GW Points: 77
Overall Points: 249
Overall Rank: 98,168
Transfers: De Bruyne out, Mkhitaryan in
Lacazette out, Morata in
I thought I’d get this week’s write up published sooner rather than later with issues around Mane being suspended and Kompany being injured that need addressing. On the whole 77 points from a game week is a decent return but it still isn’t enough to turn an average start into a good start for the new season. There are some positives to take away from the week but it’s created more problems going forward as I’m now four transfers away from where I want to be, with only two transfers remaining in September.
Positives:
Lukaku continues to find the back of the net. Picking up 21 points during the game week. He’s essential to any team.
Kane finally came good with four goals over the game week. This produced 38 points. I’m glad I stuck with him as I was fairly sure he would come good.
Salah was unfortunate to be subbed at half time against Liverpool but did grab another goal in the Champions League. He seems to be finding the back of the net quite often which is a great sign for a midfielder who is relatively cheap.
Potential Issues:
Ogbonna dropped. West Ham won and kept their first clean sheet of the season. Typically Ogbonna was benched for this game. (more details below)
After transferring Kompany in recently he’s now injured. There’s no official time scale at the moment of when he will be available but it looks like weeks rather than days.
Mane sending off. He now faces a three match domestic ban. Must be replaced.
Morata was supposed to be for game week 4 only. I’d prefer Jesus in this position due to Man City having better fixtures, but with so many other issues in the team, Morata may have to stay until the end of September.
Where has it gone wrong?
When I ask where it’s gone wrong, I’m not suggesting the team has had a terrible start, just a fairly average one. Last season I spent the majority of the time within the top few thousand teams on the overall leaderboard. So sitting outside of this position feels very uncomfortable and not where I’d hope to be at this stage. I thought it would be useful to briefly give some thoughts around why this may have happened by highlighting some key decisions:
Lacazette instead of Firmino during August. My first instinct was to go with Firmino due to Liverpool’s additional games in August. However with both Mane and Salah also in my team I felt it was too much of a risk if they had a bad month. This cost me around 23 points.
Ogbonna has been a complete disaster. I still stand by my original decision. If he played for West Ham all season at 1.5m he was an absolute bargain. This looked likely when he was selected to start the opening few games. Had West Ham got off to a good start it would have been a great move. Unfortunately they made an awful start and he now looks likely to remain on the bench. This cost me around 8 points on Monday as West Ham kept a clean sheet without him. I’m also going to be forced into a transfer if he remains on the bench. I’m currently hoping to be able to afford someone like Baines to replace him as I’ve got some funds left over at the moment.
When taking out Matip, I was undecided between Kompany or Davies. At the time there was nothing between them but I favoured City due to slightly easier upcoming fixtures so went for Kompany. It quickly went downhill from there. Within 16 minutes of his first game they had conceded against Bournemouth and he’s now injured. If he had played during this game week in both games he would have probably scored 16 points.
De Bruyne made a good start to the season in terms of his performances for City. However he was not playing advanced enough to be picking up points. He managed 9 points over three game weeks. With prices due to change I felt like he was certain to fall in value (and he did). As a result I swapped him for Mkhitaryan who had made a great start to the season and almost certain to rise in price. This grew the value of my squad but quickly turned against me with De Bruyne picking up 16 points this week and Mkhitaryan picking up 3. This cost me 13 points and a transfer.
Mane picked up a red card at the weekend. There’s been a lot of debate around if it should have been a red card or not. I’m not going to go into that but either way it was an unfortunate red card. This hasn’t cost me any points yet but will cost me a transfer.
I opted for Morata purely for game week 4. I fancied him to do well in the Champions League midweek. I can honestly say I hadn’t even considered that he might have been rested for this game. Yes Chelsea won the fixture easily however Lukaku, Jesus, Aguero, Kane and Firmino all played for their clubs. I agree they faced tougher opposition but I didn’t think Morata would be in need of a rest. Hypothetically this probably cost me at least 8 points and could have probably been up to over 20 points had he scored more than one.
These small decisions/events individually aren’t so bad. However collectively I believe they’ve cost me between 60-80 points so far this season. This is the difference between a very average start and a brilliant start. I’ve not documented them to make excuses, as I stand by all the decisions I’ve made as being right at the time. However I think it illustrates how much bad luck the team has had so far. Some might say it comes down to poor decision making and that luck doesn’t come into it. My opinion is that it’s been a very unfortunate start and the right decisions have been made along the way.
Tips for Game Week 5
If you’re not struggling with injuries/suspensions like many other managers will be. There are some great opportunities to make some proactive transfers during September. Some of the players I’d personally be considering are:
Spurs – very favourable fixtures in September. Kane and Eriksen both look like they could have a great month.
Man City – another team with good fixtures remaining in September. I’d be looking at Jesus or Aguero who are both scoring freely at the moment.
Liverpool – fixtures aren’t quite as favourable as Spurs and City but do have a fairly good run. I’d avoid Mane due to his suspension however Salah seems to have made a good start.
