GW 13 & 14 – Review

What a hectic week it has been – we wouldn’t have it any other way here at TUG! The last 7 days brought two action-packed gameweeks and a bucket load of goals…..or not in some cases!! Let’s get cracking!

We’ll start with the midweek round, which featured the return of Champions League fixtures to the fold. Hallelujah! That’s what Owen French must have been shouting when his multiplier matrix, packed with UCL outfits, rocketed him to top of the Global Weekly Table with 112 beautiful points. The standout performers in his line-up were 4 goal Barcelona (28 selections) and Borussia Monchengladbach (8) on x6 and x8, with a smattering of two and three goal sides filling in the gaps. However, it was only enough to secure 72% of the Perfect 7 total of 156. The best side of the gameweek were 6 goal Exeter City in their thrashing of Colchester Utd, but they were picked just twice overall. With The Grecians on x8 and any 4 goal side on x7 and lower, you would have bagged that sweet £7,777 jackpot prize!

The most picked sides of the midweek round were not surprising considering the calibre of teams thrown in. Bayern Munich faced RB Salzburg and were predictably the most selected side overall (99 selections), as well as individually on x4 and x8. Juventus’ home tie against Hungarian champions, Ferencvaros, got off to a rocky start with the Old Lady falling behind, but they got the job done eventually by scoring two goals for the 98 of you who chose I Bianconeri. They were seen as the obvious ‘banker’ choice being the most popular x2 side, but also took up the x5, x6 and x7 spots as a points builder. Borussia Dortmund were the most selected x3 team, accumulating 81 picks in total.

Moving on to the weekend’s results, it was Jamie Armstrong’s solid 117 points that topped the Global Weekly Table, 4 goal Rangers (as popular as ever with 94 picks) and 5 goal Manchester City (86) hauling in big points on x7 and x8 respectively. Jamie’s selection of 6 goal Portsmouth (85 picks) on x4 was also a healthy return, but could have yielded so much more! Pompey joined Bristol Rovers (28) in hitting 6 goals, placing them on x7 and x8 in the P7, with Man City and Elgin City on five apiece at x5 and x6. The remaining three slots were padded out by any 4 goal side, making the P7 total another whopper of 181 points!

Man City may have been facing potential relegation fodder in Burnley, but their slow start to the season meant they were most popular on the x2 multiplier only, seen as more of a banker than the big-hitters we’ve come to regard them as in recent seasons. Hibernian (40 selections) and Portsmouth were chosen as the sides to keep your score climbing on x3 and x4, while Peterborough Utd were the most selected side on x5 and x6, as well as being the joint-top selected overall, alongside Rangers, with 94 picks. The Posh’s shock 2-1 home defeat to non-league Chorley was not the outcome many of you hoped for! An even bigger shock occurred in Scotland where Celtic, chosen 91 times and topping the x7 picks, served up a 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Ross County (which also saw them exit the Scottish League Cup after 36 consecutive games without defeat in the competition!)……….stopping many of you reaching your x8 points earner. Celtic’s failure goes some way to explaining the lowly average score of 24 points for the weekend, along with damaging blanks for Shrewsbury Town and Heart of Midlothian. In midweek it wasn’t much better at 28, despite those tasty Champions League fixtures on offer – Atletico Madrid’s hugely surprising 0-0 draw at home to Lokomotiv Moscow causing some serious carnage! To pile on the misery, Club 100 has struggled for business this season. Attendance at the illustrious club has only reached double figures once since gameweek 6, with only seven people making the cut across these two quickfire gameweeks! Jeez!

GW 15 is next up and plenty of you will be looking to make amends after some disappointing returns recently. If you fancy a punt at the early kick-offs then a stuttering Everton visit Burnley in the Premier League, fifth placed Reading host an altogether out-of-sorts Nottingham Forest in The Championship and it’s Gillingham v Swindon Town in League One. Good luck!

-Sam Brooke-Wilkinson