Best team for Barclays Fantasy Premier League Football Season 2010/2011

UPDATE 13.08.2010 As it always seems to happen in Fantasy Premier League, last minute changes do occur. Some players are not fit to play or something like that. There were too many questionmarks in my team, so I changed some players. Here is my new team. No time to explain the choices I'm afraid...

Well, good luck with gameweek 1 and remember to check that none of your teams players are yellow or red-marked!

Or at least I'd like to think so. :) As this is the team I'm entering to this season's Barclays Fantasy Football (almost probably for sure maybe I won't do any more transfers...)

I've given a few Fantasy Premier League hints in the previous posts, but this is the ultimate advice, as I'm going to give away my whole team. Feel free to take suggestions from it...

Let's start with why I chose these players and what makes this the best team for Fantasy Premier League:

Goalkeepers. I've been going on and on about Foster and my faith is still strong he's going to be amazing this season. My number 1 goalkeeper that I hope will play every game. My second goalkeeper is Myhill from West Bromwich, he's cheap, he plays, and West Bromwich is going to make few surprises this season I presume. Goalkeepers cost me £8.5M.

Then to the defence. My tip from earlier, Samba, he's there. From Wolves Jody Craddock (132 points last year, 5 goals, 2 assists, 13 bonus points) very very decent defender for £5M. And also Kevin Foley, who will be my substitute defender (means he's cheap, and probably plays for sure if Craddock doesn't) 2 playing defenders are Shawcross from Stoke and Evra from ManU. So for defence I spent £26.5M.

Midfield consists of Lampard, N'Zogbia, Bale and Malouda with Etherington as substitute midfielder. Lampard, yea you know why. He'll be the captain of my team in the first gameweek. Malouda played a great last season and will improve. N'Zogbia, Bale and Etherington are real value players, prices low, sure starting formation players who can score and assist goals. So they're in. Midfield costs me £41M

And then the forwards, tricky as ever. As I've spent most of my money now, Drogba and Rooney are out. Tevez was my hint of hints last season and finally he showed what he can do. Surely as good a striker as Drogba and Rooney, Tevez and his £10.5M pricetag convinced me once more. And then Saha from Everton. 13 goals last season and price of £8M go together nicely. My third forward is Kevin Doyle from Wolves. A forward I'll probably keep for a long time. And everytime Wolves plays against a weaker opponent he'll be a sure starting formation player in my Fantasy Football team. His price is £5.5M, great bargain material as he did score 9 goals last season. And that sums my £100M team as forwards cost £24M. 

What do you think is the best team for this seasons Fantasy Premier League?

Who's hot in the Fantasy Premier League season 2011?

8 days and counting until the new season of Fantasy Premier League is upon us. So it's good time look at the trends people have set while choosing their teams. It is a well known fact that  usually you do need to have players in your team that have a high "Teams selected by %", because they usually do pretty good. Of course you also need some "black horses" to get you ahead of the pack.

But let's start reviewing which players have been extra hot in the Fantasy Premier League transfer market. Ok, starting with goalkeepers we see that the number 1 goalie is Tottenhams Gomes, who's been chosen in over 20% of all barclay's fantasy football teams. With a pricetag of £5.5M he isn't nor the most expensive nor the cheapest goalkeeper but a good buy anyway. Gomes had a nice season 2009/2010 collecting 148 points and hopes are high that he can top that this year. My first pick for a goalkeeper is Birmingham-transfer Foster, who is finally in a team where he get's to open games regulary. This English national team keeper is a true bargain with a £4.5M price which is about rise pretty fast.

There's a tough battle going on for the spot of the number one defender as three players stand at 24%. Dawson, again from Tottenham, Stoke Citys Shawcross and Chelsea's John Terry have been extremely popular with Fantasy Premier League contenders. Cheapest of the bunch is Shawcross, whose £5M price is extremely affordable for a defenceman of this caliber. My underdog tip in the defence category goes to Christopher Samba from Blackburn. Samba scored 4 goals last season and collected 12 bonus points, very good score for a defender. Price £5M, this Blackburn player will surely feature my team.

