Hey there fantasy fans! Welcome to the Fantasy A-League Form Guide for Round 5. An interesting couple of rounds are ahead of us with many key players missing due to international duty. In case you missed the news, Matt McKay, Ivan Franjic, Michael Zullo and Mark Milligan have all been called up for the Socceroos, meaning they will all miss Round 6. Similarly, New Zealand have named Glen Moss, Jacob Spoonley, Andrew Durante, Storm Roux, Ben Sigmund, Leo Bertos, Michael McGlinchey, Kosta Barbarouses, Jeremy Brockie and Shane Smeltz. While all Wellington and Central Coast players were already missing Round 6 thanks to their bye, Roux and McGlinchey will miss out this weekend as well. All of Wellington's NZ representatives will play against Perth on Saturday after the game was moved by 30 minutes. Smeltz will also play in that game before being absent for Round 6, however Barbarouses is now out for the Victory's trip to Sydney in addition to Round 6.
If you have any of these players make sure you have sufficient cover for them over the next two rounds. As I've already warned you about the Mariners and Phoenix missing Round 6 in previous posts you should be in a healthier position than most if you took my advice. If not, and you are facing several zeros on your field, then you have three options. Firstly, you can play your wildcard if you still have it - perhaps not a bad thing as you'll be able to shake up your team and move on players that are in danger of being benched over the coming weeks, such as Steve Pantelidis, Jamie Maclaren, Ryan Edwards, Steven Lustica and other cheapies. If you have already used your wildcard (or want to hang on to it for whatever reason), then you have two choices - take a points hit by doing multiple transfers, or just cop the zeros. When deciding whether to trade or not, consider that whoever you trade in will need to score more than 2 points just for you to break even - otherwise, you might think about copping the doughnut. It's risky either way, because if it's a low scoring couple of rounds you won't be left too far behind playing short, but if the opposite is true it's a disaster that could cost you the $10k. So I would suggest if you are trading, trade for players likely to score you big points rather than just bench cover. Whatever you do over the next two rounds, I wish you the best of luck. Of course, if the FFA scheduled breaks for internationals like other leagues, we wouldn't have this issue. The next time we face this problem won't be until March, so get through these two weeks unscathed and it should be relatively smooth sailing until late in the season.
If you have any of these players make sure you have sufficient cover for them over the next two rounds. As I've already warned you about the Mariners and Phoenix missing Round 6 in previous posts you should be in a healthier position than most if you took my advice. If not, and you are facing several zeros on your field, then you have three options. Firstly, you can play your wildcard if you still have it - perhaps not a bad thing as you'll be able to shake up your team and move on players that are in danger of being benched over the coming weeks, such as Steve Pantelidis, Jamie Maclaren, Ryan Edwards, Steven Lustica and other cheapies. If you have already used your wildcard (or want to hang on to it for whatever reason), then you have two choices - take a points hit by doing multiple transfers, or just cop the zeros. When deciding whether to trade or not, consider that whoever you trade in will need to score more than 2 points just for you to break even - otherwise, you might think about copping the doughnut. It's risky either way, because if it's a low scoring couple of rounds you won't be left too far behind playing short, but if the opposite is true it's a disaster that could cost you the $10k. So I would suggest if you are trading, trade for players likely to score you big points rather than just bench cover. Whatever you do over the next two rounds, I wish you the best of luck. Of course, if the FFA scheduled breaks for internationals like other leagues, we wouldn't have this issue. The next time we face this problem won't be until March, so get through these two weeks unscathed and it should be relatively smooth sailing until late in the season.