Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

Here we go again lads!

We will be competing for the Foal30 Memorial Trophy this season. There will be a picture of that at some point, however it will only exist digitally. 

So, please register your interest ASAP! And advise the team that you support as well. There will be slightly less focus on Arsenal picks this season, to encourage others to get involved. Cmon ManU boys, get amongst it! 

Ronniemac and I are working on a spreadsheet tool to use. I will post up pick formats for the season soon, and then the full list of Pre-Season Predictions for you all to make. 

First match is Saturday morning, Aug 10, our time. 

NOTE: The pre-season picks deadline will be at Midnight, on Monday the 2nd of September. Last season I think I made it the end of August, but there is a round happening on Aug 31/Sept 1, so I've scheduled the cut-off for after that. I will put some reminders in the thread leading up to it. 

Also please feel free to post any ideas etc for picks, will consider any suggestions. 

PICKING RULES (updated 4/1/20 with minor tweaks agreed in the thread during the season, e.g. dropping of joker pick, increase of preseason picks to 5 pts per pick)

Each round of EPL, we pick the Arsenal, Liverpool, ManU, Chelsea and Norwich matches only. 

For each of those matches, pick the final score, and two players. The two players must be from "our" teams above i.e. do not pick opposition players. 

For example:

Arsenal 4 Tottenham 2

Lacazette, Aubameyang

If two of "our" teams are playing eachother, e.g. Liverpool vs ManU, then pick the final score, and two players from each team.

For example:

Liverpool 0 ManU 0

Lovren, Mignolet

Sanchez, Rojo

Points will be awarded as follows:

Pick correct number of goals for one team: 2 points

Pick correct number of goals for both teams: 4 points

Pick correct margin: 3 points

Pick man of the match: 3 points

Each goal from your players: 1 point

Each assist from your players: 1 point

Each clean sheet from your players (Defenders and Goalkeepers only, including those subbed on into defensive positions): 2 points

For the matches that involve two of "our" teams, points will be doubled.

SEASON PREDICTIONS

Post your season predictions by Sept 2. On that day I'll take a paste of everyone's and put it in the spreadsheet. So you can change them as we get closer to that date if you pick early.

I've trimmed out a few from last year otherwise there would've been just too many picks, with 5 teams now involved...

  1. Top 6 in ranked order (5 points for each correct team finishing position)
  2. Bottom 3 in no particular order (5 points for each correct team)
  3. Arsenal top goalscorer (5 points)
  4. Arsenal top assist maker (5 points)
  5. Liverpool top goalscorer (5 points)
  6. Liverpool top assist maker (5 points)
  7. ManU top goalscorer (5 points)
  8. ManU top assist maker (5 points)
  9. Chelsea top goalscorer (5 points)
  10. Chelsea top assist maker (5 points)
  11. Norwich top goalscorer (5 points)
  12. Norwich top assist maker (5 points)
  13. Premier League Golden Boot (5 points)
  14. Premier League Golden Gloves (5 points)
Starting XI
2.1K
·
4.3K
·
over 11 years

In - Arsenal obviously. Do we know what happened to Foal btw?

Also I'm going to be overseas on holiday for the first 4-5 weeks so might be a bit AWOL to begin with, so may make some advance picks if that's ok.

First Team Squad
1K
·
1.7K
·
over 15 years

I'm just here to pick some TAB tips off Leggy

Starting XI
480
·
4.1K
·
about 14 years

I'm keen.  A Chelsea fan here

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

So that means you're in 20 legend? Go on...

Now, been chatting with ronniemac and he's suggested what I think is a great idea. 

We can have two leaderboards, similar to formula 1. A drivers' championship and a constructors' championship. But ours would be an individual championship and a team supporters' championship.

We'll do an average score each week by fans for each team, and keep both boardsgoing. I think it will be cool, we can banter at each other, and it involves no extra picking at an individual level. 

The only thing is that to do this, we really need at least 2 supporters for each team.

We know we have the Arsenal supporters. 

Detoxin has opted in, so if Downey26 is good to go, then we have two Chelsea fans. 

Ronniemac is one Liverpool fan, just need one more... 