In the midfield-section, Fantasy Premier League players are not afraid of Frank Lampard's £13M pricetag as he is the player selected by most teams with 31%. Frankie's start in the last premier league season wasn't too flattering, but end of the season he proved he's very cabable of gathering points and ended up with a record breaking 284 points. If he can keep up with that form, no team can succeed without this Chelsea midfielder. A mighty surprise in the top of midfielder list is Birminghams Barry Ferguson, selected by 26% of all fantasy premier league teams. That of course is because of his very decent £4.5M price and impressive 31 bonus points gathered last season.

The most selected forwards list was suppose be the battle of two players. ManU's Rooney and Chelsea's Drogba dominated last season, but Drogba's "will he play or won't he play the first match"-dilemma has left him in "only" 17% of the teams. Wayne Rooney is the most selected player in all fantasy premier league with an astonishing 37 procent. If you are on the other hand looking for a little cheaper option, I would recommed Wolverhamptons Kevin Doyle. Doyle costs mearly £5.5M and with 9 goals scored last season that is truly a bargain price. At the moment of writing Doyle features in only 9% of all fantasy premier league teams.

So who do you think is the biggest surprise in the most selected list?

Player Tips Season 2010/2011 - First Thoughts

With unlimited transfers available before the whistle blows for the first match in English Premier League it's a good time to start tinkering with your Fantasy Premier League team. As always, every contender starts with £100M and his or her imagination when starting to collect player for their respectable teams. We're also again faced with same choices of strategies one can use in Fantasy Premier League.

It's up to you to choose which strategy might be the most advantageous, but when it comes to picking your players, there are always those cornerstone players who you want to build your team upon. First tough choise we face is the goalkeeper.

You want to have one goalkeeper, who you know you can count on to play practically every match. Chances are this goalkeeper will come from the TOP 3 - priced goalies Cech, Reina, Van der Sar. Out of those three my tip would be to go with Van der Sar from ManU. ManU starts the season with 3 relative easy looking matches against Newcastle, Fulham and West Ham. Van der Sar is also a goalkeepers who will start virtually every match.

In the defence my hint for the start of the season 10/11 would be Everton's Leighton Baines. Baines gathered impressive 138 points last season in fantasy soccer and is a great bet this season too. This assist-machine has made 16 assists in the last 2 season of Fantasy Premier League and with Everton's high hopes I think will only improve his perfomance.

Midfield has almost every season been the deciding factor when looking at the winners and losers in FPL. And one player you simple always should have in your team plays in midfield, that is of course Frank Lampard from Chelsea. Last season it took him a while to get in the form, but after that he excelled as the BEST player in English Premier League. His price is £13M but it might as well be £20M and he'd still probably be in half the teams. Except no substitutes...

Strikers. What can I say about them. They have always been my achille's heel in Premier Fantasy League. But there is one forward who will surely be in my FPL team. Manchester City's Carlos Tevez. Tevez also took a while to get his groove on last season, but with 210 points collected, ended up as the 3rd highest pointstack. I predict this season of Fantasy Premier League he will seriously compete for the number 1 spot.

Another Double - Is It Adebayors week in FPL?

This gameweek it is doubletime for Manchester City, Stoke, Bolton and Wigan in Barclays Premier League. And out of those four it's Manchester City who has the easiest feast. Bolton at home and Stoke away. Emmanuel Adebayor is back from the ill-fated trip to African Cup and has scored in last 2 matches.And because of that or maybe just otherwise, Carlos Tevez hasn't been able to score since he's amazing hattrick against Blackburn.

I think Tevez is an amazing player, but he just doesn't seem to be able to perform in level of concistency he should. So this gameweek if I had to choose between Adebayor and Tevez, I'd choose the Togo-born Adebayor, even though the difference in price is £0.4M in Fantasy Premier League, on behalve of Tevez. Adebayor is only in 5.3% of the teams as Tevez has collected the votes of over 30% of teams. That means when Adebayor hits it big, you're in the minority of the people who gain from that.

Another wortwhile players to play double this gameweek are Stoke City's goalkeeper Sorensen, warning though: he might not play both maches. Wigan's midfielder N'Zogbia is also a player you might want to consider. And last but not least, another Stoke City player Matthew Etherington, who collected 14 points last GW.

11 goals for £7M - Sounds like a bargain transfer

Gameweek 23 in the Premier League Fantasy game soons unfolds and it is time think which transfers will be the most profitable. For me there is one player in specific that will make a rise to my FPL-team: Louis Saha. This Everton-forward has been playing his best season in the English Premier League with 11 goals scored. And now that it seems Everton is finally getting their team together, Saha will be getting more and more opportunities to score goals this season. £7M is truly a bargain price and is bound to be on the rise.

