Boards.ie fantasy football thread

One Cold Hand

Sizzler wrote:

Half the fun for me is finding the next Ronaldo / Lampard for this season

Yeah thats the trick. The guy who won our league had Arteta, Ronaldo and Drogba in from week 1. A solid base to build on. In comparison in moment of weakness half an hour before the deadline I changed my midfield pairing to Sissoko and John O'Shea! I still have no idea where that came out of!

maxi-twist

7 mil to spend on a midfielder, bentley perhaps? Or maybe petrov, he could have a good season this year. DIdnt do to well last year. Anyone got any ideas?

maxi-twist

PHB wrote:

9: Tevez
11: Berbatov

Im struggling to choose between those two and Van Persie + keane. All depends if tevez goes to utd i supose!

Necronomicon

PHB wrote:

1: Given
2: Neville
3: Upson
4: Taylor
5: Ronaldo (C)
6: Lampard
7: Richardson
8: Fabregas
9: Tevez
10: Bianchi
11: Berbatov
---
12: Niemi
13: Boyce
14: Anderson
15: Smertin

I've really been toying with the idea of Bianchi as well, I think he could be great at City. The only thing I'm worried about is buying a player who hasn't played in the Premiership before, I got stung with that last year when I bought Rosicky.

PHB

Necromomicon wrote:

I've really been toying with the idea of Bianchi as well, I think he could be great at City. The only thing I'm worried about is buying a player who hasn't played in the Premiership before, I got stung with that last year when I bought Rosicky.

Yeh, well I'm really torn between Bianchi and Fabregas or Pederson and Eduardo/Van Persie.
I'm currently edging towards the latter. I think Fabregas will be singled out for special treatment next season and could see his assist rate drop a little.

As for my defence, there's only three of them, and here's my logic.
Neville for 6 is a steal. If he can keep fit, he will be up there in top points. He will get about 5-6 assists next season, and will be a United defence which will have the additional cover of Hargreaves at the ends of games, to stop those peasky leaking of goals.
Upson for West Ham is a bit dodgy, but Neil and Upson could make the West Ham defence a bit better than last season.
Taylor is a good bet I think. I think if Big Sam plays like I think he will, it will be a somewhat defensive style, that will need a swashbuckling defender at the heart of it, and that's Taylor. Big Sam's teams don't concede many cheap goals, and Taylor could get lots of Actim points. The other two are ****, but if Sunderland do defend well, Anderson will be at the heart of it.

Necronomicon

Right, I've changed my team for the 2nd and hopefully last time:

James

Taylor
Distin
Dunne
Ronaldo
Essien
Arteta
Malouda
Berbatov
Ashton
Tevez

I've gone for a strong 11 at the expensive of having decent subs, hopefully that won't come back to bite me in the ass (Muamba is my best sub, and I do fancy Birmingham to do well this season so hopefully he'll pick up points)

Like PHB, i hope that Sam sorts out the Newcastle defence, and that Taylor turns out to be great value at 5.0

In midfield, I fancy Malouda to do well with Chelsea playing with wingers again - I've always thought he was quality, and I think he'll fit in well in the Premiership (although at 9.0 he's an expensive risk)

Up front, Berbatov is pretty self-explanatory, just a class act. Ashton, fit again, could be a snip at 7.0, because I also fancy West Ham to do well. If the Tevez transfer doesn't go through to United before the start of the season, I'll drop him. I have .5 left over so if that happens, I'll have 9.0 to spend on another striker.

blobert

Here's my current mottley crew (subject to change at least 100 more times):

Howard

Finnan-Ben Haim-A Cole

Gamst-Ronaldo-Lampard-Cahill-Richardon

Van Persie-Chopra/Earnshaw

With cheap subs: Neimi, Sun (Man C), Anderson (Sunderland)
Plan is to swap between 4-5-1 and 3-5-2 depending on games.

