The home side enjoys another excellent campaign, and they sit on the 2nd spot, being only two points behind Manchester United. The Foxes haven’t lost six times in a row in all competitions, although they had a pretty tough schedule. After securing a place in the next round of the FA Cup with a convincing 4:0 victory away to Stoke, Leicester City booked an important win against Southampton at King Power Stadium last weekend. Even though they haven’t been confident at the home ground this season, Brendan Rodgers’s side puts excellent performances on the road. Jamie Vardy keeps being very productive in front of the oppositions’ net as he scored 11 times in 17 appearances this season. Leicester might improve their defending overall, and they are on a good track as the hosts kept the clean sheet in their last two fixtures. If they manage to keep up the form, the home side could continue the title race. On the other hand, Chelsea booked only two wins in the last five rounds, and the away side slipped to 7th place. The Blues looked like title contenders at the start of the campaign, but they simply haven’t shown enough against the league’s top sides. Frank Lampard didn’t want to gable against minnows Morecambe in the FA Cup, and they secured a 4:0 victory, but they struggled against ten-men Fulham on Saturday. The visitors need to improve their defense as they spilled too many points, both at home and on the road. Tammy Abraham and the lads are doing well in the final third, but Chelsea needs to be more creative in the middle of the park. After three straight defeats away from home, the visitors picked up all three points, but another tough challenge expects them on the road. If they get back home with all three points from this one, Chelsea could get closer to the Champions League spots.
Full-Time Winner Odds & Prediction
Head-to-head clashes between these two teams have been very tight lately. This one shouldn’t be much different, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it ends in a draw.
Goals Market Prediction
Both teams are doing well in the front and possess great attacking potential. We believe nets won’t remain still in this game, and we should see both sides scoring at least once. Draw @ 3.50 BTTS Yes @ 1.65 Correct score 1:1 @ 7.00 Read the analysishereand share your opinion with us!
The first fixture of the season in the Israeli football
This is the first episode of the second season of our podcast. Football Tips From Israel. After a successful first season, Demoles Levin, the host of the podcast returns from a month of vacation. with full power to provide new information and predictions for the new season. in this episode. Demoles picked 3 matches that have important information that you should know before picking your bets for this weekend. read the information below and bet smarter.
The matches prediction in this episode
Hapoel Kfar Saba – Hapoel Tel Aviv | Premier league | Saturday (29.8) 19:30 CET Hapoel Haifa – Beitar Jerusalem | Premier league | Sunday (30.8) 19:15 CET Hapoel Nof Hagalil – Beitar Tel Aviv | National league | Monday (31.8) 18:00 CET Hapoel Kfar Saba – Hapoel Tel Aviv | Premier league | Saturday (29.8) 19:30 CET This is the first match of the season. Hapoel Kfar Saba the home team kept most of their squad from last year. While Hapoel Tel Aviv the away team changed most of their squad. They have a new goalkeeper and a new center back. In the Pre-season tournament, The Toto Cup. The home team finished 8th and the Away team finished 10th. Both teams did not perform well. The away team scored one goal in four games. Both teams won only one time against bottom league teams. This year both teams will fight against relegation. They will not win a lot. It feels like they do not know how to win. From the odds that the bookmakers give to this match, it looks like Hapoel Tel-Aviv, the away team has an advantage. However, it is fiction. I believe that both teams prefer not to lose this match. It will end with a Draw. If the odds for under goals were good. I would suggest going on under goals too. But, the Odds are low. Hapoel Haifa – Beitar Jerusalem | Premier league | Sunday (30.8) 19:15 CET Until yesterday, the away team Beitar Jerusalem was a total favorite to win this match. In my option. They had a good Pre Season tournament. They finished third with 2 wins and 2 draws in four matches. They did not concede any goal in these 4 matches. While the Home team, Hapoel Haifa finished in the last place in the Pre-Season tournament. With 1 draw and three losses. The bookies gave high odds (2.10) for an Away win. This is a very good odd. If you take in your mind that there is no effect on the Home venue when there is no crowd on the stands. But!! , two days ago, Beitar Jerusalem lost in the first round of the Europa League to a small club from Albania. The owner got crazy and fired the coach. Following this act, the general manager decided to finish his part in the club. With no coach and general manager. There is big chaos in the club. I believe that even the chaos that the away team has. They still will win this match. The player will want to comfort their fanatic crowed and their Boss. The away team is a crazy club and this kind of incident can give them the power to win. Not with a great football, but they will win it. Hapoel Nof Hagalil – Beitar Tel Aviv | National league | Monday (31.8) 18:00 CET This is the match to put your high stakes in this episode. The home team Hapoel Nof Hagalil finished first in the second division Pre-Season tournament with four wins from four matches with 11-0 goals difference. They won 3-0 in the finals last week. The home has a crazy squad and they really believe they can win the league and play next year in the Israeli Premier League. The away team Beitar Tel Aviv has a brand new squad, a young squad. They finished 4th in the Pre-Season tournament with 2 wind one draw and one loss. The bookmakers give 2.13 to a Home win. Very high odds. 2.13 it means that the bookmakers give 47% probability for a Home team. I believe that the probability is closer to 65%-70% for a Home win. Episode 21 - YouTube https://preview.redd.it/v7mker53bbk51.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=3f2d5a78ef5eb8fc6f06b96b719f3785dec22c5c
Guide to Offers for This Weekend, Premier League and Ascot
Football is back on in the UK. There's been a drought in the betting industry for the past 3 months and now that sporting fixtures are coming back, You can quite literally make £100s of pounds. The reason for this is that The bookmakers are now all competing with eachother to get the most customers, which means they will be giving a lot of free bets and offering a whole range of promotions. This is great if you are completely new to Match betting, because on top of the welcome offers, you will also get the additional offers every day. These offers are of course also available to existing customers. The Offers: Premier League: Coral - Get a £50 free bet if your team is leading at half time but goes on to lose the match- Available on every premier League Match. ( I did this last night on Tottenham, got the £50 free bet because they were leading at half time but went on not to win the match) Bet365 - Bet £50 Get £50 Inplay (Everton v Liverpool) Betfair Sportsbook - Bet £20 Get £20, Availble until June 22nd Coral- £10 Refund if your team loses Paddy Power - £5 Free Bet (Sun June 21 19:00 (Everton v Liverpool). You just have to log in and claim this bet, It's in your account right now. Paddy Power - Money Back As Cash If Bournemouth win (up to £10) 888sport - Bet £10, Get £5 Free Bet If Win Paddypower - Bet £20 on sports Get 20 Free Spins Coral - Bet £15 Get £5 (Inplay) Skybet: Saturday Boosts Ascot (Last day today): William Hill - Money Back As Cash If 2nd (All races in Ascot) Paddy Power: £5 Free Bet ( 13:50 Race Ascot). You just have to log in and claim this bet, It's in your account right now. Skybet - Money Back As Cash if 2nd, 3rd or 4th (13:15 Ascot) Genting - Money Back If Lose and Admiral Nelson Wins (13:50 Ascot) Bwin- Money Back as a free bet if 2nd ( 12:40 Ascot) I posted a guide on Matched betting on Tuesday which got a very good response, If anyone wants to learn how to Match bet quickly, You can take a look at it Here Hope this is of help to some people, If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I don't kick a footy, mate, and I don't sit in a coaches box. That’s the brave people who do that are doing that job. But I know that Redditors would want me back at this time. So I'll happily come back and do that. – The /r/AFL 2020 Collingwood Magpies season preview
History Est: 1892 Premierships (VFL/AFL): 15 Last premiership: 2010 Grounds: Melbourne Cricket Ground, Marvel Stadium, Olympic Park Oval (training) Key Administration:
Eddie McGuire (President)
Mark Anderson (CEO)
Geoff Walsh (Head of Football Department
Nathan Buckley (Senior Coach)
2019 season overview H&A Ladder position: 4 (15 wins, 7 losses) EW Copeland Trophy (BnF): Brodie Grundy Leading goalkicker: Brody Mihocek (36 goals) All-Australian representation: Brodie Grundy, Scott Pendlebury (Adam Treloar named in initial squad) AFL debutants:
Isaac Quaynor (R16)
John Noble (R17)
VFL affiliate: Collingwood VFL (finished 11th in 2019; 7 wins, 11 losses) 2019 season review Collingwood supporters such as myself had good reason to believe that the club could go one better from 2018. After losing the 2018 Grand Final in heartbreaking fashion, the club theoretically improved its list by re-acquiring a genuine A-grader in Dayne Beams at a premium, shoring up its key position stocks at bargain basement price with Jordan Roughead and exploiting drafting rules to acquire two top-30 talents in Isaac Quaynor and Will Kelly despite not having a live pick until pick 41. Unfortunately, the home and away season could probably be described as lacklustre. Too often Collingwood relied on playing one really strong quarter of football before taking the foot off the accelerator for the rest of the game. This was evident in the game against Port Adelaide, ANZAC Day, the game against Sydney and the game against St Kilda. Eventually, the club went through a major form slump in the middle of the season, playing unattractive, stop-start football that was more characteristic of the non-finals years under Buckley then the exciting 2018. In the middle of this slump, however, the club delivered a memorable win on the road against West Coast, keeping them goalless for a full half to win by one point and down two players. The club snuck into the top four by the end of the season, however this was more to do with a Hawthorn masterclass against the Eagles in Round 23 than genuinely being deserving of fourth spot. The two finals Collingwood played were representative of much of the season for the club – the Qualifying Final against Geelong proved the club could still put it together and match it against the best (Geelong having been minor premiers over the course of the entire season), however the Preliminary Final against GWS showed again that the players thought they could pull off a miracle win by playing one good quarter – this was not to be. Nathan Buckley lamented following the Prelim loss that 2019 was “a wasted year.” Initially I thought this was being a tad harsh, but on reflection I think I agree with him. Collingwood had the elements to put everything together and win the premiership but squandered it for various reasons. The club again faced a huge injury list, with usual suspects De Goey, Elliott and Moore missing chunks of the season. First-choice fullback Dunn re-tore his ACL on his return in a VFL practice match. Langdon injured his knee (the details of which the club has refused to reveal) during halftime against St Kilda and missed the rest of the season. Beams missed much of the season with hip/shouldemental health issues and there continues to be speculation that he may never return to football. Wells sustained a PCL game in his one game of the season which ultimately caused his retirement before the season had officially ended. As per usual, off-field issues distracted the club, including Stephenson copping a ten-match suspension for betting on Collingwood matches and Sier playing social basketball under a pseudonym despite being in rehab for a calf injury at the time. Personally, I think much of the problem lies with very few players taking a step-up in their development like what had occurred in 2018. Phillips, Sidebottom, Thomas and Hoskin-Elliott were among the players that had exceptionally strong seasons in 2018 but struggled at times through 2019 (the latter, however, perhaps forgiven for having virtually nil pre-season). The midfield group also failed to connect and take advantage of Grundy’s dominance. Having said that, there were some positives to take from the season. Grundy continued his trajectory upwards and ultimately had a career-best season. Roughead proved to be the bargain recruit of the year at fullback. Noble being uncovered in the mid-season rookie draft and being plucked from the SANFL proved an inspired choice. Wills saved his career by taking advantage of the spot that opened up for him in Beams’ and Sier’s absence. Just don’t mention Crisp missing out on AA selection to me though. 2020 Playing List
Guernsey
Player
Typical position
Games played
Age at start of R1, 2020
Contracted until
1
Jaidyn Stephenson
Forward
40
21
2021
2
Jordan De Goey
Forward
88
24
2020
3
Isaac Quaynor
Defender
4
20
2022
4
Brodie Grundy
Ruck
132
25
2027 (UFA)
5
Jamie Elliott
Forward
105
27
2021 (UFA)
6
Tyler Brown
Midfielder
0
20
2020
7
Adam Treloar
Midfielder
163
27
2025 (RFA)
8
Tom Langdon
Defender
89
25
2021 (RFA)
9
John Noble (a)
Defender
5
22
2021
10
Scott Pendlebury* (c)
Midfielder
301
32
2021 (UFA)
11
Dayne Beams*
Midfielder
177
30
2022
12
Matthew Scharenberg
Defender
38
24
2020
13
Taylor Adams (l)
Midfielder
132
26
2024 (RFA)
14
Darcy Cameron
Ruck
1
24
2021
15
Lynden Dunn (a, l)
Defender
196
32
2020 (UFA)
16
Chris Mayne
Midfielder
217
31
2020
17
Callum Brown
Midfielder