This week's opponent Sunderland took a devastating loss visiting Chelsea last week and has lost 5 of their last 6 away games. Everton on the other hand hasn't lost in a while, and the team has been improving their game constantly.

Another Everton player worth mentioning is midfielder Steven Pienaar, who is finally getting the hang of it. Pienaar has scored in three last games and with that has collected 29 points in the Premier Fantasy League. The South-African will surely keep on scoring goals now that the floodgates have opened. £6.3M is a price that encourages a purchase.

And remember, four teams won't be playing this gameweek in the Fantasy Premier League. Those teams are ManU, ManCity, Stoke and Hull City.

Antonio Valencia - The Next King of Fantasy Premier League?

Playing fantasy football manager games means one thing: you're always after the next hot player. That could be Manchester United midfielder Antonio Valencia. The Ecuador-born player has been part of ManU for half a season now and has already broken his previous EPL-record with 5 goals scored and 6 assisted.

The start of the season was a bit slow for the skilled midfielder but he has surely picked up the pace in last 8 games, which have brought him 3 goals and 4 assists. Valencia's rising form hasn't gone unnoticed as he's currently in 16.3% of the all the teams in Fantasy Premier League. And with the price of £8.7M, you could do much worse.

Currently Valencia has collected an impressive 102 points and is in fourth place among midfielders, and the names in front...Fabregas, Lampard and Aston Villa's season surprise Milner. Not too shabby a group to be in. And with many matches still to come in English Premier League, Antonio Valencia may very well be able to break the 200-point mark before the end of the season.

As for the question in the title... The pieces are all there. When you are the number one midfielder in Manchester United, with a skillset to score and assist goals that help your team win the championship...He just might be crowned someday...

Fantasy Premier League Tips for Gw 6

Here are the fixtures:
Burnley v Sunderland
Arsenal v Wigan
Aston Villa v Portsmouth
Bolton v Stoke City
Hull City v Birmingham
West Ham v Liverpool
Man Utd v Man City
Wolves v Fulham
Everton v Blackburn
Chelsea v Tottenham

Again there are two very interesting soccer matches this gameweek as the Manchester teams go against each other and Chelsea welcomes Tottenham. The meetings of the top teams have been very rich on goals this season and that might be the case this week also.

This gameweek english premier league offers an easy game for Aston Villa who play against Portmouth in their homefield. Portsmouth is yet to collect any points and that's not about to happen against Villa. Gabriel Agbonlahor has scored in 2 previous games and is very likely to continue that streak against Portsmouth. Also, don't forget defenders Dunne, Collins and Cuellar who are very close to a cleansheet this gameweek.

Arsenal too seems to be in good shape against opponent Wigan. Arsenal took heavy losses against ManU and ManCity but the team is going to rise up to their level against Wigan. Fabregas has been a little out of sight after the amazing opening round but I think he will be ready to score a few goals this gameweek of Fantasy premier league.

Burnley is yet to lose in their homefield and even though Sunderland is in great shape I think it will be a tight match against the two. Burnley's Jensen will be a nice choise as a goalkeeper because he's bound to get at least few extra points from saves and I think even a clean sheet isn't totally out of the picture.

Gameweek 5 preview - Fantasy Premiere League

This saturday we get in to the 5th gameweek in Fantasy Premier League. Two really interesting matches this week. Manchester City plays the host for Arsenal, and Tottenham and ManU go against each other in Tottenham's homefield. City - Arsenal will be especially interesting as the team with the least conceded goals ( Man City, 0) and the team that's scored most goals (Arsenal, 11 goals) compete which is more important, to score many goals or to concede little.

This week's defender tip comes from Manchester City, Joleon Lescott's transfer is finally settled, and the player is finally in a winning team. Lescott is also very likely to score and assist many goals this season and is really going to compete for the title of best defender in the whole fantasy premier league.

Aston Villa has improved their game and seem to be on their track to being on the top half of the league table. Their midfielder Ashley Young also seems to be getting the hang of it and is one of this weeks hot tips for your Fantasy soccer team.
Forwards this week come from Sunderland. Homegame against Hull is a great opportunity for Kenwyne Jones and Darren Bent to stretch their goalscorer muscles.

