Fantasy Premier League

Matchday Open Thread

Sat Feb 23 06:32AM

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney celebrates scoring a goal against Middlesbrough during their English Premier League football match at Old Trafford in Manchester

The best laid plans.

Two weeks ago (it seems longer ago than that, doesn't it?) I put K2, Koumas, and Benjani on the barn door. To afford that I've been living with a big red "In order to receive scoring for this week's matches, you must have selected a player for all 11 positions." hanging over my head.

[aside: Getting drunk on Friday night and passing out with less than your full complement of players is known as "pulling a Spealman". Be sure to look for that in the upcoming blog dictionary. Seriously.]

[one more aside: All the thanks in the world to my sister for getting married over the FA Cup semifinal weekend rather than forcing me to beg, borrow, and steal internet access on the road.]

Where were we? Oh, yeah... sitting with too much money invested in too few players. So I've worked out my line-up. Cutting here. Trimming there. I need to keep K2. He's been in incredible form. Probably one of the best streaks we ever seen from a striker not initialed TH or RVN. Then the news comes out of N London that Adebayor is doubtful with a stiff neck. Now we know he's stubborn, but that's ridiculous. Just what I didn't need. Granted he's likely to start. And he's likely to do well against a stuggling Birmingham side. But I can too easily see the other side. He needs a break after the CL match (and miss). Brm kept Arsenal in check at Highbury, sorry Emirates, last month. Arsenal are showing a fragile streak and traveling to Birmingham might be the last thing they need. And I just remember their trip to Sheffield United last season where even with Jagielka in net, RvP skying their best chance when he was my sure thing that week...

So K2 is gone. I hope I can sleep better with Rooney in the team, but I probably won't. In last month's demolition of NUFC, ManU scored six and Rooney only collected a booking. I could drop from Rooney to Torres... home to Boro, two matches next week, always scores at Anfield, even if he only plays twenty minutes of the match. That gives me the money to upgrade the Mok to a real defender. But he's home to goal-shy Bolton and could be in line for a sub cs [again, look for the upcoming dictionary].

So here's hoping that Rooney can break out of what seems like a prolonged slump. Here's hoping that Tevez and Ronaldo can pitch in. And that Muntari and Defoe put a hurting on Sunderland with with added bonus of Gordon getting cheaper before their trip to Derby.

What are you hoping for? Let us know in this, your matchday open thread.

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It's wrong! Santa Cruz should have taken at least one of those penalties! And Yahoo doesn't seem to count Dunn's earned penalties as assists so he only has one now...
I hope Moekie doesn't get a yellow card...
From geraldlim555 on Sun Feb 24 04:42PM
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Chelsea haven't had the ball much for the second half and can't get it up for Anelka or Drogs to do anything with it, and Cech just saved a shot with his face and he looks shaky but stays in.
From goeasy27 on Sun Feb 24 04:46PM
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re:92 it's wrong? how do u figure? he scored both pens u mad yoke. just cos u didn't pick him :P
the 2nd half of this cup final is great stuff. spurs are lookin brilliant. i hope it goes to extra time and spurs take it. though cechs saves may turn out to be the vital difference.
From jiverson2x on Sun Feb 24 04:50PM
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Moko doesn't pick up a card!
From goeasy27 on Sun Feb 24 04:54PM
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extra time in the Carling. What a game!
From goeasy27 on Sun Feb 24 04:55PM
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Cech screws up and its in!
From goeasy27 on Sun Feb 24 05:04PM
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My what a Cup final! Spurs over Chelsea -a bit of sunshine for them this season
From goeasy27 on Sun Feb 24 05:40PM
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great stuff 4 spurs. the emotion on robbie keanes face says it all. thats what football is about!
From jiverson2x on Sun Feb 24 05:49PM
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what a week.160.5 pts and up 1500 places in one week. i wish they could all be like this
From sophiesmightymacs on Sun Feb 24 07:24PM
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Did anyone else watch the "Taylor Horror Tackle" live? How Stephen Kelly feels justified in defending Taylor as strongly as he has is beyond me. When it first happened I thought it was a brutal tackle. Upon replay, it absolutely justifies a longer suspension. Lunging, studs up, VERY high, and in a position on the pitch that he should have been able to see what was in front of him. Outrageously incompetent is the most charitable way to characterize it.
From jamesdowney on Sun Feb 24 10:41PM
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larsson had some broken leg incident before and he recovered relatively fast, from the old video you can see larsson's leg bend 90 degree as well, let's hope edurado will heal fast as well !! very sad to see if this end his career !!
From cal_eternity on Sun Feb 24 11:31PM
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(101) - Kudos for Kelly for sticking up for his teammate! It was a horrible tackle and it sucks Eduardo will miss a year, maybe longer, but we wouldn't be talking about this if his ankle didn't snap in half. Carvahlo's studding earlier in the year didn't get this much fuss, but was practically the same tackle. it's ONLY because he snapped his ankle. just unlucky it happened like that. ----Congrats YIDS!----
From owen1981 on Mon Feb 25 02:53AM
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mpet redcard!
From josemourinho8038 on Mon Feb 25 10:17PM
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Who cares about the ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE. Go watch la Liga and Messi is the best player in the world
From nealraj89 on Mon Feb 25 11:12PM
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I picked up Lescott loooong time ago... about two barn doors ago. Also have Cahill (picked up in a similar situation), so I figured to have some fun today... looks like MRichards got away with one in the box to deny Cahill a likely goal, but Lescott helped out. (Plus I have Torres and Defoe up front... I made up some ground on the (CRon-playing) team ahead of me.
Only bad result was from Reina, but even with the negative points I still have him at a slight + (though it's only about 0.50 instead of 2+)... two clean sheets next week, please...
I have Setanta Sports, it's much better than FSC (no "paid programming" for one). The Carling Cup final was *excellent*... I'm getting Berbs instead of RobbieK for next week... they're about the same price. So for now:
Berbs, Torres, Defoe; Cahill, Fabregas, Dunn; Arbeloa, Carragher, Melchiot, Lescott; Reina.
P.S. Re: The fallout from the Taylor/Eduardo event Saturday -- looks like he's out for 9-10 months at a minimum, meaning he misses Euro 2008 for Croatia, and the first third (at least) of the next season. However, death threats to a player are never justified. Too bad they can't all be traced to the idiots who make them.
From n4sir67 on Tue Feb 26 06:35AM
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