Apparantly spending more on defence than attack is the way to go, but I personally believe a strong midfield with semi solid defence and cheaper forwards is the way to go!

Was tempted by Berbatov or Tevez but I reckon neither will play week in week out and I only want definate starters.

Good Luck

Lemlin

I'm stuck between three 5.5 million midfielders:

Richardson, Harper from Reading or Reo-Coker, what do people think?

Vokes

PHB wrote:

Yeh, well I'm really torn between Bianchi and Fabregas or Pederson and Eduardo/Van Persie.
I'm currently edging towards the latter.

The thing with V. Persie though is that he could be pushed out to left wing if Eduardo / Adebayor get paired together quite bit. Tis a risk

stepbar

Here's my team

1. Sorensen
2. Dunne
3. Vidic (C)
4. A.Ferdinand
5. M.Richards
6. Ronaldo
7. Hargreaves
8. Kavanagh
9. Fabregas
10. Tevez
11. Berbatov

12. Schwarzer
13. Torres
14. Ireland
15. Boyce

If I could only use a 3 man forward line......:D

Fuzzy_Dunlop

SofaKing wrote:

The thing with V. Persie though is that he could be pushed out to left wing if Eduardo / Adebayor get paired together quite bit. Tis a risk

Nah I'm fairly sure Van Persie will be the main man(ok i know it's partially the sun talking shíte) next year. Seriously doubt he'll get moved to left if anything he'd go to the right like for the netherlands with eduardo on the left.


Ok i think i may as well post my team now-
The 56ers
Reina

Woodgate
Dunne
Neville
Ben Haim
Fabregas
Ronaldo(c)
Essien
Parker
Tevez
Van Persie

Subs:Niemi, Stokes, Ingimarsson, Muamba

Not really sure about my defence actually no that i look at it

One Cold Hand

stepbar wrote:

Here's my team

1. Sorensen
2. Dunne
3. Vidic (C)
4. A.Ferdinand
5. M.Richards
6. Ronaldo
7. Hargreaves
8. Kavanagh
9. Fabregas
10. Tevez
11. Berbatov

12. Schwarzer
13. Torres
14. Ireland
15. Boyce

If I could only use a 3 man forward line......:D

Torres on the bench? Not a bad sub to bring in! You do realise that you can use 3 forwards?

kronsington

sorry to those who pm'd me looking for the code to th league, im writing to you from a ****ty internet cafe in ghana and dont have the time to send it on individually.. as far as i know there is one league for everyone on boards and its posted somewhere near the start of this thread so have a good look around and you'll find it

Mr Alan

THE BENNS
...............

Cech

Finnan
Toure
Taylor
Campbell

Gerrard
Barnes
Reo-Coker
Lampard

Torres
Van Persie

Bench: Sorenson, Upson, Muamba, Harewood

Probably gonna through a few more little tweaks, but that's the guts of it i reckon.

how do you change formation? (excuse my ignorance!)

Vokes

On the team page swap out a defender and sub in a forward, and voila....you should have a 3-4-3.


My own line-up reeks of Goals and Assists from all over the pitch

Howard
Lescott-Neville-Finnan
Lampard-Richardson-Milner-Taylor-Gamst Pederson
Viduka-Bent

Bench: Niemi, Evans, Ben Haim, Lita

Best of luck those chasing 2nd

Sizzler

SofaKing wrote:

On the team page swap out a defender and sub in a forward, and voila....you should have a 3-4-3.


My own line-up reeks of Goals and Assists from all over the pitch

Howard
Lescott-Neville-Finnan
Lampard-Richardson-Milner-Taylor-Gamst Pederson
Viduka-Bent

Bench: Niemi, Evans, Ben Haim, Lita

Best of luck those chasing 2nd

You better hope your MF's are scoring each week as your front two wont be playing every week.

