Jonno says Davies!

Today, I interviewed sporting panelist 'Jonno' who offered his tip for the weekend.

Jonno's Visions:




"Bendtner... Crouch... Sidibe... Carew... what do they all have in common? No, not the fact they're huge lumps up front. The common factor is all of them are not a patch on Kev Davies.

So thats my tip for you this weekend - Super Kevin Davies! Now just two goals shy of 50 during his Bolton career, and with 3 goals in his last 3 games, he's a sure bet this weekend.

Defenders simply cant handle this fine specimen of a striker. Invest your money wisely.

Nicely x"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10FKWOn4qGA

Blocked Shots

A look at the top ten Shot Blockers so far....



Kamil Zayatte has scored 46 points from Blocked Shots this season, 95.7% of his season total.

Player		Total Pts	AVG	GP	BS	BS per GP	Pt from BS	BS as % of season total
M.	Upson	134	5.36	25	29	1.16	58	43.3%
P.	Jagielka	174.5	6.98	25	29	1.16	58	33.2%
G.	Cahill	143	7.15	20	27	1.35	54	37.8%
Andy	O'Brien	95.52	3.98	24	26	1.08	52	54.4%
M.	Turner	181.5	7.26	25	26	1.04	52	28.7%
B.	Hangeland	150.04	6.82	22	23	1.05	46	30.7%
J.	Collins	97.02	6.93	14	23	1.64	46	47.4%
K.	Zayatte	48.09	2.29	21	23	1.10	46	95.7%
R.	Shawcross	100.48	6.28	16	22	1.38	44	43.8%
J.	Terry	138.6	6.3	22	22	1.00	44	31.7%

Two defenders each from Hull, Everton and Bolton appear in the list of top ten 'Shot Blockers'. There is no direct parallel between blocked shots and scoring good points. Kamil Zayatte gets as many blocked shots as Brede Hangeland but has scored 100 less points this season.

A Blocked Shot earns 2 points.

Team of the week - Week 24

Portsmouth's Glen Johnson, seen here being spooned by Lassana Diarra, was top scorer of the week with 33 points

S	Given	Goalkeeper	18	Man City	v Mboro, @ Portsmouth
G.	Johnson	Defender	33	Portsmouth	v Liverpool, Man City
H.	Hreidarsson	Defender	29	Portsmouth	v Liverpool, Man City
P.	Zabaleta	Defender	17	Man City	v Mboro, @ Portsmouth
D.	Gosling*	Defender	16.5	Everton	v Bolton
J.	Milner	Midfielder	25	Aston Villa	at Blackburn
M.	Arteta	Midfielder	21.5	Everton	v Bolton
R.	Giggs	Midfielder	19.5	Man Utd	at West Ham
	Jô	Forward	28.5	Everton	v Bolton
C.	Bellamy	Forward	19	Man City	v Mboro
K.	Jones	Forward	18.5	Sunderland	v Stoke
Bench
J.	Terry	Defender	16.5	Chelsea	v Hull
G.	Barry	Midfielder	16.5	Aston Villa	at Blackburn
* Gosling makes the cut for representing best value for money Of the outfield players, only Pablo Zabaleta, Dan Gosling and the bench boys didn't score goals.

The Whole Gamut of We: Outswinger

MF SOTS

Stats as of Week 25. Top 10 midfielder SOTs.


Matthew Taylor averages 0.95 shots per game

Player	GP	SOT	AVG
Lampard	25	42	1.68
Ronaldo	21	35	1.67
Gerrard	21	28	1.33
Bullard	19	23	1.21
M Taylor	21	20	0.95
Bentley	23	20	0.87
Ireland	24	20	0.83
A Young	23	18	0.78
Barry	25	16	0.64
Wright Phillips	23	16	0.70

Outswinger

Here is a question: Which team takes the most corner kicks? Who concedes the most corner kicks? If you don't know, then you're like me - ignorant.

Well buckle up, prepare yourself - I have discovered a small piece of this potentially vital data. What does it tell us? I do not know. But I think it is the first step toward a more sophisticated understanding of how to anticipate where the points from corner kicks will come from.

For corners taken, the top three teams for the 2008-09 season are Arsenal (185), Liverpool (183), and Man U (176). The bottom three teams are Middlesborough (109), Sunderland (106) and Newcastle (102). That is a HUGE difference. Not all premier league winger/corner whipper-inners are the same - opportunities vary greatly.

Which teams concede the most corners? Hull and Middlesborough have given over 180 so far this season. But wait! Don't ass-u-me that corners are mostly given by the bottom feeders. Aston Villa have conceded a whopping 160 corners (Man U have conceded a stingy 85).

What about home v. away corners taken/conceded? I don't know. We must continue researching this and find out. I would say that based on these very basic discoveries, there is much more valuable info to unearth when looking into corners.

Check it out: http://www.365stats.com/football/index.php?p=league&type=entertain&div=E0&sort=cornersa&dir=desc

Okochas, Ginolas, Solanos- where have you gone?

Firstly can I just say how I enjoy the look of the blog very much.

Next, I wanted to moan about the lack of wingers/magic men/midfield points machines in the league, or rather I want to test my theory that things ain't what they used to be with a list of all the premier teams and their exciting wide-men/football wizards/SC-merchants (or lack of).
I will not be counting steady middlemen like barry, gerrard, bullard, lampard.

Arsenal- injuries have to accounted for, but only Nasri atm is a sorry state
Aston Villa- Young is great , milner there as well
Blackburn- Gamst ain't what he used to be. (Villaneuva? insubstantial...from times past?)
Bolton- Matt taylor provides the fizz. McCann and muamba the only alternatives
Chelsea- hooray for quaresma, bucking the trend perhaps, malouda and j cole bit lacking.
Everton- arteta is a star for FF
Fulham- mmmmm.... davies? whats happened to gera?
Hull- not sure, arise kilbane?
Liverpool- kuyt, riera, benayoun, babel :-(
man city- flying the flag with SWP and petrov to return
Man utd- have bigger flag in ronaldo shape marvellously
Middlesborough- trust in downing will you try?
Newcastle- gutierriez and duff (i like jonas but these two don't set the points pulse racing)
Portsmouth- kranckjar is hard to spell, pennant at last playing week in week out.
Stoke city- ditto for etherington
Sunderland- richardson, reid and malbranque suggest some flair/SCs.
Tottenham- bentley's swamp
WBA- best MFers averaging 6.
West ham- yahoo only has four west ham midfielders listed. one is kieron dyer.
Wigan- valencia ends the list on a positive note but stands out like a lovely sore thumb.

Things aren't looking good i would conclude and i increasingly struggle to pick a left-field midfield four without fear of failure. But have things got worse?

Guardian Chalk Board

Nice work setting this thing up Laurence. I assume I know what I am doing, treating this thing like a posting on Fantasy Football but with more options/facilities/potentialities etc.

Just thought I would mention the new stat facility from the Guardian, many of you will have seen it already, but thought I would get it into the blog as this is exactly the sort of place I should be linking it for everyone.

With that in mind, I will give brief summary - the facility is called Chalkboards and it is supposedly used by Premier League managers from Alex Ferguson to Ricky Sbragia. It gives you accurate stats on all players passing/shooting/tackling/interceptions etc in all matches in the last three seasons. The visuals are the main attraction as they can tell you where a player is making his passes and interceptions etc, plus there is the ease with which you can study a player's performances in individual matches.

It looks like it could be very useful, but I think it could take a while to see how it can be used to its full potential. I am hoping it can provide some illuminating information with regards fantasy picking.

Link below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/create