Normally I don't put any thought whatsoever into the Sky Sports Super 6. It's pure instinct. I click to see how I've done in the previous week, then click to enter my predictions for the upcoming round of games. Rarely do I spend more than five seconds on a particular result. In fact, sometimes if I'm in a rush I'll just put 2-0 to the team I think is most likely to win in every bracket. I spend more time looking at the mini league table than I do the actual scores.
Anyway, last night Man City won in the Champions League, 2-0. Naturally both goals from Haaland. I checked to see what I'd put. I'd went 2-1 to Porto.
"Wow, I really do have an anti-City bias," I thought.
And clearly I do. My thinking at the start of the season wasn't that illogical. Pep had gone. With the departure of Rodri and Bernardo Silva the midfield was looking a bit light. Haaland was very expensive. There were some reasons to go against the herd. However, I think in hindsight I took it too far in the other direction.
Now we're sitting here with City three for three in the Premier League. A solid win in the Champions League. Enzo Fernandez adding a bit of pep to the midfield (if you pardon the pun). And Haaland doing the business as usual.
Meanwhile I'm sitting with a rank of 2.4m.
So I think I need to admit that my strategy has failed, and I need to stop trying to cope it away. Yes, I still have the bench boost. Yes, I still have the triple captain. But realistically that's about 20 points combined. It's not that much, and I need to claw back a bit more than that.
I need to start trying to get Haaland in my side.
Nevertheless ..here's my current wildcard team.
The great man remains absent.
C'mon, he is expensive.
I haven't completely abandoned my plan. It's more that I'm trying to shake off the psychological bias. Over the next few games at least I still feel it makes sense to spread the funds. Especially as I can now see the bench boost on the horizon. (I'm thinking GW6.)
I like this as it gives me a few more weeks to assess the value of Gabriel. Likewise we get a few more weeks to judge Fernandes, Isak and the Chelsea assets. Which of these expensive players do I really want long term? I'm still not sure.
I also get a nice bench boost. On current GW6 plans it'll be Rushworth, Barry, De Cuyper and Leif Davis (who faces the shaky-looking Fulham). That week Isak and Szoboszlai face Man City. So you could argue they're not optimal. Perhaps even bench-able. However, at the moment I really don't mind that fixture. It's at home and I don't think Man City are impervious defensively (hopefully that's not my continuing anti-City bias). Personally I wouldn't bench those players, but even if I did I'd happily bench boost them anyway.
The trickiest decision has been choosing the two 4.5m keepers. None of them fill me with much hope. Verbruggen seems the obvious one, especially with this week's fixture. After that it's a coin toss. Ideally I'd prefer Petrovic, but the games don't rotate well. Plus he'd have Chelsea for the bench boost. So I've went Rushworth. I still feel it's too early to sufficiently judge the promoted clubs, so I'm taking a punt on Coventry having the potential to defy their early results. After all, they have faced City and Arsenal in the first three. The only downside is that he'll face Newcastle, and consequently Harvey Barnes, when I bench boost. You can't have it all ways though.
We'll see where things are in GW6.
GW7
My hope is to now just roll transfers until GW7. Inevitably things won't work out that simply, but if they do it'll be a huge bonus. As then I can potentially navigate to Haaland post-bench boost for his game against Ipswich. The other options are to free hit that week, or to just go against Haaland again. All options are on the table (my mental biases permitting), and by that time we'll have another three weeks of games to get a better picture.
The remaining decision this week is captaincy. Which I'm really not sure about. I defaulted to Joao Pedro instinctively. However, Palmer has penalties and more routes to points. Then again, Isak faces Fulham. It's a tough one.
Of course, you wouldn't be surprised if Haaland outscores them all. The one silver lining is that he played 90 mins in City's win last night, whereas Semenyo came off after 60. So, though he'll no doubt start, what with it being a derby, there's the realistic possibility that he comes off early. Especially if City already have the game in the bag.
Plus, with so many moving to Chelsea assets the danger isn't quite as high. Still, just not owning him could prove to be my undoing once again 😶
No comments:
Post a Comment