GW20 Review ..plus transfers for GW21

Well, GW20 felt quite average for me, but I ended up with a very nice rank boost.

Gameweek Points: 59

Gameweek Rank: 851,174

Overall Rank: 114,140

The average was 42. I was expecting my benching of Soucek to have damaged me more, but it didn't. I said in my last post that it was "six and two threes" between Soucek and Coufal. In the end it was 14 points 😭

I did get quite lucky with the Trent Alexander-Arnold returns though. I missed the game, so I still have no idea how Liverpool even played, let alone how well Trent did. It's one of those where I was just happy to see the points. It really took my gameweek from average to decent.

The Cancelo returns were slightly less surprising, though I was beginning to wonder if attacking returns would ever come. Hopefully the dam has burst now.

Moving on to GW21..

I'm currently just putting the finishing touches to this week's team.

Gündogan and Mitchell in, Coufal and Lookman out.

It's a bit sad to see Coufal go, I'd have liked to hold him, but I need the cash. I may have missed the boat slightly with Gündogan, so I'm psychologically preparing myself for a blank this week. It's the smart move though. He looks really sharp and Man City do too. So it's best not to be too clever and to just go with the obvious move.

I'm going to slap the captaincy on him as well 😬

I've also finally started looking at the upcoming blanks and doubles. It's still too early to have a real plan, but I at least have a picture now. I think it means I'm going to have little leeway in making any ideal moves. It's going to be more a case of ticking as many fixture boxes as possible.

Lastly I've updated my graph.

This is the highest I've ever been at this point in the season so I'm very happy. Just need to keep the trajectory in the right direction now.

Overall Points: 1235

Overall Rank: 114,140

GW19: Double Gameweek Review

I guess I should be pretty pleased with my week. For some reason though it feels a little average, even though I broke the 100 barrier and got a nice rank rise. I think the blanks from both Wilson and my Liverpool players in those last two games have dampened my elation maybe.

I also have no idea what I'm going to do next.

Gameweek Points: 109

Gameweek Rank: 504,463

Overall Rank: 156,371

The Bench Boost

My bench boost paid off quite nicely. Anyone reading may think it's cheating a little to include Antonio in my bench points and not Wilson or Bamford. However, I took a (-4) specifically to bring in Antonio for the bench boost. So if I wasn't bench boosting I would've just went with the first eleven on screen and not took a hit.

Consequently I ended up with 29 (- 4). Meaning a net bench boost of 25 points. Which I'm very happy with. The 8 points from Lookman especially was a bonus. I literally only brought him in with this week in mind, so it was very lucky that he delivered.

Even the 3 points from Johnstone and Taylor weren't too bad. I was going to leave in McCarthy and change Taylor to Yedlin - the only 'playing' defender with two games I could've afforded - to get the 0.1m needed to bring in Antonio. In the end McCarthy got just the 1 point and Yedlin didn't play at all. So in a weird way I'm 2 points up on that one.

The First Eleven

As for the team itself my defence did very tidily, but the rest was fairly average.

It once again illustrated how reliable Fernandes is though. Even with slightly worse fixtures he still matched or outscored De Bruyne and Salah.

That wasn't hard to be fair 😄 Still though, he's my default captain from now on.

Going Forward

Going forward I really have no idea what I'm doing. It would be nice to have a City attacker going into these next few games, but I'd either have to lose Salah (not as scary as it once seemed) or take a hit. So I think I'll just leave things as is and hope for the best.

We also have all the future blanks and doubles to worry about, which I haven't even considered yet. Rolling a transfer is therefore probably a sensible move.

I'll also need to decide whether to start Coufal or Soucek before tomorrow's deadline. Currently Coufal is in, but it really is six and two threes.

Overall Points: 1176

Overall Rank: 156,371

GW18 Review - blank blank

Well, the blank was something of a non-event. Not a great deal of goals, no outstanding points hauls. Nothing remotely interesting really. However, having eleven players on the pitch did mean I got to steal a march on a lot of the casuals. The gameweek average was 30. I finished up with 47. So a small green arrow, which I was very happy to take.

