Gameweek 16 – The MOT

Adam Glekin is in trouble.  Last week for Gameweek 15, in a moment of madness he made Stephane Sessegnon captain.  A gamble?  A cry for help?  Either way it was a terrible call.  This week (a 1st in About the Bonus Points history) we take an in depth look at Glekin’s We Will B Hectorious;

We Will B Hectorious

Strengths

– decent squad.  At 1st glance Glekin has strength in depth in every position.  Goalkeeper – Howard.Benched.  Defence – Richards. Benched.  Midfield – Ramsey. Benched.

– strikers.  With Adebayor, Sturridge and Aguero – Glekin has goals and 3 of the most in form strikers in the  Premiership.

– Juan Mata – only 7.9% of fantasy premier league managers have Mata in their squad.  It is pretty amazing considering the impact the Spanish winger has had.  #differential

Weaknesses

–  Where is RvP?  The boat has now well and truly left the shore but what is that about?

– Too much spend in the goalkeeper department.  There is no need to have 2 goalies over £5million.  If I was Glekin I’d scrap Foster for a cheaper keeper and spend the cash elsewhere.

–  Too much depth – although Glekin has a great squad; you do not need that much strength in depth.  For me all spend should go on the starting XI with any left over spend going on cheap subs who can do a job if needed.

–  Lack of Galacticos –  No Silva.  No RvP. No Nani.  Glekin is lacking in Galacticos.  The players you can call on to make captain each week.  This could be the reason for Sessegnon gate.

Opportunities

–  Cull the squad – take out either; Sessegnon / Ramsey from midfield and replace with Shane Ferguson.  Howard / Foster out for a cheap goalkeeper e.g. Westwood. This will give Glekin an extra £3million to spend on a galactico.

– Bump up a midfielder for a galactico.  Use the cash generated from sales to bump up with Scott Sinclair, Sessegnon Ramsey for a big boy.

Threats

–  Irrational captain decisions.

All in all I like We Will B Hectorious but Glekin has too much quality on the bench for me.  Good luck Glekin.  Keep calm and carry on.

If you want the fantasy premier league MOT let me know below or on twitter @mjmaxwell 

Gameweek 15 Review – Goalie vs Striker

I went to the Emirates this weekend to see Arsenal beat Everton 1-0.  Following Arsenal’s 125st birthday celebration the game was quite flat.  Everton were pretty solid although Arsenal got in behind a few times making the most of Walcott and Gervinho’s pace .

Walcott was the best Arsenal attacker for me, giving Baines the run around all game.  That was until RvP did what he did best.  The Arsenal striker’s goal was one of the best I have seen live and surely worthy of 3 bonus points.  The technique was incredible.  It was a shot I have seen attempted many times but never resulting in connection of the ball, let alone a goal.  Normally ending up missed or in row Z.

At the other end there was not much happening and Everton didn’t manage 1 shot on goal.

On my way out of the ground I was talking to my mate about fantasy premier league and bonus points on offer.  Following the RvP goal I thought he was a must for 3 bonus points with the others going to; Theo and Song (for the assist).

When the bonus points were awarded imagine my surprise to see RvP (scorer of goal of the season so far) on joint points with Wojciech Szczesny the (Arsenal goalie) who didn’t have 1 save to make.  When I found out about this (through @labwam) I thought something fishy was going on.  Surely a fix.  I needed to find out more.

It’s all about the bonus points – Szczesny vs RvP

When I looked at the numbers I was surprised.  Not only did Szczesny make more passes than RvP (30 vs. 22) his pass completion rate was much higher (80% vs. 72%).  Granted the majority of Szczesny’s were under 10 yards to the full backs but still I was surprised to see the GK make more passes than the star striker.

So is a high pass completion rate more likely to be rewarded by #fantasypremierleague with bonus points than a 25 yard first time volley?  It looks so.