Me The (second-placed) Manager in YTM 2009/10
Can You Win YTM from a land down under?
...where only shift workers, insomniacs and those with small children are awake for many of the kick off times and the busy Xmas/New Year season is in the middle of the summer holidays? Some may say that's about as likely as the New Zealand All Whites going through a World Cup Finals campaign undefeated, so stranger things have actually happened!
Well...it didn't quite eventuate, but I did manage to grab 2nd place and this is the story of my narrow(ish) failure to become (possibly) the first Oceania winner of one of the English Fantasy Football majors:-
By way of background, I'd played YTM for several seasons, with a the odd team, or two, and little success - but built up some momentum at the end of the 2009/09 campaign when one of my sides periodically dipped its toes into the shark-infested waters of the top 100 and finished around 140th. During the later stages, I followed the leaderboard closely - partly because it was a compellingly close contest and also down time at work allowed me to post regularly on the YTM Forum, speculate on the composition of the top teams and take a serious look at what it might take to win this game.
This fuelled a plan to be fully competitive in 09/10 with a large-scale entry (50 teams) but, come August time, the demands of a new work contract, not to mention a new arrival at home, meant that I would only have time to manage a smaller group. On the plus side, there were few rule changes to break my accumulated gameplay knowledge and the retention of the weekly transfer deadline meant that it would be feasible to be competitive outside of European Time Zones.
Hence I decided on a 5 team entry with a common Chelsea spine; despite another change in management, I thought it likely that they would carry on from their strong finish to the previous term. The increased transfer allocation (15-20) probably put less emphasis on a strong starting 11, but I took few risks. One major decision was not to select both big money midfielders, partly because I had doubts about Gerrard's fitness. My other common selection was Darren Bent, as I felt confident that he'd score plenty as the main striker in an improving Sunderland team while priced as a Spurs reserve.
So, Hamilton Notspur kicked with Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Insua, O'Shea, Lampard, Taylor, Ireland, Drogba, Cole and Bent. This was my only startling line-up with Drogba and (although one did feature Rooney) that was probably the main reason for it being the best performer. I guess that 5 of the optimum starting 11 was a good starting position, even in the first season when the eventual winner managed to beat that magic total. Then, the action started and, with no transfers in August, it was time to sit back, ignore leaderboards (full of monthly prize-chasers) and watch some football again on Sunday mornings and before work in the week.
From game one, at Goodison, it became obvious that Fabregas was going to be essential - so, as soon as the embargo ended, I brought in the Gunner's captain for (reduced to bit-player) Ireland with the trade-up being funded by replacing the injured Carvalho and O'Shea with Baines and Warnock, respectively. The next transfer came too quickly for my liking, but was forced by an injury to Carlton Cole who I swapped out for Agbonlahor. I vaguely remember feeling that 4 transfers before the end of September had already put me behind
the 8-ball, but there was plenty of time left.
At this stage I did trawl through the Leaderboard, and FISO mini-league to see how many of the big guns had not been deterred by a substantial drop in the prize pool and found (with some help from the Forum), to my amazement, that Zoran had over 400 teams and the likes of Rui, Andy Luckhurst and Terry Gridley had substantial entries. Quite daunting, for a 5-teamer, to see that so many of the fantasy football heavyweights obviously felt that they had unfinished business from the bunched finish to 08/09.
By mid-October, Zoran already had a big lead and, as this was unlikely to be a monthly team, I posted a FISO question as to whether he had used a lot of transfers in an attempt to panic others, with lower entries, into doing likewise. The wisest reply came from Mr Luckhurst along the lines of just concentrate on gaining as many points as you can - and only worry about your opponents' line-ups if well-placed at the final stages of the season. Sounds simple enough, but thanks Andy, because that became my personal mantra for the remainder of the campaign.
A period of relative stability followed, until I started to get a tad concerned about the form of Matt Taylor - despite a goal at Old Trafford - and decided to take a chance on his cheaper, and more prolific, Lancashire neighbour - David Dunn. Well, that worked for 2 games (a goal and MotM on debut) before (in retrospect) the inevitable happened and Dunn was injured. So, to compound my error I made my worst choice of the season by replacing him with Ryan Giggs - fooled by a month of large points hauls and (possibly) influenced by the fact that I had Dempsey in another team which was doing equally well. Anyway ...Giggs then had a series of niggling injuries - nothing drastic enough to warrant instant dismissal, but he'd only delivered 9 points by the time that he was eventually swapped for Dempsey in January.
