Vintage FPL: Everton 4-2 Sheffield United

Vintage Values III

1993 is a year that I have many fond memories of: My first ever cinema visit; Jurassic Park at the Cannon, Northampton. I’ll always remember it as I got smacked really hard on the bum by the old man for doing a ‘silent but violent’ fart on the front row (to his credit he did wait until we were in the foyer afterwards), Bruce Grobelaar’s rat tail, Andy Sinton, Chris Bart-Williams, Darren Caskey and Carlton Palmer being selected for the England national team, Norwich City beating Bayern Munich in the Olympic stadium and best of all finding my old man’s stash underneath the drawers in his bedroom (it was moved many times after that but me and my bro always managed to locate it).

One thing I did not remember, however, was a game requested by @FPL_Fly for this week’s Vintage Values, the match in question was Everton v Sheffield United.

It was early in the season (August) and Dane Whitehouse bagged in the first minute (which, according to @GriftersUnited, earned Dane a Watch which he was presented with before the Blades next home game). With goals being scored in the 1st, 89th and 90th minute this was another edge of the seat contest with Everton coming out on top. The win took the Toffees to 3rd place in the table. This was, however short lived as this was the season when they appointed the in vogue Mike Walker from Norwich City. Everton scrambled to safety on the last day of the season when Wimbledon Goalkeeper, Hans Segers, threw one of Graham Stuart’s pea-rollers into the back of his net. Sheffield United were relegated in 20th position (this was back when there were 22 teams).

(Go to 6:55 – 7:35 to see snippets of this game)

VPL FF points:

Name	Minutes	GC	Assists	Goals	YC	RC	BAPS	Total Points
Cottee	90	2	0	3	0	0	3	17
Whitehouse	90	4	1	1	0	0	2	12
Ebbrell	90	2	0	1	0	0	1	8
Cork	28	4	0	1	0	0	0	5
Scott	90	4	1	0	0	0	0	5
Holmes	90	2	1	0	0	0	0	5
Rideout	90	2	1	0	0	0	0	4
Beagrie	48	2	1	0	0	0	0	4

FPLVintage Values:

EFC VFPL Value SUFC VFPL Value Neville Southall 6.0M Alan Kelly 5M Andy Hinchcliffe 6M Carl Bradshaw 4M Gary Ablett 5M John Pemberton 4.5M Paul Holmes 4.5M Dave Tuttle 5M Matt Jackson 5.5M Tom Cowan 4.5M John Ebbrell 6M Mitch Ward 5M Peter Beagrie 6.5M Paul Rogers 5M Graham Stuart 6M Dane Whitehouse 6.5M Mark Ward 5M Andy Scott 4.5M Tony Cottee 8.5M Willie Falconer 5M Paul Rideout 7.5M Jostein Flo 5M Preki Rado'ljevic 5M Paul Beesley 5M Stuart Barlow 4.5M Alan Cork 4.5M

Once again if you have any memories of this game or the 1993/94 season in particular please feel free to reminisce with me.

If there is a game you are gagging to relive send me a request and I’ll add it to my ever increasing list.

Although I don’t have great memories of the Everton v Sheffield United game, I’ll never forget those Readers Wives!

Thanks for reading.

@FPLVintage

Stag's Knight - Gameweek 12

The Stag surveyed the expanse of colours laid out before him. The jerseyed knights jostled for positions, snarling as they sought the upper ground and over enthusiastically celebrated their triumphs. However, The Stag required a differential.  Only a knight less than 20% of the herd would do.  Only one knight could help him vault the others over the next 3 gameweeks.  Only one knight could bring him the fabled Green Arrows.  A knight to brighten his day.

For some I’m sure Gameweek 11 was great. I’m sure you had goals galore, a few clean sheets and Man U defenders rather than City ones. Nice for some. My gameweek was distinctly average and frustrating. Southampton and City’s failures to put more than 2 goals each past two of the league’s worst defences meant I was caught rotten. I also decided to hold off getting Lukaku for one more week. Everton were very poor against Man U, uninspiring against Arsenal, and my front 7 had all favourable fixtures or had proven themselves to be undroppable. Consequentially, one Arouna Kone was sitting pretty on the 1^st slot on my bench. Each time he found the net against Big Sam’ Black Cats was torment. The fact that he did it three times had me writhing. But that’s what we FPL managers put ourselves through, especially wannabe FPL geniuses like myself who ought to be further up the rankings by now, back to my usual top 100k minimum. Alas that’s not the case… yet!

