This week's question, class, is: When is a DGW not a DGW?
Answer: When the DGW footballers play so poorly that they cannot even outscore those with one match!
I guess it was not quite that bad, but the points totals out there were much more like a SGW than a DGW (with the exception of one club, which I will get to below). Normally, my 115 in a DGW would look absolutely horrid, and yet, it was good enough to move me up an even 100 spots to 563 in the Global Rankings. My gamble of going with the two Man City strikers (Kun & Dzeko) and captaining one of them (Kun) did not pay off (21 points, including the captain double), and I only managed to include two of this week's Best XI (Stones & Dann--wasn't that a 70's pop/rock duo?). Yet I still hung in there. Now, if I'd only hit more of the Best XI, I could have done even better.
Best Team
This week's Best XI would have netted you a decent, although not overwhelming, 288 points, all for a meager £123.97M. You could have gone with either a 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 because of the tie between MF Coutinho and D Kompany on 18 points. The tie also means there were 12 players in the team, but only half of them (6) had a DGW, with four of those being from Palace.
Week 34 | ||
Player | Pts | Cost |
L. Podolski (F - ARS) | 25 | 9.76 |
H. Rodallega (F - FUL) | 18 | 7.6 |
O. Giroud (F - ARS) | 18 | 15.36 |
J. Puncheon (M - CRY) | 35 | 20.46 |
Mile Jedinak (M - CRY) | 29 | 13.42 |
Y. Bolasie (M - CRY) | 20 | 7.21 |
P. Coutinho (M - LIV)*/V. Kompany (D - MAC) | 18 | 15.34 |
Cala (D - CAR) | 27 | 7.83 |
J. Stones (D - EVE) | 20 | 10.57 |
S. Dann (D - CRY) | 19 | 12.99 |
D. Marshall (G - CAR) | 24 | 3.43 |
Captain Points | 35 | |
total points | 288 | 123.97 |
on the bench | ||
J. Speroni (G - CRY) | 20 | 13.19 |
P. Cech (G - CHE) | 18 | 17.6 |
J. Ward (D - CRY) | 17 | 16.79 |
S. Gerrard (M - LIV) | 17 | 23.77 |
Top Yahoo Score | 232 | 80.56% |
* player used in calculating costs (if applicable) |
Speaking of Palace, the top score in YFF for the week was 232, 80.56% of the possible total. That is a pretty good percentage, so I had to take a look at the team. You can find it at https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/fantasy/premier-league/team/show/7787, and as you will see, there is a very definite pattern to the choices.
Keats and Yeats List of Multiple Appearances
The K&Y list was quieter this week. A large number of players made their second appearance in a Best XI (Cala, Stones, Podolski, Jedinak, Giroud, Coutinho, and Dann), but two appearances are just not enough to make the list these days.
Appearances | Player |
9 | L. Suárez (GWs 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, 28, 31) |
5 | A. Lallana (GWs 11, 17, 21, 23, 24) |
5 | J. Puncheon (GWs 20, 22, 23, 33, 34) |
5 | S. Gerrard (GWs 23, 26, 28, 30, 33) |
4 | C. Eriksen (GWs 18, 20, 31, 33) |
4 | D. de Gea (GWs 16, 19, 27, 29) |
4 | D. Sturridge (GWs 23, 26, 27, 31) |
4 | E. Adebayor (GWs 17, 22, 26, 33) |
4 | J. Rodriguez (GWs 14, 18, 29, 32) |
4 | M. Skrtel (GWs 11, 25, 28, 31) |
4 | R. Lambert (GWs 11, 24, 30, 32) |
4 | W. Rooney (GWs 13, 29, 31, 32) |
4 | Yaya Touré (GWs 10, 14, 27, 31) |
3 | Adrián (GWs 21, 23, 26) |
3 | C. Davies (GWs 27, 28, 33) |
3 | E. Hazard (GWs 14, 18 24) |
3 | J. De Guzmán (GWs 11, 28, 32) |
3 | J. Flanagan (GWs 16, 28, 32) |
3 | J. Hart (GWs 19, 30, 31) |
3 | J. Shelvey (GWs 12, 14, 23) |
3 | Jose Fonte (GWs 23, 24, 26) |
3 | K. Nolan (GWs 19, 24, 25) |
3 | L. Baines (GWs 20, 21, 31) |
3 | L. Rosenior (GWs 27, 31, 33) |
3 | M. Diamé (GWs 13, 26, 32) |
3 | P. Bardsley (GWs 11, 17, 24) |
3 | S. Caulker (GWs 10, 29, 32) |
3 | T. Walcott (GWs 16, 18, 20) |
3 | V. Kompany (GWs 17, 18, 34) |
3 | V. Mannone (GWs 18, 24, 30) |
3 | W. Szczesny (GWs 10, 13, 22) |
Kompnay appears for the third time, so he gets bumped up to the K&Y list, while Puncheon, with his second appearance in the Best XI in a row, now joins Lallana and Gerrard in the "we are almost as good as Suarez, but not really" group at five appearances each. At this point, unless one of these three (or one of the group at 4 who still have a DGW) appears in every Best XI for the rest of the season, we will have to crown Suarez as the Best XI The Smiths trophy winner!
Just four more GWs to go; can you predict who will be in next week's Best XI?
Prof. M