Owen - Martins are 1st choice for the newcs and Berba and Robbie are 1st choice for Spurs Id imagine

ShriekingSheet

Sizzler wrote:

You better hope your MF's are scoring each week as your front two wont be playing every week.

Owen - Martins are 1st choice for the newcs and Berba and Robbie are 1st choice for Spurs Id imagine

yes, they're both good players but it's also not beyond the realms of possibility they could be reeking of something other than goals...

Also, if you put em in and think- if they don't play the subs will do a job- what can easily happen at spurs or manu is the bastards will be stuck on for a minutes at the end and get 1 point denying your sub who may have played 90mins a place in the team

swalsh

Here is my team which of course will be subject to alot of change

1. Robinson
2. Terry
3. Bale
4. Shorey
5. Lescott
6. Reo-Coker
7. Ronaldo(c)
8. Gerrard
9. Hunt
10.Torres
11.Van Persie

Subs are Niemi, Boyce, Teale and Harewood

All criticisms welcome!

Sizzler

swalsh wrote:

Here is my team which of course will be subject to alot of change

1. Robinson
2. Terry
3. Bale
4. Shorey
5. Lescott
6. Reo-Coker
7. Ronaldo(c)
8. Gerrard
9. Hunt
10.Torres
11.Van Persie

Subs are Niemi, Boyce, Teale and Harewood

All criticisms welcome!

Nice one ! You managed to get Two class MF's and Fwd's in there And the defence aint too shabby either!

Spud83

my team

1. Robinson

2. Finnan
3. Mellberg
4. Carragher

5. Gamst Pederson
6. Ronaldo
7. Scholes
8. Gilberto

9. Berbatov
10. Doyle
11. Smith

12. Neimi, 13. Brown, 14.Ingimarson, 15. Boyce

Smith is only staying if he moves to boro, and i'm waiting to see how bad scholes injury is.

Macca07

1.Friedel

2.Finnan
3.Ferdinand
4.Lescott

5.Gilberto
6.Lampard
7.Bentley
8.Taylor

9.Berbatov (C)
10.McCarthy
11.Tevez

Subs:
12.Ward (GK)
13.Pearson
14.Anderson
15.Davis


What ye guys think? World beaters. I know the subs are shocking but no point having good players on the bench, and they are all 1st teamers.
Of course if Tevez moves it will be a bonus, if not then I'll have to change that.

Bacchus

James - Portsmouth

Finnan - Liverpool
Anderson - Sunderland
Taylor - Newcastle

Ronaldo - Man Utd
Arteta - Everton
Essien - Chelsea
Huddlestone - Spurs

McCarthy - Blackburn
Berbatov - Spurs
Tevez - West Ham / Man Utd

Subs:
Fulop - Sunderland
Jaidi - Birmingham
Rosenior - Fulham
Richardson - Sunderland

What do ya think? It's gone through a few revisions but I'm still not sure about the goalkeeper.
I'm kinda torn between Essien and maybe Gamst Pederson. Not sure which to go for.
Mumba at Birmingham at 4million is a cheaper option than Richardson too which could free up more cash for a better keeper/defender/midfielder.

What do ye think?

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Gilberto isn't going to be playing for the first couple of matches for those who have him in their team.

Sizzler

Signings to be considered...

Petrov gone to Man City, could be a key creator of goals for Bianchi ?

Kamara at Fulham, ran amock in the championship last year and played very well against Pompey the other day in a pre season game in the far east.

Rozanhal at Newcastle, a tough czech centre back (by all accounts) Steve Carr, IF he comes back into form could be a shout for a few goals and assists? Whos brave enough to pick Newcastle defenders tho

swalsh

Sizzler wrote:

Nice one ! You managed to get Two class MF's and Fwd's in there And the defence aint too shabby either!