35
21
2020
18
Travis Varcoe
Forward
221
31
2020
19
Levi Greenwood
Defender
152
31
2020
20
Ben Reid*
Forward
150
30
2020 (UFA)
21
Tom Phillips
Midfielder
74
23
2021
22
Steele Sidebottom* (vc)
Midfielder
234
29
2021 (UFA)
23
Jordan Roughead
Defender
162
29
2020
24
Josh Thomas
Forward
89
28
2021 (UFA)
25
Jack Crisp
Defender
134
26
2023 (UFA)
26
Josh Daicos
Forward
17
21
2020
27
Will Kelly
Defender
0
19
2022
28
Nathan Murphy
Defender
2
20
2020
29
Tim Broomhead (a)
Forward
36
25
2020 (UFA)
30
Darcy Moore
Defender
71
24
2020
31
Flynn Appleby (a)
Defender
10
21
2020
32
Will Hoskin-Elliott
Forward
119
26
2022
33
Rupert Wills
Midfielder
15
26
2020
34
Trent Bianco
Defender
0
19
2021
35
Jay Rantall
Midfielder
0
18
2021
36
Brayden Sier
Midfielder
18
22
2021
37
Brayden Maynard
Defender
97
23
2022 (RFA)
38
Jeremy Howe (l)
Defender
183
29
2021
39
Trey Ruscoe
Defender
0
18
2021
40
Atu Bosenavulagi
Forward
0
19
2020
41
Brody Mihocek (a)
Forward
40
27
2020
43
Anton Tohill (a)
Forward
0
20
2020
44
Jack Madgen (b)
Defender
8
26
2020
45
Max Lynch
Ruck
0
21
2020
46
Mason Cox
Forward
58
29
2020
47
Mark Keane (b)
Defender
0
20
2020
48
Tom Wilson (b)
Forward
0
22
2021
\ - 2010 Premiership player* a - Category A Rookie b – Category B rookie c – Captain vc – Vice Captain l – Leadership group Outs for 2020
James Aish
Traded to Fremantle
Ben Crocker
Delisted (rookie drafted by the Adelaide Crows)
Lynden Dunn
Delisted (rookie listed under SSP rules)
Tyson Goldsack
Retired (now playing as captain-coach for Port Magpies in the SANFL)
Sam Murray
Delisted (now playing for Williamstown in the VFL)
Daniel Wells
Retired (now involved in indigenous recruitment and development at Collingwood)
Ins for 2020
Trent Bianco
National Draft
Darcy Cameron
Traded from the Sydney Swans
Lynden Dunn
Rookie listed under SSP rules
Jay Rantall
National Draft
Trey Ruscoe
National Draft
Tom Wilson
Category B rookie selection
Pragmatic_Shill**’s personal best 22 (+ 4 emergencies) for Collingwood in 2020**
B:
Langdon*
Roughead
Howe
HB:
Crisp
Moore
Maynard
C:
Phillips
Pendelbury
Sidebottom
HF:
Hoskin-Elliott
Mihocek
De Goey
F:
Stephenson
Cox
Elliott
FOLL:
Grundy
Adams
Beams*
INT:
C Brown
Treloar
Noble
Mayne
EMER:
Thomas
Varcoe*
Sier
Greenwood*
\ Confirmed unavailable for Round 1 2020* Notes on this selection
This was hard to do. I think there are a bunch of players that are on the cusp such as Wills, Quaynor and even Reid. However if I was to look at pure talent as well as experience that’s what I think a full game-day squad would look like. I even debated listing Varcoe in the emergencies at all because I think his 2019 was so disappointing and given his age (and now injury) he’ll be up against some promising kids coming through. Sier’s 2018 was better than Wills’ 2019 in my view, hence why I gave Sier the nod. Quaynor (while likely being more talented than Noble) hasn’t shown quite enough yet to warrant automatic selection in my view.
The team selection for Round 1 will look quite different to this – Langdon still appears to be a long way off in his rehab from whatever mystery knee injury he acquired in 2019, Beams is probably a fair chance to not play again, Varcoe has had a shoulder reconstruction and Greenwood is still some time away as he recovers from his ACL injury.
Using what little powers of precognition I have, I think come Round 1 you can remove Langdon and Beams from my 22 and replace with Quaynor and either Sier or Wills.
Players to watch for 2020
Isaac Quaynor
Taken at pick 13 in the 2018 draft after matching a bid from GWS, Quaynor looms as one of Collingwood’s most exciting young prospects. He had to wait for a debut in 2019 and only played a handful of games before a foot stress injury sidelined him for the rest of the season, however the senior appearances he made showed that he fits in nicely to the backline. Quaynor unfortunately has already had an interrupted pre-season due to hip surgery, but is expected to be fit to play come Round 1. While he is an impressive young talent I personally have a concern about whether he and John Noble can play in the same side. Both are undersized defenders used to provide run off halfback, and I haven’t seen either of them deployed in the lockdown small defensive role that has opened up with Levi Greenwood being out injured and James Aish moving to Fremantle. Noble at this stage has more senior experience (plus finals experience) so it will be interesting to see how selection goes when both are fit and available.
Rupert Wills
Wills holds the record for most tackles laid on debut and in 2018 broke the record for fewest senior games played to reach 100 career tackles. At the start of the year, Wills’ card appeared marked for delisting given his inability to break into the senior side. He came in for a short stint in early 2019 to play a similar role to De Goey when De Goey was injured, however Wills isn’t as explosive and he struggled playing in the forward line. After being dropped, I thought that would be it for him, however an injury crisis with the midfield later in the year (including Beams, Adams and a lacklustre season from Sier) opened up a spot for him, and he played right through to the end of the season. Wills provided much needed grunt for a midfield that failed to live up to expectations for much of the season, and truly earned another extension. His 2020 campaign will be one to watch, as he only managed a one-year extension despite his impressive showing, and given he will be directly competing for a spot with the younger Sier, he is under pressure to continue his senior career. Nevertheless, when he does play he doesn’t look out of place and was an impressive player in weeks when so many others were substandard.
Mark Keane
This selection is a bit out of left field, however I didn’t want to repeat last year’s selections of Tyler Brown or Nathan Murphy (even though I am excited to see what their 2020 seasons look like). A lot of regular VFL watchers over on the Collingwood BigFooty have been impressed with Keane, our Irish Category B key defender. Keane apparently is not afraid to be quite physical on the field and showed marked improvement as a lockdown defender through 2019 despite our VFL side being disappointing. Some have said he may even earn a debut in 2020, which would require a temporary senior promotion over the more experienced Category B in Jack Madgen. Watch this space. Players on notice for 2020
Brayden Sier
Sier came into the 2019 season with a lot of expectation and excitement from Collingwood fans after his long-awaited senior debut in 2018 showed why Derek Hine rated him highly enough to be our first pick in 2015 despite being relatively unknown. Mystery soon set in during the 2019 pre-season however, as Sier found himself excluded from selection in both JLT matches, despite being fit enough to play in a VFL practice match the day before one of them. The club said he had little niggles such as rib and toe issues, however comments from Pendlebury about Sier needing to demonstrate his commitment to the team on-field raised some eyebrows about whether he was out of favour. When he finally earned his senior return on the Queen’s Birthday, he took the opportunity with both hands, however had disappointing showings for the few games he had after. Then came the infamous “Phil Inn” incident, where he played social basketball while meant to be rehabbing a calf injury. The club claimed he wasn’t banned from senior selection but didn’t even appear in the emergency list for the rest of the season. Despite this, he signed for a further two years. Given the amount of time he’s had on the list and the various challenges he’s faced in that time, you would hope the penny has dropped and he begins to show on a more consistent basis the type of player he can be. That’s up to him now, however he also faces the added challenge of beating an in-favour Rupert Wills for selection as the big-bodied inside midfielder.
Mason Cox
I think Cox was unfairly maligned in 2019 – he missed many games, first through an ankle injury and then through a scratched retina, however ended up with the same goal output at the end of the season as he had for 2018 (a season in which he only missed two games). However, it’s clear that there are expectations being placed on him by the media and by Collingwood fans to more consistently show the type of game he had in the 2018 preliminary final. During the 2019 trade period, Collingwood brought in Darcy Cameron from the Sydney Swans, and while Cameron has only played one senior game of football, he is a more natural footballer than Cox and will be competing directly for his spot. Off the field, I feel that Cox has to prove his worth after the details of his contract came out during the same trade period after Essendon came knocking for him to fill their ruck spot. At the end of 2017, Cox signed a new three-year contract which elevated him to the senior list, worth $500,000 a year. At this time, Cox was a Category B rookie who had played a grand total of twenty games. His contract also stipulates that he only needs to play one more senior game for a fourth year trigger, and he’ll need to show a bit more if he’s to convince Collingwood supporters that he’s worth such a hefty price tag given the continuing narrative of our salary cap issues.
Anyone out of contract that isn’t De Goey or Moore
This is perhaps a cop-out answer but given the impending salary cap squeeze the onus is on the rest of the players out of contract in 2020 (particularly the ones that aren’t best 22) to step up and cement their spot in the side or prove their value to the squad. Some, such as Brody Mihocek and Callum Brown can probably consider themselves safe. Mihocek himself may prove to be challenging as he will require promotion to the senior list to stay and given he was a latecomer to AFL he may choose to take a significantly priced contract elsewhere if it was offered to him. A number of players have been on the list for a number of years now, including Tim Broomhead and Josh Daicos, that would find themselves very much under the pump in 2020. Other fringe players like Appleby, Madgen, (both requiring senior promotion if they stay), Murphy, Bosenavulagi, Tohill and Keane face uncertain futures. There are also many players out of contract (Reid, Greenwood, Varcoe, Mayne, Dunn) that are in the twilight of their careers, and these players could be the first shown the door if the cap gets too tight. The problem with showing all five of these senior players the door at once, however, is that being gifted picks at the arse end of one solitary draft to fill the list spots might not provide the same quality of depth (even over a long period of time) that keeping some of the experienced veterans on would. 2020 fixture preview Marsh Community Series matches
Date
Opponent
Home or Away
Where
Time
Sunday 1 March
Richmond
Away
Norm Minns Oval
4:10pm (AEDT)
Sunday 8 March
St Kilda
Home
Morwell Recreation Reserve
3:50pm (AEDT)
Notable matches during the 2020 Premiership Season
Date
Occasion
Opponent
Home or Away
Where
Time
Friday 20 March
Round 1
Western Bulldogs
Away
Marvel
7:50pm (AEDT)
Thursday 9 April
Easter Thursday
Brisbane Lions
Away
Gabba
7:35pm (AEDT)
Saturday 25 April
ANZAC Day
Essendon
Home
MCG
4:20PM (AEDT)
Monday 8 June
Queen's Birthday
Melbourne
Away
MCG
3:20pm (AEDT)
Bye: Round 13 Double-ups:
Richmond (R2/R17)
Brisbane Lions (R4/R16)
Essendon (R6/R20)
West Coast Eagles (R11/R22)
Melbourne (R12/R21)
2020 season preview (expectations and concerns) 2020 shapes as a fascinating year for the club both on- and off-field. On-field there would be genuine expectations both internally and externally that the club makes finals and pushes for a flag for a third season in a row. Personally, I don’t feel that we have improved our list through trading or drafting and instead will need to rely on improvement from the existing players to take the next step. With the oldest list in the competition, it is time for the youth at the club to stake their claims more seriously through strong performances at training and in the twos, rather than wait for positions to become available by default through injuries at senior level. This requires genuine steps up from the likes of Brayden Sier, Tyler Brown and Josh Daicos, as well as a willingness of the coaches to begin managing the constant selection of older players. Our opening month to the season is as tough as it gets, and may define how the rest of the season plays out. If we start 0-4, I wonder how much of a hit to the self-confidence it will be and our ability to recover. Off-field, as mentioned, list manager Ned Guy will have his work cut out for him in trying to balance a large out of contract list with players wanting and genuinely deserving substantial pay days, and there is a reasonable chance we could see significant changes to our list at the end of the year which will ultimately have a flow-on effect on our ability to contend in the following years. The club continues to be distracted with undesirable media stories and the ongoing issue of Beams returning to the club continues to drag on. I get the feeling personally that there is a power of work being done behind the scenes to end the contract that still has three seasons left to run, both for the good of the club and for Beams’ wellbeing. While that is ongoing, however, it remains an unnecessary distraction and a sore reminder that the President continues to be too involved in the administration of the football department. All in all, I think Collingwood will stay in the 8 but would not be surprised if they fall short of top 4. I don’t see the potential for improvement that I do from other clubs around the same mark. The year will be a positive one, however, if we begin seeing signs that the club can develop a strong side to transition into the ever-close “post-Pendlebury era.” Thank you to the guys doing the St Kilda season preview for adjusting their schedule to allow me to recover from surgery and complete this. Thanks for reading the 2020 season preview for the Collingwood Magpies.
