The Sunday Fixtures

Another post in quick succession. (I'm really enjoying my bread and circuses at the moment.)

77 points

This is how my gameweek finished, sans the final fixture. Currently I'm on a green arrow, but I'm not fully confident it can go down as a good week points-wise. It's been a high scoring week. I've seen a few people pass the 100 mark. So seventy-seven, though impressive in most gameweeks, could be hovering above the average when it's all tallied up.

I'm fairly happy though.

The Sunday Fixtures in Review

I have to start in reverse with that Utd/City game. Man Utd were awful. I felt sorry for Bruno Fernandes at times. He didn't play badly, but he was the only one you could say that about. The rest of the side were frighteningly average. We've known this for some time, but seeing them come undone against a 10-man City, at Old Trafford, made it stark.

The defenders made so many mistakes. Even just simple passes seemed a struggle. Dalot and Maguire in particular. And up top it was the same. They just looked ineffective. Rashford got in good positions but didn't know what to do with it. He's kind of like a talented headless chicken. Cunha, who has great feet to be fair, looked undeadly - if that's a word.

Whereas with the City attackers there's this feeling that they're likely to score when they get a chance, with United it's always hopeful shots.

We've skied it over the bar, we've hit the side netting. Oh well, maybe next time.

Like actually scoring doesn't matter that much. If you've had a few attempts that's what counts.

I'm being very harsh here, but it's almost like I watched the game through Fernandes' eyes being a Fernandes owner, and I felt for him. You look at all the good Premier League defenders at clubs like Bournemouth, Leeds, Sunderland, Brighton and so on. Likewise the effective attacking players at such clubs - Gross, Gibbs-White, Dewsbury-Hall, Tavernier. The list goes on, we all own them. And you wonder why a club like Manchester United has worse players. Why a player like Bruno Fernandes has to make the most of such an average situation year after year.

The whole team looked lost after Haaland scored. It was as if it was City that had eleven players on the pitch. (It was frustrating to watch - perhaps why I'm taking out my frustration here.)

Needless to say it answered the question I had. Fernandes or Haaland? It's definitely Haaland, through no fault of Fernandes.

I'll keep Fernandes (and Isak) for the next two weeks though. GW7 will be the switch over. So who knows what we'll see next week. I'll probably even captain Fernandes. (It'll be with a sense of defeat though 😔)

Coventry 0 - 5 Brighton

This fixture was easier to watch, as I got very lucky. The two clean sheets were very fortunate, as Coventry had chances. Though the massive haul from Gross left a slight bitter aftertaste.

This was another game where one side went down to ten men (Coventry). In some ways they were unlucky. Not only did they suffer the sending off, but they also conceded two quite brilliant goals. The fourth from Dunk was a wonder strike, and the first from Kostoulas was incredibly well manoeuvred. They also conceded a penalty, that Gross annoyingly dispatched. 

Still, in spite of the bad luck, they looked like a Championship side. It was like watching a cup game between teams from different tiers. The effort was equal, but the quality wasn't. Again, Coventry created chances, but they weren't clinical. Whereas Brighton had that touch of class in the final third.

It's difficult to say how much of the score was Brighton's brilliance and how much was Coventry's lack thereof. As I noted in my previous post, Brighton now face Arsenal next, so it's not ideal for my bench boost. Should I just play Verbruggen and De Cuyper and hope for the best? They have just scored five, and they do at least have home advantage. Then again, Arsenal will surely score at least one, and they don't concede many. So both attacking and defensive returns are quite unlikely.

At the moment I'm favouring just hitting the bench boost regardless. Why not? It'll be fun. You never know what might happen. I could transfer one of the two out, but as things stand I'd rather roll the transfer.

All in all I feel things are finally starting to take shape.