SPANISH FOOTBALL NATIONAL TEAM LIST FOR UPCOMING EURO 2012 WARM-UPS

SPANISH FOOTBALL TEAM Selector & Coach Vicente del Bosque has handed in his "second last" list of 21 players to make up the Spanish National Team for the upcoming Friendly Internationales between SERBIA (26th of May) & SOUTH KOREA (30th of May) to be played in Switzerland. Both are warm-up games for the upcoming EUROPEAN NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIPS.

The Spanish National selector has left out

TRANSFER RUMOUR | TORRES PLUS 15M€ SWAP OFFER FOR FALCAO?

Rumours & more rumours. Here is the lastest from local Madrid TV station "TeleMadrid". CHELSEA FC has offered 15M€ plus their current Spanish forward FERNANDO TORRES in exchange for ATLETICO DE MADRID Colombian International FALCAO. 



Torres with his kids

Falcao is currently hot property & one of the most wanted Football players in European Football. The Atletico de Madrid players has finished

SPANISH FOOTBALL ROUND 38 FINAL RESULTS

SPANISH FOOTBALL & LA LIGA came to an end for season 2011-2012 with mixed emotions of joy for the winners & for the survivors, while sadness crossed over those Clubs which were relegated into the Spanish 2º Division for next season.

The main ending points of the season are that REAL MADRID won the Spanish League with runners-up FC Barcelona. The two other Clubs in Champions League positions are

TRANSFER RUMOURS | IVANOVIC ON REAL MADRID LIST ?

REAL MADRID & their Coach Jose Mourinho are already thinking about the next season. One of the positions that needs to be reinforced is the right back where Alvaro Arbeloa is the only specialist in the current squad.

Spanish sports paper "Marca" publish that current CHELSEA FC Serbian defender BRANISLAV IVANOVIC is the preferred candidate at this moment. The Serbian International has the extra

Gameweek 38 Captain Data

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P90 Points scored per 90 minutes at home/away based on this week's opponents QG% Percentage of games played where the player scored 6 or more points xPct The percentage of his team's goals a player has accounted for, multiplied by the expected goals for this week Rating Based on the player's rankings in the other three categories.

Note: above data assumes 90 minutes of action, with rotation risk not being factored in.

The data hasn't liked anyone as much as Aguero this week for some time and when you look at the numbers on a granular basis it's hard to argue. Aguero has been simply dominant at home all year (10.0 P90) and welcomes a QPR side with plenty to play for, but insufficient talent to do so barring what could be one of the biggest upsets of all time. There's an argument to be made for nerves playing a factor with City and they may play defensively if they were 1-0 up at half time, though I'd counter that with an equally (or more) likely scenario where City get ahead early and prove to be simply too much for QPR (Arsenal vs Everton springs to mind when they won the title a number of years back).

Rooney of course will be doing all he can to secure a win this week too, though with the goal difference gap so wide, I don't see United playing a ridiculously cavalier game from the start (they have to be mindful remember that City could draw). He's a good bet as always but the fixture is just so much harder than Aguero's that to pick him you're really getting too deep into who's "motivated", "nervous" or "good in clutch situations" which doesn't sit well with the statistical leanings of this humble blogger.

Arsenal, of course, have something left to play for too, with 3rd spot taking on an even greater important this year with Chelsea's presence in the Champions League final (England only gets four spots so if they win, only the top three qualify). Regardless, I would never pick against Van Persie and Arsenal are a team whose peaks and troughs don't seem to overly correlate with any one factor so just ride the waves and play Van Persie every week. As for captaining him, again the fixture is much tougher than Aguero's though if you're getting into possible outcomes, you could see West Brom going for this one, resulting in a high scoring affair (one could also argue that Hodgson will rouse one last performance from his team though and win, so like I say, the narrative isn't too informative).

