I'm actually thrilled you'll be back Lobo... Our rivalry next season needs to go up a notch, making Real Madrid-Barcelona look civilized.
ohh get up I didn't needle your totem in the face Right now I'm just thinking I should have shut up till after week 38 and not be in danger of talking my team into a weekly average of 2 for the last 4 weeks
My transfer goal is someday to complete a season in which I've actually owned every single player in the league roster. I get closer every year
Wow, that was early blech. But you never know about Mad Man Mancini. Johnson is certainly best for that position, but that does not mean much to MMM. "We are a BIG team, and big teams rotate." Even if that means SWP gets time over a proven scorer. Over manages, just like Butthead Benitez used to do. And Balotelli as captain. Now there is a shot. I used Silva, so I hope MC puts up some points. But you never know about MMM.
Well Johnson would already have been gone if I could have decided which of my mids to drop for him before the close of the current gw. Yet another reason I wish we had some choice in the ratio of def-mid-for especially so late in a season when you have some ability to rely more safely on a real starting eleven. I have to admit that a few weeks back I was looking at next weeks doubles with a big smile...curse you Tevez...unless you come back for at least the Spurs game onward. So I see Senderos starts for Fulham while Dempsey doesn't. Not nice. I must have missed the Clint injury news somehow but I'm just as concerned that the bald swiss will cost Hughes the clean sheet points just as he did so often at Arsenal. Uh I mean welcome back from injury Senderos. Clan, I see Zamora just got an assist. Thoughts?
Yes, I wanted Adam Johnson this past week, but I couldn't justify taking a 4-point hit for him with Walters playing Blackpool this week (little did I figure that one would go scoreless for the first 60). And, it would have been an 8-point hit to get him in for O'Hara since I would have needed another move to free up cash and I can't be throwing away points right now. So, I watched as everyone went elsewhere this past week and went to bed wondering if Cannon would make his patented move 5-10 minutes before the deadline. Lucky me when a crying toddler got me up early. I thanked her for the wake up call and made the jump - now wait to see who gets carded or injured today to leave gaps for next week. We'll find out soon, but MMM looks to be settling in more , and the risk of a start and 20 minutes for AJ during the double is acceptable -- it's the 20-minute, 1 pointer that's always the kick in the pants. But that's next week. For now, it's Kolarov to Balotelli!
It also looks like Odemwingie is doing his best to save Hal. Five goals and five assists in the last 7 games. I always thought he looked good when I watched him at Lille but that is one hell of a hot streak.
Sure, kick me when I'm down why don't you. Actually, after what Chelsea did to the Spurs today, I'm not really down too much.Not that I thought Spurs deserved even a point mind you, it's just that they'll be (rightly) peeved at the manner of the goals that beat them.... Zamora?...just typical of this season, always a move behind the players that produce and unable to predict the managers thoughts. Two games in 5 days and he gets a combined 40 something mins, when I felt for sure that Hughes would start him in at least one to rest other players, thought he was still not going to play a full game then for the rest of the season and...well...there you have it.
Current standings after 37 gameweeks!!! 1 -- Rockville Gunners ---- 1943 2 -- LSG NW3 ---- 1873 3 -- VegasVirgins ---- 1740 4 -- FC Springfield ---- 1720 5 -- blechs dawgs ---- 1650 6 -- Glorydaze fC ---- 1643 7 -- In off the post ---- 1606 8 -- Aviators ---- 1551 (after 7 point reduction) Fingers are crossed that we get to awake Sunday morning to a final edition for the 2010-11 season of the Saturday Morning Quarterback and a proper analysis of the teams! Or perhaps Vegas will wait and provide a post-season round up? Although anything could still happen, Rockille looks to have beaten back a late surge by LSG to lock up the tiitle and it appears that Hal's battling to the end will earn deserved credit and respect for not giving up, but will run out of time with a gap of 92 points still remaining to get to the 6th spot. And bragging rights for third place will be resolved by Vegas and Springfield. But there is a serious battle in full swing for the other relegation spot with yet another swap of 7th place this past week. This was the 4th table swap in the last 6 gameweeks, with the dawgs, glorydaze, and IOTP each taking turns in the "drop" seat during that period. With three Pauls in the league, purely random statistics (if not