Welcome to the ISO challenge for season 2010/11, in its new home here in OFL!

The ISO competition has been going for 5 years in the land of TFFO, but has been forced away this season by the cancellation/murder (whichever way you look at it) of that game.

Introduction to the game
The rules of ISO are quite simple. Every participant starts with the same (agreed) squad line-up, and must make the same (agreed) selection choices over the first weekend of matches. From then onwards, everyone may manage their own team as they like, and by May we will see who has managed their transfers and subs best, and who has won ISO 2010/11!

Minileague
There is a F&E league set up for this competition:
League name: FISO ISO
Pin: 5018
Teams should be called "ISO <username>" (eg. ISO reds363), and it is one team per person. Teams should be in the league by the first weekend (although with OFL's facility to see a team's history, exceptions could be made within reason).

Squad
By tradition, the starting squad is decided by the previous year's ISO winner, following a process of discussion and debate amongst entrants. The reigning champion happens to be me ( ), so at some point this week or next (is this week too early?) I will put together a first draft of a squad. This squad will then be debated, criticised and changed until a final 16 is settled on.

We'll aim to have the squad finalised about a week before the season starts, so that managers away in the run-up to August 14 can still set up their team with the correct squad.

The following is the CONFIRMED squad (subject to change only if someone picks up a 'reasonably significant' injury or has an unexpected late transfer before August 14)

Gomes (TOT, 3.8)

Johnson (LIV, 4.9)
Bale (TOT, 4.4)
Baines (EVE, 4.1)

Vidic (MUN, 5.2)
Vermaelen (ARS, 4.6)
Collins (AVL, 3.9)
Dann (BIR, 3.6)

Lampard (CHE, 6.9)
Fabregas (ARS, 6.2)
Arteta (EVE, 4.3)
Dempsey (FUL, 3.9)
Dunn (BLA, 3.8)
Etherington (STK, 3.8)
Petrov (BOL, 3.6)

Drogba (CHE, 7.9)

Total cost: 74.9

Under ISO rules everyone must make the same selections for the first weekend, so for 14-16 August you must field all 16 players for their matches.
Also under ISO rules no transfers are permitted until 20:01 on August 16 (ie after the last match of the first weekend has kicked off).


Participation
This game is open to any FISO member, whether you're an ex-TFFOer, an OFL regular, both or even neither! Obviously you can still win any of OFL's prizes, but there's no prize for the ISO competition itself, other than honour (and the right to choose next season's starting team). It's all the fun of any entry in OFL, minus the trouble of deciding your starting squad yourself, plus the extra banter and competition provided by the ISO challenge. Get involved!


I think that's everything, until the first draft! Feel free to express interest or ask any questions below. Cheers!

Due to the 2 player/ club rule in OFL that can be legally circumvented in the game by having a player that has moved clubs, it is possible that earlier entries will be able to have 3 (or more) players from any given club whilst later entries will not be able to match the original selections.

If say the ISO entry is finalized one week before the season starts, the bulk of those playing enter the same team then a couple of days before the season starts one player is transferred to a club that already has 2 players in the 16 then anyone entering after OFL has updated the transfer will not be able to match the ISO team. It may not be possible for those that have already entered to make changes a day or two before the season starts so that everyone can have an identical 16 to those that enter late (away from a PC/ holidays/ whatever) but still before first KO.

Not sure how this possibility can be totally avoided but it is something we need to be aware of.

I'll enter a team.

I'll definitely enter, looking forward to the first draft Reds. Re Vids post above, there's a chance that could happen it must be pretty slim? If it did there's not much we could do about it so late, best pick a side immuned to transfer gossip!

Count me in!

Vid, thanks for pointing that out, definitely could be an issue and I hadn't thought of it. I can't think how to completely avoid this possibility, but for avoiding players from the transfer rumour mill as NM said!

I'm sure it could yet affect many more players, but the main three that spring to my mind now as (according to transfer speculation) being in this situation are Figueroa (WIG-LIV?), Schwarzer (FUL-ARS?) and with today's story Milner (AVL-MCY?). Although the former two may well become bargains, I'd not be devastated at leaving any of the three out.

