Complete Fixtures – Premier Bet Uganda

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We have made it through the first eight weeks of the 2020 season and it’s time to hand out some trophies (not literally of course, since we have to wait until the year is over). I already did this when I predicted the entire season about a week before we kicked things off and a lot of the candidates I mentioned back then, you will here again, but at the same time, some guys have kind of come out of nowhere. For some of these categories, three names were enough, while for a few others I mentioned two more notables. So who have been my MVP, Defensive Player and Coach of the Year, among others, for the first half of the season? Plus, at the bottom I added my All-Pro teams at this point.
Also make sure to check out my detailed recap of NFL week eight.
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Most Valuable Player:

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I think three candidates have kind of separated themselves from the rest of the pack in this MVP discussion and the guy I have at the top has been there all season long, because no other player has been more valuable to his team and their success.
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1. Russell Wilson
I have always said Wilson is one of the premiere quarterbacks in the NFL and that the only thing holding him back from quite putting up the same numbers other MVP candidates have produced is his own coaching staff and the conservative he plays in. Well, this year Brian Schottenheimer & company have finally listened to Seahawks fans screaming to “let Russ cook” and he has been smoking hot. Russ is top three in completion percentage (71.5%) and yards per attempt (8.4) and yards per game (307.3), leads NFL with a passer rating of 120.8 and 26 touchdown passes, which makes up for more than one TD every 10th attempt – also an NFL-best mark. And the crazy part is that his team has needed him to be that explosive, since Seattle’s defense has given up an average of 460.9 yards per game – easily the most of any team in the league. The Seahawks themselves are scoring an NFL-best 34.3 points per game and their season-low(!) 27 points came in a matchup, where he led one of his two game-winning drives on the season (versus Minnesota). He is also the only quarterback with multiple starts to not have lost a fumble all season long. The only blemish on Wilson’s resume and the Hawks lone loss came at Arizona in a Sunday Night game, where their quarterback threw three of his six interceptions on the year and that was his only performance that he had a passer rating below 100 in. However in that game, he lit up the Cardinals with the deep ball and made some incredible plays throughout the night. And if you break down the three picks he threw, two of them came by defenders who had to cover a ton of ground and no quarterback would have anticipated them to even be a factor, while on that third one D.K. slowed down for a back-shoulder throw The Seahawks put 35 points on the Patriots, 31 against the Dolphins number-one scoring defense and just now 37 against San Francisco – and it could easily been more if the came wasn’t completely out of hand in the fourth quarter.
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2. Patrick Mahomes
I know Mahomes has five TD passes less than Russ despite having played one more game, but he also only has one interception on the year – and that one came when he pushed it downfield on a 4th & long towards the end of the Chiefs’ only loss on the season. He is also behind only Wilson in quarterback rating (115.0) and first in QBR (86.8), with the latter thanks to what he has done taking off when nothing is there, which he has really gotten great at once he sees 2-man or other favorable situations. Of the 34 times he has taken off, nine have resulted in first downs and he finished in the end-zone twice. Of course this is still about Mahomes and Kansas City trashing opposing teams with all those weapons in the passing game. With defenses playing a lot more soft coverage against the Chiefs, Mahomes has taken advantage underneath with those short completions, while still finding ways to allow his receivers to uncover on secondary routes and getting the ball to them from all different angles. So his intended air yards may not be overly impressive, because of all the screens and stuff they draw up, and he might “only” be sixth in yards per attempt, but Pat is still tied for first with 31 passes of 20+ yards. He absolutely picked apart the Ravens defense in that huge Monday Night showdown, which tried every coverage and blitz package imaginable and the quarterback had an answer for all of them, completing some throws nobody in the league could make. The Chiefs’ season-low in points (23) came at the Chargers, when he certainly didn’t start out great, but still found a way to lead a comeback and win in overtime. And even in their only loss of the season against the Raiders, it was the opposing offense converting a sneak on fourth down, that denied Mahomes a chance to finish their late push.
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3. Aaron Rodgers
When you look at Rodgers’ most impressive statistic for his career it is his ridiculous touchdown-to-interception ratio of 4.47, which is a full point better than the next-closest guy (Russell Wilson) and twice as good as anybody that hasn’t played in the 2010’s. Well, right now he has the second-best rate for this season, behind only Patrick Mahomes at 20-2, and those two picks came in his only bad game at Tampa Bay. I’m not going to sugercoat this in any way – after going up 10-0 and once that pass-rush from the Bucs was unleashed, he could not get anything going. With that being said, he has been phenomenal in the six other contests, having throw less than 3 TDs in only of them and his lowest QB rating being at 107.6, with both of those thing coming against Detroit in week two, when the Packers just didn’t need him to crazy and still put up 42 points, as Aaron Jones got loose on multiple occasions. And Rodgers had not fumbled until that very last play we saw from him, as he was stripped from behind while trying to launch a Hail Mary at the end of the Vikings game. By the way, he was incredible in that loss as well, as the only two times the offense was stopped, Equanimeous St. Brown had consecutive passes go off his hands and then the refs for no apparent reason picked up the flag on a blatant pass interference against Robert Tonyan inside the red-zone. Rodgers leads the league with seven completions of 40+ yards and right now Drew Lock is the only starter in the league with a higher mark in yards beyond the sticks (0.9) – which when you look at the rest of the numbers isn’t always an endorsement for the second-year QB, as Lock has three more INTs on 100 less attempts. And outside of Davante Adams – who has missed some time – Rodgers hasn’t really been able to rely on any of his receivers, as they are tied for the most passes dropped at 18, even though the other two QBs with that number have played one more game than Green Bay.
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Notables: Josh Allen & Tom Brady
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Offensive Player of the Year:

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Of course, you could name the same three candidates from the MVP section here, but I tried to mix things up a little and give you three other names worthy of the award. And that includes only one quarterback.
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1. Alvin Kamara
I know that this award is often given to quarterbacks as well and it looks odd that Kamara is 16th in the league in rushing (431 yards), but he is averaging five yards per carry and he is also second to only DeAndre Hopkins among all players with 55 catches for an additional 556 yards through the air – so just over 10 yards per grab. Right now he is on pace for 2256 scrimmage yards on right around 20 touches a week, while he would also easily break the NFL record for receiving yards for a running back (1271 over 1191 from Charley Taylor in 1966). And he leads the league not only in scrimmage yards but also percentage of his offense’s yardage (36.5%), while being tied for first with 12 plays of 20+ yards on the season. While he has caught a couple of key wheel routes and can win as a downfield receiver, so far 94.5(!) percent of his receiving yards have come after the catch, constantly bailing out his quarterback by making something happen after checkdowns and ripping off big gains in the screen game. I mean against the Packers he caught 13 of 14 targets for 139 yards and he was the only reason they were in that game in the first place. The explosiveness, the contact balance and the ability get six or seven yards when there should be only three is unmatched. Kamara has scored reached the end-zone seven times and his only fumble, he recovered himself again. He is by far the best player on this Saints offense and the team overall and in the absence of Michael Thomas, he has been asked to shoulder the load for them. Since his lowest output in the season-opener, Kamara has not been held under 119 scrimmage yards in any other week.
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2. Kyler Murray
While Murray is only 16th among current starters in passing yards per game, only Russell Wilson and by about half a yard Justin Herbert have put up more combined passing and rushing yards at 326.3 a week. Right now, only Joe Burrow and Matt Ryan have been responsible for more combined first downs and touchdowns, and those two have played a full matchup more than the Cardinals and both just won their second games of the season, while Kyler is doing it in service of a 5-2 team, which outside of his own production has averaged less than 100 rushing yards on a weekly basis. As a runner, he leads all NFL players (with double-digit carries) in yards per attempt at 6.7 and 35 of his 65 carries led to first downs or touchdowns (seven TDs). I would not call Arizona’s passing game overly explosive, as Kyler is barely in the top 20 in yards per attempt (7.3), 20+ yard throws (21) and average yards to the sticks (-0.9), but a lot of that has to do with what Kliff Kingsbury wants to do with his Air Raid-based offense, while his QB is tied for second with six throws of 40+ yards and already has an 80-yarder on his resume. Plus, with that guy at the helm, they have the potential to get as hot as pretty much any team out there. Kyler had one really bad game against the Lions, in which Detroit used a lot of different coverages that had them all over the Cardinals route patterns, but #1 has been outstanding the rest of the year and I don’t come away from a lot of games thinking that a lot of his production was served up by the play-calling. I said a couple of weeks that Deshaun Watson is the most elusive quarterback in the league, but nobody is quicker at evading defenders and keeping himself upright. We all love Russell Wilson and his ability to extend plays, but just compare these numbers – Russ has been pressured 79 times and he’s been hit or sacked on 50 of those, Kyler on the other has been pressured 44 times (significantly less due to more of a horizontal passing attack), but he’s only been sacked nine times and taken five more hits (14 total). And Kyler already outdueled Russ on Sunday Night of week seven.
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3. Derrick Henry
King Henry is once again holding the crown for the league’s rushing leader at this moment. His 775 rushing yards are 123 more than any other player in the league, and while that is in correlation with handling the most carries of all RBs, he still averaging 4.8 yards per attempt, despite being asked to grind away games for the Titans. Right around 30 percent of his touches has resulted in a first down or touchdown (43 total first downs and eight TDs) and about 58 percent of his total yardage has come after contact. Nobody wants to tackle King Henry, because he can plow through 300-pounder defensive linemen at the point of attack and throw DBs around like ragdolls, when he gets around the edge (looking at you, Josh Norman), but at the same time, once he gets rolling, he is as fast as any player on the field, which we saw already when he ripped of an NFL-long 94-yarder against the Texans a couple of weeks ago. The difference between Henry and some of the other franchise backs is that he doesn’t contribute a whole lot in the passing game outside of a few screens (10 catches for 81 yards), but nobody takes on a bigger load than this guy and he really sets the table for everything the Titans do, with the heavy play-action and bootlegs. Usually this guy really starts rolling over the second half of the season, but he has been dominant right from the start this year. When you look at the three games Henry didn’t put 112+ yards on the ground, in two of them the opposing defense totally sold out against the run and Ryan Tannehill completed 75 percent of his passes with seven TDs and no picks, while the team scored 33 and 42 points respectively, and the other one came against the Steelers’ dominant defensive front. On the other hand, he also has the most scrimmage yards in a game all season, when he destroyed the Texans for 264 yards and took over that one overtime drive, to win it.
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Notables: The three MVP candidates

Defensive Player of the Year:

