes, bloody Zamora. Zamora has no fear of Wolves, according to their manager? Yeah, right! You baby...
Maxi I agree won't repeat that starting to doubt the value of dg ing on lower value players we all had a disaster with it a few weeks back!
Kendo
shit scores al round good old suarez a points machine
Begovic, Wilson and Hangleand land me in foul mood!
@Greginho - what are you going to do about Foster if his injury keeps him out next week - I've got him at 6 too and am leaning towards gettting shot of him with 4 games left
@mm - yes, Suárez basically saved me, scoring nearly 50% of my points so far.
Dempsey + Zamora + Schwartzer = only 4.5 pts.
@kendo - Yes, it's looking bad, but I still went up about 70 places even with a bad score. So, it's really relative, since a lot of people went for DGers.
I have told ya about the clean sheet things...:)
Maybe the 'experts' should refrain from saying you MUST have as many DGers as possible if you want to do well at FF.
And maybe you should wait until the end of the 2nd game before deciding it was a mistake? Fulham & Stoke's easy game is their 2nd game, the home games, the 30+ points picked up today are a bonus.
Ian, by 'experts' are you referring to Nick? Because he always says it, and 99% of the time since i started reading he's been right
Bottomline, its always good to have a couple single gamers with a strong matchup in case your Double Gamers fail. Just look at Suarez, Luiz, Lampard today.
Hi Ian Sanderson, I'm on 84 poins for the week which has moved me up to 39th place....Do you consider the teams on the top 50 leaderboard as being experts?
I have 8 Double Gamers, they can and do work.
Schwarzer
Luiz Salcido Shawcross
Etherington Pennant Lampard O'Hara
Zamora Dembélé Suárez
well, for the dg'ers there is always hope in the second game, after today's f#*!!ing disaster. Dumped Lamps and Luiz for Zamora Dempsey and Salcido. If Zamora doesn't get a goal midweek I'll, never mind, can't say what I am thinking, what a wuss. I still have hopes for something from RVP tomorrow, @45.5 now. And thank god for Suarez who I have @7.
So Maxi outscores my whole team. Such is life.
And has anyone noticed that Yahoo hasn't yet listed the kids Flanagan and Robinson who started for Pool today. Wanted to pick up Flanagan on the D=BD figuring he's be about 2 but he wasn't there
I am merely stating it is wrong to say you MUST squeeze in as many DGers as possible and saying you WILL get more points doing this.
I agree that most of the time it is the best thing to do but when there are good SGers with good match ups there's a possibility they'll outperform the mediocre DG picks.
They may not, but don't think anyone, no matter who they are, should say one option is 100% definately better than the other.
@Mikkel - I don't think Nic wouldsay he was right 99% of the time, maybe 97%.
Lamps and Luiz saved my bacon, and here's hoping for a decent 2nd game. Sitting on 45 at the moment, and pretty sure I will be getting taunts from the rest of the group I'm in...
Opinion:
I listened to (all) who were kind enough to take the time and post what they considered information nesessary for success in this "game" we play.
I decided to take a chance and go nearly all single gamers.
My double gamers are: Wilson/Robinson/O'Hara/Walters.
I am at 77.50 points so far.
Please tell me....since I have little to look forward to in the second round of this weeks games, was it the right move?
Guess what, you still don't know!
How do you have a discussion on right/wrong while the game is still being played?
I am not sure about anyone else but, I was only able to pick my own team. Not quite sure how Nik was able to pick teams other then his own??
An Easter Miracle?
@Ken... correct me if I am wrong but 4/11 DGers is about 37% DGers... I wouldn't even call that arrangement even close to 'nearly all' SGers.
Whether or not you or anyone else thinks you made the right or wrong decision it comes down to the fact double gamers have 2 chances to score. It just makes sense to load up on players with 2 potential opportunites than single game players. Its great you have 77 pts so far. But its extremely probably that the next round of games will see your score beaten by those who picked more double gamers. And your right, only you can pick your team and there are many strategies to excell at this game. But I think you'll see my and most of the readers inclding AM view of loading up on double gamers is in fact the best thing to do in this situation.