If we can get two or more of the ManU guys, then we have four teams for that leaderboard, which would be cool. Lets see if we can get it going? I'll post on the ManU thread... see if I can sell it.

Starting XI
2.1K
·
4.3K
·
over 11 years

Might be hard to do but would there be interest in everyone putting in say $5 and winner takes all at the end?

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

I am more than happy to throw in some cash each if that's what we want to do. Perhaps state your preference for that people?
This can be managed down the track, not urgent to agree on it now. I'd be happy with a tenner or something. I don't really want to hold the cash all season though so I think it would be a trust thing, the winner can DM their account details to me at the end and I can DM us all individually to make the payments. Or something like that. 

Ok, so Leighbo has advised via the ManU thread that he is in this time round. 

So confirmations at this point:

Paulm (Arsenal)

RonnieMac (Liverpool)

Leighbo (Liverpool)

ajc28 (Arsenal)

Detoxin (Chelsea)

Legend20 (ManU) 

Others from last season that I hope will be keen again:

Downey26 (Chelsea)

Brumbys (Arsenal)

Kwlap (Arsenal)

Surge (Arsenal)

And lets have some newbies...... cmon lads... I'm looking at you Leggy :)

First Team Squad
1K
·
1.7K
·
over 15 years

paulm wrote:

So that means you're in 20 legend? Go on...

Yes I'll do my best. But if it's anything like my Fantasy Premier League skills I'll do it for a month, miss a week, and then give up...

It would be nice if there was a way to mitigate the consequences of missing the odd week? I suppose if the main thing is the constructors then that's less of an issue.

Marquee
3.1K
·
6.7K
·
over 16 years

In and keen. 

For the teams leaderboard, i don’t mind filling in as an Everton fan with we get one more.

tradition and history
1.5K
·
9.9K
·
almost 17 years

paulm wrote:

I am more than happy to throw in some cash each if that's what we want to do. Perhaps state your preference for that people?
This can be managed down the track, not urgent to agree on it now. I'd be happy with a tenner or something. I don't really want to hold the cash all season though so I think it would be a trust thing, the winner can DM their account details to me at the end and I can DM us all individually to make the payments. Or something like that. 

Ok, so Leighbo has advised via the ManU thread that he is in this time round. 

So confirmations at this point:

Paulm (Arsenal)

RonnieMac (Liverpool)

Leighbo (Liverpool)

ajc28 (Arsenal)

Detoxin (Chelsea)

Legend20 (ManU) 

Others from last season that I hope will be keen again:

Downey26 (Chelsea)

Brumbys (Arsenal)

Kwlap (Arsenal)

Surge (Arsenal)

And lets have some newbies...... cmon lads... I'm looking at you Leggy :)

I'm in.  Who am I supporting this season?

Legend
8K
·
14K
·
over 16 years

Alright I'll give this a crack - gunners all the way!

Legend
2.3K
·
17K
·
almost 17 years

In. Tottenham fan.

Marquee
1.7K
·
8.1K
·
over 16 years

Buffon II wrote:

In. Tottenham fan.

That cricket result left a mark didn't it?

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

So confirmations at this point:

Paulm (Arsenal)

RonnieMac (Liverpool)

Leighbo (Liverpool)

ajc28 (Arsenal)

Detoxin (Chelsea)

Legend20 (ManU)

Buffon (Arsenal)

Brumbys (Arsenal)

Theprof (Arsenal)

Kwlap (Arsenal)

Leggy (ManU)

Youngheart (ManU)

Others from last season that I hope will be keen again:

Downey26 (Chelsea)

Surge (Arsenal)

So that's 12 locked in, with potentially another 2 more, this could be quite a decent season. 

Will get the picking rules and list of preseason picks up this week.

Starting XI
6.7K
·
4.5K
·
over 9 years

Sweet, just seen the post and come over from the United thread so count me in. ?

Budgie lover
620
·
2.2K
·
over 16 years

I'll give it a go... will get relegated (Norwich City)

Starting XI
99
·
3.7K
·
over 14 years

Well of course I'm in. Have to defend the title.

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

Hey libertynz

A wee bit of a spanner in the works introducing a new team to the picks, I'm trying to think of a way to make this work... 

