UKFF FPL 2021-22

[Stinky Dad]

Week 15 fixtures

FIFA World Cup 2022 – European qualifying (various groups)

Croatia 2 v 1 Russia (Sunday 14:00)
Armenia 0 v 4 Germany (Sunday 17:00)
Luxembourg 0 v 2 Ireland (Sunday 19:45)
Portugal 2 v 0 Serbia (Sunday 19:45)
Spain 2 v 1 Sweden (Sunday 19:45)

African qualification (Groups C & G)

Ghana 1 v 1 South Africa (Sunday 20:00)

[Fog Dude]

The final scores for both the actual matches and our own FPL Cup clashes were up in the opening post on Sunday night, and the table was recalculated soon afterwards. The right-hand side is nice and colourful so you can easily see at a glance who's through to the semis and who's out. Said semi-finals are tentatively scheduled for a possible 'hybrid' international/club round in late January: 

FPL Cup Semi-final draw: 

Briefcase vs. ultimo the great

MVP RULZ vs. Rory Fice.

No bonus points this week since the random 'wildcard' fixture was a dud. Match #2, Montenegro v Holland was selected and everybody wrongly thought that the Dutch would win, but it ended in a score draw. Other than that, scores were generally high as is typical of an international round. The two Dads had subpar performances for different reasons, whilst Briefcase moves up a place thanks to a haul of a dozen. TildeGuy closes the gap on MVP RULZ by two points, whereas ultimo is once again a full point adrift at the bottom and not just there on alphabetical order alone.

Away from Titograd, triumphs for Turkey, Wales, Germany, Spain and Nigeria all proved fruitful. Successes for Croatia, Ireland and Ghana produced more of a mixed bag of guesses beforehand, but Serbia's Fulham-assisted last-minute winner in Portugal led to the only other pointless outcome. 

One more bit of housekeeping relevant to the round just gone – this week I started a 2022-23 season spreadsheet, about 6 months earlier than ever before. Next season is going to be unlike any other and that'll be by design, not by the accident of a pandemic like the past couple of campaigns. You'll probably be given a choice of whether we take a break for the World Cup or carry on, and how late we'll expect the season to finish based on that decision. That'll be in the form of a poll in next year's sign-up thread which still feels a long way off, but if anyone has an opinion on the matter, feel free to drop it in this thread too.

I agree with the consensus around here that tournaments are great but interruptions during the club season for internationals are something we could do without. Thing is, Qatar 2022 is going to straddle the line between both, so you can never start planning for it too early really. 

Anyhow, with that out of the way, a proper set of 10 domestic games will be put in the first post shortly. 

[Vegeta]

Week 16 fixtures

 

Premier League

 

Aston Villa 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion

 

Watford 0-2 Manchester United

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 West Ham United

Liverpool 2-1 Arsenal (17:30)

 

Scottish Premiership

Dundee United 0-2 Aberdeen

Rangers 2-0 Hibernian (Sunday 16:00)

 

German Bundesliga

Borussia Dortmund 2-0 VfB Stuttgart (14:30)

Werder Bremen 3-0 Schalke (19:30)

 

Portuguese Cup Round 4

Serpa 0-2 Estoril Praia (Sunday 11:00)

Caldas 0-2 Belenenses (Sunday 14:00)

 

[TildeGuy~!]

Week 16 fixtures

Premier League

Aston Villa 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion

Watford 0-2 Manchester United
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 West Ham United
Liverpool 2-0 Arsenal (17:30)

Scottish Premiership
Dundee United 1-1 Aberdeen
Rangers 2-1 Hibernian (Sunday 16:00)

German Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 VfB Stuttgart (14:30)
Werder Bremen 2-0 Schalke (19:30)

Portuguese Cup Round 4
Serpa 1-2 Estoril Praia (Sunday 11:00)
Caldas 1-2 Belenenses (Sunday 14:00)

[Briefcase]

Week 16 fixtures

Premier League

Aston Villa 2 - 0 Brighton & Hove Albion

Watford 0 - 3 Manchester United
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 - 1 West Ham United
Liverpool 2 - 1 Arsenal (17:30)