[Pre Match Thread] Liverpool vs Manchester City [Champions League - Quarter Finals - Leg 1]
Liverpool FC vs. Manchester City F.C. Competition: Champions League – Quarterfinal – Leg 1 Venue: Anfield, Liverpool UK Date: Wednesday, 4 April Kick-off: 19:45 BST | 20:45 CET | 14:45 Central USA Referee: Felix Brych Assistants: Mark Borsch, Stefan Lupp Fourth official: Markus Häcker Liverpool FC Manager: Jürgen Klopp Line Up - Ederson, Walker, Kompany (C), Otamendi, Laporte, Fernandinho, Silva, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Sane, Jesus Substitutes - Bravo, Danilo, Stones, Sterling, Delph, Bernardo, Zinchenko Sidelined – Matip (thigh), Gomez (ankle), Lallana (hamstring), Klavan (knock), Woodburn (knock), Brewster (knee) Form Guide - All competitions - WDLWW Champions League – WDWWD Pre-Match Press Conference Statements “ We want to go as far as possible in the competition, so we have to face the best teams in the world. City's confidence is probably at an outstandingly high level, but we're in a good moment as well. I like difficult tasks, I like difficult jobs. For a manager it's the most interesting – what to do and how to prepare your boys as best as possible. It's a big opportunity and we'll try everything to win.“
Jürgen Klopp*
Manchester City F.C. Manager: Pep Guardiola Line Up – Karius, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Miller, Henderson, Oxlaide-Chamberlain, Mane, Salah, Firmino Substitutes - Mignolet, Clyne, Wijnaldum, Moreno, Ings, Solanke, Masterson Sidelined – Mendy (knee), Agüero (knee) Form Guide All competitions - WWLWW Champions League - WWLWL Pre-Match Press Conference Statements "Everyone's talking about how tough Liverpool will be, but it would be the same for Barcelona, Bayern or Sevilla. In the quarter-finals, you have to expect your opponents to be one of the toughest teams in the world. The way we play is perfect for Liverpool. Of course we will try to do something [to stop them], but I feel the best way to win is to play how we've been doing as a group all season." Pep Guardiola HEAD-TO-HEAD
The clubs have never met in UEFA competition
Liverpool have the upper hand domestically: W87 D46 L45
Payout odds in multiples of 1, i.e. odds of 2.60 means a total payout of €2.60 if you place a winning bet of €1. Odds at 11:00 GMT. Just a look at how the bookies rate this game, and not an endorsement for betting/gambling. MATCH FACTS Liverpool
Jordan Henderson and Alberto Moreno are a booking away from a ban.
Liverpool have failed to score in only two of their last 19 matches in all competitions, winning 2-1 at Crystal Palace FC on Saturday.
Liverpool have lost only one of their 23 games at Anfield in all competitions this season (W14 D8), although they have won only three of the last six (D2 L1). They have scored in all but three of those 23 fixtures.
The Reds have won seven of their last 12 matches in all competitions, losing three.
Liverpool's 2-0 win against Newcastle United FC on 3 March was their first clean sheet in their last seven home games; they subsequently kept clean sheets in the next two.
Mohamed Salah has scored 16 goals in his last 14 appearances for Liverpool, including the late winner at Palace at the weekend. The Egyptian has 29 Premier League goals in 31 appearances this season.
Nathaniel Clyne has not played for the first team this season due to a back injury – although he has been added to Liverpool's UEFA Champions League squad and was an unused substitute at Palace.
Joe Gomez had to be replaced early in England's 1-0 victory away to the Netherlands on 23 March with an ankle problem. Emre Can has been sidelined since 17 March with a back injury.
Salah was on target in Egypt's 2-1 defeat by Portugal on 23 March; new Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk scored in a 3-0 victory against the Portuguese three days later.
Dominic Solanke recovered from a toe injury to score a late winner for England Under-21s against Ukraine on 27 March.
Manchester City
Danilo, İlkay Gündoğan and Fernandinho will incur a suspension with their next yellow cards.
City have won all but four of their 31 Premier League games this season. They have lost just one of their last 39 league fixtures, winning 33 and drawing five. They were 3-1 winners at Everton FC on Saturday and will be crowned champions if they beat Manchester United at home on 7 April.
Josep Guardiola's side have won their last three away games in all competitions, and four of the last five – keeping clean sheets in but one of all those victories. Their overall record away from home this season is W19 D3 L3 with 12 clean sheets.
City have scored 58 goals away from home, conceding 20. Only Crystal Palace FC, in the Premier League on 31 December (0-0), and third tier Wigan Athletic FC in the last 16 of the FA Cup on 19 February (0-1) have stopped them scoring.
Sergio Agüero has 15 goals in 15 games in all competitions in 2018, and needs one more to become the first player to score 200 for City. His four-goal haul against Leicester City FC on 10 February was the third time he has managed four in a Premier League match; no other player can match that.
Raheem Sterling has 16 Premier League goals this season – seven more than his previous best total of nine, with Liverpool in 2013/14.
City claimed the first silverware of the English domestic season with a 3-0 victory against Arsenal in the League Cup final at Wembley on 25 February, thanks to goals from Agüero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva. It is the fifth time the Citizens have won the competition.
Gabriel Jesus scored the only goal as Brazil beat Germany on 27 March. The same day, Kevin De Bruyne found the net as Belgium beat Saudi Arabia 4-0 – his first goal in 20 internationals, since May 2016 – and Nicolás Otamendi was on target for Argentina, although they lost 6-1 to Spain in Madrid.
Kyle Walker, Sterling and John Stones were in the England team that beat a Netherlands side captained by Virgil van Dijk and also featuring Georginio Wijnaldum 1-0 in Amsterdam on 23 March. The same day, Bernardo Silva started for Portugal in a 2-1 win against Mohamed Salah's Egypt.
Benjamin Mendy has not played since a cruciate knee injury on 23 September. Fabian Delph suffered a muscle injury on 5 March and has not featured since; Agüero has been out since 10 March with a knee problem picked up in training while Stones missed the Everton game with concussion.
De Bruyne was included in the UEFA.com Fans' Team of the Year 2017. The Belgian handed over a cheque from for €100,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) before the second leg against Basel.
Post-Match Day Thread: Liverpool 4 - 0 Newcastle United
The Reds will be top of the league on New Years Day
Liverpool 4 - 0 Newcastle
Player Ratings
Player
WS
SofaScore
TAW
This is Anfield
Liverpool Echo
Average
Notes
Alisson
7.2
7.5
10.0
7.0
7.0
7.7
Alexander-Arnold
8.2
8.2
10.0
7.5
7.0
8.2
Lovren
8.5
8.1
10.0
8.0
8.0
8.5
van Dijk
7.8
7.5
10.0
7.0
7.0
7.9
Robertson
6.6
7.0
10.0
8.5
8.0
8.0
82' sub off
Wijnaldum
6.7
6.7
10.0
7.0
6.0
7.3
62' sub off
Henderson
6.9
6.8
10.0
8.0
8.0
7.9
Shaqiri
8.0
8.3
10.0
7.0
7.0
8.1
Firmino
6.7
6.6
10.0
6.0
7.0
7.3
69' sub off
Mané
7.2
7.2
10.0
6.5
7.0
7.6
Salah
8.1
8.1
10.0
8.0
8.0
8.4
Starting XI avg
7.4
7.5
10.0
7.3
7.3
7.9
Fabinho
7.4
7.3
10.0
7.5
7.0
7.8
62' sub on
Sturridge
6.6
6.7
10.0
7.0
7.0
7.5
69' sub on
Clyne
6.4
6.6
10.0
-
-
7.7
82' sub on
Degsy Lovren, best defender in the world right? What a finish from the big man. Virgil who? Salah is also mustard, and with nobody getting below a 7 it's a good day all round for the Reds.
City are a bit shite aren't they? Down to third now, Chelsea breathing down their necks, closer to Arsenal as to us... bet Pep is shaking a bit. Spurs are now our closest competition, but they're still a full 6 points behind us, and with a +12 goal difference that might as well be 7. Win against Arsenal and City in the next two games and... who knows? On to the comparisons. The chart below displays the cumulative points totals over the games so far: https://i.imgur.com/24D27FX.png And we just keep going. It's mad looking at that straight line from us and City, it's just been a constant drive onward. The next graph is for goals scored: https://i.imgur.com/a3qguS5.png Now we're getting back to business. If we keep scoring goals at this rate we'll be very pretty indeed. The final graph is goals conceded: https://i.imgur.com/t9sLUGp.png And of course the defence is still absolutely mint. Best in Europe now yaknow? Mad that. The spreadsheet I'm working from is below: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D7aM5g9Pqhnt2y58BdFUc4xTp3epreMhKMlpEVgQOdY/edit?usp=sharing
This is an odd set piece from us. Usually we'll stick the CBs in the penalty spot area and try to whip the ball in there. With this one though we go short to Robertson who then whips it in. This gives time for the big lads to get a run on the ball.
However, Robertson's ball is overhit. What's clever from Lovren is how he sees this and stops. He knows no Newcastle player has picked him up and he is in acres of space.
But we do get lucky. This is an appalling header. The absolute last thing he can do is head it back into the danger area where there are - count them - five unmarked Liverpool players. Yet, he does, and Lovren is there to absolutely smash it home. What a guy.
Not much to say at penalties but let's look at the decision. To start with, Dummett puts two hands on Salah's left arm. That tells Salah that he's got a defender who's worried about fouling him nearby.
Dummett then continues his run behind Salah but crucially leaves his left hand grasping Salah's arm. I don't think that this is a pull or a grab, I think he's actually just left his hand there, but potentially it puts Salah off balance.
But this is what buys the penalty. Salah starts to fall backwards, it doesn't look great, but crucially Dummett's hand is still on Salah's arm. All the ref can see in real time is a hand on the arm and Salah going down as if he's been pulled. It is a foul - Dummett makes no attempt to get the ball - but Salah has been smart to play it like he has.
This goal has some lovely play but I want to concentrate on Shaqiri's relentless effort. First the ball goes out wide to Trent. Shaqiri has already pointed where he wants that ball whipped in (Sturridge has decided to stand 5 yards offside for some reason).
The ball gets deflected to the back post and Mané - but Shaqiri has reacted. He's already turned and trying to get his way back to the center of the goal because he knows he could score.
The ball does eventually get cleared wide but as it falls to Robertson Shaqiri again sees an opportunity to score. He makes a dart to the near post to meet a cross.
And now Shaqiri gets his reward. He's the closest man to the ball when Trent plays it through that lovely Corridor of Uncertainty we (and I) love so much. This goal came because he always stayed alive, always looking for a chance to get a goal.
And then this goal happens. Just to prove my point from early - Lovren and Van Dijk hanging around the penalty spot. Salah's corner is whipped in to the near post.
Newcastle's defending is appalling though. You have a man on the post that lets Fabinho get a yard free. Lovren's marker lets him run free. A free man who doesn't really even try to get a head on the ball. Just bad all round.
