The quarter-finals of the Manager Melee took place in Gameweek 22, with stunning knockout blows delivered in some intense match-ups as four teams advanced to Gameweek 23’s semi-finals.
Quarter-final review
First up, Claudio With A Chance of Modballs navigated through stormy waters to just about emerge from their titanic clash with The Big Bang Thierry, who now disappear into the ether. Despite coach Az’s inspired choice to captain his lowest-scoring player against the opposition’s highest scorer, the mods emerged 5-4 victors thanks to monstrous scores from G-Whizz and David.
On the horizon for them is American Dycho, whose 7-2 victory over Hughes Line is it Emery? was the biggest bloodbath of the round. The manager’s wits were as sharp as his troops’ blades as highest scorer Rocco10 was also chosen as captain. Are they ready for another spree this weekend?
The other semi-final also took shape this week, with Howe to Train Your Dragon proving to be a box office success both on and off the big screen by incinerating When ‘Arry Met Sarri to book their place. Some particularly shrewd managerial tactics saw the latter limit their loss to just 5-4, despite having the largest points deficit out of all four fixtures. Sanchit roared mightiest for the Dragons with a score of 77.
Last, and most certainly not least, clear tournament favourites The Godfather: Pardew left RoboKlopp sleeping with the fishes. Some may argue that Jurgen threw in the towel on yet another cup competition, but the simple truth is that his strong line-up was outclassed by the unstoppable family. This tie also featured the first captain’s draw of the entire tournament, thanks to Sergio Aguero’s late cameo. Even more surprisingly, Darth_Krid finally shed his deadweight status when it mattered the most, top-scoring for his side to notch his first point of the campaign after a miserable 0-5 record in the group stage.
Full results can be found here.
Semi-finals preview
Claudio With A Chance of Modballs vs American Dycho
Howe to Train Your Dragon vs The Godfather: Pardew
Interestingly, both semi-finals feature teams who were pooled together during the group stage.
In Matchday 3, Claudio With A Chance of Modballs crushed American Dycho with a 7-2 deluge, but this only served to anger the latter as they returned in Matchday 6 to slaughter the mods 6.5-2.5
The other semi sees Howe To Train Your Dragon attempt to get third time lucky as they seek to avenge 6-3 and 5-4 losses to The Godfather: Pardew in Matchday 3 and 6 respectively. Unfortunately for them, there is no such thing as luck where the family is concerned…just cold-hearted pragmatism.
Both of these semi-finals take place in Gameweek 23, and the deadline for submitting line-ups is the same as the FPL deadline.
It certainly promises to be a feisty affair, and will require excellent tactics from the four managers in a week featuring numerous high-profile injuries and hits flying everywhere.
5 years, 3 months agoGreat stuff Darth_Krid.. really looking forward to the finals 😀