Meh, the whole "knowing aboot footie" thing is subjective. I've had countless "discussions" with footie fans over the years that have gone either way, in terms of how well you think a team will do. It gets serious up here at work, the lads get really worked up. It's funny when I say something that some of my workmates don't agree with, then I turn out to be "right".
As for this game though, I stick to these guidelines:
- watch the fixtures, when you pick someone, look at their next few games. A Hull defender is probably going to get fuck all points if he's got top six teams coming up and games between the big 4 are practically impossible to guess until someone gets sent off halfway through the match.
- similarly, if several of your players are playing each other in the next few games, your score will drop
- Get a goalie who plays every week, who's going to busy and make saves, which get you good points. Van Der Sar only got a high score last year because of the clean sheets, whereas Schwarzer was flying all over the place keeping Fulham in the top half. However, Fulham are shit away home, so back him up with someone else that is reliable. Avoid Spurs' Gomez, they've got no centre backs this season and will leak goals like fuck. I don't rate Arsenal's chances (of clean sheets) at the back much either.
- Big 4 centre backs (Carra, Vidic, Rio, Alex, Terry, Gallas) and all full backs (assisting down the wings) tend to get the most points. A lot of teams chuck their CBs up for corners too, so you can always stick in a Bolton or Hull CB on the cheap next to the top end players. Vidic has gone up in price this season and Man U don't start playing properly until November anyway, so I wouldn't bother with him.
- avoid holding midfielders. Yellow card magnets, rarely get assists, never score. Look at the scores for Palacios, Mikel, Mascherano. Unless they take set pieces, they get you fuck all. One league I'm in, some guy has 3 holding midfielders in his line up so he can buy big strikers. Cock end.
- Midfielders get the most points, stick 4 or 5 in as often as possible, build your team around that. Choose the playmakers and corner takers, rotate the likes of Fabregas, Gerrard and Lampard depending on who they play. Lamps generally has a poor game against other top four teams, Fab and Gerr get injured/rested regularly. Don't stick all three in, the rest of your team will have a value of a few Wolfs and I will laugh at you. My tips: Arshavin, Dempsey, Modric and maybe West Ham's Noble, if he remembers he's not Julian Dicks.
- Strikers. If I'm honest, here's where I get stumped. I tried Anelka +1 early last season and raked in the points, then Chelsea wobbled, Drogba came back shite and I binned le Sulk who is now a winger anyway. Stoke have Beattie, who seems to be worth a punt, Keane, Torres and Robinho are good too, but the trouble with all Strikers is this - no goals/assists in a game, few points. That and they get subbed if they're not scoring after 60-70 mins, so you end up with 1 fucking point. I had games where I played with 3 strikers and two of them would get 2 points and another would be on the fucking bench. And I have no idea who's going to score for Wolfs, Burnley and Brum. Ebanks-Blake? McFadden?
I dunno, you tell me? If pre-season is anything to go by, Owen looks reborn at United, but has legs made out of ming vases.
- Subs: Pick one cheap defender who plays every week for a middling team, one cheap midfielder who plays every week for a shite team and focus on yer 11 in play. If you play your cards right, subs will only rarely be used and maybe, get you some bonus points, because 2 points is better than none. I usually buy 3 of the cheapest players in to start with so I can load my 11 with lots of money, without making 5 changes to get Lampard.
- Transfers: I'm addicted. I can't not make 2-3 transfers a week, which always costs me. I might be conservative this time, but I always say that. Again, look at the fixtures, any possible goal fests or clean sheets to be had? Or plan ahead a couple of weeks. If Man U have a congestive fixture list, they'll get a week or two with 2 games in, who do they HAVE to use in both games? If they're short in one position, especially defence, you might find O'Shea comes in for both, he's cheap and got me LOADS of spare points last year, despite being an average player at best.
What do you guys think? Might as well pool ideas, see what we come up with now we've played this for a few years.