As we edge closer and closer to decision day, I am becoming increasingly frustrated with my line-up and frantic in my trade ideas. I think you'll see from the roundtable - after the jump - that I've come to a conclusion, but that Neal is sensibly (and probably in my best interests) trying to talk me back from it.
But before we get to that, just a few other items of note.
1. I want to remind everyone that I'm tagging what I read using the 'fantasyepl' tag on Delicious. You can see the latest on Delicious or down the center column. Mostly it's small injury and form related news that doesn't warrant a full post (and/or will likely be covered in TWA or I&S posts) but that could be relevant for your team selection. For example:
- Warnock doubt for Villa
- Everton FC left sweating on Louis Saha’s fitness
- Jensen doubt
- Fabianski out. Mannone/Almunia?
- "Bent should be alright for the weekend"
3. My basketball site, iHoops.com is coming out of the gate. Check it out if you are interested in youth basketball in the United States or are looking for tips/drills/advice on how to play the game and play the game better anywhere in the world.
Now, on with the fun...
[09:04] JSpitzberg: getting to a bad place
[09:05] JSpitzberg: to trade or not to trade...
[09:05] Neal J Thurman: uhoh
[09:05] JSpitzberg: 2 gamer or not
[09:05] JSpitzberg: enabler on D or M...
[09:05] Neal J Thurman: lol
[09:05] JSpitzberg: way overthinking everything
[09:11] JSpitzberg: bfdb comes in to replace lennon...
[09:11] JSpitzberg: steals pts from kranc
[09:11] JSpitzberg: beast out...
[09:11] JSpitzberg: mears not a great bet any more
[09:11] JSpitzberg: keep kpb?
[09:11] JSpitzberg: good middie at good price
[09:12] JSpitzberg: yebda a good bet there?
[09:12] Neal J Thurman: yebda?
[09:12] JSpitzberg: but are they splitting pts amongst kpb, yebda (attacking mid) and ohara?
[09:12] JSpitzberg: larsson? brm don't score and citeh don't conceed too many
[09:12] JSpitzberg: but he's returning nicely
[09:13] JSpitzberg: cuellar? sidwell? for 2 games
[09:13] JSpitzberg: ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[09:13] Neal J Thurman: agreed but he seems like an up and down fantasy point producer and he's coming off of an up week and has a tough matchup
[09:13] Neal J Thurman: (or at least that's my logic)
[09:15] Neal J Thurman: KPB doesn't get most of his points on kicks - he's a no conscience shooter so they'll be SOTs and CWs so I'm not sure O'Hara and Yebda will have an impact
[09:15] Neal J Thurman: he's Mido playing in midfield
[09:15] Neal J Thurman: I'm sticking with him for the price
[09:16] JSpitzberg: ha
[09:22] JSpitzberg: think bfdb plays?
[09:22] JSpitzberg: or is that a red herring?
[09:22] JSpitzberg: jenas more likely to move right?
[09:24] Neal J Thurman: I'd suspect Jenas/Kranj/THud/Palacios arranged somehow in midfield and/or they'll find a way to deploy all of Keane/Crouch/Defoe (maybe with Keane taking the attacking M role)
[09:24] JSpitzberg: no defoe
[09:24] JSpitzberg: but i think you have the mid right
[09:24] Neal J Thurman: is he still suspended?
[09:25] JSpitzberg: 3 games
[09:25] JSpitzberg: so maybe this is the last one?
[09:26] Neal J Thurman: so last weekend, Carling Cup and this weekend?
[09:26] JSpitzberg: that would be my guess
[09:27] Neal J Thurman: yup - just verified on the FA web site - Suspension ends on Saturday (presumably after the match)
[12:11] JSpitzberg: kranc/sonk --> spet/cuellar the latest "master plan"
[12:24] JSpitzberg: maybe the whole 2 game thing isn't even worth it this week
[13:35] Neal J Thurman: that guy at TWA certainly isn't overwhelmed by the 2-gamers ;-)
[13:35] JSpitzberg: *sigh*
[13:47] JSpitzberg: but i'm not finding anyone that blows me away
[13:47] JSpitzberg: so that i don't think, "well, with 2 games maybe... "
[13:47] Neal J Thurman: yeah - not a week that is thrilling me too much
[13:48] JSpitzberg: kranc/sonk...
[13:48] JSpitzberg: what's a reasonable expectation...
[13:48] JSpitzberg: 10 pts?
