Welcome to the GW30 REVIEW – CHANGES
Things change very quickly in this game. One minute you think you are set, you may have a plan, you may even have a spreadsheet with all your workings on it. But it doesn’t matter as everything can change in an instant. Until Sunday’s Spurs game most of us had planned to keep Harry Kane (1) in our teams until the end of the season. It was pretty obvious and some of us had even earmarked him for triple captaincy in one of the potential doubles. But a challenge in the first half with Bournemouth’s Asmir Begovic (1) saw Kane roll over that same ankle again and in that moment all his owners winced, especially the 115 FFUKers who had given him the armband. He trudged off down the tunnel with just half an hour played. Disaster.
FPL managers were left frantically searching for an update on his injury. Spurs fans were distraught. England fans suddenly realised their is very little hope without their main man. At this stage we don’t know for sure the extent of the injury but initial reports suggest he is out for at least a month so it doesn’t look good. Whatever the outcome it is pretty obvious the Harry Kane team are going to be without their namesake for a large chunk of the remainder of the season.
For those holding Aguero (0), we had only just got used to the news that he would miss out for the next couple of weeks, as he informed us a day earlier. Two of the most expensive and deadly players in the game both gone. Strangely the Aguero injury may have little effect as he now has a weekend off. But these injuries combined with the incoming blank gameweek changes everything. So let’s go with Tupac’s Changes as this week’s musical selection, can’t believe this tune is now 20 years old! Could have gone with Bowie’s song of the same name or even Thundercat’s from his brilliant album Drunk but lets go for a bit of 90’s rap this time. I have updated the GW REVIEWS PLAYLIST too if you fancy a listen.
It wasnt a high scoring week. In fact it was the join lowest average gameweek score this season at just 41 points. What is worse the FFUK average is below that at 40.2. I am not sure we have been below the overall average all season. This feels like a low point.
How did all this low scoring affect the FFUK league?
FFUK TOP 50 AFTER GW 30
Congratulations to Danny Burgess (27th) who top scored this week with 85 points. The Arsenal fan of course didn’t captain Kane and was one of 5 FFUKers who went with Aubamayang (9 x 2) as his talisman, this was as good as it got in terms of captaincy as the top 6 pick all blanked (see Steve’s image at top of this article). Points didn’t stop there, his Burnley double up of Pope (9) and Mee (6) was a good base but it was in midfield where his team really came into its own as Silva (16), Mkhi (13), Mane (7) and Sterling (6) all provided valuable contributions. Even Vardy (5) up top helped out. Who needs Harry Kane anyway? However a word of warning Danny now only has 2 guaranteed starters for GW31 with a couple of others who may see limited action so it may be back to reality with a bump for Mr Burgess this weekend.
At the other end of the spectrum is last season’s league winner Nick Johns (32nd) who low scores on page 1 with just 25 points. I don’t need to tell you who his captain was. He was left with just 10 players after Ben Davies (0) no show. Only Ben Mee (6) provided any sort of points for him. You see even the best have bad weeks. However Nick has 7 players potentially for GW31 so he may make a few of those points back over Mr Burgess this weekend.
The top 4 remains as they were. However the real significance was Dan McBrearty (2nd) scoring 64 points and cutting that gap to the top to just 16 points. Game on again just when we thought Jamie Stewart (1st) was beginning to run away with it.
Elsewhere it was decent weekends for Tom Shepherd (15th) with 61 scored and Martin Whitlock (31st) with 60 points.
It is about to get really interesting in the next few weeks. The blanks, doubles and chips used across these will go some way to deciding who wins what this season. Do you know what you are doing? Do you have your plan? It could all change of course.
Fortunately Lester Deeble (12th) has promised a run down of who has what chips left amongst the top 20 so watch out for that one, just as soon as he works out how to see who has what left. If you are reading this Lester, go into each persons gw history or transfer history and you can see what chips they have used and when. However it wont be in a post so you have to assume he will let us know via another method – is that an official FFUK letter in the post?
If you hadn’t guessed Mr Burgess makes another appearance in this section but there were actually two FFUKers who climbed further in the league. Congratulations to all 3 of you:
- Yabah Turnbull (80th) rose 26 places from 106th after scoring 68 points
- Christopher Reynolds (122nd) rose 24 places with 66 points
- Danny Burgess (27th) rose 24 places with his excellent 85 points
However it is only fair that we now announce the 3 that fell furthest. It was not a good weekend for this trio:
- Alex Schrofenegger (95th) fell 15 places from 80th after scoring just 26 points
- James Prebble (60th) fell 15 places from 45th after scoring 25 points
- Neil Gordon (151st) fell 14 places from 137th after also mustering just 25 points
However even these 3 weren’t the lowest. That unwanted accolade goes to Dan Mogridge (194th) and Tom Shurville (195th) who both managed just 20 points.
After the dramatic events of Sunday it promised to be another close one in this most brutal of mini-leagues. In reality it was the expected City win and in the end it wasn’t that close. One man fell quite a way below his rivals… Matt Cox (9th) only mustered 32 points and his nearest rival Blakey (16th) was a full 10 points ahead by the end. Pete has now removed the man who is currently a top 10 FFUKer and always in the upper echelons of the league. This league cares not for reputations. Anyone can go at any time. You can see the remaining 8 conts below… I am expecting the pressure to ramp up even more over the coming gameweeks with blanks, doubles and chips all set to play their part. I look forward to seeing who goes to the darkside first and forgets about overall FPL rank in order to win this league. For those left a reminder that the prizes for this league are 1st £100, 2nd £60, 3rd £30.
Whilst we are talking prizes for those involved in the FFUK H2H league which Tim runs I can confirm the prizes for this are 1st £60 and 2nd £35. Blakey and Jamie are currently in the prize position but with 8 weeks to go there is still time for that to change. Latest league table below.
That is it for another gameweek, as always thanks for reading. This is where it really gets interesting in terms of the run in. Hope you are all set. Big news also coming your way very soon as we announce the venue for the FFUK end of season do – We want you there! That is after we deal with GW31 and just 4 fixtures. Then it’s an international break so we have a chance to take stock once more.
Cheers
Chris
FFUK 