I must share my excitement tonight as I pack off to the Arsenal - Barcelona match. This will have to be the biggest match I've attended thus far in my life - and it's a long, long way from watching Soccer Made in Germany on PBS on a little fuzzy screen in New Hampshire. Hoping for a good match! On a related note, do you think FPL will introduce a points penalty for headbutts of opposing managers next year? Like -32?
What a night. Must plannlessons that don't require a voice tomorrow! Messi was great to watch but for me wilshere was man of the match.
or deal with the devil perhaps, or even the...er...thinking about it I've never seen you and Sepp Blather in the same room
Nice to see Aviators grind out another big score, as Hal casts himself for a star role in The Big Escape.
Van Persie - not playing Carroll - injured (acquired this week though, so my own choice) Van der Vaart - injured Nasri - not playing Ferguson - not playing (just traded out) Cahill - doubtful So I'm scrambling to get 9 players on the field. Goals for this week: - don't get knocked out of Eliminator Cup (having been knocked out of Double Eliminator last week) - don't fall too far behind the Gunners, despite their amazing recent form - step down gracefully from position of overall Rocks leader - look forward optimistically to having a full squad next week and beyond
Saturday Morning Quarterback Did that gameweek just drag on and on! Trying to get 11 on the pitch will be the overriding question this week. By the way, did you notice that our top 2 are the top 2 in the entire Rocks complex? Well played. LSG NW3: RVP misses the second leg of the double, a move that reverberated through-out the FPL world. 26 is certainly not a bad return, and it made the week, but it seemed so much more was available. The Szczesny pickup was a good move back a few weeks ago. (I am still crying.) But that’s history, and this gameweek is an entirely new set of problems …… fielding a team. The blanks were going to be a problem, but add the injuries and you have a real mess. Volunteers for some trouble with Carroll, although the attraction is obvious, and then dumps Ferguson for Milijas in hopes of getting someone on the field. Looks like the makings for a tough week. Tough enough to lose the number 1 spot? Berb is captain, and just maybe a double coming. Rockville Gunners: This train is rollin’. Top score brings first to within 14 points. Adam was the monster, but there was help from the defense. Seems I had questioned the defense in an earlier version, but tough to question this result. Blanks are not a problem, but Adam missing a couple will not be welcome. Surely Tevez will score a couple, as captain, and some else, I don’t know, Jarvis, will get a 12. Things just work here. FC Springfield: 69’s all around. That’s what we like! Solid contributions save the CH strike force. Drogba looks like he has taken the “sulk” role here and that is not good. Loading with AR added last week, and takes away this. Blanks abound. Moves out Hernandez, meaning he will surely get a couple goals, for new guy Ba, and drops no minutes Helb for red hot Gutierrez. The over/under here should be around 8 players on the field. Needs really, really big things from Captain Nani. VegasVirgins: Thought I might pick up some ground with Walcott getting 2 games. What I get is an injured player. Gerrard finally helps me out. Stays hurt so Silva comes in with a 7. May be the best thing Gerrard has done for me all year. Otherwise, nice contributions all around, with my cheap BL guys providing a nice little boost. No issue with blanks, but the same ole’ issues with questions. Silva gets his turn at captain. We’ll see how this works. blechs_dawgs: Who could have guessed that Harper, a recent add, would be high point man. But then this double was the reason to pick the guy up, so you have to give credit to the plan. Swaps Jiranek for a potential double from Smalling. Looked at this myself, and wondered if O’Shea would be the one to get the double. Smalling vs WA was enough. Kolarov get his shot at being captain. New choice I believe. Will Dzeko be a Europa player only? Will Torres ever get his feet right? Will Lampard quit running around in circles? Stayed tuned for the answer to these and other questions. Glorydaze FC: Not a bad week, and Dawson as captain, a bold move, added nicely. Enough blanks to create an issue, partly dealt with by dumping Lennon for Fletcher. Says something when Fletcher is now the second MU midfielder in play. Simple rotation and Fergie doing his best Mad-Man Mancini has played havoc with this midfield. Really sad that SAF has adopted the MC 4-3-3. Hope others were smart enough NOT to watch that awful thing with Marseille. Playing Rooney on the wing of this thing should be a gross misdemeanour! Add a truly awful Carrick, a missing Gibson, a sleeping Berbatov and an ineffective Fletcher were enough for a really bad showing. It was Nani against the world. Enough, other than Rooney is here also, and captain, so it has special meaning. Got to captain the guy in hopes that logic and reason prevail. In off the post: Tough going when 47 is low for the week. The BI guys help, but now go away for a week. The Ferdinand thing has become a real pain. Blanks, injuries and questions will make it particularly exciting here. Not the kind of excitement needed. Time for Arteta to come good, especially as captain. Aviators: As with RVP, and Walcott, just thought there would be more from Fabregas. Cech’s penalty save was great here and with my 2 CH defenders. And more great stuff from Gyan. A 75 sure helps the cause. Drops another circle runner, Milner, for The Hammer, Hitzlsperger, in hopes that the preseason form can be duplicated at year-end. Not too many blanks so it won’t take much for the gap to close. Wow, Parker gets the armband. Very interesting.
