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BI analyst is December's manager of the month

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2nd Jan 2014
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AccountingWEB member Peter Coll entered the New Year as the manager of the month in our AccountingWEB/TopUp Tax fantasy football league.

The Christmas football programme brought festive bonuses to some fantasy managers with four sets of fixtures played in a space of 12 days. Peter Coll’s total haul of 443 points for December dwarfed Seb Maley’s 289 in November.

December’s winning manager is something of a dark horse. He is a business intelligence expert who joined the league in October. He now occupies second place in the overall fantasy league and came second in November’s manager of the month race, just 11 points behind Seb Maley.

Peter was very pleased with the way things went over the holiday period, but confessed, "I'd love to say my experience in the field of business intellignece has given me a vital edge, but that's not really the case."

Analytical tools are useful, but the key strategy is to follow players in form, he advised other fantasy managers.

"As Chelsea changed their tactics I switched from Oscar to Hazard. Moving the captaincy is also a risky but potentially useful tool. Suarez is the default choice, but I opted against him over Christmas and it paid off."

Coll commented that in this game you have to be ruthless with selections, but allowed sentiment to guide his choice of fellow Donegal native, Everton right full back Seamus Coleman. Whatever his reasons, Coleman and his instinct for spectacular goals was an inspired choice as he turned to be the season's top defender so far. 

With such a hectic holiday schedule, injuries are a big problem at this time of year - particularly for managers like Maley and current league leader Jack Filose, who have relied on the South American strikers Sergio Aguero and Luis Suarez for the bulk of their points. Suarez is continuing to pile up the points, but Aguero was injured in early December.

Coll turned to Wayne Rooney as a replacement and picked up 44 points from him during Christmas week, but now he too has dropped out of contention with a niggling groin injury. For those managers looking for extra firepower at this time of year, Danny Welbeck and Loic Remy have been finding the net regularly, as has Norwich centre forward Gary Hooper.

Tottenham’s Emmanuel Adebayor made a great impact when Spurs’ new manager Tim Sherwood introduced him to the line-up, but like Rooney, he too is now an injury doubt.

The first week of January is a good time to regroup after the Christmas football frenzy, but don’t move too quickly as Premier League sides will be distracted by the FA Cup third round for the next week. So keep an eye out for further injury news and monitor players who look like they’re coming into form during the cup games.

If injuries and loss of form have really taken their toll on your side, you can also now take advantage of your second wild card of the season to carry out a major overhaul. But this will be the last free transfer pass you get this season.

In our regional divisions, the current are:

  • West: Leeds Reserves, Jack Layzell (1,248pts) - league code 1134557-450168
  • North/Scotland: EL DOD, David O’Donnell (1,200pts) - league code 1134557-450089
  • Midlands: Big nose no hair, Jon Dale (1,186pts) - league code 134557-450128
  • South: Basingstoke Rejects, Steve Rayner (1,312pts) - league code 1134557-450043
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By User deleted
03rd Jan 2014 11:28

For a minute I thought....

For a minute I thought that the Daily Mail was having an influence on the headlines and that a person's sexuality was key to the article. Now I realise that BI is actually Business Intelligence. You learn something new every day.....

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