F:AT Yahoo EPL (again)

Keep an eye on Holloway.

Best post-match interviews in the EPL when Gordon Strachan isn't around. (not that you can probably understand Strachan when he's talking).

Google for quotes from both of them.

Sadly, Holloway is a perfect example of the up and down manager. Good enough to get a team into the Prem, but not good enough to keep them there.

Dog, you bought Cazorla at 22? To quote a princess "You're braver than I thought."

I thought Walcott at 18 was a gamble, and he plays forward in a mid slot.

Cazorla is at 22 now? I picked him up in an early window where was sitting at the same 18.6 as Walcott. I figure those 2 guys would, once again, get *all* of Arsenal's points and I like Cazorla better [Walcott strikes me as both inconsistent and a total whiner]. Unfortunately, I wasn't entirely anticipating Arsenal would look like they're not actually going to GET any points this year [though why this should be surprising after the way they ended the season and stumbled through the transfer window]

The one I think I truly overpaid on is Vertonghen at 17.5. For a pricey scoring back, Zabaleta is probably the better deal at 14. That's heading into Leighton Baines territory and Baines seems more reliable.

EDIT: Never mind. Think I have it backwards on the pricing. Thing is, I don't recall paying 22 for him as that's a "stop and think about it" price for me. Must have been a hold over from my initial layout of mostly cheap new transfers (I think I had 6 in the line-up at one point). What's far worse was not noticing this is a double week for Chelsea. Now that was dumb...

Zabaleta looks awesome this week, but he wasn't a sure starter last season.

I think the guy is fantastic, and buy him whenever I can rely on him getting points. If Pellegrini makes him a regular starter, he's a pretty good pickup. 14 is steep for any defender, though.

Wake up call, jeez. I got a grand total of 8 points from midfielders. Running a 3-4-3 mind you. Fucking Nolan shit the bed. I have Baines as captain, because while I kept RVP, I am a chicken shit. So far only Soldado has more points (12) than Baines (11), so it's worked out at least. Oh, and Fonte, of course, whom I had on the BENCH, dammit. Shaw in the game, good for 1, my bench dude gets 14. Crap. I don't like the bench, it just gives me more chances to feel like I fucked up.

Is my browser wonky, or is the site, or what? I can't seem to edit my team for Week 3. Well, I can REMOVE players, but I can't seem to add Silva at midfielder. He looks good at 14M.

Notice that bit above where I mentioned filling out my squad with unknown french guys who play for Newcastle? Yea, well, I did that and Debuchy outscored my midfield and backfield combined.

Shame he was sitting on the bench....

Ugly week.

As for the site, the javascript for that whole add thing can be a little wonky. Make sure you have "3" selected in that miniscule pull-down menu, then, you drop whomever and click on the "+" or position for the blank player--at that point, you may or may not have all the position players available inside your budget [if you have THAT box checked] pop up at the bottom. If you don't get any names pop up, hit refresh and click the + again. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. It took me 3 tries to add a midfield player earlier today [Silva, in fact] but no problem with goalkeepers [since Chelsea apparently isn't playing next week].

I was just coming in here to say what a spectacular bench you had, Dog.

The javascript is seriously wonky. I just reload a lot. I also noticed a sweet bug wherein rank changes are backwards. When I climbed from third to first, it marked my rank change as -2. At least you can peek at each others' teams again.

Metalface outscored us all by accident. Looks like he's five points in the lead, once the table updates.

Not Sure wrote: I was just coming in here to say what a spectacular bench you had, Dog.

Oh yea, it was spectacular. Week 2 also featured me losing a small gain in forgetting/failing to save my swap of Toure in for Whitaker and the more critical failure to check if West Ham was home or away in Week 2. I had the crucial "Kevin Nolan Blows On The Road Rule" drilled into my brain *last* season, so this was completely avoidable.

Here's another bug that I suspect they're now calling a feature thanks to adding bench slots and the larger budgets: Discounts don't appear to be added to your budget automatically. If you've got players you wish to keep even though their price dropped precipitously [ahem, Santi Cazorla] from your purchase, you apparently need to sell and re-add to your roster.

The wonderful part about captains is doubling your negative scores as well.

Not that I'm too happy about my -3 from RvP, but it beats a -6. Should have captained my keeper again, or Zabaleta.

Time for an old football joke.

"You know there are three English teams with rude words in their names, right?"

1. Arsenal
2. Scunthorpe
3. Manchester Fucking United

I don't like this new Yahoo set up, I haven't even bothered to check out my team after week one. I'm guessing I'm screwed this week because my team is all Chelsea players and I don't think they have a match this game week due to playing in the Super Cup, right?