CptPugwash Euro2021Blog

[Tadpole]

Diary quarter-finals Day 1

Part 1 objective, get some players in the first semi-final reasonably well achieved. Part 2 objective, score some points on the way, not so much. Seems like a week since I last picked a player who scored more than an appearance.

Blistering Barnacles 415pts 11th Overall Transfers remaining 4 (11)
4 Spaniards, 3 Italians, 2 Danes still to bat, 2 Belgians to remove.
Option 1) is to go 2/2 Denmark & Czech then move the losers to England. Assuming England win I'd have 14 or 15 for the semis & 10 or 11 for the final.
Option 2) is to go all 4 Denmark. If Denmark win then I'm reasonably well set.

Coddling Catfish 395pts 60th Overall Transfers remaining 7 (16)
2 Spaniards, 5 Italians, 1 Dane to bat, 3 to remove.
Tempted to bring 3 Czechs into the team. Don't think there is much Czech coverage at the top, and if goes tits up I have the transfers to move them on to England (or Ukraine if I'm feeling adventurous)

Whatever happens I'm pretty sure I need England to concede to have a miniscule chance of cashing.

Thanks for this one particularly, as well as the whole thread, very useful!

Realised I need to use up all 9 transfers today, been too cautious and have 4 Italians 3 Spaniards already!

Can’t decide between the cautious 2 and 2 of Czech and Danes or go all in on one of them. He who dares

[CptPugwash]

Not having watched the Italy game, I didn't realise I'd lost Spinazzola, that puts a different complexion on Blistering Barnacles.
I'm now 3 players down (that's not counting useless Spaniards) with only 4 transfers left for the round. I can only realistically now back 1 team in the bottom half of the draw. Question is do I double down on my Danish coverage, or take the "safer" English approach.

Danish defence ownership is very low (to be fair so is Czech), surely to god an English clean sheet will see me tumbling down the leader board whatever I do. Looks like I'm all on Denmark & fingers crossed for a Ukrainian win or at least a Ukrainian goal .

[LAMPS27]

Just messing around with potential transfers for the Final pending the different permutations of SF results, if its England v Spain, someone will do very well to get 11 out. Even in a 5-3-2 i could only get to 10 before hitting £50m.

[Tadpole]

Have lead my super league since day 1, until yesterday and my lack of defensive Eng coverage saw me drop to 3rd.

14 transfers still left.
3 Italian
2 Spanish
3 Danes
3 English

No idea what to do, or how best to use to many changes! Advice very very welcome.

[CptPugwash]

Have lead my super league since day 1, until yesterday and my lack of defensive Eng coverage saw me drop to 3rd.

14 transfers still left.
3 Italian
2 Spanish
3 Danes
3 English

No idea what to do, or how best to use to many changes! Advice very very welcome.

use 5 transfers to go 5/5 1st semi
use 5 transfers to go back to 3/3 2nd semi or 4/2 if your mini league situation warrants it.

For final you have 4 to get a full match.

[CptPugwash]

Just messing around with potential transfers for the Final pending the different permutations of SF results, if its England v Spain, someone will do very well to get 11 out. Even in a 5-3-2 i could only get to 10 before hitting £50m.

I don't think 532 is a problem. I did it with 1 small compromise for the 3rd midfielder. 433 However !!!

[CptPugwash]

Well I knew all along my strategy was do or die on English clean sheets.

Not having English mini-blocks for the 2nd & 3rd group games in any teams was a mistake.

Not having English mini-blocks for the KO's was a strategic decision, and I can live with getting that wrong. 0 English clean sheets & I'm pretty sure I'd have had a decent cash finish, 1 & half a chance, well 2 has bigger me. Well the combination of 2 English clean sheets, and no-one else cobbling one together.

Coddling Catfish 442 pts 75th 4 Italy, 2 Spain, 2 Dane, 3 English, 9 Transfers

Blistering Barnacles 437pts 105th 4 Spain, 2 Italy, 3 Dane, 2 English, 8 Transfers

[BigBadSaint]

If you were sitting with 8 England players including a back 5 Sarabia, Dolberg & Ramsey with 7 transfers left?
Would you be looking to add an Italian/Spaniard in and possibly back out tonight or would you use 'em for Southgate's tinkers plus the likeliest scenario of having to replacing Sarabia with another Eng midfielder and Dolberg after their semi.
Half of me doesn't want to leave any more than 2 on the table for final tinkers/knocks
Other half says England elimination would leave me about 3 players playing

[CptPugwash]

If you were sitting with 8 England players including a back 5 Sarabia, Dolberg & Ramsey with 7 transfers left?
Would you be looking to add an Italian/Spaniard in and possibly back out tonight or would you use 'em for Southgate's tinkers plus the likeliest scenario of having to replacing Sarabia with another Eng midfielder and Dolberg after their semi.
Half of me doesn't want to leave any more than 2 on the table for final tinkers/knocks
Other half says England elimination would leave me about 3 players playing

Assuming you are going all out for as high a finish as possible, and not playing for a mini-league position.
I'd ditch Sarabia, Dolberg, Ramsey & you're 8th Englishman to chase goals tonight.
You have team news but probably along the lines of Insigne, Immobile, Morata, Olmo.
Ditch the 2 Losers for 2 more Englishman.
That leaves you (2,9) for the Final IF England progress with 1 tinker for the Final.

Just realised that team has serious budget problems.

Maybe 5-3-2 eases that.

As I say that's going all out(ish) on England.

[BigBadSaint]

Cheers Capt P.
Enjoyed reading your thought process.
I'll check out teams in next hour and show what I did
I'm 2pts from top in mini league having made up close to 40 from England Ukraine with about 20pts more from that game than anyone chasing so staying heavy on England and their success looks
likely to take me to the top.

[BigBadSaint]

Sarabia & Kane for Insigne and Immobile.
Have left Dolberg rather than chase Spanish goals
No Morata and Olmo takes a mid spot when I'd take more Eng mids with few of the forwards bar Kane getting any time

[CptPugwash]

Diary 1st Semi-Final

one team went Spanish , one Italian. I couldn't get a clean sheet in the knock-outs if I had a chain of laundrettes behind me.

1-1: Marvellous; just about the worst result possible.

Coddling Catfish 458pts 65th 5 Transfers left 7 Italians, 2 Danes, 2English - then sensible move is 2 transfers to go 3/3 Tonight and the last 3 transfers to get a full team in the final. Sensible moves aren't working for me.

[CptPugwash]

Last desperate throw of the dice.

All-in on Denmark.
Blistering Barnacles 8 Danes, 2 Italians & Sterling - 1 transfer to remove Sterling after he is eliminated

Coddling Catfish - just 4 Danes, 5 Italians, Sterling & Kane - 3 transfers to remove Sterling, Kane & the inevitably injured Maehle.

[LAMPS27]

Thank you for the amazing work in this thread Captain. Helped me win my SL - roll on Qatar!

[CptPugwash]

Not having England defenders in this freakish competition meant I was always chasing the game.

Blistering Barnacles dropped from a high of 6th before the England QF to a final position of 281st

Coddling Catfish finished in 110th with 494ts.

[Moon Knight]

Thank you for a great thread.

I started with 5 Italian blocks and after a wonderful start managed to jump on to the wrong defence at every opportunity.

Roll on Qatar 2022.

[Lenloumas]

Thanks for this thread, played a big part in me winning my mini-league