Fantasy Premier League

Matchday Open Thread

Sat Jan 19 02:55PM by Jeremy

Sophie Ross poses with her new shirt outside the ground before the FA Cup 3rd round replay football match between Newcastle United and Stoke City at St James' Park in Newcastle, northern England January 16, 2008.

The King is dead.  Long live the King. 

So King Kev is back on Tyneside.  The days of wine and roses are here again.  It's great that his appointment has brought such good feelings to the club and its supporters.  We'll see today if that emotion can be translated into points.  Beating Luton Town was important... no wait, that was important for Liverpool.  Beating Stoke was important but a result against Bolton would really help.

Bolton have brought in Matty Taylor and we expect him to be in an advanced midfield role.  But withouth Diouf and Anelka, Bolton could be toothless.  Especially on the road.

Certainly I'm hoping that's the case.  Like I'm sure a lot of you are, I'm betting on Given and hoping he at least gives me some positive points.  I'm not convinced that the cheap keeper du jour is a winning strategy this season, but until the new transfers enter the system and the ones that are there show their true nature - Robert, are you for real this time around? -what seem to me to be the better bets are the more expensive players.

So I'm sticking with EdS against Fulham who won't have their new defender in and are missing Konchesky - insert your own joke about how much they'll miss him here - and Tevez, whom I expect to hold all season, against a struggling Reading side.  Dropping from Cesc to MPet (home to WHU then @DER next weekend) gives me the money to move from AJ, who killed me last week with a late injury, to the Elk.  He's pricey at 15, but the ceiling is high.  He'll probably drift through the game without making an impact, but if he goes off and puts a goal or two past BRM I want to be on the bandwagon.

The same can be said for SWP whom I brought into the midfield for the other of last week's missing men, Harry Kewell.  I'm hoping SWP continues to play at the top of CHE's diamond and can dovetail well with the Elk, his old Citeh teamate.  

CRon and KRich complete the midfield.  The rest of the team is cobbled together from scraps - Sagna, Mok, Nelsen, and Given.  That's 4 players for 11 units with Sagna almost half the total.  Rovers play Boro who may be on a down after playing up against Liverpool last weekend but matchup, smatchup they're cheap!  And the Mok is the ultimage DNH (do no harm) defender at the moment.

Whom are you betting on this weekend?  Whether they live up to your wildest expectations or play down to your worst fears, consider this your matchday open thread to talk about it. 

(61 user comments)

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  • (31)

    C-Ron saves a rather unspectacular day for most (including me)...

    Posted by: krokodil_g on Sat Jan 19 05:01PM | Report abuse
  • (32)

    thanks to gentrykirby,i switch santa cruz to benjani,and kanoom,the night is mine..thx

    Posted by: shunshetzbhoy_10128 on Sat Jan 19 05:09PM | Report abuse
  • (33)

    yippie..i dont follow the striket part of 'the week ahead'..i dare myself to buy benjani and robbie keane..get reward for it hehe

    Posted by: one_man_team2002 on Sat Jan 19 05:19PM | Report abuse
  • (34)

    i'm banking on JOSE ENRIQUE to have a blinder :)..(snowballs chance in hell)!!...after a not so good saturday. Like many CRON was my saviour, hope BERBAking gets some stats on the board despite not scoring.

    Posted by: alwinlourdes on Sat Jan 19 05:23PM | Report abuse
  • (35)

    Kroko - Nice job by me. If only I had picked up Benjani. Instead I have Torres, Anelka(come on, Elk. You're better than that.) and Benjani's sad sack of a front line partner, David Nugent. But I had Benjani earlier this season when he had his hat trick. So I'm batting 50%. Wonder what the percentage owned of Benjani is...

    Posted by: gentrykirby on Sat Jan 19 05:26PM | Report abuse
  • (36)

    Actually, Thurman wrote "Other strikers worth considering... Owen, Benjani, and Walcott." But what was up with the Walcott recommendation? He didn't even suit up. Where the f did Ameobi come from? I hadn't read anything about him coming back.

    Posted by: gentrykirby on Sat Jan 19 05:30PM | Report abuse
  • (37)

    Anyone have thoughts on picking up Niemi next week? He's got to take a bit of a dive after this weeks performance and travel to an offensively weak Bolton. Building a team with a 1.57 goalie makes chosing one for next week tough. Fortunately, poor performances from le Sulk and RSC made the decision to drop them for K2 (and Bianchi??) a bit easier.

    Posted by: bradley_albright on Sat Jan 19 05:32PM | Report abuse
  • (38)

    Dropped Benjani for Owen :(

    Posted by: nikargiropoulos on Sat Jan 19 05:55PM | Report abuse
  • (39)

    What do you think about Kapo against SUN next week? He had a couple SOTs today and was hot at the start of the season.

    Posted by: betonjuventus on Sat Jan 19 06:01PM | Report abuse
  • (40)

    Good point BetOnJuve! I've grabbed him - he put up some good stats this week. It would probably be a good idea to grab a couple of BIR point-getters consider they have DER after SUN.

    Posted by: geoffmumley on Sat Jan 19 07:42PM | Report abuse