actual skill) should have meant that at least one would be in the top half of the table, but it didn't work out that way. As I search for a obligatory gimmick title, the best I've come up with for the bottom half of the table and the current relegation battle is the "Pauls of Shame". It's a treacherous time to be out on the tight rope for IOTP, and a particularly bad time to put up a 28 in the penultimate gameweek. But, margins of 37 and 44 can be made up in a single gameweek. Indeed, I believe we had a spread of 68 points between the top and bottom team in a gameweek as recently as gw34. IOTP will need to get to 70 to have a realistic shot and 80 could make it downright interesting, but as we've seen from the seesaw in recent weeks, the fact that we're all carrying different players makes it possible to make up ground very quickly, and the randomness of gw38 could make all the difference. blechs_dawgs - 1650 points No transfers made yet this week, but had 4 players that didn't play last week so could be on the thin side, particularly if Kolarov doesn't return for his substandard 1-point contribution. Does the armband stay with Lampard at Everton, shift to Suarez at Villa, or fall to the hottest player on the squad - N'Zogbia - with the most on the line for a trip to Stoke. With all serious selections having the phrase "away game" in them, there has been some nervousness and some heated discussions in the Board room. But apparently Spector at home to Sunderland is not gaining momentum! At least not yet. Glorydaze fC - 1643 points No transfers yet this week, but rumor has it that the squad is still partying from the past gameweek's 74-point outburst to put an end to the latest slide, grab a bronze medal, and climb above the relegation line. But the work isn't done yet and the gaffer will need to get them focused quickly. The rebound was led by solid performances this past week from Rooney (c), DJ Campbell, Lescott, and Dawson. But therein must lie the concern. Will Rooney play with everything wrapped up and a Champs' final a week later? Can DJ at Old Trafford match last week's brace at home against Bolton (fyi, at least he did score in the first meeting with ManU)? Can Lescott or Dawson snag back-to-back clean sheets, let alone pick up any other points from goals or bonii? Like the dawgs, Glorydaze had "0" minutes from 4 players last week, so is very thin and subject to the whims of real-life managerial tinkering with lineups in games that may not matter to some squads. The most likely captain decisions are above (with Ashley Young home to Liverpool not sounding any better), and all carrying substantial risks. In off the post - 1606 points There is nowhere to go but up after last week's 28. The last Paul in the group had a full 29 minutes on the bench after autosubs were done, and has already shipped out Zhirkov for King to add another warm body to the mix. The move provides cover for Dawson, but IOTP needs to make up ground. Will Kuyt keep the armband for the trip to Villa (looks reasonable) or will Modric grab it to host Birmingham (a consideration given his form) or will the latter option await word on whether Van der Vaart will play and cut into Modric's attacking freedom and set play involvement? One or both will likely need to shine in order to get into the score range that is going to be needed to put pressure on the other Pauls.
Well, whatever happens it's been an interesting last few weeks, that's for sure. Modric will Captain the side this weekend, as I'm hoping the roar of the crowd in the last game will spur the Spurs )) on to a 5-0 win and a Luka hat-trick. 'appy 'arry may have publicly said he isn't keen on the Uefa Cup, but European football is a necessity if he wants to keep that talented squad together for next season. Anyway, been a good season and good luck to you and Glory, what will be will be.
Barring a disaster tomorrow I want to congratulate Rockville Gunners on a very good season. Particularly how they were able to climb the table in mid-season and hold off a very good LSG team. I was looking good there for a while, but just couldn't keep pace. On another note, its sad to see that the storied Aviators franchise is looking like it will go the way of West Ham. Hal has never been relegated. Aviators will certainly be missed, and I anticipate transfer market activity declining 50% next season! Was a fun season as always but what's great about SR is that there are never any exceptions to the rule that we all stay active the whole season. In the meantime, as I mentioned in the other thread I want to put together a bare bones website for the league this summer and build it from there. Any ideas/thoughts etc... are welcome. Also Google Docs in my opinion was a clear success. It should clearly be the norm moving forward.