Cheers Sizzler
Possibly one or two changes before the start, maybe one mentioned in the above post

Lex Luthor

My team as of today is and subject to change

1: James

2: Taylor (Newc)
3: Finnan
4: Terry

5: Ronaldo (C)
6: Taylor (Portsmouth)
7: Gerrard
8: Richardson

9: Aliadiere
10: Van Persie
11: Doyle

SUBS
12: Niemi
13: Huddlestone
14: Baines
15: Rosenior

I'll probably just change formation between now and day 1, but don't know how many times I've changed between Gerrard & Fabregas. Sticking with Gerrard for first few weeks and see how he gets on. He had a slow start last season so hopefully this time around he'll kick off out of the blocks better

likeacod

Here is my team! Id say its gonna change between now and the 11th of august

1:Reina

2:Carragher
3:Toure
4:Woodgate

5:Fabregas
6:Taylor
7:Arteta(C)
8:Reo-Coker

9:Torres
10: Doyle
11:Tevez

Subs
12: Kirkland
13: Rosenior
14: Dempsey
15: Baines

Lex Luthor

Lex Luthor wrote:

My team as of today is and subject to change

1: James

2: Taylor (Newc)
3: Finnan
4: Terry

5: Ronaldo (C)
6: Taylor (Portsmouth) - Fabregas
7: Gerrard
8: Richardson

9: Aliadiere - Forssell
10: Van Persie
11: Doyle

SUBS
12: Niemi
13: Huddlestone - Muamba
14: Baines
15: Rosenior

I'll probably just change formation between now and day 1, but don't know how many times I've changed between Gerrard & Fabregas. Sticking with Gerrard for first few weeks and see how he gets on. He had a slow start last season so hopefully this time around he'll kick off out of the blocks better

Had to go back in and see if I could get Fabregas in my team, so made a few changes and now happy with having 3 top MF's without sacraficing my team too much

Those Portsmouth defenders are all very good value. I think Sol is looking a little bit over weight this year and he'll probably lose his place to Hreidersson sooner rather than later

PHB

McShane at 4.0 is gona be the buy of the season for me

Lex Luthor

PHB wrote:

McShane at 4.0 is gona be the buy of the season for me

I think there are better defenders likely to get more pts for around about the same money as McShane

Sunderland first year and hopefully they do well but teams like Fulham & Pompey have better defences to cope with prem lge IMO

PHB

I don't know, I think Sunderland will do very well defensively, and I think McShane will be the stewalt of that defence. Not only that, but whenever he plays, he's likely to get bonus points, he rarely if ever gets injured, and he chips in with a fair few goals every year.

Vokes

Sizzler wrote:

SofaKing wrote:

On the team page swap out a defender and sub in a forward, and voila....you should have a 3-4-3.


My own line-up reeks of Goals and Assists from all over the pitch

Howard
Lescott-Neville-Finnan
Lampard-Richardson-Milner-Taylor-Gamst Pederson
Viduka-Bent

Bench: Niemi, Evans, Ben Haim, Lita

Best of luck those chasing 2nd

You better hope your MF's are scoring each week as your front two wont be playing every week.

Owen - Martins are 1st choice for the newcs and Berba and Robbie are 1st choice for Spurs Id imagine

Ahaa, but you need to remember its Allardyce in charge who likes to play a big strong target man dead centre flanked by two fsat attackers, so I think Viduka will feature a lot.

I concede that Bent may not always get his game, so I may still change that, but that's whys its important to have your whole midfield capable of getting goals and assists in case one is subbed in for a non-playing striker.

Nailz

I forgot my name and my password! And the e-mail address I registered doesn't work anymore!! What am I going to do?!?

Vokes

It can only be one of two things, either you've spellt your email address wrong, or you used a different one altogether.

