Week 3 - Crazy crazy transfer deadline week

Carroll is finally off Liverpool’s book, but only for a year and with an option for the Hammers to buy at the end of the season. Sahin, on loan from Real, will be given even more chances on the field now that Lucas is out for 2-3 months. Charlie Adam has been shipped to Stoke for £4m. We may see his Blackpool form again - take note fantasy managers. There is still room for Dempsey, Sturridge or Walcott to make their way to Anfield in the next few hours. And rumours that Leandro Damiao may be coming on loan! Wow.

Other notable transfer in the past few days:

- Sinclair to Citeh. Don’t think he will be spending that much play time.

- Julio Cesar and Esteban Granero to QPR.  Can’t be sure if Cesar will be replacing Rob Green as the Number 1, but Granero is definitely first team material.

- Dembele, easily the best player on the field against Man U last week, is now with Spurs. AVB may push him up in a more attacking role with VDV and Modric gone. The Hugo Lloris deal may have hit a snag at the moment. Another keeper for the season if the deal goes through.

- Martin O’Neill’s Sunderland project continues with the capture of Steven Fletcher (£14m!) and Adam Johnson. Will be exciting to see Johnson having more play time now.

My team for now.
Friedel (Jussi on standby)
Ivanovic (Santon or McCartney), Vert, Chiccccoooo
Carzola, Michu, Kagawa, Lallana
Hazard (K2 or CARROOLLLLL!), Tevez, Ba (or Cisse)

<update>
How can I forget this. Lazy Berbs has been sold to the Fulham bench. LOL

Week 2 - 2 points dropped

Skrtel broke many hearts yesterday. Liverpool were looking good for the win until the dreadful back pass to Reina. I’m still sick in the stomach thinking about it. Still, there were some positives from yesterday’s game. Sterling taking on defenders and adding the dash of unpredictability, something that Downing could not offer. Joe Allen looks like the real deal. Despite his small frame and being only 22, he was easily the most composed in the Liverpool team. Always finding the space to receive and redistribute the ball. His pass completion rate was quite astounding at 93.5%! Shelvey coming on to replace Lucas and working his socks off till the last minute. Rodgers’ confidence in Coates by including him in the team to face Citeh and adding another game under his belt.

This was my team for the weekend.

Cech
Ivanovic Vertonghen Vidic
Cazorla Michu Kagawa Lallana
Defoe Hazard Rooney

Other than Rooney (on the bench?!), Vidic (own goal) and Vert, the rest of the team returned more than 10 points each, giving me 107 points for Week 2. I’m sitting pretty at the top of the group with 278 points. My nearest rival is only 6.5 points behind. Chelsea won’t be playing next week, so a decision has to be made to drop any of Cech, Ivanovic and Hazard or all three of them. Will leave that to the later part of the week. Shall enjoy the summit for now. Woohoo!

Week 2: Barndoor Special!

In an attempt to do some catch up, I was up watching all the matches last weekend in order to get in on some Barndoor action.

I kept my back three and goalkeeper the same. I am not sure about Terry and Vertonghen though, but I suppose Terry will give us the occasional goal and Vertonghen likely playing with Kaboul is out with injury.

Starting with the mid-field, Barndoor-ed Michu and Cazorla, their performance was impressive in week1 and hopefully that form continues. Keep keeping faith in Oscar and Kagawa, in hope that they will start performing especially in the Man Utd vs Fulham, where Fulham will likely face the rage of Man Utd thanks to Everton!

Lambert impressed me enough to put him as one of my fowards. As for his striking partners I opted for Suarez and Tevez.  I could have gone for Hazard but by choosing Tevez, I am going for proven material. Lets see!

Good luck everyone!

Week 2 - Liverpool are challengers for the league title!

So says Mancini here.
Its official. The mind games have begun! 

Lets get back to business. Week 2 will see Liverpool hosting Citeh who will be without Kun. But having players like Dzeko and Why-Always-Me as back up is a luxury that Liverpool do not have. Agger will be suspended for this game and I shudder to think who will be filling his role. Carragher is past his prime and too slow, while Coates is still learning the ropes of the English game. Having said that, I hope liverpool will rise to the occasion, as they always do against bigger opposition.

Spurs, Swansea, Chelsea, Man U and Saints are the home teams that I will turn to this week.

Cech at 9.88 will be staying, unless I need the funds elsewhere. Kelvin Davis took 7 points from Citeh despite letting in 3 goals. At 7.18, and playing at home against Wigan, you should seriously consider him if you missed out on Cech last week.

