The Pre-Match Preamble – Gameweek 20

My Fantasy Football New Year’s resolution? Stop trying to be clever.

Over the past three transfers (Andy Carroll, Raheem Sterling and Aleks Kolavrov), I’ve chosen to ignore the obvious option for fear of playing too safe (Charlie Austin, David Silva, Alan Hutton) and in all three cases I’ve been burned and seen my rank tumble.

I’ve lost twenty points, a free transfer and the option to captain Silva against Sunderland through those decisions.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on myself: perhaps I shouldn’t judge the merits of my choices on short-term losses and gains. Perhaps Sterling will rip Leicester apart today. Perhaps Carroll will clear his head and skittle the Baggies back four.

It’s difficult to resist that kind of knee-jerk reaction, however: to immediately assess the success or failure of our decisions on the returns of single Gameweek.

The problem here is that my other major flaw is to insist on backing my decisions for too long when it’s clear that an error has been made.

I’d never consider opting to trade Sterling to Silva today, or even Carroll to Austin. Both transfers could easily help me to a bigger points tally but, having committed to these players, I’m not able to admit the error and take what appears to be a backward step. I’ll probably hold them both for too long, while Silva and Austin go on punishing me and putting further daylight between myself and those who wisely played the percentages.

Kolarov has to go: I’d have needed to quaff a lot more wine last night in order to decide otherwise. A belated move for Hutton is again the obvious route to take but, once more, I’m sitting here pondering Aaron Cresswell or Mamadou Sakho.

It all harks back to a previous preamble just under a year ago, in which I discussed whether the essence of playing Fantasy Football was to avoid being risk averse: to look to play the equivalent of the Hoddle 50-yard “Hail Mary” rather than play the “Wilkins way” with a sensible sideways pass.

Kolarov will always excite me more than Hutton, but by 5pm on Sunday, the thrill of gambling on the Serb’s buccaneering runs had given way to bitter disappointment. I should look for my thrills elsewhere: I could have just lost a tenner on a Kolarov to score rather than deal with the indignity of having to chase Hutton’s points a Gameweek later.

So, if I want to be a better Fantasy manager in 2015, I probably need to temper the urge to take risks. The spectacular may seem enticingly within reach but, ironically, it’s often pure fantasy.

I know all this but still, with an hour to go before I send the boys over the white line once again, I’m searching for a way – any valid reason – to avoid buying Alan Hutton. I’m pretty sure there used to be a few hundred. What a difference a year makes.