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 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