Chief's #FPL Team - Gameweek 32

Latest Rank: 

84k (13k fall) 

Transfers*:

Guzan & Austin OUT /

Davis & Berahino IN

- 4 HIT

Bank Balance:

£1.5M 
 

*Both Guzan and Austin have blanks in GW33, so planning ahead, I bought in two players who had OK-ish fixtures in GW32 and GW33.

Notes: 

Folks, there's no denying that I had a dire DGW31 - on par with my "Boxing Day Massacre GW / Giroud red card". Whilst my respective peers were easily chalking up scores upwards of 90, I was caught short at leg gully for 57. Why? I had two clean sheets lost on the bench, had a mega captain fail with Aguero (when I could have captained Austin) and also didn't factor in Phillips & Benteke doing so well.  Oddly enough I won a few H2H matches but I also incurred my fifth successive red arrow. This is no laughing matter for me and in truth I can't afford any more red arrows if I want to nip in with a Top 1% finish (which now looks bleak).

Looking ahead, I have a wildcard which I intend to use for DGW34. As for GW32, I didn't want to buy players who had a blank in GW33. I decided to sell Guzan as he is facing a ferocious Spurs side at WHL and his blank the week after doesn't help him. Davis seems like a viable replacement as Southampton have conceded less than a goal on average at home. As for selling Austin, that is a big risk. One that I am willing to take, especially considering his blank in 33. I thought of Murray, Gomis and even SHLong as options but chose Berahino. Why? He assisted in his last match, WBA need to beat Leicester to ensure virtual safety for the season, Pulis will want a big bounce back win and Leicester do concede a fair bit on the road. As for my captain, it came down to Hazard and Kane - I chose the latter.  Good luck to you all!

Have you made your picks yet?

#CalledIt Differential Pick - GW32

Last week's get-together in London with Chief (@fplhints), Fly (@Meet_the_Gadfly) and Fantasy Yirma (@FantasyYIRMA) proved to be a blast! We met some fellow #FPL managers on the way (you know who you are), agonized over bad transfer decisions (hi Fly!), screamed from the top of our lungs when captain Suarez completed his bashing of Cardif City (hi Chief!) and compared our meeting to Comic-Con convention (hi, Fantasy YIRMA!). What did I do? Well, my GW was as bad as the Luton airport I flew back home from and WizzAir service that got me there. Never again. None of them.

But back to London. While I am no stranger to London (I have spent a month there at the young age of 18 unlocking the beautiful secrets of the wonderful language that is English), I must admit that it again took me by surprise. It's the little things. The smell and draft of the subway. The double-decker buses in Piccadilly Circus. The separate faucets for cold and warm water (this one still baffles me). The fact that I was freezing my ass off and paraded through Piccadilly Circus wearing my winter jacket, a warm pair of gloves and a hat, while there seemed to be many younger people who wore only t-shirts, shorts, mini skirts and seemed to be just fine. Maybe I am just old?

Anyway, so there we are, waiting for the 3 pm matches to begin and I wonder which game will be televized. Amused and with question marks hovering over their heads, the guys explain to me that it is illegal for 3 pm games to be televized in the UK. Say what? A joke? Apparently not. And while I have had a week to chew on this, I still can't fathom it. It just seems so odd that the games are being played and all of UK is watching a guy watching the games and commenting on what is happening. Absurd if you ask me. We get all of them back home...

Getting back to business, though. With the craze of GW31 finally behind us, we have two whole weeks of normal play and I, for one, am really looking forward to that. While the DGWs are making the headlines throughout the FPL community, managers seem to be forgetting or neglecting the teams battling relegation. With 7 GWs remaining, the time to jump on that opportunity is now. The team that my #CalledIt pick for GW32 comes from is currently hovering 5 points over the relegation zone, which probably makes them at least a bit nervous. I would be surprised to see them coming even close to that last three spots as I imagine they will pick it up, but perhaps just enough to give them a spark. And what better way to do that than to welcome back the guy who took the league by storm last year, scoring 18 goals and dishing out three assists. Sure, he is just coming back from injury and has yet to complete 90 minutes, but he played 62 minutes vs Arsenal in mid-week and had three shots and one chance created. He is not cheap by any means, but with a kind fixture list until the end of the season and with something to prove (not to mention a proven pedigree) he could be your man. #CalledIt pick for GW32, Miguel Michu.