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I think there is pretty clear top three in this one as well and I can honestly see an argument for each one of them to be the pick, but I have stuck my selection (and bet) of a guy I believed would come back even hungrier in 2020.
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1. Myles Garrett
This was my preseason pick for Defensive Player of the Year and similar to Russell Wilson’s MVP campaign, I have been riding this all season long. Myles Garrett is tied for a league-high nine sacks and only two players have hit the opposing quarterback more overall than him. The only two games he didn’t record a sack (the season-opener at Baltimore and this past week against the Raiders), the opposing team ran the ball on 56 and 65 percent respectively and somehow all those sacks he has put up have come in big moments – a strip on Joe Burrow to set up the offense at the Bengals 1-yard line after they were just stopped on fourth down in an eight-point game, another against Washington after the Browns finally extended the lead to more than one score, stripping Dak Prescott when the game was tied at 14 and set off a 27-0 run, setting the offense up in field goal range for their first points in the rematch with Cincinnati and while it won’t be found on the stats sheet, he also directly forced a safety on a throw-away by Philip Rivers to make it a two-score game against the Colts. The only other player that has forced four fumbles just like Myles is Ravens DB Marlon Humphrey, who has become a Peanut Punch specialist – and Garrett has also recovered a couple of those himself, with both of them directly setting up touchdown for the offense from short distance. Plus, he is excellent run-defender, who can yank blockers to the side and makes tackles around the line scrimmage, with only one miss on the season. Myles has grown so much with his technique as a pass-rusher, while obviously having that incredible combination of length and athleticism, but also might have gotten “looser” in his movement and how he can torque his body different ways. And the Browns are now using him as a mismatch against guards on passing downs quite a bit.
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2. Aaron Donald
Just like he has been the last five years or so, Aaron Donald is right up there with the favorite for Defensive Player of the Year and I would not be surprised at all if he won his third trophy at the end of the season. Donald is tied with Myles Garrett for the league-lead in sacks at nine and he is top five in total pressures (22) and QB hits (13), despite offensive lines sliding his way constantly. We have literally seen this man get triple-teamed and lift All-Pro offensive linemen off their feet, but only T.J. Watt has a higher pass-rush win percentage according to Pro Football Focus (25%). This guy is the only player with a four-sack performance this season and not only does he obviously contribute in a major way himself, but because of the way he gives his teammates one-on-one’s consistently, his Rams only have three other teams in front of them in terms of sacks as unit (26), despite not having a lot of names that you would recognize, outside a questionable former first-rounder in Leonard Floyd. And I just mentioned the only two players with more forced fumbles than Donald (Garrett and Humphrey), who has three himself. He has also recorded seven tackles for loss and only missed one of his 26 tackling attempts. The crazy part with his game is that for all the numbers you can actually see, there’s about twice as many plays he makes that don’t show up anywhere in the records. The only reason I don’t have him at number one is that he has four games without a full sack and that Garrett has been a little more consistent at coming up with those real game-changing plays. Still, AD is clearly right up there.
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3. T.J. Watt
And then this guy is as complete an edge defender as we have in the league. Watt can set the edge at the point of attack, he can chase ball-carriers down from behind as the unblocked man at the line and this past Sunday against Baltimore, we saw him take both guys at times on those read-option plays. Of his 25 tackles on the season, 12 have resulted in lost yardage, which is tied with teammate Vince Williams for a league-high. As a pass-rusher, Watt is “only” tied for fourth with 6.5 sacks, but his 21 hits on opposing QBs is four more than any other player in the league and the 27 total pressure are three more than the next-closest guy as well, while PFF has him tagged with the highest pass-rush win rate in correlation with that (27%). And he headlines the most destructive pass-rush in the league, as the Steelers defense leads the league with 30 sacks and easily has the highest pressure percentage of any unit out there at a whopping 35.0 percent. Watt has also batted down three passes and picked one off. He can do your classic flat drops or carry guys out of the backfield at times, but he can also stand up and move around the line to blitz from different angles or act as a spy at times. He surprisingly has yet to force a fumble this season, but I can remember right now on the very first play he was on the field against the Titans, a good 20 quarterbacks would have lost the ball in that moment with Watt swiping at it, and since he led the league in that category last season, I have no doubt he will rack up a few of those FFs still.
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Offensive Rookie of the Year:

This award has two quarterbacks battling it out at the top right now, with one young star receivers and a couple of running backs – one picked in the first round and the other going undrafted – who are also in the running.
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1. Justin Herbert
I get that coaches always try to protect their young quarterbacks and want to give them time to learn from the sidelines, but I hope everybody gets that Herbert and Tyrod Taylor aren’t even close to each other. And I have always liked Tyrod as a bridge-starter or game-manager type, but this rookie QB has taken this offense to a completely different level. When you just look at the schedule, you see that the two QBs have the same amount of wins on the season (only one for Herbert against the Jaguars), but in the season-opener the Chargers only put up 16 points against the Bengals, who have given up 28.2 per week from that point on, and L.A. has scored 27.2 points a game since then. It is not Herbert’s fault that his defense has let him down in the second half of games and allowed big comebacks. He took Patrick Mahomes & company to overtime, had his team up 24-7 against the Bucs before a fumble a minute until halftime started turning things around, he outplayed Drew Brees at the Superdome and was inches away in overtime from pulling off a game-tying or -winning drives and before the Bolts defense allowed an epic collapse last Sunday, they were dominating the Broncos 24-3 midway through the third quarter. The way Herbert has opened up the offense with the deep ball is incredible, with two 70+ TDs on the resume already, and he makes the whole field available, after they were very limited before. Among current starters, Herbert is third in passing yards per game (303.3) and second in combined touchdowns per game (3.0), while also being top ten in completion percentage, yards per attempt, quarterback rating and QBR. He is on pace to throw for 4550 yards and 38 touchdowns to go with about 350 rushing yards and five more TDs on the ground, over the course of a 15-game season. Those numbers would shatter all rookie records.
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2. Joe Burrow
No other team has thrown the ball more than the Bengals (330 pass attempts) and their quarterback leads the league with 221 completions on the season (67% completion percentage). With 11 touchdowns compared to five interceptions, that ratio doesn’t look overly impressive, but he has set up a lot of short rushing TDs, while Cincinnati barely cracks 100 rushing yards per game as a team and only one other squad averages less yards per carry (3.7). Until this past weekend, Burrow was tied with Carson Wentz for the most-sacked quarterbacks in the league, but thanks to a non-existent pass-rush for the Titans, in large part due to the spread-based passing attack the Bengals bring to the table, a clean week has the Bengals QB at “only” 28 sacks so far. However, he has been under the fire all season long, being tied for third with 79 total pressures, despite only eight quarterbacks spending less time in the pocket. And Burrow has yet to complete less than 60 percent of his passes in any game. I know the Bengals were blown out in that one Ravens game, but do we realize that was their only loss by more than one score? They tied the Eagles in a game where Burrow was sacked eight times and hit every other snap, they scored 30+ in their two matchups with the Browns, they were up 21-0 against the Colts in the second quarter and just this past Sunday they beat the recently 5-1 Titans by double-digits. And I would argue their rookie quarterback is by far the biggest reason for it. They are already guaranteed a better record this year than last season, as we are halfway through the season – and they are getting better every week. This guy is the future in Cincinnati. Now they just need to protect him and get that defense going.
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3. Justin Jefferson
I know that Odell Beckham Jr. was the only wide receiver to be named Offensive Rookie of the Year in the last ten years and I wouldn’t put anybody on the same level as that historic season, but since then this is the most impressive start we have seen for a rookie receiver. Through seven games, Jefferson has caught 31 of his 40 targets for 563 yards and three touchdowns. That puts him 12th among all receivers in yards per game, while having recorded a league-high 14.1 yards per target and 22 of his 31 grabs has resulted in a fresh set of downs. After a rather slow start, with five catches for 70 yards through the first two weeks, Jefferson came onto the scene with 71-yarder against the Titans and now already has three games of 100+ receiving yards, while only having played 74 percent of the snaps on the season. Jefferson has only dropped one pass and not fumbled once, while Kirk Cousins when targeting the rookie receiver, has a passer rating of over 100 despite having thrown four picks and I wouldn’t put a single one of those on the receiver definitely, as on a couple of them there was a linebacker dropping underneath a deep crosser that Cousins stared down the whole way, a badly underthrown pass into a tight window and on another one he and the rookie wideout clearly weren’t on the same page in terms of the route he was supposed to run. Through eight weeks, Jefferson is Pro Football Focus has the second-highest grade among all NFL receivers. I have always been a fan of Adam Thielen and he is Cousins’ favorite target, but to determine who opposing teams believe is more dangerous, all I have to do is watch the Packers put Jaire Alexander on the first-year man for almost the whole game last week.
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Notables: James Robinson & Clyde Edwards-Helaire
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Defensive Rookie of the Year:

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For the defensive side of the ball, this rookie selection was a little tougher, because there are a few guys that have filled the stat sheet across the board, but you don’t have those typical front-runners with a lot of sacks or interceptions, which usually take home the honors.
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1. Antoine Winfield Jr.
When I look at who I believe is the best pro player among all defensive rookies already, I would say this is the name that comes to mind. Tampa Bay’s defensive scheme isn’t simple. They ran a lot of different coverages, they can blitz anybody and there are a lot of rules that you have to understand as a member of that unit. Winfield has come in and looked him he belonged from the first time he touched the field. The rookie safety has played 515 of 522 snaps on defense and he shows up quite a bit in the box score. He has recorded 31 solo tackles and only two misses all season long, showing off what a dependable tackler he is in space. He has intercepted a passe and broken up four more, plus he has forced fumble. And call it P.I. or not, he denied a two-point conversion to potentially tie the game this past Monday Night against the Giants. To go with that, he has asked to blitz 29 times in Todd Bowles’ pressure-heavy scheme, resulting in two sacks and three extra hits on the quarterbacks. What made me a big fan of Winfield coming out of Minnesota was the versatility he presents and the fact he played so much bigger than his size would indicate. The Bucs coaching staff has utilized a lot around the line of scrimmage a lot and I love how he drives on routes in quarters coverage. He gas been “credited” with giving up just over 200 yards and two touchdowns, to go with a passer rating of 114.4 in coverage, but I think about half of that production came on two plays in the Chargers game, once with him ending up as the closest defender on a deep bomb, when the other safety should have actually opened up and then on a scramble drill play, where Keenan Allen uncovered late against him.
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2. Patrick Queen
Baltimore has a rich tradition of middle linebackers, but not so much when it comes to LSU players, with Ozzie Newsome as an Alabama alumn not having drafted a single Tigers player in over 20 years as the Ravens GM. This year, with Eric DeCosta calling the shots, they wanted to bring in a dynamic player to put in the middle of their defense and when Patrick Queen surprisingly was still on the board when they were making their first-round pick this past April, it didn’t matter which college he came from. Queen was immediately put in the starting lineup and he has been filling up the stat sheet from the start. In seven games, he has recorded 48 combined tackles, four of them for loss, two sacks to go with five more QB hits, two fumbles forced and recovered, including a long scoop-and-score. His speed at the second level to string guys out to the sideline or get to the quarterback on delayed blitzes has been a big reason this defense has gone to a higher level in 2020. Of course, he is still a first-year player and not perfect. Queen has already missed 11 tackles and there have been some moments where the rookie seemed a little confused. Two that come to mind right away – the Chiefs running that double-swing fake before throwing the TE screen over the middle, where they had Queen’s head spinning and then last week against the Steelers, where I’m pretty sure he should have covered tight-end Eric Ebron in man, but thought he had the back and that allowed Ebron to easily score on a shallow crosser from 18 yards out. He is learning and we have already seen moments, where he just sees it and goes, shutting down plays before they can even get going, while he obviously has a knack for the ball.
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3. Jeremy Chinn
One of the small-school prospects I loved in this most recent draft was this 6’3”, 220-pound safety from Southern Illinois, who put up ridiculous numbers at the scouting combine and showed incredible potential on film. So far, he has put up 38 solo tackles – most by any rookie in the league, has intercepted one pass and broken up another five. Chinn has been all over the field, with his ability to cover ground and erase angles for the ball-carrier. One of the two or three negatives I had about him and why I had him around the top 50 and not even higher was the ability to process information post-snap, to not just have his talent take him to the ball, but also the anticipation and identification of certain keys to react quickly. I believe Matt Rhule, defensive coordinator Phil Snow and that entire staff has done an outstanding job of simplifying Chinn’s assignments and just letting him around and make plays. Once he sees something happening in front of him, he can get there as fast as pretty much any player in the league and the Panthers have allowed that talent to flourish. The biggest issue for him are the ten missed tackles so far, but he’ll clean that up as well. Through eight weeks, Chinn has played 96 percent of the defensive snaps and been a fixture on the punt team as well, where he had a huge first-down run against the Falcons in last week’s Thursday Night game on a fake. As he gets more comfortable in the system, I expect him to become a bigger part of the pass-rush, because his closing speed as a blitzer is just absurd.
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Notables: Jaylon Johnson & Julian Blackmon

Comeback Player of the Year:

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As I say every year when making my preseason picks, this is the most vague award of the list, because there are so many different ways you can look at it – players who were hurt for most/all of last season, guys who had a few off-years and then those who were out of the league altogether.
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1. Ben Roethlisberger
Roethlisberger is completing 67.9 percent of his passes and while he is only 25th in passing yards per game (232.6), a lot of that has to do with being part of a 7-0 team with the best defense in the league and trying to run down the clock late in games a lot of times. Big Ben has been really steady for Pittsburgh, not having completed less than 63 percent of his passes yet for a total of 15 touchdowns compared to only four interceptions, with five games that didn’t include any turnovers from him. Of those four picks, one came on a wobbling 50-50 pass, where Juju immediately called for pass interference, one came in the end-zone on the final play before halftime and another was batted up by a defensive lineman right into the hands of a linebacker. The Steelers are tied for third with converting 49.5 percent of their third downs and even though their run game is about average, they control the clock primarily with the short passing game, where their quarterback gets everybody involved. And when his team has needed him most Big Ben has come through, with two go-ahead touchdown drives in fourth quarters and taking over on crucial drives, with no-huddle attacks and almost exclusively going in the shotgun to spread it around. In the battle of unbeatens at Tennessee, the Steelers were up 24-7 at halftime, with Roethlisberger converting all four third downs with nine or more yards to go. This past Sunday in Baltimore in a huge AFC North clash with the Ravens, the Steelers offense could not get anything done for the first half plus, with Lamar Jackson gifting his opponents 14 points directly off turnovers, but when Pittsburgh needed to a couple of touchdowns to go ahead, their quarterback came through, as they threw the ball on 15 of those 18 plays and the three runs resulted in -1 yard (+ a touchdown). To do this after a season-ending elbow injury on his throwing arm last year is impressive.
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2. Jason Verrett
For this one we have to go all the way back to like 2015 and even before that. Jason Verrett was a first-team All-American selection in 2013 and then a first-round pick for the Chargers coming out of TCU. After showing a ton of potential in an injury-riddled rookie campaign, he became a Pro Bowler in his second season with three interceptions and 12 more passes deflected, including a pick-six. The next two years, he only played a combined five games with consecutive ACL injuries and then missed all of 2018 with a torn Achilles. His bad injury luck would follow him to San Francisco however, as he would go on IR with an ankle injury shortly after signing with the 49ers last year. Now, finally in 2020 he is back on the field and balling out. Verrett had a big interception in the end-zone against the Rams a couple of weeks ago and three PBUs the rest of the season, having started the last six games. However, it is the more advanced stats about what the veteran corner has done in coverage that are really impressive. On 25 targets, he has given up just 123 yards and no touchdowns. Plus, he is a highly dependable tackler, having only missed one attempt all season and holding opposing receivers to just 32 yards after the catch. The 49ers had major issues with their corners for large stretches of the season, as Richard Sherman has been on IR since week one and the with Emmanuel Moseley also missing some time, those other guys on the boundary have gotten roasted in some of their matchups. Not with Verrett. He has easily been a top ten player at his position so far and I don’t know how you can take him out of the starting lineup, once they have Sherm and Moseley back together.
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3. Aldon Smith
I thought long and hard about putting Rob Gronkowski here, because after Gronk look like his feet were stuck in mud early on, he and Tom Brady are not operating at a really high level again, and it almost seems like the big tight-end got his confidence back. However, I decided to go with somebody who was not one but five(!) years out of the league and as we all know, this award is a lot about the stories of these players. When Aldon Smith was drafted in 2011, it was immediately between him and Von Miller as the best young edge rusher in the league, and Smith out-produced the Broncos All-Pro with 14 and 19.5 sacks in his first two years, before he entered a rehabilitation center midway through 2013 season, when he has on path for another one of those years. The two following seasons, he looked like a shell of himself in San Francisco and then Oakland, as his mind clearly wasn’t right, with several off-the-field issues leading two suspensions that cost him the 2016 and ’17 seasons. Now, all the way in 2020, he is back with the Dallas Cowboys and especially early on he looked like a dominant player on the edge. Smith is now at five sacks on the season, with three of those coming against the Seahawks, as he was the only defensive player that kept his team in the game, with additional hits on the quarterbacks. To go with that, he has made some nice tackles in the run game, fighting off blocks and getting hands on the ball-carrier. He has cooled off a little bit these last few weeks, but the lack of production is more a product of how bad the Cowboys defense has been as a whole and long much they’ve been on the field. If he was on a team right now, that allowed him to rush in obvious passing situation, he could potentially be in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation.
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Notables: Rob Gronkowski & Alex Smith
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Play of the Year:

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https://preview.redd.it/e7hgczoznhx51.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=367a15768a5e30164afcabc575cbf2e6700ff75f
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1. D.K. Metcalf chase-down tackle on Budda Baker after the INT
One of the greatest hustle plays you will ever see and it started a meme fest on the internet.
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2. Derrick Henry 94-yard touchdown run vs. Texans
The combination of speed and power is freakish for this dude. He tore Houston a new one.
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3. Odell Beckham Jr. going 60 yards on the reverse vs. Cowboys
Of couese bad effort and angles by the Dallas defense, but this looked like Giants Odell.
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All-Pro teams:

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Since this is not about building a team or anything like that, I just went to the most used personnel sets for either side of the ball – 11 personnel and nickel defense – and filled up those spots with who I believe have been the best players at those positions. So there is differentiating between left and right tackle, 4-3 defensive end and 3-4 were put together as “EDGE” and there are just any two stand-up linebackers inserted.
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Offense:

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LT David Bakhtiari
LG Quenton Nelson
C Corey Linsley
RG Wyatt Teller
RT Duane Brown
Second team: Laremy Tunsil, Michael Onwenu, Jason Kelce, Gabe Jackson & Ryan Ramczyk
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WR DeAndre Hopkins
WR D.K. Metcalf
WR Davante Adams
TE Travis Kelce
Second team: Calvin Ridley, Stefon Diggs, Justin Jefferson & George Kittle
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QB Russell Wilson
RB Alvin Kamara
Second team: Patrick Mahomes & Derrick Henry
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Defense:

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DE Myles Garrett
DT Aaron Donald
DT Chris Jones
DE T.J. Watt
Second team: Khalil Mack, Jeffery Simmons, Cam Heyward & Calais Campbell
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LB Fred Warner
LB Lavonte David
Second team: Darius Leonard & K.J. Wright
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CB Kyle Fuller
CB Jaire Alexander
NB Marlon Humphrey
Second team: James Bradberry, Jalen Ramsey & Jason Verrett
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FS Minkah Fitzpatrick
SS Budda Baker
Second team: Jessie Bates & Antoine Winfield
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Coach of the Year in the comments!!
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If you enjoyed this content, I would really appreciate if you could visit the original piece - https://halilsrealfootballtalk.com/2020/11/05/nfl-2020-midseason-awards/
Also make sure you check out my detailed recap of the NFL's week eight on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXx87t1Dcvk

History
Est: 1892
Premierships (VFL/AFL): 15
Last premiership: 2010
Grounds: Melbourne Cricket Ground, Marvel Stadium, Olympic Park Oval (training)
Key Administration:

• Eddie McGuire (President)
• Mark Anderson (CEO)
• Geoff Walsh (Head of Football Department
• Nathan Buckley (Senior Coach)

2019 season overview
H&A Ladder position: 4 (15 wins, 7 losses)
EW Copeland Trophy (BnF): Brodie Grundy
Leading goalkicker: Brody Mihocek (36 goals)
All-Australian representation: Brodie Grundy, Scott Pendlebury (Adam Treloar named in initial squad)
AFL debutants:

• Isaac Quaynor (R16)
• John Noble (R17)

VFL affiliate: Collingwood VFL (finished 11th in 2019; 7 wins, 11 losses)
2019 season review
Collingwood supporters such as myself had good reason to believe that the club could go one better from 2018. After losing the 2018 Grand Final in heartbreaking fashion, the club theoretically improved its list by re-acquiring a genuine A-grader in Dayne Beams at a premium, shoring up its key position stocks at bargain basement price with Jordan Roughead and exploiting drafting rules to acquire two top-30 talents in Isaac Quaynor and Will Kelly despite not having a live pick until pick 41.
Unfortunately, the home and away season could probably be described as lacklustre. Too often Collingwood relied on playing one really strong quarter of football before taking the foot off the accelerator for the rest of the game. This was evident in the game against Port Adelaide, ANZAC Day, the game against Sydney and the game against St Kilda. Eventually, the club went through a major form slump in the middle of the season, playing unattractive, stop-start football that was more characteristic of the non-finals years under Buckley then the exciting 2018. In the middle of this slump, however, the club delivered a memorable win on the road against West Coast, keeping them goalless for a full half to win by one point and down two players.
The club snuck into the top four by the end of the season, however this was more to do with a Hawthorn masterclass against the Eagles in Round 23 than genuinely being deserving of fourth spot. The two finals Collingwood played were representative of much of the season for the club – the Qualifying Final against Geelong proved the club could still put it together and match it against the best (Geelong having been minor premiers over the course of the entire season), however the Preliminary Final against GWS showed again that the players thought they could pull off a miracle win by playing one good quarter – this was not to be.
Nathan Buckley lamented following the Prelim loss that 2019 was “a wasted year.” Initially I thought this was being a tad harsh, but on reflection I think I agree with him. Collingwood had the elements to put everything together and win the premiership but squandered it for various reasons. The club again faced a huge injury list, with usual suspects De Goey, Elliott and Moore missing chunks of the season. First-choice fullback Dunn re-tore his ACL on his return in a VFL practice match. Langdon injured his knee (the details of which the club has refused to reveal) during halftime against St Kilda and missed the rest of the season. Beams missed much of the season with hip/shouldemental health issues and there continues to be speculation that he may never return to football. Wells sustained a PCL game in his one game of the season which ultimately caused his retirement before the season had officially ended.
As per usual, off-field issues distracted the club, including Stephenson copping a ten-match suspension for betting on Collingwood matches and Sier playing social basketball under a pseudonym despite being in rehab for a calf injury at the time.
Personally, I think much of the problem lies with very few players taking a step-up in their development like what had occurred in 2018. Phillips, Sidebottom, Thomas and Hoskin-Elliott were among the players that had exceptionally strong seasons in 2018 but struggled at times through 2019 (the latter, however, perhaps forgiven for having virtually nil pre-season). The midfield group also failed to connect and take advantage of Grundy’s dominance.
Having said that, there were some positives to take from the season. Grundy continued his trajectory upwards and ultimately had a career-best season. Roughead proved to be the bargain recruit of the year at fullback. Noble being uncovered in the mid-season rookie draft and being plucked from the SANFL proved an inspired choice. Wills saved his career by taking advantage of the spot that opened up for him in Beams’ and Sier’s absence.
Just don’t mention Crisp missing out on AA selection to me though.
2020 Playing List
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Guernsey	Player	Typical position	Games played	Age at start of R1, 2020	Contracted until
1	Jaidyn Stephenson	Forward	40	21	2021
2	Jordan De Goey	Forward	88	24	2020
3	Isaac Quaynor	Defender	4	20	2022
4	Brodie Grundy	Ruck	132	25	2027 (UFA)
5	Jamie Elliott	Forward	105	27	2021 (UFA)
6	Tyler Brown	Midfielder	0	20	2020
7	Adam Treloar	Midfielder	163	27	2025 (RFA)
8	Tom Langdon	Defender	89	25	2021 (RFA)
9	John Noble (a)	Defender	5	22	2021
10	Scott Pendlebury* (c)	Midfielder	301	32	2021 (UFA)
11	Dayne Beams*	Midfielder	177	30	2022
12	Matthew Scharenberg	Defender	38	24	2020
13	Taylor Adams (l)	Midfielder	132	26	2024 (RFA)
14	Darcy Cameron	Ruck	1	24	2021
15	Lynden Dunn (a, l)	Defender	196	32	2020 (UFA)
16	Chris Mayne	Midfielder	217	31	2020
17	Callum Brown	Midfielder	35	21	2020
18	Travis Varcoe	Forward	221	31	2020
19	Levi Greenwood	Defender	152	31	2020
20	Ben Reid*	Forward	150	30	2020 (UFA)
21	Tom Phillips	Midfielder	74	23	2021
22	Steele Sidebottom* (vc)	Midfielder	234	29	2021 (UFA)
23	Jordan Roughead	Defender	162	29	2020
24	Josh Thomas	Forward	89	28	2021 (UFA)
25	Jack Crisp	Defender	134	26	2023 (UFA)
26	Josh Daicos	Forward	17	21	2020
27	Will Kelly	Defender	0	19	2022
28	Nathan Murphy	Defender	2	20	2020
29	Tim Broomhead (a)	Forward	36	25	2020 (UFA)
30	Darcy Moore	Defender	71	24	2020
31	Flynn Appleby (a)	Defender	10	21	2020
32	Will Hoskin-Elliott	Forward	119	26	2022
33	Rupert Wills	Midfielder	15	26	2020
34	Trent Bianco	Defender	0	19	2021
35	Jay Rantall	Midfielder	0	18	2021
36	Brayden Sier	Midfielder	18	22	2021
37	Brayden Maynard	Defender	97	23	2022 (RFA)
38	Jeremy Howe (l)	Defender	183	29	2021
39	Trey Ruscoe	Defender	0	18	2021
40	Atu Bosenavulagi	Forward	0	19	2020
41	Brody Mihocek (a)	Forward	40	27	2020
43	Anton Tohill (a)	Forward	0	20	2020
44	Jack Madgen (b)	Defender	8	26	2020
45	Max Lynch	Ruck	0	21	2020
46	Mason Cox	Forward	58	29	2020
47	Mark Keane (b)	Defender	0	20	2020
48	Tom Wilson (b)	Forward	0	22	2021

