Fantasy Football Observations for Week #3

Quick one from last week, I was wrong on Arsenal (they did well), right on Giaccherini and Newcastle, and totally wrong with Lukaku. (Given up on trying to figure out Mourinho's plans for him.  Read here for that previous post. Onto this week:

Swansea attack

While it's not totally unexpected given the fixtures, Swansea are rock bottom together with Crystal Palace going into this weekend's fixtures. For a team also playing in Europe, that situation cannot continue especially with the quality of the team as next week they play Liverpool and then two weeks later Arsenal. Seeing yourself at the bottom has a demoralising effect regardless of fixture justification.

Swansea have several advantages going into this. West Brom will be looking to attack given they're at home and have yet to score this season, and this will leave gaps in the defence. Also, Ben Foster's replacement, Luke Daniels, is nowhere near his quality, as we saw in his 12 minute cameo, and this will almost certainly have a destabilising effect on their defence. Any of the 3 Swansea players who were substituted early in Europe midweek, Pablo Hernandez, Michu or De Guzman should be considered.

Edit: One of my pals, Sean, has said that Myhill should start for West Brom and not Daniels. I stand corrected. I still see Swansea breaking through though!

Newcastle to break their goalscoring duck

That's if Cabaye plays, which will provide the creativity that Newcastle have been sorely lacking. At home against Fulham, who will show that the away win last week really was a fluke. But don't pick him in Yahoo, pick Arfa or Cisse at cheaper prices, and whom stand to benefit from Cabaye's return. Or Sissoko, who just won a call-up to the French team.

The Norwich defence

With Bassong coming back (confirm this with team news later today), Russell Martin should slot back into the right, his natural position, booting out goalscorer Steven Whittaker. And just like that, Norwich's defence will improve. In fact, I can see this match being a goalless draw due to the superiority in defense and an inconsistency in attack for both sides, so any defenders from either Norwich or Southampton should be useful, Bassong is a beast of course.

North London derby

It's being covered everywhere else, but I was asked my thoughts on this, so anyway here goes:

Arsenal are gonna be bullied in central midfield and hence will lose in home soil. I honestly don't see Arsenal win this one, thanks to the triumvirate of Paulinho, Capoue and Dembele which just feel too strong for me. But it won't be a high-scoring match, maybe 1-2 final score. For Arsenal, they won't be able to create enough chances thanks to Spurs' midfield, while for Spurs, they lack the magic that Bale brought to the table. But fantasy points will be in abundance from both sides. Make your choice, and good luck. But pick Giroud, of course.

So there you have it. Of course, if you wanna go with 9 Manchester City players against Hull, I won't stop you ha ha...

Plastic Overload

This morning, before heading to my office, I do something that I normally do maybe once or twice a week: Pick up pastries from the ground floor bakery. This is what I bought:

The thing is, I could so easily have asked her to pack it in one plastic. After all, I'm not passing it to others, they were both for myself. And what made it even funnier was that even then, I had to refuse yet another plastic to put the two plastics in!

Despite our government's efforts to restrict plastic usage to help the environment, such as the no-plastic Saturday for supermarkets, we still consume far too much. An excellent example is what happens after kenduris (ceremonies/celebrations with meals included) , if there's excess food, we'll pack it up. How do we pack it? That's right, with plastics!

When we buy packed food, it's actually double trouble. The food would tend to be in a polystrene case, followed by a plastic bag! And I'm just as guilty as everyone else whenever I buy Nasi Ayam Kunyit from the back road behind my office!

I do try to cut down when I can. Earlier this year for a few months I was using a tupperware container to bring back my food in. Unfortunately, this stopped about two months ago after I brought my tupperware container back home and haven't done it since.

I was actually inspired to write this post after seeing this picture yesterday on Facebook, posted by Weirton West Virginia and shared by Mix FM, one of my favourite radio stations:

But you know what, at least it's being saved for re-use, which is a good thing.

It feels like an impossible objective, trying to save the environment. But, when I think of my kids, I do try to do whatever I can, in any small way. And if it means cutting down on Nasi Ayam Kunyit, maybe I should!

Malaysian wins Grand Prix Kitakyushu

Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game, is a big thing. In other countries it's covered in the sports channels. While I consider myself retired from regular competitive play, I do follow the scene from time to time. And just like other more conventional games or sports like chess or badminton, I always feel a sense of pride when a Malaysian makes it to the top in a major tournament. Which is what happened last weekend.

Raymond Tan, Grand Prix Kitakyushu Champion

Grand Prix Kitakyushu was held in Japan in the space of two days.