While I was struggling to retain patience with Giggs, I suddenly lost it With Agbonlahor and, prompted by the massacre of Wigan at White Hart Lane, adopted Jermain Defoe who had clearly won his battle for a regular stating spot with Robbie Keane. This was a reasonable switch as Gabby went into his usual mid-season slump and JDF scored a few - peaking with his FA Cup hat-trick at Leeds.
Moving towards the Xmas/New Year Holiday Period, all thoughts turned to a strategy for dealing with Drogba's impending departure for the African Cup. Given that the Ivory Coast were potential finalists, I decided to be bold and replace him instantly with Rooney. This, along with my swift adoption of Fabregas, was one of my key moves as Rooney instantly hit 5th gear on the point-scoring box and the issue switched to where else to accommodate the unstoppable African on his return.
Well that happened sooner than forecast, and when I was basking in another isolated holiday spot ; but on returning to base, I noted that Didier had scored on his first game back in the Premierhip, and Spurs had fired a couple of blanks - so Defoe made way for Drogba and the financial balance of my team was tilted, in unorthodox YTM fashion, firmly towards the strikers.
However, sometimes fantasy fortunes are equally determined by inaction - as illustrated by the fact that I sat on my hands when Fabregas got the first of several small knocks which had threatened to keep him out of the holiday programme. Perhaps it was because I was using up too many transfers elsewhere, but I got the benefit of his 2 goal haul,from the Bench, against Villa while my better placed at the time began a terminal slump when I gambled on a repeat of Cesc's slump in the second half of 08/09.
In fact Cesc kicked on until well into 2010, prompting a FISO debate as to whether he would go on to outscore Lampard. As events progressed, Lampard romped home by a staggering margin of 100 points, but that thread bore the seeds of the Leaderboard Chit-Chat that gave me and, I hope, a few others much added interest as the season transpired.
So...all good in the creative department, but none of my cheap defenders were scoring particularly well - so time to tinker in that area. The first victim was Leighton Baines - perhaps not the smartest move, as he scored well for many of the competing teams in the run-in, but injuries had given Ivanovic a regular starting berth at Chelsea, and he was a tad cheaper. Livepool's early FA Cup exit, and the ongoing threat of replacement by Aurelio, prompted me to replace the (then) under-peforming Insua with Ryan Shawcross who was cheap and proflic. Well, I got off to a flyer with Shawcross...and then ran out of luck as his extra-time FA Cup winner against City was out of scope and then came that tackle!
The curse of the 3rd midfielder struck again when Dempsey received a serious injury. Form, and price, dictated that colleague Duff was the obvious replacement but, having already been singed by 2 serial sickies, I decided to turn to N'Zogbia who, at that stage, was almost carrying Wigan on his own. Milner would have been my first choice, but I just didn't have the cash so I had to wait for him.
The next trade was another tinker - Warnock was picking up more bookings and knocks than clean sheets or assists, and Villa were about to hit March-itis so I made what transpired to be the excellent decision to replace with the slightly-cheaper Hangeland which prompted Fulham to go an a run of clean sheets with the odd bonus goal from the lanky Scandawegian. By this stage, I'd re-entered the Top 20, after a brief visit in February, and began a slow, but gradual, crawl up the ladder, with only the odd slip in position.
Although my position was improving by the week, transfers were running out so the last thing that I needed was an injury to a cheap striker, or my goalkeeper - cue the Champions League 2nd round in Milan and what appeared to be a season-ending injury to Cech. That soon became a couple of months, but could I afford to be stuck with a non-scoring, top of the range, keeper for that long? No, I summised, but I really struggled to decide on his replacement - in fact, I went for a different option in all 5 teams, but - with the onset of April, some crucial extra cash, and Villa's fixtures-in-hand - the top team selection was Freidel.