\ - 2010 Premiership player*
a - Category A Rookie
b – Category B rookie
c – Captain
vc – Vice Captain
l – Leadership group
Outs for 2020

James Aish	Traded to Fremantle
Ben Crocker	Delisted (rookie drafted by the Adelaide Crows)
Lynden Dunn	Delisted (rookie listed under SSP rules)
Tyson Goldsack	Retired (now playing as captain-coach for Port Magpies in the SANFL)
Sam Murray	Delisted (now playing for Williamstown in the VFL)
Daniel Wells	Retired (now involved in indigenous recruitment and development at Collingwood)

Ins for 2020

Trent Bianco	National Draft
Darcy Cameron	Traded from the Sydney Swans
Lynden Dunn	Rookie listed under SSP rules
Jay Rantall	National Draft
Trey Ruscoe	National Draft
Tom Wilson	Category B rookie selection

Pragmatic_Shill**’s personal best 22 (+ 4 emergencies) for Collingwood in 2020**

B:	Langdon*	Roughead	Howe
HB:	Crisp	Moore	Maynard
C:	Phillips	Pendelbury	Sidebottom
HF:	Hoskin-Elliott	Mihocek	De Goey
F:	Stephenson	Cox	Elliott
FOLL:	Grundy	Adams	Beams*
INT:	C Brown	Treloar	Noble	Mayne
EMER:	Thomas	Varcoe*	Sier	Greenwood*

\ Confirmed unavailable for Round 1 2020*
Notes on this selection

• This was hard to do. I think there are a bunch of players that are on the cusp such as Wills, Quaynor and even Reid. However if I was to look at pure talent as well as experience that’s what I think a full game-day squad would look like. I even debated listing Varcoe in the emergencies at all because I think his 2019 was so disappointing and given his age (and now injury) he’ll be up against some promising kids coming through. Sier’s 2018 was better than Wills’ 2019 in my view, hence why I gave Sier the nod. Quaynor (while likely being more talented than Noble) hasn’t shown quite enough yet to warrant automatic selection in my view.
• The team selection for Round 1 will look quite different to this – Langdon still appears to be a long way off in his rehab from whatever mystery knee injury he acquired in 2019, Beams is probably a fair chance to not play again, Varcoe has had a shoulder reconstruction and Greenwood is still some time away as he recovers from his ACL injury.
• Using what little powers of precognition I have, I think come Round 1 you can remove Langdon and Beams from my 22 and replace with Quaynor and either Sier or Wills.

Players to watch for 2020

• Isaac Quaynor

Taken at pick 13 in the 2018 draft after matching a bid from GWS, Quaynor looms as one of Collingwood’s most exciting young prospects. He had to wait for a debut in 2019 and only played a handful of games before a foot stress injury sidelined him for the rest of the season, however the senior appearances he made showed that he fits in nicely to the backline. Quaynor unfortunately has already had an interrupted pre-season due to hip surgery, but is expected to be fit to play come Round 1. While he is an impressive young talent I personally have a concern about whether he and John Noble can play in the same side. Both are undersized defenders used to provide run off halfback, and I haven’t seen either of them deployed in the lockdown small defensive role that has opened up with Levi Greenwood being out injured and James Aish moving to Fremantle. Noble at this stage has more senior experience (plus finals experience) so it will be interesting to see how selection goes when both are fit and available.

• Rupert Wills

Wills holds the record for most tackles laid on debut and in 2018 broke the record for fewest senior games played to reach 100 career tackles. At the start of the year, Wills’ card appeared marked for delisting given his inability to break into the senior side. He came in for a short stint in early 2019 to play a similar role to De Goey when De Goey was injured, however Wills isn’t as explosive and he struggled playing in the forward line. After being dropped, I thought that would be it for him, however an injury crisis with the midfield later in the year (including Beams, Adams and a lacklustre season from Sier) opened up a spot for him, and he played right through to the end of the season. Wills provided much needed grunt for a midfield that failed to live up to expectations for much of the season, and truly earned another extension. His 2020 campaign will be one to watch, as he only managed a one-year extension despite his impressive showing, and given he will be directly competing for a spot with the younger Sier, he is under pressure to continue his senior career. Nevertheless, when he does play he doesn’t look out of place and was an impressive player in weeks when so many others were substandard.

• Mark Keane

This selection is a bit out of left field, however I didn’t want to repeat last year’s selections of Tyler Brown or Nathan Murphy (even though I am excited to see what their 2020 seasons look like). A lot of regular VFL watchers over on the Collingwood BigFooty have been impressed with Keane, our Irish Category B key defender. Keane apparently is not afraid to be quite physical on the field and showed marked improvement as a lockdown defender through 2019 despite our VFL side being disappointing. Some have said he may even earn a debut in 2020, which would require a temporary senior promotion over the more experienced Category B in Jack Madgen. Watch this space.
Players on notice for 2020

• Brayden Sier

Sier came into the 2019 season with a lot of expectation and excitement from Collingwood fans after his long-awaited senior debut in 2018 showed why Derek Hine rated him highly enough to be our first pick in 2015 despite being relatively unknown. Mystery soon set in during the 2019 pre-season however, as Sier found himself excluded from selection in both JLT matches, despite being fit enough to play in a VFL practice match the day before one of them. The club said he had little niggles such as rib and toe issues, however comments from Pendlebury about Sier needing to demonstrate his commitment to the team on-field raised some eyebrows about whether he was out of favour. When he finally earned his senior return on the Queen’s Birthday, he took the opportunity with both hands, however had disappointing showings for the few games he had after. Then came the infamous “Phil Inn” incident, where he played social basketball while meant to be rehabbing a calf injury. The club claimed he wasn’t banned from senior selection but didn’t even appear in the emergency list for the rest of the season. Despite this, he signed for a further two years. Given the amount of time he’s had on the list and the various challenges he’s faced in that time, you would hope the penny has dropped and he begins to show on a more consistent basis the type of player he can be. That’s up to him now, however he also faces the added challenge of beating an in-favour Rupert Wills for selection as the big-bodied inside midfielder.

• Mason Cox

I think Cox was unfairly maligned in 2019 – he missed many games, first through an ankle injury and then through a scratched retina, however ended up with the same goal output at the end of the season as he had for 2018 (a season in which he only missed two games). However, it’s clear that there are expectations being placed on him by the media and by Collingwood fans to more consistently show the type of game he had in the 2018 preliminary final. During the 2019 trade period, Collingwood brought in Darcy Cameron from the Sydney Swans, and while Cameron has only played one senior game of football, he is a more natural footballer than Cox and will be competing directly for his spot. Off the field, I feel that Cox has to prove his worth after the details of his contract came out during the same trade period after Essendon came knocking for him to fill their ruck spot. At the end of 2017, Cox signed a new three-year contract which elevated him to the senior list, worth $500,000 a year. At this time, Cox was a Category B rookie who had played a grand total of twenty games. His contract also stipulates that he only needs to play one more senior game for a fourth year trigger, and he’ll need to show a bit more if he’s to convince Collingwood supporters that he’s worth such a hefty price tag given the continuing narrative of our salary cap issues.

• Anyone out of contract that isn’t De Goey or Moore

This is perhaps a cop-out answer but given the impending salary cap squeeze the onus is on the rest of the players out of contract in 2020 (particularly the ones that aren’t best 22) to step up and cement their spot in the side or prove their value to the squad. Some, such as Brody Mihocek and Callum Brown can probably consider themselves safe. Mihocek himself may prove to be challenging as he will require promotion to the senior list to stay and given he was a latecomer to AFL he may choose to take a significantly priced contract elsewhere if it was offered to him.
A number of players have been on the list for a number of years now, including Tim Broomhead and Josh Daicos, that would find themselves very much under the pump in 2020. Other fringe players like Appleby, Madgen, (both requiring senior promotion if they stay), Murphy, Bosenavulagi, Tohill and Keane face uncertain futures. There are also many players out of contract (Reid, Greenwood, Varcoe, Mayne, Dunn) that are in the twilight of their careers, and these players could be the first shown the door if the cap gets too tight. The problem with showing all five of these senior players the door at once, however, is that being gifted picks at the arse end of one solitary draft to fill the list spots might not provide the same quality of depth (even over a long period of time) that keeping some of the experienced veterans on would.
2020 fixture preview
Marsh Community Series matches

Date	Opponent	Home or Away	Where	Time
Sunday 1 March	Richmond	Away	Norm Minns Oval	4:10pm (AEDT)
Sunday 8 March	St Kilda	Home	Morwell Recreation Reserve	3:50pm (AEDT)

Notable matches during the 2020 Premiership Season

Date	Occasion	Opponent	Home or Away	Where	Time
Friday 20 March	Round 1	Western Bulldogs	Away	Marvel	7:50pm (AEDT)
Thursday 9 April	Easter Thursday	Brisbane Lions	Away	Gabba	7:35pm (AEDT)
Saturday 25 April	ANZAC Day	Essendon	Home	MCG	4:20PM (AEDT)
Monday 8 June	Queen's Birthday	Melbourne	Away	MCG	3:20pm (AEDT)

Bye: Round 13
Double-ups:

• Richmond (R2/R17)
• Brisbane Lions (R4/R16)
• Essendon (R6/R20)
• West Coast Eagles (R11/R22)
• Melbourne (R12/R21)

2020 season preview (expectations and concerns)
2020 shapes as a fascinating year for the club both on- and off-field. On-field there would be genuine expectations both internally and externally that the club makes finals and pushes for a flag for a third season in a row. Personally, I don’t feel that we have improved our list through trading or drafting and instead will need to rely on improvement from the existing players to take the next step. With the oldest list in the competition, it is time for the youth at the club to stake their claims more seriously through strong performances at training and in the twos, rather than wait for positions to become available by default through injuries at senior level. This requires genuine steps up from the likes of Brayden Sier, Tyler Brown and Josh Daicos, as well as a willingness of the coaches to begin managing the constant selection of older players.
Our opening month to the season is as tough as it gets, and may define how the rest of the season plays out. If we start 0-4, I wonder how much of a hit to the self-confidence it will be and our ability to recover.
Off-field, as mentioned, list manager Ned Guy will have his work cut out for him in trying to balance a large out of contract list with players wanting and genuinely deserving substantial pay days, and there is a reasonable chance we could see significant changes to our list at the end of the year which will ultimately have a flow-on effect on our ability to contend in the following years.
The club continues to be distracted with undesirable media stories and the ongoing issue of Beams returning to the club continues to drag on. I get the feeling personally that there is a power of work being done behind the scenes to end the contract that still has three seasons left to run, both for the good of the club and for Beams’ wellbeing. While that is ongoing, however, it remains an unnecessary distraction and a sore reminder that the President continues to be too involved in the administration of the football department.
All in all, I think Collingwood will stay in the 8 but would not be surprised if they fall short of top 4. I don’t see the potential for improvement that I do from other clubs around the same mark. The year will be a positive one, however, if we begin seeing signs that the club can develop a strong side to transition into the ever-close “post-Pendlebury era.”
Thank you to the guys doing the St Kilda season preview for adjusting their schedule to allow me to recover from surgery and complete this.
Thanks for reading the 2020 season preview for the Collingwood Magpies.

