Week 7: IEFSA Fantasy League 2017/18 Preview

As the old saying goes, ‘one step forward, twelve steps back.’ That’s precisely what happened last weekend, as @FuzzyWarbles gave out a 65-point shellacking to my side. All the optimism that had been around in the build up to the gameweek evaporated in a haze of red cards and injuries. Unfortunately, that haze tends to stick around for a while so this week we are not in the best shape as we prepare to face @EPL_MOstradamus. After a poor start to the season Chris has rattled off four wins in a row and probably won’t have to exert himself too much to make it five. The IEFSA/Fantrax fixture computer will see to that!

Aurier's tackle on Carroll may have been from behind (VAR needed)

Serge Aurier only lasted seventy minutes against West Ham before receiving his marching orders for an incredibly boneheaded challenge that earned him a second yellow card. The $45 spent on him the week before looks like as sound an investment as those AOL Time Warner shares I bought back in the day. He will find himself suspended this gameweek meaning I will have to bring in another defender; but all my defenders are injured! Well that’s a lie, Ciaran Clark is fit, but has to face a free scoring Liverpool side. A team with only one defender has pretty much no chance of victory in IEFSA, so I might be forced to look at Free Agency if my side are to compete in this one.

@EPL_MOstradamus’s Team

My side are not the only ones to suffer the injury jinx. Chris recently lost his Forward Christian Benteke and Defender Benjamin Mendy. @EPL_MOstradamus does have the squad depth to be able to absorb those injuries though. Firmino will lead the line, against my only defender no less! while Charlie Daniels should be a more than capable deputy for Mendy at the back. Daniels already has a goal and assist this season and gets to face a rather shaky Leicester City at home on Saturday. Apart from those changes, it looks a pretty settled side. Manuel Lanzini is still side-lined with a knee injury, and Heung-Min Son will likely sit on the bench for Spurs, and therefore Chris, during the early kick-off.

Firmino may outscore my whole team this week!

Looking around for where the points will come from; Firmino is an obvious candidate, as are Harry Maguire and Nathan Redmond, who average over 16 points a game each. Solly March of Brighton averages over 13 points per game, but has to travel to an Arsenal side who like to hog the ball at Sunday tea-time. In goals will be Ben Foster of West Brom. The Baggies are usually a good bet for a clean sheet at home and they face a kind fixture against Watford on Saturday at three o’clock. Even when conceding two goals to the Gunners last time out Foster still managed 15.2 points.

What I Need To Happen

@EPL_Mostradamus might be down to the bare bones nine players to fill his roster, so perhaps if a few managers where to start tinkering with their formations or starting elevens then now would be an ideal time. The Aurier suspension leaves me in quite a bind. Steve Cook is still recovering from injury, so will perhaps remain on the bench for Bournemouth. Michael Keane looks like he won’t recover in time to take part in Everton’s next fixture. Victor Lindelof played 90 minutes in midweek for a Champions League game and is probably still out of the starting line-up when the Premier League rolls around. This paints a far from rosy picture of my prospects this weekend.

Sometime in the last century Gareth Barry played for a side called Aston Villa (ask your grandfather)

If we try to find the positives, you could say that Tammy Abraham scored last week and should perhaps force himself back into the Swansea eleven. Gareth Barry reached a record 633rd appearance in the top flight since football was invented in 1992, so there’s that…

Ummm…. Nick Pope kept a clean sheet recently…

Moving on…

Predictions

A more than respectable seven from nine in last weekend’s predictions. Can we do any better this time out? Follow @THE_IEFSA to find out. Also follow @GarryIrwin on Twitter also to keep up to date on all the goings on of my hobbled together WorstSquadInIEFSA™.

Here are this week’s predictions. Good Luck Everyone.