Thoughts
Line Up
I was surprised at how strong Klopp set us up with two massive games on the horizon, but the result really paid it off. He restored Shaqiri to the front three in a bit of a free role, and partnered Henderson with Wijnaldum in midfield. In defence, a welcome return of Trent after a bit of an injury crisis.
Arsenal
I was expecting more rotation for Newcastle, which makes me wonder what Klopp will do with this one. That being said we're essentially in a CL run playing Wednesday/Saturday/Thursday and Wolves on Monday gives us a break and an opportunity to rotate. So I'm expecting Klopp to go strong again and really keep this form going. Alisson; Trent, Lovren, van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Keita; Salah, Firmino, Mané I've put this down as a 4-3-3 but it as likely to be the 4-2-3-1/4-2-2-2 we've seen in the bigger games recently. I've put in Wijnaldum instead of Henderson simply because Wijnaldum was substituted but Henderson wasn't. Then, we have Keita in the "free" role in midfield, in a game I really think he could (and should) play well in.
Our next fixture is against Arsenal in the Premier League. The match kicks off on the 29th of December at 17:30PM(GMT)/12:30PM(ET).
Hey guys, Well we've had another crazy gameweek, lads. It’s either been a tough one or a brilliant one for a lucky few. Aguero and Aubameyang are the Yin and Yang of GW26 and for many owning one of these players meant the difference between a large green arrow or a massive red one. Last week I went over some non-blanking players you might want to consider, as well as some chip strategies you can adopt from GW31 onwards. This week I’m going to be looking at what players are worth transferring in from GW28 despite the blanks, as well as going over our how to get through the Blank GW27. If you’re interested, here’s my team and OR. All week I was racking my brain trying to figure out which Arsenal striker to bring in for Aguero. Never once thought of keeping the hattrick hero for the Chelsea + Blank fixtures. Eventually made the late call of bringing in Lacazette which worked out really well and on Saturday I was over the moon with my choice! Come Sunday, though, I was much less thrilled. Considering I had no City, my GW went very well and that helped take the sting out of the red arrow. Sitting comfortably at 3.5k OR. I use my twitter for going over transfers, captaincy picks and live tweeting games I watch. I also frequently create threads going over my thought process for my player picks, so catch me there if you’re interested! Here’s some useful links that help me write-up these TMA posts: Premier League Fixtures – A great way to line up the fixtures for the specific gameweeks you want to see. Orders the teams from best fixtures to worst. Player Analysis by Performance – Amazing tool that compares every player based on Shooting, Creativity and Attacking involvement. Options for looking at any combination of teams too. Player stats per Game – Great for looking at team stats per player for Offensive and Defensive plays. Also shows heat maps! Teams To Look At Man City – No matter how much we complain about Pep Roulette, blank gameweeks or difficult fixtures, one thing is for certain: Man City can score 4+ goals against any team in the league. They absolutely embarrassed Chelsea’s defence on Sunday and if you didn’t own any city players, it was a hard watch. Aguero (11.5) has decided to just score a million goals out of nowhere recently, and although he might not have been in your transfer plans before, he should be now. Despite City’s hectic schedule, it’s unlikely Kun will be rested. Not only do we not have any real evidence of Pep playing Jesus (10.0) over his first-choice striker (unless he’s being eased in after injury), but his form is so good right now it would be silly to bench him during a title race. From an FPL point of view, it’s very difficult to argue against having him in your team. He has 2 juicy Home fixtures coming up after GW27, and even the GW31 blank isn’t too worrying as it would have been against MNU and we can’t expect returns from a derby anyway. The midfielders, however, are another story. We can’t even be sure Sane (9.5) will play, never mind return these days! I was looking through the stats to see if there is any sort of indication of pattern for the rotation, and the only thing I could see, however miniscule, is that Sane has been benched for 6 out of 8 games against a top 6 opponent, only twice being called up against the big guns. The first occasion was against Chelsea in their 2-0 defeat where Sterling played as striker due to Aguero’s injury. The second was against Liverpool, but this might just be an anomaly as it was played in January during the heavy fixture congestion period. Every other time Sterling (11.3) has taken his place on the left flank. It looks clear that Sterling is the preferred starting winger with 8 starts from the last 9, and you could argue that the double gameweek benching was just a fitness issue, as appose to a rotational one. So if you’re looking to bet on who is going to start, Sterling and Aguero are the safe bets. Looking at their defence now, City had previously conceded a goal in every game between GW14-21, causing many to jump ship on players like Laporte (5.9) and Ederson (5.6). It seems like Pep’s got the machine back up and running though, recently bagging 4 cleansheets out of a possible 6. A few people have asked me if it’s worth getting back on that ship, and to be honest the stats do back up a move for a City defender: averaging 7 shots conceded per game, the lowest in the league. However if you’re following a specific chip strategy, you may need your Free Transfers for other, more important players, like Aguero! So yeah, City defenders are very low priority at the moment. Wolves – With the second best fixture run between now and their first possible blank game-week, you’d be mad not to own at least two of the budget-premiums that Wolves have to offer. Doherty (5.4) and Jimenez (6.8) are owned by more than a quarter of all FPL managers, which for a team that has just been promoted this season is unheard of! The Wanderers are currently sitting 7th in the league, and the only downside of their success is their annoyingly great FA Cup run. If you are planning on using your Free Hit for GW31, then I see no reason not to have 2, even 3 Wolves players in your squad between now and then. Out of position Jota (6.0) has been playing really well since coming back from injury, with a return in every match he’s started in so far. He certainly passes the eye test (a certain Leicester game comes to mind) and his stats confirm what our eyes are seeing. He has the highest shot accuracy of every midfielder from GW23-25, and the second highest xG, just behind Pogba. Moutinho (5.3), not to be outdone, has the same amount of returns in the same fixture span, with the highest xA of any midfielder in the league, and boasts an average of 3 key passes per game. That’s the second highest in the league! For the prices that these players are, you should be snapping them up as a 4th or 5th midfielder, if you can spare the Free Transfer Newcastle – Although their stats might not back them up as prolific defenders, the Magpies have been unlucky not to have more cleansheets to their names. Keeping the top 6 teams quiet is a hard feat, but Newcastle have almost pulled it off on a number of occasions, and now with a really decent fixture run, you could definitely do worse than bring in one of their defenders, especially if you’re looking for players who aren’t blanking in GW31. If we look at their defensive record against just mid to bottom table teams, they have kept 3 out of 5 cleansheets. Next up they have HUD, BUR, WHU, EVE and BOU. So who should we be looking at? There aren’t much attacking returns from the backline, so we’ll have to rely on bonus point potential to separate them. Lascelles (4.6) has racked up the most bonus points so far, and is usually does quite well in the bonus point system when NEW have kept a clean sheet. Schär (4.6) is right behind him, but for 0.2 less you could bring in Lejeune (4.4), who’s fresh back from injury, immediately slotting into the starting XI. He’s also not bad at the old Bonus Points System game, but you can’t really go wrong with either. As for their attack, I don’t really see too much reason to dive into that pool unless you seriously need a 3rd striker and can’t afford anyone who costs more than Rondon (5.7). The competition in that spot is too high to recommend him, though. You’ve still got Aguero and Jimenez to consider. Teams To Be Wary Of Watford – We now enter a period of upsy downsy fixtures for the Hornets, which sucks for owners who have been meaning to get rid of their assets but haven’t quite been able to find the time. You might just be waiting it out for GW34 when you plan to use your wildcard, which is fine. But just know that you can really only use them every second game, and they are also actually still in the FA Cup, so you may need to get rid of them anyway, depending on your Chip usage. It’s frustrating because their defence is actually not bad, and Holebas (4.8) and Kiko (4.2) were useful before one got suspended and the other one broke. Let’s move on. Burnley – Another frustrating option that we can’t really consider right now due to fixtures. Burnley are one of the few teams that are confirmed not blanking in GW31, but they play TOT, NEW, CRY, LIV and LEI in their next 5 games, the third worst fixture run in the league. I’m not going to go over the players we could be bringing in, because frankly I don’t think there are any worth wasting precious Free Transfers on. Such a shame! Plans And Strategies Blank GW27 – If you’ve taken out a blanking City player who’s recently hauled, there’s no point in bringing them back in now and benching them through their blank, no matter how annoyed you are! Unless you’re going to be priced out, you should be sticking with your original decision. On paper, City had a tough fixture and then a blank, so chin up! Nobody could have predicted 6 goals. You brought in Aubameyang, or Son, or whoever, and they’re point ceiling for GW27 is 100% better than every city player. It’s less of a worry for those who’ve gotten rid of Hazard (10.8) or other Chelsea assets because they’ve got a difficult fixture when they get back from the blank anyway. A lot of people have been asking me whether they should be getting their city players back after the blank, and my answer is yes! Getting them out due to the blank was a good choice, and bringing them back in is a good choice, no matter what chip strategy you’re looking to use. Their fixture run between now and the blank is worth having them on the bench for GW31 if you have to. As for those of you that kept your City and Chelsea players up until now, there aren’t many one week punt options for you to use 2 Free Transfers on that would be worth it. You’re going to want your City assets back after, and Chelsea have a chance not to blank in GW31 if they get beat by Man United in the FA Cup, which is looking likely. So both sets of players are worth holding onto, at least until we get more info. FA Cup – Before GW27, we’ll know who is going into the next round of the FA Cup. There will be no fifth round replays! “The FA has announced that fifth round replays in the Emirates FA Cup will be removed from this season's competition, one season earlier than previously planned.” This is pretty awesome because it means we’ll actually know which teams are and aren’t blanking for at least GW31. For those unsure about which chip strategy to use, this is key information which could dictate what chip strategy makes the most sense based on your team. If you can hold off on transfers until then, you’ll be in the best position to use those transfers more effectively. Hurray! And that’s a wrap! Hopefully you’ve managed to save your FT and can hold those knees until the FA cup games have finished. If you haven’t made up your mind about what chip strategy to use, find out how many blankers you have in your team so you at least have a better idea of what transfers are required to have a decent looking team for GW31. Anyway, thanks for reading this far. Let me know if it helped! If you have any questions hit me up either here or on twitter. I reply to comments right up until the next post. Cheers, lads!