Gameweek 4 Player Tips

We're heading towards the 4th gameweek of the Fantasy Premier League soccer manager game. Again, there are soccer matches that look easier to some teams than others. So, time to see who you want on your team this gameweek.

Here are the fixtures:

Chelsea v Burnley
Blackburn v West Ham
Bolton v Liverpool
Stoke City v Sunderland
Tottenham v Birmingham
Wolves v Hull City
Man Utd v Arsenal
Portsmouth v Man City
Everton v Wigan
Aston Villa v Fulham

West Ham goes to visit Blackburn and I think they won't be too modest guests. Forward Carlton Cole is in great form, and is the most probable scorer in the game.
Chelsea is the hometeam against biggest surprise of the season, Burnley. Chelsea starts a clear favourite, and with forward Drogba in very good shape is bound to show the newcomers what it's like to play against one of the best English Premier League teams.

Manchester City has opened the season nicely, and will continue it's winning streak against Portsmouth. Hot tips for this game, forward Adebayor and midfielder Wright-Phillips.

And don't forget Tottenham's midfielder Aaron Lennon and forward Jermain Defoe. Both in very good form and very able to score goals.

Defender-wise, clean sheet is very close for Manchester City. So Dunne, Toure, Richards and Bridge are great names to have in your opening squad. Also Stoke has opened the season with promising results and maybe very tough to beat at their homefield. Goalkeeper Sorensen has been playing well and is going to get good points again.

Players under 5M for your Premier League Fantasy Football team - Goalkeepers

It's fair to assume that players that cost a lot, should do pretty well in Fantasy soccer manager game. But finding an able player from little lower from the pricelist is a little tougher task. Let's see who are good budget players for your Fantasy League team.

First goalkeepers:

4M Sorensen, Stoke

Stoke City's Thomas Sorensen has started the season with a bang. 16 points from 3 first games is an ashtonishing achievement for any goalkeeper, let alone for one who has a pricetag 4M.

4M Jensen, Burnley

One of the biggest surprises of the season beginning has been Burnley, and a lot of that can be awarded to their goalkeeper Jensen. Leading the goalkeeper's pointchart with 21 points, it remains to be seen whether his form will last the whole season.

4.5M Kirkland, Wigan

Wigan has a solid defence and that promises good things for their goalkeeper Kirkland. Against middlecast teams, you can count that his going to pull a few clean sheets this season.

Premier Fantasy League Gameweek 3 Tips

First two rounds of English Premier League have been played and the third is just around the corner. Let's see which players should perform well in gameweek 3.

Let's first look at the fixture table:

Arsenal v Portsmouth
Birmingham v Stoke
Hull v Bolton
Manchester City v Wolverhampton
Sunderland v Blackburn
Wigan v Manchester United
West Ham v Tottenham
Burnley v Everton
Fulham v Chelsea
Liverpool v Aston Villa

Two teams from the fixture list pop out, and those are Arsenal and Manchester City. Both teams took convincing victories the first round and are now playing in homefield against weaker opponents.

Player-wise, I think Arsenal's Arshavin will improve considerably and get himself out the shadow created by Fabregas' opening game perfomance. Manchester City has able defenders whose price's at the moment are lower then they should be. Dunne, Bridge and Richards all have under 6M pricatags and are bargain players for your Fantasy team.

I had high hopes for City's new signing Tevez, but at least according to the first game his playtime might be lower than expected, if he remains a substitute player. Other new signing Adebayor on the other hand seems to be getting a lot of trust from the coach and he will be a major pointshark when playing in a winning team.

Another high scorer this gameweek might come from Sunderland. Playing against Blackburn the team should do well and Darren Bent might continue his whole season long goal-streak. Also worth mentioning is defender Danny Collins, who took 8 points (2 bonus points) from the season-opening match against Bolton.

Game preview Sunderland vs Chelsea

Both teams opened the season with a win, Sunderland over Bolton and Chelsea over Hull. Chelsea's Drogba scored twice and seems to be in good form. Sunderland's new signing Bent also started the season with a goal, but scoring against Chelsea might be a more difficult task.