@RotoZdroik over @nikarg

@jwl_15 over @TAMc10

@TRKingston over @FantasyYIRMA

@FuzzyWarbles over @wrigavin

@SportsByGotti over @TomSunderland_

@jasonuk17 over @jforquer11

@cjradune over @nealjthurman

@BenDinnery over @SmokeyLoogy

@RotoWireAndrew over @DFS_Hambazaza

Week 6: IEFSA Fantasy League 2017/18 Preview

A fifth loss to start the season would make you believe I’m feeling the pressure. But things have been positive this past gameweek, as my side posted their second highest total of the year and everyone got on the pitch and contributed their little bit. Beating @wrigavin was always going to be a tough ask, and a Xherdan Shaqiri (of all things!) goal was the difference between the two sides. Harry Kane had a quiet game but still put up 13 points, which would have been the third best score if he was on my team. Which basically means if @wrigavin wanted to trade Kane for any of my better players, then my door would perhaps be open.

Shaqiri loves a long range shot or two

With performances slowly on the up I can look forward with optimism to this week’s matchup. So, who has the IEEFSA/Fantrax fixture computer decide to pit my side against? Oh it’s @FuzzyWarbles. *checks IEFSA league table* Oh…… oh…. @FuzzyWarbles just happens to be top and has scored the highest amount of points in the league. He has scored almost three hundred points more than my team and scored the highest amount of points last weekend. Surely this fixture is just further proof of the IEFSA/Fantrax bias against my side.

@FuzzyWarbles’s Team

Steve has a player who has already scored more goals than my whole squad put together. Liverpool’s Sadio Mane. He has a player who would be my top scorer (2 goals) if he was on my team. Burnley’s new signing Chris Wood. In Midfield things don’t get much better when you compare our sides. The best passer in my side is, obviously, Joe Allen, with 144 accurate passes in Midfield. @FuzzyWarbles’s players would laugh at this stat though. After five games, his three midfielders of Tom Carroll, Andrew Surman and Eric Dier post numbers of 200, 247, and 316 accurate passes respectively.

At the back things look equally as grim. I somehow have six defenders in my squad and between them they’ve played 15 games and have earned a total of three clean sheets. @FuzzyWarbles also has six defenders in his squad, yet they have managed 13 clean sheets between them. Phil Jones (4) on his own has more clean sheets than my whole team! Steve’s goalkeeper is Spurs’ Hugo Lloris, and the Frenchman has three clean sheets this season. I on the other hand have whoever mans the sticks for Burnley, currently Nick Pope, and that side has yet to stop an opponent from scoring.

@FuzzyWarbles also has another player he can call on if he needs a bit of a goal threat.

@FuzzyWarbles will rest him right?

What I Need To Happen

Not many sides can boast a Golden Boy award winner in their squad!

Well, six sides can boast that, including @FuzzyWarbles, doh!

But moving on… I secured the talents of Renato Sanches for a steal of only $45 a few weeks ago. The Swansea midfielder has yet to find his feet in Wales, but surely will find things easier going when he faces Watford on Saturday. This should also be the game where Tammy Abraham bags (conservative estimate) a brace. Looking elsewhere for goals. My best hope is probably Tom Ince. The Huddersfield man has taken 19 shots this season and is yet to find the net. It would be just my luck that he finally pops one in when he is up against my Burnley goalkeeper.

Izquierdo is Brighton's record signing #TheMoreYouKnow

Jose Izquierdo managed 104 minutes for Brighton during the league cup in midweek. Unfortunately, he didn’t use this time by scoring any goals and probably missed his side’s best chance of the game, as the Seagulls were knocked out. Using my crystal ball, I’d say that the Colombian will fail to break the starting line-up again for some time. This means I may have to offload the winger for another promising player on the Free Agency list. I’m hearing good things about this Marko Grujic, maybe I’ll pick him up…

Predictions

Five from nine last weekend, as a number of tight games didn’t fall the way I had expected. @wrigavin against @TRKingston is the tie of the round. Both teams have a record of 4-1 and the winner of this tie could go top if @FuzzyWarbles has a below par performance. *crosses fingers* To keep track of all the goings on of this gameweek, please follow @THE_IEFSA. To hear tales of woe, heartache, despondency, misfortune and the occasional cat meme, please follow @GarryIrwin on Twitter.

Here are this week’s predictions. Good Luck Everyone.

