Fantasy Football – Gameweek 35 Preview – Written by @NiallHawthorne And so, we’ve finally arrived at Double Game Week 35 – where those of us with chips left will roll the dice one last time. It’s like a weekend away in a budget Monte Carlo. In all seriousness though, this could be the week when […]
Blog Archives
It’s Another Double Gameweek…Sort of…
Apr 10
Fantasy Football – Gameweek 34 Preview – Written by @NiallHawthorne Technically GW34 is a Double Gameweek. I say technically because the two teams doubling up are Brighton and Cardiff. That’s like having dinner with both Donald Trump and Nigel Farage. You get to eat, but you know you’re going to end up banging your head […]
Liverpool, Arsenal and Leicester to Fire in the Blank Gameweek
Apr 4
Fantasy Football – Gameweek 33 Preview – Written by @NiallHawthorne After the carnage/glory of Double GW32 (delete as appropriate), we are now slapped in the face by the proverbial wet haddock that is Blank GW33. Just the six matches this weekend, and the fare on Saturday looks as appetising as a bowl of Nigel […]
Chelsea, Man City, Man United – Make Mine A Double!
Mar 28
Fantasy Football – Gameweek 32 Preview – Written by @NiallHawthorne It’s finally here! Double Gameweek 32 and the moment you’ve been waiting for, longing for, pining for. The chance to play THREE Fulham double gameweek players! Let’s go! Defender: David Luiz, Chelsea Fixtures against Cardiff (A) and Brighton (H) present a great opportunity for […]
Blank, Blank, Liverpool, Blank, Snodgrass
Mar 14
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Fantasy Football – Gameweek 31 Preview – Written by @NiallHawthorne This will either be the culmination of weeks of strategic planning to ensure you have a full complement of players; a reluctant yet necessary use of your ‘Free Hit’ chip with frantic scouring of Huddersfield squad details; or a hold your nose / head in […]
Arsenal vs Manchester United: Confirmed Lineups
Mar 10
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Lineups from 3:30pm Arsenal: LENO, MAITLAND-NILES, SOKRATIS, KOSCIELNY, MONREAL, KOLASINAC, XHAKA, RAMSEY, OZIL, AUBAMEYANG, LACAZETTE Subs: CECH, MUSTAFI, ELNENY, GUENDOUZI, SUAREZ, IWOBI, NKETIAH Manchester United: DE GEA, YOUNG, LINDELOF, SMALLING, SHAW, MATIC, FRED, POGBA, DALOT, LUKAKU, RASHFORD Subs: ROMERO, BAILLY, ROJO, MCTOMINAY, ANDREAS, MARTIAL, GREENWOOD Have you been looking for a new podcast?? […]
Arsenal, Huddersfield and a Lucky Dip
Mar 7
Fantasy Football – Gameweek 30 Preview – Written by @NiallHawthorne FPL mimics life in full technicolour detail. We’re into our 30’s now. When your season is born you have your whole season ahead of you, full of possibilities. You learn a lot from GW’s 1 – 10, like a child learning how to walk, talk […]
Gameweek 29 Preview : Written by @NiallHawthorne
Ten games to go. Ten GW’s left. The clock is ticking, and whatever situation you find yourself in, there’s still enough time to change it. Leading your mini-league and on the verge of glory? Time to kick on. 100 points behind your mini-league leader and in need of inspiration? Time to kick on. Bottom of your mini-league and the subject of abuse on an hourly basis? Time to kick on.
Whatever your situation, follow these tips and you’ll be assured to alter your starting position by Sunday evening.
Note: Following these tips can lead to your overall rank going down as well as up. These tips are not regulated by the Financial Authority of Ireland or England.
Hell, they’re barely regulated by @FantasyYIRMA
Defender: Shane Duffy, Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton have found themselves in a bit of a pickle of late. A side that had seemed to the casual observer to be tootling along in the lower reaches of mid-table, under no real threat, find themselves two points from the drop zone. The seagulls have ruffled feathers. However they do have a game in hand on those around them, and this weekend they have a home game against Huddersfield Town. So two games in hand on those around them then.
That may sound harsh on a Huddersfield Town side that just tamed Wolves in midweek, but I’m nothing if not harsh. Brighton will be targeting this game as a ‘do or die’ affair, and they’ll be led in defence by their talismanic defender Shane Duffy. Five goals, two assists and five clean sheets to his name already, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he increased two of those scoring brackets against the Terriers.
Midfielder: Paul Pogba, Manchester United
Eight goals and seven assists in his last 11 GW’s. You can’t ignore that form, particularly when Pogba faces struggling Southampton at Old Trafford this weekend. He was very close to my Captaincy choice this week to be honest with you, that’s how sure I am he’s going to perform.
Pogba has looked so assured and so talented in recent months. It’s a shame then that he’s got the maturity level of a 7 year old told to get off his Xbox. There’s no doubting his talent, but he’s a spoiled brat with an ego so big it’s got its own weather system.
I’m still picking him though.
Forward: Raul Jimenez, Wolverhampton Wanderers
I saw a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth in midweek from Wolves fans distraught at the defeat to Huddersfield Town in midweek. For the love of all that his holy, every single one of those moaning should be on their knees thanking whatever deity they believe in that it wasn’t a classic relegation six-pointer they were involved in, which would be the norm for two recently promoted clubs in most seasons. Wolves have massively exceeded expectations this year, as has Raul Jimenez. I may be in a minority here but for some reason I just haven’t bought into his hype, despite his impressive figures. 10 goals and 7 assists in 28 GW’s is sensational. I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve had a distrust of all things Mexican since ‘The Night Of 20 Tequila Shots’ in 1999. But they say everyone deserves a second chance, so I’m jumping onboard the Jimenez gravy train. And if the bouncers and owners of The Washington Inn in Cork City are reading this, I surely deserve a second chance by now? Please? That stain must have come out by now?
