North Carolina Courage v Portland Thorns FC, 13 April 2024, Olivia Moultrie and Denise O'Sullivan, et al
Well, the plan didn't work out; but the plan was fine.
As I worked through in my week 2 post -- see, these things are for me; if you get benefit from them... Bonus! -- I brought in Jayden Perry for her week five double gameweek. Only to see her immediately benched for Sam Hiatt. That was always going to be the outcome, but I wasn't aware of how fast. That's a problem with the NWSL, and other, smaller (no offense) leagues. There's just not the injury/availability infrastructure that surrounds say the Premier League, or the NFL.
But hey, once gambling makes it to the NWSL, we'll get all the updates, Rotowire posts, and odds (and ends) we can handle.
In the meantime, I wasn't even aware that Chawinga was a doubt for the Current last weekend. The first I heard of it was in this wrap-up blog from Nick Manser. I'm so glad I was ignorant. I would have needlessly stressed. I wasn't going to captain her anyway, so I guess I would have just relied on the bench, but I would have lost sleep. Stupid of me, but that's how it goes.
Oh, I guess I should say that I also learned from that Manser post that I'm top of his mini-league! So, yeah, the plan didn't work out; but the plan was fine.
What was the plan?
Second, more medium-term, is that Portland and Gotham will have two matches in gameweek 5. These can be big advantages and I always plan to attack those weeks and roster doublers. What's nice is that we have some time to prepare, though I'm not against taking a -5 (or -10) sometimes.
With that in mind, I'm looking at Portland this week.
Like I said, Perry swapped in for Dufour. And was promptly benched.
So I need to replace Perry with my one transfer this week, right?
No.
I could, sure. But I would rather improve my starting XI than my bench.
But Jeremy, you're number 2 overall and leading your mini-leagues. What do you need to improve?
You're so kind, person in my head. Let's go back to the plan.
With that in mind, I'm looking at Portland this week...
Deyna and especially Moultire, are much more attractive fantasy players. However they're also correspondingly more expensive. I would love to swap one of them in for Ally Sentnor. The Utah Royal looked a true midfielder, when I was hoping she would be played in the forward line. The Royals are playing the San Diego Wave this week. I don't think the Wave are as good as Angel City made them look. More reason to target Portland who play Angel City this week. So I want to hold Sentnor for at least one more week. I can look to make the move at a latter date.
This week, Sentnor and the Royals go to Kansas City. So, we've reached that later date. Sentnor did well in terms of fantasy points this past week with 10. But I was at that game. She drops deep, and didn't product much of anything until her late(ish) assist and some later corner kicks. I'm happy to bank those points and move her to...
No surprise here: Olivia Moultrie. Moultrie also scored ten points last week, mostly on her taking corner kicks for the Thorns, as well as a few pops at goal. She also took a penalty kick but hit the bar. There are no minus points for that, but I still thank her as Lorena is my keeper. :-)
I don't know if she was, or will remain the first-choice penalty taker after that miss. I suspect Jessie Fleming is the best option for the Thorns, but it's nice to know that Moultrie is a potential candidate.
The Thorns are home against a Courage side that isn't easy to play against, but never travels well; then on the road at Utah and Seattle against teams still trying to find themselves this season; before hosting Gotham in the second game of their double.
I'm not happy to sell Ally Sentnor, but the money works, and of course she has the worse matchup this week. I will try to buy her back at a later date. She takes some corners for Utah, and that seems to be a big advantage in the ShePlays scoring system (crosses, and chances created all rolled into one). Of course money is the issue. I keep thinking that I will get Sarah Schupansky and that I can use the savings from that elsewhere. However, my third forward right now is Gabi Portilho. So that would be a lateral move from another Gotham player with a double. Schupansky is taking corners and maybe it's an upgrade for less money, but it's hard to see myself making that trade off. I could play both in the double, yes. But that means benching one of Banda or Chawinga and, woof, I do NOT want to be making that kind of call this season! Maybe Banda shows that she can be slowed down as she was this week, but that's more a testament to Lily Reale and Gotham FC. I think. We'll see.
Ok, now I'm rambling. Moultrie for Sentnor.
Any questions? Hit me up here in the comments or on Bluesky.
