Shaw to Decuchy or Hill?

@Granville or anyone else with knowledge of this.

I've heard that OPTA are taking over from EA sports next year. Will this effect how assists are awarded? OPTA is very strict with assists and many assists that are given in FPL are not actually real assists but assists that adhere to FPL's rules.

I'm worried that they will take away the FPL rules for assists as I find it makes the game better. It allows for more points to be scored which is why the game is fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CJTQMerbDA

amazing

as a non suarez owner, its seems there's no option for the armband to consider besides Bale.

Bale is a solid option, no opponent seems capable of shutting him down these days its just a matter of whether he finds the net, which he is joyously doing.

and yet....

i want to Captain Samba.....badly

someone talk some sense into me, please!!!

I have 1 free transfer and can only field 8 this week atm, any ideas?

Team stands now at
Bunn
Davies, Wilson
Sissoko, Michu, Bale
Sturridge, Suarez

Begovic, Demel, Mertesacker, Rafael, Mata, Walcott, RVP

Thinking Mertesacker out for Santon or Debuchy? Could then take a hit to get Martin in for Demel, but would that be silly?

How many of you have been to a live Champions League game? I still think listening to that anthem live is such a rush.

Hope RVP drops even more i just sold him for Benteke and plannin to get him next week ,,, any thought will he drop in price ???

Cheers yall any idea how i can link my team ?

So is Opta taking over a good thing or not?

I didn't really reach a conclusion reading the above discussion.

Has anyone tried this quiz?

http://www.sporcle.com/games/Freddie/premier-league-xis-2012-13#

Takes a while, but quite good fun, I got 187/220.

It turns out I have a poor knowledge of the Reading, Villa and QPR midfields, entirely bereft of talent as they are. The only player I missed that I have considered in fantasy terms this season though is Anthony Pilkington, shows where my focus is.

Has Fiso not updated all day?

If you could have a night out with 3 footballers, pub and curry type job, who would you chose? Present players in PL to narrow it down. The focus is on a goodnight out not someone you admire as a footballer, Mine with very little thought,
Andy Carroll
Liam Ridgewell
Carlos Tevez.

It's looking more and more like Holman will replace Rooney at united.

England lose another wicket, 109/7, awful batting on a an easy wicket.

Is there something wrong with the UCL game tonight ( apart from the abysmal way it has been run this year)

I need to find out what is going on with my points. Suddenly, despite an OK(ish) score of 31 I had dropped from position 10,899 to 154,979. In my mini league I have dropped places to teams who have scored like 12 points.

Is there something wrong?

At the risk of boring you all (what's new?) 😀

I'll give you an example of why I feel the assist rules in FPL should remain the same for the sake of the game itself and not adhere to the strict OPTA rules.

An example of a lucky assist that is allowed in FPL is Spurs vs Chelsea early on in the season when Hazard took a corner which was headed away by Gallas only to be smashed home on the volley by Cahill.

This is technically not a Hazard assist by opta rules and it does seem a touch absurd.

But then you have another example of an assist that is only given by FPL and not OPTA:

Man Utd vs Newcastle, Ba shoots from just outside the box, De Gea parries it away but only into the path of James Perch who taps it home.

This isn't an OPTA assist because Ba's intention wasn't to assist Perch but by taking the shot he has effectively assisted Perch in scoring.

There might be a good few examples of the Hazard assists that people feel are unfair but then there are also plenty like the Ba assist where people would feel a bit hard done by if they were watching it to see Ba gets no points for his assistance in the goal.

The Ba assist is an example of why I think making FPL strictly adhere to OPTA's rule only harms the game of FPL. We enjoy FPL because it is FANTASY football where you get points when players do things on a football pitch...including getting bonus points. Bonus points don't exist in OPTA stats or real life and the same with these dubious assists but they make the game FUN and that is the most important thing to bear in mind.

England 119/8, not that anyone really cares.

Is brining Michu in for fellaini for next 3 weeks a good decision?

Rebounds should definitely count as assists. If a player manages to beat a few players and then has a good effort on goal that a teammate follow in. That's more of an assist than a square pass that is then smashed into the top corner from about 25 yards. It'd be a shame of they tightened up on points. If they do that they might as well add points for things like interceptions etc, it would definitely add a new dimension to players, especially the ones that are good but not FPL good.

Which of these looks the better option.

A. Pog -> Remy & Cisse -> Rooney in gwk 30

B. Zabaleta -> Samba (any 5.6 defender) & Cisse -> RVP in gwk 30

Hey everyone, got two free transfers this week. What changes would you recommend ? Will take hit if needed. 0.6 in the bank.

Begovic, Bunn
Johnson, Shawcross, Zabaleta, Harte, R. Martin
Michu, Puncheon, Mata, Fellaini, Walcott
Sturridge, Rodriguez, RVP

Thanks in advance !

What's all this about Rooney leaving, anyway? Any chance he'd lost his focus and minutes on the pitch?

I thought the Cisse "illness" was unconfirmed. Has it now been confirmed?

The last player to touch the ball from the scoring team should always get the assist, for the simple reason that if they hadn't touched it in the way they had, then a goal would not have ensued.

Immaterial if it wasn't 'elegant' or intended.

Actions & consequences....... 🙂

Just tiredly logged on for the first time today and see some worry about OPTA becoming the data partner for the Prem (in place of PA, presumably). Apparently the assists we know and love/hate could never be the same again.

My first thought is, think again about what actually has changed. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like a very simple change:

FPL needs a list of events from each game to make various scoring decisions such as bonus (shots, blocks, tackles, clearances, etc) and assists (who touched it second last). Currently this is provided by the pretty awful PA live text. Go to the BBC website and click on a game, then click on the live text tab. "Someone took a shot from somewhere, block made by someone who didn't actually block it..." Half the time when bonuses are reviewed it's because of screwups in the live text. Recently Stephen Kelly was awarded a save. Yes the Reading right back. I kid you not.

All that's happened is that this objective description of game events has been outsourced to a much more reliable source that do it as their business, OPTA. The same OPTA we use in the member stats. If you've used them you'll already know what it says in the press release - they record every game event as a position, time and player. This is simply a much more precise and comprehensive version of the live text.

The rules are independent of where the data comes from. The data has simply become more reliable. Unless FPL themselves decide to change the rules, they'll still be looking for who got the second last touch. Only this time they're asking someone who has a clue.

Just my two cents.

Aston Villas Petrov was mentioned above earlier, does anyone know how he is doing. Villa supporters have been admirable, really do hope he fully recovers. As of course all on here do.

How much will everyone have in the back at the begining of the next GW?

probably 7.8m

BTW nice little documentary on BBC iPlayer on the history and culture of the London Underground for anyone with fond memories of it. Night 🙂

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer/episode/b01r6p9g

I love you guys like Kanye West loves Kanye West.

bunn
rmartin davies cameron(?)
michu bale sissoko
lambert sturridge(?)

1ft to switch out mata/fellaini/rvp (wont lose value on any)
should i bring in coutinho/gerrard/lukkaku/suarez? worth a hit to try to field 11 with 2 injury doubts??