Saturday 8 February 2014

Fantasy Football - January 2013/14

Note: January allows each player an extra wildcard to refresh their squad. I won't be covering this in depth as it's allows for such a huge number of transfers to take place. Intead, at the end of the month I will take stock of what manager did with their w/card.


GW20 starts the new year, and the second half of the season. Mike Hackett wins with 51pts, everyone having a low scoring week. Suarez scored, but was the only striker to do so. Walcott had a strong week, taking 11pts.

There was a long gap after GW20, to allow for an FA Cup weekend. Walcott was stretchered off injured as Arsenal beat Spurs. He ruptured his ACL, which will rule him out of the rest of the season and the World Cup. Everyone who had Walcott swaps him out. Andrew, Jon, and Ross all bring in Hazard, while I got for Ozil and Mike goes with Oscar.

GW21, and I win the week. 79pts as Welbeck, Giroud and Suarez score four goals between them. It was a high scoring week all round, as Ross earned 72pts and Andrew 70pts. Everyone but Jon and Andrew captained Suarez. Rooney remained injured; I'd brought in Danny Welbeck at the last minute.

GW22 is a  low scoring week. Andrew won with 67pts. He had both Yaya Toure and Adebayor. Everyone captained Suarez, who earned 10pts. I lost 28 points to Andrew, after two good weeks of closing in. This was followed by another FA Cup weekend.

Transfer news, and Andrew let Oscar go for Januzaj. In the real world, Manchester United bought Juan Mata from Chelsea, Newcastle sold Cabaye, and Chelsea bought Matic and Salah.

GW23 and Suarez has another great week, 22pts as captain. Andrew and Jon are the only ones not to captain him, they chose Hazard who gave them 6pts. Meanwhile Giroud scores his third goal away from home in a row. The winner of the week is Mike with 78. I earned 17pts more than Andrew, continuing to close the gap, and remain second place in the league.

With Suarez on such good form for so long now, he's an automatic armband choice every week. Everyone has him in their teams, and choosing an alternative captain seems to never pay off. Sadly, with such a clear homogonised captain choice, the league becomes static.

As January ends, so ends the transfer window.

Wildcard Reports: Andrew, Jon, and Mike all played theirs before GW21, after the FA Cup break. Andrew dropped Negredo and Rooney for Giroud and Adebayor and used the money he saved to upgrade his midfield. Before he'd had Sterling, Kasami and Ramsey; now he fields Eriksen, Hazard and Oscar. Jon swapped Giroud for Adebayor, replaced Walcott, and and shuffled his team without too many major changes. Mike dropped Giroud for Negredo, and made room for Oscar and Lallana. James played his w/card before GW23, swapping out Coleman and Zabaleta for Koscielny and Azpilicueta, Mirallas and Cabaye out for Mata and Yaya Toure, and Rooney and Lukaku out for Aguero and Bony. James was the only person to choose Mata. Ross also played his before GW23, shuffling his team and making many minor changes. Negredo to Aguero and Kompany to Kolarov, for example. He brings in Eto'o as a differential.

I played my last wildcard at the very last minute, before GW24, having waited to see if any real world transfers catch my eye. I only made minor changes, getting rid of Ozil and Januzaj for Lallana and Sterling.