The Week Ahead

Well, Jeremy stole a little bit of my thunder with his post on what to do about O'Hara/Rooney for this weekend. The fact that he points out some excellent options in midfield and at forward combined with the fact that work has been very busy this week is going to lead me down the path of writing my first Lightning Round TWA column of the season...

So here we go, Larry King-style (from his column in The USA Today for those not familiar)

Great comeback from the USMNT to win their qualifying group last night here in DC...All of our thoughts and prayers here at blog central for US Forward Charlie Davies who was in a terrible car accident on Tuesday night - we hope he heals and if footie remains a possibility, all the better...



Schedule...Arsenal, Spurs, Everton, ManYoo with very good match-ups; Liverpool, Blackburn, Citeh, and Fulham with decent match-ups; Stoke and West Ham is hard to figure and the rest are going to have a hard time with their assignments.

Forwards...Drogs, RvP, Rooney (I'm sticking with him 'cause ManYoo need the points but I'd take RvP over him for this week if you are buying at market value), Diamante (see Jer's post), Saha, K2, Bellamy, and Di Santo if you need someone really cheap with a great match-up.

Midfielders...Cesc, Arshavin, Giggs (although he seems a bit too pricey), BFAR (that's Big Fat Andy Reid since we haven't used that nickname much this year), Lennon, Kranjcar, Cahill, KPB (Kevin Prince Boetang), Dunn, Bily

Defenders...I'm sticking with the Verm, SeaBass, Heitinga grouping (and I don't see any reason to change this up until new guys potentially arrive in January based on cost benefit).  For those buying new, Heitinga and SeaBass are still reasonably priced.  Other options include Zabaleta, O'Shea (but as always, read the injury reports to sort out who ManYoo is likely to deploy at the back), Distin, Bridge, Skrtel (seems like he will be part of the preferred pairing for Liverpool regardless of where Agger is in this process), and Givet if you need a strong bet on a cheap defender.

Keepers...Mannone if you're spending (depending on Alumnia's health and whether Wenger is inclined to give the spot back to him even if he is healthy - not sure why he would), Given if you aren't spending, and Gordon over Robbo if you're bargain basement shopping.