P.S. Bony, at 7.1m and 5,8% ownership has scored 8 goals in PL in 2014. Cough, cough, hint! ;)

Bantasy Football: Milking Manchester City

The mere suggestion of GW 32 feels like the sort of stomach-churning comedown Nathan Barley might pretend to endure, after the dizzying heights of GW 31 (highest point score was a ball-tingling 205) recede into the mists of fantasy time.

Fun Gon' Come

More fun is still to come, though - and only one team are the bacon butty to soak up your depression hangover and get the serotonin pumping again after your 150pt wonder-week.

Don't be fooled by the Mourinho bandwagon. His unconvincing attempts to convince everyone Chelski aren't going for the title have somehow convinced everyone they'll actually win it. I beg you not to fall for it - at least from a fantasy perspective.

Man City

Whoever you think will top the league come the end of the season, do not be a slave to the rhetoric. Remember the three Fs of fantasy football - fixtures, fixtures, fixtures.

City have two more left than anyone else. By the process of maths, anyone who doesn't have three of them in their side by GW 34, their first of two remaining double GWs before the end of the season, is - as Kanye puts it - bat sh*t cray.

Yaya Toure (10.3)

Top of must-buy-ometer is Toure Yaya. Spenny for a midfielder I grant you but third highest scorer in the Prem and a fearsome combo of pace, silky soft touch and advanced technology (the new 'supreme tekkers') creates goals from absolutely nowhere. 48 points in his last four is just filthy. So let's get dirty. Don't be worried by trips to Arsenal and Liverpool - neither can defend and both could have nout to play for if Liverpool come unstuck against Spurs and/or Wham.

Let's get... dirtaaay

David Silva (9.4)

David Silva, or Dave Wood as he'd be known en Ingles got a paltry 9 points from DGW 31 - hardly what I was hoping for. I've been plugging this geezer all season and have him in every team - but he just plays so well every game. Creative players like Silva tend to drift in and out of games but he doesn't  - he's always the creative spark and usually their best player apart from Yaya.  

Samir Nasri (8.1)

Samir has returned from four games out to be a solid and consistent performer. Neither his spell on the sidelines nor the embarrassment of riches in City's midfield have stinted his playing time - and three assists in his last two is indicative of his play-making impact. He's still worse value than Silva and Toure but if you're hamstrung by a toight like a tiger budget, he's your man. 

Defenders

"I'm not sure why so many people have Man City defenders. I took a punt on Lescott this week because he's super cheap but the cost-to-clean sheet ratio is just off the charts. Zabaleta's propensity to attack makes an argument for him enticing but 6.1 is such a horrendous amount to pay for a defender who has kept two clean sheets in 11 games."

This is what I would have said to you on 3rd February - just before Man City went on a record-busting run of five consecutive clean sheets. The thing is, though, if I could play my wildcard now, I still wouldn't have a City defender in my team - because the attacking points Silva, Toure, Nasri et al. can make you are so much more valuable.

You can only have three City players so you should be choosing which ones carefully. There are plenty of cheapo defenders who can bag you a CS every now and again and if you rotate cleverly, you can efficiently pick up two or three clean sheets a GW without much bother.

Be careful when rotating Cleverley

Why spend more than 5% of your budget on a player you're never going to captain, who will get 12 pts at the most IF he unpredictably scores one of his two or three goals per season. "What about Zabaleta?", I hear you cry. "He's always getting in the box". Well yes, and he has five assists - but 0 goals. Those five assists are 15 points over the whole season - just two points less than intermittently present Dzeko got in one game at Old Trafford. Even if you add his 12 clean sheets, that's 48+15=63, which is just one more than Toure as captain would have made you in the last two weeks alone.

Obviously you can't make everyone skipper but upside (the handy American word for potential) has to be considered - a defender scoring 20 points is a freak occurrence. When was the last time you were surprised one of their front six got two, three or four goals?

America - re-inventing words since 1776