GW 14 REVIEW – MANIC MONDAY

Welcome to the GW14 Review – Manic Monday

This week’s ditty is in honor of the quick turnaround us managers have to do between the end of GW 14 on Sunday and the start of GW 15 on Tuesday. Throw in the climax to one round of the cup, the draw for the next round at 9pm tonight, a new champions league game to get our heads around and it’s a very manic Monday indeed. We love it really.

“I wish it was Sunday”

And what a Sunday it was. Maybe we didn’t get the fireworks we were expecting but with plenty of cup ties in the balance and some close H2Hs it was all to play for. Controversy arrived courtesy of the Premier League Goal Accreditation Panel who downgraded Rashford’s goal to an assist and a Tom Heaton own goal. The difference between a goal and an assist can make all the difference as some FFUKers found out to their cost. Some brave souls pulled out their triple captain chip in an attempt to get over the line in their cup ties or for a tilt at temporary glory. For Vardy (6) triple captainers this might just have paid off, less so those on Mane (2) and Kane (2), although we’ll only truly know the value of playing these chips early, later in the season, when all chips are down.

Vardy (6) was by far the most popular captain choice (38.04%) this week and given he returned again there’s little to suggest this is likely to change as Leicester welcome newly managerless Watford midweek. That is, if they haven’t reappointed Javi Gracia, Marco Silva (although Everton did look much improved Sunday), or even QSF himself by then. Vardy is now owned by 74.12% of ffukers compared to 46% in the game overall. Ahead of the curve.

DREAM TEAM GW14

Needless to say big VVD (17) was the player to own this week. If you had TAA (10) as well you were in high scoring triple barrel Liverpool defender acronym dream land. Rolls off the tongue. One such person was this weeks top scorer Glen Johnson (209th) with a whopping 89 points. Fine full back in his day too. For most of us it was an either / or however and one of the stranger goals you’ll see from Lewis Dunk (thanks very much Mr. Atkinson) meant the mega points for a clean sheet as well were wiped out. It was a good week for goalscoring defenders with Creswell (14) and Doherty (10) getting in on the act.

Clean sheets on the other hand were hard to come by this week. West Ham did us all a favour (except temporarily Chelsea fans) and took Roberto out of the firing line. My GW 9 strategy of drafting him and Gazzaniga to rotate has so far returned 0 clean sheets. A good example of trying to be too clever by half. What a story David Martin (10) is though. The journeyman pro third choice keeper at his boyhood club where his dad is a legend was in tears at the final whistle having kept the most unlikely of clean sheets. You couldn’t write it. Ok you could, but still.

No doubt the absence of Tammy Abraham helped with the fairytale. At the time of writing it’s still uncertain whether he’ll be fit midweek and the keep / sell dilemma rages on. A lot will depend on your squad depth, which is crucial as the fixtures come thick and fast. My inclination is to hold as it’s not a long term injury, having said which his price keeps dropping so if selling do it soon. There’s some talk of Pulisic (2) starting through the middle where he ended the game at the weekend after Giroud’s (2) lacklustre performance.

The only other clean sheet was Crystal Palace who have a very enticing run of fixtures coming up; BOU (H), WAT (A), BHA (H), NEW (A), WHU (H), SOU (A), NOR (A). With Ward out until the new year the likes of Martin Kelly (6) who is a snip at £4.1 should be on everyone’s radar. Zaha (11) looks to be finding form too. It’s hard to know if VAR is good or bad for his knack of winning penalties but I’m determined to keep this review a VAR free zone so one for a future article perhaps.

Elsewhere Hilson (12) keeps banging in the free kicks and is now level with the likes of Mo Salah (3) with six goals this season. Delle Alli (15) is proving a much better footballer than his brother and had five shots in the box, ten penalty area touches and was top for xG (1.36). Son (10) is reliable as ever and has now had back to back double digit returns.

Up front the Aubameyang (13) bagged a brace and Iheanacho (11) with a grand total ownership of 0.2% had a goal and an assist.

FFUK LEAGUE TOP 20

We have a new joint leader in Paul Baker (1st) who jumped from fourth last week with an impressive score of 61 despite leaving Cantwell (8) and Dunk (8) on the bench. Pretty impressive from Mr. Cups. I’m level with him after a bang average GW of 51, the average score in the overall game.

Last weeks leader Alan Tompkins (3rd) is only four points back with an even more frustrating 21 points on the bench. Others of note are Matt Reid (7th) whose impressive score of 71 catapults him from 20th to 7th. Mike Cronin (9th) and Dean Cummings (9th) move into the top 10 this week.

Shout out also to Luay Alfahm (12th), Ross Smith (17th), Duncan Galloway (20th) and Dan McBrearty (20th) all of whom move into the top 20. If you’re up there and not mentioned that’s probably because you’ve been there a while, keep up the good work.

Interesting to note that none of the top 10 took hits and no one in the top 20 took more than a -4 while there’s only 24 points separating the top 10.

Manager of the Month November

And the winner is Peter Hayes (16th) with a grand old score of 300. Fortune favours the brave and Peter sealed the deal by taking a -4 to get Ings (9) and Son (10) in. Well played Peter £50 prize coming your way at the end of the season!

CONTS EVICTION

The unlucky evictee from the Conts mini league this week is Jamie Davis. Jamie Stewart will do the honours and remove you from the league. Another cont will be evicted next GW! And the one after etc.

FFUK CUP

Paul Baker AKA Mr Cups will be in touch soon with a full cupdate as there is plenty to report!

In the meantime don’t forget to tune in this evening (or take a look back if it’s already happened) for the FFUK Cup third round draw and a special Q and A with Chris, Pete and Bakes. Take the chance to pick the brain of ffuk legends and the current no.1 FFUKer.