Good luck!
Carlo is apparently planning on starting Torres with Drogs next game.
http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~2345554,00.html
Backcountry Dave
birty i will wait to see if foster is injured, i have 7.01 to spend on foster's spot if needed
And Flanagan wont come in low, he's had a couple cs already.
I had 6dgers, which i considered too much because of the match-ups. Even if the 'experts' have an insight on all the players that'll score on a given weekend, i still wouldn't follow them 100% as i watch a lot of games and still pick some players i believe will do well. Stop the blame game, take in the advice and follow your guts.
Suarez also outscored my 6 dgers put together
MAXI is killing me......
I dropped Lampard instead of RvP so I'm praying that he gets at least a brace tomorrow!!
56 with 8 players to go, how bad is that?
DG sucks, too good to be true..
Sorry, I was tired when I posted my last post..
Think my meaning was lost.
I agree that loading up on ALL double gamers IS the best move, by far...
I am a slow learner and just wanted to try and "buck" the system. I still feel the best I can do is "hold serve" over the others in my league and most likely took a big risk and will make zero moves.
Not very smart but I am easily tempted!
As far as me saying I had mostly all single gamers when I actually had 37% double gamers. I listed my double gamers to show that they were mostly fillers as I spent all funds on big gun single gamers. Even took a zero from B-Pool goal tender used as another filler. Wasn't bragging about score, Just lucky to not fall out of the running.
Sorry, looks as if this post is still not getting it done..
Summary: I believe the risk outways the reward.
Happy Easter
sunderland never has more than one good game in a row, so i was going to avoid barndooring them, even with the good matchup. this is question for people that know sunderland better than me, does jordan henderson become more valuable without gyan or with?
Anyone know where the Liverpool Kids are? No sight of Flanagan or Robinson on Yahoo...
yahoo is lame. Sessegnon arrived in January and he's still not in the game.
On the official Fantasy Premier League Zamora got an assist any chance that Yahoo will give him the assist as he has not got it yet.
why would you play elmander in the midfield when you have lee a natural midfielder? Dumb, so he sits on the bench
While your blog is the best for this game by far, the only issue that I have is that you reveal your team during the week, which 'lazy' players are copying and then score big points every week without much effort. It would be much better if you posted your team 5 minutes after the deadline so that those lazy players could actually start playing the game and pick their own teams. Other than that, great blog.
That was a Cahill goal i believe
Nik i think you should stop revealing your team, as a gambler i'll never copy your team as i believe the good luck is always with me.
Will Yahoo credit that goal to Cahill or Sturridge??? I really need some fucking points from Sturridge today!!
@All Anonymous: Who cares if he reveals his team? Not only do all of us reveal our teams in the comments sections, but if you come to the chatroom thursday or friday night before the deadline, everyone is trading team selection. Its inevitable if teams become similar, but they are similar with the same thought that those are the most likely players to score pts. I come up with a pretty similar team to AM a lot of the time without knowing his team before hand. Why is AM's team some how more special than others?
yup...i like kellz's comment....thumb up...
the host of this site doesnt really give a fuck anymore does he ????
62 points so far with 8 DGers to play, horrible score, this weekend has made me think twice about DG weeks with the so-called "weaker" teams in future. At one point earlier in the week had Hernandez and Lampard in my team and dropped them both for DG players, thats close to 50 points right there pissed away on crappy players.
I could still turn it around in the next few days, but my observations are - the importance of getting in DG players reduces as the quality of the teams playing twice decreases - i.e. when the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal etc. are playing twice then load up on their players, as they are more likely to score and keep clean sheets. The lower table teams score less, concede more, and are far more unpredictable, and therefore a good mix of these players with good match-up single players would be better.
Going for 8 DGers this week has not only failed so far this week, it has led me to throw away good players at discount who would prove useful in the end of season run-in.