[13:49] JSpitzberg: cuellar x2 should be 10pts
[13:49] JSpitzberg: then spet is bonus
[13:50] Neal J Thurman: seems like reasonable logic if you're buying Kranj at retail
[13:53] JSpitzberg: collison
[13:53] JSpitzberg: that's the ticket
[13:53] JSpitzberg: (kranc at 10.5)
[13:54] JSpitzberg: at least collison is an attacking player
[13:54] JSpitzberg: unlike spet
[13:56] Neal J Thurman: what role is Collison playing?
[13:56] Neal J Thurman: for an attacking player, he certainly doesn't get many fantasy points
[13:56] JSpitzberg: he's been injured
[13:56] JSpitzberg: total flier on my part
[13:57] JSpitzberg: typical out-smarting myself pick
[13:57] Neal J Thurman: he's played 7 matches - has he been coming off the bench?
[13:57] JSpitzberg: started the last 2 at right mid, seemingly
[13:58] JSpitzberg: The 21-year-old West Ham midfielder is still coming to terms with the untimely death of his father in August, but has shown commendable courage over recent weeks as he attempts to remain focused on his football.
[13:59] Neal J Thurman: he's averaged exactly 0 points over those two starts at right mid
[13:59] JSpitzberg: The Wales midfielder missed six weeks of West Ham's season after sustaining a calf injury, only making his return in Saturday's 2-1 Premier League defeat at Stoke.
But any injury problems were firmly overshadowed by the death of his father as he rode by motorbike to watch the 21-year-old play against Tottenham in August.
[13:59] JSpitzberg: WAY behind spet's 4 per
[13:59] Neal J Thurman: he had a decent start to the season (7, 7, 2.5 in the first 3 weeks) but nada since
[14:00] JSpitzberg: so that's 3 per match, right?
[14:00] Neal J Thurman: SPet's graph is MUCH more impressive
[14:00] JSpitzberg: no.. whu were 1 gamers ;-)
[14:01] Neal J Thurman: at least if you're comparing people at that end of the price spectrum
[14:04] JSpitzberg: goal wrongly disallowed v ars ;-)
[14:05] Neal J Thurman: which equals how many points again?
[14:05] JSpitzberg: grrr
[14:09] JSpitzberg: if only there were a larger forum in which to discuss these things...
[14:10] Neal J Thurman: lol - maybe we should start such a forum
[14:11] JSpitzberg: maybe we should utilize such a forum
not sure about Bentley at Emirates, though look what he did last year against Arsenal... I doubt 'Arry has really forgiven him yet. I know he got a run this week and did well, but I still don't think he's free of the doghouse.
ReplyDeleteThinking of bringing in O'Hara for KBoat, depending if they're both set to play, not sure about jumping off the KBoat though (jumping ship ha,ha)
Interested in an anti-double gameweek squad:
Given
Verm,G.Alex,Wilk
Lamps,Giggs,O'Hara,Bily
Drog,HRod,Berbs
that's dropping Diamanti (BD), Milner (had him last week), KBoat, Heitinga(had him for a while, but feel like he's not producing lately)
or stick with what I had before:
Given
Heitinga,Verm,G.Alex
Milner,Lamps,KBoat,Bily
Diamanti,Drogs,Agbon
I'm also pretty interesed in picking up Aquiman. Rafa said they will "slowly" introduce him and give him more and more minutes each time. I figure if he can fire off 2 SOT and get involved in 15 min of play, maybe he can manage 3 SOT if he plays for 20 min?
Thanks for this blog!
Bean
Venice Leopard Sharks
@Jeremy, do u think that Joe Cole will play this week?please..
ReplyDelete-Joe-
@ Bean - Hmm, going on from what Rafa said - if this is the case, that's not ideal for fantasy managerial purposes. His price will grow gradually without returning huge points. What you need really is for him to be brought straight in and post loads of huge scores right away so you can get him at 5.67 and all the people who missed the boat be damned!
ReplyDelete- Team News will help a bit, but my guess is that BFDB starts in place of Lennon. 2 reasons why I think this: 1. Harry was choked when Lennon pulled himself off and would welcome a chance for someone to compete for that spot. 2. Bentley had a fantastic game in Carling Cup, and I think played his way into the lineup. But I'd stay away from these two teams all together.