Ivanovic, like Vermaelen, is comfortable playing at full-back or centre-back. And like the Belgian, he looks like the goal scoring defender you must have in your team this season. Kaboul is reportedly out with a knee injury. This may pave the way for Vertonghen’s introduction at White Hart Lane. Cheap option if you are being squeezed in other positions. Vidic looks good for a clean sheet and at 8.14, he may chip in with a goal or two from set pieces. I missed Chico (news of a groin injury) and Gibbs on the barndoor. Jenkinson is another alternative, with Sagna still out with an injury. Potential banana skin, as Stoke is the kind of team that Arsenal hates to play against with.

Michu. Need I say more? Man U will be tearing Fulham apart. Believe you me. If there is one Man U midfielder that you are getting, it has to be Kagawa. Still at near barndoor value and looked lively in the previous game. And since Man U will be demolishing Fulham, I am expecting SOTs/assists/goals from him. Lallana, is Saint’s heartbeat, and along with Carzola will be in my team this week. Siggy, Bale or Vdv if you have the moolah. Otherwise Lennon is a good choice too.

Eden “D Wizard” Hazard (as mentioned by Siwei) will terrorize the EPL defenders with his bag of tricks. If he is not scoring, he will be contributing with lots of assists this season (and winning penalties). Get him! I invested in Defoe before his value went up. With Spurs short on forwards, both him and Ade should be starting. Rooney, cos Man U will be steamrolling Fulham. Tevez will be leading the line at Anfield and looks a good bet for a goal. I will be hoping he gets 10 SOTs and zero goal.

My team for now.
Cech
Ivan Jenkinson Harte(will be dropped)
Carzola Michu Lallana Kagawa
Tevez Defoe Hazard

Hail d Wizard!

Pui! I am not going to analyze what I have done wrongly in my calculations or whatsoever .. i'll just blame everything on Aguero. It's like WTF? He was just caught by the follow-through challenge and then the next moment, he was lying in agony on the grass ... I knew my week gonna was ruined from then on ....

This week post aint about post-match views, isn't about my coming lineup ... It's about d Wizard!

Is there anyone who can stop this guy? Just 2 games into the season and Hazard seems like he has been here forever. Look at his composure, his calmness, his unselfishness, his trickery. Really regret why Man U didn't try as hard to sign him in the first place.

Even Reading's manager had ran out of ideas. Conclusion?

Well. He is definitely an exciting player to watch so keep a close tab on his progress.

I am flying off in 2.5hrs time, enjoying my vacation somewhere else. Won't be posting anything for this weekend games but I wish you the best of luck.

Let the game begins and may the odds be always in your favour ...

Week 1: First Day Jitters

With week 1 done and dusted, it seems that my idea of going for a majority of new imports did not really work out!

Chelsea players came to my rescue and I managed to get a total of 100 pts. Considering my past record this is pretty decent.

Looking ahead for week 2, Cech and Ivanovic seems like good keepers for the season. Not much confidence in our captain fantastic Gerrard, especially Liverpool having to play the raining champions.

Like Liverpool I am already quite a lot of points adrift from our own league table and will need to put in some hard analysis work and hope for some luck along the way!

  

Week 1 Redux

And so Week 1 has come and gone, except for the Chelsea-Reading game later. I’m lying in 3rd place with 105 points and 8 players (potentially!) coming on tonight.  

It was only the first game of the season, but WBA’s 3-0 thrashing of Liverpool gave me a familiar sinking feeling. But I guess it is better that the alarm bells start ringing now, so that the wrongs can be made right. Rodgers has warned the fans to expect more defeats while rebuilding. Let’s put the trust in him for now. I was expecting Gerrard to shine this season, but his lackluster performance in this game is giving me second thoughts. I’d stay away from any of their players for the next 4 games at home to Citeh, Arsenal, Man U and away to Sunderland.

Big surprises for Fulham and Swansea. Both teams won 5-0! If you had not barndoor-ed Michu (stil affordable 9.68), do it now! Siggy’s gone, but looks like Laudrup got another gem in Michu. Petric’s value skyrocketed after Fulham’s game. But with the Man U game coming up, it won’t be wise to pick any Fulham players. Man U will rip them apart at home after the loss to Everton. Will be keeping an eye on Petric for Week 3 and 4, if his value goes down.

Chelsea did an ok job against Wigan. Cech and Ivanovic will be my season keepers. Will be watching Hazard closely in tonight’s game. His price (7.74) hasn’t gone up too much. Ramires should be back too, after suffering from an illness and missing out in the first game.

Kun will be out for at least a month with the knee injury. I’m guessing Tevez to start in Citeh’s games till end September with either Dzeko or Why-Always-Me beside him. From the Arsenal-Sunderland highlights, Carzola was the midfield spark (reasonable return of 8.50 points for 5.66 market price) and will be a potential season keeper for me.

That about wraps it up for Week 1. Hat-tricks for Hazard and Torres (haha!) tonight! And a clean sheet for Cech and his defenders.

