MyEGL BPL Fantasy – Intermission - The Ola Bola Edition

I finally watched Ola Bola and boy was I impressed. Relegation zone teams should definitely give it a watch, as well as teams like Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton and Stoke, teams that should really be doing better than they are currently. Back home, FAM should watch it, again and again, and remember the importance of serving your country.

There’s naturally some controversy on how some of the story did not reflect history. Let’s be clear though, even though this movie was based on actual events, it’s still a fictionalised account! Hollywood does it all the time, but because we don’t take the trouble to learn the true story, we tend to take the Hollywood edition as gospel. Here we scream bloody murder when the filmmakers change a few things around. Of course we hold local stories dearer to our heart, but people need to relax and remember the overall message.

Ultimately, the objective was to inspire and I’d be lying if I said I was unmoved. Some scenes were a bit corny admittedly but overall it was a great movie, with some excellent cinematography. The scenes that brought tears to my eyes was not actually about the footballers themselves, but the radio announcer’s story. How his family helped him along the way, never giving up their belief that he would make it, and when her daughters heard his voice on radio. “Ayah?” That last one released the floodgates for me.

Anyway, here’s some quick thoughts ahead of Tuesday morning’s Stadium Astro free transfer deadline:

Here’s the next three fixtures for the first two batches of teams that are playing:

West Ham – Sunderland, Spurs, Everton

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Watford – Bournemouth, Man Utd, Leicester

Leicester – Norwich, West Brom, Watford

Stoke – Aston Villa, Newcastle, Chelsea

Southampton – Chelsea, Bournemouth, Sunderland

These are the teams you should be giving priority for your free transfers. Leicester and Stoke have the best next two matches. You can bank on your usual suspects for Leicester (Vardy, Mahrez) but it’s not so certain for Stoke, who have gone off the boil of late ( Check Arnautovic’s status, Shaqiri is a safe pick though.

Spurs, Manchester United have their Europa match on Thursday, but Manchester United also have their FA Cup match up tonight! Not that you should be seriously considering Manchester United players anyway….

Chelsea only play their CL match next midweek, so they’ll be ready for Southampton which should be a tough match. Chelsea just whacked Spurs in their FA Cup tie though, so they’re in the mood.

Speaking off the FA Cup, Spurs out, Manchester City out, West Brom out. If nothing else, it makes players from these teams a bit more safer to pick long-term. Everton, Watford, Chelsea, West Ham and Crystal Palace all made it through so their

Arsenal will have an FA Cup replay, which is very annoying and I’m not sure how Week 30 will work out with them. We’ll have to wait and see. Manchester United play later today.

Remember, after this weekend, the next batch of matches starts the following Tuesday, followed by another round on Saturday. Plan your free transfers carefully.

On another note, if you want to get involved in fantasy football based on local games, Stadium Astro has launched their Fantasi Liga Malaysia. I’ve never played it before, and from the community I’m aware of the many issues it has, but I’m sure the organisers are doing what they can to improve it.

Take care folks. And remember,

“GOOOOOOLLLLLL!!!! GOL GOL GOL GOL GOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MyEG BPL Fantasy - Week 26 The Barcelona Challenge

Note: This article has been reproduced from the Stadium Astro website.

Welcome back for Week 26!

I know my title mentions Barcelona but you’ll forgive me if I deal with Europe players at the end. I’ll talk about the Premier League matches first. Here we go (again grouped by timing):

Sunderland v Manchester United

The early match. You should be set up for this already. However, if you have an injured player, then midfield = Lingard. Striker = Rooney/Martial. Patrick Van Aanholt’s penchant for attacking will burn the home side.

Bournemouth v Stoke

Crystal Palace v Watford

Everton v West Brom

Norwich v West Ham

Swansea v Southampton

Judging from the first match, chances are you’ve only got one change to make for this batch, or none. I was all set to swap Martial with Afobe after the Old Trafford match, until I read that Shawcross might be back this weekend. Stoke have a good run of matches but their form is poor. Ighalo’s always a useful pick, especially with a Palace side that hasn’t kept a clean sheet in the League yet for 2016, but check for starting lineups after Flores rotated key members of the squad (e.g. Deeney) against Spurs last weekend.

Everton play West Brom, which is a good matchup, but it’s hard for me to consider bringing in an Everton attacker knowing he won’t be around next week, even though there’s a free transfer break. I’d rather use those free transfers on fixing up my defense or injuries (or in this case my manager, see image below, who will be absent in Gameweek 27!)  Nevertheless, Lukaku finally broke his drought last week, and faces his former side again, having scored a brace the last time they met.

West Ham have the best fixture against Norwich (and they play Sunderland in the first match the following week!) but their players might be a bit tired from the 120 minute FA Cup victory against Liverpool midweek. The Swansea v Southampton match is a really tough one, both sides have done reasonably well in recent weeks. Nevertheless, Sigurdsson is a strong option, or Austin if he starts.

Chelsea v Newcastle

Forget about Newcastle, and they don’t play the week after either. For Chelsea, it’ll be interesting to see if Hazard continues to be benched, although, to be fair, he has yet to have any significant impact off the bench. Fabregas played in the No. 10 position, but I would say that’s not really his best spot, and Oscar should be there instead of being shunted to the side. Note, Cahill will start from now on (with Zouma’s heart-breaking injury) and he is also a strong threat at set-pieces. If you don’t have a Chelsea player, consider Oscar, or Costa, if you can live with the card risk.