Always fun to look back at pre-season analysis! My previews for each team are in posts #202-210 in this thread. Here were the highlights - I have to say that overall I was pretty close in my predictions, though the dawgs let me down Code: [B]Preview #1: blechs_dawgs[/B] Wiggum Unscientific Projected Ranking: Champion Probable Captain: Frank Lampard Biggest Strength: Frank Lampard-Fernando Torres Superstar Duo Biggest Weakness: Goalkeepers Potential Draft Steal: Martin Petrov Wildcard: Fernando Torres [B]Preview #2: Glorydaze FC[/B] Wiggum Unscientific Projected Ranking: Mid-to-lower table Probable Captain: Wayne Rooney Biggest Strength: Solid roster with depth Biggest Weakness: Lack of clear-cut captain if Rooney is injured Potential Draft Steal: Samir Nasri Wildcard: Ashley Young [B]Preview #3: Aviators[/B] Wiggum Unscientific Projected Ranking: Upper-to-mid table Probable Captain: Cesc Fabregas Biggest Strength: A clean sheet making juggernaut Biggest Weakness: A strikeforce my beer league team might be able to contain Potential Draft Steal: David Silva Wildcard: Robbie Keane [B]Preview #4: LSG Camden [/B] Wiggum Unscientific Projected Ranking: Upper to mid table Probable Captain: Robin Van Persie Biggest Strength: Potent strike-force Biggest Weakness: Defense Potential Draft Steal: Theo Walcott Wildcard: Dmitir Berbatov [B]Preview #5: FC Springfield [/B] Wiggum Unscientific Projected Ranking: Mid table Probable Captain: Didier Drogba Biggest Strength: Strong 1-2-3 Punch Biggest Weakness: Unpredictable midfield Potential Draft Steal: Chung-Yong Lee Wildcard: Nani [B]Preview #6: Inoffthepost FC [/B] Wiggum Unscientific Projected Ranking: Mid to lower table Probable Captain: Mikiel Arteta Biggest Strength: Best strikeforce in the league Biggest Weakness: Defense – or lack thereof Potential Draft Steal: Mikiel Arteta Wildcard: Louis Saha [B]Preview #7: Vegas Virgins [/B] Wiggum Unscientific Projected Ranking: Mid table Probable Captain: Steven Gerrard Biggest Strength: Depth Biggest Weakness: Goalkeepers Potential Draft Steal: Marouane Chamakh Wildcard: Marouane Chamakh [B]Preview #8: Rockville Gunners [/B] Wiggum Unscientific Projected Ranking: Upper to mid table Probable Captain: Carlos Tevez Biggest Strength: Strikers and Deep Midfield Biggest Weakness: Lack of star midfielder Potential Draft Steal: Antonio Valencia Wildcard: Glen Johnson
To go along with my 7 adjusted points, I went ahead and made excess transfers costing another 8 points for this final gameweek. NEVER GIVE UP! It could be a miraculous week. That said, it's looking like a heavy bookie favorite there will be no Aviators team in the Small Rocks League next season, for the first time in over a decade. Well played everyone! I've also noticed how three other teams have been competing hard each week to see who will likely join me in Very Small Rocks next season. That they worked so hard made it even tougher for me to close the ground and overtake them, even with my late season spurt.
As a newcomer to Small Rocks and now apparently staying up by the skin of my teeth, I have to say that the competition here at the top is bar none. I seemed a week behind the rest in pulling the trigger on a key trade or hanging on to a "lemon" too long. Congrats to everyone who made this a challenging year from beginning to end. Who'da thought that losing Kolo Toure in the final third and replacing him with bench warmer Lescott would have made a key difference at the end. The blind pig theory never ceases to amaze me.
Congratulations to everyone for another great season. I'm making no excuses. Aviators deserves to be relegated after the abysmal performance we put in this season. I'm not sure how well I'll fit in Very Small Rocks - I might just have to win promotion next year and bounce back up to Small Rocks, the only Rocks League home I've ever known. On the other hand, maybe the Very Small Rocks managers will be more friendly and fun than you reprobates have been! Congrats to Rockville Gunners for topping the League.
Hal, I just hope I'm still here when you and Clan bounce back this time next year. Thanks guys for a really fun season. I'm not just saying that based on the final table. I was glad to be in SR going all the way back to the draft and loved how competitive it was even while stuck midtable last Fall. Ingromius you made the last couple of months tough for me and thus interesting. I usually post little on bigsoccer from the end of the season until mid July so I might as well wish you all a nice summer now. Good luck and see you all for the 11/12 draft. Will the first round be too early to pick Adam?
SATURDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK This was too difficult to keep up and I ended thinking all I was doing to showcasing the obvious anyway. May try again next year in a reduced format. As the final installment of the 2010-2011 season I decided to compare the winner’s season to mine in some detail in hopes of improving my own play. Again you run into some obvious details. In order to win many things have to go “right.” This is hard to predict as I am sure each of us did what we thought was the right move and it just did not turn out. Also, Chuck has a certain style. He does not make many moves and usually is in no rush. His moves are most often the last to be made in any gameweek. He does not jump for the next new player, although he comments on missing Suarez, but I think that was just a smoke screen. Of course when things are going “right” it is easier to sit pat. But this style of play has not changed over the years, so maybe this was just a better example of how it can work. So what went right? THE DRAFT By the end of the season Chuck was playing 7 guys from his original draft. Given that 3 went out before gameweek 1, he was effectively playing 7 of 12 through the entire season. By comparison, I had 2. Those 7 players generated 966 points, 215 captain’s points with 120 points on the bench. (For the record, 49 of the bench points come from the GK position.) If you total the regular and bench points, 966+120, you get 1086 or an average of 155 per player. There were 17 players in the entire FPL with more than 155 points, and Chuck had 4 of them. Total points from drafted player, no matter how long they lasted, and not counting draftees who return later, was 1189, 1053 regular and 136 bench. That is 60% of his total for the year. For comparison, my total points from draftees was 312. YOU SIMPLY CAN NOT MAKE UP THAT MANY POINTS! But what can you say, have a better draft? Draft players who will not get hurt? Draft players who will score a lot of points? Difficult to come to some conclusion that can help in the future. On closer review I note that during my preseason ranking I had Tevez #5, Gerrard #6 and Bent #7. I drafted 7th, Chuck drafted 8th, and I clearly remember when it can to me I was thinking just how hard it is to get a BIG scoring midfielder, and I would count on shuffling Forwards, so the draft went 7=Gerrard, 8=Tevez, 9=Bent, and 10=Milner. I was probably dead at that point, but did not know it yet. For the record, Gerrard had 88 points and ended the season hurt, Tevez had 185 points, Bent had 158 points and Milner had 97 points, after changing teams and getting thrown into the MC mess. This also impacted the captains points comparison, but more on that later. I dropped both of my players. Not that everything worked out for Chuck. Valencia, pick #3, gets hurt early and Cuellar, #4, never makes much of an impression. One thing that did work. Chuck’s number 15 pick and the last player in the draft was Adam and his 192 points. Without question the pick of the year. So if there is a lesson here it’s STICK WITH YOUR RANKINGS, and find some guy who will score like crazy and pick him last. PLAYER ACQUISITION As noted, Chuck chooses not to move a lot of players. I just can’t play that way. But it is clear that actually overcoming the -4 fee can be problematic. As nearly as I can tell Chuck had one instance where he took a -4 and that was to acquire Sturridge in gw 28. I took -64. Granted many of mine were late in the year, out of some desperation to stay out of the drop zone, but still, for the 100th time, DON”T TAKE SO MANY PENALTIES. Who you acquire is also problematic as we all know how slim the pickens’ are. Hard to judge the actual player selection process, but it is worth noting that several of Chuck’s were excellent. Like Downing in gw 5, allowing for 141 points to come in, and getting Huth back in gw 10. Some duds too. Looks like there was a fair rotation of defenders as 15 of the 28 player brought in were “D.” Hard to get points with “D” but there are more of them to chose from. Not a bad practice. Quite sure I could not have stood for 9 players not playing on gw 33, as Chuck did, but a 96 the next week makes all things better. That would seem to be the approach taken to the extreme. I remember the Sturridge acquisition very well. I had taken Agbonlahor earlier that same gameweek. Has to be considered a serious miss on my part as Sturridge had gone 8,8,9 the 3 previous weeks. These guys are real streaky, so YOU HAVE TO ACQUIRE THE STREAK. Need to upgrade my “form” analysis. TEAM SELECTION Don’t have a lot of history with evaluating this so I looked at bench scoring and players from the bench who were brought in figuring that low bench scoring and few subs was good. Chuck’s bench players scored 248 points. That represents about 13% of the 1980 points scored. My benched scored 233 or about 13% of my 1860 points scored. My percentage gets higher when you use net scoring, deduction the penalties. Not much here that I can see. Maybe there is a better way to look at it. In both of our cases the highest scoring bench player was a GK. Consistent playing time helps, but there must be something there. Where Chuck did much better was in laying out his team for each gameweek. He had only 11 players who were subbed in. I had 24. I say his was better, but there are so many variable that it is hard judge. I don’t mind a player coming in from the bench as each point is important so having points on the bench to cover is good. Don’t know how many times there was a zero left on the field with no scoring sub to cover. JUST DON”T GET PENALTIES TO COVER! CAPTAIN SELECTION Chuck’s captains added 232 points to his total. Mine added 209. This is bad, but I really thought it would be worse. I thought with all those Tevez Monsters I would get swapped. Turns out that Baines and a couple inspired picks late made up some ground after a weak start centered on Gerrard. Chuck had his share of inspiration as well, especially Dempsey in gw 34 and Yaya in gw 36. Would have to see what others scored to see whether there was a better number than 232, but without a 250 point lock, liked Lampard or Henry in previous years, it would seem that Chuck’s number is pretty good. Did not attempt to judge whether the highest scoring guy was captain. Such a crap shoot. I think I will focus on this throughout next year, looking for real inspiration. Easy to pick the guy with the double, or playing against Blackpool, but who goes out on a limb. SUMMARY BE MORE LIKE CHUCK!
Are we sure we have the same mother? Well, at least if I didn't get the quant aptitude, maybe I got the looks, though your daughters and wife more than compensate.