Saturday Morning Quarterback Early games means early post. Too hard to think about getting up at 3:30a! Aviators: The Parker choice for captain was inspired. Sure helped make up for the -3 for Nelson. Bringing in Hitzlsperger helped as well. Ended up with no blanks, and did pick up a few precious points on 7th. No transfers as of this writing, but it would seem difficult to keep Nelson. Really thought Lescott would go here, but too late for that now. Push on. In off the post: Two weeks in a row at or near the bottom score does not work Something from Arteta and Van der Sar, but that was about it. 2 blanks really hurts. Need a strong pickup from this double gameweek to cover. Well situated with 3 or 4 of the real heart throbs among the open guys. Saha and Zigic could make this a fun week. Picks up a couple FU guys ahead of a home games against BR Something in the 70’s would be nice. blechs_dawgs: Gets jumped by Paul R., as did I, and drops to 6th. The way this goes it could be 4th by the end of this gameweek. The Smalling move paid a nice dividend but leaves for a potential double from Jiranek. I might have looked elsewhere given it appears Smalling will get a couple games in the near future. Not much from the MC set, so the score was just average. A little something to look forward to on the double, but it’s the big guns who will decide. Maybe we will see Suarez and Carroll together for the first time. Could be fun to watch even against MU. VegasVirgins: Here are all the blanks. What a mess. Needed the defense to come through or this could as easily been a 19. The questions continue so I take an 8 point hit to cover. Still wonder if I can field 11. Baines will be captain with his double. All hope rides on him. Has to work out better than none-playing Silva. Really thought the armband would move to Doyle or Baines, but ended up with 2 extra from Reina. Super, just Super! Glorydaze FC: See, the MU rant worked. The Roo goes nuts, the right way, and leads Paul to a Gold Medal for high score in all of Rocks. By 17 points there. By 30 points in Small Rocks. Jumps to 4th but just by a small margin. Help from A Young, for one of the few times this year. The start of something good? String a few together in this neighborhood and 3rd could be in the cards. Miss a step or two, and 6th will look good. FC Springfield: I was all worried about blanks here, but the Coach did better than I. Nani is just money. Jumps for 2 EV and 1 BI to make hay from the double and finally uses a wildcard. Great patience. Too bad about Fellaini though. Pretty well situated even with the Drogba Drought. LSG NW3: Drops to 2nd for the first time since GW 13. Really 1st or 2nd pretty much all year and still second overall so it is hard to get too excited. 3 blanks and another zero prove too much. Clears a couple problem children with transfers, but still a bunch of red dots and other questions to overcome. Time for Nasri to step up. Something from VdV would be appreciated also. Getting back to 1st looks to be a real challenge as long as RVP is down, and the facts are that no one can really say how long he will be down. He has some history like that. Rockville Gunners: FIRST PLACE. After a just so-so start the run has been impressive. And still no wild cards played. I could not do that if I had the dream team for the season! Another nice week in the high 50’s. Something here, something there, and somehow it all adds up. The number 3 scoring goalie for the year is a blank, so the backup comes in for a 2 bonus, and 3 points from 9 saves. The 7 looks like a shutout to me. Jarvis gets an 8, coming just under my prediction of a 12. Things just work here. Congrats. The King is dead, long live the King.
I'd like to say I'm looking ahead but the truth is I'm still looking at who's coming up from behind. Just glad to have a week that picked up a little ground.
Great looks like no more Nani... injured by the guy I transfered out and earned 6 points today!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Blue Smoke is back and pumping full force into your Pier 1 adorned Lo-Ca Decaf-Latte Neighborhood Emporium bwahhaaaa...bhhhwaaaahhhaaaaa......
I believe I owe LSG an apology for mocking the midweek acquisition of Duff. Mind you, you probably should have ditched that Cahill character and kept Milijas, but still that was quite well done. Fascinating season we've got going. With 2 games and then 9 weeks to play, it does appear that FC Springfield has lost too much ground and that this will be a 2-team race to the finish. Vagas mentioned it, but serious props to Cannon for being where he is -- top of all of the rocks -- without using a wildcard all season and having taken only one 4-point hit. A couple of shrewd acquisition during the season -- Downing and Huth stand out for me -- but he deserves to be one of the top squads with a draft that included Tevez, Bent, Dempsey, Adam, Sagna and Foster. On the flip side, my fate is in the hands of the Chelsea duo of Lampard and Torres. With over 120 points to make up, Hal remains in a big hole, although he could still be saved by a healthy Fabregas down the stretch. But Clan has cut the gap between 6 and 7 to a mere 50 points, with position 5 only another 20 points ahead of that.
Had I genuinely believed in the pick, I suppose I would have had the guts to make him captain. Still too much broken for me to fix, but Duff's points were certainly welcome.
I knew it was you. I'm going to scan your team sheet and then visit my favorite Haitian voodoo doctor in Brooklyn later this week - you will suffer Dr. Evil
Saturday Morning Quarterback Got up too late for this. One note. There will be 2 gameweeks in the entire month of March. That's the toughest part of this EPL for me. Long periods of inactivity are tough.
My last minute decision not to follow my gut and pick up a West ham player looks to have been a mistake. I wanted in on their decent form (6th overall) and I actually had Noble in my pool of 6 possible new mids to bring in for the outgoing MGP but dropped him for a more reliable option. Oops. Watch the other four score today as well...
I look to be hitting a new low. When we look back in May, I suspect the comment will be: "GW31 = relegation for the Dawgs"
Nothing like listening to the richest guy in town bitch about the cost of gold cleaner and the inconvenience of having a personal chef about the place....
Another bad performance this week makes me think of my team in terms of mid distance running. LSG is like that idiot that goes out and leads the first 3 laps of a mile race, then, lacking the strength to continue, gets passed by everyone with 200 to go before struggling home in what looks like slow motion. OR to put it another way -- second in the league (4th year in a row if I finish there), third overall (for now)... and no silverware coming this season. Somehow I've bumbled into making LSG a fantasy equivalent of the team I support. To continue that tradition, I'll be trying to draft only teenage frenchmen next summer. And no defenders.