Captain: Sergio Aguero, Manchester City
No change here, he’s facing a Bournemouth side that are leaking goals at an enormous rate. While the Cherries are a much tougher proposition at home, City can temporarily go top of the table for just over 24 hours with a point at Deans Court. I mean, they’re not going to choke now, are they!
Outsider: Chris Wood, Burnley
Despite their recent blip at St. James’ Park, Burnley have become Burnley again thanks to getting back to the very basics. Keep it tight, lump it long, and have two big lads make your life miserable if you’re defending against them. Wood has 6 goals in his last 9 appearances, and Sean Dyche will be growling at his charges to target home games against the likes of Crystal Palace, and to stretch the current 5 point gap to the drop zone.
Draft: Manuel Lanzini, West Ham United
He’s back. He’s good. Get him.
Gameweek Preview Written by @NiallHawthorne
#FPL Preview – Gameweek 28. Written by Niall “Big Balls The Man” Hawthorne
I got an email from @FantasyYIRMA towers on Sunday evening telling me that @FantasyGaffer was selected to do the Preview for GW28. Yet for some reason I just felt like ignoring the instructions of ‘management’ (don’t snigger) and continue on regardless. You should now fully expect me to do the FPL tipping equivalent of diving right over a simple penalty to save, then claim that I misunderstood the email.
Let’s begin…
Defender: Matt Doherty, Wolverhampton Wanderers
You know Matt Doherty has made the big time when he’s featured in an interview on Football Focus and the interviewer admits that the British press have only worked out how to properly pronounce his surname thanks to his stellar success on the pitch. If he was having a mediocre season, they’d still be butchering his name as they did with poor Kevin Moran (NO emphasis on the ‘a’), Paul McGrath (NO emphasis on the ‘th’) Padraig Harrington (I’m not even going to try, you just have to be Irish to know) and Roy Keane (over here there are 6 syllables in his surname when pronounced correctly).
This Tuesday night he and the rest of his Wolf Pack travel to Huddersfield to face a team with one goal in their last six games, and firmly playing for their way out of the squad for next season, or for their place in the Championship squad. Ergo, a clean sheet is probable. Three goals and six assists (2 assists in his last three appearances) add to the rationale behind getting him in your team for this midweek set of fixtures.
Midfielder: Mo Salah, Liverpool
GW24 – James Ward Prowse tipped, and scored
GW25 – Sadio Mane tipped, and scored
GW26 – Paul Pogba tipped, scored twice
GW27 – Sadio Mane – D’OH!
A couple of logical reasons behind this selection – Liverpool play better when the games start coming thick and fast, as they now will do. Salah has one goal in his last five starts, and that’s ‘unusual’, so I’d expect it to change. Oh, and he scored FOUR in the same fixture last season, and also notched away to Watford in GW13. He likes battering hornets.
Forward: Alexandre Lacazette, Arsenal
Four goals in his last five starts. Five goals in his last seven starts. He’s suspended for a couple of more Europa League games, making him extremely unlikely to be rested in the Premier League. He’s also facing a Bournemouth side who have conceded a whopping EIGHTEEN goals in their last SIX away league fixtures, resulting in 8 consecutive defeats.
Sometimes the obvious choice is also the right one.
Captain: Sergio Aguero, Manchester City
Speaking of which…
Two hat-tricks in his last two home games. Gabriel Jesus nursing a hamstring injury, and following hot on the heels of the Wembley injuries to Fernandinho and Laporte, Pep will be loathed to rush Jesus back.
He’s facing a West Ham side with just four clean sheets all season, and a side they shellacked 4-0 in London earlier in the season (although Kun played 80 minutes and didn’t score or assist in that game).
Anyway, speaking as someone who missed the Aguero gravy-train in the last few weeks, I’m not risking it again, and you shouldn’t either.
Outsider: Jamie Vardy, Leicester City
When you’ve watched football for as long as I have, over the different eras (says I sucking on a Werther’s Original in my rocking chair), you learn that footballers psychology is different than almost any other walk of life. There’s a prime example at Wembley yesterday as Kepa quite clearly defied his manager and refused to be subbed – how that plays out in the next fixture and beyond is going to be fascinating, but I’m 99.9999% sure that it’s the manager who’ll carry the can for that, and not the player, in the long run.
It’s been clear for quite a long time that Jamie Vardy and Claude Puel didn’t see eye to eye, and this clearly affected Vardy’s form. But now that the French Johnny Giles has been guillotined, I’ve a hunch that the old, snarling, gobby Jamie Vardy may well reappear, starting with a home game against Brighton. The caretaker ‘dream team’ of Stowell and Sadler (does this remind anyone else of the Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets?) are almost assured to go back to basics, which will be to play to the strengths of their talismanic marksman.
Oh, and he’s under 5% ownership, so that makes him an outsider. So there.
Draft: Miguel Almiron, Newcastle United
Why not?
Exactly.
Written by Niall Hawthorne.
Drop Niall a follow on twitter. Good thing about Twitter – you can always unfollow again later!
Niall Hawthorne has a strange view on most things.
Check out his blog for proof rantsofarebel.wordpress.com.
Real-Time Fantasy Football Rank Updates
Feb 23
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Introducing Real-Time FPL Rank by PremierFantasyTools.com Written by @PremierFPLTools Real-Time Rank and Points The engineering team at PFT have put together some awesome tech to bring the FPL community extremely accurate real-time ranks. See your updated FPL rank and points even while the gameweek is still in progress! The tool breaks down the points […]
