| MATCH WEEK 4: PASCAL STRIKES GOLD |
Three more red cards determined our Top Nightmares of Match Week 5. Leeds' Pascal Struijk - only brought on as a sub in the 3-0 loss to Liverpool - is our star man with 24 points. Japhet Tanganga is next with 23, while Michail Antonio's red sees him come good for his Nightmare Managers with 19 points, having previously scored -3 points this season. Swiffer and AthleticoBonhillAcademical will both have been delighted to need the West Ham man as a reserve, both having chosen to leave him on the Subs' Bench.
In a shocking turn of events, Arsenal not only scored for the first time this season, they kept a clean sheet! Bringing to a shuddering halt the fortunes of some Nightmare Teams who have been relying on Gunners. |
| ARMY STAY TOP AS NOVICES TOP THE WEEK |
| Alex Metzger becomes the first to retain top spot for successive Match Weeks. Al's Army were on the weekly leaderboard again in equal 3rd with an impressive 74 points. Alex did use a Captain Joker - more on that later. Best of all for MW4 was Colette Anthony whose Nightmare Novices climb to 2nd overall following an 88 point performance. Clem Fandango had a terrible week by their own early-season standards, fourth worst with 31. Matt Woodmansey's poor show was 'unspired' by three negative defenders (clean sheets) as well as a couple of zeros in midfield. |
| IMPERIAL's BENCH BONANZA |
| Before 'finalising' the Match Week - i.e. bringing in subs, promoting Captains where applicable etc - Imperial Booze Boys were sitting on a miserable score of 15 points for MW4. Incredibly, Stuart McLean finished the week with 72! Josh King (10), Lucas Moura (8) and Ethan Pinnock (5) all made an impact from the bench, but the big news was Imperial benefitting from the Sub Captain rule. If neither your chosen Captain or Vice Captain plays, your highest priority Sub (that plays) takes over the armband. For Stuart that was Francisco Sierralta this week. Despite not being picked, the Watford defender earned Imperial 34 massive points. Without their subs, the Booze Boys would have tumbled to 31st (second-bottom) overall, as it is they climb to 22nd. |
| STARTING 11s + SUB DECISIONS |
As the season settles into a rhythm it's tough to know who's bad enough to be picking up decent Nightmare points, while good enough to keep starting for his Premier League team. The bottom two met as Arsenal faced Norwich, and between them made 11 changes (Arsenal 7, Norwich 4). It's making for the importance of Nightmare Soccer subs - and getting them in the right priority order - paramount to Nightmare success.
No one Nightmare Team had all 16 players make an appearance, the closest both Clem Fandango and Mr Magoo with one missing. Though Fandango had a poor week, there where no glaring omissions with their best boy left warming the bench being Bukayo Saka (3). Magoo would be 7 points better off had they chosen Ethan Pinnock (5) over Mohammed Salisu (-2).
With a perfect team selection, the week's top performers Nightmare Novices could have become the first to top 100 points in a single Match Week. In particular Leon Bailey and Christian Norgaard (6 points each) were missed opportunities.
The worst single player choice in terms of not picking the right man came from The Halibut Flounderers. David Metzger decided to leave Bryan Mbeumo on the bench and the Brentford forward would have been their equal best performer with 13. |
| MW4's JOKERS |
Alex Metzger played a Captain Joker. It's a good thing to do if you think there are plenty of Nightmare points about and you don't think there's an obvious big-hitter. Effectively Alex only gained 2 points though - previous Captain Grant Hanley picking up 7 points, while Axel Tuanzebe was given the armband with 9 (doubled up to 18).
Playing a Subs Joker is looking like a real tough decision. You need nearly all your Squad in action or it's little benefit. And so England Neverbes found - with all subs that played coming into the Team and reserve goalkeeper Martin Dubravka still injured, there was no gain for Marc Snell on MW4. |