Runde 29 Community Managers

Gameweek 29 is upon us and with Molde guaranteed to finish second, the two giants Valerenga and Rosenborg will battle it out to finish third. Both sides should win their games against IK Start and Sandefjord respectively, which means Valerenga pip their rivals to that final European spot. It will be interesting to see what happens to Åge Hareide as the Knight of Dannebrog and former Denmark manager only recently became Rosenborg manager at the start of September earlier this year. It would seem incredibly harsh to do anything other than give him at least another season, as he has managed a win rate of 56.25% and has amassed 60% of possible points from his 16 games in charge. Whatever happens, it will be a tense final day of the season next Tuesday.

Stromsgodset have, like Odd, two games left to play which gives them a huge advantage over Start in the relegation playoff battle. The odds are already stacked against Start pulling off a result against Valerenga as it is, and with Stromsgodset needing just three points to avoid possible relegation from two games (Odd away and Stabaek at home) it would seem as though they will do just enough to stay in the division.

Bodo/Glimt have been smashing every single record possible this year. To make it easier to understand just how good they’ve been, I’ll bullet point some milestones they’ve reached:

• Most points in a season (since 1987): 78 – was 71

• Highest number of points per game (since 1987): 2.69 – was 2.42

• Most wins in a season (since 1963): 25 – was 22

• Highest win percentage in a season (since 1963): 86.2% – was 77.8%

• Most goals scored in a season (since 1963): 100 [3.44 goals per game] – was 87 [3.34 goals per game – 26 game season]

• Most home wins in a season (since 1963): 14 [won every single home game this season] – was 14

• Player to have most goals and assists combined (since 2005): Zinckernagel 37 in 27 games – was 33.

The team have been a revelation and will hopefully signal a change for the better for Norwegian football, with other teams looking to them for inspiration to improve the quality of their own style of play. There will be question marks over Philip Zinckernagel’s (9.6m) future along with captain Ulrik Saltnes (8.2m), Patrick Berg (4.5m) and forward Kasper Junker (9.9m). Many high-profile names have already left the Eliteserien for pastures new and it wouldn’t surprise if at least one or two Glimt players are not plying their trade in Norway next year. 

For me, Runde 28 did not play out the way I intended it to but I am at peace with my decisions to opt for more high-risk players rather than follow suit with everyone else in order to consolidate my ~700 OR. For me, I was always going to look at how I could move up rather than making sure I didn’t drop down too much. It’s been an underwhelming season but despite my shortcomings this season the lessons are there to be learnt from and 2021 is brand new opportunity to apply fresh thinking and start again.

However, this isn’t just about me. It’s been interesting to see how well the faithful readership have been doing so I’d like to give an overview of the FFS managers’ performances and where they might end up after the final week of the season:

• HotdogsForTea: 1913pts, 899OR – GW29: 155pts

• Eytexi: 2062pts, 13OR – GW29: 134pts

• Gertjan: 1981pts, 159OR – GW29: 162pts

• TheUnits: 1861pts, 2200OR – GW29: 149pts

• WhitbyTDuck: 1967pts, 250OR – GW29: 149pts

• Fresco: 2074pts, 8OR – GW29: 169pts

• Kinghenkka: 1974pts, 201OR – GW29: 169pts

• Nightrain: 2015pts, 62OR – GW29: 162pts

• Troux: 1901pts, 1116OR – GW29: 168pts

• Ramboros: 2089pts, 6OR – GW29: 175pts

• Dupuytrens: 1807pts, 4180OR – GW29: 102pts

• Niemi: 2046pts, 30OR – GW29: 140pts

There are some absolutely cracking scores here and it’s worth noting that everyone mentioned scored over 100pts in GW29 which is lovely to see. With number one in the world currently sitting on 2127pts, it seems a Sisyphean task for any of our managers to catch him, with the most likely being Ramboros who in 6th place is 38 points behind. That seems like a bridge too far, but stranger things have happened. He is just 6 points behind 3rd, so an incredible top 3 finish is certainly on the cards. He waited until GW29 to play Rich Uncle which almost resulted in 200pts, and is still yet to play his second Wildcard. Second place ‘Guldberglia Gutters’ still have their Spissrush to play so it could be all change at the top of the pile as no other manager in the top 6 has any chips remaining.

Sitting a further 15 points behind Ramboros, Fresco will look to cement a top 10 finish despite not having any chips left. A couple of teams behind him still have one chip to play which could present some issues but with respectable finishes of 682 in 2017 and 861 in 2019, top 10 looks like a real possibility and would be a remarkable achievement.

A little bit further down is frequent poster Eytexi on 2062pts. With just 16pts separating him and Niemi (30th) and himself being only 12pts behind Fresco, it’s so close I’m feeling claustrophobic writing this. All four managers could genuinely finish in the top 10 which makes this final gameweek so difficult to judge for those players. How much risk can they mitigate against their position? How much will they invest in a potential rank climb which could either provide huge gains or catastrophic losses?

With 2015pts, Nightrain finds himself a mere 12pts behind 50th place. To finish 3694th last season and now be in a position to rank in the top 50 is a huge, huge feat of perseverance. Hats off to him. 

Gertjan has also had a much improved season after three consecutive seasons finishing outside the top 1300. To be 159th and 16pts off the top 150 is sensational and even though he – like most other managers – has used all his chips, finds his team in good shape for the final gameweek with a real chance to move up. 

Even outside of the top 50,100,150, it is so close. Kinghenkka may be 42 places behind Gertjan but that equates to seven points. In fact he’s only 23pts off the top 100. WhitbyTDuck is another manager who will be feeling the pressure. 250th overall but again, only just behind everyone else. Everyone mentioned so far will be racking their brains as to what to do for GW30 and with the league as unpredictable as it is, it’s anyone’s guess who ends up where.

HotdogsForTea will be biting his nails in his bid to finish in the top 1000 even though he is 111 places ahead, it’s actually a miniscule 5pts difference. TheUnits and myself find ourselves in a similar position, having failed to build on momentum in recent weeks. As it’s his first season playing and not knowing much about the league I think he’s in line for a good finish and should look ahead to build on that rank next season. Having a yo-yo season to rival Odds in the league, Dupuytrens is a bit further down in 4180 but with a bit of luck could break into the top 3000 which is 30pts away. Having hit triple figures three times this season I hope he can take solace in the fact he’s managed to have some good gameweeks even if the consistency wasn’t there.

I’m not going to providing any stats or any ‘advice’ (if I’m even in a position to be able to do such a thing!) as we enter the final gameweek. With so much at stake and the potential for so many things to go wrong, it seems like the absolute wrong time to suggest any players whatsoever. I simply wish everyone good luck and hope come Tuesday you’re all rewarded with green arrows for your efforts.

At the end of the season, I will hopefully be able to provide more articles looking back on the season and am interested to collate all Fantasy points scored by every single player in the league. As I am not too sure how long all the information stays up on the website, this is something I intend to do ASAP. If anyone might be interested in helping me collect this data I would very much appreciate a comment below and I will look into making the Excel document live so that members of the community can contribute to this effort. I aim to be able to analyse this information to go into the next season armed with more useful information in order to start off with as good a team as possible.