For my team, I’ll be looking to replace Mane with Eriksen. I’m then left with the dilemma of one transfer remaining and do I replace Kompany, Ogbonna or Morata. Chelsea have tough fixtures however I’m almost being forced into keeping him as at least he will be getting game time, whereas Kompany and Ogbonna may not get any. Ogbonna may get a run out in the EFL cup so I’m inclined to stick with him. I’ve not heard much about when Kompany is likely to be fit again, as a result I’m very tempted to swap him for Mendy. At the moment Mendy is only 0.3m more expensive than Kompany and I see him as a regular for City. Now might be the right time to make this transfer as I’d imagine Mendy will rise in value on Friday. If we wait too long the price difference will be too large to justify. On the other hand it leaves us without any transfers for September and the worry of Jesus or Aguero having huge months. My long term plan is to have a team that looks like this:
Foster
Valencia, Kompany/Mendy, Baines, Pieters
Hazard, Salah, Mkhitaryan
Kane, Lukaku, Jesus
Unfortunately I’m a few transfers away from making this happen in September but I think this will be a very strong team once I can reach it.
As always, feel free to share your own progress, suggest any players to look out for or provide any other useful comments below.
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clubcall.com, kompany cld b back at weekend, so r u confirming erickson for mane & mendy for Kompany.
I’ve just done Eriksen for Mane. Still thinking about Kompany but will decide by end of tonight.
Hi all,
Just Looked at swaping Kompany for Mendy and noticed John Stones is the same price as Mendy. Is he a better option?
Cheers
I think you could probably toss a coin between them. I’m slightly favouring Mendy as he gets forward a bit more down the wing.
DTT, your mistake from the word go, was your defence, it’s just to weak. You could have gone with a block defence, 4 or 5 players from the same team.
I don’t understand why you would want to bring in Moratta, for one game week, when it appears you really wanted Jesus. Why didn’t you bring Jesus in, in the first place ?
This is my best team, at present. 278pts. With two transfers left.
Ederson
Walker
Mendy
Stones
Rudiger
Salah
KdB
Mane
Morata
Aguerp
Abraham
I don’t really agree that it’s weak. I went for a Liverpool and Everton defender during August for extra fixtures – they did OK. I’ve now got cheaper options but I’ve also got the freedom to have any attacking player I want. I went for Morata because they had an easy Champions League fixture – didn’t expect him to be rested. If he wasn’t rested he could have easily got a hat trick. I then had enough transfers to bring in Jesus this week. I hadn’t factored in that Mane would get suspended and Kompany would need replacing. I’m also only documenting one team so I don’t have the option to switch between teams who are performing better. I did set up another 9 as they were free to enter (so who wouldn’t) but I put very little thought into the other teams, one of them is currently on 302 points. I also don’t like blocks of defenders – this only works if you’re running multiple teams and want to run the risk of some teams falling behind very quickly. Also a block of Man City players wouldn’t have allowed me the funds to afford the attacking players I wanted.
No one can “factor” anything. You can make your changes for this weekend & the same thing could happen to them, of course.
I put the same thought process & attention to each of my 10 teams, it’s not like you’re choosing 60 teams, anymore ! Some of course doing better than others, my lowest team being on 195pts.
That is the gamble with a block, but it can also pay dividends, as you can clearly see from the leaderboard.
You can chosse a City block, with 4 of their players & still get a decent front line of Kane, Aguero & even a Lukaku, of course that means, you’re going to have to fit in a cheaper midfielder, e.t.c.
Just looking at some of the price changes, the first two i looked at were Kane & Aguero. SDT are always biased towards Kane ( but the guy that runs it is a Spurs supporter & of course a London based rag ! ) & Aguero. No surprises that Kane has gone up 0.3m & no surprises that Aguero has no price change, even though he has scored 26 pts, i believe in total.
Kane’s only got to score & he gets star man, so biased, even though he is in 3 of my teams.
Anyway good luck for the weekend. I’ve gone a bit mad & have no transfers left at all !
….and just to add, your defence is weak, because unless they score goals, which lets face it, the ratio of consistent goalscoring defenders is virtually nil, you’re dependent like everyone else, on keeping clean sheets. That means you currently need 5 teams to keep a clean sheet, week after week, or as often as possible & with those choices it’s not going to happen too often !
A semi block would have given you more chances of points. Sorry to tear your team apart, but having a great front six, is not going to get you high in the table, on it’s own merits.
I’m more than happy for you to tear or attempt to tear anything apart. I enjoy being challenged. You simply can’t have it all – the team you’ve shared is fractionally ahead and that’s your best team of out 10. You’re comparing 10 of your teams against 1 of mine, so you would obviously stand a better chance of having a team with more points. I’d rather have two average defenders than an average striker and be missing Kane. He’s already the player with the most points this season and he’s only had one good game week. I went for around 3-4 months with Shaw and Terry last season – neither were playing or picking up points. I still finished in the top 500 teams on the overall leaderboard.
As you’ve pointed out, DTT, you have a team on 302pts, so you’re beating me on that score. ( Like you, i’ve only posted one team. )
I think you were very fortunate to finish where you did, if you carried Shaw & Terry, for 3-4months ??? Imagine where you may have finished, if you’d dumped them earlier ??
