Your one-stop shop for all you need to know about Fantasy Football this Christmas.
Gameweek 17 Review
Whether they did it because it was Christmas we’re not sure, but an awful lot of players were feeling generous and gave an awful lot to their Fantasy Football managers this weekend.
Every single player bar one in the Dream Team contributed double-figured scores in Gameweek 17, the same number of points collected by the top scorer this week, QPR’s Charlie Austin, after his hat-trick against West Brom.
That was one better than two-goal David Silva and two better than goalscoring defenders Maya Yohsida and John Terry on 15 points.
Cesc Fabregas grabbed 14 points for a goal and an assist against Stoke, while Sunderland’s Adam Johnson was one of a trio of players on 11 points alongside Pablo Zabaleta and Ki Sung-Yeung.
Stephane Sessegnon and Costel Pantilimon both figured after hauls of ten points apiece, while West Ham’s Winston Reid completed the Dream Team XI after his nine points against Leicester.
J-League
There are usually no better people to capitalise when there are points at stake than the managers at the top of the J-League and this week was no different, with four of the top five scoring in excess of 80 points and two of them even managing to top 90.
Terry O’Rourke’s Sporting Kilbeggan now hold a slender five-point lead at the top of the league ahead of Stephen Lawlor’s Ag Imirt Pellé in second, who in turn are only a point ahead of Sean Kelly’s The Honey Badgers in third.
An impressive 90 points from John Hurley’s Club Orange was enough to catapult them into fourth place while an even more impressive 94 points from Dan Kelly’s Kelly’s Heroes earned him the final spot in the top five.
There will be three gameweeks played between now and when we next update the table so who knows, maybe the top five will have an entirely different look come the second week in January?
The gauntlet has been laid down to the leaders and the chasing pack.
J-League
- Sporting Kilbeggan – Terry O’Rourke: 1,057 points
- Ag Imirt Pellé – Stephen Lawlor: 1,052 points
- The Honey Badgers – Sean Kelly: 1,051 points
- Club Orange – John Hurley: 1,043 points
- Kelly’s Heroes – Dan Kelly: 1,039 points
And so this is Christmas, what will we do?
While it pains us to think what regular readers of this column will do without the best advice in the business for the next couple of weeks, we’ll be taking the winter break that is deprived of the richly rewarded Premier League players and won’t be back until Gameweek 21 on January 10.
The Christmas schedule is as busy as ever is across the water, so we’ve tried to pack three weeks’ worth of tips and tricks into one column, from some necessary info to advice on the captaincy and why using your wildcard between now and the end of 2014 might not be the best idea.
Here’s what you need to know.
Deadlines
Get ready to set the reminders folks – we’re deadly serious here, by the way – the times and dates you need to know in regard to the deadlines for the Gameweeks over the festive season are:
Gameweek 18: 26 December, 11.30am
Gameweek 19: 28 December, 11.30am
Gameweek 20: 1 January, 11.30am
You might be best served looking after affairs the night before – particularly for the New Year’s deadline – but be sure to check in a half hour or so before every deadline if and when possible.
Taking out an injured player, changing the captain or capitalising on some last-minute team news that might end up breaking on the morning of the game might make or break whether or not you have a successful week.
Transfers and wildcard
One disastrous gameweek will bring with it the temptation to make wholesale changes but this is inadvisable for a number of reasons.
For a start, managers should remember that four gameweeks in quick succession allows for four free transfers in a short space of time.
Also, it is not an ideal time to be bringing in players because of the rotation policy that will be forced on managers trying to make maximum use of their squad in such a busy period.
Finally, the January wildcard comes into play next month and although managers (the January wildcard can be used by all managers, even those who have used it already) can use it as soon as the Gameweek 20 deadline closes on January 1, the transfers won’t come until effect until Gameweek 21 on January 10.
Just think before you go making any rash decisions, OK?
Captain
The easy thing to do is just pick your most consistent performer and hand him the captaincy for the entire Christmas period – Cesc Fabregas, perhaps? – but that’s being a bit lazy for our liking.
Instead, as long as your hectic social life permits, keep to the usual routine and keep an eye out for players in form and for any bits of information that might come in handy – injury doubts, managers hinting at rotating the team etc. – when it comes to selecting your skipper.
If that sounds too arduous, just follow our helpful guidelines on who should be captain below.
Captain’s Picks (injury permitting of course):
Gameweek 18: Alexis Sanchez
Gameweek 19: David Silva
Gameweek 20: Eden Hazard
And finally…
All in all, as long as you commit just a few minutes on the dates in question to all matters Fantasy Football you should cope just fine without having your head wrecked during peak hangover season.
We should add, however, that if you neglect it entirely, there’s a good chance it could permanently damage your chances of winning your own private leagues or the entire league itself if you happen to be a man of grand ambitions.
Finally, we’d just like to take the opportunity to thank you all for reading in 2014, to wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year and to say we’ll be back with more unparalleled and top notch occasionally insightful Fantasy Football advice in 2014.
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