ReplyDelete-
Right now I have got
ReplyDeleteGiven
Verm/Heitinga/Dunne
Moko/Bily/Dunn/Larsson
Drogs/Nando/Diamanti
I may jump ship and go with Essien though. Cheslea @Bolton. Good odds I would think. At least better tham Birmingham @Citeh. Course Larsson has made his points amongst team loses.
Right now I have got
ReplyDeleteGordon
Verm/Cuellar/Sonko
O'hara/Bily/BFAY/Giggs
Drogs/RvP/Diamanti
should i swap BFAY for Milner?
•mr.Coffee•
Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your blog although I'm playing the official fantasy league game. May I ask why you're playing yahoo and not the official?
Anyway, I get a lot of useful information from your site. Last season I followed your advice too rigidly, that didn't work out ;) Now I consume all the information you are providing and recognize your thoughts, only then will I have enough wisdom to make my own decision.
Thanks for publishing the links on del.icio.us
Cheers
Oggi
hey guys,
ReplyDeletegoing for the 2 gamers this week since its always a breakout in at least one of the 2 i think :). Myhill in goal, will save many.... verm,cuellar,dunne
boateng,milner,giggs,sidwell, drogba,gabby,rooney
what do you think?
Cheers
Vincent
I could have picked Lamps up before his price hike but I was still sceptical of his performance. Fabregas is definitely a much better buy, despite playing Spurs this week. He always gave me at least 10 pts a week. If he was taking the kicks he would get alot more pts.
ReplyDeleteMyhill
Verm Heitinga Sonko
Fabregas Essien BFAY Sidwell
HRod Drogs Diamanti
Any thoughts on my team above?
ReplyDeleteI've loaded up on 2 gamers but I still don't know whether to get rid of Bily yet. I can have Yayga and Bily or Diamanti and Jordi Gomez. I know the latter makes more sense but it's hard to get rid of Bily at 4.77. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteWho's Yayga? Jordi Gomez is a 50-50 so I would try to stay away. O'Hara would be a better bet against Wigan. He's taking kicks and a good crosser as well. I'm still waiting for the news on Bily.
I'm considering dropping Essien, who I got for cheaper, and might not score more than 10 pts to upgrade Myhill to Friedel. Any thoughts?
i think u just keep bily for now..i also have him..we see how his performance this week..and mayb until next week..if the performance is not so good, so we get rid of him..
ReplyDeleteMerv, i think your team is good enough..just, will heitinga play this week?
~Joe Labu~
@Merv
ReplyDeleteYayga=Rodallega
I can't take risks as I don't want to lose my first placing in my group. I'll just wait for the news. I think Heitinga should be playing.
ReplyDeleteSkySports has Heitinga starting but not Bily.
ReplyDeletehaaa...Bily not play again this week?aiya...
ReplyDeletemyhill injured?
ReplyDeleteMan, this gets harder every week! My only stalwarts are Verm, Drogs and Heit. The rest is continually up for grabs....it's not good for my sanity.
ReplyDeleteThis week I am torn over the inclusion of KPB or O'Hara or both of them!
Have decided to load up with Villa given the double match-up and also their run of games to come - shipping out Given, Wilko, Kights, Lamps and Bent for Brad (F), Dunne, Milner, SPet and Gabby.
We shall see, but I have faith in the two game theory this time - despite them both being away.
You guys do a great job on the blog. It can't be easy with regular jobs, iHoops, World Series going on etc! Keep it up.
Oggi
ReplyDeleteMy question is why are you only playing the official game? There is less flexibility and work to do.
I have Shawcross and Wilkinson at a discount. Hoping they can get that clean sheet. I have feeling about Michael Turner this week. Last time I had him, he scored a goal. I feel he's due.
Someone make this decision for me, Rodallega at 11ish (good long term) or Agbonlahor (double game)... whoever I dont pick will have a massive week, guess agbonlahor is safer.
ReplyDeleteI dropped Essien to Mok and upgraded Myhill to Friedel. Hope it pays off as I haven't had too much luck with my keepers, in fact no luck at all. This week I will be looking to end the streak. Come on Big Bad Brad!
ReplyDeleteGabby will burn everyone this week. Mark my words. I think Roddy would be better and there will be goals in that game.
ReplyDeleteVilla are not at their best goalscoring form so the only Villa players worth the risk are BFAY, Milner, Sidwell (cheap and might pop up with an odd goal), Friedel.
I've got Green! Surprise. I know it'll be good. I'm a genius
ReplyDelete