Very Small Rocks season thread

[Captain Splarg]

Freddie Ljungberg did have a nice goal, pitty he was offside by a yard though.... Swedish linesman :)

[Ingromius]

Are we reporting them primarily here, or in the league forum on the CYKI page? I think we should establish this with certainty so there's no room for confusion about where one should check before picking a player.

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by Ingromius
Are we reporting them primarily here, or in the league forum on the CYKI page? I think we should establish this with certainty so there's no room for confusion about where one should check before picking a player.

I understood we were to post on the league forum on the cyki page.

[DoctorJones24]

Yes, the Roster Forum on the League Page is where official moves need to be posted.

I think this will be a mix of smack talk, post game bitching, and general league analysis.

Speaking of this, has anyone gone through and "ranked" our squads heading into the first weekend. Hal usually does this type of prediction before every fantasy season, but I think he's been travelling a lot recently.

Anyone want to make a guess? Personally, I was pretty happy with how balanced the teams turned out after the draft...don't seem to have any total morons like the guy one year who drafted Ante Razov as the first overall pick in a league I was in...when Razov had moved to Spain months before.

That said, how bout a little smack. Anyone care to dispute the following claim?

"Jones Cracked Wheat sports the #1 player at each of the four positions."

G: Seaman (tied with Dudek?)
D: Harte
M: Robert
F: Hasselbaink (tied with Henry and Van Nistleroy?)

Of course, the problem is my supporting cast, which after Beckham, is suspect.

**************************

I just went back and looked at everyone's most recent rosters. Here's my total half-baked, off the cuff predictions:

1) London St. Germain: strong everywhere, and with Pires to help in a month or so.
2) 1800 UK.com - phenomenal midfield could carry them
3) Jones Cracked Wheat - good balance, need Viduka to have a better year than last
4) Kopite - the strikers Henry, Shearer, and Bellamy might be enough on their own
5) Clanblue - Ljunberg's early return is huge (highest avg pts/per game from last season for all players)
6) Trollpop - strong in most areas, but I'm skeptical of the front lne, with Wiltord sure to cool off and Diouf hardly a consistent starter
7) Kill Man U Scum - Similar to Trollpop, with Owen set to play 70% of games, though Anelka looks to be on good form
8) Outback - Also similar to Troll and Kill Man U, in that I'm wary of a front line relying on Robbie Keane. Maccarone may emerge as a top threat though, and Andy Cole will be good when back from injury.

[Hal]

Here are the pre-season scoring stats for the players on the Very Small Rocks teams:

Likely starter pre-season scoring stats in ( ):

Ingromius' London St. Germain:

Likely to play a 5-3-2 formation:

Team Total: 270 pts. (226)
GK: 35 (19)
Def: 95 (95)
Mid: 95 (0 for Pires) (73)
Stkr: 45 (39)

KopiteinKC's Kopite Juniors:

Likely to play a 2-5-3 formation:

Team Total: 232 pts. (229)
GK: 25 (25)
Def: 23 (20)
Mid: 108 (108)
Stkr: 76 (76)

Hal's Trollpop Aviation:

Likely to play a 2-5-3 formation:

Team Total: 310 pts (256)
GK: 48 (25)
Def: 68 (37)
Mid: 108 (108)
Stkr: 86 (86)

1800-WorldCup's 1800-UK.com
Edited to reflect pick ups on 9/20, See (R ) numbers

Likely to play a 3-5-2 formation:
Roster change suggest a 2-5-3 formation:
Team Total: 352 (Revised 363) pts (280) R (283)
GK: 39 (R 39) (17) (R 17)
Def: 88 (R 99) (53) (R 41)
Mid: 150 (R 143) (150) (R 143)
Stkr: 75 (R 82) (60) (R 82)

ClanBlue's Chelsea in PA

Likely to play a 3-5-2 formation:

Team Total: 254 pts (201) + Ljungberg
GK: 24 (24)
Def: 89 (51)
Mid: 94 (0 for Ljungberg) (94)
Stkr: 47 (32)

DoctorJones24's Jones Cracked Wheat

Likely to play a 3-4-3 formation

Team Total: 287 pts (243)
GK: 43 (24)
Def: 86 (63)
Mid: 105 (93)
Stkr: 63 (63)

Captain Splarg's Kill the MANU Scum

Likely to play a 3-4-3 formation

Team Total: 309 pts (244)
GK: 60 (32)
Def: 71 (53)
Mid: 119 (100)
Stkr: 59 (59)

Outback Maverick's Cape Tribulation

Likely to play a 4-4-2 formation:

Team Total: 303 pts. (232)
GK: 43 (19)
Def: 104 (93)
Mid: 101 (80)
Stkr: 55 (39)

Likely rankings based on pre-season scores (shows form) of likely starting 11:

1. R 283 1800-UK.com
2. 256 Trollpop Aviation
3. 244 Kill the MANU Scum
4. 243 Jones Cracked Wheat
5. 232 Cape Tribulation
6. 201 + Ljungberg Chelsea in PA
7. 229 Kopite Juniors
8. 226 London St. Germain

[1800-WorldCup]

I like the look of the rankings.....

