This weekend was the most bizarre week of Fantasy Football this season – I looked around at everyone’s captaincy choices, and wondered whether I chose the correct one. Di Maria went off after 13 minutes with a tight hamstring and I officially had a captaincy nightmare. But then other teams captains played, Sanchez and Hazard got three and Costa got one solitary point. It was at this point that I realised I was one of millions of managers having a disastrous game week.
Krul didn’t pass his fitness test and Mannone is out of favour, which meant I didn’t have a goalkeeper. My risk of bringing in Evans didn’t pay off as he wasn’t match fit, none of my defenders kept a clean sheet, Di Maria played 13 minutes as mentioned and Costa got a yellow card and no goals.
The only heros were Aguero with two assists (and no bonus points for doing so), Sigurdsson with an assist and two bonus points and my new signing Bony with a goal and a bonus point.
That all culminated in a total of 34, when the average was 39, meant red arrows were here again. I slipped down the global rankings but not nearly as much as I thought I would – clearly an awful week all round. I’m now just outside the top 1000 in the country and 70,856 globally. I need a positive festive season if I want a top 20 000 finish.
GAMEWEEK 13 TEAM
GAMEWEEK 14 TRANSFER
Another tough week lies ahead, there are midweek games, which means loads of people will forget to change their sides, meaning it’s a great time to make changes and gain ground.
I have already read on social networking sites that people are taking 4, 8 and even 12 point hits this coming gameweek. It sounds like madness, but here’s why….
Angel Di Maria has over 30% ownership and is ruled out of Tuesday’s match and probably next weekends match too. Tim Krul has 20% ownership and is injured for a month, Diego Costa picked up his fifth yellow card which means a suspension, which almost 60% of fantasy managers will now be wondering what to do with him.
My problem is that I have Krul, Mannone Evans, Bruce, Di Maria and Costa in my side, who are all suspended, injured or out of favour at the respective clubs. Whilst my wildcard is still available to me and has been calling me since yesterday – I’m quite reluctant to use it, as I feel I can clean up the mess with just two changes and a four point hit. I don’t want to get rid of Evans as I think he’ll be a long term investment. I’ll just have to wait a week or two for him to get match fit. I’m not willing to get rid of Costa for one gameweek when his next fixtures are Newcastle, Hull and Stoke. My goalkeeper situation is dyer at the moment which frustrates me more than anything! At the start of the season I always select two ‘keepers that play so I can keep them for the season – but it hasn’t worked out that way, so I need to get Krul out. I also want to get rid of Di Maria. He’s far too expensive to be sitting on my bench for a few gameweeks.
TRANSFER DECISION
I want to bring in a ‘keeper that I don’t ever have to worry about him being benched. I have decided to bring in David De Gea – I’ve being saying for weeks now, Manchester United are hitting their straps and settling under LvG and I believe they are going to have a decent festive season. Bringing the United keeper in left me with 8.8 million to spend on a midfielder. Quite a few caught my eye, the likes of Downing, Eriksen, Oscar and even Sterling were short-listed. But in the end, I settled on a man with only 6% ownership. A slight risk, but with Di Maria being side lined, I think Juan Mata may turn out to be a shrewd acquisition to my side. I enjoy bringing in players with low ownership, like last week, I brought in Bony, with 5% ownership, I had lots to gain, and his goal meant I got points that others didn’t. I’m hoping for the same from Mata.
GAMEWEEK 13
CAPTAIN’S ARMBAND
Quite a number of potential captains this week, my brain is screaming AGUEEEERRRROOOOOOO to me, but Mata against Stoke is tempting, as is Sigurdsson and Bony versus QPR. Barkley is bound to hit form, and against Hull, could be that day. With Costa being suspended, Hazard may play a higher role. In the end, I’m going for Wilfred Bony to lead the line, and Aguero to take up the VC.
THOUGHTS
What changes are you making this week? Share your thoughts in the comments below.