Fantasy Premier League

Monday Morning Manager

Mon Apr 21 04:33PM by Jeremy

Reading FC's Leroy Lita

Reading are in trouble. 

Reading should be fine.

But Reading are in trouble.  They're just out of the relegation zone  having lost three in a row and having not scored in four matches. And their overall goal difference is -28, two worse than Fulham.  They've recalled Lita from Charlton as Charlton have been eliminated from playoff contention, but is that the answer?  They had better hope so because things are very dicey for them at the moment.

Their saving grace could be the schedule.  They have to play @Wigan, home to Spurs, and @Derby.  A point from Wigan might be optimistic considering Wigan's home form and Reading road (and general) woes.  I've got Capt. Kirkland in my fantasy side for this week so am betting on a clean sheet for them.  But say they get a point, nil-nil.  Then their next games are against teams that aren't playing for anything any more and I think you can expect them to take the last six points on offer.  Hahnemann on the barn door next week?

So seven points eliminates Fulham - who do seem doomed already.  That leaves Birmingham and Bolton.  BRM play LIV (who will be resting players for the CL), @FUL, and Rovers.  LIV's second string has proved to be good enough this year and I'm betting on Pennant (got him on the barn door) to do the business again this week. That sets up @FUL as the quintessential six-pointer which always ends in a tie that helps neither club.  Then home to a Rovers team with nothing to play for.  So 4 points from the three matches.  

Bolton would then need to just match that haul over the final three matches.  A point at Spurs and a point at home to Sunderland - Keane won't do anyone any favors, leaves them with a mountain to climb at Chelsea.  Whether or not Chelsea are still in the title race and the Champions League will go a long way to determining what side Chelsea sets out and could impact this year's relegation much as Liverpool's loss to Fulham last year. 

Maybe it doesn't come down to that.  Maybe they get the win home to Sunderland.  Not unlikely, really.  That would be four points and would seal BRM's fate. 

Fulham we just gloss over.  They're going down.  Four points off the pace and two of their final three matches on the road against teams trying to get into Europe (MAC & POR) and one, as we've said, against a fellow relegation battler.  I can see them falling apart and only collecting the one point at home to BRM.  That won't help them, but may doom BRM.

How do you see this shaping up?  DER, FUL, and BRM going down?  Or does BOL fall despite their recent good work? 

(24 user comments)

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User comments

  • (1)

    1st post!!! i don't see bolton going down this season. they have been performing exceptionally well i can't believe i am saying this. especially upsetting man utd once. fulham and birmingham to join derby.

    Posted by: zzzeclipse on Mon Apr 21 04:50PM | Report abuse
  • (2)

    1st post!!! i don't see bolton going down this season. they have been performing exceptionally well i can't believe i am saying this. especially upsetting man utd once. fulham and birmingham to join derby.

    Posted by: zzzeclipse on Mon Apr 21 04:53PM | Report abuse
  • (3)

    oops sorry double posted!

    Posted by: zzzeclipse on Mon Apr 21 04:58PM | Report abuse
  • (4)

    I'm going to stick with my mid-season prediction and say that RED, FUL, and DER will go down. I know it's unlikely for RED to drop that far, but I don't see Spurs dropping all of their last 3 matches without a fight, and Derby is going to try to salvage some level of respect (if you could call it that at this point) before going back to the Championship. I see RED pulling no more than 3 points from the next 3 matches.

    Posted by: wrigavin on Mon Apr 21 06:12PM | Report abuse
  • (5)

    not sure portsmouth and man city are fighting for a european place. seems to be between aston villa and everton really, and with the teams playing each other next week that could be the match to get in on if you want to make sure a) full strength teams are being played b) the teams actually care about the game.

    Posted by: joshtottenham on Mon Apr 21 07:46PM | Report abuse
  • (6)

    Are things that bad you're not even commenting of the Fantasy side of things these days Jeremy? ;)

    Posted by: ocuk_kaiowas on Mon Apr 21 09:54PM | Report abuse
  • (7)

    Jeremy, Neal, is there any way that we can find out how your teams are doing in the league? You guys give great advice (most of the time as Rooney gave me 4.5 points this week :P) but I would be very interested to know how you are fairing week in week out. Also, do you both reside in Europe? Seem to post very early in the morning compared to where I am. Later,

    Posted by: dyosh15 on Mon Apr 21 11:21PM | Report abuse
  • (8)

    @7 -- I am "Stop When the Gorilla is Tired" -- http://uk.premiership.fantasysports.yahoo.com/football/752 -- Points: 2796; Overall Rank: 4,698; Percentile: 98th. Not a very good season for me. I did finish in the top 40 in each of the last two seasons. But this year is all Neal. He has an almost 300pt lead on me, and the only reason I haven't asked him his overall placement is that I don't want to jinx it. So, @6, things are that bad. Hard to look back over the weekend that was, but I did try to include some fantasy information/opinion in the post.

    Posted by: jspitzberg on Tue Apr 22 12:20AM | Report abuse
  • (9)

    Hi guys, I am missing clean sheet points for Toure and Eboue this weekend. Anyone else notice the same problem?

    Posted by: drdannywu on Tue Apr 22 01:15AM | Report abuse
  • (10)

    9- I had those CS problems with eboue so many times that i decided just to drop him.

    Posted by: daniel_menezes on Tue Apr 22 03:54AM | Report abuse