If I owned van Persie and Rooney (indeed, I do) I would certainly consider selling one of them for Aguero this week, dependent on other areas of need in your team. Needless to say, I wouldn't pay 4 points to do so. Of the two, I am leaning towards selling Rooney, mainly based on the percentage of goals Van Persie accounts for. For the final game it's tough to tell how many goals will be scored with so many factors in play, so give me the bigger slice of an unknown pie, rather than a smaller piece of a possibly larger pie.

I wouldn't personally touch the Chelsea game given the total lack of incentive for them to win the game (they can't even move up or down one place in the league). Indeed, if I had money tied up in Torres or Mata I would looking to divest those options this week, not double down by captaining them.

Of the sleeper picks (sleeper in terms of captain picks rather than ownership numbers) you have to like Tottenham against a Fulham side who have been poor away from home all year, making Bale, Adebayor and van der Vaart viable options. Adebayor's xPct gives him the advantage here as when's he's played he's had a hand in 45% of Spurs' goals, a much better rate than teammates Bale (32%) and van der Vaart (37%). Spurs obviously have to go out for a win and hope for some help from West Brom to secure 3rd, but also need to win to hold off a potential challenge for 4th (which could still lead to Champions League football) from Newcastle. He's inconsistent, to be sure, but Adebayor's ceiling is as high as anyone this week and he would make a superb risk/reward bet for those looking to think outside the box in the final week.

FC BARCELONA - GARETH BALE HAVE AGREEMENT ?

The rumours that FC BARCELONA "fancies" TOTTENHAM HOPSPURS Welsh International GARETH BALE is not new at all. In fact, Chelsea FC & Manchester City also are throwing "kisses" to the left back in order to entice the player over to their Clubs. 



Gareth Bale

What is new is today's report from Spanish TV - local "Marca" Football program - that FC Barcelona has beaten other pretenders & has come

Gameweek 38 Preview

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CS Clean sheets kept at home/away based on this week's fixture Opp FTS Number of times this week's opponent has failed to score at home/away GPG Conceded Predicted goals conceded this week based on a team and their opponent's performance this season Opp CS Clean sheets kept at home/away by a team's opponent GPG Scored Predicted goals scored this week based on a team and their opponent's performance this season.

Here we are again. The end of another long season. Well, of course, there is still the small matter of deciding whether the Premier League trophy will reside in Manchester or Salford for the next 4 months or so, but for fantasy players, this is the end. The last transfer will be made soon or already has been and that final lineup will be set in a matter of days. Then it's time to sit back, watch your team complete the final moments of the year and reflect on all those missed transfers and botched double gameweeks.

There's some interesting storylines for the final day which may impact fantasy players, though in truth too much is probably made of team's "having their head on the beach" already as that narrative only ever seems to be applied retrospectively to teams who had a bad final game. Take Blackburn for example. I can write the story for the Lancashire papers now. If they lose, you couldn't blame the relegated players for being unmotivated as they face a season of trips to Peterbrough or Bristol City rather than Man United and Arsenal. If however Blackburn should win, they'll have done so as "brave soldiers" keeping their heads high as they show that they'll be back soon. In short, you can apply a narrative either way. The team hasn't been very good all season and chances are they won't suddenly be any different this week.

It's an understatement to say that Man City still have something to play for, with just their first title for over 40 years on the line. Again, after the results come in there will be plenty of people who "knew" what was going to happen but in reality there's a non-zero chance they blow the game or destroy QPR with the most common outcome being a solid win given the gulf in talent. Both teams need to win (assuming United don't slip up) so I'm comfortable with the data here and suggest City look like the best play of the week.

Now, one team who should be considered outside of their yearly stats is Chelsea, who have the Champions League final on the horizon. With a top-four position now out of their hands, they have nothing to play for this week and widespread changes could be seen as Di Matteo can't afford any more absentees given the list of injured and suspended players he has for the final. I don't believe many of their assets are widely held anyway, but despite the great fixture, the uncertainty over who will play is enough to make me look elsewhere for the week.

Captain data to follow later.