The roster change should give us more flexibility (all going well).

Our starting line-up will most probably be a 3-4-3 (if Lauren is picked by Wenger) and we might gamble with 5 at the back, from time to time :)

Tomorrow's provisional line-up is:

1: Schmeichel (The weak link)

2: Lauren
3: Hyypia
4: Ehiogu

5: Legwinski
6: Bowyer
7: Murphy (C)
8: Giggs

9: Bergkamp
10: Zola
11: Sheringham

Subs:
12: Sorensen
13: Bart-Williams
14: Hibbert
15: Richards

[DoctorJones24]

I would think it's about to get much easier to keep track of all these moves, as we'll all have to be more judicious with them costing 4 pts after our freebie each week.

And what did I tell you guys about Hal and his predictions. I like my "subjective" ones more than the raw data approach, but as I see it, this league is WIDE open for all eight teams. I'm not sure I've ever been in a draft league with this much balance before, so it should be a good season.

Good luck tomorrow, all.

[1800-WorldCup]

..... until the transfer deadline!

Is everyone else happy with their teams and the Jones Family predictions?

Are you brave enough to post your line-ups before we can see if Hal has your stragey right, in a little under two hours?

We're still somewhat concerned about our goalkeepers and Arsene Wenger :(

[Clan]

I will indeed be going with the 3-5-2 line up.

Starting line up this week.

-------------------Friedel------------------------


----Keown (c)-------Matteo------------Ferdinand


Ldjungberg-Greening-Lampard-Gravensen-Redknapp

--------Yorke-------------Gudjohnsen


First Subs.
Flo
Rufus
Taylor

[1800-WorldCup]

How will the cup competitions go with the transfer restrictions imposed?

I propose the two cup competitions run from Gameweek 1 to Gameweek 12.

Gameweek Deadlines:
Gameweek 1 > 21 Sep 10:30 GMT closed
Gameweek 2 > 28 Sep 10:30 GMT
Gameweek 3 > 05 Oct 10:30 GMT
Gameweek 4 > 19 Oct 10:30 GMT
Gameweek 5 > 26 Oct 10:30 GMT
Gameweek 6 > 02 Nov 11:30 GMT
Gameweek 7 > 09 Nov 11:30 GMT
Gameweek 8 > 16 Nov 11:30 GMT
Gameweek 9 > 23 Nov 11:30 GMT
Gameweek 10 > 30 Nov 11:30 GMT
Gameweek 11 > 07 Dec 11:30 GMT
Gameweek 12 > 14 Dec 11:30 GMT

Cup Schedules:

1st Round -- (Gameweeks 1-3)
Best of 3

1 plays 5

7 plays 3

4 plays 8

6 plays 2

2nd Round -- (Gameweeks 4-7)
Best of 4

(Winner of 1 vs 5) plays (Winner of 7 vs 3)

(Winner of 4 vs 8) plays (Winner of 6 vs 2)

Finals -- (Gameweeks 8-12)
Best of 5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tiebreakers
a) Winners to be decided on points difference (F/A) over the round of games.

b) If point difference is equal, then points for.

c) If still equal, highest team value as registered on the official stats for Round 1 -- Gameweek 3; Round 2 -- Gameweek 8; Finals -- Gameweek 12.

Onto the cups......

Seedings for the League Cup were based on Hal's data.... and for the FA Cup on the official fantasy stats for September.

League Cup:

1 1800-UK.com..... Glenn Hoddle
5 Cape Tribulation..... Terry Venables

7 Kopite Juniors..... Chloe Adams
3 Kill The Man U Scum..... Captain Splarg

4 Jones Cracked Wheat..... J. Jones
8 London St. Germain..... Jonathan Ingram

6 Chelsea in PA..... paul hughes
2 Trollpop Aviation..... Hal Trollpop

FA Cup:

1 Kill The Man U Scum..... Captain Splarg
5 Jones Cracked Wheat..... J. Jones

7 Trollpop Aviation..... Hal Trollpop
3 Cape Tribulation..... Terry Venables

4 London St. Germain..... Jonathan Ingram
8 Chelsea in PA..... paul hughes

6 1800-UK.com..... Glenn Hoddle
2 Kopite Juniors..... Chloe Adams
___________________________________

[Clan]

Very well done indeed.

I will be interested to see how the open team i picked in the Big Soccer comp fares against my drafted team.

Can you imagine how difficult it would be to pick/plat if we had indeed got the full 10 players.

