GWs 24 & 25 – Review
So the first midweek 2021 TUG action passed by and I’m afraid it’s been another stinker for many of you! To say there were some eyebrow-raising results is an understatement! Let’s get into the analysis, shall we?
Midweek rounds offer a great opportunity to boost your points tallies for the season, not to mention another crack at that lucrative P7 jackpot, but they can also cause you to come a cropper! Some of you made steady progress in GW 24, with 41% of you beating the average score, while others took a disappointing step backwards. Let’s find out why in the analysis.
Well, for a third time this month the tumbleweeds blew through an empty Club 100. Mark Venn was so close to securing his ticket to the party, though his top score of 98 made up only 61% of the P7. It’s all about team placement in this fiendishly fickle game, 4 goal Oxford Utd (16 selections) and Heart of Midlothian (27) gained Mark 60 points from x7 and x8 on their own, with 5 goal Manchester City (the most picked side with 105 selections) agonisingly underused on x2. Better to be safe than sorry eh! The Cityzens were joined by Blackpool and St. Mirren (both with zero selections!) who each bagged five to make x6 and x7 in the P7 matrix, with any 4 goal side being enough from x2 through to x5 for a perfect score of 161! Gillingham (again, zero picks) and Maidenhead Utd (just the 2 selections) were the other 4 goal teams and were so under picked it’s clear to see why our average score was a lowly 16 points!
A 0-0 draw for Peterborough Utd disappointed 78 of you and gave us 9 minus scores from that fixture alone. There were 23 minuses in total, three of them came from Chelsea’s goalless draw with Wolves, the Blues only Tucheled the fancy of 19 of you (I’m sorry!) Meanwhile, Manchester Utd were highly selected (101), due to them playing the Premier League’s bottom side, Sheffield Utd, at home and only repaid that massive confidence with a solitary goal (and an uninspiring performance) – not quite the points earner many of you were expecting! The same could be said for Rangers (73), who only scored once at Hibernian and Celtic (picked 88 times) who bagged two at home to Hamilton Academical. As midweek rounds go, this one wasn’t too memorable for the vast majority of you!
Into the ‘most popular’ matrix now and with Man City’s form gaining consistency again, it’s no wonder they bookended the table at x2 and x8 as both reliable scorers and point-earners. Apart from Peterborough Utd being the most popular x4 side, it was Man Utd who occupied every other spot on the most picked ladder.
On to GW 25 now, which quicky followed on from its predecessor by getting off to a nightmare start courtesy of a COTEKO (curse of the early kick-off!)………
……..so let’s get the misery out of the way first (I seem to have said that a fair bit this season!) by going over the minus scores. There were 33 in total, with many of them coming thanks to Everton’s (55 picks) baffling defeat at home to Newcastle Utd (zero picks). 21 players had the Toffees at x2 which has got to hurt, especially as that’s your weekend down the toilet before we’ve even reached the Saturday 3pm fixtures! All those minuses brought the average score down to another poor score of 20 points at the end of play. Club 100 remained lifeless for a fifth gameweek out of the last seven! The reduced number of fixtures available to us may have something to do with it, but there has to be more to it than that!
The points were certainly out there to be had, which brings us to the Perfect 7, which hit a lofty 162 points last weekend. That’s mostly thanks to Brentford’s (92 selections!) battering of a woeful Wycombe Wanderers side who just seemed to give up towards the end, maybe some of their players had the Bees on x8 and fancied topping up their score!! Joining the London side in the P7 matrix is 5 goal Port Vale (just 2 picks) on x7, with 4 goal Stockport County (0!) and Ayr Utd (just 2 again) on x6 and x5. Only five picks for three of the top scorers makes for grim reading, but we’ll move on now to the Weekly Global League Table topper, Pat O’Connor!
Incredibly, Pat reached the summit without a full lineup as their x3 pick Mansfield Town (2 selections) was postponed due to Walsall’s waterlogged pitch. Only Brentford, wisely chosen on x8, brought in any significant points, but a series of 1 goal sides were required to get to that lucrative final multiplier, to ultimately collect a healthy score of 88. Nice going Pat!
Most picked in GW 25 was Manchester City with 116 selections, as they hosted bottom side Sheffield Utd. Like their rivals Utd a few days earlier, City only managed to score a single goal against the Blades (who are in a bit of a resurgence given the context of their season so far) and were most picked on x2, x7, x8. It’s a two-team most picked matrix this week with Brentford taking all of the remaining spots, most unusual to see. Other highly chosen sides included Chelsea (45), Hull City (73), Torquay Utd (56), Celtic (81) and Heart of Midlothian (46).
That’s a wrap for gameweeks 24 & 25. Although there are midweek fixtures across some of our leagues, there is NO midweek round to help bolster (or worsen!) your scores this week, but rest assured the next one is on the horizon! The weekend’s cursed early kick-offs see Arsenal visit Aston Villa, Watford travel to Coventry City and Exeter City hosting Bradford City. Good luck and happy scoring!
-Sam Brooke-Wilkinson