Hey guys, Well, it’s official: GW27 was the worst. With an average of just 35 there weren’t many positives to find at all. Most captaincy options blanked, some template players weren’t in the Starting XI, just 3 cleansheet games total and now we’ve got an injury epidemic on our hands. But the best time to have a shit gameweek is when everyone has a shit gameweek, so let’s just put GW27 behind us and start looking towards GW28 turning it all around for us! Last week I posted an FA Cup special diving into the FH31 and FH32 strategies and what teams work well with each. We’re are all bored to death with strategies chat, so this will be a short post looking at the next 4 fixtures to see what players we should be keeping an eye on and what teams we should be investing in as well as what to do with all these bloody injuries! Here’s my team for this week. A small red arrow to 4.1k OR, which is much better than I thought it would be! This week felt a lot like last week, but just without Salah and Pogba holding the points total up. Lacazette scoring a goal again this week is a nice reminder that rechecking stats on players you’ve previously written off is always a good idea. I took a hit to take out TAA + Hazard for Lejeune + Mane which worked out well considering they both actually played. All in all my team’s shaping up nicely to get through GW31 unscathed. I also wanted to remind you guys that I’ll be doing my first ever Monday After Stream tomorrow at 6:45pm GMT! I’ll be doing some RMTs, checking stats, going over some finer points of this post and having a bit of a laugh. Here’s the link to my YouTube Channel if you’re interested! Here’s some useful links that help me write-up these TMA posts: Premier League Fixtures – A great way to line up the fixtures for the specific gameweeks you want to see. Orders the teams from best fixtures to worst. Player Analysis by Performance – Amazing tool that compares every player based on Shooting, Creativity and Attacking involvement. Options for looking at any combination of teams too. Player stats per Game – Great for looking at team stats per player for Offensive and Defensive plays. Also shows heat maps! Teams To Look At Leicester - Okay so they got beat by Palace. It was quite an awful performance. I feel particularly bad for managers who brought in Pereira (5.4) for his decent fixture run especially if he replaced the notorious Digne (5.3). However as you’ve all heard, they’ve sacked Claude Puel and will be looking for an interim replacement. If they get the right manager, the Foxes could well hit another New Manager Bounce and start scoring similar to when Ranieri was replaced last February, or they could continue being rather poor and disappoint every manager looking to bring their players in. Either way, they have the best fixtures in the next 4 games out of every team, so we can’t exactly ignore them. A lot of managers are asking about Vardy (8.8) and whether he’ll rise to the occasion. His stats aren’t much to look at from the last 5 games, but considering they’ve had to play WOL, LIV, MUN and TOT, nobody’s stats from Leicester look any good. So let’s look at the positives. Vardy is on penalties and should be playing with Leicester’s best Midfield behind him. They can’t afford to mess about anymore and will most likely play their best starting XI. That means Maddison (6.6) is also less risky despite his managed minutes, as well as Barnes (5.5) who was their best asset against Palace this week. With plenty of choices, and plenty of decent games, I wouldn’t be surprised if GW27 was the kick up the arse these lads needed to start flying. If you had Leicester in your plans, I’d stick to your guns on this one. Newcastle - The Magpies looked really good against Huddersfield. Rondon (5.8) stole the show, Almiron (6.0) had a great debut and the defenders easily kept their cleansheet. Now we know that Huddersfield are diabolical and any team should be beating them comfortably, but Newcastle can only play who’s in front of them, and they managed to keep their heads, play n effective, defensive game, get ahead and stay ahead. They have so many options at the back, with Lascelles (4.6), Yedlin (4.5), Schar (4.7) and Lejeune (4.4) all playing 90 minutes most games (Reminder that Schar has 8 yellow cards and is two away from suspension). There is a slight risk of changing from 5 at the back, but considering they haven’t played another defensive formation since GW20, I’d say you’re good to go. They don’t have the worst or best fixtures on paper, but Rafa is known for his fortress style of play and I wouldn’t say any of BUR, WHU, EVE, or BOU are the best at breaking down a solid defence. Now with Rondon gaining form and new signing Almiron showing his goods, there’s even more options here. I’d definitely keep my eye on their attacking assets in the next game. Here’s hoping they can continue this form! Arsenal - I’ve only added Arsenal in the ‘Teams to Look At’ section because there are a lot of managers transferring Gunners players out of their teams. Whether it be frustration, or lack of decent fixtures before the blank, I think you should reconsider for just one more game. Aubameyang (11.1) was rested this weekend so he’ll most likely play against Bournemouth, who’ve been absolutely hopeless away from home and have a bit of an injury crisis on the go. With Steve Cook (4.4) still out and losing Lerma (4.5) to suspension, Arsenal should confidently smash the shit out of them, with Auba leading the way. We also have Lacazette (9.5) consistently returning and Mkhitaryan (6.7) coming back into the squad in recent weeks, so Arsenal are looking hard to bet against right now. Consider holding until we need to find replacements before TOT and MUN games. Teams To Be Wary Of Man City – Regardless of what GW you’re using your chips in, City players have continued to punish anyone who hasn’t owned them in recent weeks, and before the Final against Chelsea we figured they’d probably continue to do so. However with some key injuries, Aguero (11.6) and Sterling (11.3) playing 120 minutes and just 2 days rest before their Home game against WHU, that rotation risk is slowly creeping back in. There’s been some analysis on past incidents similar to this, but it’s hard to compare now with Laporte (6.0) and Fernandinho (5.3) out of action until at least GW30. Let’s look at the facts. Aguero hasn’t been rested in the EPL since GW22. The shortest days rest he’s had in that time was the double gameweek where he played 80 mins and 79 mins. He then played 65 mins against Chelsea just 4 days later. In his last two games Aguero played 60 mins against Schalke and 120 mins against CHE, with even less rest time before West Ham in GW28. We know Jesus has had a injury, and he may be fit in time for playing the Hammers, but we won’t know for sure until the team is announced on Wednesday. We also have to keep in mind that City play BOU on Saturday just 4 days later. So will Aguero start? Nobody knows. I wouldn’t be surprised if he only plays 2 of next 3 games, though. If you’re looking to do some hokey cokey with him before his blank in GW31, he is more of a risky choice right now than he has been since his injury. Might be worth waiting for the pressers on this one. As for Sterling, he’s an even bigger risk because he doesn’t have an injured counterpart like Aguero does. Mahrez (8.2), Sane (9.5), and Silva (8.5) can all play in place of Sterling and they’re all fit and raring to go. I feel like every week we mention Pep Roulette, but this isn’t your standard week! This is closer games and more minutes played. I’m not saying that transferring City players in for their 3 decent fixtures is a bad move, but it is a lot riskier than usual. If you’ve kept City assets through the blank, then good luck! I hope they start. No point in turning back now. I also had a quick look at their defensive assets, and it’s just as inconsistent as the attackers, I’m afraid. Stones (5.2) could be available and has played in Fernandinho’s place before. Otamendi (6.0) might get a start at the back, or Kompany (5.2) depending on how Pep’s feeling on the day. Using a transfer here just seems like a waste unless it’s Ederson (5.6), the only nailed “defender”. But do you want to invest in their keeper knowing their best defender is out? Watford - There are a lot of chat about bringing in some cheap Watford assets after their 5-1 win against Cardiff, but I think we chill out a bit and think it through. The Hornets blank in GW31 and have LIV, LEI and MCI before that. In fact 5 out of the 11 games left in the season they play will be against a Top 6 side. We all knew Deulofeu (5.5) had this performance in him, but will he be able to replicate it in the next few fixtures? Is it worth a free transfer during a time when we need them the most for our Chip Strategies, or injuries? I’m not too sure. Considering they both blank and have poor fixtures, I don’t think anyone should be giving in to the hattrick fever. Plans And Strategies Injuries and Value – There were quite a few injuries in GW27. Man United may have lost Rashford, Lingard and Mata, Liverpool are assessing Robertson and Firmino, and Laporte is out for a good while. If we have any of these players, should we be taking hits to replace them? Our free transfers seem so precious in the lead up to the crucial blank and double gameweeks, and it’s hard enough getting ready for them never mind dealing with unforeseen injuries. There are two ways we can deal with the problem: Benching the injured players, or transferring them out and losing value if we want them back. So first things first, if you aren’t planning on bringing any of these players back into your squad, then I think it’s an easy choice to get rid. Taking a hit for an injured player costs less and less the more that player doesn’t play, and in these cases, hits aren’t something to be scared of. However! We should definitely be waiting to hear the pressers before making such big decisions. Even benching the injured player for one GW might be worth it due to information you can get from a Starting XI announcement and manager interviews. A lot of the injured players are going to be blanking, and you’ll have probably already made your mind up with who you want to keep in your team and who you’re getting rid of for GW31. So if you were already considering leaving, for example, Rashford (7.8) on your bench for the blank gameweek, then there’s no reason he can’t sit on your bench now. The whole point in having 15 players is in case this happens! You might lose some value on him over the next few weeks, but if you want him for the doubles, you’re actually not losing anything at all because you’ll have to bring him back in if you transfer him out for probably more than you paid in the first place. The decisions are always a bit easier if you don’t have money tied to a player. In that case you could easily transfer out the injured player and bring them back when needed, but as each of our free transfers are worth more right now than they have been throughout the season, it might be worth having a look at your bench to see if you’re able to survive a few weeks without them. At this point in time, though, none of these players are confirmed injured, so don’t be hasty in your transfers and get screwed when Rashford is cleared fit for Crystal Palace. And that’s a wrap! Hopefully you’re well on your way to getting ready for the Blank and Double GWs, and this post gives you some food for thought in the lead up to GW28. Remember, it’s midweek games, so get your team sorted before the deadline tomorrow! Thanks very much for reading, I really appreciate the good feedback I’ve been getting recently. I’ll be posting again on Thursday for another Monday After special. Cheers!
I took a month-long break from writing these every week, but after the events of this weekend I’ve realised I just can’t stay away from the global entertainment phenomenon that is Scottish football. As well as being extremely busy, part of the motivation behind this hiatus of mine was the nonsense that followed Brendan Rodgers’ departure from Celtic to Leicester City, despite him saying that he didn’t see it as a stepping stone, and that it was his dream job. Whilst according to the average /soccer user, this cemented the Scottish Premiership’s status as a diddy league unworthy of following, it DID provide an opportunity to examine Celtic’s support’s journey through the 5 stages of grief. First there was denial, then anger, before depression, bargaining, and finally acceptance that Moussa Dembélé was right all along. Elsewhere, it’s brown trousers time for fans of Hamilton, Dundee, and St Mirren; and the race for a top 6 place - and a chance at European football - is going to go down to the wire. A timeline of all of the patter in the SPFL, and results from the last month in the Scottish Premiership ‘reported’ below, taking a more detailed look at this weekend’s fixtures, and results from the Scottish Cup, the Challenge Cup final, and the national team’s Euro 2020 qualifying games (as much as it pains me to do so). I’m not going to go into copious detail with every result, because there’s a good 30-something games to discuss, but there will be at least highlights of every game, just a click away.
Since awful home performances from Aberdeen are no longer remarkable, this game should exclusively be remembered for George Oakley’s Marco van Basten-esque wondergoal, and little else. Highlights.
Without meaning for this to turn into a Scottish Football Fan Trouble Roundup, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that a bottle of Buckfast, or Bucks Fizz if you’re the Mail, was thrown at Scott Sinclair whilst it was 0-0, in the first of two incidents of bampot behaviour at Easter Road within the next week. Not sure it quite had the desired effect, mind, as shortly after two belters from James Forrest and Scott Brown did the business for Celtic. Full highlights with commentary.
Brilliant late drama as wee Aaron Doran headed in a goal in stoppage time to book Caley Thistle’s place in the semi-final, in a game which they dominated. After beautiful goal from Joe Chalmers put ICT ahead, United were equal through a contentious penalty converted by Nicky Clarke. Inverness had the ball in the net again before the winner, but Nathan Austin had been ruled offside. Overall, ICT worthy winners. Full highlights.
A hilarious performance from Hearts on account of how predictable it was; totally dominant with no end product beyond Christophe Berra’s 12th-minute opener, which was cancelled out by Christie Elliot on the counter attack an hour later. Uche Ikpeazu almost scored one of the competition’s greatest ever goals before half-time, and if he had, that most likely would have been it for Partick. However, they managed to force the replay, along with Aberdeen and Rangers, although neither game could be broadcast, because UEFA want you to watch the Champions League. Full highlights with commentary.
Rangers fans retaliated to the Morelos banner they saw at Pittodrie by coming up with a Spanish banner of their own, reading “de asientos vacios a ovejas que abusan sexualmente Aberdeen FC”, or in English: “of empty seats for sheep who sexually abuse Aberdeen FC”. With the spotlight on fan behaviour as much as ever before, weeks of incidents were capped off by a moronic Hibs fan running onto the pitch trying to start on James Tavernier, before shiteing it as soon as Tavernier stood up against him. Rangers totally dominated, and Hibs could have been down to 10 men within as many minutes if Darren McGregor had been sent off for his elbow on Morelos. Morelos couldn’t take his chances, and Rangers couldn’t take their chance to close the gap on Celtic, with Florian Kamberi equalising with 75 minutes played. Darren McGregor was eventually sent-off after all, for a second yellow in stoppage time. Highlights.
Two teams who haven’t really got going in 2019, but fair play to Livingston for responding in such a way to going down after Joe Shaughnessy’s early opener. Highlights.
Aberdeen’s Scott McKenna may have been linked with Celtic in the summer, but before this game he announced he’d signed a deal with Trump International instead. A bold choice when you consider how popular Trump is in Aberdeen (not very) and also the world (not very). This fixture is normally a bit of a goal-fest, with the last match between the two sides being a 3-4 Celtic win, but I put a bet on both teams to score, so it’s the first goalless draw since 1994. Highlights.
The two previous Lanarkshire derbies have been fiercely competitive, with Hamilton victorious when visiting Fir Park, and Motherwell taking the 3 points from the Hope CBD. This game, however, was all but over in 10 minutes, with a David Turnbull brace putting daylight between the two teams, before Jake Hastie finished Accies off 25 minutes later. Highlights.
