Welcome to my blog. I am a massive, massive Fantasy Premier League fan. But live in Michigan, USA. So, I always feel at a disadvantage to the English sites and blogs. I religiously watch many of the EPL matches every week (most Europeans are shocked to learn that Americans can watch 5-6 EPL games a week and several highlight shows). At the same time, I find a certain distance can provide an idiosyncratic view. Thus, this blog. The analysis you see here will be big on a statistical approach. I try to approach managing my side with patience and discipline. But I also drink too much beer. And don't really have . . . patience and discipline. So, often I will make suggestions or present ideas I don't have the patience or discipline to follow . . .but I also have a strong contrarian streak, and so while I review the best Fantasy Football sites like FFS and Brit news websites like the BBC and the Guardian, and other English sources, my take, you will find, is slightly different. My first entry is the Guardian Sqaud Sheets. My current team - Vorm/Schwarzer; Boswinga, M.Richards, W.Brown, Simpson, DeLaet; Arteta, Walcott, Silva, Perov, Moses; Rooney, Suarez, Graham. My first take is on the Guardian's Squad Sheets:
NWC - seems R.Taylor's partner is about to give birth and NWC just bought Davide Santon, but the Guardian has R.Taylor nailed on. Hmm . . .
MNC - as I predict, the Guardian has Dzeko on the bench for this one, with Tevez starting. The Guardian also reports (and has starting) M.Richards fit and predicted he will be back in the side.
TOT - the set-up they predict is intriguing. Parker and Huddlestone holding; Modric with the free role in behind Adebayor - so a 4-5-1. No Defoe. I hadn't thought about this as the line-up but it makes some sense as an away line-up. What else is interesting is Walker comes in. If he can win that position he may be worth investment in the future.
ARS - the predicted line-up has Arteta deeper than Ramsey but I predict Arteta will be the more forward. I would love to see this game but I will be traveling. I will hope to catch a replay. I'd really like to see Swansea as well and make a judgment about Graham. It was about this time last year that I grabbed Odemwingie after an eye-opening performance against ARS.
STK - not really a surprise, but they predict Couch goes straight in for K.Jones, with Walters keeping his place. I guess on the theory that Jones will be fatigued after 2 int'ls and a flight back from Jamaica. The guys that intrigue me here are Etherington and Pennant. If you go on the theory that one of Jones or Crouch will start every game (or sub each other off), then you have an aerial threat for 90 minutes, every single game. Neither Crouch nor Jones are particularly prolific goal scorers (Jones -7,10,9,9 - the last 4 years; Crouch slightly more erratic but never more than 10) but both will attack the goal and give STK a serious goal threat for 90 minutes, every single game. I always felt that Jones wasn't always up for it or when he came off you wondered who might score. But now, STK have a big man to attack crosses and free kicks 38/90. Unfortuantely for me, STK and BOL don't rotate all that well or Etherington would be in for Moses in a heartbeat.
LIV - predicting bench duty for Andy Carroll. I think Suarez played for his national team over the break, so this is an interesting prediction.
CHE - this is the weirdest one of all. They are predicting Romeu (who I had to wikepedia to find out about) to take Mikel's place; Mata/Torres/Sturridge as the front 3 and Ivanovic to replace Boswinga with Luiz partnering Terry. Is someone having a laugh ? Or will AVB be looking to tighten it up away ? Boswinga is off to a phenomenal start and I just cannot see him sitting v. the likes of Sunderland. I actually don't think Luiz will start; I think he will use his 2 big boys to counter Bendtner. And I can't see Sturridge straight in. Someone's having a laugh.
The armband - this is a very difficult decision this week (when isn't it?). There has been no talk - that I can find in the Brit papers or FF sites - about the supposed hamstring problem Walcott had which saw him replaced for the second England game. He wasn't even in the squad for the second game. Perhaps a 'secret' deal with Wenger to play him only once ? Don't know. I am going to gamble here and captain Walcott. I see 2-4 goals for Arsenal and I see Walcott getting one. This, of course, assumes ARS are not hiding a hamstring problem. I am thinking about Silva too, because I suspect Wigan will be on their heels throughout but I also suspect they may provide more resistance than everyone expects. 2-0 or 3-0. But MNC are perfectly capable of carving goals without the ministrations of Silva, whereas I think Walcott is central to ARS. And Walcott is up against a Championship level defender. Assuming ARS aren't hiding a hamstring problem. Christ, the armband decision. The 2 other Stoosher options are (i) Rooney and (ii) Martin Petrov. MNU will surely score against a team that kept all of 5 CS last year. This one has 3-2 or 4-2 written all over it. I also think Petrov will be amongst the points. He had a run out against Smalling last week (Eng v Bul) and I noticed in the BBC commentary he got a fair few crosses in. But Bulgaria doesn't have K.Davies or Klasnic.
I may change my mind before deadline, but Walcott just edges it for me. I remember 3-4 monster games from him last year, hoping he can repeat. Assuming ARS are not hiding a hamstring problem . . . krikey.
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