Scottish Premiership

Dundee United 1 - 2 Aberdeen
Rangers 2 - 0 Hibernian (Sunday 16:00)

German Bundesliga

Borussia Dortmund 2 - 0 VfB Stuttgart (14:30)
Werder Bremen 2 - 1 Schalke (19:30)

Portuguese Cup Round 4

Serpa 0 - 3 Estoril Praia (Sunday 11:00)
Caldas 0 - 2 Belenenses (Sunday 14:00)

[Fog Dude]

Premier League

Aston Villa 2-2 Brighton & Hove Albion

Watford 2-1 Manchester United
Wolves 1-2 West Ham United
Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal 

Scottish Premiership
Dundee United 1-1 Aberdeen
Rangers 2-0 Hibernian

German Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Stuttgart 
Werder Bremen 1-0 Schalke 

Portuguese Cup Round of 32
Serpa 0-2 Estoril
Caldas 1-3 Os Belenenses

[Stinky Dad]

Week 16 fixtures

Premier League

Aston Villa 1 v 1 Brighton & Hove Albion

Watford 1 v 2 Manchester United
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 v 1 West Ham United
Liverpool 2 v 1 Arsenal (17:30)

Scottish Premiership
Dundee United 1 v 1 Aberdeen
Rangers 2 v 1 Hibernian (Sunday 16:00)

German Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund 2 v 0 VfB Stuttgart (14:30)
Werder Bremen 2 v 1 Schalke (19:30)

Portuguese Cup Round 4
Serpa 0 v 1 Estoril Praia (Sunday 11:00)
Caldas 0 v 1 Belenenses (Sunday 14:00)

[MVP RULZ]

Premier League

Aston Villa 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion

Watford 1-2 Manchester United
Wolves 1-1 West Ham United
Liverpool 2-0 Arsenal 

Scottish Premiership
Dundee United 2-1 Aberdeen
Rangers 2-0 Hibernian

German Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Stuttgart 
Werder Bremen 2-0 Schalke 

Portuguese Cup Round of 32
Serpa 0-3 Estoril
Caldas 1-2 Os Belenenses

[I Bent My Wookie]

Week 16 fixtures

 

Premier League

Aston Villa 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion

Watford 0-2 Manchester United

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 West Ham United

Liverpool 2-0 Arsenal (17:30)

 

Scottish Premiership

Dundee United 1-2 Aberdeen

Rangers 2-1 Hibernian (Sunday 16:00)

 

German Bundesliga

Borussia Dortmund 2-1 VfB Stuttgart (14:30)

Werder Bremen 1-0 Schalke (19:30)

 

Portuguese Cup Round 4

Serpa 1-3 Estoril Praia (Sunday 11:00)

Caldas 1-3 Belenenses (Sunday 14:00)

[RoryFice]

Premier League

Aston Villa 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion

Watford 1-3 Manchester United
Wolves 2-1 West Ham United
Liverpool 2-1 Arsenal 

Scottish Premiership
Dundee United 1-1 Aberdeen

Scottish League Cup @Fog Dude for shame!
Rangers 1-2 Hibernian

German Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Stuttgart

German 2. Bundesliga Taxi for @Fog Dude!
Werder Bremen 2-3 Schalke 

Taça de Portugal Rodada de 32
Serpa 0-5 Estoril
Caldas 1-4 Os Belenenses

[ultimo the great]

Week 16 fixtures

Premier League

Aston Villa 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Watford 1-3 Manchester United
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 West Ham United
Liverpool 3-1 Arsenal (17:30)

Scottish Premiership
Dundee United 1-0 Aberdeen
Rangers 2-0 Hibernian (Sunday 16:00)

German Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 VfB Stuttgart (14:30)

German 2 Bundesliga

Werder Bremen 1-2 Schalke (19:30)

Portuguese Cup Round 4
Serpa 0-2 Estoril Praia (Sunday 11:00)
Caldas 0-2 Belenenses (Sunday 14:00)

[Fog Dude]

7 hours ago, RoryFice said:

Scottish League Cup @Fog Dude for shame!
Rangers 1-2 Hibernian

German Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Stuttgart

German 2. Bundesliga Taxi for @Fog Dude!
Werder Bremen 2-3 Schalke 

Taça de Portugal Rodada de 32
 

Okay, if you look at the opening post you'll see I acknowledge that this round involves the top two German divisions and I just wrote it like that for neatness. Perhaps I should've put 'DFL' instead as a catch-all term?