Hey guys,
It’s been a few weeks of premier league madness since the last ‘Monday After’ post. Hopefully you all managed to get through the doubles unscathed and out the other side with a green arrow! As the hysteria dies down, we look towards GW36 with fresh eyes, a fresh team (for those who recently used their WC) and still loads of points to play for. So this post is going to highlight the teams we should have in our thoughts, the teams we definitely shouldn’t, and what to do with the Triple Captain Chip for those that are still to use it.
Here’s my team and OR update. After GW34 I had 2 suspended players, 2 Brighton defenders and no Sterling. To fix these issues I decided to gamble on a huge -12 that didn’t quite pay off. Foster lost out on a clean, whereas Ryan managed a goalless draw against Wolves. Eriksen scored the only goal against Brighton whereas Sterling managed just an assist. So I’m actually 16 points worse off than I would’ve been! A calculated risk but a risk all the same. I’m not down and out just yet, though. My OR is just over 2k.
If you’re interested, I use my twitter to go over all of my transfer ideas, fixture planning processes, captaincy options and thoughts on FPL news. I’m quite active and my DMs are open so if you’re looking for more info than just these posts, you know where to find me!
Here’s some useful links that help me write-up these TMA posts:
Premier League Fixtures – A great way to line up the fixtures for the specific gameweeks you want to see. Orders the teams from best fixtures to worst.
Player Analysis by Performance – Amazing tool that compares every player based on Shooting, Creativity and Attacking involvement. Options for looking at any combination of teams too.
Player stats per Game – Great for looking at team stats per player for Offensive and Defensive plays. Also shows heat maps!
Teams to Look At
Liverpool - Every week that goes by I wish more and more for the chance to own 4 or 5 Liverpool players in my team. There are so many great options and I want them all! Sadly, we can only have three, and because we're so close to the end of the season, the ones we choose now will probably be with us until the end, for better or worse. Salah (13.2) is still the highest priced player in the league, but his current ownership % is nearly half that of teammate Mane (10.0), who has been playing extremely well, particularly at home. With his slump now over, however, Salah is quite enticing for a home game against relegated Huddersfield, but if his cost is just too much for your team without taking hits, then maybe it’s best to stick with Mane. For less than the cost of Salah, you could get Robertson (6.8) and TAA (5.6) in your team, which may actually be a better choice than two attackers based on how consistent they’ve recently been in defence. The only caveat in that is the rotation before the Champions League games. Trent and Robbo did look quite tired during the last match, so you could opt for Van Dijk (6.6) instead for the guaranteed starts. Last but not least, we have Firmino (9.3), who in the last 3 games has been 2nd highest striker for Shots, Shots on Target and Chance Creation. He’s first for Key passes too. If you can’t afford Salah, and have cash to spare for a striker, he is always an option. Maybe not captain-able over the midfielders, but a decent option none-the-less.
Man City - With the Champions League out the way, and another KDB injury, it’s actually easier than ever to predict the Man City line up. Sterling (11.6) has played every game in recent weeks and continues to return for his owners with no signs of slowing up. Aguero (11.8) is much the same as he’s been all season: Played when fit. The only difference now is he isn’t getting subbed at 60 mins. Bernardo Silva (7.6) continues to improve and has looked good recently, getting into the box more, and taking more shots than he usually does. Could be an option for those looking to triple up in City attack. Other attackers are less nailed and so may be worth avoiding so close to the end of the season, but Ederson (5.6) has played out of his mind recently and deserves a look in here for those wanting a way into the City defence. He's managed save and bonus points due to his efficiency between the sticks, and is the main reason for the Cityzen's recent cleansheets. Other options include Laporte (6.1), the DGW God, who has a bit more attacking threat for half a million more than the Goal Keeper. Mendy (6.1) is unfortunately still a rotation risk and should be kept at arms length. If you’ve got nothing to lose, though, he might be fun to own. You could even get Alonso in as well for a Holy Trinity reunion.
Wolves - If City win the FA Cup, 7th place means a Europa League spot (I think!). Wolves are currently sitting in 7th, exactly 1 point ahead of Watford who they play next. We all know what happened to Burnley this year with Europe troubles, but a newly promoted team getting European football is surely an amazing achievement worth fighting for. Wolves have two good fixtures before playing LIV in GW38, so those with just one asset could think about bringing in a few more. The usual suspects are still contenders for your starting XI: Jimenez (6.9) is highly owned and is still a rank killer despite his recent dip in form. Jota (6.2) has came leaps and bounds since the start of the season and has been giving it his all these last few games. Passes the eye test and has amazing stats to back it up. He’s some player! Doherty (5.3) has been playing well recently, managing to get on the end of a set piece for his goal against Arsenal, but more importantly kept a clean sheet against Brighton! If you don’t already have him, though, it may be best to go for Jonny (4.3) who’s been showing some real promise these last few games. One to consider if you aren’t feeling like holding on to a Dunk or Duffy. The rest of the Wolves midfield are a bit hit and miss, and with so many decent ways to spend your money, it may be best to look elsewhere.
Everton - What a turnaround ending to their season! We all ditch Everton, casting them to the fire, and they rise like extremely frustrating phoenixes that we wish could have started this incredible form before we got rid of them. But then if that happened it wouldn’t be FPL, would it? Regardless of the past, their recent form surely must be considered. Despite his recent knock, Digne (5.3) is set to play this weekend and looks like the best asset on the team. Set pieces, clean sheet potential, loves a cross and loves a goal. What more can you ask for? A better GW38 fixture maybe, but with Spurs potentially locked in 3rd place by GW38, it shouldn't be a terrible match up. Siggy (7.3) is another player in form, and has found the consistency we’ve been waiting for all season: 6 returns in 8 games. With Richarlison (6.4) flagged for injury, our Siggurdsson will be looked to as the teams main goal threat, and hopefully won’t be dampened by Richarlison’s absence. Either way, he’s been a monster lately and you could do a lot worse than grabbing him for the last 3 games of the season.
Teams to be Wary of
Tottenham - Spurs are currently in a great position. They’re sitting in 3rd, 3 points ahead of 4th place Chelsea. They’re unable to catch Liverpool and City, but they have much better fixtures than Chelsea and Manchester United (6th) who play each other in GW36. They also have better fixtures than 5th place Arsenal who play Leicester away and Brighton who are fighting to stay in the top flight. The only difficult fixture for Spurs is Everton, but like I said above, with a win against West Ham and Bournemouth, 3rd place will be confirmed before the Everton game even starts. So what does this mean for FPL? It means uncertainty. It means rotation. If it wasn’t for a few injuries and a suspension, I’d wager that no Spurs attacker was safe from a benching against West Ham considering they have just two days to rest before Ajax on Tuesday. As it stands, we know that due to his yellow card against City, Son (8.8) won’t be playing in the first round of the Semi Final, so he’s safe for now. Eriksen has played 90 minutes in every game since GW20, so he should be okay too (we hope). Every other player has been rotated often enough to be concerned, so keep this in mind if you’re planning on transferring anyone in. There is definitely points to be had with Spurs assets, we should just be wary of who we’re choosing.
Man Utd - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s ‘New Manager, New United’ hype is now officially dead. The 4-0 loss was hard to watch, and the defensive errors leave very little to be desired. Add in the rotation we’ve seen in the last few games and Man United have now become an FPL minefield. With only the Chelsea game to show improvement before their tasty fixtures in GW37 and 38, we may have to just avoid the Red Devils altogether. We can usually count on Huddersfield and Cardiff to botch their attempts on goal, though, so if you really want a piece of the Man Utd action, you could wait for GW37 and then go for a cheeky punt on Shaw (5.0) or Lindeloff (5.0) perhaps. Just don’t go selling the whole farm for under performing, lowly owned players who’ll just end up hurting your rank. We’ll reassess after Chelsea.
Leicester - Now I know this may be controversial, but I’m not sure that Vardy (9.0) does like playing against the bigger teams. He certainly has played well against the top 6 in years past, but in this season his ratio of returns against bottom teams vs top teams shows a Vardy who loves pushing around the little guy. We haven’t seen Rodgers take on the big dogs either, so that coupled with the huge price tag; I don’t think I’d want to own Vardy much longer. Arsenal’s horrible defensive form is pretty enticing I’ll admit, but after that it may be a good idea to look for another way to spend your cash. I don’t think I need to mention Leicester defenders here, and other than Vardy, there isn’t much to say about other attacking assets. Not worth taking hits to get rid of anyone before the Arsenal game, but certainly plans to move them to other assets might be worth while.
Plans And Strategies
Triple Captain Chip - What a headache! At least with our Wild Card and Bench Boost we knew roughly when to use them, but the TC can be such a minefield! It’s a good time as any to remember to be mindful that a captain can always blank despite the odds, and we shouldn’t be too disheartened if the TC doesn’t pan out (RIP Sane GW25). Having said that, let’s take a look at the options. You’ll notice I’ve only highlighted Liverpool or Man City, and that’s because I feel that they have the highest ceiling for points this close to the end of the season and with such a close title race.
Mane/Salah home vs HUD (GW36)
Sterling away vs BUR (GW36)*
Aguero/Sterling home vs LEI (GW37)
Aguero/Sterling away vs BRI (GW38)**
*No Aguero due to poor away form
**Only if BRI are already safe/relegated
Any of these games has the potential for big hauls, but just know that the vast majority are going to be picking Mane/Salah vs HUD for GW36. It’s the best fixture on paper and a must win game for the Reds. If you’re looking to stay the course and coast through on a similar OR to what you have now, then maybe your best bet is to follow the pack so as not to fall behind. If you’re looking to get ahead and need a differential pick, even picking GW37 or 38 would provide an opportunity to jump up in the rankings, but only if GW36 turns out to be a dud. It’s a risk that could pay off big or see you fall even further back than you are now. Good luck!
End of Season Guide - A few key points kept cropping up while writing this article today, so I’d thought I’d include them in case it’s useful to know. First off, hits are a lot more costly now, as the players you bring in only have 3 games to recoup the loss of the -4 + player transferred out. It’s important to add this to your calculations whenever you’re doing a pro/con on a transfer between now and the end of the season. If possible, avoid hits even more than usual. Second, please keep in mind that the teams fighting to avoid relegation are going to be much tougher to beat. Sounds like an obvious tip, but a lot of the time we glace at the fixtures without really checking who is where in the league and what we should expect. Games like Arsenal vs Brighton or Cardiff vs Crystal Palace in GW37 are now no longer easy to call in favour of the top half team. Brighton showed us against Spurs that they are willing to do whatever they can to stay in the premier league. Cardiff, Brighton and Southampton should all be playing much better than their current table placing suggests, so remember this when thinking about Captain options and potential transfers. Lastly, the exact opposite effect can take place on teams no longer fighting for anything. Keep in mind that teams already ‘on the beach’ might be more inclined to take it a little easier at the end of the season, so bringing in their assets can turn out a little frustrating. It’s always best to target players who still have something to lose!
And that’s a wrap! Good luck out there with your GW36 picks. We’ve not got long left to go now so it’s one final push to cement that OR you’re hoping for, or a few weeks of punts if you’re already miles behind and just going to have a laugh from here on out. As always, thank you so much for reading, and following these posts! There is a tonne of amazing, encouraging managers in this sub and it makes such a huge difference when making content. Without the feedback in my first few posts, I might not have continued, so cheers guys. You’re all awesome!

