Week 26

[Oddsman]

Haven’t done one of these for 3 months so here goes. The days of us all fighting over doing the weekly are well and truly gone.

Flange 1 : Tuesday 19:45
Hull 1-1 Chelsea
Palace 3-1 Wolves
Wigan 0-2 Notts County

Flange 2 : Wednesday 19:45
Fulham 1-0 Portsmouth
Leeds 1-3 Tottenham

Flange 3 : Saturday 12:45
Liverpool v Everton
The Merseyside derby kicks off our weekend entertainment. Many will be hoping that Gerrard starts firing again after clearly missing his mate Torres. The steady Kuyt has benefited from El Nino’s absence and would be a worthy choice for the captain’s armband. Other than a Liverpool defender, it may well be worth looking at the likes of Baines, Fellaini, Cahill, Pienaar, and Saha from an ever improving Everton side.

Flange 4 : Saturday 15:00
Bolton v Fulham; Burnley v West Ham; Hull v Man City; Man Utd v Portsmouth; Stoke v Blackburn; Sunderland v Wigan
Pick and captain Rooney, period.
The only real dilemma you might have here is who to bench. With Rooney being a nailed on pick, it will leave many with a Tevez or Bent headache or something similar.

Flange 5 - Saturday 17:30
Spurs v Aston Villa
Defoe is the obvious captain choice here after his midweek hat-trick. If not, Ashley Young, Milner, Agbonlahor or a Villa defender could be handed the armband here.

Flange 6 : Sunday 13:30
Birmingham v Wolves
The early Sunday kickoff is the West Midlands derby. Doubt many will have too many decisions to make here, but you could profit by captaining a Brum defender, Bowyer, Jerome, Doyle or the much preseason hyped Milijas.

Flange 7 : Sunday 16:00
Chelsea v Arsenal
Take your pick from the usual suspects here. As a rule I find games between the B4 are notoriously difficult to predict regarding captain choice. I remember trying to get cute with the MU v LIV game last season by captaining Vidic in my top 2 teams. Utd lost 1-4 with Vidic being sent off.

With MV still setting a cracking pace at the summit, it begs the question of how many teams can still win? I would be gobsmacked if anyone outside the top 100 could pull off a victory now, given that their minimum requirement would be to overhaul MV’s massive 232 plus points advantage. My second and third highest placed animals are in 60th and 64th place and they are over 200 points behind. Even more telling is that there are only four of us within a 100 points of his lead. However, before we all go throwing in the towel let’s not forget that MV was at the summit in mid-March 2008 only to collapse and finish 18th. So perhaps there will, after all, still be a few twists and turns during the long run in.

[FrankieFrog]

Still a good 3 months of the season left, but so relentless has MindVampire's pace been throughout the season it would be pretty harsh if he figured outside the top 3.

Even with a squad in 8th, but 122 off the pace, I'm already feeling like I'm playing for a place, or Superleague points, rather than challenging for the top, and I'd be surprised if anyone below 8th came through to win it given how well the top squads seem set up and how they consistent they perform week after week.

[Northernmonkey]

Cheers for the preview Oddsman

I'll echo the above.. it's been so hard to make any kind of dent in MV's lead and the other top sides. Chasing those above you with seemingly identical players is never going to be easy, while straying from the usual suspects to star just gets you nowhere. Once upon a time a starred hatrick meant a healthy rise, but recently it's not made a jot of difference. I've been nailing all the big points throughout January but still hovering around 30th, it's all been a little predictable in recent weeks.

I do think the return of Drogba will spice things up as is likely to mean losing a decent fit striker to make way, plus the return of Europe and the FA cup will still chuck a spanner in it, could do with some shoot outs though. Personally I'm just gunning for a decent finish, I'll be over the moon to get top 10 again and hopefully still fighting for ISO title come May.

This weekend looks all fairly straightforward apart from a crocked Johnson's my only Liverpool cover in ISO and don't fancy starring Heitinga!

