The Takeaway from GW19

This post is coming off late as I was up north this weekend enjoying the winter, which has really been very late in arriving  . . . GW19 saw me drop just out of the top 10,000, a worrying trend.  Luckily I captained (as my last post's convoluted logic suggested I might) RvP and he grabbed a goal and the BPs to save my GW.

This week I have gambled on Friedel for the armband.  Everyone chasing me in my minileague has Bale captained.  Cue Bale hat-trick over the DGW.  The logic in the Friedel selection was relatively straightforward; West Brom and Everton are in good form lately, in terms of their defensive organization and results.  West Brom kept a CS against Man City and, but for a ping-pong goal from Everton, would have kept a second CS in GW19.  They have conceded 4 in their last 3 road games, but Hodgson's stamp is starting to show on this team.  Everton have been very strong defensively recently (5 goals in the last 8 games, never more than 1 conceded, 3 CS), including a CS away @ West Brom and 1 conceded at Arsenal a few weeks back.  But neither West Brom nor Everton have shown much in attack.  So, 2-1 and 1-0 wins for Tottenham, probably mean 3+7 returns for Friedel.  So, in my mind, a quite conservative play. And with both Bale and Adebayor in my team, I won't be too chuffed if either has a big score.

A few takeaways from GW19 . . .

1.  FF has grown up.  Even as recently as last year, I would have expected some managers to have slept through the quick turnaround from GW19 to GW20 and missed the deadline, thereby leaving RvP or Nani captained, and failing to add the requisite 2/3 Tottenham players before the deadline. Wrong.  Even in my fairly mediocre minileague (8/49 players at +1000 points), all of the top 15 or so managers made their switches and captain's changes.  (Sigh) Ah, for the good old days when a GW like this was made to put massive distance between the observant manager and the also-rans . . .

2.  Rooney, WTF.  Completely perplexed by Rooney's absence for the Blackburn game, I saw something in The Guardian about a 'dinner' Rooney had, which somehow pissed off SAF, and therefore, the implication was clear, Rooney sat the Blackburn game.  What was interesting to me, and seems to have escaped any other mention is that Rooney's companions at this, um, 'dinner', were Darren Gibson and Jonny Evans - all of whom were reportedly hauled in for extra training before being left out of the Blackburn game.  I don't own Rooney but I do own Jonny Evans.  Does this mean Evans will be fit for the trip to Newcastle tomorrow ?  SAF was interviewed on 'The Football Show' with Charlie Stillitano and Giorgio Chinaglia on Sirius/XM and hemmed and hawed in response to a question about Rooney's absence, and ultimately said something about missing training and needing additional fitness.  Hmm. Some 'dinner' it must have been.

3.  I still like Gael Clichy, Mancini, not so much.  I bigged up Gael Clichy as a 'budget' alternative to Kompany/Richards/Lescott as a way in to the MNC defense.  Then Mancini throws a spanner in the works by bringing Kolarov in, apparently just back from injury.  I suspect Clichy was being preserved for the much more critical Liverpool game today, but Kolarov's return from injury does threaten occasional Clichy rotation. I also suspect Mancini outsmarted himself a bit by resting Silva and Aguero from the start.  Silva especially makes Man City go, and I wonder if Mancini will have taken something from the Sunderland game with respect to Silva's rotation future.

4.  Tottenham and Gareth Bale are not invincible.  1 point for Bale this week (and Nani and Silva) demonstrated that a good defensive effort can keep the Welsh wonderboy under wraps.  I've got the obligatory 3 Tottenham players for the DGW of course, but I am not sold that Tottenham will finish 3rd.  I think Chelsea and Arsenal and possibly Liverpool, will catch them.  I plan to keep either Bale or Adebayor or bring in VdV in the January WC, but I doubt I'll keep 2 of the 3.  In the 10GWs following this DGW, they go to MNC, LIV, CHE and have MUN at home.  A slip up in the game today or Jan 11 game in hand and the rubber will really meet the road through March.

5. Sunderland 1 Man City 0.  Another blank for Man City and, again, another mid-table team rode their luck (as WBA did last GW).  I didn't see the game but did see the highlights and just in follow up to my last post, I would start to really look hard at Sunderland's players.  I think Sessegnon looks a massive bargain.  And if Mignolet is truly back from injury represents a big, big bargain at 4.3.  Another guy I like on this team who seems to have come back under MON is David Vaughn.  Price has dropped to 5.1 this year because Bruce didn't play him, but he's been reinstated as a starter under MON.  He was huge for Blackpool last year (110 FF points in 3100+ min) as a sort of deep central mid who occasionally ventures forward.  Not the worst budget mid play in a team which looks like it is headed for the top half of the table.

6.  Stupid is as stupid does.  Here's the entry which may convince you to stop reading this blog but I write this as sort of a learning experience too, so here goes.  I was pretty well satisfied with my team coming into this DGW20 with Friedel, Bale and Adebayor in and, well, Royston Drenthe.  But Drenthe at least potentially  may play 2 games.  So, with 0.0 in the bank I was looking to beef up my bench with Evans, Sturridge and Garry Monk (SWN) all looking dodgy in terms of starts for GW20.  I could have gone for a simple Caulker (back from a 1 game ban) >> Monk swap, and kept my SWN 2x exposure (I also have Vorm).   And that would have been the simple, clean, not-too-clever-but-effective move.  Instead, I looked at the schedule and said 'wow, Blackburn get great results at Anfield and Old Trafford and surely will kick on with 2 home games against poor travelers Stoke and Fulham - I'll go for Grant Hanley who played a blinder v. Man Utd'.  So, of course, Swansea win their first away game with a CS at Villa, and Crouch destroys a vulnerable Blackburn back 4 with 2 goals.  And Hanley picks up a yellow.  So, instead of a "5" for Caulker in my back line I have a nice, smooth "0", thanks to Grant Hanley.  I guess the lesson here is, if one team has 7 clean sheets already, including 2 away, and another team has zero clean sheets out of 19 games, um, take the cheap defender from the, er, team which has actually kept some clean sheets.  Arrrgggghhh !!!!!!!!!!!!