@EPL_MOstradamus over @TAMc10

@jwl_15 over @nikarg

@RotoZdroik over @FantasyYIRMA

@TRKingston over @wrigavin

@jasonuk17 over @SmokeyLoogy

@RotoWireAndrew over @BenDinnery

@jforquer11 over @TomSunderland_

@SportsByGotti over @nealjthurman

@cjradune over @DFS_Hambazaza

Week 5: IEFSA Fantasy League 2017\18 Preview

“A life spent defensively, worried, is a life wasted”                         -                      Lance Armstrong

Four weeks, four losses. Times were getting desperate. I couldn’t field a whole starting roster, injuries were mounting up as Tom Heaton injured his shoulder which would necessitate a lengthy absence, goals were becoming a rarity (two in four games), and an assist had yet to be seen. Something had to be done. I could not just ride it out and hope Dwight Gayle battles his way back into the Newcastle starting eleven, or that Victor Lindelof would finally usurp Phil Jones from the Man Utd back-line. Actions needed to be taken before I was cut adrift at the bottom of the table.

Shoulder surgery will keep Tom Heaton sidelined for months

That those actions would entail me spending almost my entire budget on three players who probably won’t start for their respective teams this weekend, was not something people could have foreseen. In fact, I didn’t even see it that way, as I had expected to be outbid on at least one of the three players I now possess. Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a value of $68 last season, so I assumed he would go for slightly higher this time around and I had initially bid over $70. But I kept notching up the value until I settled on $85. I probably could have acquired him for a fair but less. The Swede can’t come back from injury fast enough. My other two players each cost me $40 less than Zlatan, but I vastly overpaid. Serge Aurier becomes the most expensive Spurs defender in the game and is fighting with $1 Kieran Trippier for a spot in their line-up. Renato Sanches was made the fifteenth most expensive Midfielder in the league. Not bad for a player who completed 90 minutes only once during a year at Bayern Munich, where he was largely anonymous. While signing these players I had to let go Gayle and Shelvey, what with the earlier release of Jose Fonte, means I’ve basically thrown away nearly $100 since the draft. This sounds like doom and gloom, but my new team get their chance to prove themselves this coming gameweek against @wrigavin. Gavin has three wins this season and would have beaten my side handily if we had met on any other gameweek. Thanks IEFSA/Fantrax fixture computer!

@wrigavin’s Team

 

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What I Need To Happen

Zlatan is injured. Heaton is out for months. Rojo is also still injured. Lindelof might as well be injured. Izquierdo (who?) can’t seem to start a game. Tammy Abraham has less accurate passes in 330 minutes of football than Renato Sanches managed in 70 minutes last weekend. Joe Allen is off form. Keane and Cook are defenders in name only as they don’t seem to want to keep clean sheets anymore. Gareth Barry is……. still in my squad??? My only hope this weekend could be the longshot of my Bournemouth and Brighton players outscoring @wrigavin’s Anthony Knockaert (a tough ask in itself), followed by some sort of nuclear war that gets all the other games on Saturday and Sunday cancelled.

Kim Jong-Un has won every season of the North Korean Fantasy League

Predictions

An improvement from the week before sees six correct predictions from nine. It was the tough-to-call games in the Primary League that were my undoing. To heap praise on this week’s predictions, feel free to follow me on Twitter @GarryIrwin. Also, feel free to badger @THE_IEFSA to ease up on the fixture congestion my side unfairly has to face every week.

Here are this week’s predictions. Good Luck Everyone.

@TRKingston over @TAMc10

@jwl_15 over @RotoZdroik

@FuzzyWarbles over @FantasyYIRMA

@nikarg over @EPL_MOstradamus

@jasonuk17 over @cjradune

@SportsByGotti over @jforquer11

@RotoWireAndrew over @nealjthurman

@SmokeyLoogy over @TomSunderland_

@DFS_Hambazaza over @BenDinnery

Week 4: IEFSA Fantasy League 2017/18 Preview

Three matches and three defeats. And while performances have improved week on week, I can tell the fans are getting restless. I’m not sure how long it’s acceptable to be rooted to the foot of the table, but thanks to the IEFSA/Fantrax fixture computer we may just find out. Firstly, I’m not sure how I lost my match-up last week when @RotoZdroik’s biggest threat to goal was a Lukaku missed penalty?? I had two goal scorers, as Tammy Abraham got off the mark for Swansea, and late signing Ciaran Clark netted for Newcastle. But lose I did, which leaves me bottom of the table with zero wins and the lowest points scored in the two divisions of IEFSA.

