Steven Doherty

Software Solutions Architect

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

History books 💪

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

Definitely.

This is almost certainly an architecture + scaling problem around a burst event.

Most likely culprits: Thundering herd, cache stampede, DB blocking, a monolithic / non-distributed architecture doing real-time calculations synchronously, traffic burst handling, etc.

[Harry @FPL_Harry]

All jokes aside we play a game with 13m players it shouldn’t be crashing 🤷‍♂️

[Andy @LetsTalk_FPL]

Haaland not even in the squad.

O'Reilly, Cherki, Marmoush, Doku benched.

Semenyo, Foden start.

Struijk and Bogle start, as does DCL.

Joao Pedro and Palmer start.

Saliba not in the squad, neither is Raya.

Gyokeres, Saka, and Gabriel all on the bench.

Salah, Gakpo, and Ngumoha start, Wirtz benched.

Watkins starts! But Rogers is out of the squad.

Richarlison starts, Solanke and Maddison both benched.

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

One last let down playing Pep roulette. Oof.

Apart from Silva & Semenyo, this is this seasons reserves team.

Haaland aint even in the squad. 🙈

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

Man City Predicted Team Sheet
Man City has to be one of the most difficult teams to predict in any gameweek, let alone GW38 when there’s nothing left to play for in the league, but here’s my final spin in Pep roulette:

Donnarumma
Nunes, Khusanov, Guehi, O’Reilly
Rodri, Silva
Semenyo, Foden, Doku
Haaland

I’m not going to go through the entire team because as you'll see from the predicted subs below, it is mayhem predicting this team.

Basically, I think Pep starts what he thinks is his best team for his final match in charge and will then use his subs during the match to leave a bit of a breadcrumb for the unlucky man who has the unfathomable task of following him next.

On Foden, I think Pep really rates him as a player and because Foden didn’t make the England squad, we might see Pep give Foden some encouragement by starting him. Foden has also played under Pep for many seasons now too, so that might aid him a start in Pep’s final team.

Predicted subs (lol)
55+: Silva comes off for Cherki/Foden (or whoever didn’t start)
55+: Foden/Cherki (whoever started) off for Marmoush
55+: Semenyo comes off for Savinho (or Doku comes off and Semenyo shifts to the left)
55+: Rodri comes off for Reijnders/Kovacic
55+: Haaland off for anyone, Marmoush/Foden/Semenyo play up top
55+: Guehi off for Stones, one last run out.

Yeah, good luck everyone!

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

Mayhem! It's the reserves team.

This could be due to celebrations, yes.

But more likely, this was always the plan and match rhythm wasn't as important as I gave it credit for.

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

Arsenal Predicted Team Sheet
Predicting lineups is going to be mayhem in GW38, but I’ve got three changes to last week’s lineup for Arsenal vs. Palace, including Gyokeres, Madueke & Lewis-Skelly to all start:

Raya
Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori
Odegaard, Rice, Lewis-Skelly
Saka, Gyokeres, Madueke

Gyokeres: 60-70 & Havertz: 20-30
Havertz is clearly first choice at Arsenal. Better hold-up play, better finisher, better decision making, and overall better control of the game.

Havertz took a knock in GW34 that forced him off after only 33 minutes. That’s on top of a long early-season spell on the sidelines from GW1 (17 August) until he came back mid January for the FA cup. Arteta has managed his minutes ever since.

Havertz will be prioritised for PSG so I expect Gyokeres to start and Havertz to come off the bench late, cotton wool and all.

Saka: 55-65 mins (Martinelli)
Saka was out recently for a month from March 22 to April 25 and has only played over 60 minutes in the last two fixtures. He needs match rhythm and hopefully a goal, so he probably starts this match. How long he stays on the pitch for is another matter entirely.

Arteta will want the ability to play Saka for the full 90 minutes against PSG and although he has clocked up 3,418 minutes this season, it’s all about sharpness. Maybe an hour or so run about to keep fresh for the final?

Gabriel & Saliba: 60+
Both of these players are 90 minute men, pretty much every single match. The only thing I’m wary about is that they are both critical for PSG.

I’m predicting a start for both, but they are so crucial to the team and have clocked up some minutes that I wouldn’t be surprised to see either benched, or subbed early in the second half. I'm going with a start because Arteta will want to maintain defensive rhythm and there is no real bench to speak of unless some youth get called up.

Lewis-Skelly: 55-90 & Eze: 25-35 mins
Eze is firmly in the first team, but I’m predicting him to come in off the bench for this one.

Odegaard was out recently (Feb 22 - April 4th) and was slow to find form once he returned. Through this period Eze became much more critical to the team.

It’s typically been 3 starts and a bench for Eze across all competitions, a trend that has been playing out since Feb 18. He is on a run of 4 starts in a row for the first time since Oct/Nov, another start would make it 5, the Champions League final would then be a 6th.

Eze is due a rest, it’s a throw away game with Odegaard needing to find form and an up and coming Lewis-Skelly who might be needed for a big role in the final.

Trossard: 30 & Madueke: 60
Wingers rotate often and train for it, so I’d say that Arteta will start his first choice right winger in the final—which I think is Trossard currently—and therefore start Madueke this week against Palace.

Rice: 60 & Zubimendi: 30
Rice might need a break, yes, but I’m not sure if Arteta will muck with the spine of the team as it might disrupt rhythm too much.

So, I think Rice starts unless he’s got really heavy legs or comes back from celebrations overweight.

Raya: 90 & Kepa: 0
I can see the argument for giving Kepa a start since Raya will play the Champions League final, but considering Arteta will want defensive rhythm and solidity, he might not muck around with the base of the spine by introducing instability before the final.

If Kepa does start though, we might see Raya come on at half time to play in the first match as champions after Arsenal’s 22 year drought. Raya owners have a bit of a dilemma here.

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

Are you serious?!

The FPL site crashed with a couple of minutes to go.

2 free transfers sitting unused.

I'm lost for words, well, words that I will not regret later. 🤬

I think this is my team. 🙈

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

Haaland, O'Reilly & Cherki all benched (@LazyFPL)

Looks like the reserves are starting, with lots of half-time & 2nd-half subs lined up.

Whispers of Gabriel & Saliba playing 45 minutes each too, meaning Arteta is probably following suit too.

Mayhem!

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

GW38
OR: 70,757
2 Free Transfers (£0.2m)

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

Late team news will decide the final decisions, but this is what I'm staring down the barrel of.

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

AI Hallucinations
AI is fundamentally limited by its ability to seek the truth because the data pool it is trained on is polluted, restricted, and manipulated.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Machines will continue to drown in synthetic illusions until we properly value, verify, and monetize authentic human insight as the ultimate scarce commodity.

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

56': Silva, Kovacic & Semenyo?! off.
Cherki, Foden & Saviho on.

To be fair, Foden deserves it more than Marmoush based on form.

Did anyone see that Semenyo sub coming?

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

That was a poor half from City. No pressure. No go forward. Offield distractions maybe?

Pep needs to sub off Kovacic and bring on Cherki. Marmoush too even.

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

That is an absolute joke of a call by VAR.

How is this not a penalty?

Saka has been robbed!

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

@pmarca I feel this deeply 🤣

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

From a former footballer's perspective, that match was suspect.

CHE 1 vs. NFO 3

[Steven Doherty @GKneeIss]

Lewis-Skelly looked class in midfield.

Gyokores was the benefactor of a tap-in, a well-taken headed finish and a 3 yard pass assist. I'm still not sold on him.

Is Raya going to need to make a comeback into my team or are Palace the priority?