Welcome to the latest in our new regular series of articles gathering our community’s tales of joy and woe from the last Gameweek in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game. This will look at the key decisions made that proved either inspired or saw overall ranks plummet. We also find out what lessons our community have learned from their key captaincy, transfer and benching decisions over the week.
This week saw unexpected injuries blighting many Fantasy managers’ performance, but for those investing in Crystal Palace’s potent attackers, the week was one to savour.
The Rough
Jaffalicious was left counting the points arrears caused by transferring out two-goal hero Sergio Aguero for Daniel Sturridge, who failed to show up due to injury. To make matters worse he put the armband on the Liverpool striker, with Hazard’s six extra points in his role as vice captain proving scant consolation. “Needless to say I will not be trusting Danny ‘glass legs’ Sturridge again this season,” he said.
With two free transfers the week looked rosy for Nick. After he rejected the chance to swap Tim Krul and Charlie Austin out for Crystal Palace’s Glenn Murray and Southampton’s Kelvin Davies, who both scored well, he opted for a far more costly option. In binning Terry and his clean sheet and Austin he opted instead for Loic Remy and Nathaniel Clyne, both of whom failed to play due to injury and rotation respectively. He only fell 12 places to 450 as a result, fortunately.
Remy also cost MM0507 dear. He swapped out Christain Benteke, who scored the only goal in Aston Villa’s victory over Tottenham, for the Chelsea man. “Don’t be led by fear,” is the lesson he learned after succumbing to the considerable optimism among the community of Remy’s chances of success.
Rupert was left regretting his decision to favour West Brom’s defence to Sergio Aguero’s prowess. In benching the Argentine and backing the Baggies defender Craig Dawson he has learnt “never bench an attacker for a defender,” adding “sure you could get an extra four points from a clean sheet, but the attacker, especially when his name is Aguero, can really punish you. He adds though that drafting in Glenn Murray helped in some part to avoid a complete disaster in Gameweek 32.
For RedLightning nothing seemed to go right. Not only did he captain Harry Kane, who notched up just 2 FPL points, but he also sold the clean sheet-grabbing Laurent Koscielny for the non-playing Clyne and played Tim Krul, who conceded to Liverpool, while leaving another clean sheet-grabber, Villa’s Brad Guzan, on the bench.
Roscola’s week was so rough that he has declared that “I can’t bring myself to log into FPL to see the damage”. He not only brought in Remy, but Sturridge too.
The Smooth
Palace’s sharp-shooting striker Glenn Murray proved instrumental in Somalian’s smooth sailing through Gameweek 32. In dumping Charlie Austin and Swansea’s long term injury victim Kyle Naughton for Murray and Liverpool’s Alberto Moreno, his team was 17 points better off. He said of the week, “what I’ve learned is that if you genuinely don’t believe a player is a good option, as in Loic Remy, then don’t bother with them. I was always bringing in Murray as his form is impeccable.”
The Dimitar Berbatov award for the smoothest set of transfers of the week goes to Rab C Spatburgunder, who took out West Brom’s long-term injury-hit goalkeeper Ben Foster, Charlie Austin and Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla for a point hit and replaced them with Liverpool’s Simon Mignolet, Jordan Henderson and Glenn Murray. Not only is he 19 points better off but he can also field 11 in Gameweek 33 and has seven double Gameweekers already in place for Gameweek 34. His lesson learned is “who needs a Wildcard!”
To see more Gameweek 32 tales of woe and joy click here.
8 years, 11 months ago
I was another Remy recruiter. Clyne's benching also hit me badly, as did captaining Kane.
But Ramsey, Silva and Aguero saved the day...phew.
Thanks all for submitting your tales of the Gameweek. Really enjoying compiling these articles.