I’ll preface my pick by highlighting other teammates of this week’s Stag’s Knight who would be more than worth having or keeping. Big Rom Lukaku is obviously Everton’s best known and most prolific attacking option. His ownership is well above Stag’s Knight’s 20% threshold so I couldn’t choose him, but he is highly recommended. One thing myself and many more longer term FPL managers will be painfully aware of is that Lukaku can be a massive let down. He has done so in the past multiple times and will certainly do so again. That said, when he gets that big points haul, we’re never surprised. Ross Barkley also comes with good ratings from me. A powerful midfielder who has proven himself adept to notching up goals and getting assists shouldn’t be discarded. I’ll put his apparent inconsistent point hauls down to a mixture of inexperience and Everton’s team’s inconsistency as a whole. However, even if his ownership was below 20%, I probably wouldn’t have chosen him purely because he failed to play an FPL point accredited role in any of the SIX goals the Toffees managed to put away. That’s just unforgivable. I wouldn’t think it prudent join the rush to bring in Kone yet either. Before last weekend, his game time was very limited. In the 4 previous 4 games, he had appeared for 19, 12, 45 and 2 minutes. Do I think he’ll start this weekend? Honest answer is I wouldn’t be so sure. Logic dictates that the guy who scored a hat-trick should start, but Martinez has rarely played 2 strikers from the start in my memory. If you have him, hang on, but please don’t chase last week’s points without thought.

Without further ado, Gameweek 11’s Stag’s Knight is Everton’s Spanish midfield maestro Gerard Deulofeu. The La Masia graduate has been outstanding recently, and has cemented his role as the team’s primary creator since his return to Merseyside. Last weekend was his best performance yet, when he picked up 2 assists and a well-deserved goal. He also provided the pass for Ross Barkley’s goal at Arsenal in Gameweek 10. He has a goal and 5 assists in total so far this season, and looks to have finally nailed down his starting positions for the foreseeable future.

The Toffees travel to London this weekend to tackle Bilic’s West Ham. The Irons’ defence has been leaky of late, especially in front of their own fans. Next, they’ll have to Garde against complacency against strugglers Villa at Goodison before travelling south again to put a few past Bournemouth. All in all, these are 3 games that our favourite Spaniard could romp home with a decent haul. The 6.2 million price tag and staggeringly low 0.4% ownership means you’re likely to be one of very few (if any) that reap the rewards.

A maestro, a differential. Your Stag’s Knight for Gameweek 12-14 is Gerard Deulofeu.

Contact me @FPLStag

(Click to enlarge)

Chief's #FPL Team - Gameweek 12

Disclaimer: *FPLH reserves the right to change this team at any time. Any changes made will  most likely be confirmed on FPLH's Twitter account.

 CHIPS USED: 0

GW TRANSFER(S): 1

  ROJO (IN)

  FRANCIS (OUT)

  WILDCARD: UNTOUCHED

(TBU after GW12 deadline)

FREE @FPLHints Classic League Code (JOIN) : 274-641

Thoughts & Reasoning:

The less said about the last 3 Gameweeks, the better. I have fallen 500,000 places after de Bruyne and Aguero gifted me 97 points in Gameweek 8. I opted against using my wild card during the subsequent international break due to the big haul. I guess that was a mistake as my squad needed tweaking and my short term -4 hits didn't make a significant impact. What's telling is that my defensive choices have been poor.  I have chopped and changed so much at the front that I have neglected the back - in fact Kolarov and Begovic have been the only defensive changes since Gamewek 1. I guess I need to correct that before it's too late. It's officially my worst start to a FPL season. The only way is up (I hope).

I didn't want to take a hit in Gameweek 12 as I will activate my wild card once the deadline passes so that I can toy with it during the international break.  I know that the panelists on the FanFeud podcast talked about the merits of doubling up with Leicester (Mahrez and Vardy). But looking at my "Front 7" I felt that it doesn't need changing for this weekend, which meant that I could address some defensive issues.  I decided to sell Francis due to Bournemouth's lack of clean sheets. I think Newcastle are capable of scoring 1+ against them even if they lose.  Rojo made sense due to a number of reasons - low ownership (1.3%), cheap price close to a rise (£5.4m), attained bonus points in his recent starts but most significantly United have been keeping clean sheets.  In addition, United have a good run of upcoming games, the first of which is against a WBA team that has been scoring less than a goal a game.

As for my captain, it was a choice between Vardy and de Bruyne.  I opted for the latter as I feel that the Belgian can be an explosive FPL player and is due a goal. The fact he didn't play a full 90 minutes last weekend or during the week is a good sign - he has bagged some rest. He's facing a Villa team that has conceded almost 2 league goals a game since Gameweek 1. I know that Vardy has form on his side, but he is facing a Watford team that is defensively robust. If Ighalo doesn't start against Leicester they may do all they can from keeping the Foxes from scoring. Vardy is due a blank. Could this be the weekend for it? Finally, another novel reason which validates de Bruyne as captain is based on an interesting fact that I discovered through Fantasy Football Fix.  He's playing just after Sunday lunchtime (13:30 GMT) which appears to be the most optimum time for average goals scored, as follows:

@fplhints SAT lunchtime 2.75, SAT afternoon/evening 2.27, SUN lunchtime 2.93, SUN afternoon 2.55, MNF 2.71

— Fantasy Football Fix (@FantasyFootyFix) August 22, 2015

Good luck to you all!

@FanFeudPodcast - Gameweek 12

Weekly Fantasy Football Show

Will Lukaku knock you for 6?


With Trent Copeland @copes9 (debut),
Chorley Rocks & Kev Kelly.

Hosted by @DaveOGrady1

You can also listen on iTunes. 

Feel free follow FanFeudPodcast on Twitter.