It’s been a funny old time in fantasy football recently, actually, scrap that, it’s really been an awful time. I’ve managed to score some of my worst scores of the season over the last three weeks and why? Because I was determined to hold on to my discounts on Fabregas, Costa and Sanchez. Surely I can’t be blamed for such a strategy?
The trouble is that when you’re behind in your private group or overall, strategic planning is vitally important. If you maintain the status quo you’re not going to get to the front – as the clichéd old saying goes – ‘if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got’. So instead of just trying to pick your team each week you need to ask yourself the question – “what team will help me succeed?” Let’s take an example, say you’re first in your private league, it’s nearing the end of the season and for you, holding onto your lead is far more important than hitting a massive score. You could choose your team based on the players that are core to the second place team, thereby ensuring that for every point they make, you make it too.
I’m at the top of my private league but I want to climb the overall ranks so I had to decide whether to hold those three players for a number of weeks and in turn putting in a series of low performances with the plan of making it up towards the end. As it stands all three of them appear to be raring to go so I guess we need to see just how I get on over the next three weeks this time. I think that I might actually write an article before the commencement of next season explaining the differences between a tactical and strategic approach to your season.
Anyway, that’s for the future, let’s look at the goalkeepers this week:
Goalkeepers
This week shows two names that are of interest, Hart and Howard. Additionally, an honourable mention must go to McGregor who misses out because his chance of success was 1% below our minimum requirement. It is worth noting though that I have concerns over Howard and believe that the odds are influenced on the ‘Robles’ era Everton. If you check, Howard has an average score of 1 and has managed to record a negative score in 50% (yes, really) of his games. Although Leicester aren’t amazing, I don’t really see how he can be chosen – for 8.37 I think that Hart is a much safer chance.
Predictor
Looking at these I really can’t argue with them. Load up on your Chelsea and City players and make sure that you have Kane in your team (you probably do already). Some of you will fancy Manchester Utd away at Swansea but I think that this will be a mistake – a draw or Swansea win is more likely and Utd have certainly failed to live up to their billing recently.
Poisson
It’s a tricky weekend when the three teams most likely of keeping a clean sheet are Sunderland, Hull and Stoke! I’d put Chelsea in there myself but luckily this article focuses on facts, not on my opinion. You’ll note that a lot of games look to be low scoring with only Chelsea, City and Everton likely to get close to 2 goals. Then again, there’s a 62.05% chance of Chelsea, City and Everton all scoring so if you can find the right players you should be well positioned.
All the best and I’ll see you next week.
