I feel all of a sudden like I’m the opposite side of the coin to fellow writer Steve Rothgeb. Every time I read his twitter feed (@fuzzyWarbles) there’s been disaster after catastrophe over the Christmas period. I’m the flipside – it’s all gone completely right. Over the last two weeks I’ve managed to pick up 291.5 points in perfect XI after a very poor period running up to Christmas bringing me up to 21st in the Rotoworld league. Similarly, I’ve managed 155 points over the last two weeks in the official game bringing me up to 28th in the Rotoworld league. I wont say I was doing badly in the official game but the last two weeks have moved me from 555,944 to 168,504 overall – that’s 387,440 places and a cracking couple of weeks!
How have I don’t it? Well it began with my column a few weeks ago where I dropped every other fantasy football game other than these two. You have to be focused. It really helps that these games are really quick to do once you’ve done your thinking.
You’ll note that I didn’t mention Mondogoal in the list? Regular readers will know that I love MondoGoal – I really do. I think that it’s by far the best format for Daily Fantasy Soccer there is, but (you knew there was a but coming), it’s simplicity could actually be its downfall. The premise is that you don’t have to sign up for a season long game and you can just ‘dip in’ when you feel like it. The problem is when push comes to shove, for example when the Christmas schedule bunches up, you can easily drop it to focus on your season-long responsibilities. That could be a major failing in my book but, as I’ve said, I love it and I’ll be bringing a new strategy guide to you all very soon so keep your eyes peeled (check out Mondogoal here).
Let’s have a look at next years games:
Predictor
Yet again we have the majority of the roster showing a 50% advantage or higher which allows us to focus on the even larger probabilities – step forward Arsenal. Admittedly they are heavily reliant on a certain Ozil but they should easily have a good run at this. Furthermore, I’m keeping some pennies to one side for when Sanchez returns – I think that he’s going to have the impact that everyone hoped Aguero was going to.
Next up comes Sunderland – I know, sounds crazy right? This is the very definition of a six-pointer and I have seen nothing from Aston Villa to make me think that the Predictor will be wrong. It should at the very least give you the option of some cheap differential players if that’s what you need – to me the whole left side of Van Aanholt, Rodwell and Borini look like sensible options.
Then come United, Watford & Leicester. I’m not in love with the United pick because they really aren’t the team they once were, similarly I don’t love the Watford match up although if anyone can score it’s Ighalo. What I do love for obvious reasons is Leicester at home to Bournemouth. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in the known universe already had Mahrez but many will have let Vardy go – this may turn out to be the week where this is shown to be a mistake.
Poisson
How annoying that the Poisson suspects that it’s going to be a low scoring and uninteresting week of games. With the exception of Everton vs Spurs (I hold both Lukaku and Kane in the official game) there looks to be less than 2.5 goals in all of the other matches. Sunderland and Villa both look likely to hold clean sheets and I can’t argue with that – especially at the prices that will be available on their players. Many will be shocked that Watford also look safe for a clean sheet at home to Manchester City. I think that the Poisson might have something here – they’ve only won three of their nine away games and they have a zero goal difference. My personal prediction is 1-0 Watford, Ighalo to score – that’s 55/1 with SkyBet – tempting….
See you all next week.
