Welcome to the GW3 review. How was it for you? Bit of a let down or are you still backing your squad? Lets go with a bit of Radiohead this week from the classic album OK Computer, LET DOWN. Next time I will go with something a bit more uplifting I promise 😉
We were anticipating a weekend full of thrills and spills. Didn’t quite turn out like that in the end. Unless you are a bit of an Alan Hansen and have a penchant for clean sheets then you could take some pleasure in that. There were 9 this weekend which is about as good as it gets defensively. Anyone go 5 at the back? Clean sheets are not to be sniffed at and they certainly help our scoring but they don’t exactly get the fantasy juices going like goals and assists do.
There is one team in full-on meltdown already. Poor old Arsenal. Poor old Arsene. Liverpool were the latest team to inflict a beating and it easily could have been more than 4. This was all completely inevitable to most Arsenal fans now and the rest of us have been all too aware of it for years. I almost feel sorry for them. Almost. They certainly don’t have many fantasy options right now. The usual suspects of Sanchez and Ozil look like they want to be anywhere but there. Actually most of them look like they would rather be somewhere else. Luckily Wenger has his finger on the pulse and doesn’t look out of touch with reality at all 😉
But let’s not dwell on the Gunners’ current misfortune as fun as it may be. As fantasy managers we must surely get rid of our Arsenal players (if we have any left) and move on while all this doom and gloom surrounds them. They will probably go and batter Bournemouth next weekend and we will all try to shoe-horn one of them back into our sides before we know it.
With just a few hours left of this transfer window we could be in for a busy time and hopefully this will unearth some fantasy gems as deadline day approaches. Obviously the big name deals will take up most of the column inches but what we are really interested in is the potential of an OOP prospect or someone from a “big” club going to a smaller club and becoming a key player. Already Kevin “Wim” Wimmer has left Spurs for Stoke and at 4.4 could well become a decent enabler if he can nail down a place. The Sky Sports correspondents are reluctantly making their way to the training grounds. Jim White’s phone is fully charged, he is licking his lips and ironing his yellow tie in excitement as you read this.
Just quickly we plan to confirm all the prize money over the international break. We are just in process of collating monies from agents so please make sure you have paid yours. We will be announcing a new prize and a new trophy too… more news soon!
That will have to wait. Lets, instead, get straight to the FFUK league…
Paul Austin (1st) retains his lead after a slightly above average 47.This means Paul finishes as our first Manager of the Month this season. Well done Paul, an excellent start! For the rest of us, Paul’s lead at the top is down to just a point, and at this stage it is all about keeping in touch with the target’s we have set ourselves, and not letting Paul get too far away.
How about some FFUK stats?
Top scorer in the league this week goes to mystery man Ryan White (7th) with a whopping 75 points. We still don’t know who Ryan is so if you do then please let us know so we can work out who to go to for his entry fee and email.
Next best score in the league went to one of our resident Gunners, James Amar (10th), with 71 points. James has turned to alcohol to get him through this difficult time and in fact ended up with one of the most successful captain picks by doing so. Late on Friday night his beer goggles identified Phil Jones (7 x 2) as just the man to lead him in to battle. Meanwhile plenty (actually 98) of us who hadn’t been drinking quite as much went with Lukaku and 66 picked Kane, even 3rd most popular pick Aguero blanked. That is 177 FFUKers who would all have preferred to have captained Phil Jones in hindsight. Check out the GW3 stats below for more.
At the other end of the table lets not dwell on the low scorers, I know they wouldn’t want me to. It’s like taking off a plaster so let’s do it quick:
- Andy Jackson (155th) scored 24 points
- Michael Colohan (222nd) scored 23 points
- Paul Marshall (203rd) scored just 16 points. Whilst this is a seriously low score, a quick inspection of his team shows that “Expected Toulouse” isn’t a bad squad (despite the name), with just a couple of issues to deal with. It stands as proof that this sort of thing can happen to anyone, so get yourself back on that horse Paul, there is a plenty of time left this season.
There were 24 wildcards wielded this week, to varying degrees of success. I had planned to use mine in this break but haven’t pushed the button just yet (although I may have by the time you read this). Who needs Harry Kane anyway?
Overall average for GW3 was 43. As we have come to expect FFUK is better than that but not by so much this time round. 44.16 was the FFUK average. What was the reason for the relatively low scoring? I am putting it down to the lack of the premium forwards firing. Most of us placed our faith in Lukaku (98 captains in the FFUK league) or Kane (66 captains) and both disappointed. Big time.
After much deliberation we are going with the name HERO 2 ZERO for our newest feature where we keep an eye on the very best risers in the league and the very worst faller.
Much respect to the HERO’s of GW3 below:
- Matthew McKenna (47th) rises 102 places from 149th after scoring 70 points
- Alex Schroffenegger (76th) rises 84 places from 160th after scoring 65 points
- Jordan Davison (49th) rises 74 places from 123rd after scoring 60 points
The flip side of this feature means we now have to announce those who have fallen just as dramatically. Ouch. Here are the ZERO’s:
- Ally Edwards (169th) drops 86 places in the league from 83rd after scoring just 21 points
- Paul Huntley (113th) drops 85 places from 28th after scoring just 21 points.
- Steve Cronin (188th) drops 81 places from 107th after scoring 27 (-8)*
*readers may notice that Steve was in the ZERO list last week too. This is not a list to feature in two weeks on the trot and Statto-Steve has in fact fallen from 37th position down to 188th in 2 weeks. Holy FFUK that is a drop of 151 places! Who is giving advice to this kid?
Once again it is eviction time again in the CONTS league. Each week the lowest scoring player must go. With just Sunday’s games to go Stu Allen and his son Theo were both sitting perilously on just 7 points. It got a bit better for both but alas big daddy Stu couldn’t beat his son and ended up with the lowest score for GW3 of just 26 points (remember hits don’t count in this league). Stu spent the weekend at Lester’s wedding, I hope he enjoyed himself because he returned to reality with a bang on Sunday evening. I will be removing Stu from the Conts league before the GW4 deadline, whilst Theo stays for at least another week, perhaps we could get Theo to post on the site seeing as he is clearly the one in the family who knows what he is doing. Whilst I am at it FFUKing CONGRATULATIONS to Lester on getting hitched!
Thanks for reading once again, hope you all enjoy the international break and we will be back to assess the fun and frolics of GW4.
Cheers
Chris
FFUK 