[1800-WorldCup]

With too much time on my hands today, I thought I'd see who could play who (in both finals)..... and if I haven't totally lost the plot, this is what I've come up with:

1800-UK.com vs Jones Cracked Wheat
1800-UK.com vs Trollpop Aviation
Cape Tribulation vs London St. Germain
Cape Tribulation vs Chelsea in PA
Kopite Juniors vs Jones Cracked Wheat
Kopite Juniors vs Trollpop Aviation
Kill The Man U Scum vs London St. Germain
Kill The Man U Scum vs Chelsea in PA

Any of these pairings likely to happen?

[DoctorJones24]

Like the Cup setup, Michel.
By the way, what's the average age of your starting front line?

Bergkamp
Sherringham
Zola

Those three will keep your trainers busy this season!

[Hal]

Glad to see Michel came up with some Cup competitions. They look great to me.

As to the question regarding transfer point deductions impacting the cups, I always felt that the transfer point deductions only applied to the overall league standings and managers get full weekly points earned for cup competitions.

As to this week's competitioins, Trollpop Aviation is looking forward to the FA Cup Derby with Michael's Cape Tribulation and the League Cup match with Paul's Chelsea in PA.

My Week 1 line-up is a 2-5-3
* are next to the players still on the team from the draft!!

strkr:
Wiltord (C) *
Diouf *
Nemeth (Drafted Rooney)

mids:
Jensen (Drafted Barmby)
Riise (Drafted Scholes)
Geremi (Drafted Reyna)
Solano *
Fernandes *

def:
Alpay (Drafted Gray)
Xavier *

GK:
Schwarzer *

Subs:
GK: Keller *
1. Ziege *
2. Fortune *
3. Ferrer *

It will be interesting to see if my final roster scores better than my drafted roster.

[1800-WorldCup]

Indeed all points scored count in the cups..... no deductions.

What I was wondering.... is how managers would cope with trying to strengthen their squads (over the 3, 4 or 5 legs) when the oppostion has the better players (on paper) :(

I can already see my lot going out to the Kopite crew in both cups..... unless Terry Venables puts one over on Glenn Hoddle first.

Bellamy and Shearer both scored today :(

[DoctorJones24]

Sorry to note that in our first week, we already have a roster violation.

Cape Tribulation picked up Gregan and started him even though he had already been signed by Jones Cracked Wheat. Two people had responded, letting him know this was the case, but I guess he never checked back on the Roster Forum.

[Clan]

Um, so our first "slap on the wrist" goes to Cape.

I think i have the first transfer of the "official" season.

[1800-WorldCup]

Originally posted by DoctorJones24
Sorry to note that in our first week, we already have a roster violation.

Cape Tribulation picked up Gregan and started him even though he had already been signed by Jones Cracked Wheat. Two people had responded, letting him know this was the case, but I guess he never checked back on the Roster Forum.

Forum Quotes:

Is Gregan taken? posted by Terry Venables on 2002-09-17

Gregan on WBA, if not taken, I select him for Jenas.

Michael
Cape Trib

RE: Is Gregan taken? posted by Chloe Adams on 2002-09-17

I believe J Jones already took him. Look for his earlier post on here.

RE: Is Gregan taken? posted by J. Jones on 2002-09-18

Correct, he is currently a member of Cracked Wheat.

Also in the forum:

Transfer posted by J. Jones on 2002-09-14

Lua Lua and Anderton are both now Free Agents again.

I've signed Roberts and Gregan, both of WBA, to replace them.


No Excuses here at all..... There was no need to check back for an answer if the previous transfer posts had been read. The online teamsheet had been updated as well.

The 1 point earned by Gregan will not count in the Cup Competitions.

Outback Maverick also has to transfer out Gregan and buy back Jenas -- using the free transfer -- before he can do any other transfer activity.

The point earned by Jenas this week will also not count in the Cup competitions, although Jenas will remain on the teamsheet, until otherwise officially informed of other transfer activity.

[Hal]

I've tried several times tonight to log in and check day one results for our league.

Keep getting the error of not recognizing the DSN address.

Deleted cookies and still can't get in.

Am I alone and unique in having this problem??

Hal

[1800-WorldCup]

I can get in ok, but their stylesheets seem to be missing, making the whole thing terribly hard to read and navigate.

For Hal.... and others who may have access problems, this is how things look going into Sunday's games:

Team Manager Transfers Rank GamePoints

1 Kopite Juniors Chloe Adams 0 522 57

2 Trollpop Aviation Hal Trollpop 0 4,550 44

3 1800-UK.com Glenn Hoddle 0 10,136 34

4 Kill The Man U Scum Captain Splarg 0 10,661 33

5 London St. Germain Jonathan Ingram 0 13,102 28

6 Jones Cracked Wheat J. Jones 0 16,031 19

7 Chelsea in PA paul hughes 1 16,227 18

8 Cape Tribulation Terry Venables 0 17,087 12
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