Arsenal v Leicester

One of two big matches of the week. Arsenal head into this match on a winning note, breaking a 4 match sequence of no wins. Leicester on the other hand, are bouncing off the walls at the top. This could turn out to be a high-scoring match. Mahrez, Ozil, Sanchez, Vardy and Giroud are all useful picks, although Giroud has not scored ever since his brace against Liverpool one month ago. I can see Sanchez exploding, but I’m struggling with the funding.

Aston Villa v Liverpool

Obviously Firmino’s the in-form choice, and he was rested in the midweek loss to West Ham. Do note that Coutinho, Origi and even Sturridge returned in the FA Cup game midweek so Klopp will have options. However you decide, do bear in mind that Liverpool are in the Capital One Cup Final the week after, so they will not be involved in Gameweek 27.

Manchester City v Tottenham

The second big match of the week. Unlike the first one though, I don’t see a goal-fest here. Aguero’s supply line is damaged from injuries, and with such issues, not to mention an eye on the upcoming Capital One Cup final, I expect Pellegrini to set up his team to play more of a defensive game. This also means players like Clichy instead of Kolarov. And even though Spurs are the stronger team at the moment, the expected return of Kompany should help ensure that Manchester City should hold firm. Not a game to invest players in (I actually sold my Aguero last week, and only have Alli and Pellegrini for this one).

Here’s my team as it stands:

I haven’t really thought my transfers through yet. I still have my Euro transfer for February which I was originally going to use on Mr Lewandowski, except for something I only just realised on Wednesday, which brings me (finally!) to the title of my article:

Barcelona have a double week! This weekend they play Celta Vigo, then on Thursday they play Sporting Gijon. Since I don’t have Neymar, it just makes more sense for me to transfer in Neymar instead of Lewandowski due to the extra match. Lewandowski does have some good matchups coming up though so it’s a dilemma.

This does make it hard not to put the captaincy on Messi or Neymar though (assuming you have either of them).

Speaking of Messi, he had a minor kidney stones operation on Tuesday. I’m tracking the developments with caution, and even though Barcelona have claimed it should not impact on Messi’s playing time. I’m a bit reluctant to captain a double gamer who plays the first game, only to get ruled out from the second game, due to injury as a result of insufficient rest. It’s definitely a conundrum, one that I hope to make the right decision on. Hopefully you do too.

Good luck!

Week 25 Recap - It could have been worse

I started off Week 25 on a wrong note. I was helping out at a nikah on Saturday afternoon and totally lost track of time. Right around the captaincy deadline I was busy helping to pack wedding favours when I remembered that I might not have set up my captain. By the time I was able to log in it had gone past 7 and my captain was set at Aguero (This after having recommended everyone that Captaincy on the Euro players (except Lewandowski) was a sure thing as they were all facing relegation zone teams.

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. All the European teams involved had difficulties dispatching their opponents and as a result there were no goalfests anywhere. In fact, the only Euro player to score was Higuain and he only had one goal anyway, so accidentally leaving my captaincy on Aguero (who scored a consolation goal despite Manchester City losing to Leicester) worked out after all.

Speaking of which, that was one entertaining match and if there's one conclusion from it, it's that Leicester are serious title contenders. As mentioned last week, if you don't have Mahrez or Vardy, pick one up now (I didn't have either but I actually had Huth) and hold. Also, unlike the other title contenders, Leicester do not have ANY OTHER competition that they're involved in.

Other things to note for fantasy footballers:

- Without Shawcross and Cameron, Stoke's defense is falling apart. Pick their opponents until they fix it.
- Despite their resilience against Manchester City midweek, Sunderland's defense is still fragile, especially away.
- Manchester United' s offensive line is clicking at the moment
- Villa WON against Norwich.
- Everton have finally won back to back matches.
- Costa is doing well (I still hate him)
- Wimmer is an able deputy for Vertonghen in the Spurs defensive line.
- None of the deadline day transfers have made any immediate impact fantasy-wise as yet.
- Sanchez is not quite there yet, but he will be.

On a personal note, I still dropped a few more spots down to 88 (CNY lucky number?). My three transfers were Firmino (who did well), Ighalo (who didn't) and Martial (who also didn't but the move for him was really in preparation for next week's early match against Sunderland).  Yes, this also means I still have my Euro transfer as I decided I still wanted two striker slots to play with for now.

Finally, an early warning remember that after the mid-month Premier League break, Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton and Newcastle all have no games due to the Capital One Cup final. Plan accordingly if you don't want to be stuck with players that aren't playing.

MyEG BPL Fantasy (in Malay!) – Terluka Lukaku dan Minggu 25

Perlawanan datang bertubi-tubi, saya akan melihat sepintas lalu Minggu 24 dan memantau Minggu 25

Ringkasan perlawanan tengah minggu

Ronaldo rupanya menjadi pilihan terbaik kapten dengan jaringan hat-trick. Aguero tidak memenuhi harapan. Walaupun dia mendapat satu gol, sememangnya pengurus pasukan fantasi yang memilihnya menjangkakan yang  Manchester City akan membelasah Sunderland.  Sebaliknya, kemenangan City hanya 1-0 dan kad kuning Aguero menambahkan sakit hati para pengurus.