[Worm]

Cheers Oddsman

I think I only have around 3 players now that can make any impact into my current position with my leading team One of those is SWP & he can't even get a starting gig. Throw in a rested Valencia & you are always going to be pushing the poop uphill to make any inroads. Pretty much have everyone else that mostly anybody in the top 100 have now, so poor transfer utilisation has reared its ugly head once again in the land of Worm.

Agree with NM about some big personal tallies (like Defoe) having little effect on position climbing, which only adds to the frustration. Only captain choice, fitness & tidy management of transfers will have a true say in matters from here on. Good luck to those hunting the ever impressive MV for TFFOSM glory

[MindVampire]

However, before we all go throwing in the towel let’s not forget that MV was at the summit in mid-March 2008 only to collapse and finish 18th. So perhaps there will, after all, still be a few twists and turns during the long run in.

No guys... please throw in the towel

As for 2008... that was a funny season... I remember I made the dodgy decision of transferring out Lampard on wk 31 for the returning Bullard... only for Lampard to score 5 goals a week later in the FA cup Still... keeping Lampard wouldn't have won me the comp that year so no lost sleep there...

As for this year... and with still over a third of the season to go... I'm still capable of collapsing to much lower than 18th LOL

[Oddsman]

As for 2008... that was a funny season... I remember I made the dodgy decision of transferring out Lampard on wk 31 for the returning Bullard... only for Lampard to score 5 goals a week later in the FA cup Still... keeping Lampard wouldn't have won me the comp that year so no lost sleep there...

A few Lampard Bullard type transfers would certainly keep us all interested MV - including those outside the top 100

Your memory is slightly amiss though as Lampard scored 4 against Derby County in a league game. I still remember it fondly as I transferred Lamps back in that night

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 284938.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[looneytoon77]

Thanks for the write up Oddsman.

My team in the top 80 3 weeks ago has now gone back out to 238th! All due to injuries, not having Defoe or Lampard over the last few weeks. I can see my 4 teams all swapping places over the next 3 months, have officially thrown in any towel with regards to challenging anything, just trying to finish with a team in the top 100 overall by the end of the season as have not been out of that at the end of a season for the last few years!

[MindVampire]

Thanks for the write up Oddsman

Saturday scores: Lowest 39 pts, average 47 pts and highest 52 pts.
Mindvampire6 47 pts and Mindvampire2 46 pts.

[Northernmonkey]

A mixed bag for me 36 (ISO), 55, 57, 68, 47

[Oddsman]

About 50 for Iguana. Not too exciting really. Probably about a par score.

[Worm]

Leading team (164th) scored 58. Others were 63, 42 & 35 (ISO)

[reds363]

All three teams in the lowish 50s today, average

[melvin]

54 for me, a season high 119th place. Now can I break into that top 100

[Ashers]

Knew I should have put Drogba back in my team.

Bet Vamp6 has him.

[MindVampire]

Todays scores: Lowest 16 pts, average 45 pts and highest 61 pts.

[mike_d99]

It really is the season of the striker. These rapid-fire goal burts from various players are like hurdles; miss one and you're toast. Got well and truly Defoe'd in midweek and dropped from 9th to 15th in the process. Was 12th after yesterday, hoping some will have starred Lampard instead of Drogba today.

Best team scored 100 for the weekend. Other scores : 91 (ISO), 74, 101, 101, 93, 98.

Thanks for the write-up, Oddsman!

[Northernmonkey]

Weekend scores of 52 (ISO), 97, 73, 112, 97

A good weekend for my stragglers, a shite one for ISO.

It really is the season of the striker. These rapid-fire goal burts from various players are like hurdles; miss one and you're toast.

Yep. That pretty much sums it up!

[Worm]

All 4 teams ended up in the 80's with only ISO bouncing back a little thanks to Drogba.

[Biscuitman]

Looks like a fair few did not rush to bring Drogba (back) in - my position (23rd) barely changed despite being Drogba-less. Shortage of transfers possibly starting to take its toll?

[melvin]

Think its difficult to have a good mix of captain options if I brought in Drogba. Only option for me would be to get rid of Bent, but this would require 2 changes and transfers are now in short supply for me.