GW1 Projections

OK people!!! Happy GW1 everybody!!!!! Hyper-excitement aside I have decided to do some quick background work and this will apply to my own team. Format that I'm using to evaluate my squad traditionally has been done with Chris Glover's blog, but with him tying the knot and all I will attempt to rely on the F.SCORE metric done by ShotsonTarget and evaluate from there.

What is interesting will be comparing what I used last season compared to this season. Fun times ahead.


First XI, followed by subs

Player	Position	Fixture	Projected Score
Foster	GK	SOU (H)	2
Toure	DEF	STO (H)	4
Cole	DEF	HUL (H), AVL (H)	8
Collins	DEF	CAR (H)	3
Walcott	MID	AVL (H)	6
Coutinho	MID	STO (H)	5
Mirallas	MID	NOR (A)	5
Hazard	MID	HUL (H), AVL (H)	12
Lukaku	FWD	HUL (H), AVL (H)	12
Dzeko	FWD	NEW (H)	6
Soldado	FWD	CRY (A)	5
Boruc	GK	WBA (A)	2
Kim	MID	WHU (A)	3
Turner	DEF	EVE (H)	3
Clyne	DEF	WBA (A)	2

Foster, SOU (H) v Boruc, WBA (A)

Home game gets the nod first, and hopefully I'll this pair sticks throughout the season. Best pair identified from my 2-way rotation and hopefully it pays off throughout the season. Haven't really got any projected score on GKs too, so I'll stick to the pessimistic view for now.

Defence

For defenders, the aim for me here is to have a 1 + 2P1 + 2P1 for the first half of the season, which implies finding 2 pairs of defenders that will do really well when rotated. The first pair I have identified will be the Collins (WHU) and Clyne (SOU) combo, and the sheer beauty of this pair is that in formulating my second pair, which is Turner + 1, I am able to downgrade Cole into (A) a partner that shows defensive resolve (Fulham or someone) or (B) another 5.0 permanent player like Dawson and run a 2 + 2P1. The third and least researched alternative would be to run a 1 + 3P2, which I will attempt to do within the week, post Saturday games probably. Too much on my plate now.

Attackers

Strategy for this week beyond getting 3 DGW players is to have them against promoted sides. That means targeting Tottenham and West Ham players as well, which prompted me to grab Soldado (since Bale is "out") and Collins. Mirallas/Nolan was a real tossup and after staring at the lineup for a significant amount of time, I have realised that my entire attacking 7 is made up of top 7 sides from last season. Now that is cool. So I have decided to stick with it.

Alternatives such as Silva, Sturridge and the other 3 City forwards are ok, but that is the risk I will be running this week. Sturridge in particular worried me the most. Plan is to grab Studge after United game.

Conclusion: 68 points is like kablow huge, aided by the inflated scores of the defenders (I don't expect 4 defenders out of a defender but oh well). GW1 is mostly intuitive and hopefully I can paint a clearer picture by Sunday. Good luck everyone.