After being away on holiday at the end of the last Game Week of Fantasy Football, I return triumphantly this week bearing news of many changes. (I went to Barcelona, so I’m very much in the revolutionary spirit). By many changes I do of course mean that the Blurrt Fantasy Football experiment rolls on into another week and transfers need to be made!
Consistent, If Nothing Else
Blurrton Albion finished Game Week 8 in sixth place in the office league, demonstrating an admirable ability to not go anywhere at all. The team attained 40 points overall, meaning they were overtaken by Becca’s Gylfi as Charged but simultaneously overtook Ali’s InSane Squad, who are proving to be anything but insane. Well, insanely bad maybe. The top 3 remain unchanged, with Chase, Your Dream leading the way from Timmer FC and Que Salah, Salah. There’s a whopping 118 points between Alex in first and Joe in last, so for Blurrton Albion to be holding their own in midfield is reasonably impressive.
Blurrton Albion need to make changes, however, and the upside of my holiday is that we have two free transfers to use this week! This is fortunate because we currently have two players who are ineligible until the end of the month, including Manchester United talisman Marouane Fellaini. Fellaini is out until the start of November with a knee injury, so we will be finding a replacement midfielder from this week’s most talked about players.
Another player out for a while is Brighton’s Tomer Hemed, who we only recently brought into the side. We seem to have a pretty rubbish record with players getting retrospective bans, after Mitrovic also got suspended after being transferred in. As a result, Blurrton Albion will be on the hunt for a striker this month too. James Milner also received 0 points this Game Week, but thanks to his availability (as the saying goes, the greatest ability is availability) for next week he will be spared from the chop.
Week 8 Performance
We will get on to transfers shortly, but first let’s take a look at how the rest of the squad got on. It was a mixed bag for Albion this week, with very few players scoring more than the basic minimum of 2 points. David de Gea (54,249 mentions) top scored with 9 after an impressive clean sheet and 2 bonus points against Liverpool, whilst Alberto Moreno (1,181 mentions) also benefitted from Jose’s classic “bore them into submission” approach, as he picked up 7 points with a clean sheet and one bonus point.
Tiemoue Bakayoko (3,070 mentions) was the only other player to score significantly highly, picking up 9 points thanks to his impressive performance against Crystal Palace. Chelsea’s new signing picked up a goal and 3 bonus points to be the highest scoring midfielder. Dele Alli (488 mentions) was the only other non-captained player to get more than 2 points, picking up 3 as Spurs kept a clean sheet against Bournemouth at Wembley. Romelu Lukaku (34,014 mentions), captain for the week, scored a disappointing 2 points before his captaincy bonus, whilst strike partner Alexandre Lacazette (5,484 mentions) also only picked up 2 points. Willian (11,476 mentions) added a further 2 from midfield.
Defender Arthur Masuaku (105 mentions), Marcos Alonso (730 mentions) and Ahmed Hegazi (385 mentions) all only scored one point. Masuaku only played 2 minutes as West Ham drew 1-1 with Burnley, Alonso conceded 2 goals as Chelsea were downed by Palace, and Hegazi picked up a booking as West Brom and Leicester played out a draw. Mesut Ozil (11,565 mentions) only played 29 minutes, meaning he only picked up 1 point from midfield.
Transfer Time
So with Fellaini and Hemed leaving the club this week, we have 4.9 million to spend on both players and 0.5 million spare from previous transfers to possibly splurge on slightly more expensive players. With that in mind, let’s head to the Sports Hub and see who’s going to be joining Blurrton Albion this week.
Tom Cleverley will be the midfielder joining the side after his last minute goal against Arsenal earned Watford a 2-1 win on Saturday evening and him 8,236 mentions on Twitter. Cleverley scored his first goal since his loan spell at Everton, which maybe doesn’t offer too much reason for optimism in terms of fantasy points in the coming weeks, but with Watford looking impressive and currently sitting fourth in the table there’s hope that Cleverley can make a positive impact.
In the striking department, Blurrton Albion’s attempt to get Tammy Abraham is still falling just short of his 5.7 million valuation. Ayoze Perez was also just too expensive, at 5.4 million with 5.3 million to spend. In a rather strange twist, Dominic Solanke will be rejoining the squad after his 1,420 mentions on Twitter made him the most talked about striker under the price limit. Solanke only played a handful of minutes at the end of Liverpool’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United but finds his way into the squad nonetheless.
David de Gea will captain the side in Game Week 9 after topping the conversation charts in Week 8 with 54,249 mentions. United travel to Huddersfield and will be hoping for another clean sheet. Lukaku has been relegated to vice-captain after being the second most talked about player (34,014 mentions). New signing Cleverley goes straight into the starting team, with Masuaku dropping to the bench. Solanke starts on the bench too after his arrival, with Milner the final player to miss out on a starting berth.
Week 9 Team
Make sure you check back next week to see how Blurrton Albion get on! Will Cleverley make a positive impact? Will Lukaku rediscover his form? And will captaining de Gea actually work out?
Remember, we use our incredible Sports Hub to analyse levels of conversation and crowd-source our team. If that sounds exciting, you should see all the other things it can do! To find out more, contact Ali at alistair@blurrt.co.uk