Week 9 - Player Picks

Click here for my Week 9 Player Picks over on NMA

Guys; I know many AM Blog readers are still avoiding Never Manage Alone and that's not unexpected - less than 250 people have joined the new site as "members" (which is needed to enable you to post comments) so the "reply count" to posts remains far lower than we've had here since 2009.

Lots of feedback has been posted in the chat room around the fact that you're not keen on NMA because it's too cluttered etc and I don't blame you. Personally I think the site looks far more professional; I accept the transition will take a while but the fact of the matter is it's a better platform for us, it has more features to allow readers to get involved, with the biggest benefit being the "Fan Post"/"Fan Shot" facility, which allows YOU to start your own topics for more direct interaction with a community we're all a part of. 

I will never forget the support and effort you all put in to help me create what we had here, but I hope this week will see more of you move across and help us build something just as special at NMA on SB Nation. Nobody likes change, but if you don't try to improve & progress, then you're standing still. I'm looking to the future now, and I hope you will too.

Please "like" our new Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/nevermanagealone

Please follow NMA on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/NMA_Blog

Please follow me on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/nikarg

Cheers,

AM 

Week 8 - Player Picks

And so it begins...

http://www.nevermanagealone.com/2011/10/12/2485178/ams-week-8-player-picks

Look, I know nobody likes change, but I really feel this is a positive move for us all, so I hope you enjoy my opening post of the Never Manage Alone era!

Cheers,
AM

Never Manage Alone is LIVE

That's right - after months of work www.nevermanagealone.com is finally live over on SBNation!

If you're wondering what I'm talking about then please read my post from back in August explaining the collaboration: http://yahoofantasyfootballuk.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-1-update.html

My Week 8 Player Picks will be up here and on the new site within the next 48 hours but the full transition will probably take a couple of week as we find our feet over on SBNation ... please don't forget Week 8 is Round 2 of The Blog Cup :)

Cheers,
AM

Aguero A Big Doubt For Villa

Manchester Evening News - Sergio Aguero A Big Doubt For Villa Showdown

Sergio Aguero is losing his fight to be fit for City’s clash at home to Aston Villa on Saturday.

The Blues striker has been ruled out of Argentina’s World Cup qualifier against Venezuela tomorrow night, with the adductor strain which he picked up during the 4-0 win at Blackburn last week.

Aguero joined up with the Argentina squad after picking up the injury, and was initially optimistic that he would at least be fit for this week’s game.

But the player, expected to fly back to Manchester on Wednesday, could even face a race to get fit for the Manchester derby a week on Sunday.

Damn it - I was quite confident the 14 day break would be enough, but it doesn't sound like Aguero will be risked this weekend with the Manchester derby the following week. I hold him at a £4million discount but - sitting down in in 10,000th place - I'm not sure I want to take any definite zeros, and buying him back at 10ish isn't too much of a hit when you need points now.

If I did make the decision to drop him, I might bring Dzeko in if it looks like Mancini has forgiven him, although Gervinho could be interesting if I can't stretch to Van Persie. What are your thoughts? Will you hang on to him @6 if he's only set to miss one game? Or have you already sold him? If so, who have you chosen to replace him with?

Cheers,
AM

Stats So Far

BEST XI (3-4-3)
De Gea	92
Williams	62.5
Rangel	56
Jones	54.5
Nani	83.5
Silva	82
Young	77.5
Dempsey	77.5
Rooney	135
Aguero	115
Dzeko	95.5
TOTAL	931
OTHER TOP SCORERS
Van Persie	86
Hart	77.5
Suarez	69
Vorm	68.5
Lampard	67.5
Di Santo	65
Given	65
M.Petrov	63.5
Van Der Vaart	63
Anderson	60.5
Agbonlahor	60
AVG 10+ (MIN 3 GAMES)
Rooney	22.5
Aguero	16
Dzeko	15.92
De Gea	15.33
Sturridge	15
Zamora	14.75
Adebayor	13.75
Young	12.92
Van Der Vaart	12.6
Van Persie	12.29
Nani	11.93
Silva	11.71
Lampard	11.25
Bramble	11.17
Hart	11.07
Dempsey	10.36
Ba	10

This post has been compiled without any real aim in mind, other than to see if we can draw anything from early season form. Just to get you thinking really, but do any of the these stats mean anything in terms of possible patterns?

We can see that two Swansea players are ripping shit up when it comes to defenders, and many keepers are having a great time - DDG in particular, but also Vorm, Hart & Given - which is very different to last season when most keepers struggled.

It's clear that dropping Silva or Aguero early would've been a mistake at this point, you can see defenders score far less than attacking players (der!) which seems to enforce the reason so many of us spend light on our back three. Premium midfielders are scoring well too, but strikers really are dominating the points thus far, with Rooney & Aguero ahead by miles (despite a zero each already).

Of course, we need to take "price per point" in to consideration before we can make any definitive analysis. It would be great if we had a reporting/stats systems of early values/points to see true patterns of price per point since Week 1, because player price fluctuations are so important in YFF, but we can't without some serious nerdy manual work (and I'm not sure the player values shown on the "weekly" individual player stats pages are 100% accurate anyway), so from now on we need to look to the future based on current prices.

One thing I would think is ... IF you hold DDG, Silva, Aguero, Adebayor & Rooney at their early prices of 6, 8, 6, 6 & 17 (ish) respectively, and they keep their fitness & anything close to their early form (i.e. average points), then you could have a big advantage over other managers in the next few months. But that really is a big IF, and I may be clutching at straws (because I have all four out of the five of them!) :)

Anyway, I'll be back with some more on this tomorrow, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on anything you think you've picked up on.

Cheers,

AM

Aguero Boost For Man City

Manchester Evening News - Aguero boost for Man City

"Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has revealed positive news over the groin injury he sustained against Blackburn on Saturday.

The Blues forward limped off in the first half, and with Carlos Tevez suspended by the club pending an investigation into his actions last week in the Champions League, City's striking options began to look a touch thin.

But Aguero tweeted on Monday that he had linked up with the Argentina squad and will be monitored there. Argentina face Chile on Friday in Buenos Aires before taking on Venezuela on Porto La Cruz on Tuesday."

I'm delighted at this news as I very nearly dropped him to barndoor a replacement, as I feared it could be a long term injury. I'd be surprised if he was actually risked by Argentina but the break should give him time to fully recover ready for Villa at home in Week 8.

Read more »

Week 7 - My Team

 De Gea

Boyata    Bosingwa    Brown

SWP   Ramires   Silva   Nani   

Adebayor   Aguero   Rooney

I've made a big investment in Man Utd this week with Nani & Rooney and I don't feel I've had to sacrifice too much to do so. I'd like to have had a better defender than Boyata, but he should get plenty of chances to win tackles/block shots, so I'd expect him to at least return his value again. I'm feeling a big win for Chelsea and Ramires seems to be getting forward a lot recently so once his value dropped to 8ish this morning I decided to stick with him, while Bosingwa is held at 7 so it made sense to keep him for the Bolton game. DDG, Brown, SWP, Silva, Adebayor & Aguero are all held a discount and should have decent weeks. I'm pretty happy with it overall.

Please let me know what you ended up with; and good luck!

Cheers,

AM

p.s. I'm getting increasingly pissed off with Chatroll falling over every Saturday; does anyone know of any decent alternatives that can integrate with Blogger?