@ the poster hiding behind the name "mmmm"
i think nik has made plenty of mistakes as he learns the blogging trade and is occasionally overprotected by some of the posters on here when he does give advice that does not work out, but to say he "doesn't give a fuck anymore" is the most unbelievable comment i've read since i started visiting here at the end of last season
the guy researches and writes for hours each and every week for no money, he's taken a holiday for a few days, i actually respect him for taking some out to spend a few days off with friends/family etc, it's a fucking fantasy football for god's sake
anyway, in summary "mmmm" you are cretin, the lowest form of pond scum and i wouldnt piss on you if you were on fire. cunt off
happy easter
big dave LTFC (long time reader, first time commenter, luton town till i die)
Would everyone just chill? No need to get pissed at anyone, especially Nik. The DG fixtures aren't even done, its pointless to argue or point fingers. Yes, I'm starting to agree that picking DG players for "weaker" teams is a bad idea, but the fact of the matter is that statistically, they have a better chance for scoring more points. If you are unhappy with your points, there is no one to blame but yourself.
So far, I have 68 points with 9 DG players to go. It can still be a good week with anything possible.
Cheers,
Chad
i think people need to remember that AM doesnt actually have a time machine to see futures he uses his intuition to try to help us all with who he thinks may score good points and the best strategy to give yourself a good chance like picking 2 games instead of 1!!!!
if he did know EXACTLY who would do well i imagine he would take up betting instead as he could make some dollars prediciting outcomes!!!!!
Actually I LOVE that Nil exposes his team during the week. I know next to bugger all about football, but I have learned a lot this season purely by reading his picks. I'm an Aussie in the US, and all my mates locally are from the UK. We get together at the local for beers and a game, and at a mate's place to watch. We have our own FF group, and I can honestly say without Nik's blog I would be lost. You have no idea Nik how much being able to learn from your efforts has made me able to at least inelegantly converse with my mates about, what has become for me, a shared passion. To those that say that Nik shouldn't publish his picks/thoughts till later in the week, may I humbly suggest you perhaps don't read it until later in the week? :)
spanner: no problem with him giving picks, just not his exact team b4 deadline ;)
@Anon 10:08 - Yeah, to be fair, I mostly focus on all the stuff other than his team, as usually I have had steeply discounted players I didn't want to part with and mostly work from his list of players and analysis. Still, bloody brilliant stuff, and since we aren't playing for cattle stations :) I certainly am not put out if some of the analysis doesn't pan out. Certainly better by a country mile than the Fantasist on yahoo Eurosport.
guys i think this idea about avoiding the weaker teams, especially on double weeks is bullshit, kellz seems to be the one carrying this argument.
all i can say is that adam plays for blackpool a team at or near the bottom and he has saved many of us during the double weeks. not to mention players like etherington, it has nothing to do with the teams, just pick the right player. hoilett, pedersen, nelsen, parker, barton, bridge, clevely, pennant has gone off and they are from weaker teams. last week AM picked gardner and phillips from birm. if he had picked larrson and jerome he would have had 50 points instead of 8.5.
how many people last week made out by doubling up on cech and chelsea defenders. they got probably the same amount of points as people with schwarzer and fulham def. will get. last week everyone including the illustrious AM picked torres and he got diddly. the biggest issue with the top teams is rotation. how many times have you all picked a player on a big team and they only start one and substitute the other? why is that better?
Preliminary team for next week.
Hart
Kompany/ Koscielny/ Shorey <Not liking Shorey but, needs must
Silva/ Valencia/ Yaya/ Merieles
Suarez/ Tevez/ Balotelli
Hi guys, wow some heated stuff, have you had too much sun/drink? (I have!) :)
Everyone has at least one good point except the guy who slagged me off for "not giving a fuck". Silly boy!
Anyway I understand the doubts about the weaker DGers; Stoke, Fulham & Bolton are not in the same bracket as Man U, Arsenal & Chelsea, but "62 points with 8 Dgers to go, horrible"? Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that sound OK seeing as the preferred DGers still have a nice home game to go? In a single week if you had 62 points with 8 players to go you'd be laughing! Going with 7-9 DGers guarantees you 100 points minimum and no other strategy can achieve that. That's why the overall Top 10 do it!