Carcharodon

Given
Carvalho
Ferdinand
Dunne
Carragher

Ronaldo
Fabregas
Alonso

Van Persie
Nugent
Tevez

Not too sure about Alonso, will he be playing most games, Liverpool have loads of midfield options.
Nugent too is a bit of a worry, i think he should do well there in theory but i have a feeling he might not find form, saw him in pre season friendly and he was poor. Lita might be an option....
Feel free to mock and advise

Vokes

Carcharodon wrote:

Feel free to mock and advise

You should ditch Alonso and go for a cheaper attacking midfielder who will get more points. Look to the likes of Milner, Richardson, McSheffrey, Maloney, Pienaar, Malbranque, Hunt.

Carcharodon

SofaKing wrote:

You should ditch Alonso and go for a cheaper attacking midfielder who will get more points. Look to the likes of Milner, Richardson, McSheffrey, Maloney, Pienaar, Malbranque, Hunt.

Yea, I had McSheffrey but not sure if he will be as good in the Premiership.
Big fan of Malbranque but not sure how he figures in Jols plans, quality player if he finds a run of form.
I just dont like Richardson, will probably do ok but I just cant do it...

Sizzler

For what its worth heres Sizzler's guide to Fantasy Football for the season;)

1) Try and pick 2-3 players with a hefty price tag, e.g. Rooney, Drogba etc. If any of these lads fail to do well in the first few months or get injured or suspended you can drop them in favour of a cheaper alternative and bring them back in when they are doing the biz. If you dont have pricey players in from the start the odds are you will never be able to afford to get them in at a later stage as you will have to make too many team changes to accomadate them, thus losing points in the process.

2) Forget team allegiance ! Don't stack your team with lads from your fav team and equally dont eliminate yor arch enemies from your line up just because of who they play for ! Have to be selfish in fantasy land !

3) Don't pick too many players who havent played in the premiership, very easy to go and pick Torres, Babel, Nani, Malouda, Pizarro, Da Silva etc etc. Stick to the lads who are tried and tested and drop in or two of the new lads and hope they click. Shevchenko anybody ?

4) No point picking good players because of their individual ability, look further than that. Whats the likelyhood of their team doing OK this season? Will they keep clean sheets, get assists, score the odd goal? Hargreaves, Mascherano, Makelele all quality players at what they do, but they are never going to rack up a shedload of points for your team. You would be better off with someone like Barton (when fit) or Arteta, cheaper and more likely to score goals / assists.

5) Check out your teams first 10 fixtures and see what their likelyhood is at getting wins / keeping clean sheets. Remember once August 11th comes its going to be difficult to make wholesale changes. The wildcard is obviously available but you should try and hold off till Jan to use that one.(see below)

6) African nations cup, come Jan a lot of top quality players will be gone from for at least 2-3 weeks, Essien, Drogba,Martins,Zakora,Yakubu etc. Need to strike a balance here, if you are happy to have Essien and Drogba in till Xmas then great, but bare in mind other players stock will have risen in the first few months so they will be costly to swap out, odds are you will struggle to afford to bring all your African players back in (if you have 3 or 4 of them).

7) South American players. Post Copa America the odds are the majority of these lads will be given the first few games off, or at the very least they will be eased back into action, Gilberto,Anderson, Pizarro etc.

8) Are you picking players that will defo start each week? Spurs / Pool / Utd / Arsenal and Chelsea teams are going to be a nightmare to predict this season, most notably in the MF area and even more so up front! Providing Utd sign Tevez I'd say out of that group of teams Utd's forward line will probably be the only team that you can predict who will play up top every week. Liverpool/Chelsea and Spurs will be lucky dip :eek:

9) Don't underestimate the value of decent defenders ! If your forwards arent scoring or assisting you are going to end up with a paltry 2 points for a 90 min appearance...make that 1 point if they get booked A clean sheet and a star performance from a defender can get you 8 pts so keep an eye on the good defensive teams and slip in a player who is likely to head in a few corners over the season

10) USE YOUR WEEKLY TRANSFER! Keep an eye on what games are coming up each week, the big teams could be playing relegation fodder and an opportunity could arise to get a few extra points somewhere in the team. Equally there will be times during the season where some teams could play twice in a week, time to transfer those lads in to increase your chances of some extra points

11) Use your captain wisely ! Change him every week ! There will always be opportunities to do well depending on opposition!

