Interview with Diyan Stoyanov

Name: Diyan Stoyanov
Age: 30
Town: Russe
Country: Bulgaria
Occupation: Football betting
Track Record: 8 teams in current top 100. 2nd in Jan MotM by 3 points.


YTM HQ: How did you find out about You The Manager?
DS: Honestly, I don't remember. It must have been Google, FISO or some web advertising. Anyway, I'm glad I found it.

YTM HQ: Do you play any other fantasy games and have you won anything before?
DS: I play several fantasy games with different formats. Fantasy Football is quite an addictive entertainment. I have won 3 or 4 competitions but nothing significant so far. Hope this will change sooner rather than later.

YTM HQ: How many teams do you have in all and how long do you spend playing YTM each week?
DS: 60 teams, not very low and not very high as a number. But I failed to gain full advantage of that numberas I decided against block defences at the start. I had my reasons, they may prove correct next season.YTM doesn't take a lot of time because of the transfer windows.You have pre-season and then four weeks during the season when you must analyse and take decisions.You can spend as much time as you want - it depends on your motivation. I don't find it very effective to plan your tactics or transfers month or two earlier before a particular window opens.

YTM HQ: Your star player so far?
DS: Cristiano Ronaldo, Liverpool defence as a first-choice option during November transfer window.Picking Liverpool defence was a decisive moment . It may looks trivial now but it wasn't the easiest thing to go with themwhen they were at their season low point, exactly after 3:0 defeat at Emirates stadium.

YTM HQ: Your worst player pick so far?
DS: Darius Henderson, Ricardo Vaz Te, Assou-Ekotto, Dave Kitson. Henderson's Championship statistic wasn't worse than Ashley Young's but Premiership proved to be a different matter. I still rate highly Vaz Te, he had a very good pre-season, and I'm sure he will score more goals at this level in the future. But at present, Sam Allardyce doesn't find him quite suitable for Bolton's physical style. Assou-Ekotto is a normal human naivety. You see a cheap player, from a big team, playing regularly - a typical bargain. But in most cases it's "too good to be true" and I should have used my experience from the last year about Tottenham defence. Dave Kitson - actually, he should not be in this list. But selecting him in 50-60% of my teams from the start - it became a disaster for me. He scored and got injured in the first day but was rated 50/50 in the First transfer window, so I had him for further two months. He formed a deadly pair upfront with Marlon King in many teams. You can guess easy the fate of these teams. Bad picks and bad luck are inevitable. You have to take risks, everybody knows it.

YTM HQ: Who do you think will be the best value YTM player at the end of the season?
DS: It does not matter too much in my opinion. It would have been the most important question if there wasn't any transfers for making.Players performance fluctuates strongly and to predict someone's exceptional form before it started - this is the essential thing for me. Everyone has his own clues for doing this but statistic is the most objective one.

YTM HQ: Who is the most over valued player in YTM?
DS: Shevchenko, Ballack? Beattie, Jimmy Hasselbaink? The real estimation can be made in May.Managers in the game are bound to make bad picks as well as YTM team is bound to overvalue and undervalue players.

YTM HQ: How do you rate your performance out of 10 so far this season?
DS: 6 out of 10. I know I can and I should have done better. It was a story of very bad luck and very good luck. I don't quite like it that way. I should have controlled my performance more. Hope that my second half of the season will be better than the first.

YTM HQ: How many transfers do you have left per team for Transfer Window 4 and is this enough?
DS: Differently - from one to five. The problem is that you can not predict everytime when you'll need your transfers more. It's another risk in the game - you may run out of options for the last window or you may be tempted in tinkering, hardly justifying.

YTM HQ: Can Liverpool continue to keep lots of clean sheets?
DS: Yes, they can. They are on the up now. But a draw and a loss may take out their impulse for hunting the leader. Also, the Champions league is coming.Part of the secret for their clean sheets, is that not so often they have a strong first half - unlike Man United. In my opinion, the difference between concentration level at the start of the second half of the matches, brings the difference between overall number of clean sheets for the big teams.Obviously, it's related with the halftime result.

YTM HQ: Is a block defence vital for success in YTM?
DS: It's vital for the good start. And the good start is a strong premise for success. I feel comfortable in playing catch up but it's foolish to rely on that constantly. So you have to be top at some point. The block defence is almost mandatory for monthly competition which is so much different in many aspects.

YTM HQ: How popular is the Premier League in Bulgaria?
DS: Extremely popular. There is no league like the Premier League.

YTM HQ: Who is going to win the Premier League?
DS: Wolverhampton Wanderers. But maybe they should get a promotion first. I don't know who will win the title this year. But as a fan I would like to see it decided in the last round.

YTM HQ: Who are your favourite football teams / players and why?
DS: Wolves and Manchester City. It was a long time ago, I don't remember what were my teenage reasons to start supporting them. But I see myself more as a fan of the Premier League and the passion it brings. That's why I support English teams in Europe, including Man United.

YTM HQ: Who is going to win YTM?
DS: It's hard to say, there is a long way to go. Zoran Furlan is in a kind of pole position but this can change quickly. The Irishmen are the usual suspects in the history of this game, the Portuguese boys are improving strongly and there is a whole group of managers up there and to overlook or discard their chances, is the last thing I would do. Anyway, I wish good luck to all managers involved in the game.

YTM HQ: Not many Eastern European players settle well in the Premier League - what's your verdict on Dimitar Berbatov's first season in the Premier League and his prospects for next season?
DS: Berbatov has a very, very good first season and I think many will agree with this. His talent is one thing but the way he kept his feet on the groundfor the last years and kept working hard - that's a strong character, his best achievement. Excluding injuries, there is no reason his success story to stop.

YTM HQ: Are there any other young Bulgarian stars we should be looking out for?
DS: Unfortunately for me as a Bulgarian, I don't think there is anyone else who worths mentioning at the moment.Bulgaria is not a big country and it's hard to develop players like Hristo Stoichkov on a regular basis. But the optimism always remains.

Thanks for your time Diyan - some very interesting thoughts and comments I'm sure everyone will agree.

Good luck for the rest of the season.

YTM HQ