Fantasy Premier League

Tactical review: Golden Graham

Mon Nov 02 04:20PM

It's time for our regular Monday post-mortem where we evaluate The Fantasist's Choose 'em or Lose 'em picks.

Goalkeepers - choose: Edwin van der Sar (12 points) wasn't cheap but he came through with that clean sheet we promised. Shay Given (25 pts) was spectacular for Manchester City, saving a penalty in the goalless draw against Birmingham. But Thomas Sorensen (-0.5pts) had an absolute nightmare against Wolves. Sorry if you picked him.

Lose: Paul Robinson (1pt) had a tough time at Old Trafford and didn't even get to make many saves, Jussi Jaaskelainen (6pts) shipped four goals but still did OK against Chelsea, and Vito Mannone, as expected, did not play.

Defenders - choose: It had to happen some time, and on Saturday it did. Graham Alexander (31.5pts) put on his scoring boots and slotted two goals for his owners. No need to thank the Fantasist. The John O'Shea (10pts) and Jonny Evans picks were obvious (7.5pts) but successful, although Patrice Evra (16pts) added an assist.

Lose: Ledley King (7pts) did OK but still scored below his value, as did Gary Cahill (10pts), but Liam Ridgewell (9pts) did a fine job for Birmingham against Man City.

Midfielders - choose: A bit of a horror show here. Yossi Benayoun (2pts) was substituted as usual and Joe Cole (0pts) didn't even get a game - blast Carlo Ancelotti's midfield rotation - but at least Stiliyan Petrov (9.5pts) did OK.

Lose: The much-ballyhooed David Bentley (8pts) failed to match his value, Matthew Taylor (0pts) did not even play and David Dunn (6pts), while now free of swine flu, was not up to much against Manchester United.

Strikers - choose: Dimitar Berbatov (20.5pts) scored and was excellent for Manchester United against Blackburn, but Ricardo Fuller (2pts) was quiet against Wolves and The Fantasist thought Emmanuel Adebayor (0 pts) could rediscover his goalscoring touch, but hadn't banked on his absence through injury.

Lose: Darren Bent (8.5) missed a stack of chances to make The Fantasist look silly, while Jo (0pts) was restricted to a cameo. However, Bobby Zamora continued his unusually prolific form (14pts) for Fulham.

- - -

Elsewhere, apart from the miraculous emergence of 47-point Aruna Dindane (stay away from that 15.23 price tag this week) it was all about the usual suspects at the weekend.

Robin van Persie (32 pts), Didier Drogba (28.5 pts) and Given all excelled, as did Cesc Fabregas (20.5pts) and Frank Lampard (21 pts).

The nine red cards shown could force some reshuffling. Barring successful appeals, get rid of Philip Degen, Jamie Carragher, Kenwyne Jones, Geovanni, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Carlos Cuellar, Jlloyd Samuel, Barry Ferguson and Radoslav Kovac before the weekend.

And finally, there is of course one more game to play in this match week, with Wednesday's West Ham v Aston Villa encounter.

Comments1 - 21 of 21

would Cuellar be suspended for the weekend too?
From sameenuk on Mon Nov 02 04:48PM
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If you have any influence with Fantasy Serie A can you get the points added for week 10?
From cafeclemence on Mon Nov 02 05:37PM
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i have made 111 points
From mada_roma_toti on Mon Nov 02 05:57PM
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I am disappointed that YAHOO didn't correct the right points for Radoslav Kovac and Jack Collison.
Actually, Radoslav Kovac does not contribute any assist against Sunderland. The websites like sportinglife, premierleague official, even West Ham official, all of them said that Jack Collison provides two assists in the match. More importantly, no Sunderland players touch the ball when Jack Collison passes the ball to Franco and C.Cole.
It is definite that Jack Collison gets two assists, add to 14 pts. Meanwhile, Radoslav Kovac should reduce the pts to -3.
It must be fair, Given's pks points has already added due to a great complaints. I hope YAHOO can check the statistics again regarding the case of Jack Collison's assists. Thank you.
From lenes_6 on Mon Nov 02 05:58PM
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come on yahoo .can u fix kovac points. ye fixed shay givens.kovac had no assist. they were both jack collisons.come on guys get your act together please.makes a difference in my private league
From sophiesmightymacs on Mon Nov 02 07:03PM
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come on yahoo .can u fix kovac points. ye fixed shay givens.kovac had no assist. they were both jack collisons.come on guys get your act together please.makes a difference in my private league
From sophiesmightymacs on Mon Nov 02 07:03PM
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Graham Alexander looks like a meth addict in that pic....
From ashleybaker75 on Mon Nov 02 08:02PM
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lol true ashleybaker75
From smokeytoasty1982 on Mon Nov 02 09:14PM
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Join the cause - Assists for Collison - fantasyepl.blogspot.com/2009/11/monday-morning-man
ager.html
From jspitzberg on Mon Nov 02 09:51PM
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Please move the assist currently under Kovac to Collison. This is WRONG!
From giazola on Mon Nov 02 10:07PM
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Please move the assist currently under Kovac to Collison. He deserves what belongs to him. Do the right thing Yahoo!
From giazola on Mon Nov 02 10:10PM
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@cafeclemence, serie a week 10 points are added to week 9. The serie A fantasy is much worse than premier league fantasy. Probably they are run by different groups?
From giazola on Mon Nov 02 10:12PM
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Just had a stinker of a week! 3 of my players didd'nt play (Penny - Burnley, after so much confusion about Jensen, J.Cole and M.Richards) and Santa Cruz got me -0.5 points, damn. Thank god I had Drogba and Piquionna but as 4 Arshavin......
From grincheuxdoyle on Mon Nov 02 10:43PM
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Ye made a mistake by not adding Givens penalty, but at least ye corrected your error today.
Now give Collison his 2 assists, wtf its not rocket science.
Also Mears should have an assist for being taken down in the box, to set up alexanders goal. The premier league awarded him an assist why havn't ye?
These are just three players on my team in which I've noticed your errors, how many other mistakes are there?
From eyelashmcd on Mon Nov 02 10:44PM
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eyelashmcd -- yahoo has never counted earning a PK as an assist. But they've always considered passing to the guy who scored as one. Free Collison's points!
From jspitzberg on Tue Nov 03 12:13AM
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I always thought it was a bit strange that winning a penalty gets you only 0.5 (for a Fowl Won) in YFF... surely more points are deserved, specially if he was going to score.
It's really annoying when drogba is clean through on goal, gets a little tap, leaps like a assassinated US president only for lampard to stroll up and convert the penalty...
From ashleybaker75 on Tue Nov 03 04:28AM
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(Oops, Foul*)
From ashleybaker75 on Tue Nov 03 04:31AM
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No chickens were harmed in the making of that comment....
From ashleybaker75 on Tue Nov 03 04:32AM
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@19 - I'm with you all the way, it's interesting how the points are calculated and how low of a score you get for earning a penalty...should it not be counted as an assist? Also I don't like the fact that Drogba clearly dove and Lampard comes over and gets massive points for it, but in any case it should still be considered an assist!!! Yahoo, fix this please/
From pimpmunguia1984 on Tue Nov 03 04:59AM
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@giazola kindly states that week 10 points are added to week 9. How come that the changes I made to accommodate the only match in week 10 have not been credited to any week?
From cafeclemence on Tue Nov 03 11:08AM
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@cafeclemence, the Inter Pal match points are added to week 9 too.
From giazola on Wed Nov 04 06:38PM
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