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 🤞