Tip from Chelsea's squad to this game is Salomon Kalou, Kalou didn't start the opening game but had two great goal opportunities in the last 20 minutes he played. Kalou should be in the opening squad in this match and I consider him as the "black horse" who could earn decent points. Also Lampard wasn't in the top of his game against Hull but should do better now.

Chelsea is a clear favourite to win the match and Sunderland is just going to try and keep the game in 0-0 as long as they can.

Prediction:

Chelsea wins with two goals, so 0-2 or 1-3

Premier Fantasy League Gameweek 2 Tips

The second gameweek in this season's English Premiership Fantasy Football comes in just few days after the first, so be sure you remember to check your team for transfers and a captain change if the need occurs.

As said earlier this gameweek is a little tricky because only 12 teams have fixtures this week of English Premier League. The fixtures are:

Sunderland vs Chelsea
Wigan vs Wolves
Birmingham vs Portsmouth
Burnley vs Manchester United
Hull City vs Tottenham
Liverpool vs Stoke City

Any players that are not from these teams WON'T get any points this gameweek.

If you choose to make transfers, here are few hints who might be valuable additions to your Fantasy Premier League team: Let's start with defenders. Manchester United and Wigan are the teams you should choose your defenders from. Evra, O'Shea, Figureoa, Bramble are players that are very likely to get clean sheet points.

Midfielder choices are a little tougher task. Chelsea's season opening wasn't glamorous but I'm sure Lampard and the gang are going to get their act together versus Sunderland. Wigan's Koumas and N'Zogbia are great budget choices for your team with 5M and 5.5M pricetags.

From forwards Chelsea's Drogba might still be an advantageous play, along with Rooney from ManU. But if these 2 players are out of your pricerange, Wigan has a nice budget player from forwards also. Hugo Rodallega opened the season with a goal and 3 bonus points, and with the cost of 6.5M he might be a great player to purchase.

Looking for cheap players for your Fantasy Premier League Team?

Aren't we all. When choosing your team for the Fantasy Premier League, you also have to buy little cheaper players to afford the big stars. And usually these cheap players are the ones who make all the difference in how good you do in the league. These so called "sleepers" are also extremely hard to find, so when you think you've found one, act fast, because their prices usually go up quite fast.

Here are few players that have a chance to permorm much better than their prices would imply.

6M Jordi Gomez, Wigan

Gomez was on loan in Swansea last season where he showed his skills with 12 goals scored. Now returning to Wigan, I believe he'll prove to be a good acquisition in your team.

5M Ricardo Gardner, Bolton.

This Bolton's midfielder did quite well last season with 4 goals and 2 assists. With his contract being extended until 2011 he'll be sure get the playing time to score points.

5M Leiva Lucas, Liverpool

Liverpool's manager Rafael Benitez words in the Independet were "Lucas has been the best player in pre-season. He showed why again against Atletico. He is really focused, working hard and is showing quality." With Xabi Alonso leaving to play for Real Madrid, Lucas should become a starting formation player and I'm sure he'll capitalize on that.

Freekickers, Penalty takers and Cornergivers

One aspect that should be taken under consideration while choosing players for your Fantasy Premier League team is who are the players who shoot freekicks and penaltyshots or give corners in their teams. These players get significantly more opportunities to score goals and assists. Here is a list of few players from couple of teams, who are likely to be those players.

Chelsea: Lampard and Ballard shoot most of the freekicks and penaltyshots, Lampard gives corners.

ManU: With Ronaldo gone, Rooney and Berbatov are the most obvious freekickers.

Arsenal: Arshavin can shoot freekicks, Van Persie takes penalty shots.

Liverpool: Steven Gerrard takes most of the freekicks.

Which players to have in your Fantasy Premier League Team - Forwards

Buying forwards for your team might be the toughest job when creating your Fantasy Premier League team. While usually quite expensive, most of the time forwards will only get very little points. However with forwards it's very important to keep the player for a few gameweeks, changing forwards every gameweek will surely lead to situations where the player you had last gameweek scores 2 goals... I've been there, that sucks.

Again, you know the drill, 3 forwards from different price categories to have in your Fantasy Premier League team.

11.5M Fernando Torres, Liverpool
Torres is going to be very popular player, and for good reason. 14 goals last season while not even playing all games is an amazing complishment. This season Torres is probably going to do ever better so, if you can afford him, you should include Torres in your Fantasy Premier League Team.