Personally, I'm on 59 points with 9 DGers to go, back to 100th overall - we won't know what's really going on until the double week is over, so I'm neither crying nor celebrating just yet - neither should you.
On the subject of my team, some great feedback, thanks! Last season I never used to reveal my exact XI until 12:01 on deadline day, but this year I thought people may find it useful to see how things were shaping up/my thought process in the days leading up to it. I normally change a few things on the Friday night so most times it's a work in progress, but I agree on the occasions I know I literally wont be able to change my team (like this week) it may be better to keep it off my posts. Otherwise I'll keep doing what I'm doing.
Cheers all...sorry I wasn't about much over the past few days but I'm back as usual this week.
Good luck!
Nik
@ greginho: what the Fuck are you on about mate? I am carrying what kind of argument? I have 7 double gamers and only kept lampard luiz because of their obviously good match up, suarez because he's suarez and kolarov because of discount and on free kicks. So where have I said its a bad idea to load up on double gamers because they are from weaker sides? I think your very confused mate. Don't start lies about people with no basis.
Hang on... aren't the weaker DGers the equivalent of walking into a party and being universally recognised as "Captain Awesomepants" ???
1. They are cheap so you can load the F up.
2. They are cheap so you can hang onto discounts/good SGers
3. Umm... they play twice.
One aspect of the DGers I haven't seen addressed is; after the DG week is over, how can you reconstitute a good team for 100?
I currently own vP, vdV, Suarez, and Nani (over 100 right there) with Hernandez, Luiz, Ivanovic etc.
No way you can build a team like that for the run out after loading up on trash.
no kellz you were the one telling everyone that loading up on double gamers from weakers teams is not good. that you should do it on the stronger teams, that is your exact words. i am just pointing out that, both, weaker and stronger teams can be fruitful if picking the right player. that is all.
Really exact words? Please tell me when and where I said this and please note I myself loaded double gamers. So why would I say not to get players who play twice. Ask anyone in the chat room regulars I never told people to stay away from this double week. Greg sometimes your head is so far up our own ass I am worried you'll suffocate.
If you screwed up, don't blame others. Anyone can state their opinions, but at the end of the day its you, yourself, who decides.
AM, Kellz, and who's next, people like you kill this blog.
A reminder for greg, this is just a game anyway, you don't need to be overly excited, if you screwed because of other people's opinions, then stop reading and pick your own players yourself with your own guts. For the fact that you picked double gamers based on opinions, means you do not have any confidence in your own players. And who to blame? yourself for not having enough guts and only following the crowd.
Cheers,
DZ
I think people have missed the point a tad. DGers are gold. That's pretty simple. But to expand, DGers from "the big four" are (in my humble opinion) more dangerous than the lower teams. Allow me to explain. The Big Four have lotsa guns to fire. This week's darling may take a powder next week or be focused on silver in Europe. The lower clubs, not so much. They'll play their "stars", ringing them like sponges, so hence greater likelihood of play. (Case in point: Torres v Drogba... both great, but who's going to start? Berbatov? Will he start for ManU ?? But for a lesser team, are their top players going to play? You bet unless they are seriously injured). Hence DGers with the lower teams are actually a good thing in my opinion, and even better if they have matchups that suit.
Like Hans said, DG is a lottery. You will win a lot of points or vice versa. To me, i always prefer at least more than 6 DGers in my team.
Well i thought i am having a bad week but after i think about this again, quite okay actually with 51.5 pts + Kola to go plus 8 Dgers to go. But dropped 22 places to 101 overall :( :D
DeviLxDeviL
The two jokers are farting again in public.
These 2 will never learn. But on the hindsight, they are entertainers.
Nik, you got 2 real gems, available free, to entertain you regular readers.
C****khoor
Nic,
You're at it again, lol.
Are you sure the statement you have made is correct...
"Going with 7-9 DGers guarantees you 100 points minimum"
A guy in my private league issitting on 143.5 points without any DGers, this is one reason why I am trying to politely give some constructive criticism about the wording you used ie "you MUST load up on SGers.
