If you have any questions on something not covered here, or just want some specific advice for your team, I will again be participating in the Zeebox Live Fantasy A-League chat on Thursday (changed due to the extra game this week) at around 2pm Eastern, so click the link at the appropriate time and join the discussion! Otherwise you can use the comments section at the bottom of the page or contact me on Twitter. As I'm writing this on Wednesday, the official squad lists for all the games are not available, but I've done the best to piece together which players are unlikely to play a part in the weekend's games - the squads for Central Coast v Wellington however are out and can be found here. Once again a big thank you to Ben for providing us with much of the injury and line-up news featured in this article.
Welcome to another edition of the Fantasy A-League Form Guide! Round 11 features the first of 2 'double ups' for the season, the second coming in Round 14 when the Victory and the Wanderers play twice. As a result of that fixture change, the Victory and the Wanderers will both have a bye in Round 19, so make sure you keep that in mind in the coming weeks. Of course, this week sees the Mariners and the Phoenix play twice after their fixture in Round 6 was postponed. As this round begins on Thursday rather than Friday night, ensure your team is locked in and ready to go a night earlier than normal. In other news relevant to fantasy coaches, Ali Edwards has been sacked by Perth - without jumping to any conclusions as to what this might mean for his two sons (fantasy cheapies Ryan and Cameron Edwards) it is important to keep an eye on what Perth do on the weekend - and for us to be prepared for any shakeups. Meanwhile, Adelaide have made some small tweaks to their game plan, evident in their surprise 4-0 crushing of the Mariners, but I'll get to that later.
If you have any questions on something not covered here, or just want some specific advice for your team, I will again be participating in the Zeebox Live Fantasy A-League chat on Thursday (changed due to the extra game this week) at around 2pm Eastern, so click the link at the appropriate time and join the discussion! Otherwise you can use the comments section at the bottom of the page or contact me on Twitter. As I'm writing this on Wednesday, the official squad lists for all the games are not available, but I've done the best to piece together which players are unlikely to play a part in the weekend's games - the squads for Central Coast v Wellington however are out and can be found here. Once again a big thank you to Ben for providing us with much of the injury and line-up news featured in this article.
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Hey there fantasy coaches, welcome to the Fantasy A-League form guide for Round 10! Last week saw an improvement in the goal scoring stakes as the back of the net was found 15 times, 6 more than in the previous round, and only 1 clean sheet (the Mariners). That's great for fantasy coaches as well as neutrals, so hopefully this round can provide us with even more goal mouth action. And don't forget, we have the Mariners and the Phoenix doubling up next week, with the teams playing a catch-up game (from Round 6) on Thursday and then Wellington host Sydney on Sunday, followed by the Mariners trip to face the Wanderers on Monday night. For all the info you need to prepare your side for Round 10 and work out who you are trading in and out of your teams, read on!
If you have any questions on something not covered here, or just want some specific advice for your team, I will again be participating in the Zeebox Live Fantasy A-League chat on Friday at around 2pm Eastern, so click the link at the appropriate time and join the discussion! Otherwise you can use the comments section at the bottom of the page or contact me on Twitter. You can find the official A-League squad lists for Round 10 here. Also, the fantastic football site Leopold Method celebrated their first birthday during the week - the site features the best analysis of the sport in Australia anywhere on the net, so you should definitely check them out. You could very well find the next fantasy jet while reading their detailed deconstructions of A-League matches. Developing your understanding of the game certainly helps you out in fantasy land too. Hey fellow fantasy coaches, welcome to the A-League Fantasy Form Guide for Round 9! Last week was a frustrating one for some managers, with a number of key fantasy players failing to fire. Indeed, it was a quiet round for the scorers with only 9 goals for the round, and 6 of them were in the Melbourne Heart v Adelaide United game. There were some glimmers of hope though, with Thomas Broich finally grabbing a decent points haul and Ranko Despotovic scoring again off the bench for Sydney FC. Perth changed their formation to accommodate injuries, while the Wanderers were forced into a few changes of their own, to the annoyance of many fantasy coaches. Two of the best captaincy options from last weekend both failed, with Taggart going cold and Del Piero earning his owners a 0 after being subbed early and carded for leaving the field without the referee's permission. Brisbane's big guns all fired however, and they will look to put a stumbling Adelaide to the sword at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.
