The players - who was good, who was bad?

For anal ones amongst you with spreadsheet's (mentioning no names, Francey) the last week's points, i.e. the FA Cup Final were allocated as follows by the Daily Telegraph:

- Clean sheet points for defenders
- Points were given for the goals scored in the penalty shoot out
- Minus points for Reyes (sent off) and Scholes (missed penalty)
- Minus points for various yellow cards
- Lehmann got extra points for saving the penalty

It always interesting to see who in fantasy terms had good season's and who didn't. So here is a quick look at the good and the bad and the ugly:

Goalkeepers
Not surprising Chelski's Cech came out on top with 158 points. Interestingly the Hammers new boy Roy Carroll was next best scorer with Jens Lehmann 3rd. Man U's new keeper Van der Saar scored 58 points, a lot less than Calamity James and Nigel Martyn. The lowest regular keeper was Norwich's Green. The best bargain would have been WBA's Russell Hoult.

Defenders
John Terry had an outstanding season scoring 174 fantasy points. Fellow Blues Gallas and Ferreira also scored very well and Ferdinand despite missing the start of the season was 5th best behind team mate Silvestre.

Further down the list, Gareth Barry, Ledley King, Riise and Lucas Neill all scored well. The best bargain, despite his disciplinary record was Andy Todd.

The biggest disappointment's were Sol Campbell, Sammy Hyppia and Middlesbro's Ehiogu.

Midfielders
Frankie Lampard was the ultimate FL player last season. 194 points, an incredible score for a midfielder in a top side that plays the squad system. The nearest to him was Pires, then Ljungberg and Wright-Phillips.

In terms of value, Bolton's Giannakopoulos, Everton's Tim Cahill and Boro's Downing had great seasons but WBA's Gera would have provided the best value for money though at 2.6m.

Worst value for money? The very stupid, but very rich Scott Parker. Mendieta also failed to live up to his billing after the previous season.

Forwards
Where it is normally won or lost, particularly in the formalative weeks because once someone starts knocking in goals, every FL manager starts to bring them into their team and this negates any points.

No surprise who was top striker. Despite being out injured for probably the first real length of time Thierry Henry whacked 240 points. Nearest rival was Andy Johnson, who scored penalties on average every 3 games. Next up was J-F Hasselbaink with 161 and then the season's biggest and tallest bargain at 3.6m Peter Crouch.

Spurs' Keane and Defoe also did well and rather surprisingly, but pleasing for Villa fans Kevin Phillips scored 136 points.

Rooney hit 126, Shearer 104 and Gudjohnsen 134. The big surprise was that many of the top strikers just didn't score many points, compared to the midfielders.

Biggest failure's were van Nistelroy with 78, Baros 71 and Beattie with a poor 46. Viduka only got 50.

Bargains other than Crouch and Johnson were Wayne Routledge, Paul Dickov and Robert Earnshaw who nearly always started on the bench.

So there you go. There are always certain players you can rely on (Henry, Lampard) and some teams are known for being frugal (Blackburn, Everton) and others for scoring goals (Arsenal, Liverpool) but picking the bargain, the consistent players and even harder the one-season wonder is what makes champions.