Gameweek Points: 47

Gameweek Rank: 1,170,764

Overall Rank: 214,094

It was just Man City and Rashford that pulled me over the line, and even with them there was nothing overly impressive. I was quite relieved to get the De Bruyne assist, even taking into account the Sterling penalty miss. In fact, when De Bruyne went down for the penalty I felt apprehensive. I thought he looked very tired in that second half, and I had this weird feeling he'd miss it. When Sterling stepped up I thought; "Ah cool, I'll take the assist".

However, when Sterling was stood waiting over the penalty spot he didn't look convincing either, so I wasn't at all surprised to see him sky it over the bar.

In a way this brings me nicely to GW19 and the doubles. I'm forgoing De Bruyne, which seems a big risk. Yet in my gut I'm not too worried. Man City just don't look that free scoring, and De Bruyne, though obviously very, very capable, doesn't look on fire to me whenever I watch him.

I actually mentioned him looking tired in games a few weeks back, so though it was a little odd he didn't take the pen because of "tiredness" it wasn't that shocking to me. He always looks like he's just finished a 12 hour shift at a factory this season whenever I see him play.

Still though, not having him is my real big worry this week.

My GW19 Team

I've been toying around trying to suss out what my transfers will be over the last few days. I've settled on bringing in Antonio & Johnstone for McCarthy & Adams.

Two double gameweek players for two single ones. So those two extra games should pay back the (-4) ..hopefully.

The other player that has been troubling me is Charlie Taylor. He's on the verge of returning, but is still a "doubt". My worry is that he misses the West Ham game then returns to get thrashed by Liverpool. So it could end up being a wasted spot. I've decided it's not worth another (-4) to change him though.

If I get two points from him this week I'll consider it a bonus.

So there we are. Bench Boost active.

I've also updated my graph.

I feel like I'm in the mix now for a good finish. My aim was to be in the top 100k after GW19. No doubt that's out of reach now, but with a little luck hopefully I'll edge further in that direction over the next 8 days or so.

Then the real work starts.

Overall Points: 1071

Overall Rank: 214,094

GW17 Review ..and free hit now active

A very weird and average week. Eight points above the average, but a red arrow of about 5k places. If just one of my two keepers had managed to start that might have bumped me into the greens lol

Gameweek Points: 64

Gameweek Rank: 2,500,414

Overall Rank: 233,804

I had to laugh when I got up on New Year's Day to find Ederson flagged. I think I made the transfer at about 4 o'clock in the morning New Year's Eve. I'm not even sure when the news broke that he'd be missing, so perhaps I should've done a bit more research. I wasn't quite in the perfect frame of mind though.

I still feel it'll be a decent move however. He should be back for the double gameweek, and the games, along with the three that follow, look like they have good clean sheet potential.

The real disappointment this week was the Liverpool blank. I was hoping for a bit more than 5 points from Salah, Robertson and TAA going into that final game. In fact, I needed a swing of 23 points going into it to win my cup game 😅 The guy I was up against also had Salah, but nevertheless I still had a secret hope that Robertson, TAA and Che Adams could somehow turn it around.

As it turned out Coufal coming off my bench for Adams got more points than my three Liverpool players combined.

Fair play to the guy who beat me, he had a decent week, getting 77 points in total. He also had a better team name than me - "Cheers, Son's Crying" - lol. So I was dumped out in style.

Free Hit Active

I finally have the free hit active too. I'll be toying around with things now until next Tuesday. I'm currently looking like this;

No Kane at the moment, which would be a gamble. I feel like I need the cash spread around a bit though. Plus Villa are half decent, so I'm not sure about the double up.

Plenty of free time to move things around though. Especially now it's another national lock down ..arrrgghhhh!!

Overall Points: 1024

Overall Rank: 233,804