Welcome to the GW14 REVIEW – WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
Wow what a gameweek. The wonderful/horrendous thing about this game is that you never know what is round the corner. Just a week ago most of us had Aguero (0) in our teams. Rumours circulated early on Saturday that he might miss out with a knock, but we have heard it all before and then he goes and bangs a hatrick in. Not this time. Jamie Jackson got it right for once and is now giving out the most vague tweets just to cover himself. FFUK him and FFUK Sergio. We don’t have time in this game to muck about. Many of our best laid plans are up in flames now after Pep span his wheel once more. WITH OR WITHOUT YOU seems an appropriate tune for this week.
Fortunately Super Sunday gave us the opportunity to audition a couple of alternative premium strikers. No not Morata JPC, I mean Kane and Aubameyang. And one of these men in particular did not disappoint.
Pierre Emeric Aubameyang (16) was not only the highest scorer of the gameweek but also becomes the highest scoring forward in the game right now and the 2nd highest overall with his brace, assist and max bonus in the demolition of Spurs in a frantic NLD. PEA’s form since I sold him back in GW8 has been staggering. With some lovely fixtures on the horizon is he the perfect replacement?
Harry Kane (6) fluffed his lines once again but still managed a penalty in the 4-2 defeat. Another with great fixtures incoming but still not quite at his best. It was Harry I bought in for PEA and to say it didn’t work out is an understatement but perhaps Harry offers a security of starts that no other premium pick can and that is why I am tempted to get back on the Kane train once more. Especially with the threat of rotation looming large over most squads, the Hurricane at least is an easy captain pick.
This feels like a massive decision, the biggest one since the last one. And inevitably there is an element of luck attached. We can crunch the numbers all we want but no-one knows what will happen. My current thinking is that I will go for Kane and upgrade Laca to Auba in the near future but getting rid of Aguero is going to be hard, we all know his quality and with the way City are playing he can and will score points on such a regular basis that will be hard to compete with. Can Harry or Pierre do more though?
Before we get to the FFUK league lets take a quick look at this week’s dream team.
Hernandez (13) started for a change and scored a brace along with max bonus in a 3-0 win over Newcastle. This is particularly relevant if you are an Arnie (5) owner as it meant that he played a little deeper but was as involved in all the attacks and looked lively again according to reports.
In midfield Andros Townsend (14) and McArthur (10) stole the show for Palace in their defeat of Burnley. We might need some bargains like these guys to allow us the funds for the pricey picks. Maybe Chelsea’s Pedro (11) can nail down a place, if so he would represent incredible value at 6.3. Even cheaper are Brighton’s Solly March (11) and Aaron Gunnarson (10) who at 5.0 and 4.4 respectively are proper bargains should you require them.
At the back there were points a plenty. Many FFUKers scored well with their rearguards but those with VVD (12) Duffy (10) and Leicester’s Pereira (9) were the best defensive assets this week. In goal Kepa (9) offers an intriguing route in to the Chelsea defence at 5.5.
When it comes to captaincy there is only one man to discuss…. Aguero – With or Without you. 120 of the FFUK league gave the Argentinean the armband. When team news came through you could hear the tapping of phones around the league to double check just who had been given the vice captaincy. Check out Steve’s updated stats to see just who had gone for who. It becomes a case of the Raz and the Raz nots (oh that was last week)!
With all this knowledge soaked up lets assess how this affected the top of the FFUK league:
The top two stay the same. But its getting tighter up there. Oo er. Lawrence Sprigings (1st) still leads the way with Tim McEwan (2nd) right behind him.
Watch out for Mark Ford (3rd) who moves up and is just a clean sheet behind the top two.
The top scorer for this week with 83 points is also the Manager of the Month for November. The £25 prize goes to Alex Sadlier (4th) with 279 points scored over the month. Alex was another who captained Aguero (0) for his no-show so his vice was crucial. Step forward the main man PEA (16 x 2), it doesn’t get much better than that and was a massive reason for his 83 points scored this week. That and his blockbusting defence of TAA (6), Chilwell (6), Balbuena (6) and Duffy (10). Congratulations Alex, all prizes will be paid at the end of the season but you have that one in the bank. Clearly your league position means you are in with a shout of more prizes towards the business end of the season. We will keep an eye on your progress in this review as the season unfolds.
Other notable scores include Ben Pycz (52nd) with 77 scored via captain Raz (9 x 2), along with his deadly strike duo of Arnie (5) and PEA (16). Ben now sits on the cusp of the first page and will hope he can break onto the first page in the festive period.
It was a good week for a couple of other regulars too. My fav Statto Steve Cronin (23rd) decided to use his WC and to great effect. No WC curse for Steve. Vice Raz (9 x 2), Felipe (10) and a bad boy defence of AWB (6), TAA (6), Alonso (6) backed up by Fabianski (8) meant statto smashed it. Nicely done Steve.
Always listen to Coolers. Especially if he is on form. And Sean Colohan (35th) is this week after also scoring 67 points. His vice was Auba (16 x 2) so this explains a lot and his defence was even better with AWB (6), Chilwell (6), TAA (6) and Rudiger (7) all scored well, and he was another with Fabianski (8) in nets.
Well played to all that smashed it, now we have to discuss someone who didnt. Look away now JPC, skip to the injury time bit, it may be too painful.
Once more it wasn’t that close. I don’t know if it’s better to be evicted as part of a close run thing or know your fate early so you can prepare yourself for it. Either way you don’t get to choose. The CONTS league chooses the lowest scorer each week and spits them out. No mercy is shown. Unfortunately for James Page-Chatton this was his time to go with just 33 points scored. Obviously JPC had the Aguero (0) no-show like many of us but that was compounded with a Dilva (1) late sub appearance. Barkley (0) also missed out with a knock and his replacements did little to improve matters. However I have to also mention his captain choice of Morata (0) who lost his place after a series of poor performances to Giroud (2). Neither of the Chelsea forwards represent viable options, as much as it pains me to say it as a fan. The Fulham fixture looked juicy on paper but in hindsight in a horror show of a gameweek the only ones he could have captained that would have done him any good were his defenders. Alas Jim, I have removed you now from the CONTS mini league. At least Liverpool won the derby!
Into injury time and it is all go right now here at FFUK. Watch out for a CUPDATE very soon from our Peter as the first round ties in the MILK PLATE are now complete and that means the next round gets underway very very soon.
That is all for now, as always thanks for reading, I will be be back on Thursday to look back at the midweek action before we go again at the weekend. No rest for the wicked.
Until then look after yourself and each FFUKer.
Cheers
Chris
FFUK 