Shortly after Hearts meandered to a 1-1 draw with Thistle in the original fixture, their reserve team pumped Thistle’s 9-1, as if to rub salt into the wound. Hearts went behind to a tap-in from Scott McDonald, but goals from Uche Ikpeazu and Sean Clare were the difference in the end. Highlights.
Sad news for Scottish football, after it was revealed that the Hope CBD Stadium, so-called after a cannabis oil company purchased the naming rights to New Douglas Park, would be renamed after just 6 months to the even more eccentric “Fountain of Youth Stadium”. This all comes after they were randomly disrespected by Lord Sugar on Twitter. Tough times to be an Accies fan for sure. All of this was not enough to prevent Accies from getting one over Hearts, though, with Aaron McGowan’s goal the difference between the two sides. This result also validates the first words in four months from 22 year old stroke victim Darren Thompson - “Hearts are shite.” Highlights.
Before this match Rangers fans took to the offices of BBC Scotland in protest (I’m assuming?) against the unfair treatment they get on Sportscene. Kilmarnock went ahead through Conor McAleny, who replaced an injured Eamonn Brophy, but Alfredo Morelos was able to equalise. Neither side will be entirely content with a draw, I feel. Highlights.
All in all a very bad week for the Scottish men’s national football team. First we get absolutely done by the Northern Irish FA on twitter, and then we go on to get absolutely humiliated by Kazakhstan in our first qualifier. God help us. Alex McLeish did remark that we started brightly, which is funny considering that we were 2-0 down within 10 minutes. There’s also this weird interview with Graeme Jones where he explains why the squad decided not to try to adjust to the different time-zones. Not sure the priorities are quite right in the Scotland camp. The only highlight of the game as far as I’m concerned is when Sky lost pictures from Astana, but if you really want to see us get absolutely outclassed, then you can do so here.
After a player of the round performance from Ross Stewart gave us the most Scottish photoshoot ever - without featuring a kilt or bagpipes - and helped Ross County into the Challenge Cup final, the country of Scotland could put their international misery behind them for a day to watch a Welsh team almost win the final of a Scottish cup competition. The Nomads went ahead thanks to Michael Bakare 20 minutes in; it took until the 75th minute for County to turn it around. A quickfire double from Josh Mullin gave the Staggies the lead, before Jamie Lindsay secured what may not be Ross County’s last silverware of the season - they look likely to return to the Premiership as Champions. Highlights.
Where were you when Scotland went 70 minutes without scoring in San Marino? Would you like to experience it all over again? From Kenny McLean’s 4th minute opener, Johnny Russell’s almost-disappointing second goal, and that one moment where they got round the keeper and we actually thought they might score - relive it all here! Finally, we continue with some action that actually happened this week.
In the context of the whole season this doesn’t look like a bad result at all, but St Mirren will feel this is an awful point or three to drop. The Buddies had the chance to go a goal ahead, but Simeon Jackson opted to try a weird panenka along the ground from his spot-kick, which Zander Clark had no trouble with. I mean it’s not as if it could all come down to one goal or one point for St Mirren at the end of the season, anyway. Shortly after, Chris Kane put St Johnstone ahead by pouncing on a defensive error. Had Jackson’s penalty gone in, and the score remained the same, St Mirren would have been off the bottom before their must-win match against Dundee. They’ll be without Ethan Erhahon for that match after he was given a straight red for a poor tackle late in the match. Architects of their own downfall in this match, St Mirren. Highlights.
Livingston won’t have any worries of relegation, which is a miracle in itself considering how poor value they looked at the very beginning of the season. Meanwhile Hibs will have known that they could easily fall out of the top 6 with any missteps at this crucial point in the season. Craig Halkett missed this match through an injury sustained prior to the game, and it was announced today he’d be leaving Livingston for Hearts at the end of the season - with this I reckon he’ll make the Scotland squad for the next series of international games. In the end, goals from Paul Hanlon and Mark McNulty killed the game off in the space of 5 minutes, and Ryan Hardie’s late penalty was only a consolation for Livingston. Highlights.
St Mirren may have been their own worst enemy in the middle of the week, but what a performance and result this is for them - and one which could well be fatal for Dundee. Dundee went ahead after just 22 seconds through Ethan Robson, which could easily have destroyed any hopes St Mirren had of taking something out of the game, but Danny Mullen scored his third goal of the season - his third against Dundee - to reignite the Buddies’ hopes just 11 minutes later. The winning goal came courtesy of speccy tube Brad Lyons, affording him the opportunity to premiere his speccy tube celebration in Saturday’s best exhibition of patter. St Mirren leapfrog Dundee, and are looking much more likely to increase that gap at the moment than Dundee are to close it. Highlights.
This result confirms St Johnstone’s bottom 6 placement, and keeps Motherwell’s alive by a sliver. Chris Cadden returning to the Motherwell bench will be a cause for optimism, and Motherwell looked improved when he came on, with Elliot Frear’s opener occurring 6 minutes after his substitution into the game, and David Turnbull doubling the lead 10 minutes later. Liam Craig had an early penalty saved for St Johnstone, and Richard Tait added a third to complete Saints’ capitulation in stoppage time. Highlights.
Aberdeen remained without Shay Logan through injury, although he did pull on a kit for his stag do. They went ahead thanks to Connor McLennan in the first half, but came out after the interval with apparently very little idea of how to play football. Sean Clare and Uche Ikpeazu got on the scoresheet to complete the Hearts comeback. How it feels to be an Aberdeen fan right now can be summarised by Derek McInnes’ decision in the 86th minute to bring on centre-back Michael Devlin for our only dangerous attacker, Connor McLennan, in a Steven Caulker-esque move. I despair. Highlights.
One of the most notable differences between Brian Rice’s Accies and his predecessor Martin Canning’s side is that Rice has set up much less defensively. As such, his side have been on the end of some right pumpings. Highly-rated left-back prospect Greg Taylor scored his first ever goal for Kilmarnock, before a second half rout saw four other players on the scoresheet - Conor McAleny, Youssouf Mulumbu, Chris Burke, and Mikael Ndjoli. This result means that Kilmarnock overtake Aberdeen into third, and will look to hold on to this European place. The job Steve Clarke has done is pretty incredible. Hamilton will be looking cautiously at St Mirren and Dundee beneath them. Highlights.
You already know how this one went down. One man whose name shot up in the estimations of 95% of /soccer yesterday is a certain Scott Brown. The events of this match almost entirely revolved around him. After Odsonne Édouard opened the scoring, the first notable incident involving Brown was the Celtic captain baiting Alfredo Morelos into elbowing him in the face, and laughing at him as he walked off back down the tunnel. Ryan Kent levelled magically for Rangers, and Celtic too went down to 10 men after Dedryck Boyata went off-injured after their third sub. When James Tavernier nonchalantly enabled James Forrest’s 86th-minute winner, Brown’s gameplaying saw him get punched in the face by Ryan Kent, which seems to have made both players more of a hero to each side. Andy Halliday was then sent-off after trying to brawl in the tunnel, just before Brown gave a brilliant post-match interview where he claims not to remember what happened with Kent, and that the post-match scuffle with Halliday was just the Rangers man coming over to congratulate him. All things considered, a good day for shithousing. Highlights. So after all that, the table looks as follows:
Championship Round Relegation Round That was a lot so thanks for giving it a read. See yous next Monday for more of the same! Check out /ScottishFootball for good patter and discussion of the SPFL Last week’s matches were rounded up here ● data from soccerway.com ● thanks mods for 2soccer2botbut it’s still broken
Premier League Match Day 27 Saturday, February 10th, 2018 Kick Off: 12:30 (GMT), 7:30 AM (EST) Venue: Wembley Stadium TV: BT Sport 1, BT Sport 4k Ultra HD (UK), CNBC (US), Optus Sport, SBS Live (Australia), TSN GO, TSN5 (Canada), SuperSport 3 Africa (most of Africa/Kenyan prisons) Referee: Anthony Taylor Evening Standard preview League Form Spurs: DWDWD Arsenal: WLWLD Spurs are currently 5th in the Premier League on 49 points, Arsenal are 6th on 45 points. They beat Everton 5-1 last time out. Here's the match thread from the 2-0 defeat in November where two questionable Mike Dean decisions helped Arsenal, but on the balance, we played like shit and deserved our fate Match Facts Spurs have the second best home defensive record in the league conceding just nine times. Spurs are also unbeaten at Wembley since the opening day of the season and were hugely impressive in their 2-0 win over Manchester United last week. This is the first meeting between Spurs and Arsenal at Wembley since April 1993, when they met in an FA Cup semi-final, with Arsenal winning 1-0 from a Tony Adams goal. Harry Kane has scored six goals in six Premier League games against Arsenal, only failing to score in one those games – the reverse fixture this season. The England striker has scored four times in three home Premier League games against Arsenal. Team News For Spurs, everyone is healthy, although might be too soon for Toby, Winks, or Rose to start coming off a lengthy layoff. Lucas Moura is available for selection. Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech could be fit for the game as the calf problem he picked up last weekend is not as serious as first thought. Nacho Monreal and Danny Welbeck should also be available. COYS
Match Thread: Semi Final 1: Sydney FC V Perth Glory
The Premiers enter the Hyundai A-League Finals Series as everyone's favourite to be crowned champions. Can Glory cause another upset and halt the Sky Blue juggernaut in its tracks?
Hyundai A-League 2017 Finals Series - Week 2
Hyundai A-League 2017 Semi Final 1 Sydney FC v Perth Glory Saturday, 29 April 2017 Allianz Stadium, Sydney Kick-Off: 7:50pm (AEST) Adelaide Kick-Off: 7:20PM (ACST) Perth Kick-Off: 5:50PM(AWST) New Zealand Kick-Off: 9:50PM(NZST) Referee: Peter Green Assistant Referee 1: Nathan MacDonald Assistant Referee 2: Owen Goldrick Fourth Official: Kurt Ams Video Assistant Referee: Strebre Delovski TV Broadcast: Live coverage on Fox Sports 505 from 7.00pm (AEST). Delayed coverage on SBS VICELAND from 8.30pm (AEST) and Sky Sport Pop-Up (New Zealand) Radio Broadcast: ABC Digital Extra, Online & via the ABC Radio Mobile App A-league Live Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #ALFinals
BLUFFER'S GUIDE After an all-conquering, record-breaking season, most expect Sydney FC to continue their inexorable march to the Hyundai A-League championship. This season, they accumulated more wins and points than any previous side and conceded fewer goals and kept more clean sheets than anyone that has come before. They secured the Premiers Plate well before the end of the season, eventually opening up a 17-point chasm back to second place. And they'll certainly go into the semi final as warm favourites. But no-one really expected Perth Glory to beat Melbourne City last weekend. And yet they were worthy winners of their elimination final and are full of confidence as they seek to claim the biggest scalp of all. They have momentum, unity and in Kenny Lowe, a coach who is looking more like a master motivator and tactician every week. However, beating an out-of-sorts City is one thing; overcoming the side many are calling the best in the 12-year history of the Hyundai A-League is entirely another. Sydney FC have comfortably won the three clashes between the two this season, scoring 11 goals in the process. They're odds-on to ease into the Grand Final. But all bets are off comes finals time. OPTA DATA Sydney FC have won their last four games against Glory, scoring 15 goals and conceding just two in the process. Perth have won just two of their last 10 games at Allianz Stadium. Sydney FC have never lost a finals game at Allianz Stadium (W4, D3), and have scored four goals in each of their last two such fixtures. Off the back of their 2-0 win against Melbourne City, Glory will be looking to win consecutive away games for the first time since Round 25 last season. Sydney FC fullback Michael Zullo needs just two more crosses to become the second player to contribute 100 open-play crosses this season (Ivan Franjic 103).