12) Try and pick up a bargain or two Easier said than done but Reading was a prime example last year and theres bound to be a sprinkling of players this season in the lower price brackets who are going to do well.

Finally, you need luck and lots of it !

I'm sure theres other tactics and strategies I've omitted but hey I cant claim to ever have won the thing but I tried to follow the above last season and I did OK

Lex Luthor

PHB wrote:

I don't know, I think Sunderland will do very well defensively, and I think McShane will be the stewalt of that defence. Not only that, but whenever he plays, he's likely to get bonus points, he rarely if ever gets injured, and he chips in with a fair few goals every year.

Ok, I'll stick him on my watchlist. I have Baines & Rosenior in at the moment who are my 2 x 4.5m defenders. I've been trying to get Shorey in for a while and if I throw in McShane for either Baines or Rosenior, I could afford him.

McShane & Shorey is prob a better combination than the 2 I have above. Interesting...!!!!!!!!!

Who'd be a manager????

Reganio 2

I made 4 changes to my team and it is quite simply put...AMAZING. Probably won't win it but hell it will be good in my eyes.

Vokes

That's a nice guide, Sizzler. Fair play.

I reckon your steps #2 and #4 are ones that a lot of newbies fall down on a lot.

besty

Nice one Sizzler.

I just completely overhauled my team. It looks good on paper but I've gambled a bit with my forward line. I've tried to load my defence with quality to churn points out week in week out then put flair in midfield and what I think will be a consistent forward line.

Sizzler

Cheers lads. Hopefully some people get a bit of use out of it

Attractive Nun

2 changes to Eleven Hungry Men:

Van Persie in for Torres
Parker in for Ireland

Don't trust Torres and what was I thinking with a player from Man City?!

Necronomicon

Nice guide Sizzler. I'd just add that you should pick players who take set pieces, particularly penalties; Gareth Barry, Arteta, Ronaldo etc.

~Rebel~

For the Rebel Army, I've gone for;

Cech

Geremi
Carragher
Lescott
Finnan

Ronaldo (c)
Reo-Coker (worth it for his low low price)
Fabregas
Bently

Tevez (subject to move!)
Van Persie

Kirkland, Forsell (1st sub), Boyce and Teale.

Plenty of scope there for winnings..tempted to swap out Carra for Carvalho, undecided as yet. terry is just that extra .5 i dont wanna spend. Carra got so many points last season tho, nearly always guaranteed bonus as well, and Finnan is just a legend.

Lex Luthor

I'm thinking of ditching Taylor from Newcastle...they haven't really strengthened their defence at all this summer and no matter how good Big Sam might think he is, he still needs a few decent defenders. Seems to be a rift at Newcastle at the moment with him

Lex Luthor

So I've got 8m to spend....

I've got Doyle up front as one of my 2 main strikers, with 0.5m in the bank.

Should I keep him or look elsewhere?

~Rebel~

Lex Luthor wrote:

I'm thinking of ditching Taylor from Newcastle...they haven't really strengthened their defence at all this summer and no matter how good Big Sam might think he is, he still needs a few decent defenders. Seems to be a rift at Newcastle at the moment with him

Im tipping Geremi for great things this season. He's not too expensive and is down as a defender, even though he'll probably play at least some aprt of the season in midfield so you get the benefit of defence points and at times midfielders likelyhood for goals/assists. Even at RB, id say he'll still get a fair amount of assists and goals as it is! For the price newky are worth it, even with just whats there at the moment i think they'll be a lot tighter at the back then in recent years just because of Sams influence, and i very much doubt they're done in the transfer market as far as the defence is concerned.

_blank_

Where is the tactics button? FFS, Iwant to go from 442 to 433 and I can't find the damn thing.

Anyone?