GFF's scoring is known to favor the defence, and going into GW4, the four sides at the top of the table were all playing 5 defenders, and two of them also played both defensive midfielders. I was persuaded, went to a 5-2-2-1 - and fell back 3 places in the standings, scoring fewer points than previously. Two of last week's top four also fell back, while places 3-7 in the standings were taken by sides not playing 5 defenders; one was even playing 3!
What happened? First, GW4 was not a good one for defence, with 34 goals scored and only Arsenal keeping a clean sheet. And the GFF players who got into the top 7 were playing Adebayor, Defoe, or both, with few "passengers" among their starting forwards and offensive midfielders. Well done to them!
Meanwhile, my 7 men on defence left room for only 3 up front, and I picked two midfielders (their goals score more points) and one striker, who was Zaki. An obvious choice, and he did indeed score a goal, but Adebayor and his hat trick stayed on the bench. Had I guessed right and played him instead of Zaki, I would have moved well up instead of down. And if I had played a 4-2-2-2 as in GW3, Zaki and Adebayor would certainly have started, and I'd have done even better.
What to do now? Is GFF's scoring bias toward the defence an illusion, and 5-2-2-1 or 5-2-1-2 not the formation of choice? Or was GW4 just a fluke, and we should keep on playing defensive football to get the most GFF points?
Those who are competing for the Guardian's top prizes will probably keep their own counsel, and quite right; too much is at stake to give one's rivals free advice.
But as a nonresident of the UK, I'm not eligible for the big money or anything else, I'm just playing for fun and maybe a bit of pride, and others in this situation might enjoy talking some strategy too.It could be that this season, with so many managers (and owners) declaring themselves for attacking, entertaining football, defenders will have a harder time of it. Portsmouth's defenders and keeper were among the best last season, but this August they let in 7 goals in two matches (v. Chelsea and United, to be sure). Four weeks of play have seen only two 0-0 draws, while the winning side has scored more than two goals 15 times (and the losing side more than one goal 5 times) in the 39 league matches so far.
Personally, I hope this continues. Playing defence in GFF is no more fun than watching it on the telly, not for me anyway, and I didn't buy Adebayor, Zaki, Agbonlahor, Fabregas, Lampard, and Deco to see half of them on the bench every week. Probably won't go all the way to a 3-1-3-3 formation; points may not mean prizes for me, but trying for the top of the table does provide something to boast about.
Haven't decided yet what to do, but 4-1-3-2 or 4-1-2-3 look like fun, and to the devil with the points.Serious players may not be changing their strategies after only one week of bad results, and we won't find out what they're doing until after the GW5 results are in. But if anybody has thoughts about the season so far and GFF strategy, I'd be very interested to read what they have to say, and I'm surely not the only one.
and the Man City/Portsmouth game throwing the stats big time.