It’s all well and good picking rockstars from top tier teams battling it out for the Championship (or in the case of this year, seemingly just a Champions League spot, as Liverpool really don’t seem to be in the business of making mistakes this year). If your league is full of veterans however, the top shelf were all called in the draft. Now it’s time to try and spot the gems to come, those left upon the shelf whose teams might have a handy string of games.
A soft run presents two opportunities. Firstly, teams perform better when players perform better and, in Statr scoring, vice versa. It’s fine being the guy that takes the corners, but if you’re up against tougher competition (and tougher defences), your goal scorer or assist wizard’s points may suffer regardless of their skill level. Not even Mo Salah is going to be banging in three against an Arsenal or a Forest. This makes a run of easier fixtures a tactical points goldmine. Secondly, knowing your player is going to go through a good spell means you can focus your attentions and – more critically – use your precious weekly trades to focus on one-off wonders, or punts, or injury repairs.
This season is moving into its final third, and we can’t talk about runs without talking about (eurgh) Man. City. Their last 8 games this year are all against teams for whom (Bournemouth and Aston Villa aside) the bottom half of the table is now the best realistic finishing scenario. Is there enough there for Pep to claw back a 15 point deficit? Probably (read: I hope) not, but for a club notorious for their efficacy in the warm months, don’t be surprised to see some massive scores from their second tier assets – the Silvas, the Dokus, the Diases.
Ipswich are a funny one. Nothing has really looked easy for them this season, but they’ve as good a run as they’re likely to get in the last four weeks as well as the next seven. You just have to (have to) remember to keep eyes on the minefield of week 32, because Chelsea followed by Arsenal followed by Newcastle is likely to be a three course meal of Blue stew for their opponents.
What about right now, I hear you ask? Well, one of the form teams du jour have an absolutely delicious 7 next games. Bournemouth meet relegation contenders Southampton, Wolves, and Ipswich, as well as games against the beleaguered Spurs and Brighton, and the volatile West Ham and Brentford. The beauty of a team like Bournemouth is that in the absence of any real standout stars, what they have is an array of decent to good mids that I promise, nobody in your league has been paying any attention to. Their defence, too, has some absolute stars. I predict a lot of cherry picking by smart Coaches this week.
Who to drop? Well, nobody on the Liverpool or Forest squads, although Nottingham have some deadly challenges ahead very soon. Newcastle, Arsenal and City in week 26-28 could be the run that determines their fortune for the whole season. United, oh poor United, their fans will soon be proclaiming that they’re back whether it’s a draw against Ipswich or a win against a Spurs team that at this point I’d nearly be able to get on to if I was a centre-half. Don’t worry though, that laughter will turn to tears when they hit GW28 – Arsenal(eek), then Leicester (meh), then Forest (oof) and finally City (oh dear).
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