A quick poll

-
As I've mentioned before, I'm taking part in the inaugural SimPrem fantasy league this year, with the draft set to take place on Saturday. I've drawn the third pick and wanted to canvas some opinion on which way you'd go. Let me know below (a) who would be your top three picks and (b) which positions you would target in the early rounds.

The scoring system is a little complex but is essentially based on the pl.com game though midfielders earn points based on their team's goals scored/conceded so players from elite teams get a boost in value.

I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts . . .

Comments

Jaime Guadagni said…
i haven't read the point system but if it is similar to pl fantasy then I would def pick mids and forwards. RvP, Nani, Malouda
August 5, 2011 at 12:54 AM
MerryMichaelW said…
Baines, Wilshere, Rooney
August 5, 2011 at 4:45 AM
Exquisite said…
How many players in the draft?? Maybe a top class keeper would be a better choice than one of the plentiful attacking options. Especially considering it'd be very difficult to be able to draft in 2 keepers who rotate well.
August 5, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Jay Horrey said…
Hey Chris,

Since you are not in by division in SimPrem I don't feel bad sharing my top 3 picks with you.

The point system is really shaded toward keepers and mids. Mids get the bonus you mentioned while keepers get 1 point per save.

Under this point system last year, Ben Foster would have led the league in scoring. Joe Hart was second.

My top 3 picks are:
1. Hart
2. Cech
3. Nani

If you can take Hart or Cech I think you have to. They are going to put up consistent numbers and rack up the saves.

Nani has the most potential of the mids and has looked great in the preseason. He seems to have a desire to lock down a spot in the first 11. After that, it gets a bit messy.
August 5, 2011 at 8:50 AM
Chris said…
Jaime - That looks like a strong three. Malouda vs Drogba is tough for me but rvp and Nani look like definite top 5 picks.

Merry - Wilshere certainly carries more value in this game than the standard pl.com game but I'm not ready to make him a top 3 pick just yet! Rooney is looking like a favorite though.

Exquisite - 8 teams in the draft selecting 24 players each. Good point about rotation, I hadn't thought about that. Unless you pick them back-to-back it's going to be hard to make sure their fixtures gel well. Maybe I'll have to adjust my strategy a bit there. Thanks!

Jay - the issue in my head is basically that mids probably score more points but the forwards pool is shallower. In NFL fantasy football you tend to pick RBs first rather than QBs, despite QBs scoring the most points because the fall off from the best to the 10th RB is much steeper than at QB.

From Tevez to the 8th fwd last year was 50+ points but from Nani to the 8th it was only 35. I would say there are only 9 forwards this year I would say are pretty much locks to have good seasons and after that the question marks start getting huge - Berbatov, Gervinho, Chamakh, Deko, Saha, Defoe. I have no idea what any of these boys will do.

Thanks for the ideas guys, results and post-draft analysis will be posted next week
August 5, 2011 at 10:21 AM
John Wright said…
I think Chris may be onto something with the NFL analogy...I should probably leave it at that, since I'm drafting against both of you.
August 5, 2011 at 11:42 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Expected goals plus-minus

-
Image
As the season ticks on, we're starting to get a bit of data to work with, albeit sometimes in small samples. This season I am not working with a relatively complex player model but am really interested in trying to "play the fixtures" as much as I can. A couple of sources of frustration, therefore, have been as below: 1. Sites which provide the difficulty of fixtures often seem a bit simplistic. For example, the Premier League site shows Wolves as an average "3-rated" opponent, both at home and away yet the reality is more complicated. While at home they have been very solid defensively, with an Expected Goals Conceded (xGC) of just 4.71 in five games, which ranks third best, yet on their travels they have surrendered 7.94 xGC, which is the third worst . Even more confusing is that most sites ( though not all ) don't distinguish between attacking and defensive fixtures, so facing Leeds at home is presented as an easy "2-rated" fixture when in reali
Read more

Selecting defenders within the same team

-
We talked about this earlier in the season, but with a couple more games in the bag, I've updated the viz which attempts to help you choose your defenders. The "All Players" tab should in theory help you do this coming with a blank slate, but the r aison d'etre for the viz is to help you choose between players in the same side, once you've decided that, for example, you want a City defender. The viz can be found linked from the main menu , and here and should be opened separately to best read this piece. A few notes as of GW5 below. Arsenal I'm not sure how much value there is with this defense right now, but if you are planning to play the fixtures and take a chance with one of Emery's men, this would suggest it should be Mustafi rather than the 10% owner Bellerin who you should target. Bournemouth Cook is the man here for now, though if a clear winner emerges from the developing Daniels vs Rico battle then one of those players could topple him b
Read more

A brief update

-
Happy holidays everyone; it's been a while. For those not on Twitter, I was away in Costa Rica over the break without much - if any - internet access hence the lack of posts around these electronic pages. Well, actually, that's only the main reason, not the only one. In truth I've become a bit disillusioned with the fantasy game the past couple of months, partly due to my other commitments which make copying data at 2am somewhat less appealing, partly due to a lack of excitement in this year's game and finally due to the constant frustration I have with today's internet culture. This blog is a labour of love and aside from the small amount of money I made from the pre-season guide many of you graciously purchased, I don't get much out of this beyond the enjoyment of interacting with readers and hopefully helping a few of you to gain a couple of extra fantasy points every now and then. While some of that enjoyment remains, I feel it has waned over time and th
Read more