Match events -65' Pre game nerves must be setting in for both fans and teams alike. Good luck to both teams! 0' Kick off Sydney strong favourites tonight. Perth with the toss 1' perth with a corner, cleared 5' Sydney with a few mistakes early on, are the nerves getting to them? 7' free kick for brosque outside the box, results in a goal kick 10' Perth with another corner, cleared for a throw for Perth 21' SYDNEY 1-0 UP WITH A MAGNIFICENT GOAL FROM 20 YARDS BY BRILLANTE 24' Goian with a piece of cheese 30' free kick for perth 24 yards out 31' too flat from Castro into the wall for a clear 34' Castro slips on the deck, disgusting pitch for soccer to be honest 37' BUIJIS OFFSIDE FOR THAT GOAL VAR CALLED 2-0 FOR SYDNEY OFFSIDE CALLED INCORRECT 40' Kenny Lowe is exploding, as usual. 44' Risdon got the cheese as well, 2 of Perth's back 4 on warnings 45' 3 mins of stoppage time 46' Reddy slammed the face of Buijs into the post VAR called 3-0 FOR SYDNEY WOW HALF TIME SYDNEY 3 PERTH 0 46' second half sydney kick off 50' Offside called, review says offside this time, no VAR 51' Keogh sends the ball to row z 56' Keogh almost scores with the ball hitting the left post 66' Ibini on Holosko off 67' Brosque 1 on 1 with Reddy, slams the ball into the keeper 68' How did Perth not go 4 down there 72' Harold on Chianese off 80' Ninkovic off Carney on 85' Simon on Brosque off 88' Ibini Holding his right hamstring but not before he got the cheese 90' 3 mins added on 92' free kick leads to nothing 93' Vukovic getting bored and putting himself in danger FULL TIME SYDNEY 1 - PERTH 0 - VAR 2 (SYDNEY 3 PERTH 0) ATTENDANCE 21,938
Hey guys, ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, except for yet another bloody Monday After post! Last week I wrote about Budget Vs Premium strikers and had a look at some budget options within Watford and Southampton so check that out if you’re looking for some options in those departments. Here’s my team and OR for this week. With my second captain blank of the season, I was not a happy camper going into the Spurs game, but my oh my did Harold save my little gameweek. On Saturday all I kept thinking was ‘the cup is dumb anyway, it’s not worth thinking about’, but on Sunday managed to come back from a 19 point deficit to win the round on goal difference! So I’m pretty pleased with that. The only transfer I made this week was Digne, grabbing him before his price rise. Bastard got me -1. What a week! So what went down GW18? Is it just me or is every week a different set of premiums blanking? It’s almost like they don’t understand how much we need them to score. There were upsets all over the place: Chelsea fell flat, City got pumped and West Ham chose not to score this weekend. We also had moster scorelines from the Man United and Spurs game, and I’ll go into them in a bit more detail in this post, as well as some of my thoughts on the premium options and jumping on bandwagons during the fixture pile-up. Let’s get it on. Teams To Look At Man United – Holy fucking Kris Kringle, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did it! In 1 game he has successfully changed the way we look at United assets, and I bet you there isn’t a single manager out there who hasn’t started tinkering to see who they can afford. Pogba (7.9), Martial (7.4) and Lingard (6.8) have already risen in price, and with the massive fan base that MNU have, I can’t see this train slowing anytime soon. It’s still too early to tell who is the best picks but the cool thing about the assets is that they are all slightly different prices, so are easily accessible with 1 transfer for most teams. We still need to keep in mind that OGS still has to assess the whole team, and there might be more rotation than we’d like. Pogba is probably the safest choice as he plays through the middle, and he could thrive under a new attacking minded team. He’s on penalties (although gave one away at the weekend) and everything seems to play through him. Not having him in my team scares me. Lingard has been flying under the radar a little in the 3 games prior to this weekend, getting 2 goals and 2 bonus points, so if he’s playing well under Mourinho, and keeps his place under the new Gaffer, he should be able to build up the momentum and kick on. We’ll need to keep our eye on his minutes. Martial, as we all know, has been running the show in a team with no chemistry up until now, so it’s hard to think that he wouldn’t benefit from better team cohesion. It’s also probably safe to say that his minutes may be hurt with the return of Lukaku and Sanchez, which is something knee-jerkers should keep in mind. We just don’t know after 1 game what a fully fit Man United Starting XI would be, but we can guess that Pogba will be heavily involved in everything, and he’s someone you should be tinkering into your plans for January. Defensive options are much harder to assess than the forwards, as there are a lot of players and a lot more rotation than normal back there. I’d stay away from their defenders for now, until we get back to the consistent one game per week, and see who’s starting more often than not. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they bring some fresh faces in to help De Gea out in the second half of the season. Tottenham – Right let’s talk about Son (8.5). 5 goals and 2 assists in the last 6 games. Passes any eye test you throw at him, and his stats make my tummy feel all fuzzy. In the same period he blanked against Burnley, but he also only played for 15 minutes that game. He is amazing and we all want in on the action, but we’re worried about the Asian Cup, and rotation. Well let’s assess the Asian Cup. Son links up with South Korea after GW22, and if they play all the way to the final, he won’t be back until GW26. So he has 3 decent fixtures until he leaves, and then he misses 3 games. When he gets back he’ll be playing against LEI (H), BUR (A), CHE (A), and ARS (H). So just based on the fixtures, if you want him, you need to get him before the next GW as he’ll only have 2 games you’ll want him after GW19 for before he fucks off. Now add rotation into the mix, with Lamela Skippy and Lucas all stealing his minutes recently, and he doesn’t seem like such a great option. But there’s hope! After GW22 Son is away, but MNU have some very sexy looking fixtures straight afterwards, so you could potentially grab Son and then use his funds for a Pogba or Martial going forward. Now that’s a plan I could get behind. There are other options in the Spurs team, but only Kane (12.5) seems worth looking into, due to Alli (8.9) getting taken off early, and Eriksen (9.3) dropping much deeper these days to compensate for the midfield injuries. But Kane will take up a premium spot on your team, and if you don’t have him already, you probably have Salah or Aubameyang and you don’t need to swap premiums right now. I’ll be talking about this below. Oh! Nearly forgot to mention: Trippier (6.1) has played a shit load of minutes lately, and he may be first choice going forward, so keep him in your thoughts if you’re planning on getting rid of Laporte, or bolstering your defence after the congestion of fixtures. Plans And Strategies Swapping Premium for Premium – In GW17 we had a bunch of premium assets that blanked, and us owners looked at the returning premiums with longing eyes. This GW if you had knee jerked those players to get the returning premiums from last week, you’d have owned the blankers yet again. Obviously we all want the inform players, and we use fixtures, stats and eye tests to gauge how a player is going to do, but we really don’t know how well they’ll fair against the next teams until it happens. The reason we bring premiums in is because they are reliable, and will more often than not return. It doesn’t mean they will never blank; it’s just a lot less likely. Due to how many premier league games are played over Christmas and New year, it can seem like the games are coming so fast you can’t help but try and chase last weeks’ points, but for everyone who has asked me to RMT or give advice on say Sterling to Hazard etc, my advice is always the same: Don’t change your premium assets after one blank unless you already planned to take them out and definitely don't swap one for another over the Holidays. There was a great piece on FFS which sums this point up, but in short; you should probably stick with the premiums you have until the heavy rotation period is over, barring injury. Taking hits for a new Midfield – So we all want KDB (9.7) and MNU players in our teams. Maybe we’ve been eyeing up Richarlison or Sane for a while and we’re done with not owning them. A lot of managers have already downgraded Sterling to fund these moves, and a lot more are thinking about downgrading strikers like Auba and Kane to fund a Martial or a Pogba. These moves usually cost a hit, and during this period of the game these moves are way more risky as well. Whether it’s out of fear, rotation worry or even biased behaviour, managers bring in players that did well the week before and hope they continue their run of form. The only problem is that they are now -4 down and hoping for at least 1 return to make it worthwhile. Then they find out the player is rested, or isn’t fairing as well against a different defence, or their previous player scores 21 points and you feel distraught (sorry Andy!). The point is that during this period of the season everything is happening so fast and we are all trying to jump on trains and catch up with the newest hot player, forgetting that we brought in players for a specific amount of time and aren’t giving them a chance to deliver. Crazy things happen during the Holiday games. Just look at City! Transferring out Richarlison for Lingard is just insane before Everton’s good run! Similarly, trading down Sterling for Pogba because Sterling blanked a few times is just as mind blowing because we can’t know with such little information who’s going to be playing when and whether we can justify a hit during the crazy fixture congestion we find ourselves in. I’m all for hits, but if there’s one time you shouldn’t be knee-jerking, it’s now. Add the players you like to your plans, make the initial transfers you need to for the funds, but don’t just do it all in one and hope for the best. Don’t go crazy! Or do. Fuck it, it’s Christmas. And that's a wrap! I wasn’t able to do as big a post as usual due to the festivities, but I’ll be posting as normal after GW19 with a Thursday edition. As always; make sure you’re using your Price Change Predictor of choice, checking regularly so you don’t miss any falls/rises on planned transfers. I’ve been using my twitter to discuss transfers and captaincy options with folk, so if you’re wanting a bit more in-depth chat, let me know! Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you get the Green Arrows you’ve asked for. Cheers!
The Scottish Premiership reached week 9 before I had a football-induced breakdown; so, if you have a spontaneous craving for a thousand words on Aberdeen Football Club’s lacklustre start to the season - and a roundup of all the other events over the last two weeks in Scottish football - just wait until you see this!
I’ll admit that my personal biases may have influenced me to write about Hearts-Aberdeen instead of Celtic-Hibs, but since I’m the one forgoing a uni essay to write this on the train, I can do what I like. Hearts have deservedly garnered the attention of a wider audience following an almost perfect first 7 games, in stark contrast to the mid-table obscurity (well, as obscure as you can be under Craig Levein) of last season. They ended up making up the numbers in the top 6 following the end-of-season split, losing all 5 games against the teams above them. Meanwhile, Aberdeen have been busy embarrassing themselves. The club received a 50-50 split of over 20,000 tickets for Sunday’s League Cup semi-final clash against Rangers, despite “commonsense” dictating the Glasgow team should have the “Lion’s Share”. Unfortunately, under half of these tickets have been sold, so Aberdeen have been forced to return part of their allocation. The whole thing is a bit tin-pot and, like I said, embarrassing, so I can’t really bring myself to write much more than that. The silver-lining to this is that we did get BBC Sportsound tweeting a picture of current Aberdeen captain, Graeme Shinnie, holding the head of a decapitated, former Aberdeen captain and current Rangers player, Ryan Jack. Every cloud. The fact remains, this season’s Aberdeen are a far cry from the club that finished 2nd last season (and as such were one of the teams to ease past the Jambos at the end). Currently it looks as if they would be lucky to replicate that Hearts performance. It simply has not been the Dons’ season so far. Star defender Scott McKenna served the second match of his ban following his outrageous tackle on Odsonne Edouard, and, following calls from the Aberdeen chairman for a summit on the state of Scottish football, demanding greater transparency (a move I am very proud of,) the SFA finally published their reasoning for the retrospective ban. I am now going to talk about this, but would like to add the disclaimer that I know it was a terrible tackle and I know that he deserves to be banned.If you just want a breakdown of Saturday’s action, skip the rest of this paragraph. Now, I am attempting to study law, but it doesn’t take a brilliant legal mind to realise that paragraph 11 of the SFA report, specifically the point at which the referee states he saw the incident but was unsure of the extent of the contact, clashes a bit with the SFA’s Judicial Panel Protocol (available here for your interest), specifically sections 13.3.1 and 13.3.3.2. I just don’t believe for one moment that not one of the officials saw McKenna completely clatter Edouard, and I’m frustrated by the gymnastics taken by the SFA to ban an Aberdeen player for this sort of conduct when the likes of Alan McGregor and Leigh Griffiths have gotten away with stamps and kicks which have genuinely not been seen by the refs. I can’t believe it’s gotten me so tilted that I’ve actually whipped out the JPP. Riddy. Anyway, now I’ve got that off my chest… Fears that the Hearts bubble may have burst following the 5-month injury layoffs of Uche Ikpeazu and John Souttar seem to be unfounded. Hearts were fully in control for the opening half, but this may be down to the unique Aberdonian big-game tactic of letting the opposition attack you until they score. When Hearts did take the lead through a Djoum header, they remained in control, before the opportunity to double their lead from the spot came in massively controversial fashion. There was absolutely nothing in the challenge which saw Lewis Ferguson penalised against Steven Naismith, which you can see 13 seconds into the highlight video below. Naismith tucked away the resulting pen. Aberdeen were significantly better in the second half but trailed off after a Gary Mackay-Steven penalty pulled one back. Hearts were awarded the third penalty of the game, but this time Joe Lewis kept out Naismith’s effort. Hearts now have a 10 point advantage over Aberdeen, and stay 3 points ahead of Celtic at the top of the table. I imagine they will extend their advantage against Dundee on Tuesday, whilst Celtic prepare for European action and the League Cup semi-final. Full highlights of this game here. Final statement: Aberdeen have now faced every other member of last season’s top 6, and have yet to get a win. The Derek McInnes known for failing to deliver solid tactical performances in big games is going to be under the microscope soon because Aberdeen won’t finish in a European spot by bullying the bottom 5. If the Dons are anything but completely bodied by Rangers in Saturday’s semi-final it’ll be a surprise. Happy birthday Craig Levein.
