WALSH

Wildcard Squad at 60% Completion (full final squad below the writeup)

GK - Pickford is nailed right now. It is hard to see past the young boy at the moment given the quantity of saves he has racked up as well as some nicer fixtures upcoming. You get the impression that he will be nailed for at least two bonus points on any clean sheet that Sunderland keep….if they can keep any. The question that remains is whether I pair him with a 4.0 and roll the dice on him keeping his job or if I plump for a 4.4 Mandanda or a 4.5 Boruc to have a fallback in case disaster strikes. I will be selling Jakupovic either way, though, as I expect him to lose his job and subsequently see his price plummet any day now. I am hoping to bank .1 selling value, though, if he goes up tonight.

DEF - Only two spots are nailed down of the five at the time of this writing…Lovren and Holebas will be in my final WC team [Walsh lied]. I like the value in Lovren as I expect Liverpool to luck into keeping some cleans against all these shit teams they are about to be playing against. The Greek is facing a fitness test ahead of Burnley, but, I want him for the long run and don’t want to spend a future transfer. His attacking stats are too good to pass up in combination with the run that Watford are about to embark on. He reminds me of PVA. The other three spots are very much in flux. Right now I am looking at Baines, Kone, and Glenner.

The Baines spot might turn into either Jags or Coleman depending on how tight funds get but with him possibly still being on penalties it makes it hard to pass him up. In past seasons a fit Baines on pens has proven to be gold. He’s also been a bonus magnet. Kone I like to just give me another rotational option for the future at a cheap price with pretty good goal threat to boot. Having Amat or a Swansea defender seems like a complete waste of a spot to me and Sunderland have some reasonable fixtures coming up. He might turn into someone like Kelly though if I find that I want to save that .1.

Finally, and probably most insane, is Glenner Johnson. Stoke are a wreck but they face some horrible relegation battling teams at home coming up. I think they will turn it around. Glenner I think is a nice price to rotate around with attacking impetus and has proven to be a pretty good bonus darling from last season. He looks to be a nice rotational cog at a reasonable price. I had Walker in for a spell as well as trying to fit in Koscielny but given the erratic nature of clean sheets I am sort of opting to spread the wealth around around the 5.0ish bracket rather than plump for a premium option. Trying to play the fixtures a bit more. Walker seems a no brainer but I still feel that he may get rotated with fixtures piling up and they also have tough home fixtures on the horizon.

MID - Three spots are settled while two remain in flux. I will be doubling on Pool mids with Mane and Firmino. Along with City they look the most potent attack in the league and capable of putting 4 past any side. While they have historically struggled against the lesser sides under Klopp I am going to back them to kick on. No Europe feels good and their fixtures are as good as it gets. De Roon comes in for Etienne fuckface. I’ll bank the profit and stick with my guns that he will come back to Earth sooner rather than later. De Roon is less nailed than Fletcher but has a very low ownership whereas Fletcher is quite high. I fear price drops with Fletcher so I’ll hope that Boro’s record signing will keep his place for the foreseeable future for Karanka. The last two spots in midfield will be either Antonio + KDB or Payet + Sterling. I’m leaning towards the latter pairing as I still for some reason don’t get the feels for Antonio despite stats and record and I miss Payet. KDB I have no doubt will continue to be a steady stream but I feel like Sterling will make a mockery of his price tag. I’m still not sure…and I won’t make the call until after I have at least a sixer in my belly to cloud / clear my mind even further. It does seem slightly insane to go without Antonio though….so we’ll see where I end up. Still no one knows.

FWD - Aguero © and Lukaku are in for dead cert. As given away by my heavy midfield I have decided to fuck Ibra off. Might be a mistake, but will always be easy to replace with a simple double switch and Lukaku out if it ends up going pear shaped. My last spot will be either Deeney or Rashford.

