12 Apr 2014

Gameweek 34 - Battle Cry

A week earlier, a friend asked why I had suddenly abandoned the blog. At the time, I resorted to type and quickly deflected the question, blaming life and it’s attendant rigors. In the period since, I’ve been able to reflect more inwardly, the result of which is a more cogent, palatable, if long-winded response.

It’s natural when the success of an exercise is so heavily predicated upon a singular factor that a dearth of the same would result in an eventual decline. In this case, the exercise would be analogous to this particular blog and the diminishing factor angst. Yes, ladies and gents, I’m blaming this one on success, or more specifically, the absence of failure. More on this later.

The fantasy juggernaut saunters on with the weekend ushering in yet another cavalcade of fantasy football. The managerial focus undoubtedly shifts towards consolidating mini league position as the campaign limbers into its latter stages. This gameweek in particular holds extra gravitas owing to a delectable serving of double gameweeks. It is this ancillary significance that has me champing at the bit to get it right this weekend. The last few weeks have been nothing short of an incredilous sea change as appertains to my league campaign. You have to hark back to gameweek 23, where bereft of ideas and ragged from the mental torpor of fantasy football statis, I elected to adopt a radically different approach to playing the game. Long gone was the innate tendency to pore religiously over fixture lists months in advance. Neither would I spend hours at a time scheming fruitlessly with seemingly no end product. No más. In their place, casualness. And I haven’t looked back. The resultant halcyon period has seen me scale the global rankings by a whopping 378676 places. No mean feat by whatever yardstick you choose to critique it against. In the midst of this success there still remains an inexorable sense of dissatisfaction. A lingering sense of despair in my inability to translate this form into mini league ascendancy. It is this gnawing unease that has informed my decisions going into this most significant of gameweeks.

And so having steadfastly assumed the gravity of the situation, I go forth into battle under the aegis of a fit-again Sergio Agüero, with David Silva and Christian Eriksen as able bannermen in close attendance.

This here, is war.

- denniskig at 13:20