Gameweek 19 – The 2010 Winners and Losers

There is only one topic of conversation likely to be at the Christmas table this year, who are the “It’s all about the bonus points” fantasy premier league winners and losers?

The Winners

Charlie Adam – Originally I was going to put Blackpool in here but looking purely at fantasy premier league it has got to be one man – Charlie Adam.  The big Scottish playmaker has over 13% of all of Blackpool’s fantasy premier league points this season.  With 3 goals, 4 assists and a monumental 22 bonus points, this is the man who runs the show at Bloomfield Road.  At £5.5 million and with a run of double gameweeks coming thick and fast in 2011, Adam has got to be for next year too.

Van der Vaart – Just as Adam runs the show at Bloomfield Road, Van Der Vaart is bossing it at the Lane.  He is leading the way this season with 6.9 points / game a total only equalled by Nani.  Especially at home, the chubby Dutchman clearly is a class act and most importantly for fantasy premier league – he’s efficient.

Andy Carroll – Who called Andy Carroll at the beginning of the season?  Carroll is leading the fantasy premier league standings with 104 points.  Just as you think his run is going to end, he keeps going.  Even when Alan Pardew was put in charge.  At 54% he is selected by over 1/2 of the fantasy premier league teams.  The big Geordie brut not only offers goals but his understanding with Joey Barton has brought 6 assists so far this season.

The Bolton Strike Force – it wouldn’t be fair to do a season review without a shout out for Johan Elmander and Kevin Davies.  Both are sitting in the top 6 forwards in fantasy premier league, with 14 goals between.  Earlier in the season I asked big Kevin, who I should put into Team Alpha; Johan Elmander or him – you can see his response here.  Unfortunately I didn’t listen to Kev and shoved in Berbatov instead, who didn’t play, whilst Elmander got 2 goals.  There’s a lesson there.  Always listen to Kevin Davies.

The Losers

The Galactico’s – Lampard, Cesc, Gerrard.  There was a time when fantasy premier league was relatively easy.  You fill your team up with as many galactico midfielders as you can and away you go.  Big points guaranteed every gameweek.  This season is a bit different – as at the 1/2 way point not 1 of the big boys in the middle has yet to do it regularly.

James Milner – Milner was one of the stars of the show of in 2009/2010 with 7 goals, 12 assists and a whopping 35 bonus points.  With a big move to Man City, he was one to watch this season, but things haven’t really taken off have they.  With Mancini’s insistence on playing 3 holding midfielders things aren’t looking great for Milner – deeply disappointing.

Liverpool – It hasn’t happened yet this season for Woy at Liverpool.  At both ends of the pitch there is very little on offer for fantasy premier league.  At the back, (although decent with 6 clean sheets) they are not the force they were, in the middle Gerrard is leading the way with 57 points this season, despite being out for the past 4 games and up front Torres has less points than Frederic Piquionne.

 

 

Gameweek 18 – The Odd One Out

Do you dare to be different?

At this stage of the season, fantasy premier league can get boring.  There are a few players that are in almost everyone’s team;

Joe Hart – 32% (teams selected by)

Ashley Cole – 33%

Gareth Bale – 56%

Nani – 42%

Andy Carroll – 52%

Yawn.  But what do you do?  Go with the crowd or dare to be different? Adam Glekin on twitter wrote:

“I’d like to read about the wisdom of deliberately not picking the most popular players and trying to be different“

1.  Sort your team out – the key is being happy with your team.  There is no point picking Tal Ben Haim or Jason Roberts just because no one else has got them.  If you are getting decent fantasy premier league points each week then don’t worry about everyone else having the same core performers as you.  It is outside of of this core where you can make the difference.

2.  The “differentials” – once you’ve got your core sorted this is where you can mix it up.  Who are the unfashionable players that are picking up points and have a decent points / game ratio.  They might be set pieces takers, have a double gameweek coming up or even have an easy run of games.

The most important thing is getting the balance right between the core performers that everyone has and a few random players who can make the difference and move you up the league.

So who are these players that can make a difference?  Last season we had Jamie O’hara and Stephen Hunt.  The year before Chris Brunt.  This year … well if I said they wouldn’t be different would they.

Gameweek 17 – The Academy

Patrice Evra branded Arsenal football club an academy yesterday,

“For me, Arsenal is a football training centre,” he told Canal+. “You watch the match, you enjoy it, but are you going to win a title afterwards? That’s what people remember.

“It has been five years since they won anything and, for a big club like Arsenal, that is a crisis.

“We can lose against them on the 13th but, at the end of the day, what is there (for Arsenal)? There is nothing. There are no trophies, there is nothing.”

So which players have graduated from the Arsenal academy and who needs to back to school?

Samir Nasri – Top of the class
Samir Nasri’s numbers speak for themselves. 8 goals, 1 assist and 14 bonus points. He has now equalled the number of goals he scored in his previous two seasons and at 6.3 points / game is arguably the most in form player in the Premiership.  1st class with honours. 

Laurent Koscienly – Detention
As Nasri’s numbers are impressive Koscienly’s are woeful.  Laurent is averaging a whopping 1.6 points / game.  For a defender playing for the team (currently) top of the premier league this is pretty incredible.  If we break these down he has; 1 clean sheet, 1 goal, 3 yellow cards, 2 red cards and a points / game ratio lower than Tal Ben Haim and Danny Gabbidon.  He is so far off the pace, if he’d be going any slower he’d be going backwards.  Lunchtime detention.

Jack Wilshire – Future star
Jack ‘s stats are solid if not spectactular so far this season; 1 goal, 2 assists, 4 bonus points, averaging 2.5 points / game.  Although decent you could expect more from an Arsenal centre midfielder with his talent.  Not to sound like Simon Cowell, “having said that” for an 18 year old in his debut fantasy premier league season, these stats are impressive and you could do a lot worst at £4.9 million.  1 gold star. 

So have Arsenal graduated?  We’ll have to wait for Monday night to find out.

Gameweek 16: The Snow

Snow is rubbish.  It is wet, it is cold, it adds an hour onto your journey into work and worst of all can ruin your fantasy premier league game week.

I honestly don’t see anything positive about.  I mean even snow balls.  If you were walking past a muddy field, would a farmer just pick up a ball of mud and throw it at you?  No – then don’t throw a snow ball.

To date in gameweek 16 only Blackpool vs. Man United is called off.  Now that was inevitable wasn’t it, especially following Ian Holloway’s comments earlier in the week;

“We haven’t got undersoil heating at Bloomfield Road, so the club has brought in something that looks like it should be on a fairground. I waited behind it for 10 minutes thinking I could get myself a hot dog!”

Despite the hot dogs cancelled games can royally mess up your gameweek, especially like me when you’ve got 4 players in 1 game.

Not only this but it adds another variable to when picking a player;  are they on form? playing at home? are they cheap?   Now you’ve got to consider the weather forecast and if the teams playing have decent facilities at their ground.  It’s snow joke.

There is only one good thing about snow and fantasy premier league.  Double gameweeks.