This also gave me the extra cash to (finally) buy Milner - a positive stroke but the moment seemed right for a touch on the accelerator rather than a foot on the brake which might allow others to pass me. However, I had taken a risk that my remaining transfers might all be reactive and that, sin of all fantasy football sins, I could run out before the final weeks.
Before long, Shawcross went over the top - but I had no heisitation in replacing him instantly with Bale. Well, young Gareth was my idea of a total disaster as a Spurs left back but, since Xmas, had transformed into the hottest left midfielder in the Premiership - priced as a reserve defender. At that time, he hadn't scored, but I felt that goals were on the way, to add to the assists and (home) clean sheets. Great move and, if Rui hadn't done the same a couple of weeks later, it could have been the winning one.
Now, transfers were definitely for major injuries only. Fabregas had another knock , and was unlikely to play at Brum...but I sat on my hands (actually I fell asleep at the PC on the Saturday night - past the UK lunchtime deadline) when I'd almost decided to replace him with Arteta. What a stoke of luck, Fabregas played and only scored a couple but Arteta had an unreported injury and missed the next few games.
Of course Fabregas proceeded to break his leg in the midweek game with Barca and Rooney also sustained a bad injury the next day, and I had no choice but to use 2 of my 3 remaining transfers. However, they were both easy decisions as Malouda and Tevez had become must-haves. In particular, Andy had lept to 1st place on the strength of 2 huge hauls from the former (the one in the 7-0 thrashing of Villa took me totally by surprise), so that move had to be covered and Tevez was scoring for fun.
So, several weeks out, I was left with just one, money-no-object, trade, for a season-ending injury or last minute tactical adjustment. This meant holding Ivanovic and Hangeland despite injuries and Euopa Cup driven rotation. Others seemed to be having less fortunate, notably those with the injured Insua, and I was still crawling, inch by inch, up the leaderboard , until reaching my finishing position on the glorious day of May 5th - when Spurs qualified for the Champions League. However, by an ironic twist of fate, Tevez's blank evening, together with Stoke's late winner at Craven Cottage, probably signalled the end of my chances of catching Rui.
Ultimately, I probably held on to my final transfer (Hangeland) for a week too long, because I was determined not to be caught by a last minute injury; but, befoe the last Premiership set of games, I made the optimum final swap of Ashley Cole. Cashley's 18 points against Wigan took me into clear 2nd place and, along with a goal-less day for Anelka, helped me hang on in the FA Cup Final.
My finishing position, and 18 point distance from the leader (who I never seriously troubled), was my best of the season so I don't have too many regrets or coulda-shoulda-didn't stories. On reflection, I'd describe it as a measured effort, if possibly lacking a bit of flare and imagination at times...close but not quite good enough. It would be easy to pinpoint individual matches - notably Rui's massive haul from the Burnley v Liverpool game - as turning points, but that would fail to do justice to the season-long, strategic, nature of this game and I really hope that YTM don't increase the number of transfers and transform the game into more of a short-term tactical affair like TFF.
Thanks to all those who offered support, advice or banter - via the Forum and PMs. Aside from the odd bit of help in guessing others' teams in the run-in, one factor I think contributed to my elevated position was that others took some wilder swings of the bat in their clearly stated, first-prize-or-bust stragegies. So my reply to those who have commented that 5 grand is not much of a reward for a lot of time has been to state that a significantly higher prize probably would have gone to someone better placed than I was a few weeks out! To that, I'd also add the overidding consideration that it was great fun!
See you all in 2010/11!
Cheers,
Pete (AkNotSpur)
Hamilton Notspur seasonal history with the number of points scored by each player:
Cech (97) Freidel (29)
Terry (177)
Carvalho (13) Baines (21) Ivanovic (79)
Insua (27) Shawcross (28) Bale (67)
O'Shea (9) Warnock (45) Hangeland (55) A Cole (23)
Lampard (302)
Ireland (14) Fabregas (171) Malouda (34)
Taylor (44) Dunn (13) Giggs (9) Dempsey (14) N'Zogbia (21) Milner (43)
Drogba (217* in 2 spells) Rooney (108) Tevez (41)
C Cole (17) Agbonlahor (51) Defoe (56) Drogba (* see overall total)
Bent (197)
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