If you have any questions on something not covered here, or just want some specific advice for your team, I will again be participating in the Zeebox Live Fantasy A-League chat on Friday at around 2pm Eastern, so click the link at the appropriate time and join the discussion! Otherwise you can use the comments section at the bottom of the page or contact me on Twitter. You can find the official A-League squad lists for Round 9 here. Once again, a big thank you to Ben (currently ranked 3rd overall) for providing several helpful links to us - make sure you give him a follow too. Welcome back fantasy fans, it's time for another Fantasy A-League Form Guide. Last weekend saw a number of fantasy relevant happenings - Adam Taggart ripped apart the hapless Heart with a scintillating hat trick, while Ranko Despotovic scored the winner off the bench for Sydney FC. There were more issues for the Glory in their home loss to the Mariners, with William Gallas coming off early and then Scott Jamieson suffering a likely-season ending injury. The Mariners featured a couple of interesting changes to their line up under new manager Phil Moss, while Mitch Nichols got off the mark against an embarrassed Adelaide United, who again lost Cassio to injury. Likewise, Brendon Santalab finally found the back of the net; unfortunately it came in a 3-1 defeat to the Roar, where both Besart Berisha and Ivan Franjic marked their returns with goals.
If you have any questions on something not covered here, or just want some specific advice for your team, I will again be participating in the Zeebox Live Fantasy A-League chat on Friday at around 2pm Eastern, so click the link above at the appropriate time and join the discussion! Otherwise you can use the comments section at the bottom of the page or hit me up on Twitter. You can find the official A-League squad lists for Round 8 here. Welcome to another edition of the Fantasy A-League Form Guide. After what was for most coaches a horrendous Round 6, we now have the concern of which players are going see limited minutes in Round 7 thanks to mid-week participation in friendlies. While this should be used as a guide only, Glen Moss, Jeremy Brockie, Storm Roux, Andrew Durante, Michael McGlinchey and Kosta Barbarouses all played a full 90 minutes for New Zealand against Mexico, while Shane Smeltz played 53 minutes and Louis Fenton 40. Ben Sigmund was an unused substitute. In Australia v Costa Rica, Ivan Franjic played 90 minutes, Mark Milligan 77, Kenny Cunningham 45, Matt McKay 23 and Carlos Hernandez 11, while Michael Zullo was an unused substitute. There is no certainty that any of these players will miss out on game time because of their international involvement, but it is worthwhile keeping in mind when picking your team this week and working out who to put the armband on and who to start or bench. Now is also a good time to start building towards Round 11, when the Mariners and the Phoenix play twice. At least now we don't have to worry about international fixtures messing up our teams until March.
I will again be participating in the Zeebox Live Fantasy A-League chat on Friday at around 2pm Eastern, so if you have a question for me click the link above and join the discussion! Otherwise you can use the comments section at the bottom of the page or hit me up on Twitter. You can find the official A-League squad lists for Round 7 here. Welcome back fantasy fans for another edition of the Fantasy A-League Form Guide. As stated here last week, Round 6 is a tough proposition for fantasy coaches, with both the Mariners and the Phoenix having a bye, while a number of other players are off on Socceroos and All Whites duty. Adding to this is the omission of Tomi Juric, who misses the game against Victory this weekend with a knee problem and perhaps a fair bit longer if it turns out to be more serious.
If you are faced with many absences, now may be the right time to play your wildcard – and in the process you can move out a few cheaper players who are no longer starting for their teams or are on the verge of being replaced. If not, then you need to weigh up whether the 3-point hit for each additional transfer is worth it. Keeping in mind that whoever you bring in will need to score at least 3 points just for you to break even means you will be wanting to make these moves as part of a long term strategy, rather than a one-week fix. Otherwise, you may be better off just copping a zero. Regardless of what you do, make sure you have thoroughly thought it out before pulling the trigger. If you have any questions feel free to contact me on Twitter or by using the comments section at the bottom of the page. There’s also our weekly Fantasy A-League chat in Zeebox’s A-League Chat Room, which you are more than welcome to join and talk fantasy with myself and other coaches, held Fridays at 2pm Eastern. You can find the official squad lists for Round 6 here. Hey fantasy fans! Welcome to the Round 5 edition of the Fantasy Form Guide. We have a couple of difficult weeks ahead of us - in case you missed the news, Mark Milligan, Ivan Franjic, Michael Zullo and Matt McKay have all been called up to the Socceroos, meaning they will miss Round 6. Meanwhile, New Zealand have named Storm Roux, Michael McGlinchey, Shane Smeltz, Glen Moss, Jacob Spoonley, Andrew Durante, Ben Sigmund, Leo Bertos, Jeremy Brockie and Kosta Barbarouses. While the Wellington players and Smeltz have all been cleared to play on Saturday (thanks to the game being moved by 30 minutes), Barbarouses, Roux and McGlinchey are all out for this round. Additionally, as mentioned previously in my articles, the Mariners and the Phoenix both have the bye next week, and then play twice in Round 11.
