Week 12 - My Team

Schwarzer

Vermaelen  Heitinga  Alexander

Dunn  Bullard  Duff  Dempsey  Geovanni

Zamora  Drogba

Despite being burnt by going with Friedel in the last double week, I still went for Schwarzer, grabbing him at just under £9m on the barndoor. I may have gone for Myhill had he been confirmed as fit, but the doubt means the only other option was Robinson & Blackburn (2 away games) have only won once away from home in 8 months. No thanks!

In defence I decided to hang on to Vermaelen & Alexander. Dropping them for 1 double-week would've been crazy after all the good they've done for me. I hope people have dropped Verm as he's due a goal & as I said to some of the guys on the chatroom last night, I've never seen a defender so natural in front of goal! Alexander is held at £5.7m playing at home, in midfield & always has a chance of a penalty. Heitinga was never my first choice but I preferred him over Nelsen & Givet. I would've loved a Fulham defender but they all ended up out of my price range.

In midfield I'll have a familiar line-up to many of you with the 4 DGers: Dunn (always does well for me), Bullard, Dempsey & Duff. Duff may not play both games, but he'll get at least 90 mins (probably at home to Blackburn) & at £10m he's good value in a home game.

My final spot is a gamble...Geovanni. He may not even play from the start vs West Ham, but if he does he takes penalties, takes free kicks (although he'll now share them with Bullard) & is capable of that little bit of magic, so he could pay off. He could also flop of course, but I preferred him to Roberts due to the 2 home games. However, I may regret choosing him ahead of Eduardo. I'll mentioned I was sad to lose O'Hara as I had him at £2.5m discount, but I'd be happy to pick him up again at around £7m-£8 once his run of fixtures improves.

Finally, up front I decided to hang on to Drogba & get Zamora in. BobbyZ is in great form & was a no brainer at under £8m. Drogba is only due to miss one game & then has upto 8 games before he's off to the African Nations...that's almost quarter of the season, so in my opinion it would be crazy to drop him at 10.66 just because he's missing one week. One big reason O'Hara had to go was because I was keeping Drogs, meaning I needed a double gamer to make up for him missing a game.

So that's it, 3-5-2, 8 double gamers (4 Fulham, 2 Hull, 1 Blackburn, 1 Everton) with Vermaelen, Alexander & Drogba filling the final 3 spots. Hopefully it'll be enough to get through Blog Cup Round 2!

I imagine people will have very similar teams this week - I'd be interested to hear your teams & find out who you're thinking of picking up on the barndoor? For me it'll be Man City & Man Utd players...

Cheers,
AM