The Reds will be top of the league on New Years Day

Liverpool 4 - 0 Newcastle

Player Ratings

Player	WS	SofaScore	TAW	This is Anfield	Liverpool Echo	Average	Notes
Alisson	7.2	7.5	10.0	7.0	7.0	7.7
Alexander-Arnold	8.2	8.2	10.0	7.5	7.0	8.2
Lovren	8.5	8.1	10.0	8.0	8.0	8.5
van Dijk	7.8	7.5	10.0	7.0	7.0	7.9
Robertson	6.6	7.0	10.0	8.5	8.0	8.0	82' sub off
Wijnaldum	6.7	6.7	10.0	7.0	6.0	7.3	62' sub off
Henderson	6.9	6.8	10.0	8.0	8.0	7.9
Shaqiri	8.0	8.3	10.0	7.0	7.0	8.1
Firmino	6.7	6.6	10.0	6.0	7.0	7.3	69' sub off
Mané	7.2	7.2	10.0	6.5	7.0	7.6
Salah	8.1	8.1	10.0	8.0	8.0	8.4
Starting XI avg	7.4	7.5	10.0	7.3	7.3	7.9
Fabinho	7.4	7.3	10.0	7.5	7.0	7.8	62' sub on
Sturridge	6.6	6.7	10.0	7.0	7.0	7.5	69' sub on
Clyne	6.4	6.6	10.0	-	-	7.7	82' sub on​

Degsy Lovren, best defender in the world right? What a finish from the big man. Virgil who? Salah is also mustard, and with nobody getting below a 7 it's a good day all round for the Reds.

Links
Post Match Thread - credit hotwhovian
Match Thread - credit gurple98
Pre-Match Thread - credit _cumblast_

Title Race

Pos	Team	GP	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Liverpool	19	16	3	0	43	7	36	51
2	Tottenham Hotspur	19	15	0	4	42	18	24	45
3	Manchester City	19	14	2	3	51	15	36	44
4	Chelsea	19	12	4	3	37	16	21	40
5	Arsenal	19	11	5	3	41	25	16	38
6	Manchester United	19	9	5	5	37	31	6	32

City are a bit shite aren't they? Down to third now, Chelsea breathing down their necks, closer to Arsenal as to us... bet Pep is shaking a bit. Spurs are now our closest competition, but they're still a full 6 points behind us, and with a +12 goal difference that might as well be 7. Win against Arsenal and City in the next two games and... who knows?
On to the comparisons. The chart below displays the cumulative points totals over the games so far:
https://i.imgur.com/24D27FX.png
And we just keep going. It's mad looking at that straight line from us and City, it's just been a constant drive onward.
The next graph is for goals scored:
https://i.imgur.com/a3qguS5.png
Now we're getting back to business. If we keep scoring goals at this rate we'll be very pretty indeed.
The final graph is goals conceded:
https://i.imgur.com/t9sLUGp.png
And of course the defence is still absolutely mint. Best in Europe now yaknow? Mad that.
The spreadsheet I'm working from is below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D7aM5g9Pqhnt2y58BdFUc4xTp3epreMhKMlpEVgQOdY/edit?usp=sharing

Goals Analysis

Lovren 11' (1-0)	https://streamja.com/1Klk
https://i.imgur.com/erXzmKt.png	This is an odd set piece from us. Usually we'll stick the CBs in the penalty spot area and try to whip the ball in there. With this one though we go short to Robertson who then whips it in. This gives time for the big lads to get a run on the ball.
https://i.imgur.com/s966tgR.png	As you can see here the intent is for Virgil to run near post and Lovren to run back post, essentially to cause as much chaos as possible.
https://i.imgur.com/q36bi7E.png	However, Robertson's ball is overhit. What's clever from Lovren is how he sees this and stops. He knows no Newcastle player has picked him up and he is in acres of space.
https://i.imgur.com/s1z0YkS.png	But we do get lucky. This is an appalling header. The absolute last thing he can do is head it back into the danger area where there are - count them - five unmarked Liverpool players. Yet, he does, and Lovren is there to absolutely smash it home. What a guy.

Salah 48' (2-0)	https://streamja.com/1KXk
https://i.imgur.com/NGeUXoo.png	Not much to say at penalties but let's look at the decision. To start with, Dummett puts two hands on Salah's left arm. That tells Salah that he's got a defender who's worried about fouling him nearby.
https://i.imgur.com/EFxG37f.png	Dummett then continues his run behind Salah but crucially leaves his left hand grasping Salah's arm. I don't think that this is a pull or a grab, I think he's actually just left his hand there, but potentially it puts Salah off balance.
https://i.imgur.com/PXi62uj.png	But this is what buys the penalty. Salah starts to fall backwards, it doesn't look great, but crucially Dummett's hand is still on Salah's arm. All the ref can see in real time is a hand on the arm and Salah going down as if he's been pulled. It is a foul - Dummett makes no attempt to get the ball - but Salah has been smart to play it like he has.

Shaqiri 79' (3-0)	https://streamable.com/6ixhl
https://i.imgur.com/MQFGc65.png	This goal has some lovely play but I want to concentrate on Shaqiri's relentless effort. First the ball goes out wide to Trent. Shaqiri has already pointed where he wants that ball whipped in (Sturridge has decided to stand 5 yards offside for some reason).
https://i.imgur.com/JR4AARO.png	Trent has to take a touch but Shaqiri keeps with it, trying to get to the near post to beat the ball to the keeper.
https://i.imgur.com/tHHc0ie.png	The ball gets deflected to the back post and Mané - but Shaqiri has reacted. He's already turned and trying to get his way back to the center of the goal because he knows he could score.
https://i.imgur.com/QIr3Afs.png	The ball does eventually get cleared wide but as it falls to Robertson Shaqiri again sees an opportunity to score. He makes a dart to the near post to meet a cross.
https://i.imgur.com/5xBAB3U.png	Cleared again, but this time only to Sturridge who can lay it back for Henderson to play a lovely first time pass to Trent.
https://i.imgur.com/C3v2z8Q.png	And now Shaqiri gets his reward. He's the closest man to the ball when Trent plays it through that lovely Corridor of Uncertainty we (and I) love so much. This goal came because he always stayed alive, always looking for a chance to get a goal.

Fabinho 85' (4-0)	https://streamable.com/nza89
https://i.imgur.com/OoSMQmi.png	And then this goal happens. Just to prove my point from early - Lovren and Van Dijk hanging around the penalty spot. Salah's corner is whipped in to the near post.
https://i.imgur.com/QlpcEok.png	Newcastle's defending is appalling though. You have a man on the post that lets Fabinho get a yard free. Lovren's marker lets him run free. A free man who doesn't really even try to get a head on the ball. Just bad all round.

Thoughts

• Line Up

I was surprised at how strong Klopp set us up with two massive games on the horizon, but the result really paid it off. He restored Shaqiri to the front three in a bit of a free role, and partnered Henderson with Wijnaldum in midfield. In defence, a welcome return of Trent after a bit of an injury crisis.

• Arsenal

I was expecting more rotation for Newcastle, which makes me wonder what Klopp will do with this one. That being said we're essentially in a CL run playing Wednesday/Saturday/Thursday and Wolves on Monday gives us a break and an opportunity to rotate. So I'm expecting Klopp to go strong again and really keep this form going.
Alisson; Trent, Lovren, van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Keita; Salah, Firmino, Mané
I've put this down as a 4-3-3 but it as likely to be the 4-2-3-1/4-2-2-2 we've seen in the bigger games recently. I've put in Wijnaldum instead of Henderson simply because Wijnaldum was substituted but Henderson wasn't. Then, we have Keita in the "free" role in midfield, in a game I really think he could (and should) play well in.

Our next fixture is against Arsenal in the Premier League. The match kicks off on the 29th of December at 17:30PM(GMT)/12:30PM(ET).