If you have been hit hard by these omissions, you have three options. Firstly, if you still have your wildcard, now is a good time to use it. You can also overhaul your team in the process, moving on players that may be soon be relegated to the bench for their teams such as Jamie Maclaren, Steve Pantelidis and Steven Lustica. If not, then you have to weigh up whether you are going to take a points hit by trading or copping the zeros. It is worth considering that to break even when paying points for additional transfers, the player must score 3 points. So the players you want to bring in should be strong scorers, rather than bench fodder. Playing short is also a risk - if the rounds are low scoring, it won't hurt you too much; however, if the opposite is true it can be a disaster than costs you a shot at $10k. No matter what you choose to do, I wish you the best of luck. Hey there fantasy fans! Welcome back for another edition of the Fantasy A-League Form Guide. The last round was not a terribly entertaining one, with only five goals being scored in the five matches - not great news for us fantasy coaches either. A quick glance at the top point scorers for Round 3 shows near-domination by defensive players. Only 3 forwards made the top 35 - Mariners pair Mitchell Duke and Nick Fitzgerald, and Perth's Jamie Maclaren, who finally got off the mark. But more on him later. Shinji Ono topped all scorers with 14, helped on his way by some comical Sydney defending. The absence of many of the league's top creators and finishers, including Alessandro Del Piero, Besart Berisha, Jeronimo, Marcelo Carrusca, Shane Smeltz and Harry Kewell, certainly did not help proceedings. Ange Postecoglu has departed the league he has helped to reinvent for national team duties, however I would not expect his replacement Kevin Muscat to rock the Victory boat too much in Ange's absence. It is nonetheless worth monitoring any changes he does make, no matter how subtle - and if the players will respond to the former hard man as they did Ange.
As always, if you'd like some last minute advice feel free to contact me on Twitter or by using the comments section at the bottom of the page. I'll also be doing my weekly live Fantasy A-League chat for Zeebox at 2pm Eastern on Friday - join in the conversation here. You can find all of the official squad lists for Round 4 here. Hello again fellow fantasy coaches, welcome to the third edition of the Fantasy A-League form guide. I hope your teams are all holding up well, despite many of us suffering the loss of a key player - or two if you're especially unfortunate - in the Brisbane v Sydney game on Saturday night. In case you missed it, both Besart Berisha and Alessandro Del Piero succumbed early on in the match to injuries. Berisha has already been ruled out for this week and next, and ADP is unlikely to line-up for Sydney in the derby on Saturday night; however he's in the preliminary squad and Farina suggested he may get a run off the bench. But more on them - and what you should do if you own either or both of them - later. Check out the official squads here.
As always, if you are in need of some last minute advice on transfers or just want to chat about which players might be worth looking at over the coming rounds, feel free to contact me on Twitter or use the comments section at the bottom of the page. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! I'll be doing a live chat on Zeebox in their A-League room on Friday afternoon at approximately 2:30pm Eastern, so keep an eye on Twitter for the announcement and then follow the link to join in! Also, if you're looking for more fantasy advice, make sure you check out this interview I did for FourFourTwo Australia, along with last year's Fantasy Premier League winner and runner-up. Welcome back fantasy fans! I hope your team - both fantasy and real life - has had a successful start to their campaign. If not, don't despair, there is still a long way to go yet before we even start to work out who are the contenders and who will be looking to learn from their mistakes for a title challenge next season. Really no one should be panicking after Round 1. So if you are considering pulling the trigger on your wild card already, my advice is simple - don't! Unless your team is full of players who didn't get a run in Round 1 and seem a long way off, you shouldn't be thinking about overhauling your team just yet. Trying to chase points by transferring in the big scorers from Round 1 is also a very dangerous temptation. But this doesn't mean you should sit still either; even if you are top of the charts, you will need to keep evolving your team to ensure you stay there. To help you in these endeavours, I present below my fantasy form guide for Round. Hopefully it's chock full of solid fantasy advice, otherwise I might be replaced by a jar of Jila Mints.
As always, if you have any questions for me please feel free to contact me on Twitter or fire away in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Also a big thanks everyone who has contributed so far with the great questions, feedback and other comments we've been getting. All the official squads for Round 2 can be found here. Right then, let's get stuck into it! |
Adelaide United die-hard and 2011/12 Fox Sports Fantasy A-League winner, also 4th overall in 2012/13.
Hit me up on Twitter to chat about anything A-League - @JC_Kazama Archives
November 2014
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