If anyone does have a bright idea of a way round this possible problem though, or a nice fair solution, please do tell! I'd want to lay down a rule, because we could always have a surprise August 12th story of "Drogba to Man City" (and then with Lescott and Barry already in the squad , late entrants would be screwed ).

Best I can think of now is to let early entrants keep the player as was (eg Figueroa as Wigan): can't really force them to change, as anyone on holiday won't be able to and will then gain an advantage. Later entrants obviously must take Fig as LIV unless there's already 2 LIV players in the squad (unlikely, yes!), in which case they'd have to take a nominated (by me) reserve pick. Not ideal though, as that will make the squads un-ISO

Add me in.

I will have a go again

Never played OFL before but fancy starting off now

I am looking forward to playing this in this league, it sounds interesting all starting off with the same players, it should be quite a tight league points wise. You can count me in.

Hi guys, here's an attempt at a first draft of the squad for ISO 2010/11! (Or more precisely, a second draft, as I originally had included Drogba but have just done a re-working following the news that he'll miss the kickoff. It wasn't completely obvious to ditch him, but my reading of "back in full training in 3 weeks" is that he will definitely miss game 1, and could well miss or be a sub for games 2 and 3 too. I didn't want to have an inactive Chelsea player, especially with such nice opening fixtures.)

Gomes (TOT, 3.8)

Johnson (LIV, 4.9)
Bale (TOT, 4.4)
Baines (EVE, 4.1)

Vermaelen (ARS, 4.6)
Collins (AVL, 3.9)
Dann (BIR, 3.6)

Lampard (CHE, 6.9)
Fabregas (ARS, 6.2)
Malouda (CHE, 4.7)
Arteta (EVE, 4.3)
Dempsey (FUL, 3.9)
Dunn (BLA, 3.8)
Etherington (STK, 3.8)
Petrov (BOL, 3.6)

Drogba (CHE, 7.9)

Total cost: 74.3

(**Note 5/8: changes have been made to this squad, this original draft is kept here for reference but please see top post for up-to-date version**)



Keeper: I thought the options around 3.8 were better vfm than the top keepers. It was between Gomes and Friedel (Howard ruled out due to 2 must-have Evertonians elsewhere), the Spurs stopper edged it since the Gomes-Collins pairing beats Friedel-Dawson by £0.1m and results in one less player clash.

Full-backs: Bale and Baines are musts in my opinion: decent price, pretty decent defences and attacking points galore means I expect 40-50 points from them each. There's a similar argument for Glen Johnson but I anticipate more debate about him due to his higher price, Liverpool's declining form, and their early fixtures. Evra (MUN, 5.2) could be an alternative if he will start the season.

Centre-backs: Vermaelen needs little introduction: no reason why he won't get close to his 7 goals of last year, should get 45-50 points if he gets a full season. Collins is a regular in Villa's usually-safe defence, and a cheaper option than Dunne with equal goal-scoring potential. Finally I picked Birmingham for a cheap defensive option, they were solid most of last year and should be again, Dann won what may as well have been a coin toss against Roger Johnson.

Chelsea slots: I've treated this as a special category, given that I identified four Chelsea players offering great scoring potential and good vfm, but can only pick two. Originally Drogba was the must-have as I thought he'd improve on last season's score with no African Cup to interfere this year, and he's the best choice for a top-end striker which I feel is needed for the balance of the team. After deciding to ditch him however, this left Lampard and Malouda to take the two Chelsea slots, with the decision going against Ashley Cole mainly because there is more value elsewhere amongst full-backs than there is in midfield.

(other) Midfielders: Fabregas is a must. If he avoids injury problems, he will match Lampard for points (Fab was actually slightly ahead on last season's scores, going by points per game). For me, Arteta is also a must. He got 24 points in a third of a season last year, he might not continue that over a whole season but I'm expecting well past 50 points from him. He's Everton's Fabregas and is a bargain for 4.3.