Hey guys,
Well we've had another crazy gameweek, lads. It’s either been a tough one or a brilliant one for a lucky few. Aguero and Aubameyang are the Yin and Yang of GW26 and for many owning one of these players meant the difference between a large green arrow or a massive red one. Last week I went over some non-blanking players you might want to consider, as well as some chip strategies you can adopt from GW31 onwards. This week I’m going to be looking at what players are worth transferring in from GW28 despite the blanks, as well as going over our how to get through the Blank GW27.
If you’re interested, here’s my team and OR. All week I was racking my brain trying to figure out which Arsenal striker to bring in for Aguero. Never once thought of keeping the hattrick hero for the Chelsea + Blank fixtures. Eventually made the late call of bringing in Lacazette which worked out really well and on Saturday I was over the moon with my choice! Come Sunday, though, I was much less thrilled. Considering I had no City, my GW went very well and that helped take the sting out of the red arrow. Sitting comfortably at 3.5k OR. I use my twitter for going over transfers, captaincy picks and live tweeting games I watch. I also frequently create threads going over my thought process for my player picks, so catch me there if you’re interested!
Here’s some useful links that help me write-up these TMA posts:
Premier League Fixtures – A great way to line up the fixtures for the specific gameweeks you want to see. Orders the teams from best fixtures to worst.
Player Analysis by Performance – Amazing tool that compares every player based on Shooting, Creativity and Attacking involvement. Options for looking at any combination of teams too.
Player stats per Game – Great for looking at team stats per player for Offensive and Defensive plays. Also shows heat maps!
Teams To Look At
Man City – No matter how much we complain about Pep Roulette, blank gameweeks or difficult fixtures, one thing is for certain: Man City can score 4+ goals against any team in the league. They absolutely embarrassed Chelsea’s defence on Sunday and if you didn’t own any city players, it was a hard watch. Aguero (11.5) has decided to just score a million goals out of nowhere recently, and although he might not have been in your transfer plans before, he should be now. Despite City’s hectic schedule, it’s unlikely Kun will be rested. Not only do we not have any real evidence of Pep playing Jesus (10.0) over his first-choice striker (unless he’s being eased in after injury), but his form is so good right now it would be silly to bench him during a title race. From an FPL point of view, it’s very difficult to argue against having him in your team. He has 2 juicy Home fixtures coming up after GW27, and even the GW31 blank isn’t too worrying as it would have been against MNU and we can’t expect returns from a derby anyway. The midfielders, however, are another story. We can’t even be sure Sane (9.5) will play, never mind return these days! I was looking through the stats to see if there is any sort of indication of pattern for the rotation, and the only thing I could see, however miniscule, is that Sane has been benched for 6 out of 8 games against a top 6 opponent, only twice being called up against the big guns. The first occasion was against Chelsea in their 2-0 defeat where Sterling played as striker due to Aguero’s injury. The second was against Liverpool, but this might just be an anomaly as it was played in January during the heavy fixture congestion period. Every other time Sterling (11.3) has taken his place on the left flank. It looks clear that Sterling is the preferred starting winger with 8 starts from the last 9, and you could argue that the double gameweek benching was just a fitness issue, as appose to a rotational one. So if you’re looking to bet on who is going to start, Sterling and Aguero are the safe bets.
Looking at their defence now, City had previously conceded a goal in every game between GW14-21, causing many to jump ship on players like Laporte (5.9) and Ederson (5.6). It seems like Pep’s got the machine back up and running though, recently bagging 4 cleansheets out of a possible 6. A few people have asked me if it’s worth getting back on that ship, and to be honest the stats do back up a move for a City defender: averaging 7 shots conceded per game, the lowest in the league. However if you’re following a specific chip strategy, you may need your Free Transfers for other, more important players, like Aguero! So yeah, City defenders are very low priority at the moment.
Wolves – With the second best fixture run between now and their first possible blank game-week, you’d be mad not to own at least two of the budget-premiums that Wolves have to offer. Doherty (5.4) and Jimenez (6.8) are owned by more than a quarter of all FPL managers, which for a team that has just been promoted this season is unheard of! The Wanderers are currently sitting 7th in the league, and the only downside of their success is their annoyingly great FA Cup run. If you are planning on using your Free Hit for GW31, then I see no reason not to have 2, even 3 Wolves players in your squad between now and then. Out of position Jota (6.0) has been playing really well since coming back from injury, with a return in every match he’s started in so far. He certainly passes the eye test (a certain Leicester game comes to mind) and his stats confirm what our eyes are seeing. He has the highest shot accuracy of every midfielder from GW23-25, and the second highest xG, just behind Pogba. Moutinho (5.3), not to be outdone, has the same amount of returns in the same fixture span, with the highest xA of any midfielder in the league, and boasts an average of 3 key passes per game. That’s the second highest in the league! For the prices that these players are, you should be snapping them up as a 4th or 5th midfielder, if you can spare the Free Transfer
Newcastle – Although their stats might not back them up as prolific defenders, the Magpies have been unlucky not to have more cleansheets to their names. Keeping the top 6 teams quiet is a hard feat, but Newcastle have almost pulled it off on a number of occasions, and now with a really decent fixture run, you could definitely do worse than bring in one of their defenders, especially if you’re looking for players who aren’t blanking in GW31. If we look at their defensive record against just mid to bottom table teams, they have kept 3 out of 5 cleansheets. Next up they have HUD, BUR, WHU, EVE and BOU. So who should we be looking at? There aren’t much attacking returns from the backline, so we’ll have to rely on bonus point potential to separate them. Lascelles (4.6) has racked up the most bonus points so far, and is usually does quite well in the bonus point system when NEW have kept a clean sheet. Schär (4.6) is right behind him, but for 0.2 less you could bring in Lejeune (4.4), who’s fresh back from injury, immediately slotting into the starting XI. He’s also not bad at the old Bonus Points System game, but you can’t really go wrong with either. As for their attack, I don’t really see too much reason to dive into that pool unless you seriously need a 3rd striker and can’t afford anyone who costs more than Rondon (5.7). The competition in that spot is too high to recommend him, though. You’ve still got Aguero and Jimenez to consider.
Teams To Be Wary Of
Watford – We now enter a period of upsy downsy fixtures for the Hornets, which sucks for owners who have been meaning to get rid of their assets but haven’t quite been able to find the time. You might just be waiting it out for GW34 when you plan to use your wildcard, which is fine. But just know that you can really only use them every second game, and they are also actually still in the FA Cup, so you may need to get rid of them anyway, depending on your Chip usage. It’s frustrating because their defence is actually not bad, and Holebas (4.8) and Kiko (4.2) were useful before one got suspended and the other one broke. Let’s move on.
Burnley – Another frustrating option that we can’t really consider right now due to fixtures. Burnley are one of the few teams that are confirmed not blanking in GW31, but they play TOT, NEW, CRY, LIV and LEI in their next 5 games, the third worst fixture run in the league. I’m not going to go over the players we could be bringing in, because frankly I don’t think there are any worth wasting precious Free Transfers on. Such a shame!
Plans And Strategies
Blank GW27 – If you’ve taken out a blanking City player who’s recently hauled, there’s no point in bringing them back in now and benching them through their blank, no matter how annoyed you are! Unless you’re going to be priced out, you should be sticking with your original decision. On paper, City had a tough fixture and then a blank, so chin up! Nobody could have predicted 6 goals. You brought in Aubameyang, or Son, or whoever, and they’re point ceiling for GW27 is 100% better than every city player. It’s less of a worry for those who’ve gotten rid of Hazard (10.8) or other Chelsea assets because they’ve got a difficult fixture when they get back from the blank anyway. A lot of people have been asking me whether they should be getting their city players back after the blank, and my answer is yes! Getting them out due to the blank was a good choice, and bringing them back in is a good choice, no matter what chip strategy you’re looking to use. Their fixture run between now and the blank is worth having them on the bench for GW31 if you have to. As for those of you that kept your City and Chelsea players up until now, there aren’t many one week punt options for you to use 2 Free Transfers on that would be worth it. You’re going to want your City assets back after, and Chelsea have a chance not to blank in GW31 if they get beat by Man United in the FA Cup, which is looking likely. So both sets of players are worth holding onto, at least until we get more info.
FA Cup – Before GW27, we’ll know who is going into the next round of the FA Cup. There will be no fifth round replays! “The FA has announced that fifth round replays in the Emirates FA Cup will be removed from this season's competition, one season earlier than previously planned.” This is pretty awesome because it means we’ll actually know which teams are and aren’t blanking for at least GW31. For those unsure about which chip strategy to use, this is key information which could dictate what chip strategy makes the most sense based on your team. If you can hold off on transfers until then, you’ll be in the best position to use those transfers more effectively. Hurray!
And that’s a wrap! Hopefully you’ve managed to save your FT and can hold those knees until the FA cup games have finished. If you haven’t made up your mind about what chip strategy to use, find out how many blankers you have in your team so you at least have a better idea of what transfers are required to have a decent looking team for GW31. Anyway, thanks for reading this far. Let me know if it helped! If you have any questions hit me up either here or on twitter. I reply to comments right up until the next post. Cheers, lads!

Hey guys,
Last time on The Monday After I had a look at West Ham’s beautiful fixture run, Auba v Laca, Spurs assets and some strategies that were showing up in the FPL Meta. I tend to look a few games ahead when assessing the teams and players so everything last week should still more or less relevant. Check it out if you missed it, or forgot to transfer Arnie out like a complete ballsack.
Here’s my team and OR for this week. Even though I wasn’t part of the big dick Salah club, I still had a decent week. 7 players returned for me with Aubameyang as my captain. Hazard continued to do his thing, I got some returns from my Snodgrass punt and Robertson repays the faith! Go Robbo! I nearly fell into the Alonso bench trap this week, but in the end I chose the Home fixture over Wanny-B’s trip to London Stadium. So all in all it was good enough for a non-hattrick owner. A little red arrow shifts me back to around 4k overall.
So how did GW16 go?
This was the week of Mo Salah. If you had him, you were doing well. If you captained him, you were fucking golden. If you didn’t have him, you quickly ran through your team to find a worthy sacrifice for the Egyptian God. In other news Chelsea beat Man City! The same Chelsea who got shat on by Wolves! There weren’t any other upsets, really, but I’ll be going over some of the teams I think are worth a second look, as well as strategies we should all be taking into consideration going into GW17. I’ve been quite active on my twitter recently, trying to put out some extra tidbits here and there, so if Twitter’s your thing I’ll be loitering over there, too.
Alright, we’re done with the foreplay. Onto the real shit!
Teams To Look At
Man United – Maybe the Southampton score gave them the push in the right direction, or maybe they just played well against a disgusting Fulham defence, either way United have shown a lot of improvement over the last 2 games and there are some assets you should be eyeing up for the tasty fixture run after they play Liverpool. They’ll need to keep this form up if they are to get back on track so there will be a lot of fire coming from united in the next few games. One thing to note though is how rotation risky most of their players are. Martial (7.5) has been injured which allowed Rashford (6.8) to show us what he’s got, but he’ll probably be swapped out for Martial when he’s back. Lukaku (10.7) is still not worth the money, unless you hate every other premium player with an evil, fiery passion. He has scored 2 goals in 3 games so he gets a mention, but his minutes are being managed due to how shit he’s looked so best to avoid. Dalot (5.3), on the other hand, has been given a lot more minutes recently. He passes the eye test with stats to back it up, and may be a decent alternative to Kolasinac (4.9) if he’s benched. United have started playing actual defenders in defence so hopefully they can keep up the good work and get some cleansheets. Lastly, Mata (6.2) played great against Fulham, and if you have the money lying around you could take the punt. I’d wait to see if he keeps his place after the performance, though. You never know with José!
Huddersfield – Only West Ham have a better fixture run than these guys and with a lot of our cheap defenders now starting to play harder teams, Huddersfield could be a good alternative to our Brighton assets, for example. Keeping Bournemouth (A) and Arsenal (A) games modest with 2-1 and 1-0 respectively, the Terriers are indicating a change in form, just in time for a change in fixture difficulty! Lucky how that works out, eh? So you know the drill by now: bring the budget defender in, hope they keep a clean sheet, don’t feel too bad if they don’t. The problem here is Huddersfield don’t offer any Doherty type players at the back. Durm (4.4) and Lowe (4.4) have a good go at it, they just don’t do very well. The latter isn’t nailed so if you want to be cheaky you could grab Durm and hope for an assist every 15 games, or go for Schindler (4.3) and expect some bonus from those 0-0 draws. With Mounie (5.8) suspended there isn’t much but bench fodder here in attack/midfield. So snatch a cheeky budget defender and move swiftly on.
Teams To Be Wary Of
Liverpool – I hate putting ‘Pool into this category, but I thought it appropriate given the circumstances. Mo Salah (13.0) scored a hattrick and has become the first premium player to both score 3 goals and still be considered by his owners as a possible transfer out. According to this little fixture tracker Liverpool’s next 5 games are the worst in the league, so if you don’t have Salah you don’t need to panic. If you do have him, you can be happy with his 5 goals in 6 games. But what do we do now? Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal all have much better fixtures and 13m goes along way, but after Man United, Liverpool has some juicy fixtures and then another two top 6 opponents. If you have Salah you could still keep him to see if this 2017 Salah is here to stay, or use the funds to upgrade two other spots. You’ll have to decide whether the hattrick was a flash in the pan or the start of some form. Was Bournemouth’s defence at their best? Probably not! With no real rise in value, it’s safer to offload Salah than Robbo (6.4) or TAA (5.4), so with them it’s best to ride out the bad fixtures and hope for at least two cleansheets in 5. If you do decide to keep for the next GW, then you’re probably good just to keep right through to the green fixtures on the other side of GW21. Wouldn’t bring any additional ‘Pool players in, though.
Cardiff – I’ve seen a few teams with Cardiff punts in their starting XI. I would like to point out that 2 of their next 5 games are against Man Utd and Spurs, while the rest of the games are on the road. They really don’t have any games you’d bet on them to win, so I’d avoid. Patterson (5.3) scored again on the weekend, bringing his total to 4, but who the fuck cares because he’s unlikely to score until at least GW22. Camarasa (4.6) is the only viable option, and still he should only be sitting on your bench waiting to come on with a penalty goal. He hasn’t returned in 7 games so he’s a cheap and nasty way to save some cash and nothing more. If you have any Cardiff assets who play every week, you should re-evaluate your game plan and fucking change it right quick.
Plans And Strategies To Adopt
Budget Defender Replacement – I’ve seen a few threads asking what budget defenders we should be bringing in for the turn of the fixtures. I’ve already mentioned Huddersfield assets, so let’s take a look at what teams have great fixtures and go from there. West Ham, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal have the best fixtures, which is both good and bad. Good because there’s decent chances of CS but bad because they’ll cost you! Bringing another Chelsea defender in means doubling up with Alonso most likely, which isn’t a great idea as the Blues are quite rickety in defence right now, despite the CS against City. Tottenham’s defence rotate heavily, but there are a few injuries there so perhaps Davies (5.6) will stay in for a bit longer while Trippier (6.1) is out. If he gets back though, he’s the one you want even with the chance of rotation. He’s too good in attack to pass up. Only Alderweireld (5.9) is nailed at the back but the money is probably better spent elsewhere. I’m not sure what to make of Foyth (5.0), yet. He’s played every minute since his first start until the weekend when he was kept out with injury. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s replaced with Vertonghen (5.9). If not he’ll be a decent, cheap way into the squad. I’ve written about West Ham’s defence before, but a quick recap: Balbuena (4.4) offers some attacking threat so is widely preferred over Zabaleta (4.3) and Diop (4.3). Whichever one you go for, though, probably won’t return much in the attacking department so don’t worry too much about it. Lastly we have arsenal and I’ve been bigging this guy up for a month now: Kolasinac (5.0). Since Monreal (5.4) has been injured this guy has played every game and looks real threatening. Hopefully with the injuries Monreal plays as CB and Kolasinac keeps playing during the good run. If not, just swap to Digne (4.9), who has the second best run from GW19 onward and is on free kicks it seems (what a strike you fucking babe).
Chelsea Fixtures – It’s been a while since we’ve had to decipher between Pedro (6.3) and Willian (7.3), Chelsea’s backline and the wrath of Hazard (10.9) vs other premiums, but Chelsea’s fixture run from now until GW22 are very hard to ignore. I didn’t want to put Chelsea in the ‘To Look At’ category above because they are so up and down right now, and haven’t hit any type of form yet. Any additional player we add to our squad (other than Haz and Alonso) would be a punt. So let’s just start with their attacking assets. Alonso (7.0) is the most expensive defender in the game and for good reason. He’s still in the box every game, pretending to be a striker, grabbing the odd assist, while the rest of Chelsea’s defenders help to win Alonso some cleansheets. He is the number one defensive choice and If you've got a Chelsea defender it may be worth finding the money to upgrade. If you’re going to skimp out on a defender from the Blues, though, David Luiz (5.6) is still nailed, and still shit. But as the cheapest way into the inevitable cleansheets, he might be worth his price on your soul. Pedro and Willian are still rotating between each other, so it’s hard to look at these guys for any sort of consistency. This goes for Barkley (5.6) too, who has returned to earth after his run of 3 goals and 3 assists in 3 games. Now back from injury he should get his game time back up, but we’ll need to wait and see. Only Hazard (10.9), it seems, is worth anything up top, and after 4 assists in 3 games, he’s still a contender for that premium midfield spot in your team. If you have him you should definitely keep a hold of him. Now let’s hope they buy a new striker in January!
And that's a wrap! I want to thank you for the awesome messages I’ve gotten throughout the series. It’s always cool to see so many people enjoying these silly write-ups. Remember we have Champions League games this week so try and hold your transfers until then, and for the love of god stop worrying about rotation. It’s December. This is what happens. We all warned you! So yeah, no knee-jerking until at least Thursday. Good luck with GW17! Cheers, lads.