Deeney seems very safe given their upcoming run and how steady his points seem to trickle in with pens in his locker. The three cards is a little bit annoying though as he will be facing a suspension sooner rather than later. Rashford is the new shiny toy….who with Martial out seems likely to start at the weekend. It is hard to imagine he needs to do more for Mou to pick him regularly, but who knows. He’s much more of a risk reward pick than Deeney that is for sure. I know I’d be sweating the United team sheet every weekend if I go with Rashford so that should tell me to play it safe and stick with Troy. But, I might get crazy. Rashford might just be Kane 2.0 and this is the year he breaks out with a truckload of goals. His record is pretty fucked up for the amount of minutes he has played in the prem. He just scores when he plays end of. Fuck, might go Rash….

Captain - Kun, obvi.

Walsh’s full final squad: Pickford / Nordfeldt.. Clyne / Glenner / Fuchs / Holebas / Amat.. KDB / Mane / Firmino / Antonio / de Roon.. Kun / Rom / Rashford

ALON

GK - Pickford is in for me as well and starting between the sticks for the next 2-3 fixtures. I think Moyes can coach up an organized solid side; they’ve had really hard fixtures to start. My other is Boruc who is also racking up the saves and also has some great fixtures next 10 weeks or so. I had an extra 0.5 leftover after making my attack & defense so I figured 0.5 is worth it for me to feel that I probably won’t have to use a FT on goalie which is a pet peeve. Paying for job security.

DEF - Went real heavy with two big ones in Kolarov and Matip and then my third this week will be Holebas who I’m praying plays. After all the Stones debacles I still think that City will keep a bunch of cleans. I also love Kola and didn’t get to own him much last season when he was racking up a trillion points. I think he’ll get his attacking boots going soon as he had an assist in UCL and some shots/box touches last week even though he was stationed at CB which won’t be the norm. Also City are so obviously the best team/attack in the league so maybe Kola will just help me harvest more points from that side of Manchester. Rumors were swirling that Lovren won’t be pairing up with Matip and it’ll be Klavan so I ditched Dejan. Enter Matip. I fucking love him. I love the way he speaks, looks, and plays (I’m a LFC supporter for those that don’t know). Matip is also a regular goal scorer in his career, with super high passing %s and CBI, he should be a good shout for some returns and bonus if Liverpool can manage some cleans in their upcoming terrific run. Holebas is a late fitness test but we both love the boy if you didn’t hear on the pod. Burnley is about as good a fixture as you can get so go on Jose and tit us.

Rounding out my bench is: Koscielny and Amat. Koschellknee and Arsenal are what they are which is consistent and good against bad teams and one of the better defenses in the league every year. Kos is always a shout for a goal on a set piece too. With a good run coming up having Kos feels good. Amat is a cheap fuck who I hope can just keep his spot and never play for me.

MID - Ozil, Firmino, Sterling, Antonio. Yes. Let’s say that again. Ozil, Firmino, Sterling, Antonio. That’s just gotta yield results right? Ozil the bug eyed fuck I honestly just hate. He’ll just jog around and piss me off all the time. But he regularly returns. And in a big run of Arsenal great fixtures he should be racking up assists/bonus like usual. Bobby is a god. Sterling I love forever and is playing out of his mind right now. Antonio too is just in absurd insane form so let’s fuck Tony. Feel like I don’t need to reason any of these picks. My fifth mid / fodder choice is de Roon as recommended by Walsh. So I ended up ditching my plan on the pod to keep Capoue and just go with the sexy foursome instead. Fuck Capoue I never really wanted him anyway, I was just feeling very confused and alone and clung to the first points I could find. Fuck him I hope he never scores again.

FWD - Same as Walsh’s final. Kun/Lukaku/Rash. In the end Rashford wins out. He has the highest upside of the cheap guys and is on the best team of all the cheap guys. He was the furthest player forward for United last week (yeah, further then Zlat or Roondog) and is in great form. He’s actually never been out of form from when he came on last season, through the Euros, and now. Go on young lad.

Captain - Kunny Kun Kun all day everyday.