The trouble is there's only one Norwich representative for the team fans' leaderboard, and the idea of that is to take an average of the fans of that team. So that would mean that if you won the picks as an individual, then you'd also win the team fan picks by default. It would kinda take some of the fun out of that team fans leaderboard...

The structure I'm going to propose for weekly picks is that everyone picks the final score, and 2 players, for each game involving our teams, so that would be 4 games per week maximum. If we add Norwich that's 5. 

Not sure where I'm ending up here, basically just thinking out loud!

Is there another Norwich fan around who could join? Do you have an affinity to any of the other teams in our picks, that you would be happy to transfer allegiance to for this game? 

Does anyone else have any ideas on how to incorporate this without making it too complicated?

Woof Woof
2.7K
·
19K
·
over 16 years

paulm wrote:
 

Is there another Norwich fan around who could join? 

Hard News.

Starting XI
2.1K
·
4.3K
·
over 11 years

If there's only one fan of a certain team entering, why not just include them in the individual table and only in the team one when there's at least 2 people?

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

Awesome, thanks ajc, great idea, I love it.

So this is my proposal for single round picks... please give feedback... questions are in bold... don't be daunted, there is a lot of writing but it's actually straight-forward in terms of what you would have to do. 

Each round we pick the final score for each EPL game that involves the following teams:

Arsenal

Liverpool

ManU

Chelsea

Norwich

And for those games, we select two players from each of the 5 teams above as well (not the opposition). 

When two of the teams play eachother, that's a derby, so you pick 2 players from each team, and that game will get double points.

It's a couple more games each round than last season, is everyone comfortable with that? 

What I will do is make sure that a number of rounds are posted in advance for you to pick, so that you can pick ahead if you fear you may forget. 

The points distribution would be:

Pick correct number of goals for one side in the match: 2 points (so get 4 if you pick the correct score)

Pick the correct margin: 3 points

For your players, as follows:

Each goal scored: 1 point

Each assist made: 1 point

Clean sheet: 2 points

Man of the Match: 3 points

All stats are taken from whoscored.com. 

Ronniemac has also suggested a joker card. So you could advise that you're using your joker card, and get double points for that round. We'd do that twice each, once for the first half of the season, once for the second half. If you don't play it at all, it will be played by default for you in rounds 19 and 38. 

What do we think about that?

Marquee
1.7K
·
8.1K
·
over 16 years

Paulm would you like to look at a mixture of Google Forms & Google Docs to make this all easier for you? Reckon we could automate it pretty well.

I'm also unemployed at the moment and happy to bang something out.

Starting XI
6.7K
·
4.5K
·
over 9 years

paulm wrote:

Awesome, thanks ajc, great idea, I love it.

So this is my proposal for single round picks... please give feedback... questions are in bold... don't be daunted, there is a lot of writing but it's actually straight-forward in terms of what you would have to do. 

Each round we pick the final score for each EPL game that involves the following teams:

Arsenal

Liverpool

ManU

Chelsea

Norwich

And for those games, we select two players from each of the 5 teams above as well (not the opposition). 

When two of the teams play eachother, that's a derby, so you pick 2 players from each team, and that game will get double points.

It's a couple more games each round than last season, is everyone comfortable with that? 

What I will do is make sure that a number of rounds are posted in advance for you to pick, so that you can pick ahead if you fear you may forget. 

The points distribution would be:

Pick correct number of goals for one side in the match: 2 points (so get 4 if you pick the correct score)

Pick the correct margin: 3 points

For your players, as follows:

Each goal scored: 1 point

Each assist made: 1 point

Clean sheet: 2 points

Man of the Match: 3 points

All stats are taken from whoscored.com. 

Ronniemac has also suggested a joker card. So you could advise that you're using your joker card, and get double points for that round. We'd do that twice each, once for the first half of the season, once for the second half. If you don't play it at all, it will be played by default for you in rounds 19 and 38. 

What do we think about that?

Sounds all good mate.

Surge
·
Can I have some lungs please miss
1.1K
·
7.5K
·
over 16 years

I'm in!... may even do some study this season (lol) 

Starting XI
850
·
2.7K
·
almost 10 years

Looking good Paulm - thanks for organising. 