Some numbers for you:

No of people: 1183
Price of entry: 4000 yen, or RM130 or so.
Prize for winning: a cool USD3,500.
Actually winning the whole damn thing: Priceless.

Kitakyushu in Japan. Emerging No. 1 out of 1,183 is a crazy achievement. And this 29 year old Engineer did it! In Japan, which has a huge community of MtG players.

Squaring off against 2012 World Magic Cup Champion Tzu-Ching Kuo

Trivia: They mistakenly reported him as Singaporean at first, but quickly realised their error!

I remember the first Malaysian who pretty much established Malaysia as a country to be taken seriously: Sim Han How. He finished in the Top 8 of the Worlds Championship, which is no mean feat. Imagine, the Top 4 players from countries all over the world playing out to finish right at the top and he finishes in the Top 8.  What made it even more memorable was that a lot of people who met him remembers him for being an all-round nice guy, making him a great ambassador for Malaysia.

I hope MtG gets the recognition it deserves in Malaysia. It is not a game just for kids, there is quite a sizeable community of players here, from students to professionals in the workforce. Some play it as a hobby, others play seriously to win tournaments.

An all-time favourite of mine!

Malaysia Boleh!

Fantasy Football Observations for Week #2

Prelude

The Barclays Premier League season has kicked off and with it, a whole host of fantasy football games! A bit of history: I've been playing fantasy football since the 2005-2006 season, and I remember one of the first players I had was a hopeless midfielder named Eric Djemba-Djemba. I joined a great forum called www.starting11.com (known as Teamtalk in the old days), where I found a great international community who shared the passion for fantasy football and football in general. In recent times I've been helping out to moderate the forum.

This time around though, I thought I'd contribute a bit more to the community as a whole and start a weekly series on my blog.

What I'd like to do in this series is to summarise observations, interesting facts, that players may have overlooked, forgotten or not considered as a factor for. I hope to highlight items, events or scenarios which I feel are important in deciding your team for the week. I can also see the series focusing more on the less popular teams.

I'm playing 3 games this season, FAPL, Fantrax and Yahoo, but I won't be focusing on any game in particular. Also, those who know me will know I'm nowhere near as good at fantasy football as others are, too often I let emotion or other irrelevant issues cloud my judgement. So there, I've tossed in a disclaimer right there.

Irregardless, I hope you guys find it a useful column to add to all those other resources you read. Those who don't follow football, feel free to ignore this :p



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Fantasy Football Observations: Week #2

Creative Sunderland?

Sunderland whacked Fulham left, right and centre last weekend, but somehow had nothing to show for. They created a lot of chances, and statistics indicate they had 20 shots to Fulham's 5. 17 of those shots were off target though, the main culprit being Altidore. Nevertheless, they've leaped in creativity, a sharp contrast to last season's headaches, and those responsible, a rejuvenated Adam Johnson and Giaccherini, should merit consideration in your teams, at least for the miscellaneous points production.

The London derby

2. Speaking of Fulham, what say you to them upsetting the apple cart at Arsenal even further? Here's a few reasons why:
    - Fulham are coming off an away win, always a boost for the typically travel-shy team.
    - Arsenal are coming back from an exhausting trip to Turkey, and play the first match on Saturday.
    - Martin Jol knows Arsenal are vulnerable right now, the timing is right for a good derby win.
    - Dimitar Berbatov
Sure they lost Stekelenburg to injury, but Stockdale will be up for it. I expect a Fulham victory, with goals on both sides, pushing Arsenal into further depths. But of course, what if Taarabt isn't in the mood....?

Chelsea's striker merry-go-round

3. While the battle for Chelsea's striker spot is going to take a while, I feel that Mourinho is actually giving everyone a chance to show what they can do. I know most of you who had Lukaku in Week #1 have dumped him, but is that the right move? Of course, Old Trafford is hardly the place to be experimenting, but neither Torres nor Ba have showered themselves in glory in the opening 2 matches. And Lukaku's the striker with the most to prove, as Rooney's transfer saga continues...

Southampton's defensive steel

4. Anyone notice Southampton's AWAY clean sheet? While part of it is due to West Brom unable to sort their attack out, Southampton's latest acquistions in central defense (Lovren) and midfield (Wanyama) established a strong presence in their respective areas, which makes their defenders very attractive picks. Having said that, Gaston Ramirez, one of Southampton's key midfielders last season might not feature as much this time as I don't see him fitting well into the current pressing game the manager wants to play.

The Toon dilemma

5. Despite the loss against Manchester City, Newcastle actually have a useful fixture list coming up. But the Cabaye issue continues to linger. Ben Arfa cannot shoulder the creativity by himself. Also, for this weekend's match, Allardyce seems to know what makes the Toons tick and West Ham ended both matches last season against them with clean sheets. Probably best to avoid until the transfer window ends.