Hey guys, Well, it’s official: GW27 was the worst. With an average of just 35 there weren’t many positives to find at all. Most captaincy options blanked, some template players weren’t in the Starting XI, just 3 cleansheet games total and now we’ve got an injury epidemic on our hands. But the best time to have a shit gameweek is when everyone has a shit gameweek, so let’s just put GW27 behind us and start looking towards GW28 turning it all around for us! Last week I posted an FA Cup special diving into the FH31 and FH32 strategies and what teams work well with each. We’re are all bored to death with strategies chat, so this will be a short post looking at the next 4 fixtures to see what players we should be keeping an eye on and what teams we should be investing in as well as what to do with all these bloody injuries!
Here’s my team for this week. A small red arrow to 4.1k OR, which is much better than I thought it would be! This week felt a lot like last week, but just without Salah and Pogba holding the points total up. Lacazette scoring a goal again this week is a nice reminder that rechecking stats on players you’ve previously written off is always a good idea. I took a hit to take out TAA + Hazard for Lejeune + Mane which worked out well considering they both actually played. All in all my team’s shaping up nicely to get through GW31 unscathed.
I also wanted to remind you guys that I’ll be doing my first ever Monday After Stream tomorrow at 6:45pm GMT! I’ll be doing some RMTs, checking stats, going over some finer points of this post and having a bit of a laugh. Here’s the link to my YouTube Channel if you’re interested!
Here’s some useful links that help me write-up these TMA posts:
Premier League Fixtures – A great way to line up the fixtures for the specific gameweeks you want to see. Orders the teams from best fixtures to worst.
Player Analysis by Performance – Amazing tool that compares every player based on Shooting, Creativity and Attacking involvement. Options for looking at any combination of teams too.
Player stats per Game – Great for looking at team stats per player for Offensive and Defensive plays. Also shows heat maps!
Teams To Look At
Leicester - Okay so they got beat by Palace. It was quite an awful performance. I feel particularly bad for managers who brought in Pereira (5.4) for his decent fixture run especially if he replaced the notorious Digne (5.3). However as you’ve all heard, they’ve sacked Claude Puel and will be looking for an interim replacement. If they get the right manager, the Foxes could well hit another New Manager Bounce and start scoring similar to when Ranieri was replaced last February, or they could continue being rather poor and disappoint every manager looking to bring their players in. Either way, they have the best fixtures in the next 4 games out of every team, so we can’t exactly ignore them. A lot of managers are asking about Vardy (8.8) and whether he’ll rise to the occasion. His stats aren’t much to look at from the last 5 games, but considering they’ve had to play WOL, LIV, MUN and TOT, nobody’s stats from Leicester look any good. So let’s look at the positives. Vardy is on penalties and should be playing with Leicester’s best Midfield behind him. They can’t afford to mess about anymore and will most likely play their best starting XI. That means Maddison (6.6) is also less risky despite his managed minutes, as well as Barnes (5.5) who was their best asset against Palace this week. With plenty of choices, and plenty of decent games, I wouldn’t be surprised if GW27 was the kick up the arse these lads needed to start flying. If you had Leicester in your plans, I’d stick to your guns on this one.
Newcastle - The Magpies looked really good against Huddersfield. Rondon (5.8) stole the show, Almiron (6.0) had a great debut and the defenders easily kept their cleansheet. Now we know that Huddersfield are diabolical and any team should be beating them comfortably, but Newcastle can only play who’s in front of them, and they managed to keep their heads, play n effective, defensive game, get ahead and stay ahead. They have so many options at the back, with Lascelles (4.6), Yedlin (4.5), Schar (4.7) and Lejeune (4.4) all playing 90 minutes most games (Reminder that Schar has 8 yellow cards and is two away from suspension). There is a slight risk of changing from 5 at the back, but considering they haven’t played another defensive formation since GW20, I’d say you’re good to go. They don’t have the worst or best fixtures on paper, but Rafa is known for his fortress style of play and I wouldn’t say any of BUR, WHU, EVE, or BOU are the best at breaking down a solid defence. Now with Rondon gaining form and new signing Almiron showing his goods, there’s even more options here. I’d definitely keep my eye on their attacking assets in the next game. Here’s hoping they can continue this form!
Arsenal - I’ve only added Arsenal in the ‘Teams to Look At’ section because there are a lot of managers transferring Gunners players out of their teams. Whether it be frustration, or lack of decent fixtures before the blank, I think you should reconsider for just one more game. Aubameyang (11.1) was rested this weekend so he’ll most likely play against Bournemouth, who’ve been absolutely hopeless away from home and have a bit of an injury crisis on the go. With Steve Cook (4.4) still out and losing Lerma (4.5) to suspension, Arsenal should confidently smash the shit out of them, with Auba leading the way. We also have Lacazette (9.5) consistently returning and Mkhitaryan (6.7) coming back into the squad in recent weeks, so Arsenal are looking hard to bet against right now. Consider holding until we need to find replacements before TOT and MUN games.
Teams To Be Wary Of
Man City – Regardless of what GW you’re using your chips in, City players have continued to punish anyone who hasn’t owned them in recent weeks, and before the Final against Chelsea we figured they’d probably continue to do so. However with some key injuries, Aguero (11.6) and Sterling (11.3) playing 120 minutes and just 2 days rest before their Home game against WHU, that rotation risk is slowly creeping back in. There’s been some analysis on past incidents similar to this, but it’s hard to compare now with Laporte (6.0) and Fernandinho (5.3) out of action until at least GW30. Let’s look at the facts. Aguero hasn’t been rested in the EPL since GW22. The shortest days rest he’s had in that time was the double gameweek where he played 80 mins and 79 mins. He then played 65 mins against Chelsea just 4 days later. In his last two games Aguero played 60 mins against Schalke and 120 mins against CHE, with even less rest time before West Ham in GW28. We know Jesus has had a injury, and he may be fit in time for playing the Hammers, but we won’t know for sure until the team is announced on Wednesday. We also have to keep in mind that City play BOU on Saturday just 4 days later. So will Aguero start? Nobody knows. I wouldn’t be surprised if he only plays 2 of next 3 games, though. If you’re looking to do some hokey cokey with him before his blank in GW31, he is more of a risky choice right now than he has been since his injury. Might be worth waiting for the pressers on this one. As for Sterling, he’s an even bigger risk because he doesn’t have an injured counterpart like Aguero does. Mahrez (8.2), Sane (9.5), and Silva (8.5) can all play in place of Sterling and they’re all fit and raring to go. I feel like every week we mention Pep Roulette, but this isn’t your standard week! This is closer games and more minutes played. I’m not saying that transferring City players in for their 3 decent fixtures is a bad move, but it is a lot riskier than usual. If you’ve kept City assets through the blank, then good luck! I hope they start. No point in turning back now.
I also had a quick look at their defensive assets, and it’s just as inconsistent as the attackers, I’m afraid. Stones (5.2) could be available and has played in Fernandinho’s place before. Otamendi (6.0) might get a start at the back, or Kompany (5.2) depending on how Pep’s feeling on the day. Using a transfer here just seems like a waste unless it’s Ederson (5.6), the only nailed “defender”. But do you want to invest in their keeper knowing their best defender is out?
Watford - There are a lot of chat about bringing in some cheap Watford assets after their 5-1 win against Cardiff, but I think we chill out a bit and think it through. The Hornets blank in GW31 and have LIV, LEI and MCI before that. In fact 5 out of the 11 games left in the season they play will be against a Top 6 side. We all knew Deulofeu (5.5) had this performance in him, but will he be able to replicate it in the next few fixtures? Is it worth a free transfer during a time when we need them the most for our Chip Strategies, or injuries? I’m not too sure. Considering they both blank and have poor fixtures, I don’t think anyone should be giving in to the hattrick fever.
Plans And Strategies
Injuries and Value – There were quite a few injuries in GW27. Man United may have lost Rashford, Lingard and Mata, Liverpool are assessing Robertson and Firmino, and Laporte is out for a good while. If we have any of these players, should we be taking hits to replace them? Our free transfers seem so precious in the lead up to the crucial blank and double gameweeks, and it’s hard enough getting ready for them never mind dealing with unforeseen injuries. There are two ways we can deal with the problem: Benching the injured players, or transferring them out and losing value if we want them back. So first things first, if you aren’t planning on bringing any of these players back into your squad, then I think it’s an easy choice to get rid. Taking a hit for an injured player costs less and less the more that player doesn’t play, and in these cases, hits aren’t something to be scared of. However! We should definitely be waiting to hear the pressers before making such big decisions. Even benching the injured player for one GW might be worth it due to information you can get from a Starting XI announcement and manager interviews.
A lot of the injured players are going to be blanking, and you’ll have probably already made your mind up with who you want to keep in your team and who you’re getting rid of for GW31. So if you were already considering leaving, for example, Rashford (7.8) on your bench for the blank gameweek, then there’s no reason he can’t sit on your bench now. The whole point in having 15 players is in case this happens! You might lose some value on him over the next few weeks, but if you want him for the doubles, you’re actually not losing anything at all because you’ll have to bring him back in if you transfer him out for probably more than you paid in the first place. The decisions are always a bit easier if you don’t have money tied to a player. In that case you could easily transfer out the injured player and bring them back when needed, but as each of our free transfers are worth more right now than they have been throughout the season, it might be worth having a look at your bench to see if you’re able to survive a few weeks without them. At this point in time, though, none of these players are confirmed injured, so don’t be hasty in your transfers and get screwed when Rashford is cleared fit for Crystal Palace.
And that’s a wrap! Hopefully you’re well on your way to getting ready for the Blank and Double GWs, and this post gives you some food for thought in the lead up to GW28. Remember, it’s midweek games, so get your team sorted before the deadline tomorrow! Thanks very much for reading, I really appreciate the good feedback I’ve been getting recently. I’ll be posting again on Thursday for another Monday After special. Cheers!