GW23 / DGW24: Acropolis Now

The Parthenon is in Ruins

If GW22 was a Greek Tragedy, GW23 was the night where the lead actor turns up drunk and wets himself on stage, leading to terrible reviews from vindictive critics who have just been waiting for something to go wrong.  And if that was GW23, well DGW24 was the beginning of the end. The gosh dang apocalypse.

Let’s start with GW23 shall we, and address the elephant in the room.  The elephant is called Neil.  Explain yourself Neil, I’m all ears (that’s an elephant joke).

I tried to be clever and get Neil Maupay in for Raul Jimenez at the start of the hype, hoping that his value would increase while Jimenez’s went down, thus leaving me free to take Salah in DGW24.

Maupay got an assist, not too bad, but then he got booked and then to make it worse RJ went and got his biggest haul of the season.  Net effect: -9.

Then, the other conundrum was whether to go with Foster or Schmeichel in goal.  I figured Spurs would score against Watford so went with Schmeichel.  Result: Foster 9, Schmeichel 2. Net Effect: -7.  NB: Aurier (6) was on my bench but I never really considered him this week, so I am not considering this a failed conundrum.

Other things which happened: Oh yeah, Jamie Vardy missed a penalty. 0 points. Saving grace – competitors had him as captain.  TAA (10) and Grealish (10) saved my week from being a COMPLETE disaster, but still disappointing.  My close rivals in Greece opened up a gap, mainly due to Gazzaniga/Pope, or using a bench boost chip (in my opinion a waste, but what do I know?)

Overall Net Effect (this is a new metric I will recap each week ongoing – outcome of any conundrums and transfers)
Transfer Net Effect: -9
Conundrum Net Effect: -7
Captain Net Effect (vs VC): Mane 3 vs TAA 10 = -7

TOTAL NET EFFECT OF CHOICES MADE: -23
GW points: 42
OVR: 2,553
Greece: 4th (-32 points from top)

On to DGW24

The big one, 2x Liverpool matches.  Everyone wants 3 Liverpool players but the jury is out on a) which ones, b) whether to use the Triple Captain chip, and c) who to use it on.

Because my Maupay decision didn’t work out, I had a choice to make for point a)

Either: 1) Robertson (Soyuncu), or 2) Salah (Martial, Maupay->Greenwood = -4)

A mixture of pride at not wanting to take my first -4 hit of the season, and having a strong feeling that only one of Salah or Mane would perform well, meant I went with Robertson.  If the -4 hadnt been in play, I’d have probably gone with Salah.

Conundrum b) – use or don’t use the TC chip?  I was 90% for using it, it is not often that the best team in the world has a DGW at this stage of the season when the risk of rotation is still fairly low.  My hesitance, don’t be seduced by DGW when there might be a much more appealing option later in the season.  Decision: USE IT

Conundrum c) – who to TC?  Mane or TAA.  Again, don’t be seduced by the DGW.  I would never normally captain a defender, so why would I do it this week?  TAA is no normal defender though.  I gave serious consideration to captaining him in GW23 and regretted it. I changed numerous times, all the way up to 2 mins before the deadline when I still had TAA, but eventually plumped for Mane.  I decided if it went wrong I would feel like a complete tool, and at least if Mane blanked I could just pass it off as bad luck rather than “WHAT IN THE NAME OF ZEUS WERE YOU THINKING?!”

Deadline passed, it is now in the hands of the gods.

Game 1 – Grealish, blank
Game 2 – Kelly, blank // Ings, blank
Game 3 – KDB – ASSIST!
Game 4 – Vardy, blank, injured // Schmeichel, blank, yellow card.
Game 5 – Aurier – ASSIST!
Game 6 – Martial, blank.

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

At least most of the world is in the same position, and it’s just looking like a low scoring week all round.  All eyes on the Liverpool game.  I’m not watching as I’m abroad with work, nervously looking at my phone every time it buzzes, hoping to see those beautiful words: Goal Mane, Assist Robertson.  There is a vibration, Goal Henderson, Assist TAA – that’ll do for starters. TAA Assist and nobody in their right mind would have Hendo, let alone as captain.

Then comes the whatsapp message from hell. As if it was typed out by Colonel Kurtz himself.  At least in this case the messenger was a fellow Mane TCer.

I checked my faithful score app to confirm the news.

This. Is. Bad.  Best case from here: all my rivals have done the same, Mane is back for the second game, Salah does nothing else for the rest of either game and definitely definitely Jimenez won’t sco… The HOrRoR…

Salah doesn’t do anything in that game but we all know what is going to happen in the next game don’t we. He’s going to have a field day and the Olympic dream will be over.

Transfer Net Effect:
Robertson 7 vs Soyuncu 2 = +5
Compared to: Salah – 4 for Martial = -8
Total: -3
TC Conundrum Net Effect: -22

Conclusion and glimmer of hope – it was the Triple Captain choice, rather than choosing Robbo over Salah which was my downfall. If I’d stuck with TAA id have been 22 points better off than I was. If I had burned -4 and gone for Salah, it would have only been an 8 point net gain vs Martial. Sure I might have TCd him, but I might have stuck with Mane.  That’s neither here nor there and it’s just bad luck.

GW Points: 43
OVR: 9,933
Greece: 20 (-55 points from top)

A song springs to mind.

I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter

RIP Chester, and RIP my hopes and dreams. [the horror…]