Good luck for this week, next week should be even more interesting as the transfer window gets closer!

Liverpool Season 2013/2014 : A quick look on the transfer window activity

Premier League season has just kicked off, and Liverpool have been in the news for quite a bit, mostly for the wrong reasons. While I certainly expected Suarez to make a fuss about leaving, I didn't expect the mess it has turned into. But, anyone who's known Suarez for a while, it shouldn't really be unexpected for Suarez to act the way he has. The good news is that as of today Suarez looks like staying! (with some Gerrard involvement it seems). I won't be counting my chickens just yet, but if he's still around 13 days down the road, I'll be a happy camper.

I do take comfort in the fact that there are other clubs in worse condition. Imagine being an Arsenal fan right about now...

Liverpool started the season with a win, but it could so easily have been different. Again, we had the chances but not the finishing, and we were almost undone by a late penalty. If Suarez is staying, we need to keep winning until he's back, convince him that we CAN make it to the Champions League.

Anyway, back to the topic: Here's where Liverpool are (transfer-wise):

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Significant transfers:

IN:

Kolo Toure (Man City, free)

Luis Alberto (Sevilla, £6.8m)

Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo, £7.2m)

Simon Mignolet (Sunderland, £9m).

OUT:

Danny Wilson (Hearts, free)

Jamie Carragher (retired)

Andy Carroll (West Ham, £15.5m)

Jonjo Shelvey (Swansea, £6m)

Suso (Almeria, loan).

Stewart Downing (West Ham, £5m)

Pepe Reina (Napoli, loan)

Jay Spearing (Bolton), undisclosed.

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Let's be realistic, we were never going to get a profit from the sale of Carroll and Downing, since we overpaid in the first place. But it was important to get them permanently off the books. The good thing is overall our trade has been relatively balanced this time around, at least financial-wise.

I'm glad Suso wasn't sold, I definitely see potential in the lad but needs a bit more development. Spearing and Shelvey had run their course, I'm sure they'll be successful elsewhere. Our change in keeper was not unexpected for me, I know some fellow fans found it disappointing, I'm looking forward to seeing Mignolet more in goal, especially after his penalty save heroics. And while Kolo Toure's a useful stopgap, I would like to see Skrtel reclaim his spot in the first team. Whatever his misunderstanding with Rodgers, I'm sure it can be healed.

We're still sourcing for a left-back to 'back up Enrique', according to Rodgers, but it sounds iffy to me. Wasn't this the same tune he was singing about Reina when he brought in Mignolet? I don't mind Enrique being replaced but whoever he is better be good!

Of the new recruits, I really like Aspas' work so far. I can see him being a very important player for us.

My season prediction: Still early days of course, but I expect good things from Liverpool this season, regardless of how the Suarez saga ends. Rodgers will be expected to deliver, he's had enough time to bed in. Liverpool to end up in a Champions League spot come the end of the season. I kid you not.

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE.

EDIT: Shortly after I posted this entry, I found out that Aly Cissokho has signed for Liverpool in a season-long loan. Time for Enrique to turn up the juice!

Getting ready for the second child

It's been a while since my last post! Since then, we've had a whole fasting month followed by Hari Raya, but now I'm back!

Baby Brother Incoming!

We finally started cleaning up this week to prepare for the coming of our second child. The calculated date is 16th September which is one month from now, and will probably be earlier, and boy have we got lots to do! I think I may have fallen into a complacency trap, i.e. we got through the first one okay, we'll be fine this time. Fortunately, Raudha has a bit more foresight on this and mobilised faster.

I'm starting to think at this point, Zharif (our first) is more prepared for the baby than we are! He appears to demonstrate a lot of affection for the babies in my extended family every time he sees them. It used to worry me heaps about Zharif's reaction when our next baby arrives, but when I see something like this (pictures courtesy of baby's mummy Zaza) :

I feel so much better.

During Raya, in Batu Pahat, he would zikir, sing songs and pat baby Sofea gently and softly with such tender care there was once I might have shed a tear just watching. And when she visited in KL, he did the same too.

Of course, one can't be 100% sure, especially when Zharif sees the amount of attention Mummy will be giving his baby brother, but I have a really good feeling right now. And you can bet we'll be getting Zharif to help out as well.

Anyway, one thing I'm hoping to do is that as soon as both mum and our newborn are ready and able, I want to travel. It'll be neat to take a short trip somewhere with our latest addition to the family. But where shall we go? I've got a few ideas, let's see how we go...

First thing's first though!