English Premier League Game-Week 17: How Did You Do?

The festive interval’s rapid-fire fixture frequency pressured us to always think about our subsequent steps, all the time pondering forward to ensure we made clever strikes earlier than every fantasy switch deadline.

However the conclusion of yesterday’s Southampton-Liverpool recreation introduced the festive interval to an in depth, and we’ve now entered a interval of calm. The eight-day hole earlier than the subsequent spherical of play lastly affords us a possibility to look again at our outcomes and ponder how effectively we’re doing.

Right here’s how game-week 17 panned out for me throughout all three of my fantasy squads:

Picture by Kostas Pikoulas/Pacific Press/LightRocket through Getty Pictures

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Fantrax NMA-11

Right here is the crew I fielded for GW-17:

As you possibly can see, it was not precisely a banner week for me. Benjamin Mendy was battered by Manchester City and ended adverse on -2.5. Liverpool misplaced to Southampton 0-1, that means no clear sheet for Trent Alexander-Arnold, and the correct again did nothing else to compensate, so he completed at zero. Ben Mee’s match was postponed, and Matt Doherty began over Serge Aurier, so these two gamers laid extra goose eggs for me. In all then, the whole return of my whole four-man defensive corps was -2.5.

My two forwards additionally disenchanted, Dominic Calvert-Lewin producing only a single level and Mohamed Salah going adverse at -1. So we’re right down to a complete of -3.5 factors from six gamers. Ouch.

Fortunately my midfield didn’t let me down. Bruno Fernandes, Kevin De Bruyne, Anwar El-Ghazi, Raphinha, and Bertrand Traore all hit double digits.

It wasn’t sufficient to forestall catastrophe although. My 65 factors was solely adequate for one hundred and fifty fifth place for the game-week (and there are solely 171 groups within the league). Consequently I tumbled to #81 total.

Listed here are NMA-11’s prime ten for GW-17:

And the general prime ten:

There are various acquainted names on the leader-boards, together with workers members Stall and Chris Manfredi. so I’ve no excuses for my poor efficiency this season. The cream rises to the highest.

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Fantrax NMA-17

With six further gamers to cowl duds in my squad, I hoped that my NMA-17 outcomes can be higher than my dismal NMA-11 rating. No such luck.

I’ve already mentioned the flops from Mendy, TAA, and Mee. My different keeper, Robert Sanchez, matched Mendy’s -2.5. And like Mee, Sergio Reguilon was a DnP who returned zero. Timothy Castagne and Fabian Schar have been due to this fact my solely defensive producers, returning 9 and 5.5 respectively.

Equally, my forwards failed me once more in NMA-17 as effectively. Right here Salah scored -1, which cancelled out DCL’s +1. Olivier Giroud was one other DnP, that means that my 4 forwards collectively generated solely 4 factors, all of them coming from a single supply: Jamie Vardy.

Except Marcus Rashford, who returned 7.5 factors, my NMA-17 midfield mirrored that of my NMA-11 squad.

The end result was not fairly. I completed the week on 73 factors, solely 8 greater than my crappy NMA-11 crew produced. That put me in one hundred and twenty fifth place for the week — out of 135! Contemplating that a few quarter of all Fantrax groups in every league have been constructed again in GW-1 or GW-2 after which deserted, that’s actually abysmal. The hit dropped me to 61st place total, persevering with my run of poor kind in Fantrax this season.

Listed here are the highest NMA-17 groups for GW-17:

And for the season:

As soon as once more we see that the leader-boards are stuffed with acquainted names, proving that the most effective fantasy managers discover methods to prevail year-in and year-out.

As for me, my Fantrax performances over the primary half of the season are but another excuse I’m completely satisfied to see 2020 recede into the previous, and I’m hoping that the brand new yr brings a contemporary begin with a change of fortune. To that finish, I’ll be investing closely in triple-gamers for the mixed GW-18 + 19 Fantrax spherical that can launch one week from right now!

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FPL

Oddly, I’m doing a lot better within the official recreation than I’m in Fantrax this season, even though Fantrax is my conventional wheelhouse. Right here’s how I lined up for GW-17, together with my factors:

Wolves hadn’t scored greater than two objectives in a league recreation all season, however Robert Sánchez conceded three to them on Saturday, returning only one level. Neither James Justin nor Andrew Robertson saved clear sheets, and each have been additionally proven yellow. The end result: some extent apiece. And Mo Salah, Ollie Watkins, and Patrick Bamford might handle solely look factors.

However Vladimir Coufal saved a clear sheet, Jamie Vardy notched an help, Jack Grealish picked up an help plus 2 bonus factors, Tomas Soucek scored, saved a clear sheet, and gained 3 bonus factors, and Bruno Fernandes, my captain, scored and claimed 3 bonus factors.

The ultimate tally was 58 factors, only a shade higher than the game-week common of 56. That positioned me 3,731,529th for the spherical, dropping me to 238,903rd total on a complete of 1023 factors. Within the NMA “BTB” league that time complete sits me in 480th.

Though I had crimson arrows in each FPL mini-league, my GW rating of 58 was sufficient to defeat my FPL Cup opponent, CHANGE NAME, by three factors. I now transfer on to face opi, who scored an intimidating 81 factors final week. I’ll be deploying my Free Hit chip for GW-18 and its blanks; hopefully between luck and good selections I’ll win that head-to-head and advance to the third spherical of the Cup.

Listed here are the general standings for the NMA “BTB” mini-league. Notable weblog member CreweGuy, who runs our Fantrax Cup competitions, is in thirty fifth with 1090.

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I’ve proven you my soiled laundry, so how about sharing yours? Please inform us how your squads did in GW-17 and the way you’re organising for the wild clean, double and triple game-weeks forward.

And if you’re on social media, please comply with us on Twitter (@NMA_Blog), Instagram (by no means.handle.alone), and Fb (@nevermanagealone).

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