For the record, I use my own judgement when picking my team.
All the best.
Guys, Nik is in the top 100, so one has to respect his views, he walks the talk. And ultimately, as has been pointed out so many times, our own final team selection is up to each of us - I do well or badly according to my own choices. Some weeks my team is similar to Nik;s and others it is not.
Blaming Nik in any week that he is not spot-on does not make any sense - in fact he is a brave man to even share all that he does as inevitably he will receive a certain percentage of negative comments. Thanks for this blog Nik, it enriches my own thinking on my weekly team selection :-)
Phil, South Africa
Ian - I'm aware that it's possible to score 150 points by just using SGers if you have an absolutely amazing week, as your mate in your private league has done, but I'm also aware that you can score just 50-60 points in a week with SGers if it goes wrong, as has happened to me and everyone else on here plenty of times!
My point was, I've never scored below 100 points when loading up on DGers, ever, in 8 years of playing the game, which is why I said it's the only strategy that guarantees over 100 points even if you have a poor week with those DGers. Picking SGers doesn't guarantee it, does it? I've also seen weekly scores of 200+ with DGers, and that can't be done with SGers.
That's why I always say you must load up with 7+ DGers, and I will continue to say it every time, as it's my opinion that this will bring readers the best success over a season. But I understand what you're saying and appreciated you'll use your own judgement mate, cheers!
would like to know....how many times someone has scored 150+ in SG over 35 rounds.
C****khoor
You cannot GUARANTEE a team will score 100+ points with 7+ DGers, that is all I'm saying.
There were many teams a few weeks ago that scored less than 100 with 7+ DGers which proves that.
NB I mentioned the player's score in my private league to show that it was wrong to say you MUST load up with double-gamers.
anyone who can't score 100 points with 7dgers must be really bad at picking dgers!!!
Yep, I agree.
I picked 11 players from DG teams last week and scored 86.5. So it isn't guaranteed that you'll score 100, but you have to be very bad at picking them, as I was. Typical of my season, really.
So as with any week, you need to pick DGers who actually play, and who are reasonable to good fantasy performers.
But the fact that my pitiful 86.5 DG score isn't a really terrible score in a single game week demonstrates that Nik is right and I don't see how you can argue against DGers really, although clearly a few SGers can pay off too.
It isn't a guarantee that selecting DG will score points but it is the most LOGICAL thing to do unless you have a long term strategy to keep certain players. There a 4 weeks left, you must be a brave person not to select them. BTW, if you have selected Kenwyne Jones and Pennant this week you would be sitting pretty right now.
So out of 4 teams there were 2 worthwhile DG picks.
126.5, with 4 out of the 5 most expensive players and no DGers. Whew, glad I didn't trade those guys for bottom feeders. Shite times two is still shite, just more of it. They're just as likely to get negative points twice.
Okay, so Nik's team with 9 DGers and only 2 SGers made 85.5. Only 55.5 w/o the SGers and 39 of that from 2 players, the rest were total crap. Well under the 100 point week "guarantee".
Nothing personal against Nik, I love the guy and fully appreciate his work.
But obviously this theory of picking DGers from shite teams who play against each other is absolute nonsense. Sorry to have to point this out.
Nic.. i am not 268 points a head in my private league.. and i owe most it to your insight for the last couple of years...
i don't always agree with you on picks.. but that ok.. you are not supposed to pick my teams.. thats my job..
i don't really like to load up on DG.. i had 4, huth, demp, begovic & kjones.. they got my 78.. out of my 152 (only smalling did not get in the game :(
if i can squeeze a few dg'rs i will.. but i had too many guys at discounts.. suarez, adams, VDV, Koralov & Mierles..
keep up the great work.. thanks for taking time of yourself to do this..
skip from texas :)
well i don't know bout others but i got 179.50pts from the following team:
shwarzer
kola/hangeland/luiz
dempsey/pennant/malouda/ohara
suarez/sturridge/walters
thanx Nik and keep on the good work
-Kayoti FC
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