8.5M Carlos Tevez, Manchester City
Transferred from ManU, Tevez should be getting a little more playtime in City, even with stars like Adebayour and Robinho in the same team. With this price tag, Tevez is most advantegous of the trio.

7M Carlton Cole, West Ham
Cole scored impressing 10 goals last season and is a good buy for 7M.

Players not able to play in Fantasy Premier League - Injury lookout

With still few days to go until the start of fantasy premier league, let's look the situation with notable injured players. Most of the players will begin playing in few weeks but it might not be good idea to buy these players just yet.

Edwin Van der Sar, ManU

ManU's number one goalkeeper will be out of the field till September because of a finger injury suffered in penalty shootout against Bayern Munchen. Van der Sar will miss at least 5 games from the start of the season.

Nemanja Vidic, ManU

Defender Vidic has suffered a calf injury and will be out at least from the season opening game against Birmingham. The injury isn't too serious so he'll be back playing in couple of weeks

Phil Jagielka, Everton

Jagielka is still suffering knee injured in April and wont be back until November. Even then he's is a risky bet, cause knee injuries can keep player from playing even if supposedly healed.

Samir Nasri, Arsenal

Arsenal's midfielder Nasri injured his leg in training camp and won't be back until October. With Arsenals heave artillary midfield, he might not be getting too much playtime even when fully healed.

Buying cost effective players in Fantasy Premier League - Player Tips - Midfielders

After suggesting goalkeepers and defenders for your Fantasy premier league team now let's get to midfielders. From these players you can usually find the biggest star and therefore most expensive players. But you have think carefully which few 10M+ players you want on your fantasy premier league team. Again here are a few tips on three price categories.

12.5M Frank Lampard Chelsea
Ol' Frankie. Lampard is worth every penny he costs. There is none more consistent players to gain points with. Lampard made incredible 226 points last season with 12 goals and 10 assists. But in bonuspoints he was unbeateable 46 bonus points last year tells that he gives his best in every game. A must buy.

8M Shaun Wright-Phillips Mancester City
And again, a player from Manchester City. I have high hopes for Wright-Phillips, last years 5 goals and 5 assists are ready to be duoubled this year, with a team, I believe will fight for the title.

6.5M Steven Pienaar Everton
Pienaar is a great gamemaker who made 8 assists last season, with a nice 4.2 points per game average. With 6.5M you could do worse. This player will make his way to many fantasy premier league teams.

Finding the right players in Fantasy Premier League - Player Tips - Defenders

Let's look at some defenders that will be a nice addition to your Fantasy Premier League team. While goalkeepers prices differ only little, the prices of defenders vary a little more. At the time of the writing the most expensive defender is ManU's Nemanja Vidic with 8M, even being injured at the time over 20% teams have selected Vidic. Usually you can get good defenders from winning teams for 5-6M. I have chosen 3 defenders from different price groups.

8M Nemanja Vidic ManU
Even though still little injured when this man returns he is defender to have in your team. One of the best defenders in the world in a well defending team with the ability to score goals, priceless.

6.5M Kolo Toure Manchester City
Manchester City's number one defender will be playing a lot of minutes and with my high hopes for the whole team, he'll be sure collect a lot points. A valid player for any fantasy premier league team.

4.5M Maynor Figueroa Wigan
Wigan played a nice last season, and while not conceding a whole lot of goals, the teams whole defense group is a good choice. I chose Figueroa because he's a sure starting formation player.

Choosing competitive players in Fantasy Premier League - Player Tips - Goalkeepers

Now it's time to look at some interesting players to buy for your fantasy premier league team. Let's start with goalkeepers. Last season's top goalkeeper was, surprisingly I might add, Fulham's Schwarzer. With only 34 goals conseded he ended up with 175 points. This season I think these three goalkeepers will perform great in the league.

6.5M Peter Cech Chelsea

I think this will be Chelsea's year, and even while being one of the three most expensive goalkeepers in fantasy premier league, I'm sure Cech will be the one with most clean sheets out of the trio.

5.5M Shay Given Manchester City

Manchester City's Given didn't have a great season after transferring to ManCity, but I think this season with the big money being invested in City, Given will be on the top of his game also.

4.0M Thomas Sorensen Stoke City

With this price Stoke City's Sorensen is a catch. Against little weaker teams, he's very able to keep balls out of his net.