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

brumbys wrote:

Paulm would you like to look at a mixture of Google Forms & Google Docs to make this all easier for you? Reckon we could automate it pretty well.

I'm also unemployed at the moment and happy to bang something out.

At the moment I've got Ronniemac on deck as our analyst/developer. He's built the first version of a tool for us using just Excel (his area of expertise as a data/workflow analyst by trade, and easily the best exploiter of Excel functionality I've ever seen).

Don't ask me to describe it accurately, but he's got data held in pivot tables, with some kind of macro form thingee on the front of it, where I pump in the data for a particular week, and it pops out tables and all sorts of cool graphs/tables of trends and stats, that I can post on here. It's going to be fun if you are a numbers nerd like me (and him). 

I guess this could be better if it was a publicly accessible doc in the google suite, but perhaps I'll see how it goes with Ronniemac's creation initially? I will also ask his thoughts on your suggestion too.

Thanks for the offer brumbys, if I can think of anything, or ronniemac has any ideas, I'll DM you!

Marquee
1.7K
·
8.1K
·
over 16 years

Sounds about 90% of what I was thinking - only benefit of the cloud based option is shareability like you say and automating the data entry for you - still sounds a solid upgrade!

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

In an unexpected turn of events I may have persuaded a norwich supporting friend to join. He is reviewing the thread in the next couple of days to make a decision.

This would give libertynz a team mate and bump our confirmed numbers to 16.

This should be good!

I'm going to try and put questions/important info in bold when I post so you can skim my general waffle for the important sh*t.

So we've hinted at a small cash prize in the past but never done it... how about at the end of the season, the individual winner can advise their bank account number, and the other 15 players put thru $10 each, giving a $150 prize for the winner... what do youse reckon?

Also, I'm going to update the first post with the rules for match picking, and the list of pre-season picks that need to be made, just so it's there for ease of reference for everyone. I know I have a penchant for long posts and detailed instructions so will do my best to keep it as brief and clear as I can. 

Legend
2.3K
·
17K
·
almost 17 years

Cash prize sounds good!

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

SEASON PREDICTIONS (also been pasted in the opening post of the thread for reference)

Post your season predictions by Sept 2. On that day I'll take a paste of everyone's and put it in the spreadsheet. So you can change them as we get closer to that date if you pick early. 

I've trimmed out a few from last year otherwise there would've been just too many picks, with 5 teams now involved... 

  1. Top 6 in ranked order (3 points for each correct team finishing position)
  2. Bottom 3 in no particular order (3 points for each correct team)
  3. Arsenal top goalscorer (3 points)
  4. Arsenal top assist maker (3 points)
  5. Liverpool top goalscorer (3 points)
  6. Liverpool top assist maker (3 points)
  7. ManU top goalscorer (3 points)
  8. ManU top assist maker (3 points)
  9. Chelsea top goalscorer (3 points)
  10. Chelsea top assist maker (3 points)
  11. Norwich top goalscorer (3 points)
  12. Norwich top assist maker (3 points)
  13. Premier League Golden Boot (3 points)
  14. Premier League Golden Gloves (3 points
Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

PICKING RULES 

Each round of EPL, we pick the Arsenal, Liverpool, ManU, Chelsea and Norwich matches only.

For each of those matches, pick the final score, and two players. The two players must be from "our" teams above i.e. do not pick opposition players.

And you may signal use of your joker card which doubles your points for that round. You can do it once in each half of the season. If you do not signal it, it'll get played automatically in rounds 19 and 38.

For example:

Arsenal 4 Tottenham 2

Lacazette, Aubameyang

If two of "our" teams are playing eachother, e.g. Liverpool vs ManU, then pick the final score, and two players from each team.

For example:

Liverpool 0 ManU 0

Lovren, Mignolet

Sanchez, Rojo

I will post the first round games and my picks for those after this post to give an example of what a full round looks like.

Points will be awarded as follows:

Pick correct number of goals for one team: 2 points

Pick correct number of goals for both team: 4 points

Pick correct margin: 3 points

Pick man of the match: 3 points

Each goal from your players: 1 point

Each assist from your players: 1 point

Each clean sheet from your players (Defenders and Goalkeepers only): 2 points

For the matches that involve two of "our" teams, points will be doubled.

