The Pre-Match Preamble – Gameweek 12

This is not a pleasant Saturday morning for yours truly. Firstly, I was all for postponing these words after being struck down by the latest illness brought into the house by my offspring. Then, when I managed to gaze through the Lemsip haze at my Fantasy lineup, it only threw back questions that filled my fuzzy head with further confusion.

Wading through the yellow flags, I can see that in all likelihood, I’ll be without one or both of Leighton Baines and Stewart Downing at Goodison. That outcome would definitely limit the spectacle on Merseyside – it will also bring George Boyd and Yun Suk-Young into my starting XI. Not good.

While Boyd did the business for me on his last outing, I’m hesitant to trust him to deliver again on his trip to the Potteries. Even so, it’s either that or I spend a transfer showing the bench-warming Liam Moore the door on a replacement that may not even see action.

I know full well that the opportunities to rid myself of Moore will be few. If I bank my transfer this week, I’m already booking out the potential moves and they don’t involve shipping a 4.0 defender who will rarely get a run-out. I want excitement from my transfers – the promise of big pay-offs – bringing in Paul Dummett or Michael Duff doesn’t really stir the senses.

As predicted in pre-season then, Moore will become that player who sits on my bench slowly sliding his way to 3.8 obscurity, somehow booking his place in my team right through until the New Year wildcard. I can barely look him in the eye.

So I sit tight, gamble on Baines or Downing turning up and hope that Mr Boyd comes good. I’ve enough to think about with the armband.

I know that this decision is the big one that will likely have me smiling smugly into Sunday or snapping at my loved ones over the takeaway.

Both Sergio Aguero and Diego Costa revel in home comforts but I’ve switched allegiance throughout the week.

I said in the Scoutcast that, although the Chelsea man has double the ownership, I almost feel that some of those managers around me in the rankings made the move to shift out Costa during his spell of absence. I actually feel that Costa can work just effectively as Aguero when you’re looking to gain ranks against active managers in the top 10,000.

Then there’s the logic. City’s form is erratic, their fluidity interrupted by David Silva’s absence. In addition, Swansea have the tools to frustrate opponents. Let’s not forget that Garry Monk’s side have conceded just once in their last three away trips, including a clean sheet at Everton last time out.

While that’s a lovely reassuring stat for Costa captainers, the only issue is that the same can be said of West Brom – they have also kept two clean sheets in their last two visits, at Leicester and Spurs.

We’re all straw clutching on this one, then. I’m even allowing City’s crunch clash with Bayern in the week influence my thinking. In all honesty, it’s probably a red herring but, when you make a Fantasy Football decision you want the comfort of some logic to back it up. Then, if you’re correct you can point to the brilliance of your decision when, in reality, it’s very often down to the luck of how the ball runs.

I’m on Aguero (penalties, Manuel Pellegrini’s attacking sentiments) right now but I know it will likely switch two or three times before 11.30. I could get the decision wrong – I may get it spectacularly correct. If it’s the latter, I’ll probably spend ten minutes congratulating myself on filtering the data and arguments and coming to the correct conclusion. Then I’ll read this back and realise it will likely be down to a lucky deflection, a referee’s decision or a defensive slip. Not my genius, after all.