Going Against Haaland: The Result

It didn't go well, but it didn't go that badly either.

41 points :/

The one thing that annoys me is that I took out Tzolis for Sangaré. That cost me five points and a free transfer. It annoys me as it's one of those decisions where I went against my natural instinct and buckled under the fear. I felt that he would start, but I played it safe and deferred to other people.

Avoiding Haaland and captaining Cherki obviously didn't work out either (especially as the sacrificed Mbeumo scored). However, I don't have any regrets about that, as it was what I wanted to do. It was definitely my own decision, and it wasn't too far off coming good. Isak delivered. Van Dijk grabbed a clean sheet. I just needed a bit more from the others.

It was lucky that Haaland didn't get more. Then again, Cherki hit the post as well. Foden not starting was also a touch unlucky. I suspected Coventry wouldn't be as bad as people thought, and that proved true. So, though my gamble didn't pay off, it wasn't quite as stupid as it looked, and though I've missed out on points my ego remains somewhat intact.

Wildcard ACTIVE.

I've now hit the wildcard. It just felt like the right time to do it. My team remains Haaland-less. I think the main thing that pushed me in this direction was watching the Liverpool performance. Szoboszlai owners were very unfortunate to come away with nothing. He had multiple shots at goal. Almost had a penalty, and wasn't too far off defcon either. In contrast, Liverpool defensively still didn't look rock solid, and I feared for the Van Dijk clean sheet. So switching those two felt desirable.

Naturally I'm now planning for bench boost too. GW6 looks appealing.

I'll no doubt tinker quite a bit between now and the deadline.