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

EPL FIRST ROUND PICKS:

Aug 9:

Liverpool vs Norwich

Aug 11

Newcastle vs Arsenal

ManU vs Chelsea

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

My picks:

Liverpool 3 Norwich 1

Wijnaldum, van Dijk

Pukki, Krul

Newcastle 1 Arsenal 3

Lacazette, Aubameyang

ManU 2 Chelsea 2

Martial, Rashford

Pedro, Giroud

Budgie lover
620
·
2.2K
·
over 16 years

Why did you not pick two Norwich players in your example?

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

I saved it and was doing me research! 

Have no idea who is doing what, signings etc. Assuming that Pukki will start up front...

Budgie lover
620
·
2.2K
·
over 16 years

Yep, fair assumption. Josip Drmić seems to be our other main striking option, didn't play for us last season and doesn't look prolific. 

Basically, if Pukki get's injured then we are toast! 

Others worth keeping an eye on are Emi Buendía and Mario Vrančić in the midfield.

Legend
8K
·
14K
·
over 16 years

Season Predictions

1.Top 6 in ranked order (3 points for each correct team finishing position)
Man C
Chelsea
Liverpool
Arsenal
Tottenham
Man U

2.Bottom 3 in no particular order (3 points for each correct team)
Crystal Palace
Wolves
Newcastle

3.Arsenal top goalscorer (3 points)
Aubameyang
4.Arsenal top assist maker (3 points)
Ozil
5.Liverpool top goalscorer (3 points)
Salah
6.Liverpool top assist maker (3 points)
Mane
7.ManU top goalscorer (3 points)
Lukaku
8.ManU top assist maker (3 points)
Sanchez
9.Chelsea top goalscorer (3 points)
Pedro
10.Chelsea top assist maker (3 points)
N'Golo Kante
11.Norwich top goalscorer (3 points)
Pukki
12.Norwich top assist maker (3 points)
Leitner
13.Premier League Golden Boot (3 points)
Salah
14.Premier League Golden Gloves (3 points
Leno

Legend
8K
·
14K
·
over 16 years

EPL FIRST ROUND PICKS:

Aug 9:

Liverpool 4 vs Norwich 1

Lovren, Mane

Pukki, Krul

Aug 11

Newcastle 0 vs Arsenal 2

Aubameyang, Monreal

ManU 1 vs Chelsea 2

Giroud, Emerson

de Gea, Martial

Legend
3.6K
·
15K
·
almost 17 years

For the record... been googling... and I seem to have located foal30. I know he is a bass player and lives in Chch, and as far as I can gather he works in the music industry. I just found a user with the same name, from the same place, on a music forum, with a post as recently as 2 months ago, discussing bass playing. 

So I think perhaps he just ditched these forums? Seems a little out of character. I wonder if there was something on a thread somewhere, that gave him a "f*ck I cant be bothered with this forum" feeling or something... no idea just speculating.

In any case, he appears to be alive and well so that's good!

Starting XI
850
·
2.7K
·
almost 10 years

Season Predictions

1.Top 6 in ranked order (3 points for each correct team finishing position)

Liverpool

Spurs

City

Arsenal

Chelsea

Wolves

2.Bottom 3 in no particular order (3 points for each correct team)

Sheffield Utd

Southampton

Villa

3.Arsenal top goalscorer (3 points)

Aubameyang

4.Arsenal top assist maker (3 points)

Mkhitaryan


5.Liverpool top goalscorer (3 points)

Salah


6.Liverpool top assist maker (3 points)

Firmino


7.ManU top goalscorer (3 points)

Rashford


8.ManU top assist maker (3 points)

Mata

9.Chelsea top goalscorer (3 points)

Pedro


10.Chelsea top assist maker (3 points)

Kovacic


11.Norwich top goalscorer (3 points)

Pukki


12.Norwich top assist maker (3 points)

Roberts


13.Premier League Golden Boot (3 points)

Aubameyang


14.Premier League Golden Gloves (3 points

Alisson

You’ll need an account to join the conversation!

Sign in Sign up