My best finish, two or three seasons back was joint 77th. Never did i ever expect to finish in the top 100, but you have to have that belief, or what’s the point of entering ?
Equally imagine the points I could have lost if I hadn’t made the transfers I made. I believe I favoured making moves such as Ozil in for the Champions League game when he got a hat trick. But agreed – they did let me down and had I shipped them out sooner I’d have finished even higher. I didn’t expect a top 500 finish either, I’d have been even more pleased with a top 100 finish. You’ve certainly got to have belief, I still believe I should be close to the top of the leader board this season, I can only put it down to bad luck that I’m not.
My mini league team (my main one) is on 277 points. I have made poor transfer decisions and slowly rectifying them. I think it is ok to make mistakes (everyone does) and through your blog you can learn from them and improve the team’s fortune in the future. I think you will do well. Carry on the good work, there’s still a long way to go.
There is a long way to go so I’m hoping things will turn around. Need a bit of luck over the next few months.
To Hazard or Eriksen??
What about Coutinho, will surely replace Mane and dropped 200k there. Some value there?
Too much uncertainty around when he will come back into the team for me. I prefer Eriksen as an option due to Tottenham’s fixtures.
Coutinho will surely be back in the team tomorrow. I put him in one team.
Baines would be a mistake trust me you know how bad arsenal played against liverpool well everton have played worse in the game against Tottenham and against Atalanta trust me against Atalanta they were 3-0 down at half time and they should have lost both of these games by 5 goals or more.
Totally agree sanchez of spurs is a beast and at present 3.4m that will over the next month rise big time……suprised kompany for sanchez transfer not gone ahead……cant help thinking holding back and holding back puts you further down ur tables vincent dead wood imo
Agree what’s the point of holding onto “deadwood”. That doesn’t score you ANY points. I didn’t consider the Sanchez option though, it kind of passed me by….
I think Everton have had a tough run of games. I still think Baines will be a 100+ point scoring defender over the course of the season though.
you would really hope Ronald is able to turn this around because he basically called his team a bunch of gutless cowards for the last 2 games saying that they were weak and showed no passion.
“I saw the team with a lot of doubts. One of our strengths of last season is we had a good defensive organisation and we have lost our strength.” Ronald Koeman
Yep…….i am chucking him i have followed the bloggers team up to now but falling behind my works league as they have the likes of stones mendy davies etc…..
I cant wait on a guy who may or may not be back this month and let the competion get too far away
Might be my downfall not being patient and looking at the long term plan….could regret it but needs must
I completely agree, I could have literally tossed a coin between transferring him out or keeping him in last night. But something said give him another week. Hopefully make it through the game week without any more injuries and suspensions and review this time next week. I also believe a lot has gone against us – I know it’s a long blog but if you read the section above about where things have gone wrong – I’d put most of it down to bad luck rather than poor judgement. We should be over the 300 point mark by now. Having said that it is football after all – virtually impossible to predict. If it did come down to careful planning and looking back at last years stats with no luck involved I’m sure we would be much further up the table by now but you can’t account for things not going your way.
Pepe’s pre match conference coming up in an hour should hopefully give us a clear indication when kompany should return…..i will hold back until then when everything should be made clear
Kompany is out this weekend…..but i got rid of him as soon as i knew he was injured,
Well when does your SDT weekend start, after your transfers ?….mine starts tonight, with one of my changes.
Have a guess who it is ??
Mine starts tomorrow at 3pm. Do you mean you’ve gone for a Bournemouth or Brighton player for tonight?
Yes, put a Brighton player in, when my intention was to put Sane in. Hope i don’t live to regret it ! ? If i don’t post, you know it’s a poor choice !
Gone a bit left of field, with my two remaining transfers, when i could have gone with Jesus e.t.c.
It will either be an inspired moment, or a mad one !
Haha well we will look forward to hearing how it goes. Could be a stroke of genius.
Just to let you know DTT, my two changes were Knockaert & Llorente. Inspite of this i’ve scored 82pts today. Now on 360pts.
I started the week at just over a 100.000…..i’m now position 687. I could have put Jesus in, but decided not to, wrong decision, but hope Llorente & Knockaert might play in midweek cup matches.
Another good week then – I’ve had another shocker. It’s starting to really annoy me – last season it made every game interesting and everything went my way meaning there were loads of highs and very few lows. This season has been completely the opposite, I’m mega competitive and having things go against me most weekend’s is starting to grate on me.
That’s the way it can go, either way. It’s horrible if you get off to a bad start, especially when it’s so early in the season.
I just had a gut feeling to go fairly heavy with City players. I did originally put 5 City blocks, but changed them & didn’t go as heavy with them.
Nine of my teams now in the top 85.000.
It really is painful when things aren’t going your way. I really don’t like losing and it takes the enjoyment out of the weekend’s fixtures. Hopefully things will turn around. I didn’t want to risk a block when I can only focus on one team with this blog, but at the moment it’s hard to see Man City not doing well every weekend.
Out of your 10 teams, did you not go with any block, or semi block ?
Yeah a few – my best team started with all Liverpool/Everton players plus Lukaku. I’ve since swapped that around and it’s doing well.