Just a quick introductory note - “over 2.5 goals” is an extremely sensible bet in most Hibs matches. Capturing the hearts and imagination of the Scottish football audience this week is a bizarre song about Leigh Griffiths and bees. The only way I can think to describe it is that it’s what you’d get if you took Flight of the Conchords’ “Albi The Racist Dragon”, but replaced ‘Albi’ with ‘Leigh’, ‘dragon’ with ‘Griffiths’, and put the air-quotes around the other two words. Anyway, it is with a heavy heart I must announce that Celtic finally appear to have a degree of motivation about them. Despite mauling St Johnstone 6-0 last week this is by far their most competent and comprehensive performance of the season. Meanwhile one can’t help but wonder what this Hibs team could achieve with some defensive solidity. One has to assume they wouldn’t be able to attack as fluidly, so for that reason we are glad that they are the way that they are. They were without their ubiquitous right-back David Gray, so switched to a back 3, and as such conceded 4 goals. Within 20 minutes Celtic had gone 2-0 up thanks to Olivier Ntcham and Tom Rogic, before captain Scott Brown was forced off the pitch with injury. Hibs threatened to come back twice in the second half, with Flo Kamberi’s effort cancelled out by Edouard, before Martin Boyle’s goal to make it 3-2 received the same treatment. Hibs fall down to 5th, Celtic now breathing down Hearts’ neck. Highlights of the best encounter of the weekend here.
Quite a big result for both teams, putting 5 points between St Johnstone and the bottom of the pack, and making sure Motherwell remain firmly in amongst it. Just like my match report, this game never really took off, and it lasted 92 minutes before Jason Kerr broke the deadlock and made sure the points headed to Perthshire. Motherwell, whose strike force terrorised Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final last season, look bereft of creativity. St Johnstone have done well to take 3 points after being battered about the park, credit to them. Highlights here.
I can’t believe I’m finally saying it, but it has finally happened. Neil McCann has been sacked! As the international break drew to a close with no sign of any change I was wondering if Dundee would persist and we’d see a Livingston ’05/’06 type season. Although we may still see that. Jim MacIntyre’s arrival may not have been in time for Dundee to take advantage of the ‘new manager bounce’, because they appear to have been absolutely done here. Gary Holt was on the radio today drawing attention to the fact that 3 of the 4 goals today came from defenders. Given that previous manager Kenny Miller’s plan was to source goals from Kenny Miller, it’s probably for the best that Declan Gallagher, Craig Halkett and Alan Lithgow have got their eye in early. Steven Lawless added another long range goal to his collection to score the third, although he did not mean it, and I will not let anyone convince me otherwise. A proper rout to welcome Jim McIntyre to Dundee. Livi comfortably in the top half, they reside in 4th. Have a look at the highlights here.
Oran Kearney’s step into full-time management may well be wiping years off his life at this point. He must be hankering back to the days of teaching PE, winning a few games of football and an Irish cup on the side, and feeling a degree of comfort in the decisions that had led him to this point. Jack Ross’ St Mirren team were a force to be reckoned with in the Championship, ousting teams fancied far heavier than them to the title, but having lost talisman Lewis Morgan and hired um… Alan Stubbs, they’re a dumpster fire that Kearney can’t seem to put out. 4 losses in a row from his first 5 games, the only comfort being Dundee, the source of their only 3 points in Gameweek 1, being equally terrible. Kilmarnock, on the other hand, have had no such managerial woe, they’ve been a total revelation under Steve Clarke. If I’m not mistaken, this result means no team has more points in 2018 than Killie! Between that and having the best pies in world football, not a bad time to be part of the Rugby Park loyal. They’ve achieved all this without relying too heavily on last season’s Premiership Top Scorer Kris Boyd, a fact which was pointed out to him during his part-time punditry gig on Sunday. Kearney’s side actually took the lead through Adam Hammill’s 14th minute goal, and held on until half-time, but Alan Power and Aaron Tshibola scored 12 minutes apart before halfway in the second half, and saw out the rest of the game. Full highlights.
Kyle Lafferty had to sit this game out after dropping out of the Northern Irish squad to spend some time with his newly born daughter, or, if the tabloids are to be believed, to send dick-pics on snapchat. I forget what the official reasoning was. Anyway, contrary to what the scoreline may suggest, Rangers made pretty hard work of this one. They were up 1-0 through a well-taken first-half goal from Ryan Kent, but in the 80th minute Stephen Boyd scored the pick of the weekend’s goals to give me the faintest hope that Rangers might just be at it again. 15 minutes later, James Tavernier has scored two penalties and Alfredo Morelos has snuck in a goal just before full-time. Life’s a bitch. Highlights of a fun one here. Hearts stay 3 points ahead at the top, Aberdeen now 5 points adrift of the top 6 making up a mid-table with St Johnstone. Motherwell, Hamilton, St Mirren and Dundee all languishing.
Falkirk manager Ray McKinnon’s return to Cappielow had Morton not so much rolling out the red carpet as dishing out red cards to their support, who weren’t particularly welcoming in the first place. Incompetent Falkirk goalkeeper Leo Fasan was sent off 49 minutes in, and Robert McHugh made sure his former manager wouldn’t leave with a point. Falkirk cast off from the rest of the table by 4 points. Comprehensive highlights here.
A top of the table clash between the two form-teams of the division. Ross County leapfrog Ayr into first thanks to two first half goals from Billy McKay and Josh Mullin, before Lawrence Shankland inevitably pulled one back. Highlights.
trainspotting_its_shite_being_scottish.mp4 Every so often as a Scottish football fan an event occurs which instils a fragment of hope and promise in an otherwise barren wasteland where one’s heart would reside. Such events could be, for example: Leigh Griffiths’ second free-kick against England; the sacking of Gordon Strachan; or the creation of the UEFA Nations League. Invariably, this hope is snatched away almost immediately, by events such as: Stuart Armstrong not booting it away; the hiring of Alex McLeish, a manager who has been out of work for two years, apparently with good reason; or losing by a very kind 2-1 scoreline having been completely outplayed by the 94th ranked team in the world. Our national team is infamous for the problem of having our two perceivably most-talented players being left-backs, but, as pointed out by captain Andy Robertson himself, Alex McLeish has opted not to play a left-back in his system. I will give Alex the benefit of the doubt here, Robertson as a full-back and Tierney on the left of a back 3 is an experiment he had to try, or he would have been slaughtered. However, that which I will not forgive him for is playing high-flying Bournemouth left-winger Ryan Fraser as the right sided full-back, the kind of thing that results in him withdrawing from the squad at the earliest opportunity, perpetuating the feeling that a lot of Scotland’s players don’t really want to play for Scotland. As someone whose dream it was as a wee boy to play for their country, it’s not a practice I have much sympathy for, but it happens. Anyway, I digress. As I said, fully outclassed. Scotland went into the break 0-1 up, with Charlie Mulgrew converting a penalty, but thanks to a Dor Peretz goal and a classy finish from Kieran Tierney into his own net, Israel got their deserved result. Here’s a video of James Forrest running to cheer us all up. Highlights. Scottish League Cup semi-finals at the weekend, meaning the fixture organisation all gets a bit confusing, and I have to work out how I’m gonna do this. See yous when I see yous. Check out /ScottishFootball for good patter and quality discussion of the SPFL Last week’s roundup can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/soccecomments/9methe/fitba_roundup_spfl_gameweek_8/? ● data from soccerway.com ● generated by soccerbot
All the football fixtures, latest results & live scores for all leagues and competitions on BBC Sport, including the Premier League, Championship, Scottish Premiership & more. Mark your card for Saturday's 3pm kick-offs in the Premier League with our best bets, Super 6 predictions and top stats for each game. Premier League and EFL – Fixtures – Saturday, January 2. 31/12/2020 21/12/2020 Brian Jeeves EFL, Premier League, Sky Bet Championship, Sky Bet League One, Sky Bet League Two, Yellow Sport. About; Latest Posts; Brian Jeeves. Email: [email protected] Latest posts by Brian Jeeves . Jose focused on the job in hand - 07/02/2021; Daggers fight back at Wrexham - 06/02/2021; O’s frustrated by ... Next on our Premier League fixtures this weekend, Saturday’s Premier League programme ends at Goodison Park where Everton take on Chelsea in the evening kick-off. The Toffees have endured an astonishing slump in form after setting the heather alight in the first few weeks. They have dropped down the list with one win from five games but it’s still far too early to reach for the panic ... Sénégal Premier Bet Premier Bet is the leader of Sports Betting and Lotto games in Malawi. Welcome to our online betting portal, where we are proud to offer some of the best odds in Malawi on any sport you can think of, plus a wide range of exciting lotto games. Bonuses for our Pre-Match & Live Betting services . We understand that the score can change at any second, so we developed the Premier Bet Android app to ... Download the latest Football Fixtures and Results in PDF format and follow the action as it unfolds Our Premier League betting tips are heavily researched based on the most recent results that both teams have experienced, while we also specialise in publishing English Premier League starting 11s for every club. This helps readers to follow the betting tips and predictions that are published, with the EPL lineups database revealing which players will be occupying the respective positions on ... Premier Bet is the leader of Sports Betting and Casino games in Cameroon. We welcome you to our online betting and casino games portal where we can share our love for sports and casino. We are proud to offer some of the best odds in Cameroon and a wide coverage of the sports you can think of. Pre-Match & Live Betting Wherever You Go. We understand that the scores and performance can change at ... Competition: Premier League Market: West Ham win Odds: 11/10 @ 888sport Looking to build off of their eye-catching display earlier in the week, a high-flying West Ham will face off against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday evening. Starting with the hosts, while Fulham might have managed to put in some resilient displays against the likes …
FPL Best Fixtures: Gameweek 27-29 [Fantasy Premier League ...
Welcome to the official Premier League YouTube channel. Keep up to date with the latest content from the Premier League.Subscribe to the official Premier Lea... World wide Football prediction and transfer news Download HERE: https://www.someka.net/excel-template/premier-league-excel-template/This Premier League Excel Template will track Tables, Fixtures and Scores ... Welcome back to the FPL Fixture Watch. The series that uses the official FPL fixture difficulty ratings (FDR) to determine which teams have the best or worst... This video features Wayne Rooney’s bicycle kick v Manchester City, Papiss Cissé’s wonder strike against Chelsea, Olivier Giroud’s scorpion kick against Cryst... Download the Onefootball App for FREE. ⬇️ http://tinyurl.com/y4kzmynoFind us on Twitter! ⬇️ https://twitter.com/fpltvWelcome back to the FPL Fixture Watch.... About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators ... In this episode, we look at the best Fantasy Premier League Fixtures for Gameweek 27-29 Subscribe here to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Pol... Created by the network's in-house Sky Creative Agency with help from Coffee & TV, this is the new look for the network's coverage of Premier League "Super Sa... Claim your FREE FFHub 90-day trial HERE. ⬇️ (Offer ends 17th June. Cancel any time.) https://fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/tv90/ Use coupon code ‘tv90’ 👍 Vote f...