I hold my hands up about the League Cup though. I was reminded last night of the other semi-final fixture (Celtic v St Johnstone) and thought to myself "hmm, wonder why we didn't feature that competition in the FPL?" But of course we are in fact doing so. And this is probably a sign that I should start making space in the spreadsheet to note what tournament matches are taking place in, so that we don't get any further lapses like that one. 

They tend to use the word 'eliminátoria' rather than 'rodada' down there for a round of the Portuguese Cup, by the way.

[Fog Dude]

The results went into the original post on Sunday night, and I eventually got the table right late on Monday. The German outcomes are listed under 'DFL' now so there shouldn't be any further objections to that. That was me deliberately cutting corners but I don't think it affected anyone's ability to make an informed pick. I consider that matter closed but I'll address the unintended mistake in a moment. Anyway, Tilde cut MVP RULZ' lead by another point so it's now down to just 2. Joint lowest scorer Stinky Dad slips down to fifth, while I'm now back behind ultimo and 4 points adrift at the bottom.

Wins for Dortmund and comfortable progress for the two favourites in Portugal generally proved fruitful, with Rory getting the exact score right for Estoril Praia (whom I have actually seen play in a Portuguese Cup tie). Nobody foresaw such big home victories for Watford and Liverpool, with the former proving to be the final nail in the coffin for OGS' spell as Man Utd manager. A score draw at the Weserstadion and a narrow reverse for the visitors to Tannadice turned out to be more of a mixed bag.

The trend of new head coaches doing well did more good than harm with an opening success for Stevie G at Villa Park, but a triumphant return from injury for Raúl Jiménez went against the form book and so caught most people out.

So, we can't really avoid it any longer. Another bit of housekeeping, and this time one I wasn't anticipating. I don't make a note of what competition a match is being played in on my spreadsheet because it's usually obvious. I've even started to write the wrong competition sometimes but then corrected myself before publishing. But this time the complete and utter lapse was inexcusable.

Where a cup tie is being played at a neutral venue, I put the teams in alphabetical order, as I noted as recently as a few weeks ago with the rearranged Women's Cup semis from last season. I know sometimes another team is designated first 'for administrative purposes' but we all know that's bollocks so I ignore it. I also typed the FPL Cup semi-final draw only a week ago according to those guidelines. Therefore, I should never have written that fixture down as "Rangers v Hibernian" in the first place. I listed it wrong when the draw was made and it's caused an avoidable kerfuffle a few weeks later.

Entering it as a Premiership match with Rangers at home instead of a cup tie at Hampden probably caused people to guess differently from how they otherwise might have done, and for that I'm sorry. The fair thing to do would be to declare all picks as null and void except: the person who pointed out the mistake was Rory. And he was the only one to get it right. And it is also this round's designated wildcard match. So it'd cost him 3 points rather than just the one. Unless it causes uproar, I'm going to leave it as it is. 

Equally, I'm not going to punish myself for the error because I'm already in last place and proving that last season was a fluke! I'm also about to start a new job. So, since I'm going to get a lot busier and will have even less time to focus on this, I'm afraid I can't guarantee it won't happen again. I've already been slacking on these updates lately, as you can probably tell by the timing.

A new set of 10, including Rory's D2D, will be in the initial post soon, but I'll make sure to double check everything first... 

Edited November 24, 2021 by Fog Dude

[I Bent My Wookie]

Rangers lost so I'm just happy about that. Mistakes happen, I'm happy with everything as it is.

[Fog Dude]

2 minutes ago, Shy Dad said:

Rangers lost so I'm just happy about that. Mistakes happen, I'm happy with everything as it is.

Thanks for that reassurance. It means a lot.

I won't deny that I too had a little chuckle at then-managerless Rangers yet again throwing away a chance at a domestic trophy, but that wasn't really the point of the apology.