Big Red Arrows :(

A bad week in a bad season. 40 points. Another red card. A team now littered with flags. Arrghhhhh!

40 points (avg. 51)

Luis Diaz didn't play either. My rank is now about 2.5 million.

I'll have to make a goalkeeper transfer before tomorrow's deadline. I'm also flirting with a minus 4 to make another change.

I've been at work the last two days, so I really am in casual mode at the moment. I haven't seen any of the games, I'm completely out of the loop. So it might be wise to just switch the keeper and hope for the best.

I'm probably going to bring in Henderson for Crystal Palace.

Overall my team definitely looks sub-optimal. No Isak, no Gabriel. Not having Cunha has hurt. It's clear what the problems are. I sold Pickford a few weeks back too, didn't I, lol. So even the one thing I got right I undone.

If 2025 continues in this vein it's going to be a long season.

Little Green Arrows

GW17 was a bit better. It steadied the ship. In the end playing Rogers ahead of Armstrong did make the difference after all. So that's one decision I've managed to get right this season.

76 points (avg. 60)

It gave me a green arrow, but not a spectacular one. I'm now at around the 1.9m mark in rank.

I looked back at my gameweek ranks. So far this season I've failed to have a single week where I've scored within the top one million ..and just four weeks where I've been within the top two million. So I've been plumb average. I haven't had a single gameweek with an outstanding score. Nothing special. A season so far completely without magic.

And with the gameweeks creeping by I'm losing time to turn things round. It's now or never if I want to have any hope of a decent final rank.

Saka Replacement?

I'm now sat here on Christmas Eve (Merry Christmas btw 🎅), trying to decide who to bring in for the injured Saka. You kind of feel the Saka injury has been a long time coming, what with all the doubts and will he, won't he starts this season. Again, in another year where I'd been more focused and thoughtful I might have just cavalierly avoided Saka altogether because of that. This season I'm always chasing the herd.

Currently it's a three-way choice between Foden, Luis Diaz and Maddison. I'm tempted to go for Foden just because he's so differential. However, my gut instinct is to stick another Liverpool player in there. With Liverpool flying it just makes too much sense. Bringing in Diaz also frees up a fair bit of cash, which could be handy going forward. Especially with the Assistant Manager chip in mind.

So I think that's what I'll do. Come to think of it, I might just do it now actually. Enjoy Christmas Day without the worry.

Click

GW16 Went Badly !

I'm saying badly, it actually wasn't that bad, given some of the badness.

44 points (avg. 47)

Two players sent off. Yes, I brought in Robertson for Gabriel. So that was a 12 point swing! 😬 Ouch.

I'm really having quite a bad season. Perhaps my worst. It certainly feels like the worst by a long way.

As things stand, I haven't really digested the decisions. Seeing the two reds when I finished my shift at work made me not bother watching the highlights, lol. So I'm not even sure how lucky/unlucky these misfortunes were. Obviously, removing Gabriel was a big mistake in hindsight, and could punish me further going forwards.

Luckily, Robertson won't miss the next game as he'll be suspended for the Carabao Cup tie midweek. Aït-Nouri does miss out though, and there's little reason to keep him given the fixtures, so he'll be this week's transfer out. Robinson seems the natural replacement, so I might just make that straight swap. It feels a little boring because he's been so well-owned this season, but it's hard to argue against it.

I also have a decision to make as to whether to play Morgan Rogers at home to City or Armstrong away to Fulham. With Man City struggling of late I'm tempted to just stick with Rogers, but seeing that on the screen just doesn't look right. It's still Man City, after all. I think it's one of those calls where I have to sit back and listen to what my gut tells me.

It doesn't help that I've watched so little football recently. This season really has become something of an anomaly. I can't imagine there's too much content being made by people as uninvested as I've been this season. This is very much a casuals blog at the moment.

My rank is currently just inside the two million mark. I really do need to make that assistant manager chip count!

Bench Fixing in the Storm

Here we are, in the middle of GW15 - still everything to play for. Obviously, the Liverpool game was called off, so we're a Salah short. I took the opportunity to take a minus 4 to improve my bench. I removed Pickford and the long term absentee Ross Stewart, and brought in Adam Armstrong and Chelsea's Jørgensen. I have no idea if Jørgensen will continue in goal for Chelsea, but I've also got Fabianski, who seems to have the No.1 spot at West Ham now, so it seemed worth a punt.

As things stand the minus 4 hasn't paid off. Armstrong picked up just the two points. However, I would've had the non-starting Faes off the bench (Gabriel isn't starting, so Van den Berg will also be coming off my bench with zero points), so I'm just two points down - assuming Faes does get a zero. Meaning I've spent two points to fix my bench going forward. Given how bad my bench has been this week, and the fact that we have the busy Christmas period to deal with, I think this should be a net gain overall.

The Last Two Gameweeks

Both were mildly above average.

GW13:

73 points (avg. 60)

GW14:

64 points (avg. 58)

Overall

Overall I'm fairly happy with my team. I feel the defence is a bit uninspired and lacklustre though. With the Aït-Nouri pick I was basically just copying the crowd. It was a sensible and logical choice, but I can't help but feel I've missed an opportunity to go more with a gut instinct pick. Interestingly - and somewhat miraculously - Wan-Bissaka has scored two goals in the five gameweeks since I sold him. I genuinely think he's a good player, so I liked owning him in that sense. Aït-Nouri still has a few decent fixtures to go though, so he could still blossom.

If Gabriel remains out that presents an opportunity to do something different next week. So we'll see where we are with that next gameweek.

Oh, and I have Saka captain this week in the absence of Salah. So this gameweek will probably largely depend on that. The Arsenal game has literally just kicked off, so we're in the crucible. Hopefully he gets something 🤞