Ciaran Clark clearly delighted to have signed with my team this week

When times are tough you can always count on the IEFSA/Fantrax fixture compiler to give you a little kick. This week I will have to face @jwl_15, who would be undefeated if not for an Aaron Ramsey horror show against Liverpool two weeks ago. What makes this worse is that his star man is a player I let go at the end of last season!! And I’m not talking about Jack Wilshere (though he does have him too!).

@jwl_15’s Team

That star man of course is Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Last season he managed a total of one assist and barely a paltry ten points per game. In only three games this season, he has five assists and averages over 26 points per game. (anyone who points out I seem to have replaced the Armenian with Jonjo Shelvey, -2.1 ppg, will immediately be blocked on Twitter!) As has been mentioned, he also has Ramsey in midfield, who is usually good for a decent haul of points, last gameweek aside. Partnering them he has the workhorses of the Chelsea and Liverpool midfield's in N’Golo Kante and Jordan Henderson.

How many assists can he provide this season?....or this weekend?

Up front @jwl_15 has Southampton’s Manolo Gabbiadini who recent got off the mark and will be looking to score again at home to Watford on Saturday. He could also play Andre Ayew, but seeing as West Ham don’t play Huddersfield until Monday night, @jwl_15 may not have the luxury of waiting on the Ghanian’s fitness until then. But seeing the numbers my side has posted so far this season, he probably could afford to! At the back it looks like Cedric Soares, Southampton, Stephen Ward, Burnley, and Mamadou Sakho, Crystal Palace. Between the sticks will be Swansea’s Lukasz Fabianski. Putting him in direct opposition to two of my star players!

What I Need To Happen

Well, I’ll need both of these star players to make the first eleven for a start! It’s Newcastle who travel to face Fabianski and Swansea, but seeing as the Toon won 3-0 last time out without Shelvey or Dwight Gayle, I won’t be holding my breath. As I mentioned earlier, Ciaran Clark was a late signing who came good for me last week. He was brought in after I gave the heave-ho to Jose Fonte after he failed to make it back into the West Ham side. Looking around my squad, there are a few names under pressure to perform. Joe Allen is not his usually box-to-box self and is averaging a woeful, by his standards, nine points per game. Big signing Tom Ince has yet to trouble the oppositions net. While Victor Lindelof has yet to even feature in a Premier League game.

Abraham may have scored but are his other stats letting the side down?

Times are getting desperate. If a heavy defeat is suffered this week, I could be forced to abandon the whole squad that was carefully assembled during the draft. I will need to replace them with grafters. Players who are ready for a scrap. Who can play dirty for ninety minutes and get you all those much-needed tackling and accurate passing points. Tammy Abraham has 26 accurate passes in three games. 26?!? My goalkeeper has more! If, as I presume, he’s generally around for the kick-offs, that’s a quarter of his passes. Wholesale changes could be on the horizon if results don’t improve. If there is no reaction this week I will have no qualms about replacing an expensive signing with….. checks Free Agency list…… squints….. Solly March?

Predictions

To send me general abuse for my team/signings/predictions follow me on Twitter @GarryIrwin. Though you should really direct your ire @THE_IEFSA who seem to find new ways to undermine my carefully thought out plans every week. Before the international break I managed a rather poor four from nine. Will it be any better this weekend? Let’s find out.

Here are this week’s predictions. Good Luck Everyone.

@RotoZdroik over @EPL_MOstradamus

@FuzzyWarbles over @TRKingston

@FantasyYIRMA over @TAMc10

@nikarg over @wrigavin

@SportsByGotti over @SmokeyLoogy

@RotoWireAndrew over @cjradune

@jforquer11 over @BenDinnery

@jasonuk17 over @nealjthurman

@DFS_Hambazaza over @TomSunderland_