Now down to the 3.9-3.6 range which I think holds a lot of good value options. Dempsey is my first pick, a point per game last season and should at least match that again, particularly if he plays second striker behind Zamora with AJ (or any other Fulham striking option) nowhere to be seen. Next comes David Dunn: nearly a point and a half per game last year, he is involved in most things Blackburn do and takes penalties, bargain! Etherington for Stoke is another point-per-game man, loads of assists from crosses and set-pieces, with a few goals too and possibly penalty-taking duties(?). Finally, it's hard to say someone at 3.6 is a must-have but Petrov comes darn close. He's always delivered goals and assists when played at Man City, at Bolton he'll be a certain first-choice and should easily deliver 30+ points. A full injury-free season and I can see him getting closer to 50.

Striker: Gone with Rooney in the expectation he will start the season, Fergie's latest news being that he's rushing his World Cup players back in time for kick-off. Rooney will also have played for England the week before, so I'm sure he'll be lining up for the opening Prem fixture. United's opening fixtures look pretty good, and the other reason I went for Rooney is as a 'placeholder' for Drogba to allow a straight transfer on his return if you wish.

Other rejected options at the top-end of strikers included Van Persie (already got two Arsenal players), Anelka (didn't want player who would very likely have a shelf life of max 3 weeks), Tevez (not keen on Man City till I see how their team will look, tough first 2 fixtures gives extra excuse to avoid for the start) or Torres (uncertain future transfer-wise and injury-wise).

I would have quite liked 2 strikers, as I believe the much-talked-about 1-3-3-7-2 formation is most suited to ISO because of the flexibility it allows for future transfers. But strikers below the very top end are just not good value compared to the top midfielders, when you consider how many points they'll return. Say if I wanted Darren Bent as a second striker, I'd have to sacrifice Lampard or Fabregas who I expect to beat Bent by around 30 points over the season. Ditching Lampard would let me upgrade elsewhere to a Chelsea slot, eg Glen Johnson to Ashley Cole, but I don't think that gain would cover Lampard's loss.

Note there's very little problem in itself with having 8 midfielders: with the selections above you'll only have to bench a midfielder on two occasions until the end of November.


So there you have it! Sorry for rambling on rather long, but I would now like to welcome views, criticisms, praise(?) of the above, and in particular any suggestions for changes. There's a bit of spare money at this stage to help with any required jiggery-pokery! I want to have agreed the squad (subject to subsequent injuries) by a week on Friday: August 6th. Cheers guys!

PS. I have just set up the Friends and Enemies minileague for the ISO game:

League name: FISO ISO
PIN: 5018

Please put your team into the league by August 14th (but sooner if you can!). Remember to name your team "ISO <username>", eg ISOreds363, so we can easily track who's winning (and losing!)

Nice one Reds!

Should get a decent return from all those players, not too many risks for a starting line up apart from the odd injury prone midfielder I'd not really considered just having 1 striker as all the big points (Lamps/Fab excluded) came from there last season, but it does mean you don't have to skimp on the rest of the squad could well pay off.

Really happy to go with the squad as it is, if I had to pick out something it'd be the inclusion of Malouda (simply because it means 2 subs to drop in Drogba as we already have Lamps). If we went with another of the cheaper midfielders from a different club we can skate around that. Eg swap Malouda for someone else in the 3.6-3.9 range, then together with the spare cash in there possibly upgrade Collins to Vidic. Just gives slightly easier options for the Drog?

I'm up for it, ISOFil16 pending...

I'm happy with the squad. Allows those of us who can't resist and early tinker plenty of options. Having never played this game before I didn't realise that you could pick different combinations of players i.e 1 striker and 7 midfielders. I'll have to start again with my own teams back to the player lists..... ISO marke192 about to join up.

Mine's now pending too

Yeah, I'm happy to go with that. Looks alright, very different to my own squad, and a bit of cash spare for tinkering. What more can you want

Yes very much so, as long as you have one of the valid formations in your first 11 you can have whatever you want on the subs bench. I have seen squads in the past with 10 midfielders for example, although in reality you want to make sure you won't have too many clashes where you have to bench players. But the flexibility is great, allowing you to transfer say a midfielder for a centre-back. I'm sure my squad's formation would change at least 6-8 times over a season.


Back to the squad:
Glad you think this (especially as the most prominent ISO tinkerer of recent years ), it's one of the main things I hoped to achieve to make for an interesting ISO.

