Interview with Zoran Furlan - current YTM leader

Name: Zoran Furlan
Age: 40
Town: Zagreb, Croatia
Occupation: Customer Service Specialist
Track Record: His 2nd season of playing YTM. Came 3rd last year and won 2 manager of the month competitions.


Zoran currently leads YTM 06/07 by 19 points.

YTM HQ: Your star player so far?

ZF: My star player so far is I. Campo, a huge 56 points in 9 games, shame I don't have him in all my teams!

YTM HQ: Your worst player pick so far?

ZF: Ifill - poor form. I thought that he could score 4-5 goals in the season, but he is out of the first team at the moment.

YTM HQ: Who do you think will be the best value YTM player at the end of the season?

ZF: It seems that I. Campo and A. Young have a good chance of being the best value YTM player at the end of the season.

YTM HQ: Who is the most over valued player in YTM?

ZF: I think S. Petrov is the most over valued player in YTM. A good player, but unlikely to achieve around 150 points in the season.

YTM HQ: We agree. He was valued for the purposes of our Scottish game and we had to stick with this value once he trasferred to Villa Park.

YTM HQ: How do you rate your performance out of 10 so far this season?

ZF: Talking about my tactical ideas, including a few very brave (all or nothing) choices, I'm pretty happy until now - so I rate myself a 9. Talking about the pool of players in my teams - I rate myself a 6, which I will improve in 2nd transfer window, I hope!

YTM HQ: How many transfers are you planning per team in Transfer Window 2?

ZF: Between 0 and 5. It depends on a lot of factors. I like my teams, especially the top ones, to be as different as possible. Of course I have 2-3 "points machine" players in more than 50% of my teams.

YTM HQ: How many transfers do you hope to have left per team for Transfer Window 4?

ZF: As many as possible! I hope to have a minimum of 3 transfers left per team for the 4th transfer window. But, I must be happy with each of my teams after all the transfer windows. I have a plan but real life events (injuries, loss of form etc.) will ultimately dictate my transfer policy. Fantasy football genius Andy Luckhurst once said: "use your transfers when you need to", and this simple rule is what I try to follow.

YTM HQ: Are Bolton the new Liverpool in terms of clean sheets?

ZF: At the moment Bolton have a really good defence, I think mainly because their midfield players like Speed, Campo and Nolan and their striker K. Davies work really hard all over the pitch. It's not easy to create a chance against Bolton. Of course, Jaaskelainen is also in great form, probably the best goalkeeper in the Premiership at the moment. However, the season is long and Bolton's main players will get tired and pick up injuries at some point. So, I don't expect Bolton to carry on being a clean sheet machine, like Liverpool last season.

YTM HQ: Is a block defence vital for success in YTM?

ZF: Block defense is definitely vital for the monthly competition, but not for the overall league. I think that you must have a balanced team if you want to compete at the top over the course of the season. But, at the early stage of this season it's been good to have a Bolton or Portsmouth block defence. The question now is: what to do with these teams in the 2nd transfer window? I know the answer for my Bolton and Portsmouth block defence teams, but I will keep this information to myself!

YTM HQ: You must spend a lot of time playing YTM. What drives you on?

ZF: I'm not thinking about money when I play FF. I'm thinking about my game, how to improve my game, how to be better and how to beat the ideal team at the end of the season. I'm just wondering where my limits are? Can I do it, can I win it?

There is another thing: Dino is the name of my son, and he celebrated his 2nd birthday on 19th August 2006, the same day that the Premiership season started. And, sometimes, when I'm thinking how come Dino 1 is my best team out of all the ones I have entered I have no answer. Or, maybe I have: somebody from heaven has created all this crazy FF success for me...

YTM HQ: Your verdict on Croatia v England?

ZF: I was so proud to be a Croat on that night. Honestly, I didn't believe in victory against England, but Croatian coach Slaven Bilic prepared a very tactical Croatian team and the truth is that Croatia did not allow England to play. Croatia have many young players in the national team, like Corluka or Modric or Kranjcar, but, remember this name: Petric, he will be better than Dado Prso! On England, I think that they have no team spirit at the moment. The England players must give their all on the pitch. This is the only way in modern football to have a chance of success. In this match I think, 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 was a minor thing.

YTM HQ: Zoran - thank you for your time in answering these questions. It's great to have an insight on your fantasy football thinking. Good luck for the rest of the season.

We hope the rest of you enjoyed this interview. If you have any comments please feel free to post them below.

Cheers,
Tom
YTM HQ