Week 1: Investing on New Imports!

Greetings!
Looks like we will be getting an overdose of Chelsea players since it's a double game week for them and Reading.  No difference from the other 2 fantasy-ers, I have loaded my probable team with Chelsea players as well.

Its always exciting to kick off a new season mainly because investing in new imports could bring great returns! So I picked 6 new imports in hope of striking gold!

Of course with additional funds from picking cheap new imports, I can afford to bring in high-scoring players like Terry and Gerrard!

Looking forward to the new season! Good luck fellow fantasy-ers!

WEEK 1: PLAYER PICKS

Hooray hooray ... after some tough work by MelG, he finally manage to invite me in as Author / Admin, so here I am. Well, just wanna start things of by congratulating Man U as WE finally gotten RVP and we have managed to assemble a lethal strikeforce, reckoned to be the best in Europe and some say it's as good as the old Fantastic Four!! Naise, okay ... I am a Man U fan so you will see many of these here and there ... if you hate me, I'm sorry but it's time to support the WINNER, not LOSERS!

The wait is finally over and we are just 24hrs away from the season opener. Note that Chelsea and Reading have a double game week so whack your fortunes on the players from these 2 teams to return the points. Here, I will be giving you the options that actually gone through my thinking hat .. just for reference :)

GK:
Cech
Federici

I was originally comtemplating of opting for Federici as 1, he has a double game and 2 he has the best stopping-goal conceded ratio out of the 3 teams that were promoted. Well ... not until I saw many others start choosing Cech that convinced me that he is the better choice ... a proven guardian between the posts and at his peak, he is stopping everything that comes towards him.

DEF:
Ivanovic
Cole
Harte
Terry

Ivanonic, Cole and Terry are guaranteed starters for Chelsea for both games and that will be two games in the bag for each of these players. But wait, there is the ever great Ian Harte that scores free kicks and penalties at will ... At the age of 36, there might be a concern of whether he will starting both games but I will just take the gamble. Life is a gamble anyway.

MID:
Ramires
McAnuff
Kagawa
Cazorla
Nolan
Marin

Ramires and Marin were the only confident picks I had a week ago until I learnt that Marin could be an injury doubt. That prompted me to look elsewhere for good midfielders to fill this week as the other Chelsea mids do not really appeal to me ... Mikel do not pick up any points imo and Lampard could be rested for a game after England's midweek friendly.

Kagawa and Cazorla are two exciting players brought into EPL this season and I certainly hope that both will carry on where they left off in their previous clubs and turn in a dream performance on their debuts.

I am not that familiar with the players from the promoted clubs but I have heard good things about McAnuff and Nolan. Your choice, your bet ... 

FWD:
Aguero
Hazard
Torres
Tevez

Man City has an easy game against Southampton and I am certain that Aguero/Tevez will score at least a goal or two (maybe even a hat-trick). At this moment, I am still wondering why SAF did not challenge Chelsea for Hazard's signature as he is the hottest prospect in recent years but well, life goes on and I will continue to support him in fantasy soccer. Torres is a certain pick in the forwards department as he is the only out and out striker for the Blues and yes, he has a double game too ... I am keeping my fingers though as I am not certain if he can rediscover his old form (during early Kop days).

My team so far:

Week 1 - Possible vs Probable

Possible team for week 1.
Reading and Chelsea play 2 games this week.

Cech is a no-brainer. 
Probably will swap Podolski for Tevez or Aguero.
Ditto Fabio and Kagawa, for 2 gamer Harte and Noble/Gerrard/Park/Silva.
Hazard may possibly make way for Mata, depending on team news.

<Updates>
After reading up on some team news and bearing in mind that this is the crucial first week, I have made the following, and hopefully, final changes.

Harte for Fabio - Fabio can wait. No way can I miss out on 2 gamer Harte along with the potential set pieces and penalty points. Fabio will be good barn door material for the coming weeks.

Tevez for Podolski - Not too sure about Podolski. Unproven in EPL and all that. Tevez is a seasoned EPL forward, looked really fit in pre-season, will be playing at home against EPL newcomer and most importantly, release the moolah to capture my next player...

Gerrard (he's getting a new car!) for Kagawa - With Lucas back together with Allen to protect the back four, Gerrard will once again be free! Free to do what he does best! Torment the opponent and score goals, lots of it! See season 08/09, when they had Alonso and Monsterano. He had 24 goals, 54 SOTs and 11 assists in all competitions. I'm hoping he rediscover that kind of form this season.

Still unsure about "dead" Torres...

Some random barn door targets for Week 2 - Lallana, Michu, Garrido, Park, Bosingwa (QPR! News just in!)...

Good luck for the season opener!

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