Thanks for your thoughts also NM!

I'll give you that! But I think Petrov and Dunn are such good value they're worth a bit of risk, I think they'd even get an acceptable points return for their price if they missed 1 game every 4. They've been playing a full part in pre-season which is a good sign, and you've got 25 transfers ready to use for when they do get injured


I'm just going to re-arrange that suggestion (relating to the point I made above about flexible formations), in terms of more similarly-priced swaps. First consider (a) Malouda Vidic, and then think about (b) Collins (eg. Dorrans) if (a) is accepted. (Note I wouldn't do (b) without (a) as that would leave 9 midfielders which is too many imo, but (a) without (b) is fine.)

Any thoughts on this? Or from anyone else on the Chelsea/Malouda situation in general? Because of their opening fixtures I was fixed on the idea that we must have 2 Chelsea players from the start, but it does leave the door open better for Drogba if we don't.

Another option if removing Malouda would be to move to the more flexible 2-striker formation via something like (Rooney+Malouda) (two mid-priced strikers, eg Bent+Saha/Agbon)? Although actually this would still need 2 trannies to get Drogba in, for cash reasons, so maybe scrap that!

One final idea, if we save 0.3 somewhere in the squad it would leave 1.0 spare and enable Drogba to be brought in directly for Lampard.


Sorry for so many options, I'm even confusing myself! Any more ideas welcome though!

I guess there's not a lot to choose between any of them, whatever you go with it's a decent squad. You're right when you look at the opening fixtures it's crying out to pick 2 Chelsea, plus Malouda's bound to score big now I said leave him out so leave him be! Plenty of room for an early tinker if we fancy.

Just seen this. Thanks Reds, and thank for the tip Vid. I was already roughing out a few teams and I can tell you most, but not all the names on my list are on this team. Your explanations confirm most of my analysis and goes well beyond. Leaving room for the possible Rooney/Drogba transfer is a good idea with DD likely to miss the first match or so. Of course then Malouda would have to go as well, but that's doable.
I plan to sign up in a day or so. Great to see so many old TFFOers onboard and I hope some new folks will join us. How about it Kdub?

Hi Reds363

ISO Arabian Knight in and pending.

Have played OFL before but never with the same starting squad - should be interesting

Thanks
DV

Nice idea. ISO bspittles is now pending

Good to see some OFL boys joining in, should make for some friendly rivalry: can the 'TFFO guys' manage to outplay the 'OFL masters' on their own ground?


Regarding the squad, the first draft is looking strong favourite to last through to August 14th.

I'm just keeping tabs on a few stories though, which may affect us:
Collins - picked up injury last week, not too serious but MO'N said it's one to take steady. Probably will be ok.
Fabregas - only returns to training late next week, surely will still be in the team on the 15th though?! Also the Barca stories that keep going on
Drogba - apparently in their travelling squad to Germany today (despite some other 'injured' players staying home: Cech, Alex, Bos etc), surely he's not back ready to play? Will keep an eye on their match tomorrow.

Just signed up. Waiting for approval.

in the hours it takes to read Pouzar's posts, where would we be without the

::: POUZAR TRANSLATOR :::

pouzar says, "I'll have a go at OFL"

Or maybe not

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 11,00.html

Anyone think we should stick without Drogba?!

I don't think it really matters, as the main reason for most entering (I suspect) is to see how we get on from the same starting position. In fact, leaving him out might make it more interesting - just to see who will use a transfer (and who they will sacrifice) to get him in ready for the following set of games!

While that is true, the starting squad is also intended to allow the teams the best possible chance to compete for overall positions. (Back in TFFO there were usually around 5 (out of 25-30) ISO teams in the season-ending top-100 standings.) In my opinion the squads would be in stronger positions starting off with Drogba than without (points-wise; and also transfer-wise: considering many managers would burn 2 transfers to immediately get him in), so I am inclined to make the change.

Ready to go, waiting for approval!

I'll be useless in this comp, my only game I was at least a bit competitive was TFFOSM......
Expect my to end up secont to last in the league table...

Seems like a good squad to me, although I'm struggling to find much discussion of the formation on the forum? Will enter my team in the next 2 or 3 days..